Wirral’s top cop endorses campaign for cyclists to wear head gear

A WIRRAL charity has joined forces with police to urge cyclists to wear
approved helmets.

‘Headway’ aimes to raise awareness of all aspects of brain injury and reduce
incidents of acquired brain injury across the borough. The campaign, led
jointly by Phil Barr, Development Officer for Headway, and Wirral’s Area
Commander Chief Superintendent John Martin, aims to encourage all cyclists
to wear approved helmets when riding.

Mr Barr said: “People often spend hundreds of pounds on bicycles for
themselves or their children. “All I ask is that for a few extra pounds you
buy a cycling helmet to go with it. It could save a life or prevent a brain
injury that could be devastating, not only to the individual, but for the
family as a whole

“If you have a relative or friend who rides a bike without a helmet then
encourage them to get one or, better still, buy them one for their
birthday!�

Mr Martin, a keen cyclist himself added: “I fully endorse what Headway
Wirral is trying to achieve. This campaign fully reflects the Force’s goal,
and that of the Collision Reduction Partnership of reducing serious
accidents on the road and to make Wirral a safer place to live and work.�

http://www.wirralnews.co.uk/wirral-n...0491-30329269/

QUOTE:
Joanna Rowsell was one of Great Britain’s star riders at last week’s
UCI Track World Cup in London, following up Friday’s victory in the
team pursuit alongside Dani King and Laura Trott by winning the
individual pursuit on Saturday evening. That performance made her one
of only two British riders – the other being Sir Chris Hoy – to come
away from the event with a pair of gold medals. In between those two
winning rides, road.cc caught up with the 23-year-old from Sutton for
an exclusive interview.

That victory in the team pursuit came against Canada confirmed that
the London track is, as its designers claimed, the fastest in the
world, with the British trio setting a new best time of 3 minutes
18.148 and their opponents also getting inside the new record set just
minutes earlier by Australia as they took bronze.

“It was absolutely awesome,” Rowsell reflected. “The crowd were
amazing and we were confident we could do a quicker time. We weren’t
that pleased with our qualifying ride on Thursday night and we knew we
had it in us to go quicker. It’s just about getting it all together on
the night and really doing everything we can with the ride, and it all
came together so we’re over the moon.

“The track’s really good, it’s obviously brand new so this is the
first time it’s been raced on, so it’s really good to get a feel for
it. It’s quite similar to Manchester, if anything the banking isn’t
quite as steep here but there’s not really anything in it to be
honest,” she continued.

In common with other home riders, the noise and encouragement of the
British fans who made up the vast majority of those inside the
Velodrome made a big impression on Rowsell, who said, “The crowd were
absolutely awesome. It was just like a wall of noise, it was really so
loud, that’s going to make a difference for us, I think.”

One member of the Great Britain coaching staff with a particular
interest in seeing how the track performed was women’s endurance coach
Paul Manning, who after winning team pursuit gold at Beijing alongside
Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas and Ed Clancy to cap a successful
career on the bike was snapped up to work on the project with the
venue’s builders, ISG.

“He’s been a really awesome coach,” said Rowsell. “Since he crossed
over to the programme a couple of years ago he’s really changed things
and had a real look at how we do things. We’ve tried out loads of new
ideas.

“He’s changed the structure of our training, we’ve seen the times
tumble since we’ve changed our approach, and he’s really got a good
grip on the programme.

“Obviously because he’s been there and done it, he’s got all the
knowledge and he’s so great to have on race day when you’re preparing
for the race because he’s been there so many times, he’s got all the
experience in the world, so that’s really useful as well.”

One of Manning’s tasks along the way has been to whittle down the
candidates for a place in the women’s pursuit team at London 2012 from
more than a dozen, including Olympic individual pursuit champion
Rebecca Romero and multiple Paralympic champion Sarah Storey to the
current four – Rowsell, Trott, King and Wendy Houvenaghel, silver
medallist behind Romero in Beijing, who rode in Thursday’s qualifier.

While the women’s team pursuit, raced over three kilometres rather
than the four which the male quartet ride, features three riders,
Rowsell confirmed that the selection process is now over, with the
four women who rode at the World Cup going forward to the Games.

“We’re a team of four and they’ll be taking all four of us to the
Olympics,” she explained. “At the Olympics, we have three rides over
two days, and two of those rides are only on hour apart. So having a
fourth rider and being able to swap between two riders will be to our
advantage and I know it’s something other teams will probably be
looking at as well.

“So we’re looking to go as a team of four and probably use all four
riders. Obviously that’s to be decided nearer the time but that’s the
way we’re looking at it. We’re very much a team of four still and all
aiming to keep going faster.”

The fact there is a women’s team pursuit event at all in the Olympics
is due to the reorganisation of the Olympic programme to create
balance between the number of events open both genders.

While that means that Rowsell will have the chance to go for gold in
an event in which she won the world championship in 2008 and 2009,
among the events to disappear are the individual pursuit, the event in
which she won her second gold of the week on Saturday evening, beating
Alison Shanks of New Zealand in the final.

However, Rowsell maintained that the first-time inclusion of the
women’s team pursuit at Olympic level has given renewed momentum to
the that event. “You can see how much everyone has developed since
it’s become an Olympic event.

“There’s so many more teams competing and the timings are getting more
and more competitive and pushing on. I mean.”

Referring to those rides on Friday evening by Australia in the bronze
medal race and Great Britain and Canada in the final, she said, “Three
teams broke the previous world record and that shows how much everyone
is improving.

“I think the fact it’s a team event requiring three riders and each
country needs to get three female riders up to that standard is
definitely helping improve women’s cycling as a whole.”

Next month, Rowsell heads to Melbourne for the World Championships,
but after that she will be taking a break from the track to hit the
road with her Matrix Fitness-Prendas team.

“They’ve got a base in Belgium but they’ve also got quite a lot of
racing in England, including the Johnson Health Tech GP Series,” she
explained, referring to the four-round event introduced last year that
runs alongside the Tour Series.

“I’ll probably be doing some of those and some racing abroad, maybe a
stage race or two, after the Worlds, to get in a good last endurance
block before the last push to the Olympics,” she added.

Rowsell’s success this weekend has caught the attention of the wider
media – the Daily Mail has a story on how the confidence she found on
the bike after being talent-spotted by British Cycling helped her come
to terms with the alopecia from which she has suffered since she was
ten years of age.

She has also been appointed ambassador for Action Medical Research,
the charity which includes a number of cycling events as part of its
fundraising activities.

“It’s just been arranged recently, they’re a really good charity and
it’s great to support them, hopefully I can attend some of their
events this year, especially after the Olympics, it will be great to
get involved in some of their fundraising,” she said.

This week, however, Rowsell is enjoying a few days of well-earned rest
with her family. Off the bike, she says, she enjoys spending time with
her boyfriend and going to the cinema and eating out, but “nothing too
strenuous that requires too much time on my legs.”

Rowsell’s gold-medal winning performances at the weekend showed that
those are working just fine right now. The whole of Britain will be
hoping they’re in just as great a shape come August.

http://road.cc/content/feature/52985...orld-cup-talks
--
Simon Mason

On Feb 26, 11:07*am, wrote:


Rowsell’s gold-medal winning performances at the weekend showed that
those are working just fine right now. The whole of Britain will be
hoping they’re in just as great a shape come August.

Indeed.
And all of the other Olympic hopefuls as well of course.

--
Simon Mason

On 26/02/2012 15:28, Phil W Lee wrote:
"Mr. considered Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:05:32 -0000
the perfect time to write:

Some headcase propaganda

Headcase are well known for ignoring heir own charitable aims and
discouraging exercise which would help prevent strokes.

The Porky Chapman Helmet Test.

1] Wear a cycle helmet & allow someone to hit you on the head with a hammer.
2] Repeat, but without wearing the cycle helmet.

Record which one hurts the most & causes most trauma.

--
Dave - Cyclists VOR. "Many people barely recognise the bicycle as a
legitimate mode of transport; it is either a toy for children or a
vehicle fit only for the poor and/or strange," Dave Horton - Lancaster
University

On Feb 26, 11:07*am, wrote:


This week, however, Rowsell is enjoying a few days of well-earned rest
with her family. Off the bike, she says, she enjoys spending time with
her boyfriend and going to the cinema and eating out, but “nothing too
strenuous that requires too much time on my legs.”

Ooer, Missus.
Lucky boyfriend :-)

--
Simon Mason