Raise the Hammer

First off, big Sports spectacles like this belong in the stables, to be shoveled out with the rest of it. Spending years worth of development budget for a week or two of sporting events makes even the most heart-throttling coke binge look like a wise investment. For what the Vancouver Olympics just cost us (at least six billion dollars) we could meet the cost requirements the UN estimates to put all the children out of school worldwide into education.

As for the location, and the stadium facilities themselves, I can see one potential glimmer of hope. A world-class Velodrome down the street from This Ain't Hollywood could do wonders for cycling in this city - I'd be there all the time. Expecting people to ride bikes without gears to the suburban wastelands of the East Mountain then ride the same brake-less bikes home is a bit more of a stretch though, especially with the high gear-ratios usually used at the track). And even a front brake is forbidden at most velodromes (for safety reasons). I don't mind switching my wheels when I get there, but having to re-build it before I could ride would be an entirely different kind of pain in the arse. Riding a brake-less track bike down the Jolley Cut (which I've done a few times) should be an Olympic sport in itself. Doing it regularly, in traffic, though, is a near-death sentence (as a friend of mine who used to commute to the Henderson learned one day). And while I'd drive (might as well drive to the 'drome London, it wouldn't take much longer), I don't own a car. I generally ride my track-bike places - it's worth a a lot less than my road bikes (in thousands), yet performs almost as well. Plus, if someone steals it, they're likely going to need dental work if they try to ride it away.

Putting cycling facilities in the suburbs is a fundamentally flawed idea. Put it out there and I guess us downtown folks will have to keep playing bike polo in parking lots and basketball courts.