Last night saw Bradley Wiggins crowned ‘BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2012′ despite an extended field of competitors. Great Britain has experienced a stellar year of sport which included the London 2012 Olympic Games and of course, a historic win by Wiggins and Team Sky at Le Tour de France.

The annual event has a range of awards from ‘Unsung Hero’ usually given to non sports stars who help members of their community to achieve their potential, to ‘International Personality of the Year’ which was taken home by Usain Bolt this year. Due to London 2012 being such a success for Team GB the normal shortlist for the main award was extended from 10 to 12. Some felt there should have been a separate title for Olympic competitors but this had the potential to water down the main award and I’m glad they chose the format they did. Contenders for this years main event included sailing legend Ben Ainslie, heptathlete and all round babe Jessica Ennis, the sensational Mo Farah, golf supremo Rory McIlory and track king Sir Chris Hoy.

The shortlist is compiled by a panel of male and female sports editors and journalists but the final vote goes to the public and is always hotly contested. Although not greatly appreciated outside the UK, for British sports stars the award is a big deal. London’s Excel Centre hosted the awards dinner last night and it looked immense! I have never seen a bigger sports awards ceremony and it did justice to the fantastic year of sport we have witnessed in 2012. And who better to award Wiggo the main prize but Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge or Kate Middleton to those not eligible for a stay in The Tower.

This award has been scooped by 3 cyclists in the last 5 years (Sir Chris Hoy 2008, Mark Cavendish 2011, Bradley Wiggins 2012) and goes some way to illustrate the upsurge in popularity of cycling in Britain. The only question now is if Wiggins does defend his Yellow Jersey in July despite initially stating he would focus on the Giro, can he make 2013 even more epic and take the top public voted sports award for a record second year in a row!?

UPDATE

Below is a link to a video that emerged on the BBC website of Wiggo jammin’ at the after show party! Such a dude!

As I’ve said before, I’m a cycle race fan.  Whether it be pro or local amateur racing, I like watching/reading/learning and would say a great deal of my love of cycling has come from watching professional racing and I try to imitate a lot of that in my training, style and biking ‘image’.  You will almost never see me wearing anything other than team kit (replica or club), matching jersey and bibs is a must 99% of the time (unless you have a classic jersey worthy of the black shorts) and that is definitely a reflection on the culture of watching the ProTour teams on TV.  But I am well aware that some cyclists have absolutely no interest in racing and I often shy away from some of the more specialist topics that I’d like to cover here on LovingTheBike.

Guinea Pigs

The start of the 2012 Giro d’Italia is only a few days away (it begins on Saturday) and I’d like to try a very unscientific study of cyclists watching professional cycle racing for the first time.  Do you love cycling?  Do you ride daily and think about bike before car?  Do you have little to no interest in professional cycling? GREAT! I want to hear from you!

During the Giro d’Italia there will be a plethora of information, articles, videos and live feeds to keep you in touch with every second of the race as well as pre and post race activities.  The internet provides coverage like never before and I’m very interested in seeing how fans of cycling as a pastime, can relate to cycling as a sport.  If you think you fit into the mold of my ideal guinea pig please leave a comment below and I will be in touch.  I want someone who is willing to allow themselves to be immersed in Giro’ness and report back on their experiences.  I don’t need you to watch every live minute of the race, but take some time every day to watch footage of the race (live or highlights), read articles etc and see how it feels.  Is the pastime of cycling so different from the sport of cycling that they can be exclusive!?

Loving The Giro

Darryl and I will be covering the Giro from lots of different angles over the next month on here and over at The Roar and there will be a special ‘Grand Tour 101′ coming up in the week looking ahead to this year’s Giro d’Italia.  I did a similar thing last year before the 2011 Tour de France which you can read here, here and here.

Hit us up with your comments if you want to be our guinea pig… it’s going to be a fun and pink May!

Stevie

After the recent article here at LovingTheBike regarding the cleaning of your cycle helmet, I realised that I’d had my one and only bike helmet for about 5 years and maybe I was due for an upgrade. I used lots of reasons in my head to justify a new helmet but essentially it was a safety issue as my current LAS Kripton is getting old and has taken a few bumps and whacks along the way.

(ED: Please note that there will be no discussion in this article regarding whether you SHOULD or shouldn’t wear a helmet… you SHOULD. Don’t be an ass!)

Shortlist

I had two main requirements when searching the plethora of helmets on the market, firstly that it was comfortable and secondly it should look Pro. I’m easily distracted (I am after all a man-shaped human) and annoyances like an ill-fitted skid lid can easily turn a great ride into a slog, oh and I like looking good on the bike so the Pro look speaks for itself! Whilst perusing the various online cycle shops and checking out some of the Pro team’s kit lockers it was clear that if you want top quality in a cycle helmet, you may want to talk to the bank manager about a re-mortgage option on your house! Which is why I was very lucky to get my hands on Met’s top of the range helmet, the Sine Thesis. The story of how I got it will have to wait for another day but suffice it to say that my LBS owner and I are much better acquainted now and my wallet did not get abused!

Sine Thesis, Fit & Comfort

The Sine Thesis is Met’s top of the range ‘Pro Race’ helmet, which is supplied to the Liquigas & Cofidis pro teams. The goal for Met when developing the Sine Thesis was not to just create an expensive, lightweight helmet, but to “have a very ventilated helmet with very few points of contact between the head and the helmet” as described by Matteo Tenni, MET’s product manager. This aim is realised by what I’m sure will become a standard for all manufacturers at their top of their product range, Met’s Gel02 system. But more of that in a moment. At first glance the Sine Thesis looks great. It looks mean, it looks Pro and above all, it looks breezy which is a nice feature to have. The ‘matt white’ version I have is by no means, boring. I wanted a plain white or silver helmet so it would ‘go’ with the vast range of posey club and pro-team kits I have without clashing but this helmet has a pearlescent effect that is just beautiful. It shines and bounces different colours off it and is a very nice thing to behold. (ED: Having proof read this post I am now seeing what you are all just realising, on the bike I am a vain tart… but I can live with that!)

As you would expect from an expensive helmet, it is packed with features and the related corporate blurb about how good these features are but there are, in my opinion, two outstanding parts to the product; the ICELite technology and the previously mentioned Gel02. ICELite is described as a:

Composite Exoskeleton, integrated into the In-Moulding process allowing structural performance beyond established standards. With deflectors allowing a ‘acceleration of the ventilation

…which basically means it’s a pretty breezy lid! Joking aside, it is a very well ventilated helmet which aims to give a flow of air even at slow speeds, when climbing say, which is often when the body needs the effects of cooling and ventilation the most. I have no idea how the deflectors work, I’m sure there was some wind tunnel testing and there are some strange-looking drawings and computer models that can be seen in the video below, but I know that the results have left me wondering how I have coped for so long using such an inferior helmet without my head catching on fire! One thing I would say regarding a helmet advertised as being so focused on cooling features is don’t be scared of using it in less hospitable weather. As mentioned earlier, I am a man-sized human and thus bloomin’ impatient. Do you think I was going to wait for warm weather and sunny conditions to take out my new helmet for its first ride… yeah right! No I took it out when it was around 5-6% celsius and it performed wonderfully. I thought I’d end up with a skull-cap made of ice but the natural heat produced from the fiery furnace of my inner-Merckx kept the flow of air toasty warm and very comfortable. My first experience was a delight and that is always pleasing.

I’m sure that the Gel02 system (or the equivalent) will soon be seen in many other brand’s helmets as from the view of a casual observer, it seems to be one of the most positive and innovative changes to helmet design in a long time. Met have done away with the fabric Coolmax padding found in the rest of their range and produced a gel strip/pad system that has two main qualities. Firstly it does away with that age-old problem of a soggy helmet. However much you sweat, when your lid is on you should feel quite comfy in it and it shouldn’t cause you too much bother. Skip to getting back on the bike after the cafe stop and the soggy, wet, sweaty fabric pads in your helmet feel like putting your head into… a… well a sweaty thing, you get the picture. This was also the catalyst for the post Darryl wrote about helmet cleaning mentioned at the top. The Gel02 system of pads and strips means they do not soak up the sweat but, in the case of the cleverly designed forehead strip, channel moisture away from sensitive eyes and keep you feeling fresh. The pads also take the contact with your noggin-box down from 60% on the current Stradivarius road helmet, for example, to just 20%. Honestly, the feeling of the pads takes a little getting used to but it feels wonderful having such a light helmet ‘perched’ on top of you head knowing it is fitted and secure. The space left behind by the reduction in surface contact area only adds to the benefit you receive from the ICELite design. The only issue I can see that may arise is if on of the pads comes out and is lost, the helmet may not sit right and you can only buy the replacements in packs to replace all of them at the same time, potentially expensive if you only lose or damage one pad.

Verdict

The current £135/$210 price tag definitely puts the Met Sine Thesis up there as one of my more expensive pieces of bike equipment (lucky I know the LBS owner eh!?) but I believe it is well worth the money, which no doubt will be shown when other companies roll out their versions of Gelo02. I’m very happy with it and am sure it will give me many years of wonderful service. Everyone has their favourite brands so if you are a Bell or Giro fan for example and will only ever buy those products, congratulations on wasting the last few minutes of your life. If you are more open-minded and you enjoy quality products with form and functionality, try the Met Sine Thesis, I defy you to be impressed.

The Met Sine Thesis is awarded 4 out of 5 #bikeschool taco’s

If you have a product you think is worth reviewing or you are looking to purchase a new piece of gear and want some advice, let us know…

Lead, follow… or get out of the way

Stevie