The Chinese can sure put on a show. The closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics were specatacular. I actually thought the opening ceremony was more impressive, but that’s not the point here.The London 2012 ’event’ during the ceremony, compared to the efforts of the Chinese hosts, resembled an amateur theatre workshop in their first class. Shockingly lame and embarassing, as was the video they showed, produced by the Animated Media for Beginners workshop in the classroom next door to the theatre workshop.Anyway, anyway, in that sea of lameness it was refreshing to see three cyclists riding alongside the double decker bus in the stadium. Gold medallist Chris Hoy was dressed in a suit an riding a mini folding bike, fellow Team GB cyclist Jamie Staff dressed casual and rode a European style ‘granny’ bike complete with basket and Victoria Pendleton played the sub-cultural ‘messenger style’ cyclist.Two out of three ain’t bad.I thought it quite cool that cyclists were included - especially the two ’normal people on normal bikes’. It’s all I choose to remember. I’m trying to erase the Abbey Road zebra crossing, the bus and the umbrellas from my visual harddisk.
That 50% of my DNA which is English prefers to remember the brilliant efforts of the athletes at Beijing and the brilliant opening/closing ceremonies and not least the positive branding of cycling.
