Pity the poor messenger (Hero on a pushbike Book 1)

Italian fans haven't forgotten it, either.

Cut and Run

Fellow centre-back Fabio Cannavaro may be hogging all the silverware but it's Marco who has become the cult figure. To this weekend then, which brought another eventful game for Marco, even by his standards. In the first half he was involved in a bizarre sideline scuffle when the manager of visiting side Messina, Bruno Giordano, refused to return the ball for a throw in, hiding it behind his back.

Materazzi stretched his long arms around Giordano and managed to retrieve the ball, but got a smack on the back of the head from the manager and, bizarrely, a booking from the referee. Three minutes into the second half came an even bigger surprise. With the game still goalless, Materazzi saw the ball dropping into the Messina area, leapt into the sky, spun in mid-air and smacked a perfect bicycle-kick into the top corner.

It was a masterpiece from Matrix, and a piece of technique that, not to labour the point, Cannavaro could only dream of.

Cut and Run by Robert Briscoe

Marco's fellow lanky bad boy Zlatan Ibrahimovic later added a second to complete a victory, but the assembled thousands at the San Siro barely noticed, head over heels as they still were from the Matrix revolution. He greeted his feat in typically humble fashion, dedicating the strike to the families of two Juventus youth players who drowned on Friday, and adding "a special thought" for "all those who need affection at Christmas time".

In truth, Materazzi's goal was just one of three stunning bicycle-kicks this weekend in Serie A Sampdoria youngster Fabio Quagliarella and Lazio's Goran Pandev scored the others, with Pandev receiving a bloody nose from the irate Livorno captain Cristiano Lucarelli for his trouble , but naturally it was the sight of the former hatchet man making like Van Basten that hogged the front page of Monday's Gazzetta dello Sport.

Seven points clear as they are, fresh from nine straight league wins and with an unbeaten run now numbering 18 matches, it's hard to argue with the notion that the most profligate squanderers of talent in the game have finally sobered up. Perhaps even Europe should start taking notice? In the meantime, the task of chasing the Nerazzurri domestically falls to Roma, whose game winning streak from last season is the next record under threat. Sunday night saw them bounce back from their recent derby defeat with an pasting of Palermo to confirm their role as official challengers. This Wednesday they'll be in the curious position of rooting for neighbours Lazio as they become the latest side to try and halt Inter's march to the title.

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Or if you see something you can go there and say: However, a minor inflexibility is that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to read maps while riding, so rhythms become staccato-like: And once they start cycling, they vindicate the myth. Their experience tells them that the design of the city, and the numerous cyclists, make it safe and legitimate. As two couples from car-based societies said: You can feel safe and you can see much more of the city on bike than walking London couple, in their thirties.

The fact that they experience Copenhageners as considerate, law-abiding and mellow- paced cyclists, adds to the feeling of being safe. As one American couple said: Similarly, a German couple says: It is not like they are coming from every side. The combination of supportive bike lanes and considerate cyclists empowers would-be bike tourists who are usually intimidated, or even completely put off by the idea of cycling in their home city. As a US woman says: Having that very biking-friendly infrastructure made me feel confident about renting a bike.

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Or people moving in the way and hitting them and then being the ugly American that runs people over US woman, late thirties. It gets more acceptable, because there are not that many people that do it at home woman, late twenties, Minnesota. While cycling is perfectly ordinary for Copenhageners, it is extraordinary — as well as authentic — for tourists cowed from riding in their own car-based societies.

As a Dubliner said: Metros are seen as boring, mere transport, a method of getting from A to B. As a Londoner said: So, the relatively moderate pace of cycling in Copenhagen means that even inexperienced cyclists can potter about and enjoy the scenery — although some find walking slightly better suited, and paced, for gazing.

To sum up, cycling is central to how some independent tourists experience and memorise Copenhagen. It is perceived as inclusive, safe, time-effective and sensuously pleasurable. Now I report from some of these places, drawing on my own cycling with and without my family and observations. Amsterdam, too, has extensive bike lanes, and people of all ages and from all walks of life ride in their everyday clothes on upright bikes, with moderate pace, sometimes with two or three people on one bike.

The perceived safeness of biking in Amsterdam can be seen in relation to the fact that: I take that as a sign that he enjoyed the day, too. However, as I was soon to discover that cycling in Copenhagen and Amsterdam was one thing, and yet cycling in London and New York was another. The speed and flexibility of bikes seems well suited for London. However, London is infamous for being a dangerous place to ride, and few people are brave or stupid enough to commute to work on bike.

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But for the last couple of days the fear has outgrown the excitement. For the first time ever cycling scares me. As a London friend — who has cycled in Copenhagen — texted me: Address is … There should be a quiet route along the river. And they drive in the wrong direction too. Not sure that I have the stomach for this! While London is normally perceived as a safe place, with numerous attractions, adventure tourism is not to be one of them.

Or so it appears. If things go wrong, the consequences may indeed be fatal. In The Tourist Gaze 3. Sometimes this is because tourist places are imagined as places of danger, crime and terror. More central to this chapter, adventure tourism has developed distinctly active, dangerous and extreme performances such as bungee jumping, off-piste skiing, paragliding, skydiving, and white-water rafting.

In such performances, tourists indulge their dreams of mastery over the earth; of being adventure heroes starring in their own movies as they seek to cheat death Bell and Lyall I am not an adventure, dare devil-type guy and have never exposed my body, nerves or will power to such adventures. And yet a part of me is excited about the sensory overload and risks involved in cycling in London. The affective intensities of the noisy and compact traffic in London hits me like a hammer.

With fear and adrenaline rushing through my body, I venture into the morning rush hour the following day. I head towards the city on one of the new, blue-painted Cycle Superhighways http: I am out of place in my black leather jacket and hired mountain bike diary notes, 18 November Suddenly, the cycle lanes stop and I find myself engulfed by cars, buses and lorries: Here, my Copenhagen skills — of going slow, hugging the kerbs, and never crossing the lane into the traffic to make a turn — fall short.

I witness in awe how cyclists change lanes and mingle with cars when they make turns or when kerb lanes turn left. I was utterly frightened. Realizing that cyclists have to drive like a car freaked me out as I do not know how to drive a car! Now I understand why cyclists in major UK cities are stigmatized as mad, according to Jones Diary notes, 17 November In London, where cyclists rub shoulders with, and need to keep up with, the speed of cars on busy streets, cycling requires physical abilities, a constant alertness, and nerves of steel.

London became one big racetrack with real thrills and dangers everywhere. Yet the risks of cycling in London are fatally real: On the second week my partner and son joined me, but we never seriously entertained idea of cycling together in London: With the exception of cycle paths along canals and parks, it is difficult to potter about and cycle two abreast, as in Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Cycling tourists are visible around the major attractions and especially parks such as Hyde Park, Regents Park and the Royal Parks where one can indeed dawdle about, enjoy the view and cycle two abreast, with the affective capacity required being very low in comparison to the palpable risks just beyond the park gates.

No longer were my eyes nervously fixed on the roadscape but simply enjoying the late autumn delights of a London park on a beautiful sunny day.

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We even walked the short stretch from the meeting point to the park. Issues of risks of cycling are also of paramount importance in New York. The fearless, infamous bicycle messenger on brakeless fixies, moving at great speeds and with a relaxed attitude towards red lights, was, and is, the emblematic icon of US urban cycling — including New York City Culley, ; Kidder, ; Fincham, The New Yorker bicycle writer Bike Snob is bewildered when he comes across a New York City-inspired bike culture of fixed-gear bikes, bike messenger bags, U-locks and Brooklyn caps, in Gothenburg, Sweden I am also fascinated by, and in awe of, the bike messenger culture.

Then I got hold of a bike map, indicating numerous bike lanes. Relieved, and reassured, I set out to explore Brooklyn. However, in reality the bike lanes: And the surface quality is poor, uneven, with nasty potholes.



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They are crying out for repair work. I jump-up-and-down; with the vibrations resonating throughout my entire body — while bouncing trucks and vans make an incredible noise diary notes, 21 July Still, one feels safer here than on the congested streets with all the tight-knit vehicles. Brooklyn Bridge is first: It is not light work to ascend it, not the job for an obese or unfit person. Everyone is pushing the pedals with determination; bodies that are standing or leaning slightly forward, sweating, and clenched faces reveal that work is required diary notes, 24 July This is sublime sight-doing.

One cannot help to notice some all-white painted bikes, so-called ghost bikes, erected by a pro-cycling organization to honor, and raise awareness about, traffic-killed cyclists, at that very spot.

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In , motorists killed pedestrians and 19 cyclists across the city7 field notes, 24 July Yet there is also a part of me that is high on adrenalin and the New York smugness. So you wanna be a bike messenger, huh? In Gotham, the Empire.



For Couriers and fixed-gear riders, the ultimate no-brakes velodrome! Or maybe you just want to ride like one Poser!