Suffering Season

Maurice Garin 

From Paris to the blue waves of the Mediterranean, from         Marseille to Bordeaux, passing along the roseate and dreaming roads sleeping under the sun, across the calm of the fields of the Vendée, following the Loire, which flows on still and silent,our men are going to race madly, unflaggingly.  

               
                                             Henri Desgrange

Can you be jealous of someone else's suffering. Not a suffering such as cancer or loss of a loved one. I'm talking about the suffering that takes place while doing something you love. Right now though I'm talking about the suffering that takes place atop a saddle. When I read/hear about someone heading to the hills and I'm stuck at home I'm terribly jealous.  I love that period of time where suffering becomes surreal. We create our own rotational meditation while sitting there. It's our brains way of not allowing us to go mad. Yes we're a sick, weird bunch and I feel right at home here. The leaders, heroes, domestiques, cheats of our clan are about to race, June 30 to be precise.

Yes our time of year is coming, I know the Classics are for the 'hard men', but really, do we need to argue? 21 days of racing 2,000 something miles, a history over a 100 years old. The victories, tragedies, deceit, brotherhood, not to mention the chiseled tan legs and dangling gold medallions and wedding bands, each one with a story. It's a fucking soap opera and I love it.

It seems my love of cycling does not ebb and flow, I'm pretty consistent. But I tend to get extremely passionate about cycling around this time of year and the only way to quell it is to create. Some of my creations are good, others seem to only appeal to me, and maybe that random rider with the quirky personality. And I appreciate that quirky rider so much because I know I'm not alone when it comes to the joy of having a cycling pigeon* screen printed across my chest. I hope you share this crazy passion for 2 wheels too, enjoy the season, hope your man wins.

If  you like the tee you see above you might like the FreeBird Shop. Tees, bags, paintings and quite possibly another cycling pigeon t-shirt might appear soon. 

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I'm Still Here!

Hello there, in case you haven't noticed I've been pretty lax on my blog entries. Le Tour is coming up in a couple of weeks, I've been gearing up for that with daily Tour de France facts on twitter (@freebirdvelo). These facts are fresh from Nick Brownlee's book Vive le Tour. I'd pick it up if you have any love whatsoever for the biggest bike race in the world, lots of random good stuff to impress the folks at the bike shop. I've also been doing research for upcoming designs which leads to reading and watching cycling for hours on end but not ending up with much as a result and having to come up with excuses as to how I spent my day. Tortured artist as my Hubby would call me. So while you wait for some new designs have a look at my shop, I just might have something you like. I've got some new artwork in the works, french inspired t-shirt designs just in time for le Boucle (I hope), and just plain old velo-centric ramblings coming up right here. And by velo-centric ramblings I mean complaining about riders who win too much (ahem, Sagan) what, too French? Well, thanks for reading and come back soon… please! just kidding, come back if ya want, it would be nice though. 

Please enjoy Poppy's antics with her sea-shammy baby 

while I try and create something.