The Politics of Cycling



Me first - No me first



What we have here, is two Russian MAMBO’s - how could I pass up such a photo opportunity!

If the two most powerful men in Russia take time to get out on their bikes, then it has to be a reasonable thing? They are for sure, not  what most people would assume to be your average tree hugging hippies on bikes.

A couple of things have come to my mind whilst I was viewing this:

1) Thank God they did not go down the Lycra / Spandex route – I think that would have been too much to bear.

2) The second is a far more important and political comment. There is a lot of discussion currently as to whether these two will run against each other in a Presidential race in 10 months time. But now I know for sure the Presidential race will be not be happening.

How could two men, especially Mr Putin who is a self-professed “Alpha Male”, sit there riding side by side and it not turn into a race? If you ever wanted an example of how cycling can give you political divination then use this picture. It is simply just not possible for two men on bikes not to turn it into a race – unless of course one of them is under strict orders to let the other go over the metaphorical finish line first. Therefore we can assume that Medvedev is trained like a Pavlov dog to follow his leader no matter what provocation and allow Mr Putin to win, it is one thing to give up on being President of an oil and mineral rich country but a much greater thing to allow someone to beat you on a bike. Therefore I can comfortable predict that Mr Putin will be the next President of Russia (again) and remember you heard it here first.