Spoke cards

Spoke cards originated as a kind of race number for competitors in Alleycat races held between bicycle messengers. Originally tarot cards were used, with the race number written on them, but now cards are most often printed specially. Messenger/racers often retained spoke cards after the event, accumulating several on the wheel. In certain circles it became fashionable to have a card or two stuck into one's spokes, and now other city riders fix spoke cards to their wheels as an homage to bicycle messenger culture. Cards are prepared for many sorts of events and are sometimes prepared just for fun.

Bicycle messenger culture is one of the principle breeding grounds of fixed gear riding, a fixed gear bicycle having been found to be a superior vehicle of choice for big city bicycle messengering. Many young hipsters prefer to commute on a fixed gear and many of those young riders will be found to have a spoke card jammed in the rear wheel. One of the current most popular spoke cards is the Obama card.As is usually the case for matters of urban cycling, much more of interest on this subject is available at Bike Snob NYC.

For a BSNYC take on a certain growing disaffection between fixters and road riding types I recommend Roadie Rage and How to Avoid It.

Today in France the Derby of the West was played for the 63rd time. Rennes, the modern political capital of Brittany the state in France, hosted Nantes, the historical capital of Brittany the area populated by Bretons, a group historically and linguistically separate from the group centered around Paris who came to dominate the government and politics of France and who eventually became known as THE French. Rennes is modern Brittany, Nantes is the site of the castle home of the Dukes of Brittany, le Château des ducs de Bretagne.The rivalry is important to the teams but probably even more important to the fans of the two teams as the cities are located just 100 km apart in western France.

Today homestanding Rennes came in unbeaten in 15 straight games this season, Nantes came in seeking to solidify recent positive results. The teams played to a 0-0 draw, another good result for Nantes.