Flat velodrome

Fenix - click on picture

Another one of those "Wow it's been a long time since i posted in here" Bloggs!

Life since Vätternrundan has turned a few unexpected corners for me since that mid-July afternoon.
Divorce is a word often connected with Tammy Wynette and a bunch of hyphens for good measure.
Never a complete doddle, no matter what the reason, it's the sort of thing that would knock you off your even keel. Being this is the second time around, my keel has been far from even over the years.

One thing that has kept me steady though is cycling and the friends I've made in cycling. When the going gets tough, you can just throw that back leg over the saddle, start pedaling, and soon you're forgetting all bar the rush of the road underneath you and the swoosh of the wind in your ever so holey helmet.

Cycle groups are however no different from any relationship. If they're gonna last they needs to be nurtured and loved. And cyclists tend to want to do things there way or the highway/cyclepath/dirtroad/woods/etc, etc.
In September 2010 I started a Facebook group for cyclists in Norrköping who felt they just weren't getting what they wanted out of cycling through the local bike club. Aptly I named the group Fenix.
Doesn't take a genious to work out the symbolism. From 1 to 110 members in 14 months it's nice to know that a lot of ladies and gentlemen feel the same about cycling as I do.
Which is basically; "To hell with the politics, let's ride!"

2011 saw Fenix looking for an identity. The sort of looking that you do when you know you put your car keys down somewhere but damned if you can remember where. When you did eventually find them there ensued a lot of polite conversation over who would drive and who would sit in the back.
Now however, as 2012 is firmly underway, Fenix has crept out from under the dark depths of a hidden group in Facebook to unfurl its feathers, shake off the ashes of history and flap her wings with excitement.

Cyclists will gather in the main town for rides on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The group will no doubt grow and we will see the same faces in Italy, Vätternrundan, Halvvättern and more.
Fenix will no doubt one day fade and die, just as other constellations have done before her.
Norrköpings cykelklubb has been on ice for decades. CK Antilopen has for all intents and purposes stalled, just the handfull of youths coached week in week out by one man with a passion, in a room offered by a catering firm on the outskirts of town. All forms of Fenix, rising and falling, just going by other names.
Yet for now, The Fenix is called Fenix, and she's riding a wave. The fortnightly visits to Stadium Arena on what we refer to as a "Flat Velodrome" where men and women, boys and girls hurl their way around the 200meter long running track have seen a growing interest that has led to the Facebook group expanding.
Feathers preened, plumage glowing, riders hearts beating ... what will the future hold? Just now, cyclists in unison. For how long? Your guess is as good as mine.

Fenix group at Stadium Arena Norrköping