And the Winner Is....

The delectable Miss Margaret is the winner of our inaugural competition and will now be the proud owner of a lovely Basil pannier courtesy of our supporters Gazelle Australia.
It's going to go very nicely on her classic cream Schwinn.  She scored a whopping 137 votes, 37% of the total.
Thanks to the 374 of you that voted from all corners of the globe and congratulations to all our lovely chicsters for being such good sports x

Cycle Chic Sundays Competition - the Search for Chic

Welcome to our first fabulous Cycle Chic competition!!
We had a hilarious photoshoot the other day after our picnic - thanks to everyone for being such willing subjects :-)
So now it's over to you - who do you think sums up Cycle Chicness ?

Bear in mind if you will these points from the Cycle Chic Manifesto:
- I embrace my responsibility to contribute visually to a more aesthetically pleasing urban landscape.
- I am aware that my mere prescence in said urban landscape will inspire others without me being labelled as a 'bicycle activist'.
- I will choose a bicycle that reflects my personality and style.
- I will, however, regard my bicycle as transport and as a mere supplement to my own personal style. Allowing my bike to upstage me is unacceptable.
- I will endeavour to ensure that the total value of my clothes always exceeds that of my bicycle.
- I will refrain from wearing and owning any form of 'cycle wear'. The only exception being a bicycle helmet - if I choose to exercise my freedom of personal choice and wear one.

The winner will receive one of these gorgeous Basil panniers thanks to our new supporters Gazelle Australia.

Voting is easy - just click the box next to the name in the poll on the right hand column of this page.  You can even vote for more than one chicster and yes, even for yourself!

All a bit of fun, we really don't take ourselves TOO seriously.....
Voting is open now and closes at 8pm on Saturday 9 October.  Easy.  And in no particular order, here are the finalists.
Bonne chance a tous!

1 - Margeret

2 - Alacoque

3 - Sonja

4 - Madeleine

5 - Katie

6 - Tanja

7 - Kathi

8 - William

9 - Michael

10 - Grant

11 - Garry

Cycle Chic Sundays, Grey Skies and the Growers Market

I think we luckily managed to capture the only 5 hours of dry weather in Sydney this weekend for our ride down to the Growers Market.  We were joined by some of the (now) regular Cycle Chic Sundays Sydney riders and some new faces which was lovely - and dare I say it, their bikes were even lovelier!
What a magnificent group of bicycles we had.... an Electra, an Abici, a Schwinn, a Gazelle, two Velorbis (or is that Velorbi ??), a vintage Repco Traveller....goodness me.

     

We met on the Pyrmont Bridge under the monorail station then did a slight detour via the new Union Street cycleway around to the market.  It was absolutely heaving, given that this was the start of Sydney's Crave International Food Festival.  So we separated and stocked up on some nibbles before meeting back at the bikes.  Goats cheese and prosciutto from Ocello for me, sourdough bread from Sonoma and La Tartine, passion fruit, tomatoes, cakes, relish, the strangest gourmet marshmallows I've ever seen....yum.

     

     

Kathi (from the lovely Feather Brigade) lead us around the Jones Bay Wharf to Pyrmont Point Park for our picnic.  (It's a great spot for a ride - if you haven't done it yet, do.  We'll definitely be back for a further explore and you can ride right around the harbour foreshore to Glebe).

 

We munched, chatted and munched a bit more then I made everyone pose for photographs for our first fabulous Cycle Chic competition.  The winner will receive a gorgeous Basil pannier thanks to our new supporters Gazelle Australia.

Finalists and details of how to vote will be posted tomorrow so stay tuned!

As always, there are more pics on flickr.  If you took any on the ride, please add them to the Cycle Chic Sundays Sydney group page, thanks !

Great Gazelle Giveaway - Cycle Chic Sundays SMH Growers' Market Competition

This Saturday's ride is all set to be another fun event.  My search for a cycling chef to join us has been a dismal failure, perhaps they are just pacing themselves before October's foodie month of mayhem begins.
So good friend and foodie blogger Tanja from i (heart) my food will be joining us on her new Velorbis (yes I eventually get to all my friends.......) along with William who we met on the last ride.  He promises he'll "play chef" and he's half Danish so I'm expecting some delicious Nordic inspired picnic nosh - watch out René Redzepi!

I am also very excited to announce that we have joined forces with our lovely friends at Gazelle Australia who will be awarding one of their beautiful Basil panniers to the chic-est rider of the day.
So, if you needed and excuse to dress up here it is.

How it will work.  I'll be taking photographs of the best dressed riders and posting them on the blog and inviting everyone to vote.  Voting will be open for 1 week and the rider with the most votes wins the pannier.  Simple.  You can even vote for yourself!
All you have to do is embrace your inner cycle chic god/goddess and ride with style.

Full details of the ride here and it's not too late to RSVP on the facebook page - look forward to seeing you all on Saturday.

Cycle Chic Sundays Does the SMH Growers' Market - Oct 2

Final plans are still underway for the next ride - I am plotting and scheming to come up with some delicious ideas but so far here are the details.....

WHAT: A leisurely ride to the SMH Growers' Market for some foodie fun folowed by a ride around the Pyrmont Foreshore as the mood takes us
WHO: Anyone who favours style over speed and likes to eat good food while lazing around in parks chatting to other like-minded slow bicyclists
WHERE: Meet at the city end of Pyrmont Bridge (near Darling Park Monorail Station) at 9am before heading to the market
WHEN: Saturday 2 October from 9am to midday and on......

The October SMH Growers Market is part of the Crave Sydney International Food Festival and there will of course, ('cause that's our thing) be much eating, drinking, bicycling, picnic-ing fun with (fingers crossed) some surprises revealed over the next few weeks.

Keep the morning free and don't forget to like our facebook page and RSVP to this event or drop me an email if you have any questions.

UPDATED!!!!
Great Gazelle Giveaway.....