Here's my pick of the year's most memorable cycling videos out of all the ones that have been so efficiently distracting me from work during 2011. There was also that Russian erm… bike hire one, but they wouldn't let me include that because it is very much not work safe.

Anyway enjoy the selection and if you've got any suggestions for other vids feel free to comment them in below there's still a little time for some work distraction left in 2011 and a whole yearful left in 2012.

Tom Boonen at the Paris – Roubaix

A lovely piece of right place, right time footage from the Paris-Roubaix of Boonen sidelined by a mechanical in the Arenberg forest. A great roadside view of how bloody fast the Pros ride the cobbles, the chaos, how long it can take for help to arrive, and how calm Tommeke remains throughout the whole affair when others would have had a hissy-fit and thrown their bikes into the bushes.

 

The Hoogerland Crash

Okay, strictly not a cycling video but how many times have you watched it again and again on YouTube sucking air through your teeth?

 

 

Joey’s Okay

Sometimes a lifetime hero is made when a man triumphs over adversity, like Johnny Hoogerland above, sometimes a hero emerges for just a week when the whole world sees you make a klutz of yourself.

 

 

Camuting

2011 was definitely the year when the mini video camera came of age, with cyclists the world over strapping them to helmets and bikes to record their pedaling antics, whether that was to show fantastic travels, awesome tricks, or just the everyday horrors of cycling to work. Of the latter some would say using a headcam to record events is a good way of showing the challenges and murder attempts commuting cyclists have to endure and filmed evidence could be a useful tool in the event anything should go legal, others would say that those who strap a camera to their bikes are just augmenting their antagonistic tendencies.

And this is how it is in other countries, none of them are wearing helmets or hi-viz jackets, how are they not all dead? Oh yeah.

 

 

Giro Motorbike

Giro D’Italia 2011, Stage 14, Zoncolan, so steep a media motorbike burns its clutch out. Eccezionale!

 

Cyclist – 0, Antelope – 1.

You’ve probably seen this a few times, had the link clutter your inbox 57 times in three days and have since forgotten about it, but it warrants inclusion in any end-of-year round-up purely for its promiscuity, over 12 million views can’t be wrong. Maybe the beast was spooked by Fenton?

 

Brazilian Critical Mass

Shocking, disturbing viewing. The perp, a deranged banker was charged with multiple counts of attempted murder and was last reported to be being held in a secure psychiatric unit. Amazingly nobody was seriously hurt.

 

Hipster Fail

Included just for proper “You’ve Been Framed” belly laughs, and because he’s on a fixie. Extra comedy marks for the haircut…

Scream If You Want To Go Faster

The Director’s Cut of that Halfords advert, maybe.

 

Awang’s Splinter

Ow. Just Ow.

 

Rapha – Women’s

Epic swathes of quiet punctuated with breathing, wind and chain noise and a bit of pink. Hill. This is my cycling.

 

Ride Everything

A couple of videos showing that cyclo-cross doesn’t have to mean hurting round a field for an hour, it can be the fun way to work on a Cotic, or riding a whole bunch of inappropriate stuff on the wrong bike in Morvelo clothing. Cyclo-cross can be smiles.

Cotic X – Late For Work

Morvelo – Ride Everything