Kelly yesterday
The lovely Kelly Brook was out and about in London again yesterday for the mayor of London's Skyride, which promotes cycling to work. Unfortunately, the only way to make cycling to work appealing to Triple P is by having Kelly accompanying him and, as they did, closing the roads to traffic.
Kelly promoting the ride, next to the London Assembly, in August
What Mayor Boris doesn't seem to realise is that cycling to work only becomes viable if employers provide a secure place to leave your bike. Triple P has seen unlocked bikes on the streets of Copenhagen and in Switzerland but in London, however well shackled it is, someone will come along with a pair of heavy duty bolt cutters and make off with it to sell in those breeding grounds of criminality, car boot sales. Until that happens, only the very brave and those with expensive folding bikes (like Agent DVD; who keeps his bike under his desk during the working day) will risk it; especially in London where cycling is akin to running the rapids sat in a rubber ring.
Kelly in August
Poor Kelly has attracted some criticism, both for yesterday and her earlier promotional shoot in August, for not wearing a helmet and having unsuitable shoes whilst promoting the ride. We think her outfit and shoes are perfect for doing what she is doing: posing around for photographers to successfully get publicity. Honestly, do people really think that a glamour model is going to cram her carefully coiffed hair into a helmet just to give out a safety message? If she had, guess what pictures the newspapers would have used. Yes, the ones after she had taken her helmet off!
In the middle of the ongoing internet debate about the importance of cycle helmets, a helmetless Kelly not being a good role model for cycling youngsters (er...she is a glamour model) and other safety issues, we were amused by the inevitible messages from girls asking where she got her shoes and top (actually God, on a very good day, created her top). This, we are afraid, as Triple P's father once said, is why men rule the planet and women do the ironing.
Anyway, we think the ladies have it right. Much more important for encouraging cycling are her little Skyride outfits. For 2011 she had the currently trendy faux-fifties look with her pink mini dress for the promotional shots in August and then the rather more practical red top and jeans (still with five inch heels we should note) for the ride itself.
May 2010
Last year we had three promotional doses of Kelly. In May she appeared in a flirty, low-cut dress (and five inch heels). Very fine outfit, this.
August 2010
The August launch event featured this elegant little number in red and blue.
2010
Jeans again for the ride itself but a much more low-cut top compared with this year.
In 2009, both the promotional photoshoot and the ride itself were in September. For the earlier shoot Kelly's dress had a far too voluminous skirt for a bike although the wily photographers did manage to get this enticing shot.
For the ride itself, later in the month she also wore a dress. Given that she does actually cycle the route on the day perhaps this explains the appearance of jeans for the last two years.
One final thought. It is all very well to give cyclists traffic free roads in the capital once a year but in both Paris and Bogotá they have been doing it every Sunday! In Bogotá they close 70 miles of street for the Ciclovia so people can run, walk and cycle. Promote that Kelly and Boris!