Have you ever wondered...

...where 80% of the trophies produced annually end up? This video explains all.

 

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Martine Bras will ride at the Olympics

(image credit: Dolmans-Boels Cycling Team)

Martine Bras is no stranger to the loftiest heights of a successful cycling career - after all, she won her first National Championship title when she was ten years old - but now she's about to climb one step higher: she will represent her native Netherlands in the London Olympic Games.

Now aged 33, Martine had perhaps her best season to date in 2011with top ten results in several of the most prestigious races in women's cycling, a win at the UCI 1.2 Halle-Buizingen and an excellent Stage 3 victory at the Tour Féminin en Limousin.

The rider, currently with Dolmans-Boels, is brimming with confidence: "I shouldn't be underestimated on the London course," she says, "with many twists and turns and sloping streets, it suits me." However, like all good riders she hasn't forgotten that the cycling world has its own major events: "I'm still targeting the Limburg World Championships, which 2012 a challenging year for myself and for the team. It gives me the motivation to give everything I've got again this season."

Happy Birthday Ellen van Dijk!

Ellen van Dijk
(image credit: My Women's Cycling Tumblr (Sarah Connolly))

Eleonora van Dijk - known as Ellen - was born in Harmelen, Netherlands, on this day in 1987. She became National Champion in the Newcomers class in 2003, then in Juniors the next year; adding a bronze at the World Championships in the same class later in the year. She won Stage 2 at the Tour Féminin en Limousin in 2006 before becoming Individual Pursuit National Champion and winning Stage 1 at the Tour of Chongming Island in 2007.

2008 brought her first World Championship title, for the Scratch race, a gold in the Under-23 class at the European Championships and Stage 2 at the Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin. She won another gold for the Under-23 Individual Time Trial at the 2009 European Championships and Stage 6 in the Holland Ladies' Tour of 2010. 2011 has been a good year with the overall General Classification and a stage win (2) at the Ladies' Tour of Qatar (a race that often reveals cyclists who are going to do well in the big European races within a few years), Stage 2 at the Holland Ladies' Tour and further track success. If ever there was a young professional on the up, it's Ellen.