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Photo by Aaron Teasdale
Adventure Cycling AssociationJune must be the month for extreme ultra-endurance bicycling events.
Cyclists took off June 8 for the 3,000-mile Race Across America. Last Saturday, 17 mountain bikers set off from Banff, Alberta, on the inaugural 2,711-mile Tour Divide mountain bike race.
This coming Saturday, more mountain bikers will start the 5th annual Great Divide Race, that rolls out from the Canadian border for the Mexican border, 2,490 miles away.
They call RAAM “the world's toughest bike race.” What can you call these two north-south races? How about, “The world's most drop-dead insanely challenging bike races.” ….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/19/great-divide-route-hosting-two-mountain-bike-races/
Another US-based pro cycling team is getting a sponsor makeover in preparation for the Tour de France.
Pro continental cycling team Slipstream-Chipotle is changing its name to “Garmin-Chipotle presented by H30” after Garmin International signed on as a title sponsor.
The new sponsorship won't effect the ownership of the cycling team by Slipstream Sports LLC, a sports management company co-owned by Doug Ellis and Jon Vaughters. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/18/slipstream-chipotle-is-now-garmin-chipotle/
The ride will go on, in spite of flooding in parts of Iowa. That's the word at the official Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Around Iowa (RAGBRAI).
[June 19 update: RAGBRAI director T.J. Juskiewicz tells Des Moines Register that extensive flooding in the state has left a handful of roads in some pass-through towns still underwater, but the overnight towns are “in pretty good shape.” ]
The weeklong, 471-mile bicycle tour across Iowa rolls out July 20-26. RAGBRAI says the planned bike ride is still scheduled to take place on the scheduled route, but they're “closely monitoring” the flood devastation across Iowa.
This map from the Iowa Department of Transportation shows road closures (red circle with white bar) throughout the state as of Tuesday afternoon. As you can see, the route tends to skirt many of the current trouble areas, although the flooding is still developing. The area between Ames and Tipton appears most affected along the route….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/18/ragbrai-officials-monitoring-iowa-floods/
Did you get a nice, new High Road kit for a Father's Day present? I hope not. That uniform is as yesterday as the T-Mobile pink.
The ProTour cycling team — featuring American George Hincapie and British sprinter Mark Cavendish — is now sponsored by Portland, Oregon-based Columbia Sportswear. It takes effect with the Tour de France.
Originally based in Germany, the team was sponsored by T-Mobile for many years until the bad publicity connected with the teams loose doping controls persuaded the telecom to back out of its contract early. The team took its management company's name, High Road, and moved its HQ to California …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/17/team-high-road-is-now-team-columbia/
While many of us slept in our comfy beds, raw-boned RAAM cyclists began rolling into Annapolis overnight to end their coast-to-coast bike race.
Two guys who rode cross-country relay style on fixed-gear bikes were the first to arrive at the RAAM finish line on Monday night, completing the 3,000-mile journey from Oceanside, California, in 8 days and 4 hours. They're the first fixie riders to ever finish the race.
The 8-man teams of BMC Cycling and Team Type 1 were expected to follow in the wee hours of Tuesday, just 5 days after leaving Oceanside with most of the other teams last Wednesday.
Slovenian cyclist Jure Robic, in RAAM video clip above, is expected to arrive around noon on Tuesday; his 14 mph average speed bringing him across the finish some 18 hours ahead of David Haase and Mark Pattinson, his closest competitors. His fourth win would set a RAAM record …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/17/raams-fixie-duo-first-to-finish-in-annapolis-robic-expected-tuesday/
Thousands of bicyclists are rolling along country roads and trails in the US this week in two major week-long bicycle tours.
Some 2,000 cyclists are tackling the second stage of the Denver Post Ride the Rockies on Monday, as about 3,000 bike tourists are zipping along the flatter Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure in northern Ohio.
This is the 20th anniversary for GOBA, and organizers wanted to commemorate the bike tour with an attempt to set a Guinness Book of World Record for largest bicycle parade, set last year in Taiwan with 1,901 bicycles.
The GOBA attempt in Wellington on Saturday fell short of the mark with 1,023 riders …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/16/ohio-bike-tour-just-shy-of-world-record-7-passes-in-ride-the-rockies/
The miles and days click by, and solo RAAM leader Jure Robic is making his way to Hamilton, Ohio, just 505 miles from the finish in Annapolis.
The Slovenian ultra-athlete is averaging a steady 14.5 mph and is about 14 hours ahead of his nearest rival, David Haase. At left is a video of him greeting a fan in Missouri, about 500 miles ago.
Many of the solo and team riders have suffered cold and rainy conditions overnight as they race their bicycles across the US. One, Caroline Van De Bulk of Canada, is still riding after crashing in the fog. She cracked her helmet and skinned up her knees, but she's still riding. Her comment is typically brave, like all the RAAM riders:
“At least the pain in my right knee is distracting me from the soreness in my left!” …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/15/raam-leaders-crossing-ohio-annapolis-finish-by-monday/
The Flying Wheels Summer Century bike ride is a great way to experience the suffering and joy of cycling in a very short time.
The suffering comes on the steep climbs that interrupt the 45-, 70, and 100-mile routes. The joy comes in reaching the top and pedaling along rolling country roads that pass pleasant Northwest Washington rural scenery.
It's been a few years since I've done the Flying Wheels, and I'd forgotten what a great ride it is. The rest stops are every 15- to 20-miles and are well stocked. Most of the roads have good shoulders or have very little traffic. A bonus this year is that the weather stayed dry; we even had a little sun.
Some 3,100 of us rolled past the Marymoor Velodrome in Redmond on Saturday to start the ride. Organized by the Cascade Bicycle Club, they tout it as Washington's largest century ride and a great warm-up for their Seattle-to-Portland bike tour that happens July 12-13 …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/15/flying-wheels-summer-century-bike-ride-stays-dry/
In the past week I've seen two news stories about bicycle riders who were killed when they fell into traffic after slamming into a car door opened by a motorist in a parked car.
On Monday, Clinton Miceli, 22, was killed as he was riding his bicycle in the bike lane on La Salle in Chicago, hit an open SUV door, fell into traffic, and was struck by a car. Miceli was an art director at Plan B ad agency.
On Thursday, Stanley Wang, 67, was killed as he rode his bicycle on Main Street in Moorestown, New Jersey. The driver of a parked pickup truck opened his door, Wang slammed into it, fell into traffic, and was struck by a passing car. Wang was former general counsel of Comcast.
While its usually a violation to open a car door into traffic, that doesn't prevent people from doing so. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/13/two-bicycle-riders-killed-in-door-zone-this-week/
Heavy rains and flooding in Wisconsin have prompted organizers of the Great Annual Bicycle Adventure Along the Wisconsin River (GRABAAWR) to move this year's staging area to another location in Prairie du Chien.
Road closures by the Wisconsin DOT, especially in hard-hit south central portions of the state, may require other changes during the bike tour (June 21-28) that will be announced at nightly rider meetings.
Participants who are taking motor coaches from the finish in Prairie du Chien to this year's start in Eagle Lake will be affected by the changes announced Thursday. The staging area has been moved from the Jaycees Shelter on St. Feriole Island near Villa Louis to higher ground at Bluff View Middle School, 1901 E. Wells St., Prairie du Chien. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/13/grabaawr-bike-tour-in-wisconsin-makes-changes-due-to-flooding/
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