In Los Angeles and other places rush hour traffic is so slow that you could get places faster with a bike. The Crimanimalz a group in LA decided to take to the highways during rush hour as a protest/demonstration?
In LA most of the people in traffic were either too busy doing other things such as texting/using cell phones to notice or simply just too jaded to ever flinch.
Drivers scarcely looked up as the riders passed. Many were too busy texting messages on their cell phones in the bumper-to-bumper traffic. The riders grew bolder, weaving in and out, riding faster and faster. They had sent scouts for an initial stretch but decided to extend the ride. Two miles and 15 minutes later, they were back on city streets.
The result was bolder Lucas Brunelle type riding where they weave in and out of traffic. I can’t decide if I admire these riders for their bravery and sheer balls in doing something so scary. Or if I am disgusted by the action since they could easily cause a bigger controversy and backlash if one of them were to get injured or killed. Cyclist already don’t get much sympathy when there is a report of an accident. The Mexican bike race that was hit by a drunk driver helped the cyclist cause since the picture was so gruesome and vivid with carnage. But there was the occasional troll that would post things such as “strike” or they “got what they deserved” for being on the road. An accident with a cyclist being on the highway where they don’t belong would not be helpful in getting more bike friendly roads developed.
There are better ways to advocate cycling in your town, but sometimes doing something bombastic seems cooler.
As a side note there are certain states and areas where you are allowed to ride on the highway. I rode on the highway when I went to see the Tour du Pont in Wilmington Delaware. I was with a local cyclist to escorted me and two other friends to some nice roads to ride after seeing the race. I did not expect to ride on the freeway with 55mph+ traffic. The experience was scary and exhilarating. Once we merged back off I was excited to do it but did not want to ever do it again.
Cervelo took a huge risk when they became the main bike supplier to Team CSC. The risk paid off nicely with the huge success of the team making Cervelo bikes one of the leading brands out there. Originally Cervelo was a small boutique brand with an emphasis on providing better aerodynamics with their airfoil downtubes. Their biggest market is triathlon with their slippery fast P2 TT bikes that are some of the most lusted after TT bikes on the market. Their approach is less is more in some respects as they have a limited line that is very high-end. There are no cheapy sub $1000 bikes in the Cervelo lineup and they are always in demand.
Despite the negative drug related press, with the Ivan Basso debacle in 2007 and the Riis revelations of 2007 their sales are still strong. This is especially with the premium lusting baby-boomers who are getting into cycling.
Originally I was going to title this post Riiis is “bringing Saxo Bank” into cycling. Apologies to Justin Timberlake for the bad reference to his song. But I decided to keep it basic.
Bjarne Riis successfully found a new sponsor to replace the outgoing CSC in Saxo Bank. Effective immediately Saxo Bank will cosponsor the team with the highlight being big exposure at the Tour. In 2009 Team CSC will become Team Saxo Bank marking a smooth transition over to the new sponsor. With the advent of sponsorless teams such as High Road and Slipstream and the loss of Gerolsteiner as a main sponsor it looked like cycling would have a tough time getting new sponsors into the sport. With Riis’ success at attracting Saxo Bank hopefully more sponsors will take another look at cycling.
Damiano Cunego bypassed the Giro to focus his efforts on the Tour de France. With fewer time trials, more climbing and a couple days in Italy it seems like this is a Tour made for Cunego. After some very sharp spring form where he outfoxed rack SAchleck at Amstel Gold Cunego is ready to tone up his Tour de France form by scoping out the major climbs and then riding the Tour de Suisse later this week.
The team Lampre website gives some general info about Cunego’s recent recon trip:
Under a grey, but not rainy, sky, Cunego and Marzano completed the reconnaissance of the final part of the 15th stage of Tour de France, the one scheduled on the 20th of July with arrival in Prato Nevoso. Two Lampre’s riders (foto) began the training in Chiusa di Pesio and after 40 kms reached Prato Nevoso. “This reconnaissance has been useful and I’ll remember the last climb when we’ll be here in Prato Nevoso during Tour de France – Cunego said – The climb has not very tough declination, but it could be hard to cover if the speed would be high”.
Cunego’s next races before Tour de France will be Tour de Suisse and Italian Championship.
This year was going relatively well in terms of cycling related drug scandals. Sure there is the Alessandro Petacchi overreaction due to one too many puffs of the inhaler, but most of the big names were relatively free from drug related scandals. Now that most cyclists stay away from the performance enhancing drugs they have to let loose when not riding. So Tom Boonen gets caught with cocaine in his system. Sad that Belgium’s golden boy fresh off another Paris-Roubaix victory is facing criminal possession charges.While WADA says it is OK to have some cocaine when you are out of competition thereby not penalizing Boonen for his out-of-competition cocaine use.
Did Boonen get some South American candies from Gilberto Simoni’s Grandmother recently? Or maybe he has a really old school dentist that uses cocaine to numb the pain when doing dental work. These are ust a couple of excuses used by Gilberto Simoni years ago when he was caught with cocaine. Otherwise he will be meeting with Belgian police who want to know where he got the coke. Boonen’s alibi’s may not work so well since his house was already searched for suspected cocaine possession earlier this year.
We do have a current cyclist in the White House and that has not turned out too well. Maybe because he is a mountain biker and not a roadie
Meanwhile Barack Obama fresh off getting the official delegate tally to be the Democratic nominee in waiting spent the weekend chilling in Chicago and went for a bike ride. What this means is anyone’s guess but it is good to see that we may have another cyclist in the White House. Hopefully the results will be different.
The Illinois senator and his wife, Michelle, rode to a neighbor’s house with their daughters, Malia and Sasha, on Sunday and the group then headed out for the ride along the scenic lake shore. But the outing was cut short by a downpour.
Huffington Post reports that Obama’s policies would be friendlier to cyclist so that is good news.
Levi Leipheimer used his Giro Training camp form to get the top spot for the Dauphine Libere prologue. The American was riding some good form, while others such as Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans were using this race as the tune up for the Tour de France. The Dauphine is a good race for Leipheimer especially since he has some very good form to use and no real prospect for riding the Tour at this moment. The Astana team at least has some preparation for the race, so they can be ready to defend a lead if needed. The Dauphine is more interesting for the jockeying and staring down of Tour de France rivals. Cadel Evans and Alejandro Valverde will be using the chance to see how each other is doing in their run-up to the Tour.
It’s down to four seconds between the reigning Tour de France champion and the young “Cobra” Ricco going into an epic weekend that features a brutal mountain stage and final time trial in Milan. This Giro could be one of the closest in memory after a week that featured a brutal uphill time trial.
Riccardo Ricco unleashed his frustrations at Emmanuele Sella and Domenico Pozzovivo when he saw that he missed the Maglia Rosa by only four seconds. Sella and Pozzovivo were defending their GC places and by that effort helped Contador pace back in. Ricco likes to talk and wear his heart on his sleeve which endears him to many Italian cycling fans. The fire is fun to watch especially when so many other cyclist tend to watch what they say and speak in metered tones.
Ricco and DiLuca attacked Contador and now look to be in contention. The next stage features some brutal climbs up the Gavia Pass and the Mortirolo. The problem is that these climbs may not be decisive enough since they are far from the finish.
Ricco and DiLuca need some more time between themselves and Contador for the final TT which favors Contador.
My second year as race promoter for the Syracuse Race Weekend is in the books. The lead-up to the race was more hectic than expected as the wife was admitted to the hospital for fear of pre-term labor. So here I am calling people about things like insurance for firemen and last minute hay-bales while the wife is worrying about having a baby at 31 weeks. It was a hectic time and gave me major burnout to all things cycling for a few days after that.
Luckily the wife is doing well, the baby is still baking and will hopefully go to full term or close to full term. The Syracuse Race Weekend went off well with racers raving about the new Criterium course at the Inner Harbor in Downtown Syracuse.
After getting the hang of running the race last year, I decided to switch up a few things for 2008. This year I added a Time Trial around Song Mountain and switched the Crit course to the Inner Harbor venue. I also changed the race from and Omnium to a stage race format. And I moved the date up one week from Memorial Day weekend to May 17th and 18th. Just a few changes to shake things up…
So to compare, David Millar’s throw seems to have gotten more air, but it is probably a much lighter bike. The Pinarello that Riis had probably weighed 19 pounds while Millar’s bike should weigh in at the UCI standard 16 pounds. Riis seems like such a douche when he throws the bike as opposed to Millar who may have injured the family jewels seems more sympathetic. One other factor is that Riis was probably using EPO and other performance enhancing means when he threw it, while Millar is pretty much clean.
