I suppose this could border on stalking, but, hey, he posts this on his Twitter feed, so whatever.  Here’s what Lance was amping up on before his race…maybe he got a little too angry and that’s why he wrecked.  I suppose we’ll never know…but you can listen to the same music.  Heck, you can even have the very same model of iPod Touch.  Sort of makes him a little more “real”, doesn’t it?
Marty Jemison Cycling Tours is offering a $500 discount just by mentioning that you want the email special $500 discount on their Moab & Utah National Parks bicycle tour.  This is a road tour, not a fat tire romp through slick rock, that takes you through Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park and has views of ancient petroglyphs and amazing rock formations.  Deal is good for the May 1-5, 2009 trip.
For those that don’t know, Marty Jemison rode on the U.S. Postal Service team for six years, finished the Tour de France twice and won the ’99 US Pro Championships.  His touring company leads bicycle trips throughout Europe and the U.S.
Bikes Belong, in partnership with the League of American Bicyclists and with generous support from Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), is pleased to announce five REI/Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) Grant Awards. These grants of between $10,000 and $20,000 have been awarded to grassroots groups that are working closely with their city governments to make conditions better for bicycling in aspiring and designated Bicycle Friendly Communities.
Applicants for this invitation-only grant program were asked to present their high-priority bicycling projects within the framework of the BFC program’s five Esâ€â€Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluationâ€â€and explain how they’d execute these initiatives if funding were available. We were thrilled with the responses; advocates are doing innovative and exciting work on the community level.
The winners received REI/BFC Grants and were recognized at the National Bike Summit on March 10th. Their priorities are highlighted below. Each grantee will receive technical assistance from the League’s Bicycle Friendly America Staff to help develop and implement these initiatives, so they’ll be poised to help their cities apply for BFC designation.
Hit “more” to see which five communities won…
Texas A&M has drafted a proposal for a Bicycle User Registration program that will require a permit to use bicycle facilities on campus (presumably bike racks…we’re giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming they don’t require one just to ride your bike on campus).
If you ever wanted to discourage people in riding bikes, here’s how you do it:  Charge them to ride and lock their bike up on campus.
The program, to its credit, is proposed to alleviate congestion, which we’ll assume means cyclists that lock their bikes to items that cause pedestrian traffic to bottleneck, by allowing campus enforcers to fine the owner of the bicycle for improper use.  They also claim it’ll help return a stolen bike to the rightful owner.  Maybe, but don’t charge for the service…just make the permits free and have some coffee and donuts available while people are waiting in line.  Heck, maybe Urban Velo or Bicycle Times could even donate some free issues to be handed out with every permit with a coupon for a local bike shop or a Planet Bike blinky light or something.  Make the students feel rewarded for riding instead of driving…now that’s a novel concept.
Have other ideas?  Email them to Logan Nichols, Student Senate.
We all know cycling is low impact, which is great for knees and backs, and that’s especially important for heavier folks that really, really need to get some exercise.  The problem (according to Super Sized Cycles) is that many bikes are not made to safely handle someone who weighs over 200 lbs.
Offering overbuilt bicycles, trikes and electric bikes since 2006, they can help you find the right bike for your needs. ÂÂ
After looking through their website, most of the bikes look totally normal and some are pretty cool.  They have a Newsboy that’s reminiscent of old-school townie/beach cruisers.  The “New Leaf”, shown at left, is a Chromoly steel frame with 8-speed internal geared hub, front disc brake (coaster rear) and upright seating position for comfort.  It’s claimed to hold up to 550 lbs, comes in Black or White and retails for $1,970.  Yes, that’s a bit expensive, but keep in mind it’s intended for “heavy” use and they back up the frame with a lifetime warranty w/ free return shipping and repair.  At 54 lbs (*gasp*)for the complete bike, it’s probably built tougher than most freeride and downhill bikes.
So, if you know someone that could use some exercise, tell them to get off their fa you’d love to take them for a ride and help them pick out a bike that’ll work well and that they’ll enjoy riding.
On a particularly rough road in the first stage of the 5-day Vuelta a Castilla y León stage race, Lance Armstrong was caught in a 10-rider pile up.  Race organizers confirmed “Armstrong suffered a fracture of the third medio of the right clavicle (aka: Collarbone).”
Their statement said Armstrong will leave the hospital this evening.
Spaniard Joaquin Sobrino (Burgos Monumental) won the stage ahead of David Vitoria (Rock Racing).  In 2004, Tyler Hamilton broke his collarbone during the Tour de France and went on to finish in fourth place overall.
Armstrong’s next race is the Giro d’Italia May 9-31, 2009.  Photo by Graham Watson, see his other shots and the rest of this story on VeloNews.
Riding a prototype Yeti downhill mountain bike, BMX Olympian Jared Graves won the Downhill and 4X Oceania Mountain Bike Championships in Thredbo (Australia) over the weekend.
“The cross over back isn’t that hard as I’ve been riding downhill for ten years. It’s a different kind of fitness though and that definitely is an issue,†said Graves.
Check out his Yeti bio video here for some good BMX and Downhill Footage. Click on image at left to enlarge.
Photo ©: Evan Jeffery
A note to our readers…we’re updating the back end of our site tonight, so if you experience any problems viewing in the wee hours of Sunday, March 22 through early morning hours of Monday, March 23 (Eastern Standard Time), I apologize in advance.
The good news is, we’re getting things ready for some big, bold new features that are launching over the next two months.  Until tomorrow AM, keep the rubber side down.
- Tyler (Editor)
In an obvious parallel to the infamous website that cultivates the worst in a superficial pop culture society, More Dirt, a UK cycling website, lets you post your ride to be rated by other cyclists.  So far, with a whopping 7 votes, this Brodie (above) is the top rated reader ride.  If you want to gawk at other people’s bikes or submit your own to be ridiculed or praised, here’s the link.
During February, Trek Bicycles instituted temporary furloughs for many of its production workers, rotating them one week on (paid), one week off (unpaid).  Some remain on the furlough program, and according to Trek’s HR manager Jeff McFarlane, they’ve cut the overall workforce by up to 5% since January 1st.
Trek has 1,100 employees at its Waterloo, WI, headquarters and assembly plant.  On a brighter note, we reviewed their new Top Fuel full suspension mountain bike and really liked it!
Lance Armstrong’s new Trek Madone paint job by graphic artist Kaws was his ride for the Milan San Remo today.  The wild paint job is intended to keep the public eye on Lance and his cancer awareness campaign, and follows in the footsteps of the custom painted Madone he rode in the Tour Down Under and Tour of California.
Click “more” for a few additional pics of this new paint job, and click on the image above to enlarge…
After a lead pack of 40 riders dropped Armstrong and the rest of the field over the Cipressa climb, Mark Cavendish (Columbia-High Road) chased down and just barely edged out Cervelo TestTeam rider Heinrich Haussler to win the 100th Milan-San Remo classic bicycle race.  Haussler was leading out teammate Thor Hushovd, who ended up in third.
Milan-San Remo is the first major one-day classic of the year, and Cavendish was beside himself after winning.
“It’s the most beautiful day of my life. I didn’t expect to win. I couldn’t dream of anything better,” said Cavendish, who won four stages in last year’s Tour de France. “Hincapie helped me enormously, but the whole team stayed with me on the climbs. When Haussler broke away at top speed I was scared, but it makes the victory even sweeter.”
Australia’s Alan Davis (Quick Step) claimed fourth and Alessandro Petachi (LPR) fifth.
Overcoming comments from other riders that he couldn’t handle the climbs during such a long race, the win moves Cavendish’s reputation from being a great sprinter to just being a great cyclist.  Cavendish now heads to Poland for the World Track Championships.
Photo from Centovolte’s Flickr Stream (they have a lot more nice B&W’s).
