Organizers for the 2007 Breakaway to the Beach MS150 bicycle tour are changing the route for the first time in 12 years.
The Breakaway -- touted as the largest bicycling event in the Southeast with 2,500 riders -- ended tragically last year when 15-year-old Rachel Giblin and her brother, Tommy, were struck by a passing pickup truck pulling a trailer. Rachel died.
Instead of taking a two-day route from Columbia to North Myrtle Beach, this year the Breakaway to the Beach starts, overnights and finishes at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The fund-raiser for the Multiple Sclerosis Society is scheduled for Sept. 15-16.
Anne Marie Forbes, president of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter, told me about the change of plans ... more»
The Withlacoochee State Trail's 46-mile length makes it the longest rail-trail in Florida and a great route for bicycling.
Featured as Trail of the Month by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, the path runs between Citrus Springs in the north and Trilby in the south in an area generally between Tampa and Orlando.
While the trail is open to all, its path through small towns, ranches and natural areas of the Withlacoochee State Forest means bicyclists have the trail all to themselves for long stretches ... more»
Just when I think I'll be wearing my rainjacket for the rest of my bicycling life, we get hit with a day like this -- sunny, temp in the high 40s, calm, did I mention sunny?
After suffering through weeks of windstorms, snowstorms, freezing temperatures and rain, lots of rain, cyclists up here by the hundreds emerged into the sunshine for their rides on Saturday.
Here's what I enjoyed on today's bike ride ... more»
Here's one of the best reasons for towns to support bicycling -- those sweaty, sunburnt cyclists usually have money in their wallets and they're hungry, thirsty and looking for some off-bike activity.
Small towns across Iowa know this; they compete to be named host cities to 10,000-plus cyclists on RAGBRAI every year.
Cumberland Mayor Lee Fiedler knows it too; he's busy convincing downtown businessmen that the opening of the Great Allegheny Passage will deposit some 250,000 hikers and bicyclists on the city's doorstep this year and they need to keep businesses open on weekends. ... more»
Dan Sheret goes over the equipment he must pack when he leaves on his around the world self-supported bicycle tour -- Ability Trek 2007 -- in June.
Panniers. Satellite phone. Water filter. Freeze-dried meals. Below-knee prosthesis for the right leg.
You see, the North Carolina man underwent an amputation of his lower right leg about five years ago because an ankle injured in an accident would not heal correctly. That didn't stop him from bicycling cross-country in 2003, and it won't stop him from bicycling around the world beginning in June 2007.
Sheret is a long-distance endurance amputee cyclist whose problem has turned into his strength and an inspiration to all ... more»
Thomas Stevens might have been the first around-the-world bicyclist beginning in 1884, but he certainly wasn't the last.
The Pattersons, at left in Morocco, took the plunge in 2002 after Pat had turned 62 and Catherine had recovered from a heart attack.
Their nearly four-year bicycle tour took them through 57 countries on 4 continents. They made many friends and covered thousands of scenic miles, but also had to endure a collision with a truck in Portugal and a hold-up at gunpoint in Peru ... It's all at their website, WorldRiders2. ... more»
When Tom Stevens stepped off the Alameda Ferry in Oakland to begin his around the world bicycle ride in 1884, there were a couple of things he didn't have to worry about -- cars and trucks.
Of course, that meant he had to do without roads, too.
National Public Radio ran an interview this weekend with Thomas Pauly, a University of Delaware faculty member who wrote a forward to a re-release of Stevens' travelogue -- "Around the World on a Bicycle."
In that interview, I was struck by some of the connections between Stevens' ride of 120 years ago and our rides today. ... more»
Before Thomas Stevens could become the first person to bicycle around the world, he had to cross the United States. He did so in 1884, completing the first TransAmerica bicycle tour.
During his around the world bike ride, Stevens sent dispatches to Harper's Weekly. In 1887, he published a book about his journey, "Around the World on a Bicycle."
Here are some excerpts from him trip across California, leaving from Oakland and heading up to Sacramento, then across the Sierra Nevada
"With the hearty well-wishing of a small group of Oakland and 'Frisco cyclers who have come, out of curiosity, to see the start, I mount and ride away to the east, down San Pablo Avenue, toward the village of the same Spanish name, some sixteen miles distant. The first seven miles are a sort of half-macadamized road, and I bowl briskly along ... more»
What makes someone a Trail Angel? In Gillian Hoggard's case, it's providing free lodging to cross-country bicycle tourists who have made it to Ordway, Colorado.
The Adventure Cycling Association named Gillian as the recipient of the 2006 June Curry Trail Angel Award. In its fourth year, the award goes to an individual or group that makes bicyclists' journeys easier by their acts of goodwill.
Word of mouth on the TransAmerica Bicycle Route has identified Gillian's home at the end of a gravel driveway on the north side of Ordway as a welcome respite while passing through the often hot, dry eastern Colorado plains (that picture was taken enroute to Ordway in 1984) ... more»
When you attend most bicycling events, you're probably doing more than just improving your health. A nonprofit group usually gets a share of the event proceeds.
But there are hundreds of major bike rides sponsored by big health foundations throughout the US where the top goal is fund-raising, often through a system of pledges for participating bicyclists.
Many of the larger health-related nonprofits have a series of rides in different venues throughout the US. They include Multiple Sclerosis, Leukemia, Lung, Diabetes, and LiveStrong bike tours. Here, in no particular order, are some of them:
For more than 30 years, June Curry has been serving cookies and lemonade to TransAmerica bicycle tourists on the steps of the Blue Ridge mountains in Afton, Virginia.
Her efforts earned her the nickname "Cookie Lady" to more than 14,000 cyclists who passed through. After they ate the cookies and drank the lemonade, or spent the night in the "Cookie House", June would snap a Polaroid picture of her visitors. They'd sign the photo and the guest register and be on their way.
Most of those Polaroids are now available online at The Cookie House Registry at the Crazy Guy on a Bike website...
more»
While checking the dates and routes, I unearthed the minor news that Bicycle Idaho has been scrubbed this year, replaced by the new Washington Bicycle Ride in 2007. The organizers, the same folks who do the Oregon Bicycle Ride, moved the operation across the border for a ride through rural eastern Washington.
Fear not, Idaho bicycle lovers. The Treasure Island YMCA is putting on Ride Idaho for the third year with a 400-some mile loop starting in Coeur d'Alene.
Here are the other updated tours, listed by state ... more»
Organizers for the 2007 Breakaway to the Beach MS150 bicycle tour are changing the route for the first time in 12 years.
The Withlacoochee State Trail's 46-mile length makes it the longest rail-trail in Florida and a great route for bicycling.
Just when I think I'll be wearing my rainjacket for the rest of my bicycling life, we get hit with a day like this -- sunny, temp in the high 40s, calm, did I mention sunny?
Here's one of the best reasons for towns to support bicycling -- those sweaty, sunburnt cyclists usually have money in their wallets and they're hungry, thirsty and looking for some off-bike activity.
This year's 
Dan Sheret goes over the equipment he must pack when he leaves on his around the world self-supported bicycle tour -- 
The Lance Armstrong Foundation has announced the dates for three LiveStrong bicycle rides in 2007 to benefit cancer research.
When Tom Stevens stepped off the Alameda Ferry in Oakland to begin his around the world bicycle ride in 1884, there were a couple of things he didn't have to worry about -- cars and trucks.
Before Thomas Stevens could become the first person to bicycle around the world, he had to cross the United States. He did so in 1884, completing the first TransAmerica bicycle tour.
What makes someone a Trail Angel? In Gillian Hoggard's case, it's providing free lodging to cross-country bicycle tourists who have made it to Ordway, Colorado.
When you attend most bicycling events, you're probably doing more than just improving your health. A nonprofit group usually gets a share of the event proceeds.
For more than 30 years, June Curry has been serving cookies and lemonade to TransAmerica bicycle tourists on the steps of the Blue Ridge mountains in Afton, Virginia.
More week-long bike tours are updated at my 
