May 2009 archive
Russian Denis Menchov protected his lead over voracious rival Danilo Di Luca in the final stage time trial of the Giro d'Italia on Sunday, in spite of crashing on rain-slicked streets just a kilometer from the finish.
Riding hard on the 9-mile loop around ancient Rome, Menchov slipped on the wet street and crashed. After slidding along the pavement, Menchov immediately got up and picked up his bike. His mechanic in the trailing team car quickly handed him a new bike, enabling him to cross the finish in 10th place.
In spite of the fall, Menchov put an extra 21 seconds on his margin over Italy's Di Luca, who finished the race in second place, 41 seconds behind Menchov.
Levi Leipheimer was the highest placed US rider in the Giro …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/05/31/menchov-falls-but-doesnt-fail-wins-2009-giro-ditalia/
Here's a welcome sign for pedestrians and bicyclists: Street closed to traffic on Sunday.
Alki Avenue along the beach in West Seattle is reserved for people on bicycles and on foot this Sunday.
Cars and trucks will be banned on the usually busy street that runs beside Alki Beach. Instead, visitors can see stunt bike shows, bicycle art and maintenance booths, a kids' bike parade and more.
Getting there
If you're going, I'd recommend riding your bicycle or taking the water taxi, or both. That's what I did on Friday when I visited the area…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/05/30/celebrate-bicycles-at-summer-streets-in-alki-on-sunday/
With everyone watching the showdown between Denis Menchov and challenger Danilo Di Luca, Belgium's Philippe Gilbert slipped out of the lead group with less than a mile to go and won Stage 20 in Agnani on Saturday.
Menchov and Di Luca finished together in the pack. Italy's Di Luca actually lost 2 seconds in his bid to dislodge Menchov from first place.
The result means that Menchov carries a 20-second lead over Di Luca as they prepare for Sunday's final stage, a 9-mile individual time trial around the streets of Rome. Menchov, who gained the leader's pink jersey from Di Luca in the Stage 12 individual time trial, is expected to retain that lead. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/05/30/menchov-protects-giro-ditalia-lead-with-one-stage-to-go/
Giro d'Italia race leader Denis Menchov stuck to his rival's rear wheel as Italy's Danilo Di Luca tried unsuccessfully to win back the pink jersey on Stage 19 on Friday.
Although Menchov finished in fourth place, right behind Di Luca, the Italian did gain 8 seconds on Menchov. Di Luca is now within 18 seconds with just two more stages to go in this year's bicycle race.
While that contest was brewing below, Carlos Sastre won the stage with an attack on the final climb of Mount Vesuvius. He improved his overall ranking by one rung to fourth place…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/05/29/sastre-erupts-on-vesuvius-di-luca-cant-shake-menchov/
Here's my reward on Thursday for a half-hour drive and nearly an hour of butt-busting climbing on my old Rockhopper mountain bike.
That's me checking out the view of Mount Rainier from the east summit of Tiger Mountain. It was such a wonderful day for Seattle — sunny and 70s — that I wanted to commemorate it with a new bicycle route.
Earlier in the week I had stopped by Half Price Books and stumbled across Mountain Bike Adventures in Washington's South Cascades and Puget Sound by Tom Kirkendall. What a great find and a great bargain, I thought, until I got home and realized the book was 14 years old.
With warm temperatures and blue skies, I was willing to see if these routes still exist. ..
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/05/28/difficult-bicycle-climbs-have-their-rewards/
Now there's an online resource where you can tell the world about problems you've encounted while bicycling.
The Cascade Bicycle Club has created www.bikewise.org to map the locations of bicycle crashes, road hazards and bicycle thefts.
Although it was created by the Seattle-based bicycle club, it's available for use anywhere in the world, and the developers are encouraging bicycle riders in other regions to use it.
BikeWise is more than just someplace to vent your anger about the location of a dangerous intersection or poorly maintained construction site. Check into the detailed reports of crashes, for instance, and you see a section on “lessons learned.” …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/05/28/cascade-launches-bikewise-com-to-track-crashes-hazards-thefts/
Italian Michele Scarponi won his second stage of this year's Giro d'Italia on Thursday in a seven-man sprint that included Americans Jason McCartney and Danny Pate.
The seven cyclists were the remnants of a breakaway of 25 bicycle racers who gained up to about 6 minutes over the peloton at one point on the 113-mile stage from Sulmona to Benevento.
Race leader Denis Menchov and chief rival Danilo Di Luca finished together in the main peloton, with Rabobank's Menchov maintaining his 26-second lead over Di Luca. No change in the standings for the other leaders, as Levi Leipheimer remained in 6th place, 4:32 back …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/05/28/scarponi-wins-stage-17-menchov-lead-unchanged-at-giro/
Seattle-based Cascade Bicycle Club creates a online mapping tool to record bicycling crashes, hazards and thefts. See www.bikewise.com.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/05/28/bikewise-website/
From the nation that brought us the Velib bicycle rental system comes another revolutionary idea: Remove convicts from prison and take them on a bicycle tour.
Beginning next month, 196 French prison inmates will begin a 1,400-mile bike tour of France. They'll be accompanied by 124 guards.
Reuters news agency reports that the peloton will start in Lille on June 4 and stop in 17 towns. Although each host town is home to a prison, the inmates will be sleeping in hotels. They'll conclude the trip in Paris.
A French prison official explained the trip …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/05/28/an-escape-on-this-bicycle-tour-could-bring-an-armed-chase-group/
What did you do for your summer vacations in college? Here's a bicycling adventure so amazingly unique that it will likely appear in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Graduating senior Phil Nagle plans to ride his bicycle to 48 states in 48 days this summer and has mapped out a route that does the deed in about 8,000 miles.
The University of Cincinnati senior isn't doing it for publicity, however. He's trying to raise $48,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to pay for research to fight blood cancer, the disease that took his uncle's life at age 16.
The grand loop begins and ends at his home in Tipp City, Ohio. As you can see from the map below, he'll ride his bicycle clean through some states, while others he just tags in passing …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/05/28/bicycling-48-states-in-48-days-to-battle-cancer/
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