2010 Giro d'Italia live broadcast coverage begins Saturday

What epic bicycle race starts in Amsterdam this weekend?

The 2010 Giro d'Italia, of course. The three-week Grand Tour around Italy — rolling out Saturday until May 30 — often starts far from home. Work is even underway to launch the 2012 Giro in Washington DC.

Something as extreme as a trans-Atlantic transition might be necessary to maintain interest in the race in North America in coming years as the Amgen Tour of California has scheduled itself May 16 – 23, right in the middle of the classic Italian bike race.

That scheduling competition in May means that the cycling teams and racers have to choose between the two events.

Lance Armstrong, who competed at the Giro for the first time ever last year, and sprinter Mark Cavendish (Columbia), for instance, have opted to race in California (Armstrong's RadioShack team wasn't even invited to the Giro). 

World champion Cadel Evans, however, is racing at the Giro ….

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/05/06/2010-giro-ditalia-live-broadcast-coverage-begins-saturday/

Recalls on Specialized and Nirve bikes, Klean Kanteen bottle lids

Two bicycle companies and an outfit that makes stainless steel water bottles all issued recalls due to product failures, although no injuries have been reported.

Specialized Bicycle Components is recalling 1,350 Epic and Era brand bicycles.

The Morgan Hill, CA-based company says the shock absorber mount can break, causing the shock absorber to come in contact with the spokes. No incidents have been reported, however ….

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/05/06/recalls-on-specialized-and-nirve-bikes-klean-kanteen-bottle-lids/

Most of top 10 leanest cities are bicycle friendly

Something that immediately caught my eye when I stumbled across a list of America's Fattest Cities is that none of the top 10 were on the list of Bicycle Friendly Communities.

In fact, you had to go down to No. 15 on the list (Philadelphia) before you could find a city that the League of American Bicyclists says encourages bicycling.

Among the Top 10 Leanest Cities, however, 8 are considered bicycle friendly, and half of those have a high rating of silver, gold or platinum.

You probably can't make the argument that these cities are fat because they're not bicycle friendly …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/05/05/most-of-top-10-leanest-cities-are-bicycle-friendly/

Peaks and Pints, Assault on the Peak are new Colorado bike rides

A 5-day bicycle tour of breweries along the San Juan Skyway and a one-day bike ride to the top of Pikes Peak are new two-wheeled opportunities in Colorado this summer.

Colorado already has a full slate of bike rides, but there's always room for more. As their names imply, these rides are geared to bicyclists who aren't timid about tackling the state's greatest bicycling resource — mountains.

The Assault on the Peak is a one-day bike ride that ascends 14,115-foot summit of Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs. It gives most cyclists their first opportunity to ride their bikes to the lofty summit as the solitary road is usually closed to bicyclists …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/05/05/peaks-and-pints-assault-on-the-peak-are-new-colorado-bike-rides/

Support for National Bike Month from the AAA

You'd expect lots of bike industry press releases and bicycling news in the general media this month as May is National Bike Month.

But I was surprised that the American Automobile Association took the time to remind its members to share the road with bicycles.

Maybe they recognize that bicycle transportation is one very good solution to traffic congestion.

Or that using bicycles instead of cars for trips under 2 miles will reduce the fossil fuel emissions that are contributing to air pollution and global warming. [See the 2-mile challenge]

Or the demand for crude oil is reduced everytime someone chooses a bike trip …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/05/04/support-for-national-bike-month-from-the-aaa/

Progress on the US Bicycle Route System; funds needed

What's the next big thing in the future of bicycle touring?

It could very well be the US Bicycle Route System, a nationwide network of officially numbered bicycle routes to link cities, suburbs and rural areas.

The map at left is an April 2010 update of the overall corridor scheme criss-crossing the US.

Cartographers at Adventure Cycling Association are charting routes within some 50-mile wide corridors marked on the map with the blessing of the American Association of State Highway Transportation officials and the help of volunteers at the state level.

Some 30 states are interested in the system or actively working to implement US Bicycle Routes in their states ….

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/05/03/progress-on-the-us-bicycle-route-system-funds-needed/

3-foot passing law awaits Maryland governor's signature

Baltimore Sun columnist Michael Dresser gets the whole idea of requiring motorists to give bicyclists a three-foot gap when passing.

After the Maryland legislators passed the law on the last day of the session in Annapolis, many motorists vented about lawmakers capitulating to a noisy minority and the terrible troubles caused by bicycles in traffic lanes.

Here's what Dresser writes in “Sharing the road with bicycles is hardly a hardship”:

….”For decades now I've driven the back roads of Maryland, occasionally coming upon groups of bicyclists pedaling furiously but poking along by gas-driven standards. …..

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/05/03/3-foot-passing-law-awaits-maryland-governors-signature/

Leipheimer repeats Tour of the Gila championship; Lill wins monster stage

Levi Leipheimer won his second Tour of the Gila championship on Sunday while Aussie Darren Lill won the Stage 5 Gila Monster Road Race.

High winds and snow flurries, instead of high winds and heat, greeted the cyclists on the final day of bike race based in the Silver City, New Mexico, that has become a domestic training race for elite cyclists.

Lance Armstrong, who launched this retreat to southwestern New Mexico last year to test his recovery from a broken collarbone, finished in 17th, 6:53 behind Leipheimer. Finishing second and third overall were Tom Danielson and David Zabriskie. ….

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/05/03/leipheimer-repeats-tour-of-the-gila-championship-lill-wins-monster-stage/

Thomas Stevens describes bicycling in California — 1884

The most recent issue of Adventure Cyclist magazine published by Adventure Cycling Association features an article about Thomas Stevens' globe-girdling ride in 1884 on a 50-inch penny farthing.

In “The Fearless Traveler: Around the World with Thomas Stevens,” author Geof Koss describes the trials of becoming the first person to accomplish the feat.

But before Stevens could become the first person to bicycle around the world, he had to cross the United States.

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 I collected and published at this blog back in 2007 from his 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.

“The past winter has been the rainiest since 1857, and the continuous pelting rains had not beaten down upon the last half of this imperfect macadam in vain; for it has left it a surface of wave-like undulations ……

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/05/02/thomas-stevens-describes-bicycling-in-california-1884/

16 more communities added to the bicycle-friendly list

Spokane (WA) and Albany (OR) on the list from Pacific NW

The hard work by bicycle advocates in some cities continues to show pay-offs as the League of American Bicyclists named 16 new members to its list of Bicycle-Friendly Communities.

All 16 cities entered the list at the bronze level, showing some level of achievement in engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation as it relates to bicycling.

The so-called spring cycle of bicycle-friendly community awards also included five renewals and 19 honorable mentions.

One of the new bicycle-friendly communities is Spokane, Washington, which I just happened to visit earlier in April. Above is a photo of the Centennial Trail's bicycle-pedestrian bridge …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/05/01/16-more-communities-added-to-the-bicycle-friendly-list/