A Contraption Named Lila

Yesterday afternoon we went over to visit Peter Wagner, owner and creator of Whymcycles, which can only be described as elaborate contraptions made up entirely of used bicycle parts. I wanted a stable bike that could transport me, my crutches, and my assorted bits and pieces to work and back.

He had just the thing: a lilac/lavender piece made up in the front of two girls’ bikes welded together and joined to a larger bike. It has five gears and a parking brake. I am ALL SET.

I caused a sensation at the Physical Therapist’s office this morning, showing everyone the photos. The PT says I’m ready to ride the two miles to work and back on Monday. Move over, Lance Armstrong…

The Tour Wraps Up

And we get our early mornings back until next July. What a race! Even the last stage, traditionally a procession through Paris, had its drama: Baden Cooke beat his fellow Aussie Robbie McEwen by about two inches to win the green jersey competition for overall best sprinter. Lance Armstrong joins the elite company of Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, and Indurain to be the only cyclists to win the Tour de France five times. And Tyler Hamilton gets our coeur de lion vote as the most courageous rider, winning one stage, coming in second in the last time trial, and finishing fourth overall despite breaking his collarbone on the second day of the race.

Maybe we aren’t the only critters to be inspired by the Tour: Pica just saw a white-tailed kite drafting a southbound train, the wind of the train helping the kite to hover motionless against the southerly wind.

The Drama Increases

Jan Ullrich is surging. In yesterday’s time trial in the Tour de France, he won handily, beating Lance Armstrong by a margin of 1’ 36” over the 47 km route. In today’s Pyrenees mountain stage, he took more time out of Armstrong, and finished second in the stage. He now trails Armstrong by 15”, who is looking increasingly vulnerable. Not far behind, at 1’ 01”, and very much a threat, is the consistently riding Alexandre Vinokourov. We have a bike race on our hands!

Midway Through The Tour

We’re well into our July morning routine here: turn on the computer, get online, go to the official site for the Tour de France, and read the text update live from the race. Two minutes later, hit reload, and see if there’s anything new. Even if we had a television, the race is being shown on a relatively obscure cable channel, OLN, which isn’t in most standard cable packages.

The next few days will prove decisive. Tomorrow is the first individual time trial, followed by four days in the Pyrenees. The time trial is being seen as a possible showdown between Lance Armstrong, and Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour winner and a formidable time trialist, who’s eager to make up a 2’10” time deficit. Armstrong thinks this is the most important time trial he’s faced in the past five years because the race is so close.

For a lighter look at the world of bicycle racing, see this, from bsag.

The Tour Heats Up

Today was the team time trial in the Tour de France. The US Postal Service team won the stage, putting their leader Lance Armstrong in a commanding position in the overall standings. This year’s Tour hits mountains early: the first stage in the Alps is Saturday. It wouldn’t surprise me if Armstrong took the overall lead then and kept it for the rest of the Tour.

But anything can happen, as Sunday’s massive pileup in the last kilometer of the stage shows. Tyler Hamilton, one of the Tour riders to be keeping an online diary, unfortunately got caught in the pileup and fractured his collarbone in two places. Amazingly, he is continuing with the race, and today writes that there’s no telling how long he’ll be able to continue, but he at least made his goal following the crash of being able to help out with the team time trial.

It Must Be July Part 2

The 28th Davis 4th of July Criterium was held today—it was hot but then, as Fernanda says, it’s always hot on July 4th here! We caught a few of the races and also one spectacular crash where a rider coming out of a curve overcorrected and ended up on about six spectators who were sitting on the grass under a tree. Everybody seemed okay… but it’s unnerving, especially the sound of a bicycle at high speed going out of control.

At a gathering this evening at a friend’s house we met a French winemaker who shares our interest in the Tour de France. He was complaining because he doesn’t have a way to watch it. We told him about the web access and how because of the time difference it’s easy here to catch the last exciting minutes of each stage before going to work… The last few years a couple of riders have done weblog entries while on the Tour; we hope that happens again this year!

Recycling Bicycles

Coup de Vent today has a post illustrating an old bike dragged from the local canal that she thinks might be her ticket to artistic fame and glory. This reminds us of the bicycle, shown at right, we saw in Uppsala on our trip to Sweden a couple years ago that was evidently fished out of the canal that runs along the east edge of the university and quickly put back into use.

Back in Davis, Peter Wagner is well-known for his eclectic bicycle creations built out by recycling parts from old and usually discarded bikes. His trademark Whymcycle, with its mesmerizingly asymmetric wheels, is something of a cross between a pogo stick, a skateboard, and a one-speed bike.

July is a month when for us cycling events come to the fore. All day downtown tomorrow is the Davis 4th of July Criterium, and the Tour de France begins on Saturday.