10 April 09

Davis Joins Cooperstown

The city of Davis has just been selected to be the new home of the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame. This hall had been located in Somerville, New Jersey but was forced to relocate due to a redevelopment project. More than 25 communities submitted proposals to be the new home, and the choice eventually came down to between Greensboro, North Carolina and Davis. According to the chair of the selection committee, Bill Brunner, “The distinguishing difference between Greensboro and Davis was that Davis was so bicycling friendly…all those bike lanes and the sheer number of people who use the bicycle as a method of transportation or recreation or sport.” Nobody knows where in town the hall will be permanently located but the city would like to see the hall and museum open in a temporary location in the next six months.

Posted by at 10:20 PM in Bicycling | Link | Comment

15 February 09

Rainy Departure

We got up very early, before 5, for our assignment to provide radio support to help out the City of Davis in hosting the start of the Tour of California, the race starting at noon. It’s quite windy when we head out, a strong breeze from the southeast in advance of the coming rain. I put on my full raingear garb — tights, jeans, rain pants (by now quite ripped and in need of replacement), my heavy weather boots, synthetic fleece sweater, mittens, neck warmer, hat, and rain jacket over which I put the orange volunteer t-shirt, all of which is needed because we end up spending the next six hours standing outside in the rain. (At least we got a nicer looking t-shirt than most of the volunteers, due to the technicality of supporting the City of Davis rather than the Amgen Tour itself.)

Our post was the City Hall parking lot, about 5 blocks from the starting line by Central Park. This was set aside for VIP and overflow media and race staff parking. I was over on A Street, one block further away from the race start than the B Street entrance to the parking lot where Pica was stationed, and it turned out to be a pretty lonely outpost. Only one or two cars ever parked on my side of the lot. (As the coordinator of our radio ops put it later on, I guess VIPs melt in the rain). Pica at one point wanders to my side to share the rumor, later verified, that Lance Armstrong’s time trial bike had been stolen. The weather throughout the morning is a mix of wind and light and medium rain.

At 11:30 we’re given the clearance to go off-duty and I start heading towards the race starting point to meet up with Pica. My route takes me through where all the team buses are parked: a chaotic melange of cycling fans, race team staff, and cyclists making the final adjustments to their garb and setting off on their bikes to the starting point. We take up position somewhat behind the actual starting line, and don’t see that much, a brief look at a big pack of cyclists moving on out. It was however quite cool to be standing right opposite the Astana team car and looking into it, rather like finding oneself six feet from a major league dugout and seeing the manager ponder the handwritten roster. We start wandering back towards our car, and hear over the radio that the riders have made it west past the point where they can actually start racing.

After dithering about what to do for lunch, we end back home and get online to check on the live action at cyclingnews.com. The Spanish rider Francisco Mancebo has gone off on an early attack and has taken a substantial lead (at one point over 10 minutes) on the rest of the peloton. We settle in for a nap. Charlie is very confused by our behavior today, tries to rouse us a couple times, gives up, but on waking I find him dozing cuddled up next to me.

I get up at 4:30 and check the race play-by-play. Much excitement! Mancebo is still leading, but only by a minute or so, and the race is into the final circuits around the city of Santa Rosa. The major contenders for the race, led by Astana (Armstrong and Leipheimer’s team) have been in hot pursuit of Mancebo and their elite group of about 17 riders are about a couple minutes behind Mancebo. They don’t bridge the gap though; Mancebo wins the stage and takes the overall tour lead.

It’s a fantastic start to the race. Had the weather been good, what probably would have happened is that the peloton would have arrived in Santa Rosa together and there would have been a bunch sprint at the end, to be won by the likes of Tom Boonen. The lousy weather however favored a breakaway and the peloton was loath to ride it down, having their hands full with maneuvering in the rain and lots of mechanical difficulties. In the end, the heavy hitters in the peloton had to take action, blowing the field apart: the main peloton finished over 5 minutes behind Mancebo.

Tomorrow the riders leave Sausalito toward a finish in Santa Cruz, heading first of all over the Golden Gate Bridge. And more rain is coming.

Posted by at 09:21 PM in Bicycling | Link | Comment [1]

14 February 09

Amgen Tour of California: Prologue

women in coffee shop We took the train over to Sacramento this morning along with hundreds of other people to see the start of the Tour of California, which turned out to be the most efficient way to do it… The course circled the State Capitol, a tight, under-three-mile sprint that was longer than sprinters like but not long enough for the long-haulers.

prologue racer -- pen and ink The riders came by every minute or so, preceded by a motorcycle proclaiming their name and chased by a team car (almost always a Subaru Outback), another motorcycle, and the applause and cheers of the crowd. I think this was a very sophisticated crowd, one that gave reigning Tour de France champ Carlos Sastre a special ovation (he has the flu, though, and will be content to finish the race apparently). Obviously many people were out to see Lance Armstrong in his big comeback (local shops have flyers in them proclaiming “Armstrong Rides Again”), but that wasn’t all.

It was a great day, and the rain just about held off. Tomorrow we are working rather than being mere spectators and it is expected to be pouring rain and howling wind. Getting dressed for an assignment that starts at six am and will go on until at least 1:30 will be challenging, but I think layers are the order of the day. We will be City Hall Alpha and City Hall Bravo, respectively.

Posted by at 06:19 PM in Bicycling | Link | Comment [2]

8 February 09

Höllentour

Yesterday we saw the documentary Höllentour [English title Hell on Wheels] to get us psyched up for the upcoming Tour of California. This is a German film that follows one team (Telekom/T-Mobile) during the 2003 Tour de France. The team had a good though not outstanding Tour and the film focuses on the sufferings of the riders on the team. Andreas Klöden breaks his tailbone in a fall early in the race and withdraws halfway through; the sprinter Erik Zabel who was previously indomitable, winning six consecutive green jerseys from 1996 to 2001, finds himself coming up third or fourth in all the big sprints; Rolf Aldag wears the polka dot jersey for a day and comes down with a cold in the mountains; and Alexander Vinoukorov, though he wins a stage in the mountains, cannot best Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong and finishes third overall. As a cycling-mad priest says in the film: there are two sorts of suffering, negative suffering and suffering which occurs through great efforts. The latter is positive, ennobling suffering.

Posted by at 08:59 PM in Bicycling | Link | Comment

14 December 08

Grinding through the Mud: Christmas Bird Count

It didn’t rain the whole time. But the rain there was was cold. We rode and walked our bikes up the 4.5 mile road to the top of the ridge (it was very slick and the mud made it hard to get a purchase on the surface). At the top we were inside the clouds.

We saw very few birds as predicted with this cold front coming in, but it was a good experiment. I’d do a count by bike again, particularly on a stretch where you have to walk in a ways and retrace your steps. It made the return trip much, much faster…

The bikes are caked in mud and it’s raining now, and dark. We’ll deal with it in the morning. The compilation dinner was enlivened by Joe and Ron’s shoe-fly pie and by the thought that there’s a chance, a small chance, that we will lead the nation in northern pygmy-owl…

Posted by at 09:18 PM in Bicycling | Link | Comment [2]

6 December 08

What's New Is Old

Major Taylor's bicycle Davis is home to a homeless bicycle museum. The California Bicycle Museum was formed recently after the university in 2001 bought a collection of bicycles dating back to 1823 that was owned by a rancher near Modesto. The museum is seeking a permanent place to display these bicycles, but in the meantime they are on temporary display in the community center adjoining Central Park, open during the times of the Farmers’ Market.

We finally made it to the exhibit today and were quite impressed by the collection, which ranges from the 1823 draisienne with no pedals (you sat over the frame and pushed it along) to the latest design in streamlined human-powered vehicles with a full fairing. What struck me was how little bicycle design has changed in the past century. Once the safety bicycle came along in the 1880s and pneumatic tires were added shortly after that, the bicycle looks quite modern. One of the bikes in the collection was a track bike used by the great American racer of a century ago Major Taylor, illustrated above. The lines of the bike resemble any track bike of today, though the wheelset was made of wood and he trained on a particularly massive set of wooden rollers (as seen below the bike in the illustration).

Of the evolution of bikes in the twentieth century Frank Berto in The Dancing Chain writes:

…around 1908 there was a fork in the road: English cyclists took the right fork and would pedal their three-speed epicyclic hub for the next 40 years. French cyclists took the left fork and rode their derailleur gears right up to the present. American cyclists fell down a hole in the road and continued to pedal single-speed coaster brake bicycles for the next 60 years.

Posted by at 10:04 PM in Bicycling | Link | Comment [1]

10 October 08

Different Strokes for Folks

Here are two noteworthy bikes for this week. The first bike is a prototype that would be good for our emergency preparedness efforts. The second bike we saw Sunday when we worked the Princess Promenade event. This quintuplet (scroll to the bottom of the page of photos) was not officially part of the event but it caused me to do a double-take when I saw it go past one of the rest stops.

Posted by at 12:04 AM in Bicycling | Link | Comment

5 October 08

Princess Promenade

Princess and Pirate Princess, pen and wash The second annual “Princess Promenade” — a bike ride for women and girls to try and get them to exercise — was held today along the American River Parkway in Sacramento. Numenius was a bike radio mobile and I was a shadow radio operator for the director, which meant I saw a lot of pink tutus and tiaras, saw gals coming back in saying this was the furthest they had ever ridden, got to witness the horror of a teenager who had thrown her retainer in the trash which had then been emptied and had to tell her I didn’t know where they’d taken the bags. She really was prepared to paw through dumpsters…

As I write the Red Sox and Angels are tied at four. Hoping the Sox put this one away tonight…

Posted by at 07:33 PM in Bicycling | Link | Comment [3]

10 September 08

Lance To Visit Davis?

Inspired by a strong performance in a 100-mile mountain bike race last month, Lance Armstrong has decided to come out of retirement to try to win his 8th Tour de France in 2009. One of the races he plans to ride as training for the Tour de France is the Amgen Tour of California. Since Davis is a host city for next year’s Tour of California, being the starting point for the second stage of the race, we should be able to see Lance Armstrong warming up riding in the streets of Davis before the day’s race on February 15th. The trick will be to arrive plenty early before the riders depart for Santa Rosa.

Posted by at 10:18 PM in Bicycling | Link | Comment

4 August 08

Changing of the Pannier

Changing panniers My old Jandd grocery bag pannier finally wore out — in the photo it’s the bag to the left. Saturday I shopped for its replacement, and ended up with the Deuter grocery bag pannier at right. We shall see how well it lasts, but so far I’m pleased with it. It’s a little deeper than than the old pannier, it has a cover that you can close up in inclement weather, and there is a second carry handle which should help guard against the way the old one ripped.

Posted by at 09:52 PM in Bicycling | Link | Comment [1]

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