I rolled up to Nikola Farat’s house in Santa Rosa, less than an hour after Belgium’s Philippe Gilbert earned the rainbow jersey with a fabulous Walloonian display of strength and panache on the final climb of the Cauberg in Valkenburg September 23, 2012.
“Congratulations on Gilbert’s big win today, Rich!” I said to Team BMC’s mechanic Rich Sangalli, who was kitted head to toe in the familiar red and black of chief operating officer Gavin Chilcott’s team, coincidentally based in Santa Rosa.
In less than a week, the 2013 Giro d’Italia will kick off in Naples. In Brescia, on May 26th, we’ll find out if Ryder Hesjedal can repeat on his history-making victory in last year’s Giro or if Sir Bradley Wiggins can add the 2013 Maglia Rosa of the Tour of Italy to his 2012 Maillot Jaune from the Tour de France. For the rest of the week, before the flag drops in Naples, we’ll remind you just how epic the Giro d’Italia can be.
In the miracle 1987 season that brought the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and World Championship road race to Stephen Roche’s noteworthy palmarès, the silky-smooth Irish bike racer first had to defeat his own teammate, Roberto Visenti—and most of the rest of his Carrera team—en route to the final Maglia Rosa.
Interesting note: Check the two top riders on the leader board at the end of the final time trial—both have sons racing now in the pro peloton.
Since we’re currently stuck in our office in a decidedly overcast hamlet of Southern California, it’s always nice when we get items like this in the post.
So while we were imagining ourselves on a bit of a riding trip across the pond, we took note of the guide’s smart design (it’s printed on waterproof, pocketable cards) and well-written descriptions. With 50 routes there’s surely no shortage of options, and the cards abound with much more than just basic route information. Lodging information and other practical information such as where to find provisions along the way is also contained on the cards.
For further information, check out the guide on Amazon.
My other car is a bike and my other bike is a beer.
Whether you live in Portland or not, if you take your bikes, beer and/or cyclocrossing seriously, you’ll probably be pleased to know that Rogue Ales & Spirits and Asylum Cycles have partnered to produce a Rogue Team version of Asylum’s Meuse cyclocross bike. The carbon-fiber ‘crosser has been named after the mighty Meuse River, which originates in France, flows through the Walloon region of Belgium, where it’s known as the Mouze, and through the Netherlands, where it is re-named Maas, on its way to the North Sea. Appropriately enough, a disc-brake-equipped, carbon-fiber cyclocross steed can be called a cyclocrosser, a tourer and a commuter—and it will feel as at-home on paved or unpaved adventure rides or on a quick spin to the local public house for a pint of tasty Rogue Juniper Pale Ale as it does between course-marking tape. Continue reading →
Are you the ultimate Eddy Merckx fan? Is your copy of Merckx 525 already dog-eared—the spare copy, that is, the one you don’t keep locked in a climate-controlled safe?
If your collection of cycling books and memorabilia isn’t quite large enough yet, and you have a spare thousand Euros burning a hole in your pocket, the good folks at Uitgeverij Kannibaal (Cannibal Publishing) have something special for you: the Eddy Merckx Art Box with “relics” from some of the places where the Cannibal made his mark on the sport. Continue reading →
There must be something in the water of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes—something that enhances or inspires the bicycling gene—because, despite a climate that has often been described as nine months of winter followed by three months of darn poor sledding, bike shops positively thrive there. At one time or another, the biggest Schwinn, Specialized and Trek dealers in America have been Minnesota-based bike shops. Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the world’s largest bicycle tool supplier is also from the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Park Tool was founded 50 years ago when bike shop owners Art Engstrom and Howard Hawkins recognized a need for specialty bicycle tools. The video below digs deeper into the history of the iconic blue tool brand.
If you were watching the road events carefully last week at the Sea Otter Classic, you might have noticed something new and different in the women’s field. Ally Stacher, riding for Specialized-lululemon, was wearing a new kit. Gone were the usual black-and-white stripes. Instead, Stacher’s sported an eye-catching floral print jersey. Her HED race wheels were styled to match.
The new, floral print is a special edition project brewed up by the Specialized-lululemon team and their sponsors. “We had discussions about designing a new kit this year, but we decided to keep it the same,” Specialized-lululemon owner Kristy Scrymgeour told Paved. The team’s usual black-and-white kit gives them a distinctive identity and the team and sponsors wanted to stick with it. At the same time, a special edition gave them a chance to try something new.
“Why don’t we do a special edition? It’s a good thing to mix it up, and to showcase lululemon’s design talents,” said Scrymgeour. “It’s an interesting conversation-starter, and women’s cycling needs a few conversation-starters.” Continue reading →
From toddlers trying to sort out a balance bike for the very first time to old geezers checking one more race off their list—and everything in between—the Sea Otter Classic offers a little something for everybody. It’s the official North American kickoff party for bicycling season, a gathering of the tribes, a celebration of two-wheel stoke. If we missed you this year, we’re sorry. Let’s try and meet up again in 2014.
By Gary J Boulanger | Photos Courtesy of Beth Reid
In 1975, during her freshman year in high school, Beth Reid played tennis and soccer. Her endurance-filled DNA produced a national record in the mile for her age, when she competed in the Wisconsin state championships for both the 800 meter and the mile. Today, she has three kids, and rides her bike to work at Apple Computers in Cupertino, a 10-mile jaunt from her home in Palo Alto, where her older brother Eric studied medicine at Stanford University in the 1980s.
This wouldn’t be so exceptional in the bicycle-friendly Silicon Valley if you didn’t know Reid’s history. The former Beth Heiden was a world champion and two-time Olympic speed skater, national and world cycling champion, and collegiate nordic ski champion. Eric, now an orthopedic surgeon in Utah, happened to co-found the mighty 7-Eleven cycling team after taking five gold medals in the 1980 Winter Olympics, in the year that some say was one of the most impressive sporting showcases in history, all provided by the 5’2”, 105-pounder from Madison, Wisconsin. Continue reading →
