The landscape of the American southwest is an ethereal place. The cathedral towers, deep canyons, and crushed red dirt produce terrain with endless riding possibilities. One is only limited by his efforts to push further. Pedaling along the sun drenched plateaus and in the shadowed canyons, all while sleeping below the stars in the cool night, you can start to feel displaced from the daily grind. That is until the beer runs low, the skins begins to redden and you head back to civilization to refuel. The deserts of the southwest are like a second home for many mountain bikers, providing a sanctuary in the winter months as an escape from whatever ails.
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Tag: USA
Friday Bike Poster: Ride the Divide
Is a solo, self-supported ultra-cycling challenge to race all 2,745 miles of Adventure Cycling Association’s epic Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. There are no compulsory rest periods or specified distances racers must travel daily. The race clock runs non-stop. He or she who can ride the fastest while making fewer, shorter stops usually wins. With an average time-to-completion of three weeks in the saddle, this grand tour is the longest, most challenging mountain bike race on the planet. It’s a contest for the ultra-fit but only if ultra-prepared for myriad contingencies of backcountry biking.
Tour Divide was born of inspiration from John Stamstad’s watershed `99 Divide ITT, and the US border to border challenge known as the Great Divide Race (ca.`04). TD observes all the historical Divide racing controls save length. It pushes the envelope further by staging opening day racing from the top of the GDMBR in Banff, AB, where MTB-legal wilderness of Banff National Park serves as an immediate test of mettle. The Canadian section adds only 10% more trail, yet rewards riders with unforgettable geology, rugged terrain, abundant wildlife, and an international flair cycling has come to expect from grand tour racing.
Whether voyager or voyeur, Tour Divide is a dramatic tribute to both human capacity to endure and Adventure Cycling’s excellence in crafting North America’s crown jewel of off-pavement touring routes.
Leather vs Lycra
This person should be banned …. From road.cc
Mulholland Highway motorbike and cyclist collision (source Rnickeymouse, YouTube)
A video posted to YouTube has captured the moment a motorbike ploughed into the back of a cyclist in California, sending him crashing to the ground head-first, before going on to knock his riding companion off his bike, too. Amazingly, the first cyclist – reported to be British – is said to have emerged from the incident with no broken bones. It has been reported overnight that it was a doctor, taking part on a group ride including George Hincapie, who adminsitered first aid, and there are suggestions that the motorcyclist may have been looking for a photographer rather than focusing on the road
The video, shot on the Mulholland Highway near Los Angeles and with more than 600,000 views on YouTube, was uploaded by the site’s user Rnickeymouse, clearly a regular visitor to the road and himself a motorcyclist, who insisted: “The rider was not speeding & riding fine until he hit his foot and stood the bike up causing the bike to go wide. He then target fixated on the cyclist.
“It is a very common type of crash on this turn,” he added. “Just usually no one is there and the rider falls alone. It is very unfortunate, and a rare case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We wish the cyclists a speedy recovery.”
According to a comment made to the video on YouTube, the first rider who was struck – wearing a black, white and red Brioches La Boulengère jersey dating from around a decade ago – is from the UK and somehow escaped without serious injury.
“This was my friend visiting from England who was struck first,” said the commenter, who went on: “(I was further back on the hill when the accident happened and am one of the guys who comes in the picture to his assistance). He’s doing ok today, was discharged from the hospital yesterday with no broken bones. Miraculously…”
In one of the other comments to the video, another motorcyclist argues with Rnickeymouse’s interpretation, saying: “This is 100% the motorcyclists fault. If he is “afraid to lean more” then he is going to fast for the road conditions, end of story.
“It isn’t a race track,” the commenter adds. “You don’t need to drag knee on public roads. He lost control, most likely target fixated and plowed into the cyclist who was 100% within his rights to share the road.”
The Biking In LA blog has now provided some more background on the incident in an article published last night.
It says that the incident took place on a 270-degree hairpin bend called Deadman’s Turn, on a section of the Mulholland Highway known to motorcyclists as the Snake and to cyclists as the Rock Store Climb, and it’s a popular spot for people to shoot photos and video.
The blog flagged up a second video – since taken down from YouTube by whoever posted it, possibly for legal reasons – and which showed point-of-view footage from a motorcyclist following the one involved in the collision.
Biking In LA says that according to Byron of the Bike Hugger blog, that footage suggests either that the motorcyclist who struck the cyclist had been looking round for the camera, or that his vision had been impaired by a camera flashgun.
It adds that one of the cyclists involved in the incident is believed to have been among 20 to 25 riders taking part in an informal group ride which included George Hincapie, who is said to have been further up the climb and unaware of what had happened.
The other cyclist – the one hit first and more seriously hurt, and reported to be from the UK – was not on that ride, but “happened to fall in with the other riders at the wrong place and time,” says Biking In LA.
Luckily for him, one member of that group ride was the chief medical officer for the Amgen Tour of Caliornia, riding behind and picked up by the Highway Patrol car that was heading to the scene, and who was able to administer first aid.
As yet there is no news of any charges being brought against the motorcyclist involved, but the incident, and the video of it, has reportedly been investigated.
How to flag on strava
Someone on a forum was moaning so I put this up. Following the silly story of an American family trying to sue strava …..
http://road.cc/content/news/69272-strava-countersuit-denies-responsibility-case-california-cyclist-who-died-trying
This from strava website ..
OK – my flame suit is on. I know this is difficult topic, but I wanted to consider a follow up. Strava has previously allowed users to flag segments as hazardous – particularly important where those of us who have ridden much of our local terrain are aware that the existence of leader-boards combined with the desire to compete might not lead to good outcomes on some of our routes. Recently several of my fellow riders have noticed that previously flagged “dangerous” segments reappear when other riders create new versions of these old segments. We all understand that it’s very hard to be objective, or to codify “dangerous” vs “safe” segments. So many factors play into what determines the “safety” of a segment. Obviously it’s not clear to folks creating segments why a previous segment was flagged.
So what to do? Two things come to mind. The first is to wonder if a second version of a “flagged” segment could be sent for review – users are prompted if Strava finds similar segments in its database. Maybe there’s a way to have an extra check in this instance. Secondly, perhaps there could be some sort of “guide to safe Strava’ing” or equivalent to help new Strava users think about some of these important issues that might not be obvious at first blush. It could be as simple as a brief note to folks signing up for the first time:
“Some thoughts to help Strava users be the best ambassadors they can:
1) Uphill segments – go for it folks, push as hard as you damn well can. If you think you might pass out, you have permission to ease off/bail and try again another day
2) Downhill segments – think carefully before creating these. What could be the unintended consequences for you, your fellow Strava users or other road users of creating a segment on a particularly fast/twisty/steep/busy section of road? Have you found a descent particularly risky/dangerous – flag it and do the Strava user-base a favor.
3) Stop lines and lights – how about giving everyone a break and really trying to avoid creating segments that go through intersections or finish on stop lines? Getting KOM’s is tough enough without having to risk an infraction or worse.
There, now we’ve got the preachy stuff out the way, go out, ride hard and ride safe”
Have at it people. Anyone else thinking about this stuff?
Getting out to MASH
I like this video discovered on the MASH SF website …. it’s an advert for their Tuesday rides ….
Looks chilly but what nice hills / roads /weather / light ……
James Bowthorpe – Ride across America – RAAM
ROAD.cc
Cast your mind back to the London Bike Show in January and you may recall we spoke to everyone’s favourite ginger-bearded long distance specialist James Bowthorpe about his plans to ride the RAAM this year. Well he’s still going to ride but the date’s gone back a year, to 2012. And to mark the year-to-go point in his training he’s going to be riding for 24 hours straight in the window of Look Mum No Hands. And then doing a talk. Assuming he can still talk.
James is aiming to ride 300 miles in 24 hours, starting at 7.30pm on Weds 15 June. To put the challenge of the RAAM into perspective, you’d need to do that ten times in a row, with four hours’ sleep between each ride, to even finish within the time limit of 12 days. The record time is a scarcely believable 8:03:11, set by Rob Kish in 1992. The RAAM seems like madness to most people but James is relishing the challenge, and he reckons he’ll be fresh enough after his window stint to do a presentation on his plans for the year, which include training for the Paris-Brest-Paris, several non-stop MTB rides and a Hudson River adventure. It’s bound to be an interesting evening so worth getting along to if you’re in the area.
James will be riding a Qoroz road bike on a specially adapted Rollapaluza rig, with a giant LED display to show the time and distance elapsed. If you’re passing, get on down and cheer him on. He’ll need all the encouragement he can get!
Look Mum No Hands! 49 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HX
Kite*Surf*Bike*Rambling 