Hello from Voroklini, Cyprus
The 2012 season is already underway, crazy. So far so good, the SRMs say I am more powerful than last year and with 2.2 minutes per lap off of last year’s first Cyprus race I am starting to believe it! It feels like I have been going 100 percent since October putting together everything required to pull off a great International race season and now it’s all coming together.
We all know it can be difficult to hop on your bike when the weather takes a turn. Rain, snow and icy roads can sometimes deter even the most hardcore riders amongst us. That’s why it’s good to have a few friends to hold you to it… enter the Winter B-icicle Challenge…
As winter settles in across all Northern Hemisphere nations, and the cold wind blows, it’s tempting to put your bike away for hibernation. But as of December 1, we’re asking you to keep on pedalling through all three winter months.
Why are we doing it?
- To see if we can put our money where our mouth is in regards to living a greener life, and not just when weather permits
- A good time to reflect about those people without homes during winter
- We love riding our bikes and don’t want to go three months without it
- We hate traffic jams!
Rules. We will ride to work or school everyday unless:
- The road is so icy we’ll most probably break our necks (read here for alternatives)
- We have a meeting or activity that is more than an hour bike ride away
- We’re so sick with the flu we can’t even be bothered to watch The Wire
What we want from you.
Join us! If you’re heading into the depths of winter.
Learn more here and sign up on Facebook here.
Active Lifestyle, Advocacy, Bikes Around the World, Ditch Your Car, International
We all know that it’s better for us and the environment if we hop on our bikes to commute, especially the short trips we have every day, but it’s always awesome to have some solid numbers on our side too. Check it out…
Active Lifestyle, Advocacy, Bike Europe, Ditch Your Car, Health, International, Pedaling Change
I have heard about Roc D’Azur for many, many years, but never been able to take part, so I really did not know what to expect — all I knew was that it finished at the beach and that in itself was a good enough reason to go!
Mountain2Mountain‘s short film, Waking Lions, will show on the big screen this weekend in Golden, Colo. as the expo for the USA Pro Cycling Tour rolls through on its finale day into Denver. If you’re going to be in town for the tour, don’t miss this inspiring and thought-provoking film.
Also, make sure to swing by Mountain2Mountain’s booth and support the Panjshir Tour and their work for women’s rights!
Waking Lions Trailer from Allison Otto on Vimeo.
We arrived in Paris at 6 a.m. last Wednesday morning in preparation for Paris-Brest-Paris. All luggage arrived safely, we found the train, we found the apartment and then immediately went to a patisserie for croissants. Then it was time to get down to work. I assembled my bike on the terrace of our apartment, under the watchful eye of the Cathedral de Notre Dame.
This video has been making the rounds online over the past week. As part of the U.K.’s Channel 4 series on urban action sports, Concrete Circus, Scotsman Danny MacAskill shows off his unbelievable bike skills, balancing, hopping and flipping through an abandoned ironworks factory. Enjoy!
Michael Henderson loves to ride his bicycle… really, really far. Michael left earlier this week for France to compete in his firstParis-Brest-Paris Randonneur. First run in 1891, the 1200-kilometer Paris-Brest-Paris, or “PBP” as it is commonly called, is a grueling test of human endurance and cycling ability. Organized every four years by the host Audax Club Parisien, the Paris-Brest-Paris is the oldest bicycling event still run on a regular basis on the open road.
3rd in XC. First 2011 US National race (ProXCT#1 Bonelli Park San, Dimas, CA)
Yes, my season is starting off well! This post gives an overview of my last four weeks. My 2011 schedule has races in the USA and ~eight other countries. It will be an exciting year.
As mentioned in my blog I spent the winter riding with Scott Morris exploring Tucson, AZ area trails, attending social MTB events, volunteering with Trips for Kids, and offering MTB skills clinics. The 2011 Race season began in February, ready or not!
Feb 5th SSAZ
The race season started by doing “race pace” efforts in Singlespeed AZ on Feb 5th. That race is so much fun, this year I got to ride with Jake Kirkpatrick, Tom Ament, Dax Massey, the Durango crew and other super fun singlespeeders. I was never able to catch Niner’s Tim Allen. Most of us got a flat at some point, mine was at the top of Milagrosa, I ended up finishing 4th (1st woman).
Neutral roll-out, chatting about how long SS bars should be
Getting heckled by Dejay and crew on the dirt road climb to singletrack.
The coveted mug with Rudi Nadler artwork!
Well, one of two mugs, Tim won the other one.
Active Lifestyle, Bike Europe, Bikes Around the World, International, Osprey Athletes, Osprey Life, The Cycling Buzz
Photos courtesy Leah Missbach Day, World Bicycle Relief
Can bikes change the world? That’s a question we like to ask a lot.
Here’s yet another example of bikes making a significant difference, this time via World Bicycle Relief. Last week in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof wrote a pretty touching piece about the effect that WBR is having in the developing world.
Early this year I wrote a column from Zimbabwe that focused on five orphans who moved in together and survive alone in a hut.
The eldest, Abel, a scrawny and malnourished 17-year-old, would rise at 4 o’clock each morning and set off barefoot on a three-hour hike to high school. At nightfall, Abel would return to function as surrogate father: cajoling the younger orphans to finish their homework by firelight, comforting them when sick and spanking them when naughty.
When I asked Abel what he dreamed of, he said “a bicycle” — so that he could cut the six hours he spent walking to and from school and, thus, take better care of the younger orphans. Last week, Abel got his wish. A Chicago-based aid organization, World Bicycle Relief, distributed 200 bicycles to students in Abel’s area who need them to get to school. One went to Abel.
The initiative is a pilot. If it succeeds and finds financing, tens of thousands of other children in Zimbabwe could also get bicycles to help them attend school.
“I’m happy,” Abel told me shyly — his voice beaming through the phone line — when I spoke to him after he got his hands on his bicycle.
WBR has given out more than 70,000 bicycles so far. But why are bikes so powerful when it comes to development? As Kristof puts it, “it’s an example of an aid intervention that puts a system in place, one that is sustainable and has local buy-in, in hopes of promoting education, jobs and a virtuous cycle out of poverty.”
What are your favorite bike organizations?
You can read the whole article here.
