May 11/11 12:32 pm - Cycling (in the) News

Posted by Editoress on 05/11/11
 

“Forget about your rights. Forget about what's fair. Forget all the rules of etiquette you ever learned. The average bicycle weighs twenty-five pounds. The average motor vehicle weight twenty-five hundred pounds. Your job is to avoid getting into an accident, not to prove you were within your rights after you're involved in one" -- Bob Katz

Routley resting after busy start to season
Whistler rider feels Team SpiderTech is ‘on the right track’
After a busy but successful first few months racing in Europe with Team SpiderTech, Whistler’s Will Routley is due for a bit of a break.

The 2010 Canadian road cycling champion and the rest of his UCI Pro Continental team wrapped up the Tour of Turkey on Sunday (May 1), and Routley returned home as the squad has a two-week gap on its race calendar.
Read more: Whistler Question


Lance Armstrong returns to Canada for cancer fundraiser
Cycling great Lance Armstrong is heading to Calgary to raise money for cancer research.

The seven-time Tour de France champion and cancer survivor will lead cyclists on a 60-kilometre ride on Sept. 8 to help the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Read more: Vancouver Sun


Giro d'Italia to make new safety checks following death of Wouter Weylandt
Giro d'Italia organisers say they will double check the controversial descent of the Col de Crostis on stage 14 following the death of Belgium's Wouter Weylandt in a downhill crash.

The previously unused climb in the Dolomites is partly untarmacked, and riders have expressed concern that part of its 14km descent has no crash barriers, just ski nets.
Read more: Guardian


Ralph Buehler study shows that bicycle use in nine large North American cities has more than doubled in last 20 years
Cycling rates have increased much faster in Chicago; Minneapolis; Montréal; New York City; Portland, Ore.; San Francisco; Toronto; Vancouver, Canada; and Washington, D.C., than in their countries as a whole, at least doubling in all the cities since 1990.
Read more: Health Canal


Vancouver pedals idea of public bike sharing program
That date is the targeted launch in a request for expressions of interest put out by the City of Vancouver and which will close June 6.

The RFEIO makes it clear anyone interested will have to bring sponsorship and a business plan to the city because the successful applicant has “to develop, install, own, operate and finance” what is being called a PBS - a public bike system.
Read more: The Province


Bixi bike-share system coming to capital
The national capital will finally get its permanent bike-share system this summer.

Two years after a successful pilot program, the National Capital Commission has signed a contract with the company that runs the popular Bixi system in Montreal, and similar bike-share programs in Washington and London, England.

"We've worked hard on this one," said NCC CEO Marie Lemay. "It's going to be providing an alternate mode of transportation, making the capital more vibrant."
Read more: Ottawa Sun
Read more: Ottawa Citizen


US Feds ask for help in Armstrong case
Undeterred by the slap on the wrist a jury gave Barry Bonds, U.S. investigators are forging ahead in a separate drug-related case against another superstar athlete-Lance Armstrong.

In France, where Armstrong became famous by winning the Tour de France seven straight times, officials received a request from U.S. authorities last month for help gathering evidence about the cyclist and other members of his former U.S. Postal team.
http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news?slug=ap-lancearmstronginvestigation target=_blank>Yahoo


Levi's Commuter Series
We take a ride with Levi's debut line for pedal-pushers
With everyone from big brands like Nike to upstarts like Outlier stepping into clothe the growing legions of bike commuters, Levi's recent sneak peek of their debut line designed for cycling seemed like a no-brainer direction for the label. Drawing on their workwear heritage, the new series incorporates cutting-edge technical functionality, puts "craftsmanship, quality and durability" at the forefront of outfitting today's worker, and integrates feedback from urban cyclists who already wear Levi's-all of which made us eager to check out the duds first-hand.
Read more: CoolHunting.com


Battle brewing over separated bike lanes
The Toronto Cyclists’ Union, whose 1,080 members pay $30 in yearly dues, has its office in a grand old warehouse building on Bathurst Street in the Annex. Wednesday Andrea Garcia, the union’s director of advocacy, sat in a boardroom there and punched her finger at the centre of the new Toronto Cycling Map, where all the red lines end.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/05/05/peter-kuitenbrouwer-battle-brewing-over-separated-bike-lanes/ target=_blank>National Post


Cyclists playing a deadly game of ‘rushing roulette’
I saw the first sign of spring the other week – a cyclist running a red light.

The cars driving east/west were stopped. The cars running north/south had a green. This did not worry the cyclist. She cruised through the intersection, wind jostling her red locks, barely slowing down. It was a grey, wet morning. Nothing bad happened. I dismissed the event as a one-time seasonal aberration. It was a scene as sweet and familiar as a crocus bursting through freshly thawed soil. The cyclists are rusty, I thought, they’ll settle down.
Read more: Globe and Mail


Cyclists propose new bike loop
A North Shore cycling group is hoping to get more bicycles on West Vancouver’s streets with a proposed new bike loop.

The district is playing catch-up with other municipalities when it comes to developing bike-friendly infrastructure, said Peter Scholefield, Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition’s North Shore committee vice-chair. The majority of the municipality’s streets don’t have bicycle lanes and most are tight for space, he said.
Read more: North Shore Outlook


Dutch apply cycling expertise to Miami’s meanest streets
They came, they saw, they conquered some of Miami’s rawest inner-city streets on borrowed bikes, cheerfully dodging potholes and speeding, sometimes hostile, motorists. And in a couple of days, three Dutch experts on “cycling for transportation’’ helped local planners design the spine of what could soon be an extensive and innovative urban bike-lane network.

The blueprint that emerged from the ThinkBike Workshop, sponsored by the Dutch government, would establish two intersecting, demarcated bike routes linking some of the principal neighborhoods and destinations of the city’s urban core, including the Venetian Causeway and Jackson Memorial Hospital, the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Midtown Miami and, possibly, the new Marlins major-league baseball stadium rising in East Little Havana.
Read more: Miami Herald

Young cyclist hit by car not wearing helmet; parent charged
A parent of a nine-year-old boy has been charged after the young cyclist, who was not wearing a helmet, was struck at the intersection of College and Patterson streets Saturday afternoon.
Read more: Sudbury Star


Helmet laws ineffective
Norwegian research has this year confirmed what many have known for years about the Australian experience -the helmet law discourages cycling with its associated long-term health benefits and makes little difference to head injuries, but increases the risk of injury to cyclists and all other road users.
Read more: The Edmonton Journal


Yes to (AV)?
A rant about the popularity of Alexandre Vinokourov
Read more: EuroSport


iBike Dash Cc Wireless Cycling Computer And iBike Phone Booth Bicycle Mount Now Available At All Apple Retail Stores
iPhone/iPod touch-Based Fitness Coaching System for your Bike Calculates, Speed, Distance, Ride Time and More to Safely Get You into Shape
– Works as Your Own Personal Fitness Trainer –

Velocomp LLP, www.iBikeDash.com, a leading sports technology company and creator of the iBike® Dash line of cycling computers and power meters, announced that the iBike Dash CC (Cycling Computer) and new iBike Phone Booth Bicycle Mount are now available at all Apple retail stores, starting today.
Read more: Paramuspost.com


'Cycling is the new rock and roll' - Ged goes from Mary's Prayer to puncture repairs
A Dundee musician poised to tour with Simple Minds is getting his kicks on a bike.
"Cycling is the new rock and roll," said Ged Grimes, who used to be in the band Danny Wilson - best known for their 1987 chart hit Mary's Prayer.
When Simple Minds start a tour of Europe in two weeks, Ged plans to avoid the tour bus and travel between venues on a bike loaned to him by Nicholson's Cycles in Dundee.
Read more: Courier