The Team Classification

The tour starts this weekend.  I will be busy following online and then watching the highlights on TV.  It wasn’t until last year that I had paid attention to the Team Classification.  This is probably no surprise because last year was Lance’s final Tour.  Since a GC podium was out of the question, Radio Shack raced for the team classification to get on stage in Paris.  So of course, Versus followed this race within a race more closely.  I’m glad they did because it added a little drama to the race as a whole and was something else to watch for.  I read the following from the Tour site which goes into the Team Classification.

28/06/2011 - Five good reasons to follow the team classification

Of all the individual sports, cycling is certainly the one in which the collective dimension plays the biggest role. As a result, the team classification, a discrete affair at first glance, is at the heart of many strategies. Here’s why…

The honour of the podium on the Champs-Elysées

It is rare that a team starts the Tour de France with the ambition of winning this secondary classification, when all eyes are understandably more focused on the Yellow Jersey for the general individual time classification. However, it is a competition in which appetite is whetted by success, once a team finds itself in a good position after overcoming some of the difficulties along the route. Last year, RadioShack triumphed, to follow on from the winners of the last ten editions: Kelme (2000-2001), ONCE (2002), CSC (2003), T-Mobile (2004, 2005, and 2006), Discovery Channel (2007), CSC-Saxo Bank (2008) and Astana (2009).

After falling twice during the eighth stage leading to the Rousses ski resort in Morzine-Avoriaz, Lance Armstrong immediately drew his source for motivation from the team classification, to replace his initial objective. Since he was taking part in his last Tour de France, he was determined to finish, in spite of everything, with the honour of being acclaimed by the crowd on the final podium on the Champs-Elysées.

Read on here.

Lanterne Rouge Doper

So Wim got caught with doping products.  I read the news on Velo News online, article here.  Read on and it says that Wim Vansevenant won the lanterne rouge (last on the GC list) 3 straight years.  He’s retired so the doping products were for him only.  The article is about doping but the comments are great to read.  Seriously, the lanterne rouge dopes for his benefit after he’s retired.

Omega Pharma distances itself from former rider caught in doping scandal

By VeloNews.com Published Jun 29th 2011 7:42 AM UTC

Former Silence-Lotto rider Wim Vansevenant has acknowledged that a package seized by Belgian customs officials two weeks ago contained doping products destined for him.

http://velonews.competitor.com/files/2011/06/000_DV363831-325x487.jpg

Wim Vansevenant holding his record-breaking lanterne rouge in 2008.

Pic from Velo News Online.

A public prosecutor in Ghent acknowledged that his office was conducting an investigation, but declined further comment.

Now retired, Vansevenant has played a small support role on the Omega Pharma-Lotto team in recent years. While acknowledging that the package was indeed his, Vansevenant denied that the drugs were going to be used for active riders on the team.

“It was only a small amount, to improve my own condition,” said Vansevenant. “It was the second time I ordered. The order was not for the Omega Pharma-Lotto team. ”

The True Cost of Gas

Interesting!

CMWC2011-Warsaw Poland

I like the soundtrack.

David Millar Quote

From Cycling News online, David Millar commenting on Contador and the system…

“For many he's already guilty. It's a tragedy. Contador is a phenomenal cyclist and neither the sport nor he deserves this ridiculous kerfuffle."

He said ‘kerfuffle’.  Millar is always good for some quotes that require a thesaurus.  Read the article here.

AlleyCross II: An Urban Cyclocross Race - June 25

ABC Atlanta Streets Alive!

Enjoy the open streets and the festivities tomorrow afternoon.  Come on out for Atlanta Streets Alive!

Escorpion

Escorpion tequila bar and cantina

America's Top Cities for Bike Commuting: Happier, Too

From The Atlantic online…

America's Top Cities for Bike Commuting: Happier, Too

By Richard Florida Jun 22 2011, 11:41 AM ET Comment

A nationwide analysis shows that towns where people bike to work are richer, fitter, and more successful in many other ways

Riding a bike through a city, David Byrne wrote in his book Bicycle Diaries, "is like navigating the collective neural pathways of some vast global mind." Biking, he adds, "facilitates a state of mind that allows some but not too much of the unconscious to bubble up. As someone who believes that much of the source of his work and creativity is to be gleaned from those bubbles, it's a reliable place to find that connection."

Cycling is one of my own great passions. I like nothing more than to get on my road bike and just go. My bike is not just a great way to get around, it's a great way to get to know cities.

It's also a good way to stay in shape, as witnessed by this post at the Living Streets Alliance blog, which noted the uncanny overlap between the places listed in my post on America's Fittest Cities and the cities where the greatest percentages of people who bike to work live. That got me wondering what other characteristics of metropolitan areas might be associated with higher levels of cycling. With the help of my colleague Charlotta Mellander, I took a quick look at the numbers. We used data from the American Community Survey (ACS) on the share of people by metro area who commute to work by bike.

Read on here.

The Costs and Savings of Bicycle Commuting

From Forbes online…

The Costs and Savings of Bicycle Commuting

Posted by J.D. Roth

This post provided by GetRichSlowly.org.

This guest post from Duran Valdez is part of the “reader stories” feature at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success — or failure. These stories feature folks from all levels of financial maturity and with all sorts of incomes.

For the past two years, I’ve been riding a bicycle to work. Mostly because I’m cheap. My commute is a 12-mile round trip along residential streets with a nice downhill stretch that leads me into the parking lot of the school where I work. I’ve made this trip in 100-degree weather, in fog, and in rain. I’ve managed to survive pot holes, stray dogs, and the social stigma attached to wearing clothing that looks like it came straight out of an X-Men comic book.

I recently tried to break down the costs and spending of riding for the past year. How much would I have spent on my car if I’d driven instead? How much did the bike cost? What about the commuting equipment? Unfortunately, some of the benefits you can’t quantify (you know: health, enjoyment), but I did what I could.

First, during the last year, I’ve ridden roughly 300 miles a month for strictly utilitarian purposes (I’m not counting my fun rides), which puts me at about 3600 miles for the year. I didn’t actually sell my car; I just drove it when I had to haul a load.

Read on here.

Defending Running A Red Light

From The Oregonian online…

Road rage files: Portland bicyclist defends running red light

Published: Wednesday, June 15, 2011, 8:43 AM

By Joseph Rose, The Oregonian

Here’s an interesting (and by interesting, I mean chain-grease crazy and clueless) piece of correspondence from the Portland Road Rage Files:

On Monday, a Southwest Portland bicycle commuter emailed the city to say that he knows his daily route so well that he should be allowed to ignore red lights along the way.

Apparently, the email arrived in city Traffic safety and Livability inbox after what sounds like a pretty scary encounter with the driver of a big truck that morning.

It was then passed it on to Portland police Traffic Division Capt. Todd Wyatt, who omitted the names before passing it on to me:

Read on here.

Stuck Cleats

Let this be a lesson not to let your cleats wear down s much from walking that the bolt gets worn down to useless.

Knitted Up

Along the PATH across from the Jimmy Carter Center

Bike Parking

Trading Car Parking for Bike Racks from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Eastbound Tracks Marta MLK Station

Recumbents Were Illegal

During my commute home I talked to another commuter who was on a recumbent.  He mentioned that recumbent were just made legal.  So I had to do some internet research and I found this…

http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/showthread.php?t=68540

There was this that was NOT struck out,

(c) No bicycle shall be equipped or operated while equipped with a set of handlebars so raised that the operator must elevate his or her hands above his the operator's shoulders in order to grasp the normal steering grip area.

But this WAS struck out,

(d) No bicycle shall be equipped, modified, or altered in such a way as to cause the pedal in its lowermost position to be more than 12 inches above the ground, nor shall any bicycle be operated if so equipped.

And this…

http://www.recumbentjournal.com/news/community/item/337-georgia-in-process-of-legalizing-recumbents.html

Interestingly there is also the removal of a requirement that all pedals sold with new bikes must have reflectors. J

A Typical Day In NYC

3-Way Street from ronconcocacola on Vimeo.

This is pretty amazing, Bicycles x Cars x Pedestrians = ________________

Atlanta Streets Alive This Weekend

Check it out at Atlanta Streets Alive.

Bike Lanes

This has been flying around the internet, I wish they were enforced all the time.

Full Rack

Good to see that even on a hot day, the bike rack is full, Segway and all