Bike Share in Chicago? April 15, 2008
Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Technology, Cycling, Sustainability , add a commentCity commuters weary of stuffy journeys aboard buses and subways now have a better way to get to work, buy groceries and meet for a Saturday matinee. The bike-sharing programs that have transformed Europeans into two-wheeled travelers are now en route to the U.S.
Clear Channel Outdoor, an outdoor advertising company, will launch the country’s first bike-share service in Washington, D.C., in mid-May in partnership with the district’s Department of Transportation.
SmartBike DC will initially offer annual subscribers access to 100 bikes at 10 stations in the city’s central business district. Located at key locations in the central business district, the bicycles provide a new way of discovering and moving around the city. The bike stations are modular and the bicycles are ergonomic and light-weight in a distinct design.
Bicycles are parked at docking points which use a proprietary locking system to ensure that each bicycle is securely stored. The service is accessible via online subscription. Subscribers will receive a personalized SmartBike DC user card that provides access to any station of the program at any time. The turnkey program includes fulltime operational service. Clear Channel’s operational team manages the rotation of bicycles for each station to assure a proper ratio between available bicycles as well as drop-off locations.
Other cities, including San Francisco and Chicago, are eager to follow suit. Learn More
Trek Founder Passes Away at 73 March 14, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Tour De France, Breaking News, Cycling , add a commentThe sport of cycling has lost a true pioneer. Richard Burke, a founder of the Trek Bicycle Corporation, which capitalized on the luster of Lance Armstrong’s victories in the Tour de France to reshape the way top-of-the-line bikes are manufactured, died Monday in Milwaukee at 73.
It was on a $6,500 carbon-fiber Model 5500 bike built by Trek that Mr. Armstrong won his first Tour de France in 1999, the first of his seven straight Tour titles. With that, Trek became the first American bike company to win the Tour and the first to build a carbon-fiber bike that won the Tour,” John Bradley, a senior editor and the cycling expert at Outside magazine, said Wednesday. “It was a watershed moment.”Racing bikes must be as light and stiff as possible. Before being made of carbon fiber, which has the best stiffness-to-weight ratio, the bikes were made of steel, titanium or aluminum. (more…)
Let Levi Ride — Will You Help? March 12, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Tour De France, Cycling , 2commentsOn February 13th, the Amaury Sports Organization (ASO) barred Team Astana from competing in any race or event organized by the ASO in 2008. The ASO owns premiere cycling events like Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Tours, and the famed Tour de France. By barring the entire team from competing in ASO events, outstanding athletes like Levi Leipheimer, who was not a member of last year’s Astana team and who has never been implicated in any doping affair, are forced to sit on the sidelines while their life’s work passes them by.
“When I saw the Tour de France on TV when I was young,” laments Leipheimer, “I knew that someday I wanted to do that race. I sacrificed my life to participate. After finishing on the podium last year I want to do even better. Now I’m a victim of an illogical decision and have been excluded from the race.” “Where’s the consistency?” asked Leipheimer. “By taking action now it looks political. It looks like the ASO has a grudge against a team that can win its races. (ed. Americans being discriminated against again!) My hope is that this campaign will encourage the ASO to reconsider its decision.”
The ASO cited the doping scandals of last year’s Tour de France as justification. Check out the outrage to the decision here.
Be Heard
Would you help put Levi’s dreams back on track by signing the petition at Let Levi Ride?. Petitions will be sent directly to Christian Prudhomme, Director of the ASO, as well as to VS, the official US media partner of the Tour de France.
There can be no comparison between the Astana team of 2007 and the new Astana. The entire organizational structure has been rebuilt under the direction of the team’s new General Manager, Johan Bruyneel, (more…)
Cycling: UCI…Bring It On! March 9, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Tour De France, Cycling , add a commentI am a HUGE cycling fan and we are now experiencing the fallout of a blood feud between the ASO and the UCI. The ASO controls the Tour de France race and the UCI controls the season-long Pro Tour. So now we get to this week’s Paris-Nice cycling race and both sides refuse to budge and the ASO has basically said, “UCI…Bring it on!”. Can someone please reign in these 2 year olds for the benefit of the sport?
The Paris-Nice race is set to start Sunday even though teams that participate face sanctions from cycling’s governing body, which says it is fighting for its “survival” and ability to regulate the doping-marred sport. International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid has urged riders to boycott the season’s first major stage race, calling it “illegal” because the race organizers—the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO)—are holding it under French laws and outside UCI rules.
McQuaid has threatened teams with six-month suspensions, fines of up to $9,700, and bans from the track world championships this month, which would affect cyclists (more…)
