the non-structured phase

the best and, arguably, most important thing about bikes is that they are fun. indeed, our mission here at ABANDON YOUR CAR is to demonstrate how much fun can reliably and consistently be had when one gets as far away as possible from an enclosed, 4-wheeled vehicle and takes to the streets, roads, and trails on a self-powered conveyance- AKA: bicycle
natually, when i think of fun and bicycles, my mind wanders to France, which represents to me a Nirvana of sorts for cyclists. they seem to really enjoy their cycling a great deal, (in fact, almost to the point of nuttiness) and when i was last there, observed that the motorists were extremely polite and quite happy to share the road with cyclists. at least in the regions that i visited.

at any rate, here is a cool video with some smooth beats to go with it... from France, of course.


Paris à Vélo (Paris Remix)
Uploaded by Noart7. - Watch original web videos.




uh-oh. now what the heck is going on here?


back in the "olden days" of american cycling, we, as cyclists, often seemed to struggle with our ability to blend with the "social fabric" of the time.
here, this wayward hipster has apparently taken a wrong turn on his way to an early "tweed ride" and now finds himself JRA lost at the local swimming hole. fortunately, it appears that an attractive sun bather is able to get past the ridiculous "cyclist out of context" issue and offer some directions to get him on his way.
what i find most troubling about these images, however, is that the bike's manufacturer felt that in order to sell this fine racing bicycle they were not going to show the guy in wooly racing kit ("tight clothes") at the races with a bunch of other sweaty dudes riding around in circles. instead, they put him at the pool in seersucker slacks w/matching colorway shirt, shoes and beltway in the company of an attractive, scantily clad young woman.

obviously, we were still trying to assimilate the two concepts of "fun" and "bicycle" into a unified theme.

i own a red 1973 Schwinn Paramount very similar to the hipster's above. totally beautiful and original vintage bike. but not once has taking that bike for a ride led to a friendly conversation with a member of the opposite sex, so i sort of doubt the veracity of the ad content. of course, never while riding have i found myself lost at the swimming pool, either.



over the years, so much worry about matching colorways and fashionable tweed has turned some of us into fat, bored and complacent vinyl record curators... like our poor friend in the above photo; Jabba the Cat. (image: fixedgeargallery)

i still want to have fun when i ride and not be too serious about being fashion-conscious all the time. i wear a helmet when riding on the road or trail, but seldom do when urban riding, in the best european tradition.
recently, i was reading one of the blogs that used to be in my favorite blogstack and the writer had a 9 or 10 point code of conduct- a couple of which severely scorned "tight clothes" and expensive bikes and was all on about something called "the slow riding movement".
that was just too annoying, pompous, and self-important for me. they got eighty-sixed from the blogstack because i simply can't abide by such intolerant attitudes and also find that, admittedly, and from time to time, i enjoy riding expensive bicycles at high rates of speed while wearing tight clothes and a helmet.

kinda like this guy: Dr. Fred Rompelberg

well, except without the car, that is.
but 268.831 km/hr is still pretty impressive- even if quite possibly it qualifies him as the biggest wheel sucker of all time.


maybe more like this guy: Steve Gaskey.

fun, fast and dangerous. fast as you want to pedal.

i saw this machine at the great annual gathering of the cycling tribes (AKA: Interbike) a few years back and the owner/builder had a video showing how the thing wound up through the gears and when it reached top speed, the rider hit a button and the pneumatic lift dropped the bike onto the pavement... and the subsequent rubber burnin', tire screeching launch. freekin' awesome.

this week coming up i am looking forward to being out of the snow, some great riding in Fruita, and spending a good deal of quality time with my best buddy. that's right, having some fun and being out on the bikes. not worried about heart rate or intervals or tapering or spending enough time at altitude or fashion or anything like that- also known as the "non-structured phase" of the yearly calender.

i hope all of you will indulge yourselves in a bit of the same.

ride for saturday 17 july, 2010: Kent Eriksen's Tour de Steamboat

some of the best riding in northwest Colorado will be traversed by several hundred cyclists on saturday when Kent Eriksen's Tour de Steamboat takes to the high mountain roads again as part of a great fundraising event for Sunshine Kids.


the parcours features two substantial climbs: le passage d'oreilles de lapin and le Passage de Fuseau (Rabbit Ears pass and Gore pass)


this event has grown in popularity over the past several years, now to the point where all 3 available ride options are filled to capacity. so, sorry to say that if you have not yet registered already you will have to wait for next year's ride to participate. sign up early to be sure that your spot is reserved for the next time around.


also know as "the Gore gruel" for good reason. this can be a brutal, remote slog in the high mountains when ridden unsupported.

fortunately, refreshments will be served on saturday.

bike month

the month of June has been designated "Bike Month" by the folks over at CDOT

here at ABANDON YOUR CAR, we think that's awesome. when the state of Colorado gets behind any initiative to promote alternative transportation and a healthy lifestyle, we're all for it. we would also like to take this opporunity to once again encourage everyone to do what they can to move away from the car-centric culture and all of its pitfalls.

the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first turn of the pedal.





Photo: Win McNamee / Getty Images

we know all too well what continuing down the same path will bring. here's some additional motivation:

wildlife images at SFGate.com

an essay and some more images, timely and relevant. make yourself read and look. do it.

Giro d' Italia stage 4 - TTT

unless you have the top-dollar cable sports programming piped into your teevee, chances are you didn't see today's coverage of the G-d Italia here in the 'states... just like me.

check out how Vinokourov shags his team off the back, one by one. the clock doesn't stop until the 5th rider crosses the line, so getting all steamed up about it doesn't help one bit, either.
imagine being #5, just killing it because you know that the boss is about to lose his pink jersey, sunglasses and booties. and the boss is real tight with the ol' boys back in Kazakhstan, by the way.

and i just have to say that Vino is looking awfully huge and showing abundantly good form for a guy who has been "on holiday" for the past two years. amazing what a little bit of beach time can do for ya...

sooo, enjoy the racing. what little we get to see.

the spring classics

racing season is now.

the big guys have been going off for over a month now in the ProTour. the hair gels, the tweets, the silly finish line and podium getures have all begun in earnest. there has been some awesome racing somewhere in the mix as well.

things get rolling a bit later on this side of the pond. here in western Colorado we are still shaking off the effects of a winter of epic proportions. today was the first really nice, sunny day this year that featured what i would call warm temperatures. i'm almost thinking about doing a ride on my singlespeed pretty soon. no big hurry on that one, though.

coming up on the 27th and 28th of March, we have the Mad Cow Classic p/b the Mesa State College cycling team. this two-day, three event series features a brilliant, uphill ITT starting at the west gate of the Colorado National Monument and finishes at the visitor's center about 7 kms distant and 325 meters straight up the road. here's a sampling of the parcours from mapmyride.com- be sure to get a witness on the profile as well.

anyone out there remember Kevin Costner's finest hour when he starred in the all-time classic cycling film American Flyers? better put it on your Netflix queue if ya don't. there are a lot of great views of the Monument in this often overlooked cinematic jewel.




saturday afternoon brings the obligatory office park criterium to appease the non-grimpeurs in the pelican. i suppose i can be put upon to suffer through that for an hour or so.

then on sunday, the weekend is finished off with a fine road race for all categories. more climbing... i like it.
this event reminds me something of the old Criterium International format, which we will also see later this summer here in the U.S. of A at the Dead Dog Classic, held in and near the town of Laramie in the Wyoming Territories.

i would also like once again to remind everyone on the western slope (and elsewhere, for that matter) of the LiveTrainrace.com spring criterium series beginning on wednesday, March 31st and held on the following 5 wednesday evenings in April.

and of course, what would the month of April be without the spring classics. kicking things off we have the 11th edition of the Boulder Roubaix, presented by my homeboys at DBC EVENTS aka/Denver-Boulder couriers. big props to Chris Grealish for hosting this great event (as well as the Boulder spring training crits and a UCI cyclocross event...) again in 2010.
there has also been an additional segment added to the parcours this year, bringing each lap to right around 30 kms. mostly dirt on the new sections, by the way, with a couple of extra sharp rises thrown in for good measure.
Chris doesn't put on races to coddle the whiners and softies, that's for sure.

bonus question for the ancient history buffs:

as a sort of "where's Waldo" kind of fun search, can anyone spot yours truly in the video of the 1999 edition? (hint: Rocky Mounts, and not the one that's almost crashing)

six (plus twenty-six) years in a raincape

given that the weather today disintegrated into total crap, i had resigned myself to yet another session of garage-time on the rollers. that didn't work for me, i nearly slid back into the dark ages of SAD as soon as i went in there, looked at the apparatus and my bike, and thought for two seconds about what i was intending to do.

i turned around and went to the gear locker an pulled out the "severe duty" garments- the waterproof Pearl Izumi Gore-Tex slacks and my ol', trusty raincape and put 'em on over the rest of the monkey-suit.

sometimes the rollers just ain't gonna do it, and i have to be outside no matter what the weather is. and the truth is that it wasn't all that bad. besides, what's going to happen when you have to race in foul conditions if you never train for it?



socks go over the shoes, just like underwear are worn over the pants.






headed out on the fixie for some hard, satisfying efforts. besides, it's a lot easier to wash a fixie than the geared roadbike (which just received a Euro-wash (c), a fresh set of cables, and some nice, new Cinelli cork tape). sometimes it's not so bad to have a small fleet to choose from.

it felt really great to be out there, just like the old days down in Boulder. riding because it's time to ride, not because i managed to wait it out and it's finally 65 and sunny.

i'm not a pro anymore and i don't have time to train like one anymore, either. i have to make the most of what little time i have, though. just like it was back when i was livin' the life.

with all due respect to the master Joe Parkin for making a play on his blog title, it has actually been that many years that i have been riding and training in the foul weather. never made it to Belgium, but i did manage to do at least one race in France during the month of July in all of that time. now i'm motivated to race again this year and have managed to bank some good fitness over the winter.

it smelled all good and fresh and like sage out there today. the cranes and meadowlarks are back and making a lot of noise out in the fields. there's some green stuff starting to sprout, too.
i have a feeling that this is going to be my best year ever... and even though i am old, i'm not too old to back that one up.







here's some motivation and inspiration for all of the fair-weather whiners out there. these two images are from the blog Copenhagen cycle chic where the art of commuting while looking fashionable has been raised to the highest of aesthetics. they aren't at all afraid of a lot of snow or sub-zero temperatures, either. riding on their ancient townie bikes, the women over there seem to be a whole lot tougher than the girly-boys over here who can't ride a bike all winter because the trails have some snow on 'em and think that only wimps in tight clothes ride roadbikes. waaaaaaah waaah wah

and they make it look easy and fun while riding in the snow as well. those Europeans have it all, don't they?

2010 north american handbuilt bicycle show- part deux

Kent Eriksen Cycles- best titanium

first of all, i don't know if anyone else has noticed, but that's not Kent. i hope that he didn't get stolen like the ANT guy's bike from the hotel in Richmond. that whole situation snowballed into a near rawkus- complete with spurious tweets about an alleged ad on Craigslist selling a "... clown bike" or something of that nature. just read how bikesnob explains his way out of it before i get myself into even more trouble by starting the next internets rumor from the handbuilt show by blogging that Kent has been nabbed by the body snatchers and is up for sale on eBay right now.

i do know that Kent and his crew do make the finest titanium bikes out there. they put a lot of effort into making the bikes look clean and uncomplicated. there isn't any fancy paint to cover a blemish or hide a mistake. bare metal and welds that aren't filed or sanded at all... yet they are rideable pieces of high-performance art that look beautiful under the closest inspection.

Jen would undoubtedly say the same thing about her Eriksen 650b f/s custom.

i can't wait to finish my singlespeed Eriksen, either. mmmmm mm

here's the copy from the 2010 NAHBS award winners page:

"Kent Eriksen chooses each tube set according to the physique, riding style, and intended use of each customer, and he builds in titanium only. The winning bicycle was chosen as a show model because of its clean, simple, elegant and functional design–which represents Kent Eriksen’s values".

image credit: NAHBS

big congratulations to Kent, Katie, Bo, Chad (Kent's stand in bike model) Chris and Paul over there at Eriksen Cycles on their award. you guys deserve it.

FOLLOW-UP: March 15- here's some good images and press from bikerumour.com

2010 north american handbuilt bicycle show

live this weekend, from Richmond, Virginia, is the 2010 north american handbuilt bicycle show. this is the premeire showcase for cycling's boutique offerings on this side of the Atlantic. perusing the images from cyclingnews, it becomes readily apparent that there is no shortage of lust-inspiring craft & giblets on offer this year.

we here at ABANDON YOUR CAR would like to take this opportuity to wish our friend Kent Eriksen of Kent Eriksen Cycles all the best at the show this year. he took top palmares for the builder's award at last year's show, and he always has something cool and new on display to wow the judges.

back a the show:

i like the neo-retro randonneur style bikes, kitted out with color match fenders, pump, and cork-plugged bidon

sensible and stylish all wrapped up in a convenient package = my kind of bike





this is an image from an ebay auction that ended recently. this guy is one of my favorite sellers because he curates such a vast hoard of vintage items and his auction style is top notch professional. i liked this particular image a lot and thought it would be relevant to include here due to the many retro elements on display at the NAHBS

Giro d' Italia awards presentations rile the Dutch

Giro d' Italia organizers have announced that there will be Italian women presenting the awards for the stages that start in the Netherlands this year. this has caused consternation amongst a few Dutch politicians, who feel that the traditional presentation practice is sexist.

this well may be, but i'm not so sure that if i won a stage in a grand tour that i would want to get smooched by a couple of guys dressed in drag, as has been suggested by some. there's just something about a 5 o'clock shadow that would probably rub me the wrong way in that situation. maybe i'm sexist, too.

at any rate, it seems that this is a story that will be ramping up from now until the prologue kicks off in Amsterdam on the 8th of May. it should be interesting, to say the least.

without doubt this could shake up the old traditions, which would probably be a good thing- especially for the Italians who seem to be stuck fast somewhere in the era of Fausto Coppi. the view of the podium (WARNING: NSFW) will likely look much different than in the past, such as last year when Dennis Menchov reigned supreme in the Italian Grand Tour. thinking about the possibility of this newly proposed reality is the stuff that bad dreams are made of.

maybe the Dutch politicians are correct. just send the racers up there to collect the awards and call it good.

a few words about good taste

with apologies to the polite, civilized people who like to visit here and share their comments; i have now enabled word verification to be required prior to posting your contributions. it seems that, for whatever reason, this blog has atracted the attention of some very unsavory and uncouth spammers from the cyberspace of yonder internets.
i honestly don't have time to go through all of my many archived rants every day to make sure that those who can't keep their hands out of their pants while they are on the computer... just keep it to themselves. i say to those "people" (and i use that term quite loosely) please go away, you are not welcome here.

again, i apologize to all who have visited and chosen to paticipate in a dignified manner. everyone is invited to be here, in MY house, as long as their contributions do not slide into the gutter and maintain a content rating of PG-13 (at most... or perhaps i should say "least").
it's too bad that so many suffer inconveniences inflicted by those few who are lacking in good taste and manners. i hate making rules and regulations, but sometimes it is what must be done.

Colorado loves California day

it's official, as decreed by Guv. Ritter. today, we Coloradans are celebrating our true love for the state of California.

well, i'm celebrating my love for the Golden State today. i hope that Colorado finds a lot more ways to be like California. bike lanes. mass transit. cultural diversity. good food. Mediterranean climate. any or all of those things would be a great place to start. i'm not holding my breath, though.

we'll probably end up moving there before any of that stuff happens here in the square state.

a couple from the road

as can easily be determined by glancing at these images, there is still plenty of snow on the ground today, here in red-rock country. oh, sure- the thermometer cracked the 40 degree mark for one of the first times since November and the sun was finally shining again... it still wasn't all that warm out there.
nonetheless, in an act of solidarity with the cyclsts of Belgium, i ventured forth and rode outdoors in the weather for a good 2.5 hours. here's a couple of images from the last hour of the ride, the scenery out on the mud flats doesn't really compare with the grandeur of the Colorado National Monument, so i kept my hands in my gloves and stayed on the bike for all of that.



here's the view looking up the ramp from the west (Fruita) entrance. not exactly a crushing traffic volume today, thank goodness. the road is also visible at the rock cut, midway up the sandstone wall (image center).

a couple of kilometers farther up, near Balanced Rock, there was plenty of snowmelt flowing across the road. not really a problem here as the sun warms the tarmac sufficiently to keep things moving. where the road passes through shaded areas and exposed, north-facing aspects, water like this turns to a deadly sheet of ice.

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tuesday february 9, 2010

road conditions in the greater Fruita area are classified as mostly dry, with scattered areas of sand and gravel, as well as some frozen snowmelt on road surfaces at higher elevations. expect to find substantial deposits of winter debris in bike lanes and on road shoulders.

otherwise, enjoy the ride.

how they roll- the times they are a changin'

this story and image were poached from the local fishwrapper; the GJ Sentinel

Mesa County Sheriff's deputies take pictures at the scene of an armed robbery at the Walgreens in Clifton this morning. The robber was described as a 6-foot-tall white male, who was wearing a brown jacket, ball cap and surgical mask. The robber is believed to have gotten away on a bicycle.

imagine that... a bicycle.

i know for a fact that this will not reflect poorly on the local cycling community as a whole, but sometimes there is a bad apple in the bunch, ummm... i mean peleton, no matter what demographic group we choose to study.

they failed to mention whether or not the perp was rollin' on a fixie or a Mal-Wart special. details like this could lead to a speedy appprehension or a clean getaway. inquiring minds want to know.

a song to get stuck in your head

being that we (many of us, at least) are full-on into the winter training season and riding the long, cold, lonely miles that are the investment in our summer performance, while listening to the iPods or similar motivational devices... or rocking out on the rollers if it's too crappy to ride outdoors- here's a video for ya that features some good, monotonous hardstyle 'lectronic beats to help keep the tempo.
better this than some worn out rock anthem getting stuck on an endless loop in the brain, i say.

so, without further adieu, here it is. bump up the volume, G.

Christopher LeCanne memorial ride

i hope that there is never a ride like this in my honor... or for anyone else, ever.

images here

how not to "ABANDON YOUR CAR"

disclaimer:

while this blog is not intended to please nor entertain everyone, i do make all reasonable efforts to put our some good, wholesome stories about training, riding, racing and living the good life of cycling in many of its various permutations. i endeavour to stay clear of many divisive pitfalls by not incorporating too many lengthy rants from atop the soapbox into this blog... the usual hot-buttons of politics, religion, guns, abortion, gay marriage, hipsters, and, perhaps above all, the most inflammatory topic imagineable, the never-ending Campagnolo -vs- Shimano debate (and now with SRAM jumping into the scrum, we have a three dog fight with a few other minor biters yapping from the sidelines).

having said all of that, let's just put it in the 53 x 11 and drop right into the gutter.


today we will anaylyze a couple of recent stories from the mainstream media pertaining to... politics and crime:

recently, in all of its infinite wisdon, the Colorado State Legislature passed a couple of good, sensible pieces of legislation.

first off was the "give 'em 3 feet" law, which requires motorists who are overtaking cyclists to allow no less than 3 feet of daylight between the cage and the cyclist.

more recently, a bill was passed and became law that made it illegal to text while driving. this one was more of an appeasement to those who demanded such legislation and a near total cave-in to the telecommunications industry. a $50 fine and no points assessed for violating this law hardly seems like a deterrent to me (if i were the texting type, that is. but, fortunately, i am not).

now, both of these things seem like common sense no-brainers to me, but apparently there are so many drivers out there who do not give such things a second (much less first) thought, that we had to have more rules placed on the books. o.k., fine, if that's what it takes, i'm all for it.

now move over and get off the phone, please. thanks.

and wouldn't you know it, within a few days of passage, a Denver area teenager ran afoul of the new law and crashed her car while texting (imagine that, will ya?). then, to top it all off, she fled the scene and was arrested a short time later, admitting to the police what caused her to crash. talk about dumb and dumber. here's the recap from the Boulder Daily Camera.

then we have this party-boy down in Florida. he went big with his texting (and boozing at the disco the night before) and creamed an innocent cyclist in a bike lane at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

he didn't bother to stop after the cyclist slammed into the windscreen and then flew over the top of the speeding vehicle, landed on the road and then died at the scene. he kept going, dragging the mangled bike for more than 4 miles and not stopping for police until he arrived at home.

twenty-two minutes elapsed between the 9-1-1 calls and when the on-duty medics and ambulance arrived, by all accounts, too late.

i can't even get into to the callous disregard for the suffering of another human being aspect of this, or even try to understand it. i guess what i will say is: read the stories and also read the comments of the readers. there is a lot of back-story there. sickening and disgusting- and i apologize to those who may be shocked and/or offended by the pictures and comments of a (rightfully) outraged cycling community in south Florida.


a little bit about the perp

story and comments

first on the scene

first news coverage rife with factual errors

so what's my point with all of this rant? texting (or phoning) while driving should be dis-allowed and criminalized in all 50 states. the consequences for innocent pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders, elderly people, animals, etc, are far too severe to not penalize offending drivers accordingly. if you are a teenager and you get busted drivetexting or in a wreck because of it, you lose your license until you are 21 years of age, first time offense.
no points and a $50 fine (in Colorado) is a bad joke, totally meaningless.

if someone commits the same crime and kills another person (much less leaves them for dead and then flees the scene) i am in favor of a punishment that would typically be meted out in an Islamist-fundamentalist country.

get the phones out of the cars. stop texting, wake up and pay attention. end the proliferation of on-board distractions and electronic conveniences. be considerate of others, especially those who are vulnerable (travelling outside of a vehicle) and SHARE THE ROAD.

better yet, ABANDON YOUR CAR. but please, do so in a responsible manner. thanks and be safe out there on the roads, no matter how you travel and have your best season ever this year.