Having fun in Pleasanton

Did you have fun? One of my favorite questions post race is, “well, did you have fun?”.  I never know how to interpret it.  If I didn’t have fun, then I am slightly offended, maybe even a little defensive.  Fun is relative.  Fun is hard to find when going 150% of your threshold chasing others around in circles on a blistering day where you would rather be at the beach.  Not that I know anything about this.  Fun is sometimes found in the sweat and pain, yet sometimes it just...

Source: http://alisonstarnes.com/having-fun-in-pleasanton/

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Fumiyuki Beppu Profile

Fumiyuki Beppu (born April 10, 1983 in Kanagawa-ken) is a Japanese professional road racer who started his pro cycling career with the Discovery Channel Team in 2005. Known as Fumy, he is an overall rider for Team RadioShack, starting with the 2010 season. Beppu started racing bikes when he was only 9-years old, entering local [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/fumiyuki-beppu-profile/

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Brajkovic Leaps into 3rd Place at Dauphiné

Team RadioShack?s Janez Brajkovic (SLO) put in an excellent performance in today?s Stage 3, Individual Time Trail of the Critérium du Dauphiné in Grenoble, France, putting himself in very good position (3rd in the overall General Classification so far) to contend this race, and defend the victory he took here last year. And, putting icing [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/brajkovic-leaps-into-3rd-place-at-dauphine/

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Tour de France 2011, Stage 1 Report

And so it begins, the 98th edition of the greatest show in cycling, a 3,436-km (2135+ mile), 21-stage professional cycling race consuming almost the entire month of July as well as most of the geography of France. That distance is the span from New York to California. The claim is that it is the largest [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/tour-de-france-2011-stage-1-report/

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Reasons to go out cycling in winter

This morning, I was nursing a rather painful saddle sore. The consequence of either a cheap saddle on my winter training bike or the many hours I’ve spent on the bike in the past seven days. Since it was also very cold first thing, I had two very good reasons not to go out cycling. [...]

Source: http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/6487/winter/reasons-to-go-out-cycling-in-winter/

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Who is Your Dream Touring Companion?

I was listening to a podcast the other day when a version of the "If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?" question was posed. After the the episode ended, I found myself twisting the question around a bit and started wondering who my dream bicycle travel companion would be.

The first choice that popped to mind is my friend Elisabeth. We had a great time together this summer in Colorado. Our styles complimented each other. When I was down, she was up and helped me back and vice versa -- even on our miserable, wet and cold day. We both liked to stop and enjoy the scenery (or a beverage!). Our eyes saw things in slightly different perspectives, opening to new ways to drink in the experience. Why mess with this kind of success?

If I were to go to my fantasy list of companions I would consider Terry Tempest Williams for her view on landscapes large and small, Heidi Swift for her pluck and tenacity or Terry Gross for her curiosity and mad interviewing skills. Or maybe James Taylor to sing me to sleep and up tough hills. Or Jens Voigt for inspiration and grit. It would be hard to choose!

How about you, who would be your dream touring companion(s)?

Bonus question: What route would you take them on?

Photo by Elisabeth Revell.

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GEOPOINTS BULLETIN is written by Jennifer 'Jenn' Milyko, an Adventure Cycling cartographer, and appears weekly, highlighting curious facts, figures, and persons from Adventure Cycling's Route Network with tips and hints for personal route creation thrown in for good measure. She also wants to remind you that map corrections and comments are always welcome via the online Map Correction Form.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/11/who-is-your-dream-touring-companion.html

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The Faces of Bicycle Travel #3


People. The true treasures of bicycle travel.  
 
India, 1994

I call this photo Candy Break. I?m at a small roadside store (a shack dangerously perched on the side of the narrow winding road) high up in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh. It is early morning and I?m in search of chocolate. Most of the desserts in India are insanely sweet even for a sweet tooth like mine, and I?m losing too much weight. I discover a chocolate bar that most merchants carry, and I eat at least five a day.

Four young girls emerge from the store. I bring my camera up and one girl gazes at me while the others look at two local men who are teasing them about eating candy on the way to school.

Just up and around the bend from where this photo was taken, I meet a group of men camped out by a broken-down truck. One of their party had left to buy a part for the truck in Delhi. When I ask how long they had been waiting, I am shocked at their answer -- 11 days 


South Africa, 1995

I pedaled for five months in South Africa soon after Nelson Mandela had been elected president. I began in Cape Town and soon headed toward the former homeland of Ciskei. The closer I got, the more often I was warned that as a white man, I was risking my life to travel there. I?ve learned if enough people tell you to be afraid, fear begins to creep into your very soul. I went from being excited to being nervous to not being able to sleep at night.

This photo was taken on my first day of travel in the Ciskei. All of these kids came pouring out of a tiny school. They jumped up and down and cheered for the traveling cyclist. My fears melted away in their smiles.


Macedonia, 1996

My stomach aches just looking at these two women. I?d swear they fed Kat and me a weeks worth of Macedonian cuisine in one sitting. The day was hot and muggy with bits of the summer harvest blowing about and sticking to our sweaty legs. They had baskets loaded with glorious red peppers from which they made a divine relish called ivar ? roasted red peppers cooked up with olive oil and garlic.

One of their husbands pointed at the red peppers and announced with disgust and loathing, ?No calories!? He had obviously eaten too many peppers in his day. We couldn?t get enough of them. There is such a wonderful sparkle of a life well lived in their eyes.


Photos: By Willie Weir

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SIGHTS AND SOUNDS is posted every other Friday. Willie Weir is a columnist for Adventure Cyclist magazine. His latest book Travels with Willie: Adventure Cyclist will inspire you to hit the road and just might change the way you approach bicycle travel. He lives in Seattle with his wife Kat. You can read about their adventures at http://yellowtentadventures.com/.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/11/the-faces-of-bicycle-travel-3.html

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