Ben King Profile

Ben King Profile Benjamin King (born March 22, 1989 in North Garden, Virginia) is an American professional road-racing cyclist who moves up to Team RadioShack for the 2011 season.  Ben started racing at the age of 14 showing great promise and winning junior national titles before signing with Kelly Benefit Strategies.  He attended college at [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/ben-king-profile/

cycling exercise

The Tour de France Opens Dramatically

The Tour de France Opens Dramatically (But the Shack Make a Great Showing) For Team RadioShack supporters the expectation of our favourite team must be immense; the year to date has been a good one for the Team. Latterly Levi Leipheimer took the Tour de Suisse by riding an exceptional final stage time trial, Chris [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/the-tour-de-france-opens-dramatically/

rapha cycling

Baked Beans Bend, New Zealand

This week's Bike Overnights story comes from Kiwi promoter of personal adventure Paul Smith -- who, along with his friend Mike Wilson, accomplishes a true S24O (sub-24-hour overnight). In fact, it's more like a sub-16-hour overnight.

"Wednesday morning, 8:30," writes Paul. "As usual, I arrive at work on my bike. Unusually, though, my bike is loaded up with luggage. At the end of the working day I'll leave on my bike. But today I won't be going home to my family. The luggage on my bike is my overnight camping gear. Tonight I will be staying at Baked Beans Bend in Wellington's Belmont Regional Park. I wouldn't call it a campsite. It's nothing more than a small flat grassed area raised slightly above the Korokoro stream. But if drinkable running water and shelter from the the northerly wind are classified as 'facilities,' then Baked Beans Bend is well-equipped."

After Paul meets up with Mike, the two pedal past the congestion of "one person per car" commuter traffic that's apparently as common in Wellington as it is in U.S. cities. 

"We soon arrived at the entrance to our off-road excursion -- an ugly industrial area. But this was the gateway to the Korokoro stream trail that would lead us up into Belmont Regional Park and glorious isolation.


"After an hour of stop-start riding we climbed into a grassy clearing -- Baked Beans Bend. Our camp was a relaxed affair. We were no more than an hour or two from home, but a long way from normal life. It was comforting, thinking of the half-million people in their homes within easy reach, but disappointing to realize that the majority of them had never been to this place, let alone stayed here overnight. It is a shame that adventure is missing from much of modern life."

And so why is it called Bakes Beans Bend? Paul isn't really sure. But he is certain that breakfast the next morning was better than baked beans: "This wasn't a wilderness ride by any stretch, which had its advantages -- our breakfast was at a local cafe and coffee roastery. Two espressos and garlic mushrooms on focaccia. After that came 30 minutes of road riding, and then I waved goodbye to Mike."

And Paul was back at the office by 8:30 a.m. sharp. "Today, though, there were fewer strange looks from my co-workers.

"'Did you have a good night?' one of them asked.

'I sure did.'"

Read Paul's story in its entirety at BikeOvernights.org. While there you can take a look at our current Photo of the Week, which comes from the popular August 30, 2011, post Dreams of Herons on the I&M Canal Towpath, by Bob Morgan. 


BikeOvernights.org Photo of the Week, 08.17.12.

Top 3 photos by Mike Wilson. 

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BIKE OVERNIGHTS is posted every Monday by Michael McCoy, Adventure Cycling?s media specialist, and highlights content from BikeOvernights.org. Previously, from March 2009 through January 2012, Mac posted weekly at Biking Without Borders. He also compiles the organization's twice-monthly e-newsletter Bike Bits, which goes free-of-charge to nearly 46,000 readers worldwide.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/08/baked-beans-bend-new-zealand.html

cycling jerseys

Share Adventure Cycling With Your Community

As we cycle through the summer and inspiration is high, it's the perfect time to share your love of bicycle touring with your community through one of our special, half-priced Library Memberships.  You can give this membership to any of your local libraries, including public, university, and K-12 schools.

These memberships offer a one year subscription to Adventure Cyclist magazine, which the library will then add to their periodicals section for anyone to read.

By participating in this Adopt-A-Library program, you are saying that getting the next generation of cyclists on the road is important. You are saying that you believe in the transformative power of bicycle travel, and you want everyone in the U.S. to have the opportunity to stumble across it while combing the shelves of the local library. Not convinced? Check out this inspiring challenge/reminder from Willie Weir.

If you are looking for the perfect way to pass along your love of cycling, share some inspiration with the community you love and give the gift of adventure to your library.

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MEMBERSHIP HIGHLIGHTS is typically posted every other Friday by Amy Corbin, Membership and Marketing Coordinator. Membership Highlights spotlights the various benefits of membership, our accomplishments thanks to member support, and even interviews with some of our most passionate and dedicated members, both individual and organizational.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/08/share-adventure-cycling-with-your.html

tour de france live

Bicycle panniers that survive the years and dog attacks

A couple of weeks ago, I ran into a family on bicycles up at Log Boom Park on the Burke-Gilman Trail. What first drew my attention to them were the old blue panniers on the dad’s tandem.

I recognized them immediately as an Eclipse model of panniers. They’re the saddlebags that efficiently lugged my stuff …

Continue reading »

Source: http://www.bikingbis.com/2012/08/29/bicycle-panniers-that-survive-the-years-and-dog-attacks/

le tour de france

Who gets Armstrong?s Tour de France titles?

Here’s a can of worms opened up by US Anti-Doping Agency’s announcement that it will rescind all seven of Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France titles. Who gets them?

I’d recommend nobody. There’s no way to go back that long ago and legitimately award the titles to some of those cyclists.

Simply draw a heavy black …

Continue reading »

Source: http://www.bikingbis.com/2012/08/24/who-gets-armstrongs-tour-de-france-titles/

cycling in london

Is Addison Lee good for London cyclist?

At this stage I have to say RIP to all those who have lost there lives cycling on the UK roads at the hands of motorist. The Addison Lee debate seems to be the topic of the moment, its either the boss of Addison Lee  John Griffin is a genius or and absolute idiot. Griffin's original article had stirred up heated debate on the internet as it suggested that cyclists in London willingingly took their lives into their own hands by riding on roads. He said that cyclists should be properly trained and pay for using roads, summing up the article with "It is time for us to say to cyclists 'You want to join our gang, get trained and pay up'. I have come to the conclusion that he is a genius he is getting loads of free advertising when you think cab firm the 1st name that you will think of now will be Addison Lee. He has been in the printed press on the radio, Twitter, Facebook and now even I find my self-writing about John Griffin and Addison Lee. He is also good for cyclist and has highlighted the fact that cyclist need to stick together as we seem to be gaining more power in transport discussions in the city, we even have the London mayoral candidates fighting over or vote it is important that cycling stays free and free from the involvement of big business. It does not matter what John Griffin says about cyclist he is only a cab firm who wants to use the bus lanes and has been clever in the way he has diverted the attention of that topic and on to cycling and cyclist. What worry?s me if he get his way it would mean all cab firms and independent cab drivers will want to be able to use the bus lanes putting more cyclist in danger, a bus lane is like a secondary bike lane where as a cyclist.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Cyclingchatcouk/~3/oLK8BsgvSg0/

cycling bib shorts

Bicycle panniers that survive the years and dog attacks

A couple of weeks ago, I ran into a family on bicycles up at Log Boom Park on the Burke-Gilman Trail. What first drew my attention to them were the old blue panniers on the dad’s tandem.

I recognized them immediately as an Eclipse model of panniers. They’re the saddlebags that efficiently lugged my stuff …

Continue reading »

Source: http://www.bikingbis.com/2012/08/29/bicycle-panniers-that-survive-the-years-and-dog-attacks/

cycling clothing uk

San Rafael Criterium, and me at a loss for words?

It is everyone’s favorite race in July. You know what race I am talking about, and it has nothing to do with France. Well, maybe if you count champagne, it does have a thing or two to do with France.  Champagne and bikes.  Yeah, that will work.  Bike racing at its very best. San Rafael Twilight Criterium presented by Project Sport. Hands down, my favorite race. Ever. If you had asked me what is the one race I wanted to win? Yeah, it would be the SRT. Hometown crowd, big...

Source: http://alisonstarnes.com/san-rafael-criterium-meets-wwe/

le tour de france