Johan Bruyneel Sums Up the Tour de Crash

In a post-race interview with Eurosport after Thursday?s Stage 12, Team RadioShack?s Director Johan Bruyneel summed up the frustration and disappointment felt by the entire team and its fans with the numerous calamities that have befallen the group so far at this year?s Tour de France. With the months of preparation and hard work [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/johan-bruyneel-sums-up-the-tour-de-crash/

le tour de france

Bicycle builders win awards in Sacramento

The North American Handmade Bicycle Show gives bike builders an opportunity to display their wares to the public. It also gives them a chance to gain recognition for their hard work.

At this year's 8th annual show in Sacramento, a Japanese family business took the top honors with Best of Show and the President's Award ....

Source: http://www.bikingbis.com/blog/_archives/2012/3/5/5010533.html

cycling training

Inn-to-Inn with a Twist


Inn-to-Inn tours are a standard of the bike-tourism industry, and with good reason -- take in the sights by bike, sleep indoors, eat at restaurants -- what could be better? Here at Adventure Cycling, we figured out what was missing. We added our own twist to the inn-to-inn tours offered by other companies. We made them self-contained! So whether you want to make the leap from van-supported touring to self-contained, want to try light touring, or just want to enjoy the adventure of a bicycle tour with a soft bed at the end of the day, our inn-to-inn tours are the choice for you!

Our inn-to-inn trips offer a variety of overnight locations, ranging from historic inns to budget motels. Our tours tend to fall on the lower end of the luxury scale -- our bicycle-travel philosophy is geared toward allowing our participants to immerse themselves in the history and cultural fabric of the area they are traveling through, and we feel that staying in a "luxury" accommodation prohibits that immersion.

The tour cost is based on double occupancy. One of the cons of staying indoors is a lessening of the group experience that is fostered in campgrounds and other communal spaces, and we believe that sharing a room with one of your fellow participants goes a long way towards allowing that group camaraderie to flourish in an inn-to-inn setting.

All meals, starting with dinner on the first night of the tour and ending with lunch on the final day of the tour, are included in the tour cost. We'll eat breakfast and dinner at local restaurants, and lunch will be made by the participants each morning to take with them on their bicycles and eat at their leisure during the day.

It is important to remember that our inn-to-inn tours are completely self-contained, which means that there will be no vehicle support, and that participants will need to carry their own gear. This is a great way to ease into fully-loaded touring, or to explore light touring to see if it is the right choice for you!

Interested in one of our inn-to-inn tours? Check out our Red Rock Ramble, our Black Hills Inn-to-Inn or our Great Lakes Inn-to-Inn! And as always, let us know if there's anything we can do to help.

Drawing by Greg Siple.

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ON THE ROAD is written by the tours team -- Mo, Paul, Madeline, and Arlen -- tours specialists and intrepid bicyclists, covering all things related to Adventure Cycling's Tours Department. Check out our our 2012 Tours!

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/03/inn-to-inn-with-twist.html

padded cycling shorts

The Morning?s Half-Stage at De Panne

Team RadioShack?s Michal Kwiatkowski (POL) hung tough today in cold, wet conditions to take 7th place in a furious bunch sprint finish to the 111-kilometer half-stage of the 3 Days of De Panne. With the unusual two event closing day format, like the Criterium International, this first half-stage started early and was over by [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/the-morning%e2%80%99s-half-stage-at-de-panne/

cycling fans

Keeping Tracking of Emergency Information

Late last summer Hurricane Irene struck the New England region, moving westward across New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. The force of this storm destroyed roads and bridges stranding locals as well as stymying bicycle travelers (including our first ever Atlantic Coast tour).

With all the budget cuts in roadway funding, we weren't certain if the roads we use on our Atlantic Coast, Northern Tier and Green Mountains Loop routes would necessarily be repaired or when. Often their rural nature can keep them low on maintenance crew priorities. Happily, we recently received news that all closed roads in Vermont -- where the damage seemed to be the worst -- are reopened, though some are still in various stages of construction.


Throughout the storm's life and the region's recovery from it, we've been glad to have the Temporary ACA Route Road Closures forum discussion. It proved to be a valuable place for cyclists to gather virtually and share information. The route-specific hashtags -- especially #acaAtlCoast, #acaNoTier and #acaGreenMtns -- got a workout, too. We plan to continue using these avenues to keep you informed in these types of situations.

This year I anticipate using the Google Public Alerts map during the spring floods so I can monitor where they may be affecting our route network. This new tool from google.org is an effort to coordinate the distribution of information in emergencies. (It would be especially easy to use if it could be set up in the same manner as our Forest Fire Map. A cartographer can dream, right?)


What tools do you use to keep track of developing weather issues when you are on the road? Do you have any advice for your fellow travelers who might find themselves stuck due to Mother Nature's actions?

Top photo by the Vermont Agency of Transportation
Bottom photos by Lars Gange & Mansfield Heliflight 

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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/2012/02/keeping-tracking-of-emergency.html

cycling events

Actors and actresses ride bicycles, too

When the Hollywood glitterati take their walk down the Red Carpet at the Academy Awards on Sunday, imagine that they've arrived by bicycle.

It's doubtful they did. I think the limousine is still the transport of choice to such events.

But if publicity photos from Hollywood are any indication, the stars do enjoy taking an occasional spin on two wheels.

Philadelphia film critic Steven Rea, an avid bicyclists himself, has been providing these archived photos at his Rides a Bike blog ...

Source: http://www.bikingbis.com/blog/_archives/2012/2/26/5005665.html

cycling gear uk

Ben Hermans, Top 12 at Brabant Arrow

Team RadioShack?s Ben Hermans (BEL) showed excellent form in Wednesday?s 51st edition of De Brabantse Pijl, one of the Flanders Classics, which kicked off in Leuven, Belgium and finished in Overijse some 201 kilometers (124 miles) away. He missed a move by the eventual winner Philippe Gilbert?s Omega-Lotto team when they pulled hard [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/ben-hermans-top-12-at-brabant-arrow/

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