Shack Sets Powerful Roster for The Tour of Switzerland

The 9-day long, 75th edition of the Tour de Suisse starts on Saturday, June 11th, and as usual, it promises to be a real shoot out, with many of the sports elite stars making their annual pilgrimage to the land of private banking, precise time pieces and great chocolate as the traditional tune up for [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/shack-sets-powerful-roster-for-the-tour-of-switzerland/

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Levi Comments: Radioshack?s Leader in Tour de France

There has been plenty of speculation in the media and among fans regarding which Team Radioshack rider will lead the team in it’s efforts in the upcoming Tour de France. Even though Lance Armstrong is no longer riding professionally, the team still have several profiles who would fit the bill. In an recent poll on [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/levi-comments-radioshacks-leader-in-tour-de-france/

cycling magazine

A Fat Year: Touring on a Surly Pugsley

The following is a guest post from Nicholas Carman, who was mentioned in Josh Tack's column, Fine Tuned in the December/January issue of Adventure Cyclist. Read more of Nicholas' stories on his blog, gypsybytrade.wordpress.com

As leaves fall, I typically point my wheels south for the winter. Last year, I flew north. I had just wrapped up a full season of touring, including the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR), and boarded a plane to Alaska from New Mexico. Considering what I knew about the requisite equipment for winter bike travel, I purchased a used purple Surly Pugsley from a Craigslist seller in Seattle while visiting friends on a two-week layover. The Pugsley is one of a new breed of all-terrain bikes, called fatbikes, with 4? tires and wide rims. With nothing but my camping equipment and the spare tire included in the sale, I installed my Brooks saddle and pedaled across town at dark, in the rain. 

Touring the Great Divide, Wyoming
 

Now, reflecting on a full year of fatbiking, I am eager to share the joy and utility of big tires. Lael and I both relied on our Pugsleys this winter while commuting through a record snowfall in Anchorage. On many days there would have been no other way. As the snow melted, I left town and toured all summer through Canada and the Rocky Mountain states, connecting with dirt roads and trails when possible. At length, I can describe the capacity of large tires to benefit traction, suspension, and flotation over varied terrain. I can describe all the incredible places I've been on my fat tires, and we can laugh at the long paved stretches I've ridden on my purple snow bike with drop bars. But what I've really learned over four seasons and many thousand miles is that the greatest feature of any fatbike is the ?can do? attitude it brings to the trail. When touring on a capable steed like the Pugsley, the bike is as willing as the rider. I've encountered many interesting dirt tracks on previous tours that seemed beyond the scope of my equipment. With the Pugsley, the bike is almost never the limitation and always agrees to new experiences. Here are some memorable moments from my revelatory fat year:

Lael and I ride amidst monstrous iceforms at the foot of the Knik Glacier, 50 miles east of Anchorage, Alaska.

A record of 133.6 inches of snow fell on the city of Anchorage this winter and was preserved for the entire season by consistently cold temperatures. Four-inch tires at 5psi allow for flotation over soft surfaces. Crossing Westchester Lagoon, this is a typical winter commute. 

Leaving Anchorage in late May, I expected to find a lot of pavement on my route south, so I installed a set of smooth touring tires on my wide rims. Along the way I snuck some delectable dirt detours. Even in ?road bike? mode with 60mm Schwalbe slicks (Schwalbe Big Apple 26x2.35?), the ride is well-cushioned on rough roads. This is the 90-mile Denali Park Road, which prohibits private motor vehicle traffic and offers spectacularly wild camping. 

Evening on the Cassiar Highway, B.C. Necessarily, I pass thousands of paved miles through Canada in an endless escape from mosquitoes.

Upon reaching the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route in Banff, Alberta, I turn onto dirt roads and trails for the remainder of the summer. I refit fat tires in Montana and follow the GDMBR through Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.

In Colorado, I reconnect with my girlfriend Lael who has been riding a 20-inch-wheeled Cannondale Hooligan in Europe all summer. We head off together on the Colorado Trail (CT). The dirt roads of the Divide are a great leap from traditional paved touring; likewise, touring the mountainous singletrack of the Colorado Trail is another giant leap. Lightweight mountain-bike touring is often called ?bikepacking?, but it's really just bike touring in the mountains. The rewards are worth the challenges, as seen here above 12,000 feet near Kokomo Pass on the CT.

From snow to red clay -- this is one bike for all seasons. Coming full circle, I stand on Mushroom Rock as snow falls on Mt. Sopris in the background near Carbondale, Colorado.

Connecting southern sections of the GDMBR and other roads into New Mexico, Lael and I eventually find a place to hang our hats for the winter in Albuquerque. Welcoming us to New Mexico, friends Cass and Joe meet for a five-day ride out of Santa Fe, New Mexico.


Don't be afraid of touring on bigger tires, whether 38 or 94mm. From my experiences on the Great Divide, the Colorado Trail, and beyond, a big tire and an open mind can go a long way.

Photos by Nicholas Carman.

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NICHOLAS CARMAN left on a bike trip in 2008, and hasn't stopped riding. He shares stories, photographs and ideas at gypsybytrade.wordpress.com.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/11/a-fat-year-touring-on-surly-pugsley.html

cycling plus magazine

Andreas Klöden Out of the Tour

And then there were 5! After just a few minutes of pedaling into today?s Stage 13, Team RadioShack?s Andreas Klöden was forced to abandon his Tour effort this year succumbing to numerous injuries from several bad crashes. With numerous bruises and bad scrapes the most serious injury was Andreas? back, which caused him severe pain. [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/andreas-kloden-out-of-the-tour/

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Hortobagyi Husos Palacsinta (meaty Hungarian pancakes)

Hungarians are a proud people and nothing seems to excite their dignity more than food. Meeting peter, a Hungarian restaurateur at his part time home The White Swan in Golders Green, I began to understand why. For Hungarians food is...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/thehungrycyclist/~3/GKMtyIcjw4U/hortobagyi-husos-palacsinta-meaty-hungarian-pancakes.html

dhb cycling

My excuse for riding long distances

Personally, I blame the Daily Express for all these miles I’m doing. Every-time I glance at their newspaper headline (and other newspapers, they’re all the same to me), there is a suitably menacing headline along the lines of: ‘Arctic freeze on the way;. – 20 degrees Next Week!, ‘Coldest winter since the Thames froze in [...]

Source: http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/6692/cycling/my-excuse-for-riding-long-distances/

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Awesomeness All the Way Around


This week's story is by Adventure Cycling's own Amanda Lipsey, our super-duper Development Director. "I'm a runner, cyclist, and dedicated dog mommy in Missoula, Montana," Amanda says of herself. "I have the great advantage of working at Adventure Cycling Association, where figuring out how to do stuff like this -- travel by bike with a dog, that is -- is what we do."

Travel by bike with a dog, indeed. In "An Awesome Gal and Her Awesome Pup," Amanda and her border collie Astro packed up and hit the open road last summer.

"In preparation for a longer self-contained bicycle trip, Astro and I scheduled a mid-August shakedown overnight. The purpose of a shakedown ride was to figure out anything that might not be working logistically or mechanically with the bike, and to learn if there was any additional equipment needed. For our overnight, we went from Missoula up the Bitterroot Valley to Bass Creek, camped for two days, then rode back home.


"I was very worried about the weight I?d be pulling around. My bicycle without gear probably weighs somewhere between 15 and 20 pounds. I carry 15 to 20 pounds of gear, not including the trailer, which weighs 22 pounds. Astro weighs 55 pounds, and I weigh 160. That?s more than 270 pounds that I have to push/pedal up hills and across many, many miles. Needless to say, I was feeling a bit of trepidation.

"Soon, though, I was little disappointed in myself for doubting my own strength as a cyclist. We got over the set of hills just as easily as when I ride with no gear."

Once they got to the Bass Creek Road, however -- where they faced a tough, 2-mile climb to get to the campground -- Amanda let Astro out of the trailer. He even helped pull the load, thanks to an innovative device known as the Springer

"On day two of our shakedown," Amanda continues, "we went for a nice hike up Bass Creek, on which Astro was expected to carry his own gear.


"The next day we arose early, packed up, and headed back to Missoula. My colleague Arlen, who joined me for the return ride, seemed a bit impressed by how well I handled the hills with all of the weight. That?s because I?m so awesome. And so is Astro."

Read the rest of Amanda's tale at BikeOvernights.org. There you'll also find a collection of Photos of the Week, including this week's image of a boy having an exultant time in the Canadian outdoors. It comes from To the Sugar Shack and Back: An Alberta Overnight, a story about a father-and-son outing that has generated more comments than any of the other 100+ Bike Overnights that have posted over the past two years.


BikeOvernights.org Photo of the Week, 12.07.12.

Top 3 photos by Amanda Lipsey, bottom photo by Dave Buchanan. 

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BIKE OVERNIGHTS is posted every Tuesday 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 47,000 readers worldwide.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/12/awesomeness-all-way-around.html

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