More Le Tour, upcoming events and enough links to fill your weekend

After winning Thursday’s stage, Mark Cavendish puts a troubling year behind him, then celebrates by winning Friday’s Stage 6 as well. Aussie Robbie McEwen is injured in a crash after the stage is finished when a cameraman blocks his path, and two riders come to blows at the finish.

The Christian Science Monitor explains the meaning of peloton. Backstage news from the Tour, including Contador gives a gift to Lance and that dog is recovering nicely, even if David Millar can’t tell chien from chat. Speaking of Contador, word has it he’s staying with Astana. A little liquid sealant might have saved Lance from that flat on the cobblestones.

And in the inevitable daily doping report, Jan Ullrich’s former mentor admits to organizing doping expeditions for the former TdF winner.

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In upcoming events, the monthly Spoke(n) Art Ride rolls through NELA Saturday evening. The LAPD-escorted Tour LaBonge will be rollin’ on the river on Wednesday; LADOT Bike Blog has a conversation with host and 4th District Council Member Tom LaBonge.

Don’t miss the farewell celebration for the LACBC’s Dorothy Kieu Le on Friday, July 16th starting at 4 pm at the Far Bar in Little Tokyo; I’m not sure if I can make it there, but I promise you she’ll be very missed by everyone who’s had the pleasure of working with her. Or knowing her, for that matter.

Speaking of the LACBC, they’ll be holding the Coalition’s monthly board meeting at the Encino Velodrome on Wednesday the 21st. Like all of the board meetings, it’s open to the public, whether or not you’re a member of the Coalition. The meeting starts at 7 pm, but you’re encouraged to arrive early to meet the board members and discuss whatever issues are important to you.

Mark your calendar for the Walk and Ride for a Safer 4th Street to promote the proposed 4th Street Bike Boulevard on Saturday, July 24th.

And in one final LACBC note, they’ll be hosting a fundraising dinner on August 12th for the award-winning City of Lights program, bringing mobility and self-reliance to Spanish-speaking riders throughout the L.A. area; tickets are just $35. There’s no website yet, but contact the LACBC for tickets, or just email me at the address on the About BikingInLA page and I’ll forward it to the right people.

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It figures.

I finally find out there’s a Class 1 bike path next to the 405 Freeway between Church Street and the V.A. that doesn’t show up on any bike maps — when they send out an announcement that it’s closing for the next several months.

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More Santa Monica sharrows are on their way, this time on 20th between Pico and the Freeway. Courtesy of Curbed LA, a bendable bike that can tie itself to a post. Pedicabs come to Downtown L.A. Thousand Oaks police have issued 176 tickets to cyclists in the last year, most for riding on the wrong side of the street; cyclists in Austin TX can have theirs dismissed by taking a defensive cycling course. Dangerous riding conditions and anger at BP converge at a Bay Area Arco station.

The University of Arizona lights up hazardous poles at night to protect cyclists. A New York cyclist is killed by a garbage truck; police speculate the driver may not know he hit anyone. South New Jersey sees its third cyclist killed in the last 30 days. The problem with vintage bikes is finding and fitting parts; maybe they have that problem recycling discarded bicycles from the local landfill at the state penitentiary. Mississippi police catch the YouTube bike harassers they were looking for. Charleston SC sees a roughly 100% increase in cycling. Just one link missing from a continuous bikeway between Pittsburgh and DC.

An angry driver lets a rider know the road isn’t big enough for both of them; she convinces him he was probably right. For the next month, bikes fly free on JetBlue; maybe you should take one of the world’s most expensive bikes with you. Dave Moulton tells drivers to please just go around him, already. The next time you’re looking for cycling information, check out the new online library of bike safety videos. Great tips for how to have a better experience on your bike — including getting honked at is good because it means the driver sees you. A great new marketing campaign for People for Bikes; I love the ad with the women in pumps. Proper seat adjustment can cure a bad case of bikers butt.

A 7-time cycling medalist returns to this year’s Gay Games in Cologne, Germany. Very cool cycling illustrations from London’s Transport Museum. London’s bike share program is ready to roll. Comparing bike superhighways in London and Copenhagen. Bristol, England is replacing 12 parking spaces with bike corrals; the local paper doesn’t seem to approve. A UK cyclist who overcame a serious spinal condition is killed on a charity ride. Drivers don’t respect cyclists and pedestrians, even in Eritrea. A Vancouver woman asks a columnist for help with her bike-hating husband. The chairman of the Pedestrian Council of Australia says we were here first, so slow down or keep your damn bike off our shared pathways.

Finally, if I see one more article headlined Bike Safety is a Two Way Street, I’m going to scream. Seriously. I mean it. No, really.

On the other hand, this is funny.

3 comments

  1. Michael says:

    I too like the People for Bikes campaign. Auto companies have been using slick advertising for how long now to make driving look like the be all, end all of transportation; now it is good to see a bike advocacy group using the same strategy.

  2. I chuckled when I read your quip about the Class 1 bike path in Brentwood Glen — I basically thought the same thing when I got wind of the closure via one of Kasey Shuda’s e-mails (“wait, was that the path I got to ride on exactly ONCE”?) We’ll have to have a celebratory ride on it when it reopens, hopefully by the start of the fall.
    -Sirinya

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