BikinginLA

While we celebrate Bike Week, the rest of the world seems to be racing.

Case in point, while the Giro takes the day off, Wiggo wins the Stage 2 time trial in the Amgen Tour of California; Aussie Rohan Dennis is second and Taylor Phinney third.

UnitedHealthcare’s Allison Powers takes the women’s time trial, with Brianna Walle second and Taylor Wiles third. The bad news is, while the men’s ToC goes on, the women are done until next year.

Now that’s scary. Dublin police found and disarmed a fertilizer bomb just hours before the finish of Sunday’s third stage of the Giro d’Italia. Speculation is the bomb was planted by defiant Northern Irish terrorists republicans.

Brit cyclist Emma Trott retires at age 24 after the death of two friends changes her priorities.

……..

Local

Downtown News looks at Bike Week, while Streetsblog covers Monday’s kickoff event.

The new Los Angeles Register asks if it’s possible to make LA friendlier to bikes, and notes that the MyFigueroa project is in the final stretch before construction.

LA’s favorite traffic maven offers advice on how to load your bike on a Metro Bus.

Even Mayor Garcetti bikes to work this week.

 

State

BikeNewportBeach calls for extending the beach boardwalk to the Wedge.

FOX-11 reports a bike rider was shot and killed in San Bernardino early Monday morning, just one in a string of three shootings minutes apart. Even if the sex of the victim changed twice in a single paragraph.

Redlands riders will get 16 miles of new bike lanes.

 

National

Gizmodo offers advice on how to keep your bike from getting stolen and how to get it back if it is.

AAA is now offering bike roadside assistance in Colorado, Washington State, Minneapolis and Southern New England. No word on when or if they’ll offer it here; I’d be happy if they’d just stop using members’ dues to lobby against bike safety legislation, which is why I cancelled my membership.

Dallas gets closer to repealing their ill-advised helmet law in advance of a planned bike share program.

Writing about San Antonio, Strongtown says if you need a reminder that bikes can use the full lane, it’s a clear sign biking and walking are just an afterthought.

An elderly Texas man gets five years probation for killing a cyclist. The penalty doesn’t even begin to fit the crime; on the other hand, what’s the benefit to society in sending an 87-year old man to prison?

Reviewing a Cycling Savvy course, a St. Louis blogger says we don’t need bike lanes, we need drivers and cyclists to learn how to interact better with one another. Thanks to Karen Karabell for the heads-up.

Turn out that Massachusetts hit-and-run driver who was caught after speeding through an apartment complex with a bike still stuck under his car stopped to throw it into a river — the bike, not the car — before threatening a witness, yet only faces $15,000 bail. Just what does a maniac driver have to do to get the courts to take traffic crimes seriously?

The Police Unity Tour reaches Washington DC to honor fallen officers.

 

International

A Montreal writer says urban cycling is worth whatever risk there might be.

Not a good weekend for notable bike riders, as the Liverpool record executive behind the Coral and the Zutons, as well as number of other bands, died after suffering serious head injuries while riding his bike, and an Australian wine maker was killed in a cycling collision, both on Sunday.

An Irish woman goes online to replace her father’s stolen bike. And finds his missing bike, instead.

 

Finally…

A road-raging DC-area driver Jerry Browns a cyclist in an attempt to force him off the road, then causes a collision by brake checking the rider. So naturally, the police ticket the cyclist for following to closely.