If you tried to click on the link to Steve Herbert’s triptych of videos showing stupid Santa Monica driver tricks yesterday, only to be told by Facebook that the page doesn’t exist, the problem’s been fixed.
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A bizarre finish to the climb up Mont Ventoux, with winds up to 80 mph, found Tour de France leader Chris Froome running up the mountain — without a bike — after yet another crash caused by a race moto and overly aggressive fans.
This is what the crash looked like up close. LA’s Peter Flax describes the madness leading up to the final scrum, calling the Tour an absurd, beautiful circus.
And Australia’s Simon Gerrans is out of the race after breaking his collarbone when he crashed on a fast descent.
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Local
Streetsblog offers an update on the state of bikeshare in the LA area; West Hollywood’s system will have a soft launch with just four stations on August 9th, with the full system opening by the end of next month.
Downtown stakeholders are fighting a new development at Fourth and Hill, arguing it’s too tall and modern for the area; on the plus side, the 428-unit apartment building would have more parking for bikes than cars.
A 95-year old bike rider suffered a broken leg and minor head injuries when he was hit by a car just outside West Covina yesterday morning. But the driver said she didn’t see him, so it’s okay, right? And how exactly did kneepads help save his life?
CiclaValley climbs Stough Canyon and the Verdugo Mountains.
State
New state rules will allow bikeshare programs to apply for funding to expand into low-income areas.
Happy birthday to Ventura County’s Newberry Park Bicycle Shop, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Sad news from San Luis Obispo, as a woman riding on an Edna Valley highway was killed when a driver drifted onto the shoulder and ran her down from behind.
Fresno unveils a new safety campaign warning drivers to slow down for people.
A Petaluma website says don’t fear the road diet.
A Modesto man faces vehicular manslaughter, hit-and-run and car theft charges in the death of a bike rider last month.
National
How to turn your bike into the ultimate Pokemon Go machine.
Bicycling explains how to protect your manly bits and pieces.
A bike-riding boy was not seriously injured when a suspected Nevada bomber blew himself up; the family who lived in the home he targeted somehow escaped before the blast.
Denver’s B-Cycle system illustrates how to not succeed in bikeshare.
A 22-year old Virginia woman riding cross-country with the Bike & Build program was killed when she and another rider were rear-ended by a driver in Idaho; the second victim remains in critical condition.
Two Good Samaritans are honored for saving the life of a bike-riding Texas triathlete who was left for dead by a hit-and-run driver.
A ghost bike for a Michigan hit-and-run victim has been removed from storage in the hope that it will help solve the case.
Boston takes a tiny, tentative step toward traffic safety by installing a parking protected bike lane on the city’s famed Beacon Street. For one whole block.
DC votes unanimously to change a policy that kept bicycles and pedestrians from receiving any settlement at all in most crashes.
Bighearted Georgia police step up to help a young homeless man after learning he’d just ridden a bicycle six hours to register for college.
International
A Canadian cyclist calls for making cycling a priority on Prince Edward Island.
Motor vehicles will be banned entirely from London’s busy Oxford Street shopping district within the next four years. I doubt LA leaders would ever have the guts to make a bold move like that; we can’t even get bike lanes on Westwood and North Figueroa.
A boy from the UK saved up for months to buy a second-hand bike, only to have it stolen just two days later. Then got it back — with a letter of apology — after his mother recognized the thieves on security camera footage.
Yet another British bike rider was nearly decapitated by a wire strung over a bike path in what police call a premeditated attack.
There’s more than one way to get a parked bike out of the way.
Caught on video: It takes a kindhearted bike rider to rescue a kitten from a busy Russian intersection.
Finally…
Forget carbon; your next bike frame could be made of graphene and weigh less than a pound, or it could be made of wood and full of holes. Or look like something out of Tron.
And this is your brain. This is your brain exercising in the heat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub_a2t0ZfTs
