She did it.
American cyclist Evelyn Stevens not only broke the hour record, she shattered it, beating the women’s record set just last month by nearly seven-tenths of a mile.
The former Wall Street analyst, who was 25-years old before she raced for the first time, rode 29.81 miles in 60 minutes, setting the record just seven years after she turned pro.
By comparison, the men’s record, held by British pro Bradley Wiggins, is roughly 4 miles further.
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Once again, Ed Begley Jr. rode his bike to the Oscars from his Burbank home, carrying his tux in his pannier and changing once he arrived.
You can read his live tweets from the ride and during the ceremony on his Twitter page.
And when he’s not getting chewed on by bears, new Best Actor winner Leonardo DiCaprio is one of us, too.
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Local
Richard Risemberg says it’s easy to get bike racks installed in Los Angeles.
LAist asks what could possibly go wrong by renting bikeshare bikes to tourists in the Biking Black Hole of Beverly Hills without adding bike lanes on major streets. The good news is, Cedars-Sinai is just a few minutes away.
The Glendale News-Press offers a good look at LACBC local chapter Walk Bike Glendale’s efforts to hand out free bike lights to lightless riders as part of the coalition’s Operation Firefly.
Whittier rallies around the Tricycle Man, after the well-known local man’s adult trike is destroyed in a left cross collision; over $12,000 has been raised for a new bike, far surpassing the original $1,000 goal. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.
CORBA will offer a free mountain bike skills seminar at Malibu Creek State Park this Saturday.
State
California approves $133 million for 59 trail projects and separated bikeways in the new budget.
A San Marcos flood-control project intended to revitalize the city’s downtown area will include a bike and pedestrian pathway on the levee above San Marcos Creek, along with bike lanes across two new bridges.
Times are hard in Silicon Valley, as tech start-ups are giving away fewer $10,000 custom-made bikes as signing bonuses.
Sacramento cyclists flock to examine the bikes and gear at the 12th annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show. Lucky bastards. We either need to find a way to get the show down here, or get me up there.
National
A Seattle artist offers some nice illustrations of downtown bike messengers and delivery people.
More proof bicycling is good for you. A Nebraska man lost 136 pounds over three years by walking and biking, making a planned lap-band surgery unnecessary.
Members of a Texas cycling team were lucky to walk away after eight of the twelve riders were hit, and three injured, when they were left-crossed by a van driver. Thanks to Steve Katz for the heads-up.
After a Texas rider complained about a close pass by another rider on a bike path, the second cyclist responded by pulling a gun on him.
Great idea. A Wisconsin after-school program teaches bike maintenance to middle school students. I’m told Orange County’s Bicycle Tree offers a similar program; thanks to Calvin Design for the tip.
A Vermont OpEd bizarrely insists a road diet will make cyclists more vulnerable because no one have been killed on that particular street yet, while suggesting bike riders are safer on pathways and sidewalks, even if that means paving the latter over.
A New Jersey paper provides a very auto-centric guest column from a Hoboken minister who seems to forget that God loves those who don’t drive, too.
International
The Canadian government concludes truck side guards don’t save lives after all, despite widespread acceptance overseas.
More outrage from the UK, as a man takes up six train seats for himself and his bike. I think we can all agree it’s boorish behavior. But I wonder if anyone politely asked him to move his bike so they could sit?
Who needs bikeshare when you’ve got a bike bank? A British program loans bicycles to anyone who needs one.
Apparently upset at a collision with a sidewalk riding cyclist, an angry English pedestrian takes it out on the rider’s bike.
A Parisian family revives a line of hand-made, high-end bicycles that once counted Marlene Dietrich, Maurice Chevalier, Edith Piaf and Josephine Baker as customers; the standard model will set you back $12,000, while an e-bike runs $17,000. Thus pricing beyond the reach of most tech startups.
Residents of a Mumbai neighborhood demand a cycle track.
Two hundred Aussie riders strip down for what was billed as the final Melbourne edition of the World Naked Bike Ride.
Caught on video: A rear-view dashcam captures a cyclist knocked down in a violent hit-and-run; fortunately, the victim walked away with just some nasty road rash.
An Australian writer evidently thinks their equivalent of a three-foot passing law means bicyclists have to stay that far from cars, as well. And that if you give cyclists a meter, they’ll take a kilometer.
Finally…
Who needs a weather balloon when you have a bicycle? At last, a bike for people the rest of us have to look up to.
And apparently, driving a car 280 miles a week and not riding a bike since you were 12 makes a person an expert on bike safety.
