Texas Bicycling Blog and News Digest March 3rd
Bike Texas Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge Ride
by Bill Chance
When the plans for Santiago Calatrava’s Margaret Hunt Hill bridge were finalized a lot of folks were disappointed that it did not include pedestrian or bicycle lanes. We were promised that a crossing would be provided on the proximate Continental Bridge, which was being converted to a park. There is no other good way to cross the Trinity in that part of town without an internal-combustion engine. The final designs still don’t have the promised through-lanes – but it will open in June, we’ll see how it works out.
At any rate, there is a powerful urge to cross the bridge without a car. It is an impressive, imposing, work of art – and you don’t get a good look from a speeding vehicle. There was a…
Williams Racing Academy
Toughest weekend of racing in Texas made tougher by the conditions! Our young guns (and a crusty veteran) continued to impact the weekend.
Carlo and Alex made the break in the 2’s. Alex had to wait for the wheel truck behind the field, but still managed to reintegrate and get away again. Just didn’t make it back to the break. 5th and 14th on the day for the guys in the 2’s.
Dylan also had a wheel issue in the 3s. Stopped in the feed zone, we sorted it out, and he made it back to the field and then went on through…
Results: La Primavera Road Race Weekend and our inaugural Jensie Award!
voodooracing.net
This was another weekend of strong finishes for Voodoo Racing. On the Saturday clockwise course Garreth Hays hit the podium with 3rd in the 40+, Kent Myers got 12th in the Cat 3, Nick Masiewicki came in 21st in the 4/5, and Jim Chomko and John Powell got 13th and 14th in the 35+ 4/5. On Sunday, Nate Sheetz got the podium with 2nd place in the Cat 3, Carson Lange also made the podium with 2nd in the Cat 2, TC Porterfield came in 13th in the Cat 2, and Nick Masiewicki came in 13th in the 4/5.
Great race results aside, the real star of the weekend was a Voodoo Racing rider who will be receiving the inaugural Voodoo Racing Jensie Award. This annual award will be given to one of our racers who shows true tenacity, grit, and all around good humor in…
Police ticket 10 at Critical Mass, out of hundreds of riders
By Dug Begley      blog.chron.com
Houston police followed through last week on their pledge to work with organizers of the area’s end of month Critical Mass ride, but also to hold riders accountable for their actions. The outcome: 10 citations.
Hundreds of riders converged at Market Square Park for the Friday night ride, warned to be on their best behavior. Still, 10 citations is a small number considering the image many people have of the group. Drivers have complained after previous mass rides about overly aggressive cyclists pounding on hoods and failing to stop for red lights.
Riders said this outing was more subdued than usual, and they noted they have relatively few…
Bicyclist struck by car and killed while trying to cross I-20 in Arlington
By Julie Fancher      thescoopblog.dallasnews.com
A bicyclist was killed Monday afternoon after he was struck by a car while trying to cross I-20 in Arlington, police said.
Police said they received the call around 3 p.m. that the man, who has not yet been identified, had been struck while trying to cross the westbound lanes of I-20, just west of Bowman Springs Road.
Tiara Richard, an Arlington police spokeswoman, said…
HBC Ride Schedule
Houston Bicycle Club
Saturday 03/15/14 | Sealy West | 8:00am | Ronald & Lilette Britsch | r.britsch@icloud.com | 832-288-2xxx | |
Sunday 03/16/14 | Your Ride | 8:00am | NEEDED | |||
Saturday 03/22/14 | Chappell Hill North | 8:00am | Ronald & Lilette Britsch | r.britsch@icloud.com | 832-288-2xxx | |
Sunday 03/23/14 | Your Ride | 8:00am | NEEDED | |||
Sunday 03/23/14 | Urban Challenge Ride | 9:00 a.m. | Daniel J. Lyons | danjoe@aol.com | ||
Saturday 03/29/14 | Zube Park | 8:00am | Ronald & Lilette Britsch | r.britsch@icloud.com | 832-288-2xxx | |
Sunday 03/30/14 | Your Ride | 8:00am |
March Newsletter Published
Dallas Area Tandem Enthusiasts
The March edition of the DATES-Line Newsletter is published and available for download from the newsletters page. This month’s edition includes the following:
Round and Round Ride
McKinney and Blue Ridge Ride
Pilot Point Ride
Lancaster Ride
Southwest Tandem Rally
DATES Annual Meeting Minutes
“Impromptu” Tandem Ride…
2014 PURE Driveway Season Passes
Presented by HOLLAND RACING
8400 Delwau Lane, Austin, TX
Thursday, March 13, 2014 to Thursday, October 16, 2014
Express Pass Men or Women       see event details    $1,000
Season Pass Men       see event details    $675
Season Pass Women       see event details    $475
There are no additional fees when purchasing your season pass. All processing fees are included in the purchase of your pass. Before purchasing please ensure that the…
Tern’s Josh Hon to speak on SXSW transit panel
by BRAIN Staff
AUSTIN, TX (BRAIN) — Tern Bicycles founder Josh Hon has been selected as an expert for a panel discussion on urban transportation at next month’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference.
Organized by The Wall Street Journal, the Standardized City-Optimized Utility Transport (SCOUT) panel will explore the so-called “last mile†in urban transportation — and how cities can efficiently connect homes, offices and other individual endpoints to the larger grid.
The idea of SCOUT is that people will start to use a safe, compact, efficient…
2014 Navigating MAP-21 Workshop Dates Announced
By Mary Lauran Hall
More and more Americans want to live in communities where walking and bicycling are safe, easy, and accessible.
Cities and states are rising to the challenge by trying to invest more in walking and biking. But still, millions of dollars in potential federal funding for active transportation goes untapped ever year.
This is in part due to our nation’s history with an automobile-dominated transportation system: when the car is king, major funding streams are set up to flow to…
…August 1: Brownsville, TX – Register here
August 4: Austin, TX – Register here
2014 Mellow Johnny’s Classic Race Report
www.turnincranks.com
Mellow Johnny’s Classic is the Austin area’s biggest mountain biking event. Being the first race in the US Pro XCT Cup, all of the national big dogs come out to cut their teeth on our local trails.
It’s a great event and it is a lot of fun to experience all of the festivities with all of the national teams and sponsors in attendance.
This race falls at the end of week 7 of my training plan and hence I am starting to peak in my training plan leading up to my primary A race in two weeks at Pace Bend.
I can definitely feel the peak coming on and I’m feeling fast and fit on the bike. It is a fun feeling to have and I hope I can hold onto this for 2-4 weeks before it begins…
Tired/Sloppy riding and slick rocks don’t mix
www.turnincranks.com
At Mellow Johnny’s Classic race today, banged up my side a bit, dropped a couple of places before getting it back together.
Cycling Skills Clinics
Plano Bicycle Association
Register today for one of the PBA’s cycling clinics.
Choose between Group Riding Skills and Traffic Safety 101, or do both!
All clinics taught by League of American Bicyclist instructors.
Dates:
Group Riding Skills: March 23 and April 27
Traffic Safety 101: April 6
Click on the clinic picture for…
Weather to Ride.
by djcurtin      bicyclesportshop.wordpress.com
You should want to ride in bad weather. Or at least not mind it.
In Austin we’re pretty blessed with great weather. Mostly clear skies. Long stretches of moderate temperatures. Still, many of us ride the most when the weather is at its worst, not to mention potentially most dangerous—Summer.
Setting Summer aside though, like we saw this past weekend, in the Fall and Winter weather can go from Spring like to Polar Vortex in a matter of hours, if not minutes, around here. We’ve seen plenty of…
Grampies Go South
By Steve Miller and Dodie Miller
Day 58: Hunt to Leakey
Monday March 3, 2014, 69 km (43 miles) – Total so far: 3,377 km (2,098 miles)
We woke up at 5:30, a little later than we sometimes have. It’s not much use being up, though, because the deep freeze has outdone the forecast, and it is under 20 F. (-7 C) Our situation is looking a bit dicey, because we are essentially out of food. The store we passed in Hunt, some kms back, had almost nothing. So we can’t stay here, and no use going back. But can we go forward? It would be bad news to be out on a lonely, frozen road with no food and very sparse settlement ahead. And oh, there is no cell phone service.
We have laid out all our clothes and told ourselves “Well, people go out skiing for a day with not much more than this, so what are we afraid of?” A little voice replies “Up hill climbs, headwinds, flats, not reaching the lodge by dark, – that’s what”.
I wrote the above two paragraphs this morning, and wanted to post it and a little more before setting out. That way, people would know what we were thinking before finding us frozen in the hills. However the web site was down, so we just headed out. The fact that you are reading this now must…
Upcoming Events
Greater Houston Off-Road Biking Association
 Memorial Park Work Party
March 8, 2014 – 9:00am
Group Ride at the Anthills
March 8, 2014 – 9:00am
Pace Bend Race Festival
March 15, 2014 – 8:00am
Pace Bend Race Festival
March 16, 2014 – 8:00am
STORM Hill Country Challenge
March 29, 2014 – 12:00pm
New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar
New Event: Sunrise Rotary Bike Tour – Seguin, TX: When: Sat Apr 12, 2014 8:30am to 1pmÂ
CDTWhere: Max Starcke … http://t.co/YeO86ONQdR— Rick Ankrum (@texbiker) March 3, 2014
New Event: Arley Smith Memorial Criterium – Texarkana, TX: When: Sat May 31, 2014 8:30am to 5pmÂ
CDTWho: Texas… http://t.co/4nCtjnxvEv— Rick Ankrum (@texbiker) March 4, 2014
New Event: Little River Challenge – Texarkana, TX: When: Sun Jun 1, 2014 8am to 3pmÂ
CDTWho: Texas Bicycling E… http://t.co/zzCUZd3R7n— Rick Ankrum (@texbiker) March 4, 2014
New Event: Hammerfest 2.0 – Fort Davis, TX: When: Sat Apr 26, 2014 8am to 6pmÂ
CDTWho: Texas Bicycling Events
… http://t.co/OHByp6oA3T— Rick Ankrum (@texbiker) March 4, 2014
New Event: Hammerfest 2.0 – Fort Davis, TX: When: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8am to 11:30amÂ
CDTWhere: Hwy 118, Fort Dav… http://t.co/wJj13bpCWe— Rick Ankrum (@texbiker) March 4, 2014
New Event: 2014 PURE Driveway Week 1 – Austin, TX: When: Thu Mar 13, 2014 5pm to Thu Mar 13, 2014 8pmÂ
CDTWho:… http://t.co/CsyOYF5AEl— Rick Ankrum (@texbiker) March 4, 2014
Tweets
March 13 Bike MS Fundraiser @RahrBrewing benefitting @BikeMS_DFW #DontMissThis pic.twitter.com/epdlcolkiB
— Bicycles Inc (@bicycles_inc) March 4, 2014
Work Party – Saturday, Mar 8th – 9-12pm | GHORBA http://t.co/ZPEb5iO54X
— GHORBA (@ghorba_org) March 4, 2014
Bike month 2014 pic.twitter.com/RZ33JfWmGC
— VeloPaso (@velopaso) March 4, 2014
I believe when @gint32, @pjrabice, @lancearmstrong, @LAontheRoad & I rode to Shiner last May in 36 degrees, it was a 2014 winter precursor
— Jon Binsted🤘🻠(@velojonny) March 3, 2014
https://twitter.com/GranFondoGuide/status/440607491575926784
More recent bike earners from our @bgcaustin earn-a-bike class! http://t.co/3O1RTAEzCr
— Ghisallo Cycling Initiative (@GhisalloFound) March 3, 2014
Successful weekend up at Lago Vista for hautewheelsracing taking 1st and 4th (field sprint… http://t.co/2Ycb6zNxqZ
— Haute Wheels Racing (@hautewheelsrace) March 3, 2014
https://twitter.com/txbikeracing/status/440579964413284352
The state's top bike/ped minds will converge on Fort Worth later this month. Have you registered? One of the… http://t.co/TODaQ2twua
— Fort Worth Bike Sharing (@fwbikesharing) March 3, 2014
Brrrrrrr who order the CX weather!?!? This has got me thinking about #CXNats coming to Austin for the next… http://t.co/r79AdQ5ZsC
— Dirt Derby (@DirtDerby) March 3, 2014
If only facial expressions equalled watts http://t.co/PNxIUiktXG
— Dave Talley (@rdavidtalley) March 3, 2014
Winning break on Saturday @ #LaPrimavera Lago Vista. 4 riders, 4x @iamspecialized Tarmac SL4's. #elbowz #rideshimano pic.twitter.com/TLxnTr6vKx
— Stefan Rothe (@stefanrothe) March 3, 2014
Tough group of women! 38F, 20mph winds, and drizzle! #LaPrimavera @hautewheelsrace @CycleProgAustin @ATCRacingTeam pic.twitter.com/KJd3Of2gr6
— Stefan Rothe (@stefanrothe) March 3, 2014
https://twitter.com/BBQ44/status/440516056562417665
TJ Gaines finishes 2nd in the Cat 2's 19-29 at the Mellow Johnny's Classic!
— Christian Williams (@WlmsRcngAcademy) March 3, 2014
Save the date! This Saturday at Walnut Creek we're hosting a beginner #MTB clinic! http://t.co/Ya00iwZlGh #austin #bike #ride
— Bicycle Sport Shop (@BSS_Austin) March 3, 2014
Ready to conquer Dallas streets? Join our March 28-29 workshop and ride like a pro! http://t.co/icNmgd5APQ pic.twitter.com/aCi9U0mddc
— CyclingSavvy DFW (@CyclingSavvyDFW) March 3, 2014
Congratulations to our own Joey "the Cuban Missile" Machado on his great rides at La Primavera this weekend! Way to animate the race!
— BSS CX Club (@BSSCX) March 3, 2014
I guess this drive serves as a tuneup for the Fort Davis Hammerfest if I decide to go.
— Mario Arroyave (@marroyave35) March 3, 2014