Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for May 17th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Alkek Velodrome
5/18 Friday Night Schedule: Cat 1/2/3 Keirin
Keirin – Scratch – Point A Lap – Tempo
# Category Event Distance
1 Men 1-3 Keirin Heats 5 Laps
2 Jr10-14 Scratch 2K
3 JrOpen Point-A-Lap 3K
4 Masters Scratch 4K
5 Women Point-A-Lap 3K
6 Men 4/35+ Scratch 4K
7 Men 1-3 Scratch 5K
8 Jr10-14 Point-A-Lap 2K
9 JrOpen Scratch 4K
10 Masters Point-A-Lap 3K
11 Women Scratch 3K
12 Men 4/35+ Point-A-Lap 3K
13 Men 1-3 Keirin Finals 5 Laps
14 Jr10-14 Chariot 500M
15 JrOpen Tempo 6K
16 Masters Tempo 8K
17 Women Tempo 6K
18 Men 4/35+ Tempo 6K
19 Men 1-3 Tempo 12K

@TexasMTBtrails            via Twitter
Raced my third crit last night and got 5th! And I’m down 20 pounds since January 1st. I have a feeling #mtb race season is going to be great

Training Wheels Kill
urbanvelo.org

Ok, that title is, admittedly, a little Americanized. Still, I remember my experience with training wheels as if it was yesterday, probably because I’m so emotionally scarred from the experience. Thanks a lot Dad! I remember impatiently waiting for my dad to install the trainers so I could jump on my bike and speed towards freedom, so when he gave me the all clear I did just that, but instead of riding off into the sunset of maturity and self-reliance, I made it about…

Austin Bike Culture Calendar Events: 5/17- 5/23/12
by elliott            Austin on Two Wheels
Bike Month hits its full stride this week with Bike to Work Day on Friday and our first cyclovia Viva Streets on Sunday. Get out and ride your bike!

Here’s a quick run down of recommended events for the coming week from our comprehensive calendar of all cycling events. As always, if there is an event you know about that’s not on our calendar contact us, and we’ll add your event on and possibly add it to the weekly round up.

Thursday, May 17
Bicycle Advisory Council Bike Ride
5 PM, Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop, 400 Nueces St
Call it our Intro to Advocacy Night – Mellow Johnny’s wants to help you get involved with cycling issues in Austin. First we’ll take a short ride to see different types of infrastructure including the new cycletrack on Rio Grande. Next we’ll attend the Bicycle Advisory Council meeting at City Hall from 6-8pm. Post meeting, BAC members will head to The Ginger Man for a chance to informally talk issues and answer questions. Real change…

Help Out A Fellow Cyclists
by dickdavid        Bike Friendly Richardson
Some of you may or may not have heard about bike commuter, Michael McNair, being hit by a car on his commute to work last Tuesday.

The details about the accident are still limited, but here is what was posted on the DORBA Facebook Page:

CYCLIST HIT – For those of you that know MMACH5 / Michael Tripp McNair…was hit by a car today on his commute to work. He is in the Baylor ICU unit downtown with a broken neck and hips, lacerated spleen and many other injuries… Please pass the word and put him in your…

Bike to Work on Friday, May 18
by Keith Hutchinson            news.georgetown.org
Join in the national Bike to Work Day on Friday, May 18. The WilCo Wellness Alliance is sponsoring two Bike to Work gathering spots in Georgetown for cyclists who ride to work on Friday morning.

The Bike to Work registration sites in Georgetown are on the north side of the Williamson County Courthouse, 710 Main Street, and at River Bend Drive and Dawn Drive, which is one block to the northeast of Williams Drive. Onsite registration hours are 7:30 to 10 a.m. At the sites, riders will be asked to fill out a short form and survey that will…

A Preview of the Georgetown Grand Criterium Festival
by mattivonkessing

In a very short two days, Texas racers will swarm the streets of Georgetown when Andrew Willis kicks off the first ever Georgetown Grand Criterium Festival.  There has been tremendous buzz coming from the Holland Racing camp since the beginning of the racing season, when news of road crews busy on the streets of Georgetown was released.  The road work demonstrates a commitment from the city to the racing community, which is a huge step in the process of getting national level races in our own backyard.  There is a distinct…

Bikecharge Installation And Review
Seen On The Train
I was recently riding my bicycle, listening to Howard Stern and using my speedo to track how slowly I was moving, and I saw this.

Now, the last thing I want to see is that I have a low battery, because it means no tunes and no tracking for the rest of the ride. (It also means that Mrs. The Plano Cyclist can’t call me and ask when I will be home, so it’s a bit of a mixed bag.) When I saw the notification, I mentally kicked myself, because I had a dynamo system sitting on my workbench, waiting to…

Captain’s Blog – 05/16/2012 – South Texas Tour de Cure Edition
cycling.powweb.com
The Time is NOW
Well, the time is NOW – the South Texas Tour de Cure is only 3 days away on Saturday, May 19th.   Even though this will be my 12th time participating, I still get butterflies in my stomach thinking about those final seconds before the start, when you can feel the adrenalin gushing and the hearts beating faster among all the riders, and you’re surrounded by all the color and pageantry of the team jerseys.  (As an employee of Valero for almost 25 years, I always get a special thrill seeing our company logo on the jerseys and on all the…

Pure Austin Driveway Series Week 10
By Driveway Bike Race Series

A Short String Broken – May 17th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

I returned to my southerly route today which means my 40+ mile string comes to an end. It’s not that I did not want to keep it going but I like to vary the routes and this one came up. The route totaled 33.59 miles at an average speed of 15.6 mph so my string of 16+ mph average speeds ended as well. The weather could not have been better: scattered clouds, 37% humidity, 83 – 90 degrees, and a light 4 mph breeze. My max speed was only 21.3 mph but I maintained it for long stretches. According to my speed – distance data I biked at 17.5 to 20.6 mph for 70.9% of the ride. This took 1:31:38 of the total 2:09:12 riding time. Miles as of today’s ride: 124.18 this week, 483.35 for May, 2419.02 year to date.

Not much different from the rides before on this route although according to a message board at the west entrance to the FM1960 causeway over Lake Houston the right lane is supposed to be closed from May 17th to August 21 but there was no sign of any lane being closed. Today is May 17th. At the 27 mile mark another biker caught up to me. We chatted for a second as he went by. From the looks of his bike and outfit he was a triathlete. Later on I caught back with him at the Kings River Drive and W Lake Houston Parkway traffic light. He said he was out for a 20 mile ride. He turned left at the light while I went right.

Tomorrow my ride will be an afternoon event because my wife and I are going to Bush Intercontinental Airport to welcome back about 250 wounded warriors in the morning.

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Texas Bicycling Blog and News Roundup for May 16th

Texbiker.net Posted on by

MOUNTAIN BIKER NEWBIE? ADULT BEGINNER MTB CLINICS ARE COMING SOON.
by Il Pirate        Austin Ridge Riders
Beginner MTB Clinic
Recently invested in your first mountain bike? Not sure how to get started? We have just the opportunity for you to replace your apprehension with exhilaration. Three of our Bicycle Sport Shop mountain bike coaches will be teaching a three-part skills clinic for beginners on three consecutive Saturday mornings during the month of…

NTC: Track calendar off to strong start after Matrix Track Cup
www.usacycling.org
SPRINT


The sprinters contested only the time trial over the weekend. Daniel Gay (Temecula, Calif./Get Crackin’ MS-Society) tops the NTC men’s sprint standings after winning the men’s race ahead of Zack Carlson (Plano, Texas/Matrix-Richardson Bike Mart) and Bobby Unverzagt (Torrance, Calif./Get Crackin’ MS-Society). Gay collected 15 points for his win, …

Bike Friendly Dallas, Er, Richardson
by Steve A        Dallas Point-to-Point
I’m going to celebrate “Ride Your Bike to Work Day” this year with more fervor than ever before. Really, riding my bike to work is something that I do every work day, and I’m under no illusions that such events will result in some groundswell of cycling support around DFW, much less the world. However, I send flowers on Valentine’s Day and on Mother’s Day and those holidays don’t change things much either. Instead, they remind us of things we ought to remember anyway. In my case, I DO appreciate the ride to work, despite less than…

Only at The Omni Dallas Can You Get a Pimped Out Bicycle As Seen on ‘Shark Tank’
by juliana        www.hotelchatter.com
Where there’s a reality show, there’s bound to be a hotel connection. And that’s just what we found while catching up on some old episodes of “Shark Tank” this past weekend.

Villy Customs is a high-fashion bicycle designer that lets you customize your ride from the seat to the wheels right down to the bell that you put on the handles.

While Villy Customs is mainly an online business (and a pricey one too with full bikes costing about $500+) we did some research and saw that they have a partnership with Omni Hotels. As it turns…

Cycling notebook: Houstonian coasting out West
By Dale Robertson        Houston Chronicle

Before heading west for his first significant stage race as a pro, Lawson Craddock said the Amgen Tour of California represented a whole new level of competition. He conceded that winning, for him, might be “just finishing.”

Seems he was being overly modest. After all, Craddock was coming off a victory in the SRAM Tour of the Gila in New Mexico, a significant accomplishment – and “morale booster” – for the 20-year-old Houstonian, who rides for…

Georgetown Grand Race Preview With Andrew Willis
by Keith Hutchinson            news.georgetown.org
The Subaru of Georgetown Grand, the state championship criterium race, will be held in downtown Georgetown this weekend on May 19 – 20. The event is organized and sponsored by Holland Racing, a bike race promotion company in Austin.

Where are the best places to watch? Who should you look for to win? And what’s a prime?

Andrew Willis, president of Holland Racing and a former professional bike racer himself, sat down at Roots Bistro with Keith Hutchinson from the City of Georgetown to answer these questions. As a veteran of the pro cycling world, Andrew gives you an insider’s view into the sport of…

Ride of Silence is TONIGHT! Ride, Baby, Ride!
By Chris Phelan / Contributor            healthblog.dallasnews.com
It’s here. This is THE day when all the world cycles, when the globe is united if only for a little while. Besides Christmas, this is the only time this occurs.

The Ride Of Silence kicks off at, that is leaves at 7 pm. You want to arrive before then (6:30) to line up and prepare your heart and mind.

Race, religion, economic status, what kind of bike you ride, how often or far you ride or what you ride it for won’t be questioned. Tonight we as part of humanity will join together to in silence memorial for those killed…

Recreation calendar, camps, clinics
www.mysanantonio.com
Bicycling: Today, 8 a.m., Wheelers Senior Ride, 30 miles, Floore’s Country Store, Helotes. 210-643-0314.

Running: Today, 6:15 p.m., SARR Wednesday Night Zoo Run, Brackenridge Park. 210-286-6291.

Bicycling: Saturday, 7:15 a.m., South Texas Tour de Cure, 18, 30, 61 and 104 miles, Champion High School, Boerne. 210-829-1765. …

Tram Road Goes Smooth – May 16th Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

As predicted I biked today. I wanted another route over 40 miles with a northerly direction. I biked this route before but not for several months. The change from my typical north route added Roman Forest and then up Tram Road to Splendora. Tram Road is a paved road but not a smooth one in many places. Today I got a surprise because Tram Road has been resurfaced. It was so recent that the workers were putting down the center stripe when I started on it today. The ride to FM2090 even going into the wind had a new feel to it. I worked a little harder headed into the wind but once I turned west on FM2090 and then onto the southbound service road along side US59 my speed increased. I rolled along so well that I went to a smaller rear cog (12 x 34) to keep the speed at 20 mph or more.

The weather improved from yesterday with the rain clouds leaving and scattered clouds ruling the sky. A favorable NE wind at 10 mph and gusts to 16 mph kept everything very comfortable. Temperature ranged from 77 at the start to 84 at the end. When I rode in the shadows the coolness helped. With 45% humidity I did not perspire enough to get my jersey very damp.

With the wind assist from the 23 mile point until Kingwood Drive my average speed end up at a nice 16.4 mph while my max speed topped out at 22.9 mph. I don’t believe I reached this average speed for quite some time. The previous ride averaged 16.1 mph for two in a row. The route today came in at 42.46 miles. Average cadence moved up to 84.1 RPM even with the higher gear. It took 2:35:25 to bike this route with 30:37 stopped for a refill and snack in Porter. Mileage now stands at 90.58 for this week, 449.75 for May and 2385.42 year to date. So far my average speed for all of May stands at 15.7 versus 15.1 for April. Link to another data view at RideWithGPS.com.

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