Tour of California

Peter Sagan (right) winning Stage 1 of the 2016 Tour of California (photo from CyclingNews)

The 2016 Tour of California began on Sunday is San Diego. There should be some exciting sprints in this race, since it features sprinters like Mark Cavendish, Alexander Kristoff and Peter Sagan. Surprising, neither Cavendish or Kristoff were factors in the stage 1 finish, which Sagan won with a late surge to pass Wouter Wippert just before they reached the finish line. All this week we'll have the race on from 5 to 7 in the afternoon for NBC Sports' coverage. The race concludes on Sunday in Sacramento with coverage from 4 to 6.

There are 18 cycling teams in this year's race, including BMC and Team Sky. Also competing is Team Novo Nordisk, which is composed entirely of cyclists who have diabetes. Their goal is to make it into the Tour de France by 2021.

The 2015 Tour of California was the closest finish ever. Peter Sagan, better known as a sprinter, made it up Mt. Baldy on stage 7 with a time good enough to keep him within two seconds of the leader, Julian Alaphillipe.The last stage was flat, which meant it was unlikely he could gain any time, except for time bonuses. At a mid-stage sprint, Sagan picked up a two second time bonus, while Alaphillipe got a single second to maintain his lead. At the end of the stage, Sagan was able to finish in third place by about the width of tire. This gave him the final time bonus of four seconds and the overall victory.

Peter Sagan won the 2015 Tour of California by narrowly finishing third on the final stage

Friday Photo - River City Bicycles

River City Bicycles in Portland, Oregon

This week's Friday photo comes from the roof of River City Bicycles in Portland, Oregon. I have been looking for ideas on something we could put on the roof of our store to attract attention. This is really well done. There's even a light under each bike so they can be lit up at night. If you ever venture out west to Portland, be sure to check out River City Bicycles. Here's a video with the owner explaining how the sculptures wound up on the roof of the building:

Wednesday Video - Cycling Through Sicily

Cycling through the Italian island of Sicily

Actually the full title of the video is "Cycling (and Eating) Our Way Through Sicily, Italy." It comes from the folks (David & Veronica) at GypsyNester.com. They went on a bicycle tour of Sicily with VBT (formerly known as Vermont Bicycle Touring) and seemed to have a pretty good time. They show several clips of their food, along with a lot of footage of the Sicilian countryside. Be sure and watch it to the very end when David tries a fresh olive right off the tree.

Beginners Mountain Bike Ride this Friday

Mountain Bike Trail at Southwestway Park

This Friday, May 13 will be the first of a series of weekly beginner mountain bike rides at Southwestway Park. 

This ride will be part of the Indianapolis Beginner & Intermediate Cycling Meetup. The ride will start at 6:30 PM and will last about an hour.

The ride will not happen if the trails are too wet. To check trail status, visit the Trail Guide on the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association website. Trail status is shown on the right hand side of the page. If it's green or yellow, the ride is a go. If it's red the ride is cancelled. Keep in mind that the trails at Southwestway tend to dry out a little faster than some other trails.

Friday Photo - Rocket Powered Bicycle

Rocket powered bicycle about to race against a Ferrari (Photo courtesy of Gizmag)

In November of 2014, a gentleman named Francois Gissy set a world record of 207 miles per hour in a rocket powered bicycle. He was racing against a Ferrari which he left in the dust. The bike reached its top speed in less than 5 seconds. You can read more about it on the Gizmag website. The article is appropriately titled "Interview with a Madman." Here's a video that shows the bicycle in action.

I haven't been able to find out what has happened in rocket powered bicycle technology since 2014. In the article, Gissy said he hoped to ride a bike called "Spine Crusher," which could hit 250 miles per hour in two seconds. A link to his Facebook page from the YouTube video no longer works.

Wednesday Video - Cycling & Parkinson's Disease

Although he has trouble walking, this Parkinson's disease patient can ride a bike flawlessly

Here is an absolutely amazing video. A guy who had Parkinson's disease so bad he couldn't walk without aid, swore that he could ride a bike. They went to the parking lot and he showed that he could ride with no problem. The effect seems to last. Dr. Alberts of the Cleveland Clinic took a friend with Parkinson's on a tandem bike ride. The video shows his hand shaking wildly before the ride, and steady as a rock afterwards. Nobody understands why cycling has this effect, but there is ongoing research at the Cleveland Clinic to find out.

St. Helena Mountain Bike Trail

The start of St. Helena's first mountain bike race (Photo courtesy of St. Helena Island Info)

If you are like most people, the only thing you know about the St. Helena is that Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled there after the battle of Waterloo.  Today the island is home to about four thousand inhabitants. The Director of Tourism came up with the idea of creating a mountain bike trail, which was completed in September of 2014. Later that month, they had their first mountain bike race, which featured thirteen participants. The winner of the inaugural race was Alonzo Henry. You can read more about the event in this issue of The Sentinel. The description of the race is on pages 18 and 19.

Part of the trail passes by the colorful "Paint Box" (Photo courtesy of Mary's Explorings)