NBL Grand National

This weekend is the National Bicycle League's Grand National. Tons of people will be decending on Louisville from all over the world. They will be going on out at E.P. "Tom" Saywer State Park all weekend long. Friday night will be the UCI Pro Spectacular.

Here's an article done in the Indiana Weekly..

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070829/NEWS0201/708290731/1026

Videos of the century ride

Okay I'm going to do my first try of embedding videos into a blog. Wish me luck and cover me, I'm going in!

At 89 miles!


Debbie gets demanding. You can hear me yell at Melissa or John to please just talk and say something. Geez, I'm riding at 15 mph, looking backwards filming for gosh sakes!!!



Finally, I reach 100 miles. But there's a slight problem...

Derby City BMX Marathon Weekend

We had a barn-burner of a race for $500 buck-a-roos!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHpRk0MUEGU

Where have I been?

Why training

for my first century of course. :) Just did it today. My husband, daughter and I went up to Kokomo this weekend and did the "Sizzlin' Century" ride. Yeah, we went to Kokomo on purpose because we didn't want any killer hills! But we've been training all summer in the Southern Indiana Knobs/Louisville area so we've had plenty of hill riding. What fun. I was even able to ride my bike and take pictures and

videos with my little digital camera. I have some videos up on youtube and I'm going to see if I can put up some images. Never tried that before.

I'm putting up one of us at the start and right when we finished.

A Bicycle In Church? Go on. Yeah, This Sunday.

    Somebody asked me to put together a service and I'm bringing my bike.  

   At 11 a.m. this Sunday, August 19, I'll have the pulpit at First Unitarian Church of Louisville, 809 S. Fourth St. (Across from the Louisville Free Public Library at York Street).  

   No, I am not an ordained minister, but Unitarians are open-minded and pretty relaxed about this stuff.  I'll be using my 880-mile bike trip to Niagara Falls this Spring as a metaphor in a talk touching on journeys, pilgrimage, and some of what we learn from life when in pursuit of an ideal.

  There's also a free coffee social afterwards if you feel like coming, on your bike or not, for a service out of the ordinary.  Some great local musicians (Gary Falk, sax, Jim Schweickert and Will Plummer on piano and New Albany's Tiffany Taylor, vocals) will also perform in the service.

Entry to the church is not on Fourth St, but off Library Alley at the back. 

I would usually offer to ride back to New Albany afterwards, but this week have to stay for a youth group meeting.

"Chips" Cronin Remembered; Sharrows dedicated on 2d Street Bridge

Hot day, hot pavement, gratitude for the wind.

I joined an estimated 2,300 cyclists on the Second Street Bridge at 2 p.m. today to celebrate the new "sharrows" and signage urging motorists to share the respective north- and southbound right lanes and to yield to bicyclists. 

While the Louisville Bicycle Club had been at work with the city to improve safety on the bridge, it was the death of Cronin (by an "inattentive" driver) that clearly fast-tracked getting the new signs and lane markings up.    In half an hour of pre-ride speeches to the choir, Cronin's brother-in-law, Ed Tonini, who is also head of advocacy for the LBC, said the Federal Highway Commission is allowing the new lane markings as a "pilot" program since they are not part of the existing signage inventory.

Mayor Abramson, made only a few brief remarks, the most significant perhaps being that he wants to make Louisville as cyclist-friendly a city as Portland, and in less time than it took Portland to accomplish its current status as a national leader.

Unfortunately, today was no demonstration as the entire bridge was closed to motorized traffic for the inaugural ride.  Cycling clubs and racing teams from both sides of the river went off first to do a lycra-rich, three miler over and back.  Many others followed, including families with children, people of all abilities, etc.  I even met a couple from St. Louis who had rented neat looking adult trykes at the concession near Joe's Crab Shack (at $10/hour) to join the ride.

A similarly large group broke off on the other side, I with them, to head out to Utica for a 20 or 30 mile loop.  It was a delight getting into a nice rhythm in a long stretched out line heading east on Utica Pike.  

I split off just past the Port to head up Utica-Sellersburg Road, get on Highway 62 and book it out to Charlestown where I was meeting family and friends at a pool party.  About 20 miles, hot pavement, and a bottle each of water and Gatorade to stay hydrated.

The bridge signage is an important event on the long road to raising awareness and safety while developing a "share the road" attitude around here.  Each of us should appreciate other's efforts to make progress and do what we can to support and extend it.