Pics from Friday's Tampa critical mass

See them all at the Tampa Bike Co-op site.

The beauty of Le Tour

The 95th Tour de France may be over, but we can still enjoy its majestic beauty, thanks to this great photo gallery via Boston.com's photo blog, The Big Picture.

Photo by Joel Saget, Getty Images

Team Cinzano

 

Christian Vande Velde's father rode for Team Cinzano!

I know I'm going to get hate mail for this, but Cinzano was the only cool thing in all of Breaking Away, the most vastly over-rated cycling movie ever.

Viva Espana!

AP

Carlos Sastre brings the third consecutive Malliot Jaune back to Spain.

Dispatches from Iowa: The Big Finale

St. Petersburg Times editor Jim Verhulst wraps up his 500-mile ride across Iowa.

The RAGBRAI finale, Day 7, Tipton to Le Claire, 52.7 miles ending at the Mississippi.

After a week of living in a tent and riding hard each day, riders begin the last day of RAGBRAI a bit melancholy that it's ending, yet happy that it's about to be over.

After a week of headwinds, we had an an up and down (but mostly down) course with a tailwind a part of the way. My riding partner and I took it easy for the first 40 miles. We ate pancakes on a stick (they're about as good as they sound). We should have known better but we were hungry.

Dispatches from Iowa: The Penultimate day

St. Petersburg Times editor Jim Verhulst is close to completing the 500-mile RAGBRAI ride in Iowa.

Day 6, Friday, July 25, 2008

North Liberty to Tipton, 64.1 miles, 3,051 feet of climbing.

 

A glorious and fast ride this morning. While RAGBRAI heads from the western border of Iowa to the eastern, today we went cycled mostly north, then south, before arriving at our overnight town of Tipton. It was a route that only a very confused crow would trouble to fly.

 

After yesterday's cold and wet spin, today was beautiful. Warm but not hot. We had a bit of a tailwind and, of course, a bunch of climbs again. My riding partner and I had breakfast together at Farm Boys' (breakfast burritos all around) and then split up for the day.

 

I rode solo most of the time until we hit some headwinds, then joined up with a paceline populated mostly by folks from the West Des Moines cycle club. It wasn't really a pace line, more of a "pace amoeba," as riders were moving down the road more in a blob than a line. But everyone seemed to know each other, and all seemed to be good and careful riders, so I sat in, taking care to watch whatever wheel happened to be in front of me.

We split up on a climb after some miles, then I hooked up with Drew Clark, a retired math teacher from Colorado, for the last 15 miles or so. He and his team won the RAAM (Race Across America) 60-69 age group back in 2006. They rode 3,042 miles in 7 days, two hours and 15 minutes, averaging 17.87 mph. I didn't know this, but training for team RAAM is more like time-trial training than long-distance training. Teams of two trade off riding 5-mile time trials for two hours, then take off two hours. At night, a team of two trades off on six-hour shifts. He said the solo riders take care never to redline their heart rate, while the team riders are always riding at the limit because they're riding such short bursts. He wondered if I've ever thought about it. I think RAGBRAI is long enough for me.

New Pinellas Trail segment is mixed bag

For months we witnessed workers squeezing traffic on First Avenue S from four lanes to three as they built out the easternmost part of the Pinellas Trail in downtown St. Petersburg. So just how is this all working out for cyclists biking through the urban setting?

Times editor and bicycling enthusiast Jim Verhulst wrote a piece for the July 27 Neighborhood Times assessing the new route. He also came up with the idea to do a helmet-cam and film what you'll see on the ride. It's a little bumpy, but then so is the ride. Here's the view:

Dispatches from Iowa: Strong as an ox

Another entry from St. Petersburg Times editor Jim Verhulst's 500-mile RAGBRAI ride.

Thursday, July 24, 2008
Day 5, Toledo-Tama to North Liberty, 76.2 miles, 3,200 feet of climb.

To preserve karmic harmony, it is only natural that yesterday's series of grace notes would be followed by something more searing than soothing for the soul. And so it was.

It was raining and cold when my alarm rang at 4:55 this morning. I had slept in arm and leg warmers. And as the rain pelted the tent, I packed up everything I could inside it before venturing out. I stalled until 5:30, at which point the rain stopped, but the cold didn't.

My friend and I set out in cool, overcast morning. I brought along arm warmers, which I pulled on shortly into the ride. After breakfast, we split up because I wanted to ride faster to keep my body core warmer. It was cold with a spitting drizzle that was chilling. It was another hilly day. Oh, did I mention the headwinds? Every flag I saw was flapping hard in our direction. It was a slog. But, I suppose, a really good training ride with some really sustained intensity.

Dispatches from Iowa: Good Samaritans

It's pretty unlikely that anyone can go 500 miles in one week without a few setbacks along the way. Keep reading to find out how St. Petersburg Times editor Jim Verhulst handled them during his RAGBRAI ride.

Wednesday, July 23, Ames to Toledo-Tama, 77.9 miles (but only 65 for me. You'll have to keep reading to find out why.)

 

It was a day of days. It was a day filled with so much kindness that I hesitate to start with this fact, but it's true: There is at least one very, very naughty person in Iowa. As we left Ames this morning we began to see cyclist after cyclist at the roadside, bike overturned, flat tire under repair. After seeing several score of them (yes, that many) we found out that someone had spread tacks on the road on the route from Ames to Nevada and Colo and possibly beyond.

The police were not happy, judging by the number of patrol cars with lights flashing heading the opposite way to address the issue. I didn't see, but heard from several people that road sweepers with some sort of magnet had been dispatched to deal with the problem. Whoever did it certainly doesn't understand the seriousness of a blowout on a fast descent. When I pulled into Green Mountain, about 23 miles from today's end, a grandfather working the fire station's lunch tent said he had heard about the flats from rider after rider. He tsked-tsked and then said, "That's not Iowa."

 

Before I get to "what is Iowa," allow me a quick digression for today's travelogue. We passed through the small town of Colo, "the crossroads of America," where the Lincoln and Jefferson highways intersect. Then we next rode through State Center, which is (guess what?) the geographic center of Iowa. They have marked the spot, and you can stand on it.

After passing through Albion, I cycled through Green Mountain, but not before asking a local where Green Mountain got its name. I know, as does any rider on RAGBRAI, that Iowa has many, many hills and rollers, but a mountain? Not true. Green Mountain, he was pretty sure, was named after the Green Mountains of Vermont. He couldn't remember why for certain - he thought maybe the founder had come from that region - but he had the book at home and would look it up later to jog his memory.

 

Cadel Evans is cRaZY!@

Not a day goes by that he's not snapping at someone. "I cut your head off"? Geeeez