Tampa Bay Lightning's Go Green Night - Free Hockey!

Back this year is the most bicycle friendly night of hockey season. Ride your bike to the game versus the Ottawa Senators Saturday night and get in free. That's right, free.

The Lightning are off to a slow start, so tickets aren't as hard to get as you might think, but still, if offsets the outrageous price of food once you're inside.

Can't bring the bike? Bring a phone book to recycle and get a lower-level seat for $20 or an upper-level seat for $5.

Secure bike parking will be provided and the first 10,000 fans (if they draw that many) will get a Lightning Rally Towel.

Chip Haynes' book signing

Local cycling author and advocate (and frequent commenter here) Chip Haynes is signing copies of The Bicycle Book tomorrow (11/1) at Book Bank USA at Largo Mall at 1 p.m.

Chip contributed five essays to the collected works of 25 noteworthy authors from around the country. His personal book, The Practical Cyclist, is due for publication in 2009.

Hope you can make it out to say hello and wish him well.

EDIT: Chip's new book is now available on Amazon!

Battle of the bike sharing programs

Bike Green got a lot of press in the spring when founder Brent Bruns announced he wanted to flood St. Petersburg with green bikes.

The project has shunk and reformed, but now it also faces a challenge from a rival bike sharing program from former partner Andrew Blikken: one that involves lock, advertising and dollar signs.

Where do they stand? Keep reading.

Roller races

Coming soon to Tampa Bay

RAPHA Cross Roller Race - Oregon Manifest 2008 from RAPHA on Vimeo.

OMG! The 2009 Tour is gonna be sweeeeet!

The official route of the 2009 Tour de France was released today and includes a lot of cool twists.

First, it starts with a twisty, uphill individual time trial around the picturesque streets of Monaco. This is about twice as long as a typical prologue and should open some nice gaps.

Then in Stage 4 it's the return of the 38km Team Time Trial. Look for Astana and Saxo Bank to be ripping it up as usual.

Stage 6 will zip down the Spanish coast to Barcalona, the race's first visit there since 1965.

The boys will cross the Col du Tourmalet before zipping back to the Alps for a few more mountaintop finishes.

The Queen stage is No. 17, with five climbs and a finish atop the col de la Colombière.

The next morning they're up again for a 40km time trial, but there is one more test before Paris.

That's right: a mountaintop finish up Mont Ventoux on Stage 20. The historic climb makes its first Tour appearance since 2002. It's my favorite climb — to watch, that is! This time around it's the time trial specialists who will be hoping to put some time into the climbers. There will be some tired legs rolling into Paris.

Your top 3:

1. Contador

2. Sastre

3. Basso

Lance? After committing to the Giro, Johan says it's 50-50 that he even shows up for the Tour. After all, he can't "lose" if he doesn't race.

[via BikeRadar.com]

Celeb sighting in St. Pete

Word is a certain someone was on the group ride this morning out of North Shore pool. He used to live in Clearwater, so maybe he's here on vacation? Or for the World Series?

Sure enough I missed out because I was in North Shore Park PRACTICING ON MY CROSS BIKE! Oh, the irony.

Was anyone there to get the scoop?

Bicycle Bash photos

Wow, what an awesome day. I got a little sunburnt, and I spent a little more than I should have at the swap meet, but in all I had a great time and there was a great turnout. Special thanks go out to Alan Snel for once again putting on an awesome event. Can't wait 'til next year!

Black Mass II

Cyclist killed in freak accident

I don't know any more than what I read here, but if you ever wondered if bar-end plugs were necessary, now you have your answer.

Bicyclist dies after being impaled on handlebars

By Anthony Anamelechi
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

A man died Tuesday night after he fell off his bicycle and was impaled on the handlebars.

Vincent Sullivan, 49, was riding his bicycle about 9:30 p.m. in the 1300 block of Lake Avenue, said Officer David McCranie, spokesman for the Tallahassee Police Department.

During the crash, the handlebars rotated out of place. The man fell, and the handlebars punctured his lower abdomen.

Then again, it's been a week for "freak" accidents. This guy got impaled through the leg. [WARNING: Very gross photos]

The guy he was riding behind ran over a large branch which kicked up and impaled Bob’s leg when he ran into it. The EMT’s had to cut the ends of the branch off to get him in the ambulance.

Remembering Josh Kuck

Fellow bike blogger and former Times reporter Eric Smithers has a nice essay over at the USF Cycling blog. Check it out.