The Cycling Thread

[fordprefect739]

Originally Posted by vinceprince

This picture was brought to my attention by a female cyclist friend of mine. She just thought it was very funny, what she and the females who commented on was the ridiculous nature of having these 'Dolly-birds' on the podium at all in an otherwise quite progressive sport rather than chastising Sagan.

Your friend is right that it is silly for them to be there at all but it is a long held tradition and long held traditions die hard. The fake cheek kissing is silly too, though I think that's more specifically a French thing. Maybe someone who cares enough should start a petition to end it.

In any case, they aren't up there to be groped.

Sagan got off lightly by only having to apologize. He probably should have been fined as well.

[whop]

It's not silly at all. Keep the podium girls. They have nothing to do with the sport as such, but they are nice to look at.

[wimbo77]

I found out the song they used at the end of the last highlights programme, Stage 21. It was this by Laura Mvula.

Overcome

[fordprefect739]

Bicycling Street Smarts (defensive bicycle driving):

http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/usa/

Left side drive version for the U.K., Australia and other left side driving countries:

http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/lhd/index.htm

Facebook page promoting the book and defensive bicycle driving techniques and education in general:

https://www.facebook.com/BicyclingStreetSmarts/

French:
http://john-s-allen.com/bssfrench/

Romanian:
http://www.biciclete.net/sfaturi_practice_pentru_mersul_cu_bicicleta-28.html

Printed copies are available from Rubel Maps and often from local bike coalitions in the U.S. Also available from Amazon but at ridiculously inflated prices from 3rd party sellers. If you have to pay more than $5.95 including shipping for a single copy, then you are getting ripped off.

http://www.bikemaps.com/bss.htm

According to the author, Spanish and German versions are in the works, but it's unclear when they will be available.

[fordprefect739]

Another good defensive bicycle driving book is Cyclecraft by John Franklin. There is no free version as with Bicycling Street Smarts. Franklin is a Brit so the original is for left side drive but there's also a right side drive version for the U.S., Canada etc. The U.K.'s Bikeability education program for cyclists uses it as a companion text.

U.K.:
http://www.cyclecraft.co.uk/

North America:
http://www.cyclecraft.org/

Also available from Amazon and possibly even your local library.

Other:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclecraft
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cycle...06218949409520

Bikeability (U.K.'s bike safety training program based on Cyclecraft):
https://bikeability.org.uk/

[fordprefect739]

Like the U.K., the U.S. also has defensive bicycle driving courses. There are two national organizations who have curriculums: Cycling Savvy and the League of American Bicyclists. The League's program was created from a portion of John Forester's Effective Cycling education program. Forester's program was a comprehensive everything about all aspects of cycling course. It was too much for most people so the League took the parts about safety and basic road skills and a few other things and left out things like loaded camping touring and racing pace lines etc.

The creators of Cycling Savvy were League Certified Instructors (LCI's) who thought that they could improve on the program. They added some elements from Cyclecraft plus some of their own insight based upon their own experience and research as well as a bit from other sources (they are friends with John Allen of Bicycling Street Smarts) and they created what I consider to be the best bike safety education program going. I say that as someone who has completed all 3 of their courses and is also certified to teach the League's safety program. Still, their program is probably over 90% the same as the League's program. Where they differ, I like Cycling Savvy better.

http://cyclingsavvy.org/hows-my-driving/
https://register.cyclingsavvy.org/findaclass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JivkgMAnDaE
http://online.cyclingsavvy.org/cours...ectures/605517

They have web pages with some nice interactive graphics but they have some even better graphics that they only show in the classroom portion of the course.

The League doesn't offer classes directly but instead certifies instructors who teach either independently or more commonly via local bike coalitions or clubs or sometimes even bike shops. They do have a page to help you find a class:

http://www.bikeleague.org/content/find-take-class

Some bike coalitions get sponsorship and can offer the classes for free. My local coalition, the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, is one of those. The League's directory doesn't always have the most up to date information so look for your local bike coalition and see what they've got.

[vinceprince]

Predictions for the Olympic Road Race tomorrow?

In the UK they're talking up Froome's chances but despite the course being tough he's never done anything in one day races and finds them too punchy when his rivals haven't been ground down after a about a week of racing the Sky Train.

This one day course with a flat run-in and sprint looks made for Valverde but he seems past his best and overcooked for this season after 2 hard Grand Tours as does Nibali.

My money's on the Dutch, Wout Poels showed what he can do in a really tough one day race in Liege this year (when he's not working like a dog for Froome) and looked to be getting stronger as the Tour went on and he also showed he can sprint at Liege.
Mollema showed how well he recovered from the Tour by winning over a similar course at San Sebastian last week. They also have Dumoulin and Kruijswijk to back them up.

[rupertramjet]

I would not bet against Peter Sagan! World and Olympic Champion would be a hell of a year!

[vinceprince]

Originally Posted by rupertramjet

I would not bet against Peter Sagan! World and Olympic Champion would be a hell of a year!

He's not racing, course maybe to hilly for him and doesn't have much of a national team to help him. He's doing the mountain biking instead which is where he started his career.

[rupertramjet]

Originally Posted by vinceprince

He's not racing, course maybe to hilly for him and doesn't have much of a national team to help him. He's doing the mountain biking instead which is where he started his career.

That is a disappointment, but I am taking no interest in the olympics. Lower case deliberate, to me the action of the committee towards drug evidence is wholly inappropriate. Clean athletes are being singularly let down. That said I will be delighted at British medal winners, I believe they are clean!