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Showing posts from November 22, 2009

Dirty Dozen 2009 - Pittsburgh, PA

The 27th Annual Dirty Dozen up Pittsburgh's 13 steepest hills will be held on Saturday, November 28th at 10am. Anticipating another large crowd this year, please show up as early as 8-9am to start registration early. Meet at the Washington Boulevard Track (Where the ACA holds weekly criterium races in the summer). I recommend a low gear of 39x27. The route is 50 miles, but will take at least 5 hours because we go neutral between the hills, and there are 3-4 stops atop hills where I offer snacks and drinks. New this year will be t-shirts handed out at registration. Again this year, there will be a 3 place prize list for women riders, but they need to ride up EVERY HILL to be eligible. The breakdown will be: 1st woman - $150 2nd woman - $100 3rd woman - $ 50 Register the day of the event, and there is a $15 entry fee. For a listing of the hills, history of the event, and former winners, go to: http://dannychew.com/dd.html

The Great Turkey Chase, part 2! - Burlington VT - Kinda like Cranksgiving

Ed. note - I did not ride this. It is an interesting idea that has been discussed for Columbus. The Great Turkey Chase, part 2! will be a food drive and bike race. Registration will be free, but people need to bring around $15 to buy food along the way. Each of the checkpoints is a grocery store, and there will be a shopping list instead of a standard race manifest. Receipts will prove you made it to all the checkpoints, and since most receipts are time stamped, we can make sure everybody played fair. All the food will go to a local food bank when the race is done, just in time for Thankgiving! Post event update ****************** Huge thanks to everybody involved! We collected 556 pounds of food yesterday, which included 7 turkeys. 38 people raced and everybody got home safe (despite a few mechanicals, crashes and shenanigans) Here are the 'official' results: Fixed 1st. Aaron Simmers 2nd. Nate Halstead 3rd. Blotto Freewheel 1st. Peter Troy 2nd. Ned Castle

Residents ask for pedestrian, bicyclist upgrades to Route 3

Approximately 50 residents and community leaders gathered Nov. 17 at the Blendon Township Senior Center, 6330 S. Hempstead Road, to listen to results from a transportation study of the Westerville Road/state Route 3 corridor, and to put their two-cents worth in. The open house was sponsored by the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. "We're at about the mid-way point of the planning study for this process," said Nick Gill, MORPC's assistant director of transportation. "We've been able to identify some of the purposes for making improvements to the corridor." The study is reviewing current travel conditions in the Westerville Road corridor roughly between Morse Road and Interstate 270 and will identify improvements that are needed by 2030. more...

Yay Bikes Website Launched

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Check out the website. It was relaunched earlier this week with new features. Speak up about bicycling and become a part of the community. Here...

Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail

This is a beautiful trail. Check it out sometime if you are in Vermont. I ended with 55 miles roundtrip. Rode from St. Albans trailhead to Richford VT. Trail is relatively flat. There are some slight climbs as you head north but nothing steep. The trail was sloppy and slow when I was there so knobbie tires may not be the best choice. Word of caution. As you near Richford the cell towers become Canadian and AT&T considers that international calling. Turn off your cell phone.

Island Line Trail - Vermont

I rode from Winooski down to the Burlington waterfront and jumped on the Island Line trail . From Local Motion website - Description: Hop on the spectacular 12-mile trail along Lake Champlain. The Island Line cruises through Burlington's waterfront and scoots out on the Colchester Causeway three miles into the middle of the lake! Public beaches, natural areas, and scenic vistas abound. Come explore Vermont's most popular multi-use trail. Stop into ECHO, the museum of Lake Champlain. Have a picnic lunch at the  Mayes Landing picnic area at the base of the bridge or out on the causeway. Go for a swim. Bicycling, running, walking and inline skating are all popular trail activities. I headed north on the trail and rode to the northernmost terminus which at this point of the year is the break in the causeway. In the summer a boat will transport people across the break to continue on to South Hero island. I missed the turn heading into Colchester Park and rode north into oth

NetJets cuts its pledged donations

NetJets Inc. has angered some central Ohio business leaders by slashing millions of dollars in funding promised to nonprofit groups, including nearly $9 million to the Pelotonia bike tour. Ride organizers now are scrambling to replace the millions the Columbus-based division of Berkshire Hathaway had pledged to support the fundraising event through 2013.The situation prompted Limited Brands founder Leslie H. Wexner to write a letter to Warren Buffett, Berkshire's chairman and chief executive, chastising the nation's second-wealthiest man for allowing one of his companies to not live up to charitable commitments. In the letter, Wexner told Buffett that he was "shocked and appalled" that NetJets "(turned) its back on the community." "Your company reneged on numerous charitable commitments totaling millions of dollars here in central Ohio," he wrote. "The explanation? Berkshire Hathaway/NetJets had a tough year. more...