Cycling

From io9.com: At the close of the 19th century — just before cars made their appearance — a wealthy American businessman began construction on a private, for-profit bicycle superhighway that would stretch from Pasadena to Los Angeles. It almost got built. Read more.

In every Giro d’Italia, RCS Sport/La Gazzetta dello Sport commemorates the achievements of Marco Pantani by naming a mountain stage after him. For the 96th Giro, the Pantani Mountain is the Galibier.Due to snow at the original summit finish on Galibier the finish line has been brought forward 4.25 km to Les Granges du Galibier at the Pantani Monument. The monument commemorates Pantani's Tour de France-winning attack in 1998.Later this year a documentary exploring the dramatic story of Pantani's life will be on general release, made by British film-makers James Erskine (One Night in Turin) and Victoria Gregory (Man on Wire). Following is an excerpt from an interview with Erskine by Andy McGrath that recently appeared in Rouleur magazine:The English-language documentary about Marco Pantani is due to be completed in the next few months.“The Accidental Death of a Cyclist” charts the tumultuous life and times of the late Italian star, using archive and contemporary footage, stylised dramatic reconstructions and interviews with Pantani’s family, close friends, former teammates and peers.The film is a collaboration between director James Erskine and New Black Films, who previously teamed up for Italia 90-based One Night in Turin and cricket flick From The Ashes.Erskine’s hope is that the Pantani film can approach the success of Senna, the 2010 smash about the mercurial Brazilian Formula 1 driver.Last week, we sat down with Erskine to get the details on a film which could surpass anything that has come before in cycling cinema.Why did you want to make a film about Marco Pantani?I thought this was an extraordinary story with an extraordinary athlete, unique in that his story combines all the highs of contemporary commercialised sport and all the lows.It feels to me that this was a story on the scale of Senna or Raging Bull, one about a human being and a human tragedy in the sporting world. And that’s what compelled me. It’s about getting to the heart of the man.The Pantani story is really about someone who loves the bicycle. It’s ultimately about why someone becomes a professional in the first place. It’s about love and risk and adventure and seeing sport as an art.I think that’s really important if you’re going to try and make a cinematic film. Senna was an artist behind a racing wheel, Pantani was an artist on a bicycle.How do you frame whether or not Pantani doped?I think we allow the audience to make their own conclusions. But I don’t think the aim of it is to force them into making any conclusions.It’s about stripping away the doping scandals and looking at the real human being behind it. Is it more interesting to examine the question of whether Marco Pantani took performance enhancing drugs or to explore why he had such a tragic end?If you decided that Marco Pantani took drugs, it doesn’t explain the ending. If you decided he didn’t take drugs, it certainly doesn’t explain the ending.What happens to a human being in that situation, one that has won the Giro d’Italia in spectacular fashion, everything that their life has been about, at the very peak of the mountain. That moment when the haematocrit test comes out [at Madonna di Campiglio in the 1999 Giro], he can never get back, he can never be untainted again, even if he was innocent.How anyone could cope with that? It’s supposed to be about suffering going up the mountain. What’s extraordinary about Pantani is this suffering on the way down. When did you come up with the title, which seems a nod to Dario Fo’s work The Accidental Death of an Anarchist?Pretty early on. The nod to Fo was deliberate in the sense that this is the story of a man whose death no-one will take responsibility for, yet everybody is responsible.Also it’s about a corrupt system. I think there’s no doubt now – you might have argued when we came up with the idea – that cycling in the Nineties was corrupt.The relationship between Conconi, the IOC and the UCI indicates a system in which natural justice doesn’t

Happy Liz Hatch Appreciation Day!Liz Hatch on the Gwadzilla Pagehttp://gwadzilla.blogspot.com/search?q=liz+hatch

the tow path and the C&O Canalso much of my youthful Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn Adventures occurred along the C&O Canalhiking... fishing... ice skating... and of course bikingbiking and turtle countingfantastic randomness comes up when I search the Gwadzilla page for C&O or Tow Pathhttp://gwadzilla.blogspot.com/search?q=C%26O+Canalhttp://gwadzilla.blogspot.com/search?q=tow+path

Dear True Believer,Friday afternoon, about an hour before the Amy Farrah Fowler Fan Club was scheduled to leave for Rocky Gap State Park, Diane charged into the room and said to me, "I have to run to the grocery store." I was surprised and looked at her puzzled. She responded "the dogs got into your race food while you were loading up, they ate all of it. I'll be back as soon as I can."Sneaking my way to the front row...Another Awesome Picture of me running badly !Somewhat of an ominous, foreshadowing of events I would say....The Amy Farrah Fowler Fan Club made up of Buddy Briggs (twin six), Travis Sapsford (Guys), and Fatme (C3: twenty 20) headed to the 9 hours of Rocky Gap expecting a challenging race, and at least 7 teams that were capable of pulling off the win. We had developed a plan, and frankly having raced together for a long time were felt good about our chances.But then, then the shit storm hit. I've been doing team relay races for a long time, and frankly we've been really lucky over the years. In all those years, we always seem to have good luck, seemed to things break our way. Today, not so much...Profile of the 9 hours of Rocky GapThat said, I don't want to write an excuse filled blog with why we didn't win or do better. That's bike racing, sometimes things all fall together, and sometimes you face some unexpected challenges. That was us today. In the end, I'm proud as hell that we were able to fight back and make the top 5. While we certainly didn't land where we had hoped, we battled, we and resilant and had some great racing. On my second lap, catching Root, and riding his wheel through the first section of single track was so much fun. Perhaps even more fun was ripping the same section with Scott form Haymarket. At one point I wasn't sure we'd end up in the top 10 on the day, but we just kept fighting, kept charging and battling. It was it's own reward in the end.Cheers to Travis Harnish, Scott Roberts, and Chris Jackson on their 2nd place finish. They rode a really tough race, and came through strongly. Scott Bridged back to me on the steppest climb and I had to through everything I had at him to finally get some space on that lap. Good on you guys.Our little compound- Scott Roberts not pictured.I can't say that I wasn't frustrated with some of the trouble I ran into today. I didn't keep my cool as I like to, but I am grateful for my teammates, and my wife who all kept me calm and moving forward.hard fought 4th placeRocky Gap is a beautiful venue, and frankly the course is one of my all time favorites. The Cranky Monkey folks did a great job promoting this one, and frankly if you told me I could line up and take another crack at it today, I would... Only 364 days until the next 9 hours of Cranky Monkey...This poor guy lost a bet with his teammates and had to drink the Natty Daddy.Travis, Buddy and I agreed that no bet ending with someone drinking the Natty Daddy was worth it.thanks for reading.respectFatmarc

Oxford road plans for buses, cars and bikes shown read more

Gesink out of contention after freezing stage

Carousel short title: Token Headset Spacers Price: £3.49 Gallery Image Reference: Token Headset Spacers With a stack of Token Headset Spacers you have scope to adjust the height of your handlebars and there's enough variety to get a stylish look too. Headset spacers are a necessary, but unloved part of the bike, serving to space out the stem on the forks steerer tube. Unless you have the stem slammed, you'll like have a few spacers. Road.cc verdict: Nice looking headset spacers available in a range of colours to spice up your bike Road.cc rating: 8 Weight: 11g Contact: www.i-ride.co.uk read more

Mayor also supports Sunday traffic ban read more

As you’d expect from a garment with Pro and Team in its name, this jersey has a very close cut and the fit is superb. It’s not so skintight that it feels restrictive when you’re riding, but there’s absolutely no spare material left loose to flap about. The Pro Team is relatively heavy for a spring weight jersey, at 282g pre ride – especially given that it lacks the inner linings of some thicker tops on the market. After an hour of riding, its weight had increased by 195g but it managed to shed almost a quarter of that after being left to dry for 60 minutes.This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.