Paradoxes In Bike Racing : Cancer, Safety & Global Warming

A reader drew attention through a comment in yesterday's post about inadequate safety in this year's Amgen Tour of California. Of course, he may be right. Evidently, I'm a little disappointed too at the harsh realities of the ATOC. Freezing torrential rain, crosswinds and reduced visibility easily add to the suffering and confusing elements in the racing. Which makes it very interesting to watch, don't get me wrong (I already know fan psychology when it comes to crashes mind you). But add to this some poorly functioning biking equipment, miscommunication through radios, and erratic driving behavior from motorists on the road and what you've got is utter chaos. It highlights the need for top notch planning in a big event such as the ATOC.

Isn't it ironic that Lance Armstrong, the world's cancer messiah, was apparently hit by a race photographer's motorcycle today in Stage 2 with 36 miles of the race to go ?
(he also crashed in stage 1 with 50 miles to go) Yes, he got up and finished fine, but with a banged up hip. There's no telling how grave the situation could have turned out. If this is the man who can help resurrect cancer afflicted people back to life, influence political decisions on Capitol Hill, or order helicopters to be flown away from the peleton on a whim, it sure will help if he lives.

Yesterday, there was widespread radio issues. And expensive bikes were being stolen from under people's noses. In today's stage itself, about 15+ riders went down, one of them taken to the hospital ending his hopes for a good season start. On the final climb on Bonny Doon road, some dope in a yellow jacket was seen happily running just inches ahead of breakaway rider, Carlos Barredo. What if he had a little too much to drink and didn't know what he was doing? Would the organisers of the race have stood still watching, to provide cheap entertainment to viewers as the man sidestepped in the wrong direction and crashed right into Barredo?

Interestingly, I read an article today reporting that transportation minded folks in Santa Cruz are urging race spectators to use alternative transportation like biking among others. That sounds all good. Except. Its cold. Its raining. And why should spectators drive around in hybrid/solar/bio fuel powered cars when teams and news media are polluting the air with their own umpteen gas guzzlers? The article quoted Piet Canin, of Ecology Action as stating about the opening day of the TOC : "There will be 60 tons of carbon foot print spilling into the air that one day." Question : How much of that 60 tons is contributed by team vehicles, news media, promoters, and organizers? It can't be too less, can it? Surely if you want 'green' to trickle down to spectators, the people involved more intimately with the event should start somewhere themselves.

Even if they didn't choose to go green, they need to at least learn to drive. Over the course of a 100 mile race, its obvious that racers would lose their line or choose to occupy significant portions of the road due to various personal and strategy related reasons. In times like these, how safe is it for news media to ride erratically, across and over the middle of the road, coming into near collisions with cyclists? Whats more important? Relaying images across the world or being concerned about the safety of riders?

Writing this conjures up images of all those nasty crashes we have seen in the peleton over the years. You'll probably find a good bunch of these on Youtube. As entertaining as it all is, its getting tougher for those who're actually doing the racing. Remember : We don't have to do the skin shedding at the end of the day. Neither is racing our prime source of putting food on the table. You can't stay obligated to contracts when you're down with bruises and broken bones half the year!



Additional Reading :

Question : Is It Easier or Difficult To Ride In The Rain?
Marcus Burghardt's Dog Accident
We Might As Well Crash
Tour of Cipollini (TOC)

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Old Willunga Hill

Our hearts may be full of love and warmth for Oz, yet our wallets may be obscenely empty.

For those of you who can't afford a decent visit to "Your Chance To See The Old Man", hop on the Beehive teleportation system. We'll try to tour the biggest hill of the TDU : Old Willunga Hill Road.

To get to Down Under, we'll probably have to first get the hell out of 'Up Over'. How will we do that? Simple. Give a spank on that globe, let it dance around and voila! Embrace the Southern Hemisphere!

Please, do not try to jump into Australia. This is not drawn to scale.

Patience now. Lets zoom into the wonderful land of Kangaroos.

Calm down. I see some of you are getting excited...

We're now approx. 100,000 feet above Willunga, in the sunny state of South Australia.

Please calm down, we'll get there. Do not eject or do a Chesley Sullenberger either...

Our Chinese digital zoom frankly sucks. Switching to European opticals.........

.....aha, there's Willunga!

Do you know Willunga is known for its almonds? Sadly, the Aboriginal word for Willunga does not mean "Land of Almonds". Gotcha there. See how I tricked you? Infact, the word actually means "Black Duck" - that's more uneventful than almonds.

The road shown with the red arrow is our destination. Its the Old Willunga Road.


It is featured in Stage 5, the longest stage of this scorching Tour. Riders ride two times over it and it could perhaps be the most strategic spot for attacks.




Old Willunga is basically a 1000 foot climb, little over 6K in length at almost 5-6% in ave gradient.

The ancient Aboriginals never rode bikes, but it is said that they could jump so damn high, the could reach the top of this road with little effort.

Marvel at the beauty of the ups and downs of terrain. For essential cows, beautiful sunflowers and a McDonalds, please use your wild imaginations. There are only bushes and bush fires here.

We have come to the end of our trip. Thank you and please boast to all your friends that you just went to Willunga... in a little over , let's see....one fifth of a second. Thanks for joining.

Swiss Celebrate New Year With MTB Snow Race

Cyclists ride bikes on the ski slopes in the alpine resort of Villars, Switzerland, during the New Year's Eve mountain bike snow race. Nearly 100 cyclists rode the 5 km track on snow. Villars-Gyron is a popular ski resort located at 1300m in the Lake Geneva Region. Now this is a New Year's party! Make sure you check out some breathtaking pictures of the local scenery here.