The Burbs

Took the day off for an ultra extended weekend -- and headed to the burbs to explore some of the trails out there. Shoreview is especially great because there are lots of lakes and wooded trails. The twins love getting out in the Burley and they have been so much easier, in some respects, and will go on longer rides. They are starting to ask a lot more questions and enjoy pointing things out that they recognize along the path. We did 12 miles today... Not the longest we have done together, but the easiest I think. Perhaps because I wasn't pulling today:)

Remember

Closing Out Bike Month

10:30 tonight I have to make a run to the store so that my minions will have bananas for their breakfast on Sunday  and Monday. 

It's raining and I am not the type to be riding to the grocery (especially after reading an article on bike theft he other day), but I spot a small platoon of 5 or 6 bikes riding in the thunderstorm and I longed to be with them. I get back with my groceries and think what the heck, and I pull out my bike and ride off into the pouring rain. It was dark and quiet except for the patter of rain on my helmet, an occasional roll of thunder, and a Stevie Wonder raggai that I heard this morning jamming in my head. 

Everyone in my part of Northeast Mineapolis seemed in slumber, but I roused a squad-car as I crossed into sleepy St. Anthony a few blocks from my home. The bored officer was lurking on an adjacent street and pulled up to me for a closer look. I must not have been very interesting because after he slowed next to me he turned around to go back from whence he came. 

I enjoyed the calm serenity of the quiet neighborhood, and kept having a hard time returning home. After circling for a total of 5 miles, at a few minutes before midnight I returned home and logged my miles to close out May riding. Happy Bike Month! Looking forward to a beautiful summer.

Twins Birthday2!

Bike-Walk at MN Capitol

I found out about and participated in the Annual State Capitol Walk/Bike which is being promoted by the the "Switch My Trip" program, encouraging folks to replace a drive-by-yourself trip and instead take the bus or train, carpool, bicycle, walk, telework or vanpool. 

The commissioners from the Minnesota Departments of Health and the Minnesota Department of Transportation were on hand to lead a bike-ride (in side-by-side recumbent tandem) through the streets of downtown St. Paul. It was fun to ride a few miles with some St. Paul commuters and see folks smile in reaction to our little platoon, and especially to see the heads turn at the dapper pair in what I have come to term the Cony Island-style tandem.

A few photos of our group ride:

Buon Compleanno Giro d'Italia

The Giro d'Italia officially celebrates its 105th birthday today. After kicking off the 97th edition (took some time off for world wars) with 3 stages on the Emerald Island last week, stage 4 was perfectly timed to start at the same location (though not at the same ungodly hour) as the first stage of the first edition of the 'Corsa Rosa' in 1909.


A Little Trivia

There have been 11 foreign starts of the Giro. If you don't count the Vatican City start in 1974, half of those starts have have occurred since 2002. 

The first ed. of the Giro d’Italia left Milan at 3:53am on the morning of May 13, 1909 and finished in Milan on the 30th of May after eight stages and about 1,500 miles of racing.

Only 49 of the 127 starters completed the first race.

Luigi Ganna won the first edition at an average speed of about 16mph.

American Andy Hampsten became the first non-European winner of the Giro in 1988, so far the only American victor. Hampsten was also the first American to wear the Maglia Rosa (the leader's jersey)

In May 2008, 20 years after Hampsten's win, the new American team Garmin-Chipotle won the team time trial in stage 1, and Christian Vandevelde, as the first member of the team to finish, became the second American to wear the Pink Jersey. 

Ron Kiefel was the first American to win a stage in any of the Grand Tours with a win in Stage 15 of the 1985 Giro for Team 7-Eleven (competing in its first Grand Tour) and was followed by Andy Hampsten's (also from Team 7-Eleven) victory a few days later in Stage 20. Looking back, here's what Hampsten had to say about Kiefel's win: "You can't downplay what Kiefel did. His win kicked down the door for all of us. He rode away from the peloton and showed everyone on the team that we were capable of doing what we were there to do."

The first American to officially win at least one stage at each of the three Grand Tours was David Zabriskie, who won Stage 11 in the 2004 Vuelta while riding for U.S. Postal and time trials in both the 2005 Giro (Stage 8), and the 2005 Tour (Stage 1) while riding for CSC to complete the first "official" triple by an American. 

Lance Armstrong participated in his first double in Grand Tours in 2009 when he rode the Giro d'Italia as well as the Tour de France. 

St. Paul's Future of 4th St.