Cyclelicious

Guadalupe River Trail closed in June

2012-05-16T20:50:00Z

The city of San Jose, CA will pave the Lower Guadalupe River Trail beginning in June 2012. Cyclists and other trail users are instructed to detour onto North 1st Street during trail construction.

The Guadalupe River Trail (GRT) is a popular north-south trail from south of downtown San Jose to the Bay in Alviso. The trail was built as part of the flood mitigation project after historic spring flooding in 1995 forced the cancellation of a San Jose Sharks game and the only rainout in the history of the National Hockey League.

The segment of the levee trail north of Interstate 880 is unpaved gravel. Contractors will begin paving this 6.4 mile segment of the trail in June 2012, and access to the trail between I-880 and the trail terminus in Alviso will be completely closed off to commuters and recreational users. This is the entire stretch of trail alongside San Jose International Airport and north past Trimble Road, Montague Expressway, Tasman Drive and Highway 237.

The detour suggested by San Jose Parks is North 1st Street between Hedding Street to Gold Street (shown in the diagram at right as the yellow line; trail closure indicated with the red line). Hedding Street runs alongside the County buildings and carries heavy traffic during commute times. North 1st from Hedding to north of Highway 101 has narrow lanes and traffic merging to and from I-880, Hwy 101 and Brokaw Street. North of Highway 101, the lanes on 1st widen significantly and you have bike lanes, but it’s also right-hook city with multiple cross streets and parking driveways so stay on your toes. I’ll post video later showing what you can expect on 1st Street.

The River Oaks bike bridge between the VTA offices and Rivermark in Santa clara will remain open during construction.

Guadalupe River Trail Alternative Detours?

I’m an assertive, all traffic conditions type of cyclist, but I dislike riding on 1st, especially between James Street and Brokaw. Here are some alternatives that I prefer.

VTA Light Rail runs along 1st Street between downtown San Jose and Tasman Drive. Bikes are always allowed onboard, and during commute times you only have to wait about six minutes between trains. Adult fare is $2 one way. Buy the $70 monthly pass if you ride everyday. VTA accepts Clipper.

3rd & 4th Streets don’t have bike lanes but have much less traffic than 1st Street, and 4th doesn’t have freeway ramps to I-880. Here’s the Google Maps bike directions to get from Brokaw to 4th Street.

San Pedro Street is another nice alternative that runs between downtown and Hedding Street. Google Maps bike directions here for that. The thing Google Maps does not show is the “secret” gate that gives access across the railroad tracks. San Pedro deadends at an apartment parking lot underneath Coleman Avenue. Go straight into that parking lot, veer right onto a sidewalk and you’ll see a black gate leading to the tracks. Push the gate open and, viola! You’re on San Pedro Street again with easy access to downtown San Jose. If you’re interested in this route and can’t figure it out, ping me and I’ll help show you the way.

Airport Boulevard is maybe another possibility, except I don’t know if you can get to it from the trail after construction begins. I’ll update if it turns out this detour is viable.

Coleman / Airport Blvd / Brokaw is another route I’ve taken. These roads all have nice wide lanes, but fast traffic, freeway merges, and lost visitors looking for the rental car return are points against this route. Here’s the Google Maps bike route if you’d like to try this out. Possibly handy for Caltrain bike commuters.

Coleman / De La Cruz / Trimble is another possibility for Caltrain bike commuters. I’ve taken this route only once. Crossing 101 on Trimble Road by bike is not fun, though I know somebody who does this daily. YMMV.

Colombia Coleportes

2012-05-16T03:43:13Z

Rapha should hire these guys as models.

The Colombian team are:
Jhon Atapuma
Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo
Javier Gonzalez Barrera
Victor Hugo!Pena Grisales
Carlos Julian Quintero
Michael Rodriguez
Wilson Marentes Torres
Juan Pablo Suarez

Fabio Duarte distinguished himself with his mountain climbing skills during Stage 3 from San Jose to Livermore.

Three is a magic number

2012-05-16T00:40:26Z

ATOC Stage 3 SPOILER BELOW the rockin’ video.

How many Golden Jerseys is too many?

$2 million for Bay Trail proposed

2012-05-16T00:22:39Z

Santa Clara County considers Bay Trail Gap funding – Key decision next Tuesday!

Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss will hold a press conference tomorrow morning to announce a plan to invest $2 million to complete the Bay Trail Gap in Menlo Park and East Palo Alto and $5 million in the Adobe Creek Bicycle/Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 101 in Palo Alto. These funds will cover more than half the costs needed to construct each project.

Supervisor Kniss’ event will be held on May 16 at 11:00 am at the Palo Alto East Bayshore Municipal Service Center at 3201 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto.

The proposal needs to be approved at the next Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, May 22 at 9:00 am, which will be held at 70 West Hedding St, 10th Floor, East Wing, San Jose.

The funds to be invested came from Stanford University as a mitigation measure for the loss of publicly-accessible recreational facilities when it expanded its campus after 2000.

There is currently a gap on the Bay Trail between Menlo Park and East Palo Alto (EPA). The map above shows possible alignments (in bright green) to close this gap. Facebook’s development agreement with the city of Menlo Park for their headquarters includes a pledge to contribute to closing this gap to EPA, which could ease bicycle access for Facebook employees traveling from the South Bay.

A proposed bicycle bridge for Adobe Creek in Palo Alto would replace the underpass currently used to provide year-round biking and walking access between
residential neighborhoods southwest of Highway 101 and the trails available on the Bay side of 101. The current underpass is prone to seasonal flooding and is gated shut for half of the year.

Those who would like to speak up about this effort.

Attend Liz Kniss’s press conference in Palo Alto on May 16 at 11:00 am at 3201 East Bayshore Road.
Attend the Tuesday, May 22, 9:00 am meeting of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in San Jose (very valuable if you can make this!!!), 70 West Hedding Street, San Jose – 10th Floor, East Wing.
Send a letter of support to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors (BoardOperations at cob.sccgov.org)

Speaking points in favor of funding these projects:

Thank Liz Kniss for her leadership on a proposal that provides value to people who enjoy nature, recreation, and bicycling and walking for transportation.
Completing a critical gap in the Bay Trail that will connect over 100 miles of continuous bicycle and pedestrian paths between Santa
Clara County, San Mateo County, and the East Bay. The Bay Trail is a premier recreational resource and a major bicycle commuting route.
Constructing the bicycle/pedestrian bridge at Adobe Creek in Palo Alto will connect residents to the natural beauty of the baylands and provide a valuable bicycle commute route to the Bay Trail that is open and available for public use all year round.
The money invested by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors should benefit as many residents in the County and region as possible – not primarily Stanford University students and staff.

Tziporah Salamon rides a bicycle

2012-05-15T23:30:11Z

Stylist Tziporah Salamon is known for her outfits and riding her Bianchi Milano bicycle around New York City.

Read more about her and her style at Collector’s Weekly.

San Jose Race Start

2012-05-15T21:14:54Z

MONSTER crowds of enthusiasts and the curious gathered on Berryessa Road to watch the Stage 3 start of the Amgen Tour of California in San Jose this morning.

My random notes and observations:

It was wonderful to see all of the children who came out to watch with their teachers from the nearby elementary school. The little tykes got into it, cheering anybody and everybody they saw on a bike.
The city of San Jose provided a bike valet service. In the past this was always provided by volunteers from the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition.
Jens Voigt is absolutely adorable in person.
George Hincapie and Freddie Rodriguez have a huge fan base in California.
Colombians showed up in force to support their Colombia-Coldeportes. I saw people waving the yellow, blue and red tricolor of their country.
A certain American component company won’t like to hear this, but I saw electronic shifters probably most of the bikes in the pro peloton today. I’m told Rory Sutherland is running 2012 Red, but I didn’t see him this morning. Omega Pharma Quickstep are supposed to be SRAM equipped, but the start line was getting chaotic by the time they checked in so I didn’t get a look at their bikes. Just about everybody else had a battery pack.
It’s a good idea to ensure you have a fully charged camera battery before you show up at a bike race.

Below is my raw video (1:34) of the race start on Berryessa Road. The Radio Shack Tour Tracker is showing live video from the race right now.

Bicycling Magazine hiring

2012-05-15T16:30:45Z

Bicycle industry careers listing and other related jobs for May 15 2012.

Rodale Publishing seeks a Sales Assistant in New York City for Runners World and Bicycling magazines.

Ellsworth Handcrafted Bicycles hiring a marketing manager in Ramona, CA.

2D animator needed for a helmet promotion project.

Translators needed for a film project.

The U.S. Army needs you for bicycle patrol. “PLEASE UNDERSTAND YOU HAVE TO JOIN THE ARMY,” it says.

This looks legit.

Reality show seeks bike messengers and other ‘interesting’ small businesses.

Attractive sales people (i.e. booth babes) needed for Grand Fondo this weekend in New York City.

Gotta jet for a bike race — good luck!

Show up late and you get junk

2012-05-15T05:20:40Z

I shot this awesome photo of Peter Sagan crossing the finish line in Aptos, CA today.

At least I got the shadow of his trademark winner’s salute.

I showed up in the photo area for the Amgen Tour of California Stage 2 finish a little bit late today so I kind of got stuck in the back a little. Here’s the POV video of what I saw and what I did. Ah well.

Sagan collected a whole pile of jerseys on the podium this afternoon in Aptos in spite of a flat tire (his second of the race). He took the stage (also his second of the race).

During the post-race press conference somebody (I think from the Merc News?) asked Sagan what it would take to stop him, as if.

Amidst breathtaking views of the San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Bridge and Angel Island, Stage 2 of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California got underway in San Francisco and routed south 117.1 miles over the climbs of Empire Grade and Bear Creek Road.

At the start of Stage 2, after leaving the city of San Francisco, riders headed toward the coast and the first sprint of the day in Pacifica, where Howard, Maarten Tjallingii (NED) of Rabobank Cycling Team and Bradley White (USA) of UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team were the first three to cross the line. Shortly thereafter, six racers, including White; Jeremy Vennell (NZL) of Bissell Pro Cycling; Michael Creed (USA) of Team Optum Powered by Kelly Benefit Strategies; Lloyd Mondory (FRA) of AG2R La Mondiale; Juan Pablo Suarez (COL) of Colombia-Coldeportes; and Alexandre Geniez (FRA) of Team Argos-Shimano established a breakaway. This breakaway swept the second sprint points with White, Vennell and Mondory crossing in that order.

Fifty miles into the race, the break had a comfortable lead of nine minutes and 45 seconds ahead of the peloton; however, after passing through the feed zone, the group began working harder to reel them back in. As the breakaway group closed in on Bonny Doon and the first King of the Mountain (KOM) climb of the day, the gap was narrowed to five minutes and 50 seconds. As the cyclists began to climb, Garmin-Barracuda worked hard at the front of the peloton for their leader Tom Danielson (USA). After a few attacks, only three riders were left in the break – White, Vennell and Geniez – with a lead of four minutes and 20 seconds. Sitting in and out of the saddle while climbing, Geniez went out in front of the break alone.

While on the climb, a crash occurred, taking down several riders, including Sagan; George Hincapie (USA) of BMC Racing Team; Laurens Ten Dam (NED) of Rabobank Cycling Team; Andres Diaz Corrales (COL) of Exergy; and Josh Atkins (NZL) of the Bontrager Livestrong Team. Sagan showed what he is made of by getting up quickly from the crash, brushing himself off and regaining contact with the peloton. While this was happening, Geniez continued to ride alone at the front with a lead of four minutes and 55 seconds ahead of the group, and ultimately claimed top KOM points on Empire Grade. He was followed by David Boily (CAN) of Spidertech Powered by C10.
With five riders at the front of the peloton, Garmin-Barracuda began flying down the mountain with a gap of three minutes and 55 seconds off the front. Vennell and White hung together, in between Geniez and the peloton. After the decent, the peloton was split with about 25 racers in the first portion, then about a 30-second split to the main peloton. Just before the Bear Creek climb, Vennell and White were absorbed by the peloton, leaving Geniez alone in front. But, with just 35km to go, Geniez was caught by the peloton, which was being led by UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team.

“It was a very hard day,” said Vennell, a former National Time Trial champion of New Zealand. “The descent off Bonny Doon was pretty scary.”

Liquigas-Cannondale took over work at the front of the peloton, controlling the pace on the last bit of uphill before the major descent. Heading toward the final sprint of the day, Maxime Bouet (FRA) of AG2R La Mondiale attacked, but Marc de Maar (AHO) of UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team claimed the top sprint points. With 17km to go, the peloton was flying toward the finish with Liquigas-Cannondale riders occupying the top four spots at the front, followed by riders from Rabobank, BMC Racing Team and RadioShack-Nissan-Trek.

Even with an attack by Rory Sutherland (AUS) of UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team at the finish, Sagan managed to outsprint the pack to take the Stage 2 win. He was followed by Haussler and Howard to round out the top three for the stage.

Stage 3 begins tomorrow in San Jose on Berryessa Road at 11:15 AM. See you there!

Me vs the Tour of California

2012-05-14T18:26:42Z

The proposed plan: Shoot photos at Bonny Doon at 2 PM, then race by bike to the finish line and hope to beat the pros there for another set of photos at about 4 PM. Who thinks I can make it?

The Amgen Tour of California 2012 will hit Santa Cruz County early this afternoon and make the turn up Bonny Doon Road. I may make my own race of the Tour by biking from Bonny Doon to the Stage finish in Aptos and (hopefully) beating the pros to the finish line. Do you think I can make it?

The blue line in the map below shows the route the race will take this afternoon. That distance is about 50 miles and who knows how many thousands of feet of elevation gain. The red line is the more direct route I would take, which totals 20 miles and probably under 1000 feet of elevation gain.

The pros have closed roads and police escorts. They can power themselves uphill faster than I’m capable of moving on level ground, especially since I’ll pull a trailer with camera and computer equipment (and a change of clothing). The peleton will scream down that final stretch into Aptos at speeds approaching 60 MPH, while I’ll stop for red lights and stops signs.

I can move at a decent clip outside of town, but once I hit Santa Cruz traffic I know my average speed will drop to about 11 MPH. From experience I know it’ll take me right at about 2 hours to make it to Aptos from Bonny Doon Road, plus I still need to grab my media pass and (hopefully) snag one of the limited supply of photo vests.

The other downsides — there’s probably good opportunity for ‘lifestyle cycling’ type photos in Aptos, which is my real interest. I’ll miss those if I’m racing across town at my banana-slug-like pace.

What do you think? Should I go for my own little personal challenge of a race from Bonny Doon to Aptos? If I thought of that earlier wouldn’t that have been a cool idea for an alleycat race of some kind?

Santa Cruz County road closures, bus detours today

2012-05-14T17:08:53Z

Santa Cruz Metro announces bus detours and delays for Monday, May 14 2012 due to the Amgen Tour of California passing through the county.

The peloton should hit Santa Cruz County about 2 PM this afternoon, when the racers will make the sharp left turn from Highway 1 onto Bonny Doon Road. The race will pass through Boulder Creek, Bear Creek and cross over Highway 17 on Summit Road. The final descent will be on Soquel – Old San Jose Road for a finish on Soquel Drive at Cabrillo College around 4:30 PM.

Santa Cruz Metro anticipates delays and detours between 2 PM and 5:30 PM for North Coast buses 40 and 41; San Lorenzo Valley service on 35/35A; the Mid County buses 54, 55, & 56; and the Cabrillo / South County buses 69W, 71 and 91X.

Walk Score publishes Bike Score

2012-05-14T16:45:18Z

The folks behind Walk Score have applied their numerical methodology to the “bike friendliness” of several U.S. and Canadian cities to rank them with “Bike Score.”

To create Bike Score, Walk Score took a weighted measure of bike facilities (bike lanes and cycleways), the geography of the city, and a modified version of the city’s “Walk Score,” which calculates the ‘connectedness’ of various destinations by looking at factors such as density. Because bike infrastructure “is not the whole story”, Walk Score added a social component — the bike commute mode share for the city.

Walk Score crunched these numbers and came up with these top ten U.S. cities for bikeability.

In the United States, Minneapolis, MN scores the highest among cities they surveyed, beating out Portland Oregon. San Francisco ties second place Portland, OR. Following behind are Boston; Madison, WI; Washington, DC; Seattle; Tucson; New York; and Chicago.

The most bikeable Canadian city is Calgary, AB, according to Walk Score. Following are Charlottetown, PE; Halifax; Moncton, NB; Montreal; Saskatoon; St Johns; Toronto; Vancouver and Victoria. Bike Score in Canada does not use bike commute mode share in the Bike Score.

Users can then drill down to individual cities to see a Bike Score heat map to find the most bikeable neighborhoods within each city. In this heat map, green is good and red is most challenging.

You can see the full top 10 list for Canadian and U.S. cities here and drill down into each of them for the details. Unlike the popular Walk Score service, Bike Score has not been generalized for all of North America.

Visit Bike Score to see more details about these top North American cities and to request a Bike Score for your city. I’d love to see Walk Score for San Jose, CA — the largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area — as well as for some of the smaller towns known for their very high bike share such as Santa Cruz, CA; Davis, CA and Boulder, CO.

2012 Amgen Tour of California Stage 1 final miles

2012-05-14T06:09:30Z

The final 10 minutes of the race in Santa Rosa on Sunday.