Athlo Blog

Yesterday I participated in the first annual Wheels In The Woods bike tour in Arbor Vitae, WI. The tour offered 109, 58, 38, 15 and 5 mile routes in the beautifully scenic North Woods of Wisconsin. Despite the routes not always being well marked (causing me to make a couple wrong turns), the weather, scenery and people made this a very enjoyable ride.

I’ve done century rides in Colorado, Wyoming and Texas but none of those courses compared to riding along lakes and forests when the leaves are changing colors. Throw in in a blue sky, 65 degree temperatures and the day could not have gotten better. Roads were safe with little traffic.

The locals I met definitely made this ride interesting and more challenging. Having done a 24-hour moutain bike race, marathons and triathlons I used to think of myself as somewhat tough physically. That was until mile 65 of Wheels In The Woods when a group of 4 guys asked me if I wanted to jump in and ride with them.

The most impressive of the group made me look like a professional couch potato. He rode from San Francisco to Wisconsin in 30 days earlier this year, has biked around Lake Superior in 3 weeks and has ridden coast to coast twice. And no matter how hard I pushed during my turns on the front of the group, I couldn’t drop the 60 year old guy who still does triathlons and century rides regularly. The other two also had a list of epic athletic achievements. I was proud of myself just to hang with them.

Whether you are a new to cycling or very experienced, Wheels In The Woods has a course length to match your fitness level and scenery everyone can enjoy. All proceeds benefit the kids at Arbor Vitae-Woodruff Elementary School. If you’ve done a cool bike tour or have physical accomplishments that makes me look weak, I would love to hear about it.

Lance Armstrong announced on his website, LiveStrong.com, that he is in fact returning to professionally cycling in 2009. The reason, he said, was “to launch an international cancer strategy.” For him personally, it must also have something to with believing he can still compete at the professional level and win the Tour de France.

Velo News reported that Lance will compete in five road races, including the Tour de France, as a member of team Astana. His age will certainly be a question as he turns 37 this month. The oldest Tour winner ever was Firmin Lambot in 1922 at the age of 36. Seemingly insurmountable challenges have never stopped Lance in the past though. Plus, he has stayed incredibly active in his “retirement”.

Lance plans to announce more details about his cancer strategy and racing comeback on September 24th at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City.

Bicycle Motocross, more commonly known as BMX, is making its first appearance in the Summer Olympics in Beijing this year.  BMX will be the fourth cycling event in the Olympics, along with road, track and mountain biking, which made its debut in 1996.  48 riders, 32 men and 16 women, from 17 countries will be competing for the gold, and I will be watching.

The basic concept of BMX is fairly simple, the fastest guy or girl down the track wins.  No points for style, no points for tricks.  Races usually consist of 2 or 3 heats with 8 racers in each heat.  That fastest four advance to the next heat.  Most heats only last about 40 seconds but because racers start so close together and get reach speeds of up to 35mph, the crashes are frequent and spectacular.

While BMX is still seen as a bit of a “fringe” sport, it has come a long way in the past 30 years.  BMX riding started back in the late 60’s and early 70’s when kids were trying to replicate tricks and stunts they saw motocross riders doing.  It is not the first American-made sport to reach the Olympics though.  Snowboarding and snowboard cross (similar to BMX racing) have both made it to the winter Olympics.  Regardless, it will still be exciting to see American riders flying down the dirt track in Beijing and inspiring kids around the world to get out and ride.

It has been 4 years since Lance Armstrong last dominated the toughest bike race in the world but American cycling is still growing in strength and popularity despite his retirement.  Christian Vande Velde from Team Garmin-Chipotle finished 5th overall despite a painful crash in one of the stages.  Team Columbia finished 7th overall in team standings and managed to rack up a very impressive 5 stage wins, 4 of them coming from Great Britian’s Mark Cavendish.  Team Columbia held the yellow jersey for 4 days and also held the green, polka dot and white jerseys during multiple stages in the Tour.

Carlos Sastre and his CSC teammates proved they are by far the most dominant team in cycling but with more doping scandals in this year’s Tour resulting in team’s losing their sponsors, Team Garmin-Chipotle or Columbia could definitely add some strong riders to their roster in the off-season and give CSC a legitimate challenge next year.  American Christian Vande Velde proved he can climb with the best in the Pyrenees and Alps this year and said he intends to do just as well if not better next year.

A Spaniard has won this race the past three years (American Floyd Landis was stripped on the yellow jersey three years ago for failed drug tests) but it looks as though an American team, and possibly an American rider, is posed to change that in 2009.