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I know how it feels to finish ‘dead last’ – here are my tips for completing your first gravel race

From CyclingWeekly.com

After conquering Unbound and MidSouth, Marley Blonsky shares 3 tips to get you to the finish line triumphantly

BY MARLEY BLONSKY

Congratulations, you’ve registered for your first gravel race! Now the real fun (and work) begins – training and preparation for what will likely be your longest, hardest day on the bicycle yet.

With two Unbound Gravel century finishes and one DFL crown (Dead F***ing Last) at MidSouth Gravel to my name, I’ve figured out a few things that are crucial to taking on a gravel century.

While I don’t have a specific training plan or mileage targets for you to follow (–I’m by no means qualified to give you that advice but you can find one here), I have some tried and true advice that will hopefully have you crossing that finish line triumphant and excited to sign up for your next big challenge.

TIP 1: EAT EARLY AND OFTEN

A century is basically a 100-mile snack parade. Your job is to continually eat and drink your way through the miles. When it feels hard, eat. When you hate your bike, eat. I’m serious. You love bikes, you love riding your bike, and today, you get to do it all day long. Eat and it’ll be easier to remember this.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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Complete streets are an accessibility issue.

From PasadenaCSC.org

Pretending otherwise denies the experience of thousands of local residents.

I don’t really like Impossible Burgers. I think they taste funny.

But when restaurants include vegetarian options on their menu, it makes those businesses more inviting for vegetarians, so they can end up serving more people.

When buildings include ramps or elevators in addition to stairs, it makes the facility accessible to more people.

When signs and instructions are written in multiple languages, it makes the message available to more people.

In today’s world, most people prefer our restaurants, libraries, and schools to be accessible to a wide range of people. Vegetarian options, wheelchair ramps, and inclusive policies are all good examples of things that make a place more accessible and welcoming to a wide range of people.

In general, creating more options for access and inviting in more people is the American way when designing public spaces and when we think about our businesses and institutions.

Our transportation system, though, is a strange exception to this. For some reason, public officials often prefer LESS accessible streets, with FEWER options for who can use them and how.  Even baby steps toward making our streets more diverse leads some people to complain.

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Can I Survive A Pro Gravel Race?

Alex is in Australia and has decided to take on a new gravel race, ‘Radl Grvl’. With over 2000m of elevation, this 100km course pushed Alex to his limits. Follow him as he attempts to race AND win the pro category, taking on the monstrous gravel climbs at insane speeds!

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Lawmaker wants to ensure California bridges stay toll-free for pedestrians, cyclists

From KTVU.com

By

SAN FRANCISCO – A Bay Area lawmaker is proposing a new bill aimed at ensuring that bridges throughout the state remain toll-free for pedestrians and cyclists.

Assemblyman Phil Ting has introduced AB 2669 to guarantee that walking and biking across publicly owned California bridges, including the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, remains free of charge.

“We want to ensure that we have this right in perpetuity for cyclists and pedestrians to ensure that they can walk and bike across the bridge freely without being worried about paying a toll,” said Ting.

Photo by Joseph Barrientos on Unsplash

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CicLAvia 2024 Season Launch Party

From LAist.com

CicLAvia is kicking off its event schedule with a debut of their West Coast IPA affectionately named seek-la-VEE-ah. The party is presented in conjunction with the Night Market at Ivy Station, where there will be several food trucks, music, games, local vendors, and kid-friendly activities. This is a free event, no RSVP is required and all ages are welcome.

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How To Train Without Expensive Tech

Are you getting too obsessed with your cycling data? Fed up of constantly looking at your bike computer? You can still have fun and improve your cycling without using fitness data, smart watches, power meters and heart rate monitors. Conor explains how you can keep track of your training without data!

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Finish The Ride – Sunday, 7 April 2024

The event is located at the Autry Museum: Griffith Park, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA 90027

It is recommended you arrive at least 30mins before your event starts to register and 15 minutes before your event starts if you are already pre-registered to pick up your bib.

 

Rollers (skateboards, rollerbladers, wheelchair athletes, etc) are welcome to register for the 12 or 20 Mile Ride lengths.

Note: All types of bicycles are welcome, including class I & II e-bikes – ridden in pedal-assist mode only

Learn More

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Santa Barbara to Seek Grant Funding for Lower Eastside Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge

From Independent.com

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City Council Unanimously Approves Plan to Apply for State Funding for $32 Million Bridge Across Highway 101

It may be a while until the project comes to fruition, but the Santa Barbara City Council gave unanimous approval on Tuesday to move forward with a grant application process that could help the city fund a $32.5 million bicycle and pedestrian bridge connecting the Lower Eastside neighborhood to the areas just across the freeway such as Dwight Murphy Park, the Santa Barbara Zoo, and the beach.

The project is part of the long-range Lower Eastside Connectivity plan that would include $8.2 million in street safety enhancements — which would be funded completely through the Solutions for Congested Corridors grant program — and the bridge itself, which would stretch from the Eastside near Canada and Pitos streets across Highway 101 to allow pedestrians to exit by Dwight Murphy Park. The project would still need to secure funding through state grants and go through multiple rounds of review.

Project Planner Chelsey Swanson presented the history behind the bridge project, and explained the funding method, which would allow the city to offer matching funds toward the project in order to make the application “more competitive.” The city could pay 20 percent, or $6.5 million, and potentially be approved during the next round of funding, or it could apply without any matching funds to “see how project scores,” Swanson said, and potentially “make the project more competitive for future grant opportunities.”

Photo by Zoi Palla on Unsplash

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Stop DESTROYING Your Bottom Bracket And Do This…

 

Does your bottom bracket need replacing? How can you make it last longer? Alex is here with some tips to keep your bottom bracket running smoothly (and quietly!), while also saving you money on maintenance costs!

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‘You Can 100% Focus on Cycling Now.’ Elisa Longo Borghini on the State of Women’s Cycling

From Velo.OutsideOnline.com

The Italian national road race champion joins the Bobby & Jens podcast this week.

By

ot long ago, to be professional cyclists, most women had to simultaneously take on second careers.

Luckily, things have changed considerably in just a handful of years.

“It’s a bit a sign of the times,” says Italian national road race champion Elisa Longo Borghini on the latest episode of the Bobby & Jens podcast.

“Most of the time in the past, you had to have a second career, because you didn’t have minimum salary, maternity leave, and so on. So you had to create your own second chance if you couldn’t be the best in cycling.”

Thanks to those developments and guarantees for athletes in the top level of cycling, they can now focus solely on one job.

“Right now, with the minimum salary and everything being settled, you can 100 percent focus on cycling,” Longo Borghini says.

That’s had a direct impact on the quality of racing.

With the ever increasing quality of competition and professionalization of the sport, training now takes up most of the remaining time for female cyclists, as it does for men in the sport’s top levels.

“In between races we are always a bit busy,” Longo Borghini says.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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