Weight can be a make or break when it comes to a hill climb! But by how much? Hank and Manon see just how much of a difference 2kg can make when climbing the epic Alpe d’Huez!
By Alex Crevar
Near the Gediz Delta, a third of the way across Turkey’s section of the EuroVelo Cycle Route 8, a flamboyance of flamingos appears overhead. As if the 300-mile journey hugging the Aegean Coast isn’t dramatic enough, the honking birds provide a fiery-pink chevron escort along a corridor that was once the stomping ground of Greek poet Homer and Alexander the Great. Bookended by UNESCO-listed sites, this route across Izmir Province forms one small part of the cross-continent EuroVelo cycleways network. It opened in 2019 and was developed for average cyclists; though it takes four to five days to complete using a combination of quiet streets, bike paths and packed-gravel roads, riders can also tackle it as single day rides. It starts near the ruined city of Pergamon and ends in the ancient city of Ephesus. In between, cyclists pass through vineyards, nature reserves and seaside towns with bazaars and cafe-lined harbours, including Urla, Çeşme and Sığacık. Here are four highlights on route.
1. Pergamon
Likely established between the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, Pergamon was a regional powerhouse for nearly 150 years and is one of Turkey’s most important sites. Travellers can visit the remains of the city, once capital of the Attalid Kingdom and later the Roman Empire’s Asia Province capital. Today it forms a UNESCO-inscribed cultural landscape with relics of Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman history. Take the cable car to the ancient Acropolis for views south across the countryside, the modern city of Bergama below and the route you’ll soon be cycling. At the top, you’ll also see the giant Altar of Zeus, a theatre with vertiginously banked hillside seating and the Temple of Trajan with its giant, free-standing, Corinthian-capped columns.
Photo by Aydin Hassan on Unsplash
From CronkiteNews.com
By Zach Bradshaw/Special for Cronkite News
PARIS – The City of Light has become a “gold medal” example of modern bicycle infrastructure, making transportation during the Summer Olympics more accessible than ever.
Improvements to existing infrastructure has allowed the French capital city to also be widely known as the capital city of biking.
“It’s pretty great,” said Hannah Warmerdam, a Paris-based bike tour guide who works at Holland Bikes Tours & Rentals in Paris. “I mean, the biking infrastructure in France restarted in Paris.”
Since 2010, the city has devoted over 400 million euros, about $434.8 million, to retrofitting roads, developing parking solutions and strengthening the bicycle infrastructure. Many projects were carried out in preparation for the Olympics.
“The challenge was to ensure that this cycle network was built for the Olympic Games,” said François Wouts, director of the city’s Roads and Transport Department. “Therefore, an ambition linked to reaching each of the competition sites, but also to be able to serve the whole.”
As Los Angeles prepares to host the Olympics in 2028, Paris city officials say L.A. should make strides toward better bicycle infrastructure.
“I think that in Los Angeles there must be roads sized very largely and on which we could certainly take a little space of the volumes to the automobile and reallocate it to soft travel like the bicycle, like what we finally did in Paris,” said Christophe Najdovski, the Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of greening public spaces, green spaces and biodiversity.
Photo by Svetlana Gumerova on Unsplash
From CyclingNews.com
UCI’s push to ban radios has been met with fierce resistance from pro teams but women’s medalists enjoyed radio-free racing
The Paris Olympics served up two thrilling road races, in particular the women’s event where the winning move came inside 4km to go. The open, dynamic racing comes partly due to the small team sizes but mostly because there are no race radios so riders have to figure out what to do on their own.
The radio debate is due to fire up again as the UCI introduces another test of race radio restrictions, first at the Vuelta a Burgos beginning on Monday and during three stages of the Tour de Pologne (12-18 August).
Our world is built up of roads and cars to get us to our destination! But what about cycling and even walking? Have we been brainwashed to think that the car is always king? Si goes on a deep dive into just how we are convinced to think that modern car culture is acceptable in our lives!
