Saturday was a great day for a ride, albeit a bit cool (34 degrees). I’ve posted a video about the ride on my bike blog.
Fall morning in Southeast Ohio
Saturday Bike ride: 37 miles with a few hills
Yesterday I was able to get in a really good ride. 37.7 miles with over 2300 feet of climbing. Total ride time was 2 hours 45 minutes.
I left the house at 6:30 a.m. and rode down 50 to Radford to 56. I then took 682 up to the Plains, and made my way to the bike path and back to town. Once arriving back in Athens, I headed through town to Cable Lane. Cable Lane hurt pretty bad, but, and I was able to get to the top again. I was pretty impressed with this, considering I had already ridden 20 miles before arriving at the base of the hill. Next time I do this route I may try to get off the bike path at Currier Street so I can take the hill on Second St., which would give me another couple hundred feet of climbing.. This was the longest ride I’ve had this year, and definitely the most challenging. I arrived back home at 9:15 a.m., and was greeted with a plate of chocolate chip & banana pancakes with bacon. Awesome!!
Tour de France riders on Twitter
Via @lancearmstrong, here are a few Tour de France riders who are on twitter.
TdF riders on Twitter. @levileipheimer, @bradwiggins, @dzabriskie, @christianvdv, @thedpate, @cadelofficial, @wegelius, @andy_schleck, @kaarvesen, @carlos_sastre, @mickrogers, @ghincapie, @markrenshaw1, @bdlancaster, @laurenstendam, @stevendejongh, @koendekort, @fumybeppu.
I currently follow Lance, Hincappie, and Leipheimer, as well as Johann Bruyneel.
Yesterday’s 32 mile ride
Yesterday morning @cguder and I took a nice long ride on some of the best roads in Southeast Ohio. Route 56 recently got a new coat of asphalt, and we have been itching to get our bikes on it. Rt. 56 is a little sketchy to ride on during high-traffic times, but at 7:00 on a Saturday morning, we only saw about 5 cars the whole time we were on it. The climb from Athens to Union gives you a nice little warm up, and there are lots of rollers all the way up 56 to 691. There is a huge climb at the intersection of 56 and 691 that will really test your legs and lungs. We really enjoyed the hills, but we were definitely grateful when we finally made it to the bike path. Overall a wonderful ride. Total trip mileage was 32 miles in 2 hrs 20 minutes ride time. I also broke yet another spoke in my rear wheel, which is about the 3rd one this year on my road bike alone. I’m thinking once some funds become available, I’ll need to get some newer, stronger rims.
Today’s Ride: Peden 682 Beaumont Loop
Had a great ride with @cguder today. We got started at 6:30 this morning. We had originally planned to just ride the bike path, but we were feeling energetic and decided to mix it up a bit. This was the first time I have climbed up 682. It wasn’t a bad climb at all, and since it was so early in the morning, the traffic was minimal. We had most of the roads to ourselves, which was a real treat. The climb out of the bike path up Currier and Second Street was a pretty good climb, and got us both breathing pretty hard. Total mileage according to my bike computer was 17 miles, and the total ride time was 1 hour 15 minutes.
How to follow the Tour de France online
How to Follow The Tour De France Online from the Wired How-To Wiki.
The 2009 edition of the Tour de France — the premiere event on the pro cycling calendar and the oldest of the three grand tours — kicks off Saturday, July 4 with a short time trial in Monaco. If you’re lucky enough to live in France, Italy or Monaco, you can follow the three-week race from town to town in person. The rest of Europe can enjoy live coverage on the Eurosport network, and North Americans can watch daily reports on the cable network Versus.
American Lance Armstrong is racing again in 2009 after three years in retirement, so most everyone in the world can count on a nonstop barrage of Lance-related coverage from all the major news outlets.
But the Tour is about a whole lot more than Lance. Luckily, your best friend the internet has dozens of ways you can keep up with all the sprints, climbs, crashes and breakaways in the Grande Boucle without having to dig too deep.
Social media and the Tour de France
It’s no secret that Lance Armstrong is riding the Tour de France this year. He’s been all over the media and the web. He’s got a huge following on Twitter, and he is getting tons of comments on his TDF training videos and training blog. So what’s the big deal about using video and twitter and other social tools? Well, if you’ve ever heard anything about the Tour de France, or pro cycling in general, you probably know that the support is not without controversy. Every year, riders are disqualified for blood doping or using banned substances. The race officials have started really cracking down in recent years, yet there are riders (or teams) who choose to cheat. I’ve been a follower of Lance on Twitter for quite some time, and I believe that he is using it, and other social tools, to be more transparent about his training, his life, his Livestrong organization, and his life in general. Below are a couple of really cool videos from his website which show the human side of Lance. In both cases, we have a world famous athlete talking with everyday folks while riding his bike. It’s often hard to think of athletes or celebrities as real, approachable people, but I think the videos below show the Lance is a person on a bike, not a machine.
I’ve written recently about the importance of putting pictures of staff on librarywebsites. I really think that social tools like online video can help to personalize the library website and make it more approachable. Video and pictures from staff members can make the library more welcoming by breaking down the barriers and fears that users may have of the organization. By showing the people behind the institution, libraries can make their sites, buildings, and services more accessible.
Take a look at the videos below.
A video of Lance riding a TDF training route with an 8 year old boy
liamlivestrong.MP4 — powered by http://www.livestrong.com
A video of Lance talking with a lady from Ohio on the TDF route
ohioguest.mp4 — powered by http://www.livestrong.com
I rode Cable Lane and I lived to tell about it
This past Saturday morning I got out very early on my bike for a nice 26 mile ride with 1882 feet of climbing. I climbed one of the toughest hills in town, and I lived to tell about it. If you’re interested in more about the ride, take a look at the most recent post from my bike blog.
So where did all the bike stuff go?
In a previous post, I mentioned that I would likely start posting more about my cycling endeavors. However, with some more reflection, and with some advice from other librarians, friends, cyclists, and bloggers, I’ve decided that I would go the two-blog route. There are a number of cycling-specific blogs that I have admired and read for quite a while, and having a cycling-specific blog seemed like the best way for me to keep track of my adventures in riding my bikes. Librarians likely don’t want to read about every single cycling workout on the indoor trainer, or the latest technology behind spandex shorts. Likewise, cyclists probably don’t want to read about using a wiki as a subject guide, twitter for library outreach, information literacy, or my experiences in the classroom giving bibliographic (gasp!) instruction. As such, Library Voice, will continue to be a blog devoted to my observations about libraries and technology, with the occasional talk about video games thrown in for good measure. My other blog will focus specifically on my goal to ride the Tour de France 😉 . I realize that this is my blog, and I can write about whatever I want, but I’d like to maintain some consistency in the post topics. Having two blogs should make it easier to rationalize what kind of content goes where. Likewise, having two blogs means yet again that my content is all over the place, but I guess that’s the way things go.
I’ve received several positive comments from librarians and readers of this blog who say they appreciate the posts about cycling, as they give them some insight into my non-professional interests. In order to link the Librarian Chad with Bike Rider Chad, I may occasionally post a digest of blog posts in Library Voice, which link back to my cycling blog.
If you’re interested in biking, I encourage you to subscribe to my cycling blog, which is currently located at redneckinspandex.wordpress.com. I may eventually move the blog to my own web host, but for now you can find it on the wordpress.com domain.
Thanks for reading and happy riding!