Mur de Huy

Mur de Huy

The Journal of Competitive Cycling -

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Two videos to enjoy....

The first is from stage 16 of the Tour de France and shows how frickin scary those descents can be. This shot is about 5km down the Col de la Bonnette (the highest pass in Europe at over 2800 meters altitude), where Barloworld rider John-Lee Augustyn missed a turn a nearly plunged to the bottom of the revine. I onnly post this because he was not hurt and was able to finish the stage (after getting a new bike).


Stage 16




The second is a really cool piece on spiders and the impact of various drugs on their web building capabilities.



Thursday, July 10, 2008

Close call.....

Last weekend I put a new rack on the top of my car to carry the bike and wheels. I did this after checking my garage at work to make sure the clearance was high enough to allow a roof top rack. The sign said 8'2" so I figured I was in the clear. However, after picking up my bike from getting the cables replaced I put it on the rack in the garage and it just didn't look like it would clear the ceiling. In fact, it was significantly low. So I had to put the bike back in the back seat of the car and rethink my bike carrying strategy. (Turns out the 8'2" clearance is for like 5 spaces right inside the entrance, the rest of the garage is 7'0"). Anyway, I had to put the trunk rack back on to transport the bike when I parked in the garage, as I did yesterday.

Anyway, I was coming back from Greenbelt yesterday with the bike and wheel on the roof when I hit a bump on 495 while going about 80. All of the sudden I see my wheel flying off the back and fortunately getting caught in the trunk rack. I pulled over, threw the wheel in the back seat and went along.

I guess I got pretty lucky that I had that back rack on to catch the wheel. All in all it turned out to be pretty funny. Would not have been so funny if I lost my wheel. I would have loved to see the face of the person behind me...Yikes