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Guests: Chris Morris; Joe Lindsey
In our ongoing series on favorite riding trails, I took Jim Sayer’s advice and contacted the Empire State Trail’s Chris Morris for a look at New York’s 750 miles of cycling and walking paths through the State.
Chris is the Empire State Trail Program Manager, living a short distance from one of the trailheads as well as having traversed many a mile on the trail himself.
Brian and I spent a couple of days riding our tandem on the Erie Canal Towpath back in 2016, traveling from Lockport to Brockport and back, staying in a lovely B&B overnight, and discovering some of the rich history of the Canal. We loved the adventure.
With three basic sections to the trail – North from Albany to Canada; West 
from Buffalo to Albany; and South from Albany into downtown Manhattan, the Empire State Trail offers some of the most diverse riding opportunities on the east coast. You can access the interactive map as well as the GuideBooks and more on the website.
Even though the Tour de France is over, and we are almost a week into the Olympics, I wanted to wrap-up this year’s Tour – especially in light of upcoming events – including the Worlds’.
And who best to fill us in on all of this? Escape Collective’s Joe Lindsey. From jersey winners to breakout stars and some observations on what might be coming up during the Olympics and beyond, I don’t know anyone who can speak bike racing like Joe.
Well – we’ve seen the entire Tour de France come and go – and WHAT a race this year. Now, we’re smack-dab in the middle of the 2024 Olympics with America showing up all over the place.
So, who better to talk to about all-things- tour-de France and the Olympics, than the managing editor of Escape Collective, Joe Lindsey.
Joe can recite chapter-and-verse about the riders, the teams, and the 
individual stages of a race that both started and ended differently than in the past and, I always learn so much about bike racing when we talk.
At the time we spoke, the Tour had already completed its 21 stages and we had a short breather before the Olympics – so, while we now know some results, Joe had some predictions. We’ll see how he did in the second part of the show.
We’ll be watching the men’s and women’s road races coming up as well as some of the track events to see who takes home the medals. You can check out more from Joe (and the rest of Escape’s crew) at escapecollective.com.
Next time on TOC, we’ll be speaking with Jill Warren, the CEO of the European Cyclist’s Federation. With lofty goals to see more biking, safer biking, stronger political support, higher investments, and more and better infrastructure, Jill details the role of the ECF’s large umbrella under which 65 members in 40 countries have all signed on for a better cycling future.
We’ll also be highlighting a portion of the ECG including CT, RI, and MA – with Bruce Donald, the Greenways’ Southern New England ECG Manager.