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Show #549 – April 3, 2021

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Guests: Lynne Tolman; John Surico

This week, we take a trip east – first to Worcester, Mass to meet Lynne Tolman,  the president of the Major Taylor Association.

Most of us know who Major Taylor was and today especially, his life and achievements stand out as being most remarkable.

Arguably, he was the first black athlete to break the color barrier, and long before Jackie Robinson, Major Taylor was a cycling phenomenon. When he won the world championship back in 1899 though, it wasn’t here in the U.S. – his home country. He spent many years in Europe to escape the Jim Crow Laws of the day and was revered for his prowess on the bike.

Today, the Major Taylor Association in Worcester, Mass. is dedicated to keeping his legacy alive with programs for schools, rides, and much more.

Then, it’s down to NYC to speak with journalist, teacher, and urban planning researcher John Surico.

As we begin to inch our way out of the pandemic and back into what life will begin to look like, I wanted to speak with someone who has a particular interest in cities – both here in North America and in Europe – and how they are changing in response to the way we work, play, and live.

John Surico focuses specifically on issues of mobility, open space and sustainability. His articles in Bloomberg’s City Lab are of particular interest in these areas and one in particular titled In Covid-19 recovery, London Bets Big on Low Traffic (from June, 2020) caught my eye.

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Show #548 – March 28, 2021

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Guests: Sara Dykman, Selene Yeager

In July of 2017, I spoke with wildlife biologist Sara Dykman. At that time, she was embarking on a 10,000 plus mile journey to follow the migration of monarch butterflies – by bicycle.

Starting in Mexico, bicycling up to Canada and then to the east coast of the U.S., she made the return trip to Mexico to complete a full migration cycle.

I caught up with Sara Dykman where she alighted in northern California for a bit.  In addition to writing a book, Bicycling with Butterflies, she’s begun a series of virtual chats about her trip and the book and is thinking about her next adventure.

Signed copies of her book and information on the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge virtual discussion and book club package can be found on  the Ottawa NWR website.

Then, we check in with Selene Yeager. Bicycling Magazine calls her the Fit Chick, and so do a lot of others.  But, she’s gone so far beyond that title with a podcast, a multitude of articles, and several books.

Among her many projects are a follow-up to her book ROAR and her podcast  Hit Play, Not Pause – which she says is for Feisty Menopause podcast for active, performance-minded women who aren’t willing to put their best years behind them.

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Show #547 – March 20, 2021

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Guests: Paul Tolme & Ethan Campbell; Joe Lindsey: Caron Whitaker

I want to begin with a statement and a question.

We 100% support the wearing of bicycle helmets – for everyone. That said, should there be a legal mandate insisting that everyone wear one when riding?

We begin with King County, Washington, into which Seattle’s boundaries fall. It’s had a bicycle helmet law on the books for YEARS. The law was marginally enforced for a while and then enforcement just sort of dropped off. However, citations are still being issued.

That begged several questions – why had it dropped off? And, if citations are still being issued, what are the circumstances around that?

Now, that law is being challenged and there is a campaign to have it struck down. I speak with PhD student Ethan Campbell – whose field of study is not even remotely connected to the topic of bicycle helmets by the way – and to Paul Tolme, content strategy and media relations manager for the Cascade Bicycle Club out in Seattle.

Then, we do a quick check-in with journalist Joe Lindsey. Like me, he watches the news carefully for bicycle-related stories and we both caught the story about former NBA star Shawn Bradley who was seriously injured back in January while riding his bike.

And while t hat’s a big story unto itself, it is the media’s coverage that irked both of us.

From renown news outlets such as cbsnews, espn, , abc, tmz, and more, the reporting about former NBA star Shawn Bradley, is just wrong. As we have had drilled into our heads over the past few years, these are not ACCIDENTS – they are crashes.

And, since I always like Joe’s straight forward thinking on these types of things, I knew he would have some helpful and insightful things to say.  (Read Joe’s article about this topic!)

Lastly, we speak with Deputy Executive Director of the LAB, Caron Whitaker. This year’s National Bike Summit wrapped up recently and I thought we should all be aware of what resulted in this unusual time of not being able to actually see our legislators face-to-face – well, unless you consider Zoom.

I want to preface my conversation with Caron Whitaker with an apology for the sound quality on Caron’s end. I was unable to clear up some of the distortion in editing; but, the conversation was too good to discard all together.

This year’s National Bike Summit was, of course, virtual. What I didn’t expect though was how incredibly successful it turned out to be!

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Show #546 – March 13, 2021

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Guests: Victoria Munro; Barb Hoyt

In a mini-tribute to Women’s History Month, this week’s show highlights a woman-owned tour company and a woman from history who changed the face of bicycling while adding to the rich history of women’s emancipation at the turn of the last Century.

My first guest is Victoria Munro.  Victoria is executive director of the Alice Austen House on Staten Island in NYC.

Alice was a prolific photographer at the turn of the last century who documented New York City, and especially the lives of lesbian women.  Her photographs of women and bicycles appeared in the original work of Maria – Violet – Ward’s book, Bicycling for Ladies, originally published in 1896. 

The book covers topics from skills and exercise to mechanics and dress and gives us a glimpse into what freedom for women began to look like over 100 years ago.

Barb Hoyt is the owner of Timberline-Adventures out of Boulder, Colorado.  Specializing in small groups – 6-12 people – the tours offer the cyclist or hiker a full day of adventure with great support accompanied by inviting accommodations.

While she didn’t start the company, she became the owner with a passion for adventures and expanded the company from mostly west of the Mississippi to covering much of the U.S. now including Hawaii.

Although COVID curtailed most of 2020, Barb is ramping up some great adventures for 2021 including a 3-month, 4section tour of the East Coast Greenway.

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Show #545 – March 6, 2021

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Guests: Patrick Lucas; Landall Proctor, Vic Micolucci

Have you ever thought about who owns the land under your wheels when you roll out onto a trail with your bike? What if these trails were built without the permission of the land owners?

Patrick Lucas not only thinks about these things, he does something about them as a community planner and intermediary between First Nations’- people who often never ceded their land through treaties or other means – and those of us who want to ride or otherwise recreate on those lands.

Patrick lives and works up on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He wears a lot of hats including one as a community planner, one as a storyteller, one as a writer, and he’s the founder of the Indigenous Youth Mountain Bike Program. While in a meeting with a remote tribe of indigenous people, an elder asked Patrick what he knew about mountain biking. The question came up because Patrick always had a mountain bike strapped to the back of his car. And, out of that conversation came the Indigenous Youth Mountain Bike Program

But, the thing that drew me to Patrick was an article he wrote that accompanied a webinar video about Decolonizing Trails in B.C. and I didn’t know what that meant or why it was important.

Today, Landall Proctor is a software developer.  But,  pretty much right out of college he just wasn’t ready to make a long term career choice and quit the day job he had at the time.  Instead, he decided to take a 100 day 10,000 mile cross country trip.

He kept a journal filled with the stories of that ride and when he returned he thought about turning the journal into a book.  He started and stopped and started again and it just didn’t happen – until now, 15 years later. 

That book is “Headwinds – A Memoir,” and it was worth the wait for him to write it.


We also have a quick conversation with TV anchor Vic Micolucci from WJXT-TV4 in Jacksonville, Florida.  On Sunday, February 28th, during a 72 hour bike race from the west coast of Florida to the St. Augustine on the east coast, several crashes between cars and riders occurred resulting in injuries and one death.

Vic is covering that story and will fill us in on some of the details he knows up until now as there is an ongoing investigation.

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Show #544 – February 27, 2021

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Guests: Elizabeth McGowan; Rob DeMartini

This week, we meet journalist and long-distance cyclist Elizabeth McGowan.

In addition to her work – she’s a Pulitzer prize winning journalist – she’s also an ardent adventurer and a cancer survivor.

I found her to be one of the most articulate, interesting, and candid people I’ve spoken with over the many hundreds – nope thousands – of interviews on the show.

Yes she wrote a book – a really good one about her cross-country bike tour. But, it was her reasons for taking the trip and then teasing out the whys that became the real story.

Elizabeth fought melanoma for many years. Her father died from the disease at the age of 44. Some of the treatments Elizabeth experienced were experimental – all were brutal. So, when she received her 5-year clean bill of health, she decided to celebrate with a cross-country bike tour.

Her book, Outpedaling the Big C is the telling of the story of that trip.

Then, I welcome USA Cycling’s CEO Rob DeMartini back to the show. Rob wanted an opportunity to respond to some of the comments that George Mount made on the show two weeks ago.

According to Rob, George’s assumptions were based upon outdated knowledge of the organization and Rob DeMartini l wanted to offer a more current explanation of how the organization works.

So… equal time…

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Show #543 – February 20, 2021

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Guests: Brendt Barbur; Jason Huntsman & Aaron Frank

We have two interesting conversations for you this week.

The first is with Brendt Barbur.  Brendt founded the Bicycle Film Festival in 2000 – yep, 2020 was the 20th anniversary of the wildly popular event. But, we all know what happened in 2020, and there was some question as to whether it was time let it go.

Have you been spending in inordinate amount of time in front of your television – screening The Queen’s Gambit or Bridgerton or The Crown, or any number of other shows or films as you socially distance yourself and try to find outlets for what seem to be endless hours without human interaction?

Well… how about combining your sport – cycling – and film -and the arts – and your community- and all online? Nothing brings community together like a mutually exciting and informative event – especially when it involves sport, music, film, and fun!

The Bicycle Film Festival, which in its 20 years has attracted a million people to its venues all over the world, found itself looking at cancelling the 2020 event and wondering whether it was time to just call it as everything began to shut down due to the pandemic.

But, the calls starting coming in from cities, organizations, and potential sponsors to find a way to keep bringing the music, the films, the art, and the people together.

Our second conversation is with two gentlemen – Jason Hunstman and Aaron Frank – both with the eBike brand, Serial 1

We don’t usually do in-depth bike reviews on the show, but we do talk about eBikes and when Harley

Davidson decided to lend their engineering and know-how to produce pedal-powered machines, I thought it was worthy of a conversation.

Last year, Harley Davidson spun off its eBike brand, Serial 1, and they were able to come into the space without leaning on the legacy of companies like Specialized or Trek or Giant.

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Show #542 – February 13, 2021

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Guests: George Mount; Cory Greenberg

Hello and welcome to TOC. I’m your host Diane Jenks and this is our show for February 13th, 2021. Happy Valentine’s Day!

First of course, is Radiothon! Our once-a-year big fundraiser for WJCU.  The website opened Friday, FEbruary 12th and we are counting on you to help us reach our goal of $50K for this year’s Come Together for WJCU 2021 radiothon..

Even if you don’t live in the NE Ohio area or listen to WJCU – 88.7FM on a regular basis, you are listening to this podcast and without WJCU, I’m not sure where I’d be! The college hosts the Outspoken Cyclist show as well as great original programming all week long!

OUR SHOW THIS WEEK…

My first guest is not new to TOC, he is ex-pro and Bicycle Hall of Fame inductee and way way more, George Mount.  When you want the truth about anything in the bicycle racing world – just ask George! He has much to say about the state of cycling in the U.S. and he says it in a clear and informed way.

In addition to his incredible achievements – a pro racing career, George was the first American to break into European Road Racing.

Back in 2013, when we last spoke with George Mount, he was still living in northern California and was giving us the inside scoop on the bicycle hall of fame.

Fast forward to today and George is now living the “serene” retired life in Oregon and working on a book about bicycling in Northern California back in the day.

He hasn’t lost any of his passion for the sport and has some very insightful commentary about USA Cycling. He really wants to see fundamental changes inside the organization and its boards of directors. Boards? As in plural?

Our second guest is no less passionate about bicycles and racing, only his approach is from a very different perspective.

Did you know that 1.3% or upwards of 3 million people in the U.S. were reported as being diagnosed with IBD – either Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s Disease in a 2015 study? The disease is not only debilitating, it can also be embarrassing and scary.

Cory Greenberg, now in his early 30’s, found out about IBD and specifically ulteractive colitis while racing on a U23 team about 10 years ago. As many young people who believe that “it will just go away on its own” sometimes like to believe, he began experiencing the pain, inflammation, and accompanying symptoms of what eventually flared into full-blown ulcerative colitis, forcing him off his bike and into the hospital.

His approach to healing accompanied by his commitment to his sport have brought him two major achievements – so far – remission and a pro racing career. Today, we’ll hear his story.

 

 

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Show #540 – February 6, 2021

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Guests: Molly Hurford; Karen Laberee; Walk-Bike-Ohio

Last week, I promised a review of Molly Hurford and Peter Glassford‘s new book, Becoming A Consummate Athlete and, when I promise… I deliver! (well, most of the time) It’s a book you just might want to add to your list of fitness and well being titles, covering a wide range of topics that make a whole lot of sense.

Molly Hurford and Peter Glassford’s new book, Becoming A Consummate Athlete, takes their 20+ years of coaching, riding, running, and writing – lots of writing – and  puts much of their expertise and ideas into it covering topics from creating new habits and shedding old ones to getting back on track when you fall off the wagon – so to speak. Today, we chat with Molly.

Then, we learn about bikemaps.org, a new online resource for reporting and tracking everything from potholes to collisions and other safety hazards. It’s a crowd sourced tool for global mapping of cycling safety.

When you click on bikemaps.org, a beautiful map appears on your screen. On the map is a series of points that have been created by people just like you. Each point will describe a place, a hazard, an incident, or show where a bike has been stolen. And, that data can be viewed, updated, or analyzed. Karen Laberee is the executive director of bike maps.

And, finally we speak with a team of planners from ODOT, our own Ohio Department of Transportation, about the new Walk Bike Ohio master plan – a plan that is promising to make walking and biking in Ohio safer, more convenient, and accessible for everyone.

Over the years, we’ve often spoken with planners, transportation specialists, and advocates around the US and beyond to move the needle for safer and more comprehensive biking and walking.

Today, we’re speaking with folks from Ohio on that same subject – safer and more accessible biking and walking – as a new plan is about to launch.

 

 

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Show #539 – January 30, 2021

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Guests: Chris Zigmont;  Chris Carmichael, James Sonnhalter, Michael Dever, and Mary Cierebiej;

Hello and welcome to TOC.  I’m your host Diane Jenks and this is our show for January 30, 2021.  WOW – January seems to have flown by and I’m eagerly looking forward to February with an eye toward spring!

Before we get to our show this week, I’d like to make a correction from my blog entry for Bike Bentonville from  last week.   I stated that Dirty Kanza had been changed to the Big Sugar ride – nope – incorrect! In fact, Big Sugar is a NEW ride – sold out by the way – and Dirty Kanza’s new name is Unbound!  Both are Lifetime Events!  Many apologies for my faux pas.

Moving right along; I think our show this week is very interesting!

A couple of weeks ago, Shimano announced that it would take over neutral support for the peloton at the 2021 Tour de France.

Many of you know that neutral support has been the pervue of Mavic with their yellow support vehicles loaded with bikes, wheels, and other equipment.

Today, we learn a lot more about neutral support from someone who was not only part of it, but knows the history.

Chris Zigmont  has been in the bicycle world since the 1980’s starting out by stealing his older brother’s bike, subsequently wrecking it, and finding out that the bicycle would be a lifelong passion.  From working at a local bike shop in NH to a stint at Specialized at the beginning of his career, Chris has been all over the world – involved at the deepest levels of the sport.

He’ll take us from then to now… his most current project – The Alternate Route!

We’ll have our 4th and final installment of our training tips with coach Chris Carmichael.  Today, we discuss weekly mileage – whether you should take one LONG ride a week or several shorts rides.

 

And finally, we speak with a trio of folks from North East Ohio who are working to bring 30 miles of new paths and trails to the Cleveland Lakefront with the Cuyahoga Lakefront County Access Plan.

Armand Budish, the Cuyahoga County Executive, had this to say to jump start the plans for the new Lakefront Planning Effort:

“To make a huge leap forward for our region, to separate ourselves from our competitors, we must build on our best asset. And that is our lake.”

My guests, Mike Dever, Mary Cierebiej, and Jim Sonnhalter, couldn’t agree  more:   The Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath – which is over 100 miles long – has been a 40+ year project that will finally see its final connector piece drop into place later this year.  This new plan will get underway a lot sooner!