Show #539 – January 30, 2021

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!

 

 

Show #538 – January 23, 2021

Guests: Kalene Griffith &Aimee Ross; Chris Carmichael; Joe Lindsey

 

We start out this week’s episode in Bentonville, Arkansas. Yes, it’s the home of Wal-Mart and the Walton family. And, it’s recently been billed as the mountain bike capital of the world.

With events such as Big Sugar, which is a new event from Life Time  and which sold out almost immediately upon opening registration, and hundreds of miles of great trails that expand into other parts of the state from Bentonville, I wanted to know more about the City and what else it had to offer.

From a new airport that’s almost like a living museum to a downtown that acts like a trailhead to spread out onto the many paved and unpaved trails, Bentonville is a ride-365-days-a-year place. CEO and Director of Visit Bentonville, Kalene Griffith and the Aimee Ross, director of Bike Bentonville are over-the-moon excited about bicycling and what the city has to offer visitors.

We’ll have part three of our four part series with head coach and founder of CTS training systems, Chris Carmichael. And, this week’s tips are about something near and dear to all of us – FOOD.

I learned the hard way that certain foods and I don’t get along when I’m riding; and, I guess we all have to figure some of that our for ourselves. But, it’s nice to have some guidance and Chris Carmichael is ready to give us some tips.

Our last guest for this week is journalist Joe Lindsey. Joe writes about outdoor sports, health and fitness, and science and technology, for consumer publications and commercial clients.

2020 was such a strange and in many ways, a disappointing year for so many of us. But, we also know that bicycling was a bright spot and the question is whether all of those who turned to the bicycle – whether for recreation, transportation, and even indoor riding when in lock-down as many countries even forbade outdoor activity, will stay with it giving bicycling an expanded population going forward.

In his January 21, 2021 article for Outside Online titled “The Pandemic Bike Boom Is Here To Stay,” Joe gives us facts and figures about why that might be true.

Show #537 – January 16, 2021

Guests: AJ Roan; Chris Carmichael; Scott Bricker

My first guest lives in Wasilla, Alaska. And, if you think back a few years, that should sound familiar. (I’ll leave it at that for now.)

I always think of Alaska as being exotic and so far away. I know many of you have been there, but I haven’t. So, almost like being there, we’re going to talk with AJ Roan.

AJ writes for North of 60 Mining News and you might wonder what we’d have to talk about since his work is in mining – which is another whole topic we don’t get into a lot in our conversation. His article, titled 1000 Miles Ride From Dawson to Nome, is what grabbed my interest.

What we DO talk about is a gentleman named Edward Jesson who lived in Alaska at the time of the Great Gold Rush.

In 1899 Edward Jesson was a successful businessman. It was during the time of the insanity of the Gold Rush and thousands of people were heading to Nome, Alaska to stake a claim. It was also the beginning of the new-fangled safety bicycle – similar to what we know today.

Edward decided to sell all his belongings, buy a bicycle – something he didn’t even know how to ride at the time – and ride from Dawson City in the Canadian NW to Nome – 1,000+ miles.

We’ll speak with Chris Carmichael of CTS Training Systems out in Colorado Springs in the second of our 4-part series about training. Today we talk about cadence, how and why it’s an important indicator of your performance, and how to determine what is optimal for you.

Then, we head on over to Pittsburgh. Yes, Browns fans, you can gloat about football, but when it comes to a great advocacy organization, I think Pittsburgh is probably at the top of the list.

It’s been over 7 years since we spoke with Scott Bricker the executive director of Bike Pittsburgh, and I thought it was high time to see what the organization is up to these days.

Along with some great events, the organization does a remarkable job with combining advocacy, community building, and education addressing just about every aspect of urban cycling.