I have been carrying a sadness and a horrible image with me for a few days of a group of riders struck by a car during a road race in Mexico.  It looks like an image from a war.  Which is how it is out there sometimes.  And now I understand our Mayor, who recently hired a woman to consult on making Boston more bicycle friendly, was hit by a woman driving to work. He didn't file a police report and didn't have to according to the law (explained in excerpt from the Globe below).  I hope we encourage everyone to report accidents as by not reporting we don't give an accurate accounting of the danger and need to make it safer for bikers. What do you think?

"It's bad enough to hit a bicyclist on your way to work, but what if it's the mayor? That scenario unfolded for an unidentified commuter late last month: A woman driving to work realized she had struck Mayor Thomas M. Menino while on his morning bike ride, the mayor's office confirmed yesterday. Although the mayor did not publicize it, the incident does seem to support one of his pet causes, that the city needs to be more bike-friendly.The woman was driving on River Street May 26 when she crested a hill and struck Menino, said Dorothy Joyce, the mayor's spokeswoman. He fell off his bike and suffered a small cut to his ankle, but told the flustered motorist to "just get going, and don't be late for work," Joyce said.  Menino brushed himself off and got back on his bike to return home, she said. Joyce said she did not know the driver's name, which direction the car or Menino was traveling, or whether he was attempting to cross the street or make a turn. The mayor didn't file a police report or go to the hospital, she said.  By law, bicycle riders are only required to report an accident if personal injury or property damage exceeds $100."

****
And then the horror of this:

 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,362147,00.html
 

So I'm reading the new Bike Magazine (July 2008) about how MA state employees of the Dept of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) are being given instruction on trail building & maintenance by New England Mtn Bike Association (NEMBA) volunteers.  Wow.  This is a huge step in the acceptance of mtn bikers as people that are stewards of the environment and not threats to it.  Rather than trail destroyers, this action recognizes mtn bikers for the innovative techniques they've developed to foster healthy trail systems.  For a synopsis of studies aimed at determining the impact of mtn biking on trails compared to other recreational user groups go to the International Mtn Bike Association (IMBA):  www.imba.com/resources/science/impact_summary.html 
Bottom line: studies find that there is impact on trails from this sport but the impact is no different from that of other recreational users including hikers.

Tickled pink reading this article and seeing the great photo of the DCR's eclectic new staff -- they too are not the stereotype of thin, ponytailed, pink cheeked young things -- thinking I can't wait to share this with the LunaChix. And lo and behold its authored by our very own Wendy Booher.  Great writing and great story Wendy!

Perhaps you've heard about the high gas prices? I honestly wasn't paying much attention until I filled up the gas tank and the number on the credit card slip started with a 4. The actual cost isn't much of an issue for us - we share one fairly small car and only drive to work 16 miles round trip an average of two days a week. The grocery store is only a few miles away and most of the rest of our driving is optional - mostly driving our bikes places. But it's the principle of it that makes me want to drive less. I don't want the oil companies to have my money. I'd rather give it to the MBTA or the bike shop.

In that spirit, we've been checking out places to mountain bike that don't require driving. With a little intraweb research and map studying, we've already found a couple of new places. These are little patches of conservation and town-managed land that aren't worth driving to, but they're easy to link up with just a few miles of road. Two weekends ago, we scoped out a spot to the north we've been hearing about. We headed west, through a couple of local conservation areas and worked our way northwest to a larger parcel (Bedford), road rode for a few miles - with a few stops for map checking - until we found the right spot.

It took us a few hours of slow riding and backtracking, but I think we managed to find all the good stuff. After we decided we had seen everything, it took us 15 minutes to find out way out. It wasn't as small as we thought... Another couple of miles of road would have taken us to some other small parcels or the Fells, but it was already after 6pm and I was ready for dinner. 

Last weekend, we added a new twist to our beloved route out to Acton and Carlisle and back. We rode three miles to Waverly, took the train out to Littleton, rode some Littleton conservation parcels between the train station and Acton, then hooked in with our usual route. The trails in Littleton were awesome - they're not MTB trails, but you wouldn't know it. They flowed well and had enough interesting technical bits to keep things interesting, but no real hike-a-bike.

This route required extra time to get out there, but it was totally worth it to eliminate the out-and-back from Estabrook to Spring Hill and the incredibly boring railroad bed from Estabrook to Bedford. The original plan was to hook into the Bedford trails and return from the north, but my brake hose disengaged itself from the lever on the way back through Estabrook, so we headed straight home, but we still logged 50 miles. My next mission is to check out the trails at Horn pond and the Brook Estate. They're easy to get to after work. I just have to accept a little backtracking and aimless wandering for a few hours. Then we can loop the first ride to the North (I'm not sure that the trail building elves want to advertise the actual location) with Whipple Hill and Mt Gilboa and end up a few blocks from the house.

Let's just call them "Shonny, Katerina," and "Julien."
By reputation they are the former US national XC champ, the current national XC champ of the Czech Republic, and the now 4x world XC champ - not to mention the defending Olympic gold medalist. Shonny and Katerina are also key members of the LUNA pro mtb team. Then there was me. Pudgier, out-of-shape by comparison, and the slowest of them all - something I have not experienced for a long time.
I get to do a lot of cool things as a freelance writer within the bike industry and riding with this small group of cyclerati was certainly one of the coolest experiences I've had in a while. It's very hard to get to know the pros on a personal level since it's usually all business when we talk at races or exchange comments for articles etc. The best way to get to know pro bike racers is to ride with them, since riding is at the core of their existence and everything else only goes to support their lifestyle. I would have liked to ride with them too, if only I could have kept up with them.
We met at Outdoor Demo, an expo for the bike industry that takes place in Boulder City, Nevada during the two days prior to Interbike, the annual industry trade show. My objective was to try out different linking systems on dual suspension bikes. Orbea, the bike sponsor for the three superstars, had something new to offer and Shonny invited me to try out one of the new bikes.
I am lucky to have worked with each of these racers in various capacities, otherwise I would have truly been blinded by the star power. Nevertheless, when it was realized who I would be riding with, I started to quake and I felt like I was going on my first mountain bike ride ever. You can get away with feeling like a first-timer on a road bike but it's not so easy on a mountain bike when faced with precipitous descents and scree-strewn climbs that fall off into thin air if you make only the smallest error. I survived the first loop - a small, easy demo loop set up by the event organizers expressly for testing products. The only way the demo loop becomes difficult is if you try to go fast. Alison Sydor, a Canadian pro who may soon reach legend status, once said that "Everything becomes technical at speed," which becomes so true once you have to start making split-second decisions and hope for the best.
Craving more, our little group headed up into the canyon to a trailhead for two trails. The name of one escapes me, the other will be branded on my memory for life. I looked a little wistfully at the nameless trail, since that was the easier of the two, and will instead remember Shonny saying to me over her shoulder, "I guess we're going to take Mother!"
It is important to get your ego trampled every now and again. How will you ever know your weaknesses unless they get nakedly exposed? "Go and have a failure," was Garrison Keillor's advice to the Phi Beta Kappa members of Harvard's graduating class of 2001, "for only through failure will you experience success."
Mother was a 30-minute sustained climb up the canyon walls of Bootleg Canyon. Once the rainbow stripes and Olympic rings on Julien's jersey became barely visible and little Katerina became just a spec in the distance, they would stop and wait. It didn't matter that Julien's bike weighed a full pound more than his regular bike or that it didn't fit him well. Even with those handicaps and me riding a single pivot dual suspension Orbea with carbon monocoque frame and aluminum swing arm, the gap between us yawned cavernously.
I survived this ride too with everything intact, although my ego was a little chipped from the experience. I unknowingly got caught up on the frame a couple times, which left a few angry claw-like marks on my left thigh. Julien asked if I "had a leeetle crash?" No, I'm just not as talented as I thought I was.
It really helps to be reminded of what it's like to be the slowest and sloppiest rider sometimes since it becomes easier to identify with the fears that new riders have. Everyone has been there. The whole point of our LUNA team is to get more women and girls on bikes and that objective could get easily lost through intimidation.
So go out, have a failure and bare your weaknesses. Then go ride with someone less experienced and show them something new. To derive confidence from failure is likely one of the hardest mountain bike skills to teach; master it and realize its value when it's applied to just about every other aspect of life.

Wow!  What a fun few weeks to be a mountain biker.  Alison flew into town on a Friday afternoon and went for a long ride with Roz.  I picked her up bright and early on Saturday and we drove 3 hours out to Hancock, MA for Pedrosfest.  Alison bonded with my iPod, declared herself a motion-induced narcoleptic (although my extreme extraversion only let her sleep for 1/2 hour of the 3-hour ride) and took in the beauty of the Massachussetts Turnpike.  We had 2 extremely successful clinics followed by rides led by Alison to apply the new skills.  The weather was gorgeous and we gave away a ton of *free* LUNA products over the 3-day event.  On the last day, Alison and some of the Chix (and one dude) went for a ride and the bottom dropped out of the sky!  Alison had a blast slipping and sliding all over the mountain and declared it the best part of the weekend.  I think the best part was eating sauteed broccoli in the North End with her at the end of a long weekend.

We all met back up at NORBA Nationals in Vermont for more clinics and lots of racing.  Our Boston team represented with Anne, Dawn and Roz all with podium finishes.  Congrats to Roz who is the national Super D champ!  Also congrats go out to our friends Teri and Serene who placed 1 & 2 in the beginner cross country category.  In our down time, we worked with Alison to teach 2 more clinics with outstanding attendance.  Alison is a great teacher and throughout the 2 weekends, she worked with over 100 mtn bikers on really important skills like cornering and getting behind the saddle for steep, technical descents.  Other highlights from NORBA was getting to say hi to the Chix from the pro team who were racing in various categories.  Marla, Shonny, Georgia and newcomber Chloe all finished on the podium during the weekend. 

Pictures of the clinics can be found at: http://bostonlunachix.shutterfly.com/action/?a=0IauGLhq2aMXHg

On Saturday, July 7, we lead a women's road ride up on the North Shore.  Anne Noga put together a really nice route out of Salem.  We were cooking along, and we pass a group of 3 guys.  No big deal, right?  Well, a few miles up the road, Anne gets a flat, so we all stop and she fixes it, while the rest of us rehydrate and chit-chat.  The 3 guys ride back up to us and offer their assistance.  Being the self-sufficient women that we are, we quickly thank them, but decline their assistance.  They stick around for a few more minutes and keeping chatting, depite our obvious lack of interest in them.

Why is this interesting?  Well, as we were all chatting, one of the guys pulls out a liter of Vodka and takes a swig!!  Yikes!!  In all my years of training, Vodka was never recommended to me as a drink of choice while on a long road ride.  I wish I had been able to witness our reaction to this guy, because I believe I would have seen 12 women simultaneously widen their eyes and open their mouths in awe.

Luckilly, we never caught back up to them.

Crashing and consequently bleeding for me these days is akin to springing a leak due to the blood thinner I must take as an outpatient of pulmonary embulism.  The first time I stacked hard was a little over a week ago, when I failed to disengage my left foot. I couldn't clear a root step on the far side of a dry creak. When you've declared that you refuse not to live a life in fear of crashing, you must also calculate the risk that goes with that declaration. One change I've made, albeit minor, is to carry a first aid kit with me on every ride - not a bad habit to get into even if you don't take blood thinners. The kit came in handy on that first crash, as did my riding partner/best friend/my everything, Hicham, who could make a break for help if necessary. Luckily a little additional pressure to stop the bleeding was all that was needed until I could properly clean and patch a gash to the shin and an abrasion to the knee.

Two days ago Hicham had lunch plans and couldn't go riding with me so, with limited time, I took off by myself for a quick ride in the Fells. The plan was to ride a trail opposite to the direction I usually go (I needed practice on some of the tricky bits that are a cinch coming the other way) and then cut back on the regular loop. There's one section that I'm particularly proud of because it's all uphill with a diagonal stair section into an acceleration to get up and over a 24-inch curved rock step - I've cleared it many times. Long story short and you know where this is going, I didn't make it over the rock step. I leaned back too far, front wheel went up, I lost balance, turned the wheel to the right and tumbled down the other side of the step. That cost me. When I pulled myself back onto the rock, there was another abrasion and some scratches that looked more like claw marks. This time though, my skin broke out into an angry red blush - something I'd never seen before, which freaked me out and caused a bit of panic. Out came the first aid kit, wounds got cleaned, dressed and taped and lucky for me, the redness went away after a minute or two. I rode on for about 10 feet, decided to call it a day, turned around and went to the nearest exit.

The problem with crashing is that - in addition to blood and skin - I also leave a little confidence out there in the woods and unlike blood and skin, it doesn't come back as easily. I rode again yesterday, this time with Hicham and found myself backing off - dabbing in most cases - on obstacles that I usually ride with gusto. After yesterday's ride I made one last trip to the doc's office before I take off for France today to see how fast my blood is clotting. Too fast according to the INR test so my dose of blood thinner has been increased from 5 mg. to 7 mg.

I rode again this morning with my usual crowd, which I'm pleased to report contains not one, but two leaders of the Root 66 Series. They are a talented bunch that craves challenges and I hope that when I get back from France in a month, that I'll be back to riding just cautiously because right now, I'm riding scared.

When I'm not putting on make-up or planning my day during my 15 minute T ride to work, I scan the pages of the freebie newsapapers, Metro and Boston Now. Today's edition of Boston Now featured our beloved President on the cover with the headline, BUSH REJECTED ON IMMIGRATION. I quickly turned to page 8 to read up on the Immigration Reform but was sidetracked by another Bush photo on the opposing page under NATION BRIEFS. Here is the President supporting a dual suspension mountain bike with only his right arm. President Bush, an avid mountain biker believes that people are never too busy to exercise and if they make exercise a priority, they will do it. So is that why I ran 3.5 miles in the 90'F temperatures last night before an early evening meeting???

I wonder if the President brought his bike to Kennebunkport this weekend. Bush will be in Maine for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Bush family estate on Sunday. I would give anything to see him riding around Clifford Park doing wheelie drops!!!

I wake up at 5, shocked that morning has arrived with such urgency. I fumble around for my cell phone which doubles as my alarm clock in a desire to simplify my life. I hit the snooze button (yes, cell phone alarm clocks have those, too), not once, but at least twice. A soft voice in my head urges me on; be out the door by 5:30. Most days, I listen to this gentle prodding and ungracefully throw the blankets to the side where they sit in beige mounds until I bury myself in them again at night. I have to plan ahead: backpack, work clothes, workout clothes, extra socks, makeup, Treo, lunch, layers and more layers. I hope it hasn’t gotten too cold overnight and that there is a 0% chance of precipitation- is that possible? After adding more layers than a good lasagna, I grab my pack and head downstairs where my sleek, silvery bike waits anxiously.

I unlock her and begin to press buttons lighting my front and back. Between the lights and the geek reflectors remaining on my wheels, I hope the cars will see me as I ride the streets of Boston in the morning darkness. I round the corner onto Mass. Ave (because we never say the full name here) and begin to chase the No. 1 bus. I usually pass it first as it is picking up the morning commuters. I slide by, smiling, feeling the ultimate sense of freedom that comes from riding a bike through the city and knowing I will arrive in half the time that it will take the passengers to reach their final destinations. I weave around the potholes on the nearly deserted early morning streets and listen for the heavy breathing of the bus as it preys upon my neck like a hungry lover. It passes me and pulls over at another stop. I ride safely through the red lights and gain distance, my goal is to get over the bridge and into Boston before the bus passes me again.

I reach the bridge and a gust of wind hits me, nearly knocking me off my single speed superstar. I pedal hard and the cold wind begins to make me tear. I vow to create an eyeball warmer for cyclists in my next lifetime. While I am on the bridge, I take in the Boston skyline with the Prudential tower disappearing into the low-lying clouds, the Zakim Bridge majestically rising in the distance to my left, and the glowing Citgo sign to my right. I manage to make it across Boylston Street before I hear the bus behind me. I concentrate on avoiding the pock marks and staying as close to the right as possible. This is where the game of leap frog begins. He stops at Symphony, I pass. He passes at Northeastern. I maneuver a red light to get ahead, my eyes playing ping pong tracking the cars entering the intersection. I try to make it to the medical center before he catches me again. I cut left and have the road to myself. I revel in my independence and marvel at my own strength for just a few moments before saying a quick prayer that my sweaty clothes will dry before I have to play another game of cat and mouse with the No. 1 on the way home.

(I wrote this in my head on my way to work one cold winter morning a few months ago and thought you might enjoy it!)

Lately, I've been having trouble sleeping, so I have been spending some late nights online (and NOT in a creepy way....).  One night during a random bout of insomnia, I stumbled upon Bicycling Magazine's website.  They host a cool program/promotion/event called BikeTown, where they select 6 towns each year to give away bikes.  They highlight the town in their fall edition and talk about how the bikes made a difference in some of the receipient's lives.  This year, Boston was selected and to become a recepient, you have to enter an essay contest.  I figured, heck, why not, I'm up anyway, I can enter an essay contest.

Fast forward one month, and I had completely forgotten about that essay that I wrote.  Well, I get an email from Bicycling Magazine yesterday, telling me that my essay was selected and that I won a bike!!  Yippee!!  I will be receiving a Trek Lime, which is a cruiser bike with the female specific dropped top-tube, coaster brakes, automatic shifting, and a saddle with storage space.  I am so excited!  I have always wanted to own a cruiser-type city bike, to take to the store, out to dinner, etc.  As much as I love my regular road bike, it is such a pain to have to be dressed appropriately, wearing bike shoes, carrying a back-pack, when I just want to go to the store.  Now, I can slap a basket on my bike and off I go! 

I will be attending the BikeTown ceremony this Saturday to pick up my bike. I'll let you all know how it goes!