Bicycle Newswire

Bicycle Newswire http://www.bicyclenewswire.com Bicycle Industry News en-us Copyright 2005 Bicycle Newswire. http://www.bicyclenewswire.com/rss/ Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:17 PST Bicycle Newswire http://209.200.103.246/img/header1rss.gif http://www.bicyclenewswire.com Bikes Belong Awards $15,000 in Grants Bikes Belong is delighted to make funding awards to three great projects in our Summer 2010 grant cycle. These projects will build bike paths and increase advocacy to provide better connectivity and more options for seasoned, new, and emerging riders. The Bikes Belong Grants Program is funded by our <a href='http://bikesbelong.org/grants/employee-prop-purchase-program' target='_blank'>Employee Pro Purchase Program</a>. Thanks to participating members and their employees for making these awards possible. Austin Metro Trails and Greenways 2010 Advocacy Initiative (Austin, TX) This $5,000 advocacy grant will help Austin Metro Trails and Greenways (AMTG) to promote a new transportation bond package, which is up for voter approval in November. Included in the bond package is $40 million in funding for a diverse mix of 15 bike and pedestrian projects, totaling more than 50 miles of facilities. Projects will include bike lanes, trails, parking, an underpass, a bridge, and streetscape improvements. One goal of the package is to increase bicycling in underserved areas by improving bike connections in lower-income neighborhoods. Many of the projects will connect to existing trails - popular with Austin residents for both recreational and transportation riding - such as the Lance Armstrong Crosstown Bikeway and the Barton Creek Greenbelt, significantly improving the integration of Austin's regional trail network. After the November election, this grant will also help AMTG build community support for future bicycling initiatives. <a href='http://www.getaustinmoving.com/' target='_blank'>>More about the Initiative...</a> Housatonic Covered Bridge Bike Trail (Salisbury, CT) The Housatonic Covered Bridge Bike Trail will extend for 45 miles along New England's scenic Housatonic River Valley, eventually linking more than 100 miles of trail, dozens of town centers, one high school, two elementary schools, a major prep school, and six dozen heritage sites. The wide, flat trail will provide cyclists with relief from the region's hilly topography. In addition to the $5,000 grant from Bikes Belong, the National Park Service has committed one year of technical assistance to the trail's development. The trail will be part of a system running from New Milford, CT, to Pownal, VT, and will connect to the East Coast Greenway in the future. <a href='http://www.housatonicheritage.org/' target='_blank'>More about the Housatonic Bike Trail...</a> Kings Mountain Gateway Trail (Kings Mountain, NC) The first two miles of the Kings Mountain Gateway Trail opened in November 2009, and already the trail has become a popular recreation destination for Kings Mountain bikers, hikers, and walkers. This $5,000 grant will fund a 2.8 mile extension of the multi-use trail, including stream and rail crossings. The new trail will allow cyclists to start their ride from downtown Kings Mountain and improve connectivity within the town as well. Future phases of trail construction will connect to nearby state parks, the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, Kings Mountain National Military Park in South Carolina, the cities of Shelby and Cherryville, NC, and the Carolina Thread Trail. Land has also been allocated along Kings Mountain Gateway Trail for three future singletrack mountain biking trails. <a href='http://www.kmgatewaytrails.org/' target='_blank'>More about the Kings Mountain Gateway Trail...</a> About Bikes Belong Bikes Belong Coalition is the U.S. bicycle industry organization dedicated to putting more people on bicycles more often. We work to increase federal bike funding, award grants to support innovative bike projects, promote bicycling and its benefits, and back crucial national efforts such as Safe Routes to School, Bicycle Friendly Communities, and the National Bike Summit. Through the affiliated Bikes Belong Foundation, we focus on improving bicycle safety and enhancing bike programs for children. Since Bikes Belong's Grants Program began in 1999, we have awarded 215 grants in 49 states and the District of Columbia, granting more than $1.7 million in cash and leveraging close to $650 million in federal, state, and private funding. Our facilities grants alone have helped finance close to 1,500 miles of bike paths and trails that link almost 8,000 miles of bike facilities. For more information, visit <a href='http://www.bikesbelong.org/' target='_blank'>bikesbelong.org</a>. http://209.200.103.246/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.showrelease&cid=20&id=1056 http://209.200.103.246/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.showrelease&cid=20&id=1056 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 EST The Spring Classics Celebrates Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races VeloPress is pleased to announce the publication of a beautiful new book about cycling's spring classics. In time for the holidays, The Spring Classics: Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races is now available in bookstores, bike shops, and online. With insightful text from L'Équipe's top writers and hundreds of rare and newly restored photographs, The Spring Classics delves deeply into the rich stories of cycling's most glorious and meaningful history. Readers are invited to preview The Spring Classics at velopress.com. For many who love cycling, the spring classics are the most anticipated races of the year, not only because they herald the start of the season, but also because they are brutally difficult and spectacularly unpredictable. These one-day races test cycling's toughest riders with the worst conditions imaginable-sucking mud, choking dust, leg-numbing sleet, and Europe's narrowest, most bone-grinding roads. Clattering through agrarian hamlets on roughly paved routes carved from the hills more than a century ago, the spring classics embody the soul of the sport of cycling. The Spring Classics enshrines races such as Italy's season-opening Milan-San Remo, which winds south toward the lumpy Ligurian coast on its way to a furious finish; Ghent-Wevelgem, Belgium's test for sprinters, always won with a burst of lightning; the tooth-rattling Tour of Flanders, with its interminable stretches of treacherous cobblestones; and, of course, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a monster created in 1892 whose tempestuous weather and sawtooth profile made it the dark prototype for every tough race that has followed. In its encyclopedic embrace of Europe's greatest one-day events, The Spring Classics also celebrates the essential races that round out the cycling year: Paris-Tours, which moved from spring to fall in 1951; the Clásica San Sebastián, which burst onto the Basque cycling calendar in 1981 and is now enshrined as August's most important contest; and the Tour of Lombardy, 'the race of the falling leaves' along the shores of Lake Como that closes the calendar in October with elegance and style. Taken together, these are the races that truly define a year in cycling. It is from these ultimate challenges that heroes are born, legends are made, history is written, and the eternal struggle to triumph over all odds is fought, won, lost, and celebrated. The Spring Classics offers wonderful photographs and stories of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Flèche Wallonne, Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders, Het Volk, Ghent-Wevelgem, Milan-San Remo, the Amstel Gold Race and of the Grand Prix of Frankfurt, Clásica San Sebastián, the Championship of Zurich, Bordeaux-Paris, Paris-Tours, Paris-Brussels, and the Tour of Lombardy. <center> The Spring Classics: Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races Philippe Bouvet, Phillipe Brunel, Pierre Callewaert, Jean-Luc Gatellier, and Serge Laget Introduction by Paul Sherwen Hardcover with jacket. Full-color and b&w photographs throughout. 10' x 12 1/2', 224 pp., $39.95, 978-1-934030-60-8 </center> About VeloPress VeloPress is an endurance sports and fitness publisher with books on cycling, triathlon, running, nutrition and diet, yoga, and the histories and personalities of our sports. To request review copies, excerpts, and photos, please contact: Dave Trendler, Marketing and Publicity Manager, (303) 245-2138, <a href='mailto:dtrendler@competitorgroup.com'>dtrendler@competitorgroup.com</a> Distributors and specialty retailers please order through: Jen Soulé, Sales Manager, (800) 811-4210 x2169, <a href='mailto:wholesale@competitorgroup.com'>wholesale@competitorgroup.com</a> http://209.200.103.246/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.showrelease&cid=108&id=1057 http://209.200.103.246/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.showrelease&cid=108&id=1057 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 EST