Bicycle Touring & More. Other outdoor activity

Italian cycling star Ivan Basso has told prosecutors that he was involved in the Operacion Puerto blood doping scandal.

Basso, until last week a member of the Discovery Channel cycling team, met with Italian anti-doping investigator Ettore Torri and agreed to cooperate with the probe. …

The tornado that quite literally wiped Greensburg, Kansas, off the map on Friday struck about 50 miles south of Larned, one of the longed-for stops on the TransAmerica bicycle route across the Great Plains.

While our hearts go out to those suffering in the twister’s aftermath, let’s consider some ways to stay safe in tornado country while pedaling through on bicycle tours.

First, the safest locations touted for shelter during tornadoes might not be available to bicyclists out on the open road. Time and again, the experts say that if you’re caught out in the open during a tornado, the safest place to be is lying flat in a ditch or low area. …

Craig Alexander wins AGAIN. The Aussies dominated St Croix again this year with Richie Cunningham and Chris McCormick finishing 2nd and 3rd 4 & 5 minutes behind Alexander.

My good friend and homestay Pro Canadian Tara Norton finished 7th and seemed to be pleased as this was not her “A” race. She’s banking on winning the toughest Ironman in the world, Lanzarote in two weeks. Go get ‘em Tara! As a side note, I’d like to do that race in ‘08. Anyone know any good divorce attorneys?!

Course conditions were ripe this year for PBs and records in St Croix with calm seas and a 30% overcast morning for the bike. The run was a little brutal when the sun finally came out to stay but overall it was a great day and an outstanding race.

Personally, all three disciplines yielded personal bests for me and up to mile 9 on the run was an extremely relaxing event. The heat and blisters made the demons appear with only 4 miles to go on the run but they were beaten back and I finished well. For once in my life I’m not all that sore nor tired today.

Many thanks for all the public & private support from my Triweek friends!

I never thought that taking pictures at night would be too hard. The camera that I used is an Olympus point and shoot one, but as the pictures came out, they were more of a point and shoot at nothing shots.
It was the first time I took night pictures and it also took awhile […]