Ty races Georgia Cup crit in Rome

Ty competed in his first race of the 2009 season in Rome, Ga. two weeks ago. It was a cold, wet race with a few crashes taking out many of the riders. One crash resulted in a rider suffering a broken nose and several fingers. Ty finished in 8th place. We were just happy to see he was still in the race each time they came around. As the race wore on it became easier and easier to pick him out as the number of riders decreased.

Magner takes 3rd in Tour de Abitibi Prologue

Ty Magner, right, placed 3rd in the Tour de Abitibi Prologue, a 400 meter sprint. His Florida Velo team mate AJ Meyer, left, took 2nd and a New Zealander occupied the center of the podium. AJ is also from Georgia.

In the 1st Stage the following day, Ty sprinted to what he thought was a fifth place in the field sprint only to discover there were a few more laps in the circuit. He ended up in the back of the field after he sprinted for nothing.

In the 2nd stage Sunday, Ty finished in 9th place. American Iggy Silva, on the U.S. Team, placed third. Ty was the second highest American finisher in that stage. His team mate AJ Meyer was 10th overall at this point. Ty's mistake in the first stage did not help him in the overall standings.

Monday's stage was a time trial in the morning and a criterium in the early evening. Time trials have not been Ty's strength but he has had some good luck in criteriums. He will finish in Canada on Tuesday and will travel with the Hincapie-Barkley team to Nationals in Los Angeles the first week of August. If you want to follow the Tour de Abitibi you can get there by using this website: http://www.tourabitibi.qc.ca/ You have to click around some to get to the English version and then to the PDF results. The News button also has good information.

"Bike to the Future"

An Associated Press article in today's newspaper detailed the advantages of walking or biking to school. The healthy rewards that would come with this are obvious. The apprehension that parents have are also obvious. There are some places much better equipped to handle kids walking or biking to school. A network of sidewalks and bike paths certainly make the decision to walk or bike to school easier to make. Peachtree City, with its dedicated cart paths, has full bike racks at its elementary schools.

In Griffin there are NO bike lanes. There are sidewalks around most of the schools, sidewalks that connect to roads with no sidewalks. In the mornings and afternoons around every one of our elementary, middle schools and high schools there are lines of cars dropping off and picking up students. This despite the district offering bus service for all students.

The economics of $4 a gallon gas (and sure to go higher) will eventually lead to changes in our thinking about walking, biking, and mass transit. The cost of driving and idling in line to drop and pick our children up from school each day may increase ridership on our school buses this fall.

The AP article said some schools offer rewards to students who ride their bikes or walk to school. Nothing like some incentives to motivate students and parents in their decision making. Health benefits are great, but kids respond to incentives they can touch, feel and brag about. Simple things like t-shirts, money, food, homework passes.

So, where do we stand in Griffin-Spalding at the dawn of a new school year? The roads leading to every one our elementary, middle school and high schools have NO bikelanes. The sidewalks that surround our schools often lead to roads with no connecting sidewalks. Most of our schools are not equipped with bike racks, and for good reason - no one rides to school. As a parent, you will not want to send your child to walk to school or walk with your child to school on streets with no sidewalks. You would not want to ride with your child to school on streets with no bike paths.

So, that is where we stand now. Where are we going to be standing five years from now, 10 years from now? We have a very strong bicycling community in Griffin, a bicycling community that can make an impact and bring about some very positive changes in our city and county infrastructure with regards to biking and walking. It can happen. A vision for our community that is turned into reality: "Griffin, Georgia: America's best bike town."

Pine Mountain Fun Ride

This bike riding thing really can be a lot of fun. That was proven again Saturday when the Middle Georgia cycling crew was hosted by Harold and Dale at Pine Mountain. The ride started at the Country Store at the intersection of Highway 27 and Highway 190. It began with a descent into Hamilton and then the long climb back to the town of Pine Mountain and then back up the mountain to Highway 190.

Chuck C., Harold, Dale, Steve, Rose, Jim, Michelle, Bruce and Manchester/Destin resident Martin made the Pine Mountain tour. The picture was made at Dowdell's Knob, one of Franklin Roosevelt's favorite picnic spots. Rose and Steve shortcut back to the Country Store after Dowdell while the rest of the crew swept into Shiloh and then tackled King's Gap before descending back to the campground where Harold cooked up some burgers and veggie hotdogs on the grill.

A good time was had by all. The dip in the Liberty Bell pool was just right to finish off the day.

Thanks Bruce and Liz

Many thanks to Bruce and Liz Reid for their wonderful post-ride poolside get together. It definitely should be featured on the society pages of the GDN. Better yet, Scoop Magazine. The company, food and refresments were delightful and the garden setting tranquil. What a great ending to a hot summer Thursday ride.

Magner Wins Georgia Cat 2 RR Title

Ty Magner, a member of the Hincapie/Barkley Junior Development team, was able to bridge up to the break during Sunday's state championship Georgia Cup road race in Union City and then got the jump in the sprint to win by .5 seconds. Ty was racing in the elite Cat 2,3 division. The race was 68 miles of rolling terrain.
Ty initiated his attack on a climb and brought only one rider with him. Together they were able to reach the break which set a blistering pace for the final 20 kilometers. Magner's support team during the race was his papa who handed him one bottle of water and did a superior job of lubing his chain prior to leaving for the race. He also blocked out the last two cogs on the rear cassette to bring the bicycle into compliance with USA Cycling junior rules. Ty normally rides a junior cassette but he left both of his on some borrowed wheels and forgot to remove them when he returned the wheels.
Another Griffin racer, Joe Waters, took third place in the Cat 4 road race. Joe is a student at West Georgia College.

Tuesday rides, commuters and Denmark

The Tuesday rides are getting mighty swift. We need some newbies to slow us down and bring us back to our senses. (Written pre-TIS e-mail flurry.)

And on another note. . . the 14th Street bridge in Atlanta is being rebuilt at a cost of millions of dollars and it does not include bike lanes. What are the planners thinking? They obviously must be paying less for their gas than the rest of us. Perhaps they should visit Copenhagen and see what bicycling has done for that city. You can see it here:
http.//copenhagengirlsonbikes.blogspot.com/

And it rains and snows a lot in that city. The summers are short but the days are long.

And on another note... On my way to school today I passed two people on bikes who were obviously on their way to work. One was on the wrong side of the road and riding in the grass to avoid the oncoming traffic. I'm sure we will be seeing more people using bikes for basic transportation in Griffin. We need to be working to make our roadways more bike friendly.

And on another note...BRAG will be here in our city Sunday, June 8..Several thousand cyclists will be staying at Spalding High School and hanging around looking for something to do. Is the Sock Shoppe open on Sunday? Think they would be up for group ride?