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© June 24 2009 Arizona Road Cyclist News is a bi-weekly publication that is sent out free of charge by E-mail. You may forward this newsletter to your friends, and you may also forward individual articles as long as you reference Arizona Road Cyclist News as the source. This publication is copyrighted. If someone has forwarded this newsletter to you, you can sign up for your own free subscription at www.azroadcyclist.com. Your E-mail address will not be shared with anyone, and you can unsubscribe and thus erase your E-mail address from our servers at any time. This newsletter is also posted to the www.azroadcyclist.com Website approximately two days after it is sent out to E-mail subscribers.
In this issue:
Arizona Cyclist Killed on Cross-County Ride
Cindy Pool, a science teacher at Payson High School and a member of Team Strada, was killed on June 9 when she was struck by a semi-truck in Wyoming just days after she and a friend had begun a ride across the USA. Pool, who was 46 years old, had qualified to participate in the Duathlon World Championship next year. Cindy kept an online blog of her trip from its beginning on May 31 to the day before her death on June 8. To read her blog and view the pictures of her trip taken by her husband Roy, click here. To view Cindy's racing biography on Team Strada's Website, click here. Disastrous Mavic Wheel Failure Mavic was once one of the most-respected wheel builders in the world, but in recent years it has been losing its reputation due to frequent spoke and rim failures of its Ksyrium line of wheels. Recently, Mavic recalled its R-SYS carbon-spoked wheels due to catastrophic wheel failures and replaced them with a supposedly sturdier design. However, even the replacement R-SYS wheels have been failing. To read how one rider took a header when his redesigned Mavic R-SYS front wheel collapsed during a criterium, click here. How the BOS Ride Got Started In 1981, Fred Sconfienza, then an ex-racer and still an avid cyclist, moved from Tempe to North Scottsdale. Not willing to travel to Tempe to join his former riding companions, he decided to see if he could get a bike ride going in North Scottsdale. He placed a sign in Bicycles of Scottsdale, which was then located on the Southwest corner of Scottsdale Road and Shea Boulevard, saying he would be at the shop at a certain time Saturday morning ready to ride and inviting any other interested riders to join him. The first Saturday, six riders showed up. The ride hadn't yet acquired the name BOS (which stands for Bicycles of Scottsdale, of course). The ride was also not originally envisioned as a ride for active racers. Fred decided that the ride should be for older riders like him, and that the ride should go the crest of Nine Mile Hill and down to Rio Verde. Thus, the ride's original name, The Over the Hill Gang, had a double meaning. With time, the ride grew in size, and some of the racing members of the Phoenix Consumer Cycle Club stared to ride along, including some of the juniors. Then, Pima Road was extended to Carefree, and the ride changed destinations. The more lazy riders began to ride to Carefree, and the more energetic cyclists would pedal up to the microwave towers that sat on the hill to the east of Carefree. Then both groups would join for coffee in Carefree and ride back to Bicycles of Scottsdale together. Richard Fisher says that his ride logs indicate that the first time he rode to the towers was August 27, 1983. As the ride grew in popularity, some of us began driving the younger Phoenix Consumer juniors to Huachaca shopping center to give them a head start on the other riders. Thus, we had many riders of different ages and different abilities all riding to Carefree. The Over the Hill Gang name no longer seemed appropriate, so the ride became known as Bikes of Scottsdale or simply BOS. Many things have changed in the intervening years. Bicycles of Scottsdale has been closed, and the microwave towers no longer sit on the hill above Carefree. However, both have left their marks on the ride. The ride, now probably the most popular ride on the East Side of the Valley, is still called the BOS ride, and riding up the hill to the east of Carefree is still described as "riding up to the towers". Oh, and Fred Sconfienza? He's in his 70s now and still riding his bike. Tour de Tucson Crash Could Cost Pima County Big Bucks Multiple law suits have been filed against Pima Country as a result of the crash that left Phoenix-area cyclist Gary Stuebe seriously injured. Gary Stuebe's family is asking for $32 million from the Pima Country Sheriff's Office. The driver of the automobile, 91-year-old William Wilson has also filed suit against the county asking for $25 million, although he says that he is not seeking compensation for himself but rather on behalf of the injured cyclists. Two cyclists are asking for smaller sums: Don English of Del Mar, California seeks $500,000 and Drew Stephen of Ontario is asking for $250,000. All of the suits accuse Pima County of gross negligence and recklessness on the part of Deputy Sheriff Muriel McGillicudy, who was supposedly directing traffic at the intersection when the crash occured. Westbound traffic was allegedly stopped at the intersection due to a traffic accident further up the street. Deputy McGillicudy is further alleged to have stopped directing traffic to talk to the stopped westbound drivers. It is also alleged that the stopped westbound traffic and vegetation in the median prevented eastbound drivers from seeing the oncoming cyclists in the bicycle lane. Seeing that oncoming traffic was stopped, eastbound drivers waiting to make a left turn assumed that it was safe to make that turn. It is said that one or possibly two cars turned left before Mr. Wilson turned in front of the oncoming cyclists. It is also alleged that Deputy McGillicudy had earlier removed a traffic cone that would have prevented drivers from turning left at the intersection. In the meantime, as a result of hit-and-run charges filed against him, William Wilson has been sentenced to three years of supervised probation for leaving the scene of the accident. He was not charged with causing the crash. If Mr. Wilson successfully completes his probation, his crime will be categorized as a misdemeanor. Mr. Wilson earlier surrendered his driver's license and will not be permitted to drive during his period of probation. He is currently living in an assisted-living home in Georgia. You can read a more complete article about the suits on the Arizona Daily Star Website by clicking here. You can also read past entries about this accident on the main page of the Arizona Road Cyclist Website by clicking here. Upcoming Races on Versus During much of the month of July, cycling fans around the world will spend hours almost every day glued to their TV sets watching the Tour de France. Versus will broadcast most of each day's race live, and then will transmit condensed versions of the original coverage several times during the day and evening hours. Coverage starts on July 4th at 6:30 a.m. Arizona time. The second stage will also be broadcast live over the Internet at versus.com/cyclysm. For those who cannot get enough of Lance Armstrong and the Tour, Versus will also be broadcasting excepts of Lance's past Tour accomplishments from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 28 followed by a preview of this year's Tour from 4:00 to 4:30 p.m. Then more of Lance's exploits in various stages of past Tours will be broadcast from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. on June 29, from 3:00 to 4:00 on June 30, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. on July 2 and from 3:00 p.m. to midnight on July 3. Even the most rabid Lance fans should be Lanced out by that time. Upcoming Races in Arizona This Sunday brings the 12.5-mile Mount Lemon Time Trial, which goes straight up Tucson's Mount Lemon to Bear Canyon, a vertical gain of roughly 3000 feet. Registration is on-site from 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. with the first rider off at 7 a.m. Registration is $15 for adults and $2 for juniors. For more information, click here. The Arizona Track Series continues at the San Diego Velodrome with time trials and mass-start races held on the weekend of June 13 and 14, time trials and matched sprints on July 11 and 12, and the Arizona Track Championships on August 1 and 2. For more information on the track series, click here. The second race in the Three Bears Time Trial series takes place on June 20 on Park Link Drive, which connects the I-10 Frontage Road near Red Rock to U.S. 79. The first rider off on the 30-kilometer course is at 7 a.m. Registration is $20 and must be performed online. The final race in the series will be held on July 18. To view the race's brochure in PDF format, click here. Phoenix Metro Bicycle Club's July White Mountain Tour The Phoenix Metro Bicycle Club's 2009 White Mountain Tour promises a break from the summer heat the weekend of July 11 and 12. The ride fee is $70 for the general public and $60 for members of the Phoenix Metro Bike Club, the Arizona Bicycle Club and GABA. There is a $20 late fee for registrations postmarked after July 1.Registration includes a meal Saturday evening. There is also a $5 fee for those who chose to camp out Saturday night. The ride starts Saturday, July 11 at the Hon Dah Resort and Casino at the intersection of Arizona highways 73 and 260 south of Pinetop. Check-in is from 7:00 to 8:30 a.m. From there, riders have a choice of a 73-mile or a 100-mile route to Springerville-Eagar. Sunday's ride is 38 miles including the climb from Springerville to the area of the Sunrise Ski Resort. From there it's mostly downhill back to the starting point. To see the ride's brochure in PDF format, click here. More on Cycling's Olden Days Alan Johnson, with whom I used to ride frequently in the late 70s and early 80s, has written his recollection of the 1980 Turkey Day Race at ASU. This race was part of the second-biggest racing weekend in Arizona history (the biggest was the USCF National Championships, held in Bisbee earlier the same year) and is mostly remembered for the fact that former Olympic speed skating champion Eric Heiden crashed while rounding the corner by the Memorial Union on the ASU campus. Austin King has posted Alan's interesting recollection on his velocitycycling.com Website. You can read it by clicking here. Arizona Road Cyclist News Goes on Vacation
Arizona Road Cyclist News will
be on vacation during the month of July. No, its editor will
not go on a trip. He will spend the first three weeks of
July sitting on the couch in front of the TV set with a case
of beer and a family-sized bag of potato chips while
watching the Tour de France. (OK, no chips and not much
beer, but the rest is true.) Look for the next edition of
Arizona Road Cyclist News after the Tour de France. |
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Arizona Road Cyclist News,
http://www.azroadcyclist.com |