Tyler Farrar wins 3rd stage of Tour de France

Happy 4th of July!

To celebrate Tyler Farrar of Wenatchee, Washington won the 3rd stage of the Tour de France. He's my favorite rider and this was so awesome following the day after Team Garmin Cervelo won the team time trial.

As he crossed the finish line Farrar held up his hands to make a "W" with his fingers to honor his friend Wouter Weylandt. Weylandt died in a crash during the Giro d'Italia in May.


“It’s a dream to win today. I was close the past few Tours, second, third, second, so to win a stage is incredible,” Farrar said.

“To have the world champion and yellow jersey leading you out is amazing. Our team was perfect today, with Millar and Dean and Hushovd. The first objectives were to win the team time trial and to win a stage. Now we’ll what the rest of the Tour brings.”

Garmin-Cervélo proudly rode at the front of the peloton to protect the leader’s jersey held by Hushovd. Five riders peeled off the front early and methodically built up a seven-minute, but it was all for naught as Garmin kept up steady to pressure to assure that Hushovd would arrive to the line with chances to defend his yellow jersey as well as challenge for the stage victory.

“The objective today was to win with Tyler and keep the jersey,” Hushovd said. “After winning yesterday and having the jersey, now we win a stage, it’s perfect. We’ll see tomorrow if we can keep the streak going.”

Dave Zabriskie, Ramunas Navardauskas and Tom Danielson took turns setting tempo on the front of the peloton to keep the pressure. Strong crosswinds became a factor, especially over the day’s lone climb at a bridge over the Loire at Saint-Nazaire. The team rode perfectly to set up Farrar. Millar took a long pull in the closing 500 meters, before Hushovd then long-time leadout man Dean finishing off the work to set up Farrar. French rider Romain Feillu came through second and JJ Rojas was third, but Farrar won with style in his first-career Tour de France stage victory.

Farrar also becomes the first American to win a Tour stage on the Fourth of July.

Congrats Tyler! Way to represent not only your country but also Washington!

National Bike to Work Day 2011

This Friday, May 20, is National Bike to Work Day.

So grab you're bike and head to work. And think you have a tough commute to work? Check out Danny MacAskill's commute. Now that's something.

2011 Amgen Tour of California

Tomorrow, May 15, the 2011 edition of the Amgen Tour of California kicks off and it's sure to be a great eight days of racing.

The Tour of California is the largest cycling event in America. And because of that many of the great riders from around the world will be taking part. And with 18 teams in the race there are bound to be some some great rivalries.

Here are the 2011 teams:

• Team Liquigas-Cannondale
• Team Rabobank
• Team HTC-Highroad
• Team RadioShack
• Team Saxo Bank SunGard
• BMC Racing Team
• Team Garmin-Cervélo
• Bissell
• Jelly Belly Presented by Kenda
• Kelly Benefit Strategies - OptumHealth
• Spidertech Powered by C10
• Team Type 1 -sanofi-aventis
• UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis
• Team Leopard Trek
• Team Sky Procycling
• Team NetApp
• Kenda/5-Hour Energy Pro Cycling presented by Geargrinder
• Team Jamis-Sutter Home

The official site has nice video previews of each of the stages of the race. Unfortunately there wasn't an embed option so you'll have to go to the videos page of the Amgen Tour of California site.

Tomorrow's Stage One starts in South Lake Tahoe and heads to North Lake Tahoe-Northstar at Tahoe Resort.

Miles: 118.7 KM: 191.0
Start: Sun, May 15: South Lake Tahoe
Finish: North Lake Tahoe - Northstar at Tahoe Resort
Start Time: 10:30am Finish ETA: 3:12-3:36pm

The question is, what team and/or rider are you rooting for? Me, I'm still all about the argyle.

World's smallest velodrome - Red Bull Mini drome

I saw this over on the Team Bonney Lake Bicycle site.

London welcomed the Red Bull Mini Drome to York Hall, where over 1000 spectators gathered to get a taster of the world's smallest velodrome in action.

Fixed gear riders from across the UK tried to hold on to the red line as they rode around the track aiming for the fastest time.

The purpose built track has been engineered in Germany by Velotrack, the team that built the velodromes for the Atlanta Olympics and the Delhi Commonwealth Games. The Red Bull Mini Drome track will maintain race-worthy dimensions in the smallest possible size to enable a single pursuit.

The Ride Trailer

Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race, linked up with the MS Society and rode his bike across the country to raise funds and awareness for the disease.

His trip is now a documentary. And it looks awesome.

The Ride, will be available for download tomorrow, February 3rd. As well as at screenings across the country.



Phil will be at all of the screenings.
100% of the box office goes to benefit the National MS Society
Thu Feb 3 8:00pm Los Angeles, CA
Mon Feb 7 7:30pm Denver, CO
Tue Feb 8 7:30pm Minneapolis, MN
Wed Feb 9 7:30pm St. Louis, MO
Thu Feb 10 7:30pm Chicago, IL
Fri Feb 11 Pittsburgh, PA Theater Details Soon
Sun Feb 13 7:30pm Philadelphia, PA
Wed Feb 16 7:30pm Boston, MA
Thu Feb 17 7:30pm Dallas, TX
Fri Feb 18 5:30pm New York, NY

2011 Team RadioShack Team Kit

The 2011 Team RadioShack Team kit has been unveiled. I don't think it's as cool as those black jerseys that they wore the final day of the Tour de France.

But I do think these are neat. And should stand out in the peloton.

Climbing bike lock

If you own a bike then I'm sure you own a bike lock. But even the best of bike locks can be broke or cut and your bike stolen.

But what if you were able to lock your bike to a pole, say 10 feet in the air?

Then no one could steal it.

That's the idea behind the German company, Conrad, and their new pole climbing bike lock.

The lock uses motorized rollerblade wheels to scale up a lamp post. All you need to do is attach the lock to the post, hook your bike to the lock and let the robot climb the pole.

Here's a video about the making of the lock. If you don't want to watch the whole video, you have to go to 1:20 in the video, so you can see the contraption in work. It even is complete with the familiar car alarm "beep".

2011 Garmin-Cervélo team jersey design

Today Slipstream Sports, LLC released a sneak peak of Team Garmin-Cervélo jerseys. Earlier this year Team Garmin-Transitions and Cervélo SA joined forces for the 2011 season to create a new team that is known as Garmin-Cervélo.

Check out the team jersey:

What do you think of the new look?

I think the black is pretty cool. A much tougher look than the white of last year.

However I really hope that there is more argyle on the jersey than just the sleeve. The argyle is what really sets the Garmin jerseys apart from other cycling teams.

I guess we'll see once the team releases views of the full kit.

And here's what this year's jersey looked like in case you forgot:

Tyler Farrar interview in Portland

Tyler Farrar, of Wenatchee, Washington, was in Upper Echelon Fitness in Portland. Here's a video from the interview:

Farrar's season will start in January 2011 with the Tour Down Under. Which is the opening event of the 2011 ProTour season.

Farrar, who is with Garmin Transitions, was a stage winner in the Giro d'Italia and Spanish Vuelta last season. The event runs from Jan. 16-23.

Farrar joins Lance Armstrong in the field. The seven-time Tour de France winner will compete in the event for the third straight year.

The race will be Armstrong's last professional event outside the United States.

Arnold Schwarzenegger on bike

This is perhaps the funniest photo I have seen in a long time.

Win the 28 Team Radioshack jersey signed by Armstrong

Team Radioshack has been having contests this week to give away the autographed "28" jersey worn by the team.

Here's the details:

Today we bring you the last chance to win an autographed Team RadioShack 28 Jersey. Post your favorite Lance Armstrong memory from this season on the Facebook post, or @ reply to @TeamRadioShack on Twitter (make sure and end your Twitter reply with #TRS) and you will be entered to win. We will randomly draw one winner from the all the entries. You have three chances to enter, so enter now. You have until 11:59pm CST to enter today.

So go enter! Good luck! If you win send us a picture of you with your prize!

People's Coast Classic videos

Here's the week of the People's Coast Classic in videos taken by the Northern Rangers. Thank you again to all who donated to the Arthritis Foundation. As at team we raised more that $7,500! Thank you again! Hope you enjoy.

(BTW Day 5 is probably my favorite)

Day 1: Astoria to Garibaldi



Day 2: Garibaldi to Lincoln City



Day 3: Lincoln City to Yachats



Day 4: Yachats to North Bend



Day 5: North Bend to Port Orford



Day 6: Port Orford to Brookings

People's Coast Classic: Day 2 and 3

Sorry for no post yesterday but the place we were staying at in Lincoln City didn't have wireless internet. So no update.

But here's how the trip has been going.

Yesterday was going to be the longest and have the most hills of the entire trip. It was just under 70 miles. We took off at about 7 AM and decided that since it was goign to be a tough day Team Brooklynn would "go postal." See the photo. USPS all the way!

We saw a number of sites including the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We took a tour. Ate some cheese and then went on our way.
We had some great views through out the day of the Oregon coast.

Near the end of the ride was a big big big hill that we had to climb. Once getting to the top it was nice rolling hills into Lincoln City.

At Lincoln City we camp in a baseball field. We claimed left field.

Today we took off at about 7 again and had a shorter day. We had hoped to stop and look for whales but the fog never lifted the whole day. However we did get to stop at the Oregon Coast Aquarium and view all they had. It's a pretty neat place if you ever get the chance to stop.

We arrived in Yachats after a little over 50 miles. The fog is still here and its pretty chilly with the wind. The mist swirls through camp.

Tomorrow is going to be about 65ish miles. And we'll be able to stop at the Sea Lion Caves.

Total miles is just over 178.

People's Coast Classic: Day 1

Today my dad, Jeff and I started on the People's Coast Classic.

We started in Astoria and boy was it cold. (See Jeff in blanket) He rode with the blanket for a ways, and it turned into a cape. I pretended that I didn't know him.

The ride today was a little over 58 miles. The sun eventually burned off the clouds and we rode the final part in the sunshine. Now it is sunny at our camp in Garibaldi.

Tomorrow is the longest and toughest day of the ride which should be about 70 miles and offers a number of hills. Here's to hoping that Jeff doesn't have to pull me up them.

We shot some Northern Rangers videos along the way and I'll get those up when we get back.

But for now I'm going to go find some dinner and then probably go to sleep.

The People's Coast Classic

I've been off the radar lately (actually I've been Hawaii). So I apologize for the lack of posts as of late.

Tomorrow I take off for the People's Coast Classic. If you've been reading the blog then you know all about how each rider had to raise $2,500 in donations for the Arthritis Foundation. There's still time to donate if you didn't get a chance before!

You can visit my donation page and follow the directions there.

Make sure to check back daily on the blog as I'll be updating along the way. Perhaps even some Northern Ranger videos!

History of American Cycling: Part 8

Versus has been running an awesome series of videos throughout the Tour de France on the history of American cycling. Today's feature was very touching even if you know about the story of Fabio Casartelli.

Here's Part 8:

History of American Cycling: Part 7

Versus has been running an awesome series of videos throughout the Tour de France on the history of American cycling.

Here's Part 7:

History of American Cycling: Part 6

Versus has been running an awesome series of videos throughout the Tour de France on the history of American cycling.

Here's Part 6:

History of American Cycling: Part 5

Versus has been running an awesome series of videos throughout the Tour de France on the history of American cycling.

Here's Part 5:

History of American Cycling: Part 4

Versus has been running an awesome series of videos throughout the Tour de France on the history of American cycling.

Here's Part 4: