Welcome to the World of Cycling

This week,we take you from the streets of New York City, to parts of the U.S. where cycling is a serious sport, and to the professional circuit of world-class cycling. You'll learn about some of the new rules governing safety, training and fitness, and laws that make it easier to ride from those who organize them. This show gives both the amateur weekender and the seasoned professional "info" on what is coming up, and what he or she needs to know about the sport for leisure, for travel, even for business use.






Guests

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Paul Rogen, co-founder of Thomson Bike Tours


Paul Rogen, co-founder of Thomson Bike Tours, is a seasoned cyclist and traveller who anchors Thomson Bike Tours in the United States. He holds a core belief that experiencing a foreign country by bicycle is the best way to travel - neither too fast nor too slow. He thinks the bike allows the traveller to "direct his own movie" and absorb a locale in a digestible fashion. He is best pulling a pace line of baby boomers over winding hills and keeping a group together with good humor and savvy persistence. He is interested in all things bicycle including the history of cycling and is always heartened to meet new cyclists from all over the world. For him, Thomson Bike Tours is the perfect vehicle for that.

To read about one of Paul's cycling adventures, click here


Thomson's mission is to provide avid cyclists with the most enjoyable, fulfilling and rewarding cycling experience of their lives. Each year they take great pride in offering some of the best rides in Europe. Below is an essay about one of their trips in the Pyrenees Mountains in July of 2006:



Ah, To Return to the Pyrenees


Ah, to return to the Pyrenees. That stretch of mountains that separate France and Spain and run between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. I have been going there almost yearly over the last decade. Every summer I have hauled my bike to Europe and used it, in turn, to haul myself up all those magnificent cols: Col du Tourmalet, Col d'Aubisque, Col de Peyresourde, Col du Soulor, Luz Ardiden and more, many more. Some hardly have names that we Americans recognize: Coll de Merola, La Molina, Col d'Aspin or Col de Portillon, but they are still there- looming, and are often more beautiful, interesting and intriguing than their better known cousins.

After growing up in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana, I have always been drawn to mountains and will take them where ever I can. I have ridden my bike in the Sierras of California, the Green Mountains of Vermont, the Whites of New Hampshire, and the Alps of France, but I always come back to the Pyrenees. There, the roads are usually smaller, often derived from old cow paths, with more twists and turns and the villages are sweeter- home to those same cow and sheep herders. But this is a generalization, and like most generalizations, often true but not enlightening. The Pyrenees are specific, sui generis, the ding on sich, in Kantian terms. They are the thing in itself, incomparable. Let me explain.

There is a col I ride nearly every year that is on the dryer, Spanish side of the Pyrenees- Col de Jou. It is not high by many standards but it is memorable. The road is mostly open with cattle grazing on sun-browned grass between scrub brush and acacia trees. The air is hot and dry, virtually without humidity. Many of the cows tote large dull clanging bells that ring across the sward. Because it is so open it is possible to look to the saddled top in some spots as you gear down for the long pull to the summit. It does not seem too far off and seems easily attainable, but after pedaling for fifteen minutes and catching sight of the draw at the top once again it seems not much closer and one starts to feel the immense size of the mountain. Col de Jou is at the very front range of the Pyrenees and is rally the gateway to the larger peaks beyond. It takes a good hour plus to attain the top. But what a feeling when you get there. And best of all, there is no one to greet you and no haunting metal ski station contraptions lying about. It is just you and the wind and some sheep. Best to bring a fellow cyclist for a picnic partner.

Often we have had picnic spread right at the top. It is a good reward, but not as good as the descent. The way down is a narrow road winding through forest and tunnels crossing over a canyon and back again a number of times. A braided stream races you down but has no chance. How can water go as fast as the wind? Quite often one can ride over ten kilometers here and not encounter a vehicle. The roadway is very sound which makes it possible to hit some record speeds. Not me, but I have been with riders who have started to flirt with 100 km. per hour along a particular sweep which ends with a hard turn crossing a creek and continues on around a bend in the mountain. On this side there are no cows but eventually you come to some sheep and a small village. There is a short climb up out of the village before hanging on for another fifteen kilometer drop down to a major valley. All together it is more than thirty k's of descending. Not bad for a no name road without traffic or hazards. This is the Pyrenees at its best. And this is repeated over and over.

I do also enjoy the Alps but the Pyrenees is much more remote and undeveloped. There is more raw land and real wilderness. The only remaining bears in Europe live here in Spain's grand Ordessa National Park. Ordessa reminds me of Yosemite National Park in California. In fact much of the Spanish Pyrenees reminds me of the twenty years I lived in Northern California. But, why does some new place always have to remind us of some place we are more familiar with? It doesn't, but it does anyway. The Spanish side of the mountains is dry and brown much of the year and have vegetation that is exactly like what one encounters in California. They even have some redwoods on the lower slopes of the Col d'Aubisque. (This just happens to be the French side and is much moister.) Throughout the foot hills are vineyards and olive orchards. What they do have, however, that I have never encountered in California are cork trees. As one pedals slowly around yet another long curve you can see bands of bare trunk on trees that appear to be similar to a Northern California Bay Laurel. These are rings where the cork has been harvested. There are also the usual highland compliment of firs, spruces and pines. All give the air that pungent sharp smell that it just like Montana. Or not.


It really is just what it is. It is the ding on sich, (the thing in itself) nothing more nothing less. It is really just Spain or France in the summer in the Pyrenees. Ah, to return to the Pyrenees in the summer and be on a bike for day after baking day.








Jesse Brown, President, and Ed DeFreitas, Former President of The Five Borough Bicycle Club


From Jesse:

I'm a retired N.Y.C. Police Officer, (for over twenty years). I'm a Vietnam era veteran having served one year and ten months overseas. I've managed Electronic Publishing for The Investment Bank Lazard Freres at 30 Rockefeller Centre and worked for The N.Y. Post in Marketing and Field Intelligence. I've worked for The Department of City Administrative Services and as an independent contractor in Bicycle Maintainance. I have five grown children and three grandchildren.

The Five Borough Bicycle Club is a not for profit, charitable organization. We offer free Day Trips throughout the metropolitan New York City area and beyond. We also offer low cost Weekend Trips to places as far reaching as California and Montreal Canada. Our primary mission is to promote Cycling and encourage our community through healthful travel and interaction(s). We have for forty-four years run a one day Cycling Event known as The Montauk Century which sees the involvement of approximately 2000 riders between Penn. Station and Montauk Long Island over the past several years. We are New York's friendliest cycle club.

All club rides are led by 5BBC-trained leaders who make sure you enjoy your biking adventure safely, without getting lost, or getting stuck with mechanical troubles. We also offer bike repair and maintenance courses and have regular club meetings that feature interesting people talking about the incredibly diverse things they've done and amazing places they've gone on a bike. And, if you too would like to become a ride leader with our club, we offer a course that will give you the leadership, bike maintenance, and ride-design skills that can help you to make that happen.








Wiley Norvell, Communications Director
Transportation Alternatives


Wiley Norvell is the Communications Director of Transportation Alternatives. He has worked on organizing campaigns among NYC's bicyclists and transit riders, most recently for congestion pricing. He commutes daily by bicycle from his home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to midtown.

Transportation Alternatives was founded in 1973 during the explosion of environmental consciousness that also produced the Clean Air and Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency. Since our founding, T.A. has helped win numerous improvements for cyclists and pedestrians and has been the leading voice for reducing car use in the city. T.A.'s roots are in bicycling, and many of our members are everyday cyclists. But winning a cycling-friendly city means changing the overall transportation system, which, even in mass transit-centered New York City, is still dominated by the private automobile.

T.A. seeks to change New York City's transportation priorities to encourage and increase non-polluting, quiet, city-friendly travel and decrease--not ban--private car use. We seek a rational transportation system based on a "Green Transportation Hierarchy," which gives preference to modes of travel based on their benefits and costs to society. To achieve our goals, T.A. works in five areas: Bicycling, Walking and Traffic Calming, Car-Free Parks, Safe Streets and Sensible Transportation.


Bicycling

NYC is a flat, compact and potentially terrific place to ride a bicycle. This is why 110,000 New Yorkers commute by bicycle everyday. But cyclists face many obstacles, particularly the lack of secure places to park their bikes and unsafe street conditions. T.A. seeks to overcome these obstacles by winning bicycle lanes, off-street greenway paths, secure indoor bicycle parking and unrestricted access to the subways. Our Operation Hazard ID program catalogs thousands of street hazards and gets them fixed by the DOT. T.A. also encourages cycling as a smart, fun way to get around through Bike Week NYC and the NYC Century Bike Tour, and reminds cyclists to stay off sidewalks and obey traffic rules through our Give Respect / Get Respect program.










Rich Conroy, Bicycle Education Program Director
Bike New York


Rich Conroy joined Bike New York in 2004 to spearhead the organization's new Bicycle Education Program. Having previously taught bike mechanics and led youth bike rides for Children's Aid Society/ Recycle-A-Bicycle, Rich quickly earned certification as a League of American Bicyclists Cycling Instructor and Regional Trainer. He serves on the board of Recycle-A-Bicycle and is a member of the New York Cycle Club, the Five Borough Bicycle Club, and the League of American Bicyclists.

Originally from Nebraska, Rich rode his bike to middle school and to summer jobs every day, just as he now rides to work. He has a background in academia, with a doctorate in international affairs and a master's degree in peace studies. His family includes three road bikes and one tandem that he built from frames, three cats, and a daughter who also loves to ride a bike.

About the program

Bike New York's mission is to promote and encourage bicycling and bicycle safety through education, public events, and collaboration with community and government organizations. Best known for producing America's largest cycling event, a 42-mile, traffic-free ride for some 30,000 cyclists known as the Commerce Bank Five Boro Bike Tour, we also put on smaller rides, offer free classes to the public, and develop customized bicycle safety and education programs in and around New York City.


You can contact Rich at (212) 932-2453 ext. 159






Robert Thomason, Cycling Hobbyist


Robert Thomason is 80 years old. Since 1968 he has actively been focused on social justice building a working interracial, multiclass neighborhood - Prospect Lefferts Gardens in Brooklyn. He retired from his work as a reference librarian in the Hewlett Woodmere Public Library in Nassau County at the end of March 1985 and cycled to San Diego. In 1987 he traveled for three and a half months in China; 1989 - 4000 miles in Scandinavia; 1992 four months in France; 1993-4 four months in Thailand; 1996 two months in Japan; 1998 three months in Japan, 2002 four and one half months in Japan; 2004 four months in southern Germany and in 2006 four months in river valleys of middle Germany. This year he will cycle three months in Berlin and former East Germany. All trips were by bicycle and by himself. He stayed with many local families.