I enjoy cycling VERY much...most of the time. It helps me stay somewhat sane. It helps me feel healthy & happy. It helps me avoid gaining weight. And so far it hasn't killed me. That last "benefit" fell through for a couple local cyclists along the coast here in San Diego county. Why? Because drivers forget these three simple driving safety rules:

• Don't drink & drive
• Watch for pedestrians & cyclists
• Drive at speeds that allow you to react (in time) to keep those pedestrians & cyclists out from under your vehicle

Two cyclists were recently mowed down in a 2-day period (June 22nd & 23rd) on a stretch of the California Highway 1 (aka "Coast Highway") that I've ridden over a thousand times since we moved to California in 1987. Encinitas (which means "I hate cyclists" in Spanish) is the worst of all coastal cities in terms of accommodating cyclists, guided by "Worst Mayor Ever" award recipient Catherine Blakespear. Ms. Brakesmear removed the dedicated bike lane on the Coast Highway (in the Cardiff area of Encinitas, which I had felt safe in for decades) and replaced it with two scarier alternatives...a "sharrows" lane (which drivers don't give a flying fart about, occasionally honking at cyclists despite the sharrow markings) and a narrow, confined path between parked cars and the beach affectionately known as the "meat grinder," where toddlers, strollers, pedestrians (despite the "bike lane" markings) and cyclists can mix it up to see what happens. The mayor and City Council of Encinitas are obviously a bunch of idiots. They could have done so much better by just copying what neighboring Carlsbad did along the coast: Park the cars against the damn curb and give the bike lane a little painted buffer on both sides of the lane. There's nowhere along the coast I feel safer than there.

Amazingly, neither of these two most recent deaths occurred in Encinitas. The first one happened in a sharrows lane in Solana Beach, and the second one happened in San Diego next to UCSD. I didn't know either victim personally, but these haunt me because I continue to ride in this path of death dominated by speeding, distracted drivers. One part of the Solana Beach story that hit me super hard is that the victim was riding with my fellow SDBC ride leader Rod Stubbs. When Rod shared his story about dragging his friend's limp body out from under the pickup before the driver sped away was heart-wrenching. Then, when he later said he was quitting cycling—his life passion—after seeing his friend get murdered, I was blown away again. He's not afraid of dying, but as his wife pointed out, she'd be the one left trying to support his family if he died. Fortunately my wife will never experience poverty whether I live or die, but I sure would like to hang around for a while anyway. And I sure don't want to quit cycling. There are way too many POWERFUL, positive aspects to it.

The second fatal "accident" involved a 74-year-old man who was zipping along North Torrey Pines road on June 23rd in his Mercedes, just fast enough to kill 34-year-old cyclist and Salk scientist Swati Tyagi on the spot. Her 11-month-old son Miransh will never really get to know his mom because somebody wasn't watching the road very carefully. Yes, there's a curve in the road there. Yes, she was trying to change lanes. No, the driver was not driving at a safe speed. Yes, he should be held accountable.

Will he be held accountable? Not with a good  lawyer. And  the last I heard about the hit-and-run driver who killed Rod's friend was that "no charges have been filed." WTF? California isn't the worst state in the union when it comes to laws governing traffic safety and the killing of pedestrians or cyclists by drivers. But seriously, WTF? It's no secret that if you want to murder someone and get away with it, all you need to do is get behind the wheel then go find them on the road or a nearby sidewalk. Just look at the history of fatal cyclist and pedestrian "accidents" and the final sentencing (or lack thereof). Something needs to change, and I'm not just talking about leadership in the City of Encinitas.
Ω

City planners and some cycling advocates insist that “protected bike lanes” are the best and safest way to encourage many San Diegans to ditch their cars and join the cycling transportation revolution.
 
Bordered by raised asphalt barriers and bright plastic pylons, these “protected bike lanes” create a sort of “safety bubble” that protects cyclists from vehicles moving alongside them, in the same direction. In theory, cyclists of all ages and abilities can enjoy the San Diego sunshine and scenery, while cars and trucks whizz by in the adjacent vehicle lane. Motorists will see the fun loving bikers not slowed by traffic jams and join them in droves. Soon, we’ll all be pedaling together, in cycling bliss.
 
But those rosy assurances crumble, when we confront the real dangers of “protected bike lanes”, and the emotional and economic cost of the accidents, injuries, and deaths that plague them.
 
According to statistics gathered by North County cycling advocates, there were 24 accidents — all at slow speeds — in just 8-months on a 1-mile flat “protected bike lane” stretch installed last year on the Cardiff 101 beach route. Fifteen of those crashes were caused by cyclists who collided with the raised asphalt barriers designed to keep vehicles away from the bike traffic. A ten-year-old rider flopped into the traffic lane after colliding with an asphalt barrier - fortunately, not run over by a vehicle. Many of these crashes resulted in ambulance rides to a hospital including: 1-knocked unconscious, 1-neck injury, 2-multiple bone fractures, 1-broken pelvis, 2-pedestrian crashes, and 1-hit surfboard.
 
The “protected bike lanes” on popular beachfront roads also attract pedestrians, joggers, families with strollers, beachgoers carrying umbrellas, coolers, and chairs, and scores of other non-cyclists. Those pedestrians don’t always pay attention to the cyclists, which creates a serious hazard for everyone. Raised barriers are also a pedestrian trip hazard. When a “protected bike lane” is on a steep grade, the added bike speed makes the situation even more hazardous.
 
The raised asphalt barriers, plastic pylons and fences also give cyclists a false sense of security thinking. Bike riders assume cars and trucks can’t jump the barriers, but in reality vehicles easily can. The barriers also pen in the cyclists, reducing the “escape routes” they need to avoid vehicles that drift into their bike lane, or vehicles that cut them off with a quick right turn, or their need to maneuver around obstacles and debris.
 
 “Protected bike lanes” are also a magnet for trash, sand and other debris. The raised barriers block the normal “sweeping” action created by vehicle traffic movement. Plus, the narrow lanes can’t accommodate street cleaning and repaving equipment. Accumulated debris and sand thus causes more falls and collisions.

A cyclist on Leucadia Blvd suffered a much worse fate. A truck driver made a right turn in front of the rider, who was killed when he collided with the truck. The plastic pylons designed to “protect” the cyclist had the opposite effect; they prevented the truck driver from slowly moving towards the curb as he prepared to make that right turn onto Moonstone Ct.
 
Those collisions are an unfortunate but predictable result of a noble but misguided plan, and flawed designs.
 
Experienced bike riders immediately see those dangers and most will not ride in a “protected bike lane” preferring the safety of “sharrow”-marked traffic lanes shared by both motorists and cyclists. They know the “protected bike lanes” give novice bikers a false sense of security. Traditional buffered bike lanes with wide painted vehicle exclusion zones are a much safer design alternative facilitating safer right turns for vehicles and are routinely swept and paved.
 
Buffered bike lanes are also much less expensive to build. That’s crucial now, and will be for years to come, because local governments hobbled with huge, pandemic-induced budget deficits can’t afford to build at a cost $2.6 million per mile and maintain “protected bike lanes”. That money could build miles and miles of sustainable buffered bike lanes, with wide painted vehicle exclusion zones, providing a much safer, cleaner, and smoother riding experience.
 
Plus, the supposed “extra protection” offered by the “protected bike lanes” could soon be unnecessary, as more vehicles are equipped with standard safety software for human and bicycle crash avoidance.
 
In response to these real-world safety problems, advocates for “protected bike lanes” downplay their dangers. “Barriers may bruise elbows, but they save lives,” is their motto. “Build more.”
 
That’s a catchy phrase, but as too many cyclists — many of them novice riders — already have learned the hard way that it’s bad advice, with serious — sometimes even deadly — consequences.

If you told me last fall (when I wrote my last blog entry here), that both the Giro and the Tour de France were not going to be held as scheduled, I really wouldn't know what to think, other than, "No way, you're full of it!" Or maybe I'd think another world war broke out, or a new doping scandal that was so massive and widespread the UCI closed shop. Now that I know why life as we knew it has been canceled, I sometimes have difficulty knowing what else to think. I thought this mess would blow over soon, but unlike the hateful orange manatee we call "president," I would pause to listen to experts in epidemiology and other related fields. But here we are...every day, more people get sick, more people die, and somehow we didn't set up a government that would easily remove someone who is "not right in the head" from such a powerful office. 

I'm glad I traveled so much in 2019, wrapping up the year (after the European trip mentioned in previous post) with a trip to Chicago and a family trip to Japan over the Christmas holiday, with city tours and snow skiing. I didn't have a ton of travel planned, but they were going to be meaningful trips: Seeing cousins I haven't seen in years, and visiting my parents (who turn 89 this year) in Florida in April and December. They called off the big, extended family gathering in Siesta Key because—despite their advanced age—they feel a strong urge to stay alive. Can you blame them. As I learn more about the lasting damage (heart, brain, muscles) inflicted upon survivors of COVID-19, the more of a recluse I want to become until this is GONE. 

For some reason, I'm less inspired to ride during the pandemic. But I want to stay active, so I'm doing a lot of landscaping and improvements around the house...realizing how much energy cycling has diverted from this sort of activity over the years. As it turns out, hardscaping, gardening, cleaning and painting are really good all-body exercises for an old fart like me. And this shift has made my wife Katie very happy with the progress, which I count as one of the many "silver linings" of this big-ass, deadly cloud. 

I wish you good health, and hope you're helping to control the spread of this virus. If you're one of those anti-mask morons, please don't tell me, and please reconsider. It's not about you, this is about everyone, and we need to stop this invisible beast. ​Ω

Huh, I guess a cycling trip to Italy and Spain should be enough motivation to write another quick CyclingSalvation.com blog entry here. Traveling through life at my typical "Father 🐢 Tortuga" speed, I'm writing this blog after being back home for 10 days. My trip included 7 days riding riding with Cinghiale Cycling Tours around Italy's Cilento region and Vallo di Diano National Park accompanied by ex-pro Andy Hampsten, his wife Elaine, a local SDBC cycling buddy, ​ and several others. After that Cilento cycling tour and a couple days of walking tours around Naples, I caught a Vueling flight to Barcelona to get a fast train to Girona for a couple more days of riding. Girona is what many American cyclists consider pro cycling's training "Mecca" and a favorite bike tour destination. The Italian tour was the latest of several awesome cycling tours I've ridden in Italy, but the Girona stop has been left unchecked on my bucket list for many years. Both of these great escapes went perfectly for me (I'll accept a failed Garmin GPS in exchange for NOT being one of the 5 people who crashed in Italy). 

One of our sleeping accommodations in Cilento was a very impressive "agriturismo" (combining "agriculture" and "tourism" for a large, farm-home vacation destination) in the countryside with sheep right outside the door, and the other was a nice hotel in Marina di Camerota on the Mediterranean coast. Andy Hampsten—along with his wife Elaine and old friend Enrico Caracciolo—put a great deal of homework into planning this inaugural "south of Naples" tour. Enrico is a native of Napoli and has written books about cycling in Italy (in both Italian and English). I've been on two of Andy's tours near their home in Tuscany. Now, after three Cinghiale tours, I can understand why some of Andy & Elaine's guests have been on over 15 (!) of their tours. 

kSeveral of the riders on the Italian tour asked me where my next cycling tour was going to be. I didn't have an answer, other than to mention my short stay in Girona right after Italy. I guess these people do a big bike tour every year. I don't think that way, but I've gone to a lot of great places to ride over the decades. My "fixed income" as a retiree and our annual family trips can put a slight damper on my big bike tour plans, but I'm blessed to have been riding a bike in so many places in the USA & Europe. Girona was the last of my "must do" bucket list bike tours, but I still visualize myself riding during the summer in the Swiss Alps and Canada's Banff National Park someday soon. (Now that I'm in my 60s, I realize that "soon" needs to be part of my planning for anything.) I just want to make sure my lovely wife will want to join me in my future destinations, because missing her for almost 3 weeks was the worst part of this long vacation. 

​Girona—like Cilento—was perfect. I rented an apartment with a large, private outdoor patio at Hotel Nord 1901 in the central part of the "old" downtown. As it turns out, that apartment was literally right above the bike shop called The Service Course where I hired a bike rental and tour guides. The Service Course, a nearby cycling-centric coffee shop called La Fabrica Girona, and another café called Espresso Mafia are all operated by another cycling couple. In this case, it's ex-pro and Canadian national champion Christian Meier and his wife Amber. They and their personal tour guides are all super-friendly. On my last night in town, as I'm walking down the street, I hear someone call out, "Hey Dan!" It was Amber, who actually remembered my name from our brief talk at La Fabrica. The drivers in and around Girona are amazingly polite and friendly, too. As a pedestrian you'll also notice how patient the drivers are with people (what some American drivers seem to think of as "obstructions" in their path) on foot and bike wheels. American drivers could learn so much from these people.

It's over 80°F outside my door here in La Jolla in LATE OCTOBER, so I'm very happy to say there's still some lovely summer riding to be had here in SoCal! I'm reminded again of how GOOD we have it here. I need to ride a very long way to get to roads that are as lightly-traveled [by cars & trucks] as the farm roads right outside Girona are, but as long as none of our highly-distracted drivers hit me or pull right in front of me, I'm quite happy where I am.

🚴 Enjoy the ride!

What a wild & spectacular summer. All kinds of summer fun was had by all without an excessive (or sufficient?) amount of biking. 

• Our oldest child married his college sweetheart at the Montalvo Arts Center in May. Several attendees said it was the most beautiful and romantic wedding they had ever been to, and I had to agree...even comparing it to my own wedding (sorry, honey!).
• July and a UCLA grant brought our younger daughter to Houston for six weeks. I had never been outside the airport there so I had to visit. She took me to Galveston for a day of fun.
• With an event like the Crater Lake Century on deck, I had to get some training in. I had signed up for the event in 2018, but the wildfires in California and Oregon turned that into a really bad idea. This year: No fires along the way and quite possibly the best weather ever. (My wife took advantage of my disappearance by going to visit her high school friends in Chicago during my trip.) I highly recommend this ride if you like a long, beautiful climb. It was fantastic, and the road trip up & back was an interesting camping/hotel journey through the 🔥 hot central valley of California. 
• Our middle child enjoys her job in LA while her  boyfriend takes a new job at Apple in the Bay Area. The separation is bound to be very challenging as she decides what she's going to do in the coming months. 

Now, back at home in San Diego, I'm trying to get a few good training days in every week to get ready for another trip with Andy Hampsten's Cinghiale Cycling Tours, this time we'll explore Cilento, the area surrounding Naples. This will be a "3-piggy" tour, one piggy more challenging (on a 4-piggy scale) than tours I've done with Andy, Elaine, and my local riding buddy Marc Lee in the past. Here in San Diego Marc and I only see each other during the local SDBC club rides, for which I'm a fairly regular leader, as noted in this write-up on their Facebook page: 
https://www.facebook.com/sandiegobicycleclub/posts/10157930808622214 
On the roads of Italy, we'll have tons of time to talk about everything under the sun, which Marc is pretty good at. 

Cycling writer Dan Wouri @dwuori tweeted today, "TTTs are the CSPAN of cycling." I actually LIKE the team time trials because they really show how well the whole team works together under conditions that can always be improved with team practice. The only thing I do NOT like is how a weaker team can put a would-be GC contender out of the running. But that goes with the sport. 
(Continued below.)

Well, if there's a general feeling out there that TTTs are boring, then we should all have spent our TV sports time watching the USA women's team win their 4th consecutive World Cup today. There's more excitement in just the first few minutes of this World Cup video than there is in an hour of TTT coverage. 

Can you imagine if American cyclists—both the men and women—were as strong in their sport as these amazing women are? We'd be back in the Lance Armstrong era, but without the doping. Soccer is a huge sport worldwide, which makes the rising call for fair pay to these women a welcomed chorus. 

Today's Barrio Logan Grand Prix—now San Diego County's ONLY criterium—brought us some great local racing today. The weather was perfect and the racers put on a great show, not the least of which was the amazing breakaway by SDBC/Spinergy racer Esther Walker, who lapped the field, then dropped them AGAIN to win the women's pro/1/2/3 race in a solo breakaway. 

This annual event is produced by San Diego Bicycle Club "SDBC," the largest bicycle club in San Diego County. Ralph Elliott's familiar "radio voice" narration of the races was as good as ever, but Ralph no longer organizes the race. That was done this year by SDBC member, racer and volunteer superman Graham Johnson. He said the race practically runs itself, but that's his modesty showing. There's a lot to pull together to make this race happen. Fortunately, there are a lot of awesome, unselfish volunteers organized by a committee fielded by the bike club. This was the 23rd edition of this great race. 

The sad part of the day for me when it was announced that there were ZERO racers in the Junior Women 17-18 category. As Ralph mentioned, even the men's 17-18 race used to field almost five times as many racers than it does now. What is happening to bike racing in America? Cycling is such a healthy endeavor that can help you stay younger and healthier into your golden years...even beyond age 95, as San Diego's legendary cyclist Gordy Shields demonstrated.

We were pleased to host the Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling Team at the men's pro/1/2 race today. With their whole team there, they had the strength and coordination to snatch the top three podium spots, with Rahsaan Bahati taking 4th place. 

There are about 9 other things I should really be focused on, but hey, it's Friday. It's time to wind down and relax before SDBC's Saturday club ride tomorrow. We're going to have a film crew there tomorrow to help Spinergy (and me) pull together 30-second PSA that will apparently find its way into up to a hundred time slots on Cox Cable between now and the Barrio Logan Grand Prix "BLGP" on April 27th. 

Q: So where does the "sharing & caring" title come from?
A: My intentions here.
I want to share 2 nice resources for cyclists and bike racing fans that came up today.

1. This video from Park Tool is the best, most comprehensive video I've ever seen on how to change a tire/tube on a bike. Even if you think you know it all, there's a pretty good chance you'll pick up a new little trick from these guys.
2. This professional bike race schedule on VeloNews.com was shared by a friend today. It has a great, comprehensive list of pro bike races this year and how to view them if you live in the USA. 

As long as you're here, I'll share one more thing. This highlights one of the benefits of riding outdoors. We get to see a lot of stuff that we'd never normally see if we stuck to walking and driving. The photo below is of an insanely amazing house being built on the bluffs above the ocean in the northern part of La Jolla. This is not a photo that shows off the house, but shows how it's perched above the Pacific Ocean. I took this picture on February 28th of this year, with construction underway, as it has been for several years now. The sides are almost all glass...massive, curved glass. It's located at 9030 La Jolla Shores Lane, just off of heavily-traveled La Jolla Shores Drive, which weaves through the campus of UCSD. Stop by and take a look. This is La Jolla's affordable housing at its best. It was listed for $10.5M in 2008, finally sold for $6.55M in 2009. The owners, the Stedmans from Texas, have plowed a pile of money into the construction ($15M+?) but it is a magnificent thing of beauty. I'm sure it's within your budget if they decide to sell. Check out this drone video of it under construction 3 years ago. 

I'm stoked! I just added a "puddle-jumper" flight (from Naples to Barcelona) to an already amazing bicycling tour plan this coming fall. I have the best possible guide riding with me through the Cilento area of Italy. A local San Diego cycling friend is joining me for that part of my journey. But now that I'll be flying home via Barcelona (which I've been to quite a few times for business), I need to get my "Costa Brava" segment squared away. Girona has been on my bucket list, primarily because of how much I've heard about American pro cyclists using that area for their early season training. It would be cool to ride with one of those former pros.

Apparently ex-pro Marty Jemison knows a lot about Girona and offers bike tours, but I removed him from my list of pros that I want to ride with after I read this article in VeloNews about him sucker-punching someone who was calling him out for his doping history. I wish all pro cyclists had the fortitude to resist the doping temptation. Some great racers like Andy Hampsten and Phil Gaimon managed to do pretty darn well without resorting to blood transfusions and illegal drugs. Just the same, I'm pretty forgiving of a lot of pros who have doped...especially when they're super-nice guys like George Hincapie. But when a doper ruins other people's lives (like Lance Armstrong did) or randomly punches people (like Marty did) in defense of doping accusations, I back WAY away. Life's too short to spend any time—much less a whole bike tour—with those sort of people. 

I hope Girona will dazzle me the way Italy has time and again. The interesting thing about riding in the dry, coastal areas of Spain (I rode along the Costa Blanca during the 2016 Vuelta a España) is that they can seem so much like California. With a growing appreciation for our need to reduce our CO₂ emissions, I'm thinking harder about my far-off cycling destinations. I live in a great cycling destination. Check out the photo below from my ride earlier today. Why kill a bunch of coral just to see the same scenery elsewhere? For me—in future years—the answer is going to be to "get out of the cold," which means I'll be planning my rides in the Southern Hemisphere in during our local winter. I've had enough of this cold weather, even if it's "balmy" by my old Chicago standards.

I'll report back on what guides, hotels and equipment I find to help make my one, 4-day visit to Girona a  success. I know some people who have ridden there, too, so it's data-collection and hotel booking time. If you happen to read this and have suggestions, let me know. 

I didn't really have any cycling "goals" this year other than completing the Belgian Waffle Ride in northern San Diego County. That was achieved in the first half of the year. ➤ Then Strava took over, egging me on to show some "results" as often as I could for myself and my small audience on Strava. ➤ Then another local Strava user mentioned that he was going for 5,000 miles before the end of the year. That was late November. I looked at my YTD mileage and figured I could reach 5,000 too, despite upcoming family time and travel. ➤ Then—just yesterday, as I was checking to see exactly how many miles I needed to ride to ride today to hit my "goal" before the end of the year tonight—I also noticed I was within spitting distance (1,600 feet) of achieving another round number... 300,000 vertical feet of climbing. It's not quite outer space (which starts at about another 27,000 feet higher than that), but it's a nice new "goal" for this morning, which also had possible (50% chance) rain in the forecast. 

So yes, I got my butt out there and achieved both of these nice round numbers by 10:30 this morning. Not bad for the old fart Father Tortuga.