Posts tagged “spain”  

Video from today’s stage in the Vuelta that has taken out Chris Horner.

It’s confirmed that Chris Horner has a broken wrist and is now out of the Vuelta. We’ll miss you Chris—please stay strong.

@TeamAstana. Follow along on Twitter.

Video was pulled by copyright owner.

The Tour de France is racing in Spain today, through Girona, and arriving in Barcelona. In 2006, we rode Girona on roads like this. It wasn't raining for us.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Well-timed for National Bike Month, another New Urbanism piece and this one is focused on how destructive cul-de-sacs are. In the years I've been riding in Seattle, Lake Washington Blvd (a standard Seattle-area bike route) went from a quiet road to a highway when I5 is gridlocked. Farmland I'd ride out and back to is covered in houses and the State widens roads just to have them fill up with cars.

Slow Down

Going out for coffee in Girona, we noticed that no one got "coffee to go." They ordered a drink and then sat down to drink it.

Point is that part of a new urban community isn't just less cars, road diets, and biking to work. We need to shift our thinking and slow down. An adjustment I made riding Bettie was that bike is slow and low. It takes double the time to get anywhere and I eventually got used to it.

If we're to depend less on cars, we've got to eventually accept that we can't zip around everywhere. Ride to get coffee and take a few minutes to enjoy it.

Hat tip to Seattle PI.

Bike-powered Christmas trees in Barcelona (video in Spanish).

Hat tip to Treehugger. Also see our Spain tag for more on riding in Barcelona and Girona.

Writing for the Seattle PI, guest columnist Lynne M. Baab hopes, “Seattle continues to encourage bicycling because of the health, environmental and quality of life benefits when lots of people bike,” and shares her experiences in Copenhagen. Her experiences are like many cyclists that travel abroad and discover a different world. We found cities of bikes in Spain and Jason was amazed by Copenhagen and all the bikes of all types, mostly utility. In Santa Barbara, there are cyclists everywhere.

Lynne’s article also stirs up old debates about cars and bikes and roads by cranks on both sides. So, we’ve discussed this before and it’s always a good topic. What does Seattle need to do?

By way of the Pedal : Reloaded (every photo there is a photo of the day) galleries, I found custom handmade messenger bags by Re.Load Baggage and drank two cups of espresso while clicking through their site.

Having just bought a new Timbuk2 Pro Series Backpack for our trip to Spain, I’m impressed by the craftsmanship, creativity, and art. I’ll have a long-term review of the backpack up soon (overall a very good bag) and disappointed to learn that I’ve missed the window to order a Re.Load bag as a gift (damn)

When we were planning our trip to Spain, I found the Travel with Bicycles (Air/Rail/Other) site that provides a wealth of data on traveling with your bike.

Interestingly, when we were in the airport, we saw cyclists that just handed the airline their bikes with not packing at all.

A Pez-Fan was either ahead, behind us, or nearby in Girona! Check Thom Fox’s report on his rides in Girona, the food, and more. Tom stayed at BeauneImports and hooked up with BikeCat. A few miles away, we stayed at the Moli de Mig and rode with maps provided by Cicloturisme.

Read more about our trip and see the photos. We agreed with Tom, Girona is cycling nirvana.

Barcelona had magnificent streets: 4 for cars in either direction, 2 for bikes in either direction, and wide pedestrian promenades that are at least 2 lanes wide.

Those magnificent streets are full of cars, scooters, and bikes. Most of those bikes fold so they can be taken on the Metro, store easily in a small apartment, and are inexpensive. I saw all types of folding bikes, including one with an electric motor. The bike lanes have their own lights and even take you safely around the roundabouts.

Our stay at Hotel Moli del Mig near Girona Spain was more than we expected. From the friendly staff, roads, food and modernist remodel, it’s a new destination for cyclists and only a few had ridden the roads. It was also how we’d approach a cyclo-tourism hotel, nearly exactly. Notes

• Open less than a year, the “middle mill” was restored from a 400 yr old water mill.
• Cycle tourism is new to the area — treking has been around and actively promoted by the tourism board.
• From the lighting to the background music. furnishings, and more, much attention to “modernists” details occured in the renovation.
• Welcoming people, roads, and almost no one here — it’s off season and about 70 degrees.
• Most people spoke some english and we’re happy to accommodate us with our phrase book in hand. The language here is Catalan, but they also speak Spanish.

One of many roads to the Costa Brava near Girona Spain. See more photos in our Spain 06 gallery and posts tagged Spain.

I added a 3rd Timbuk2 messenger bag to my collection for our trip to Spain. Messenger bags work great, but anything over 5 pounds for more than 4 hours gets very tiresome slung across your shoulder and chest. With all their big-box retailer offerings and fashion bags, I thought that Timbuk2 had lost itself along the way from a Hippie messenger shop to a corporate, sellout making poseur bags.

Hugger 1 and 2 (Pam and I) will ride in Girona and Barcelona Spain next week. In Girona, we’re staying at the Moli Del Mig Hotel, which specializes in cycling vacations. Their amenities include bike cleaning facilities, workshop and mechanic, secure storage for bikes, and a menu just for cyclists!

For us, there’s no better vacation that eating, sleeping, and riding and doing that in Girona is going to be even better. As reported in the NYTimes, Girona is home to many professional cyclists, it’s considered a cycling mecca, and we’ll “represent” hugga style on those roads. Of course, I’ll blog the whole experience.

A few days later, we’ll ride in Barcelona. That riding will be more metropolitan and most likely just on bike paths and to coffee shops, but enjoyable just the same.