Rochester Active Sports Club

Results of the first and second Road TT of the season can now be found on the Road Biking page.

RAGBRAI is sponsored by the Des Moines Register newspaper and stands for the “Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. It is a 7 day bike tour (not a race) and attracts 10,000 riders. Many riders complete the full 7 days, but riders also have the option of getting day passes and doing just part of the ride. Many of the riders are just “Joe citizen” riders of all ages from young to old and ride ordinary bikes. But, there are also serious riders on very nice bikes that hammer across Iowa in pace lines. You see about every kind of bike from the Banana Man bike to a tandem bike of 6. For the full story on this year's RAGBRAI, click here

The Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota vision is to make Minnesota is a state where bicycling is a safe, easy, fun and cool choice for everyone. BikeMN is currently soliciting nominations for new board members. So the Board more accurately reflects demographics, they are particularly interested in 'younger' cyclists and women. You can nominate yourself or someone else (hopefully with their permission : - ).

Send inquiries/replies to Rob Jackson (rob@snowfalls.us) BikeMN board president. Include the candidate's cycling-related credentials and interest. You can CC (quigg@millcomm.com) Charlie or contact him (507-289-9223) for more information. Submissions will be reviewed by a nominating committee. There will be a vote on new board members at the BikeMN annual meeting. The annual meeting will be held in conjunction with the 3rd Annual Minnesota Bike Summit, Saturday, April 24. For details, see the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota web site and Active Living Bike Expo web site.

Regards,
Charlie Quigg
Bicycle Alliance of MN board member
 

Olmsted County has started putting rumble strips on many of the newly paved roads in the county. These are wide grooves at the edge of the white line on the hard shoulder. If you hit these on a regular bike you will definitely understand the implications. It becomes impossible to ride these roads without keeping to the left of the white line – which put you a lot closer to the traffic. Previous studies on bike lanes have shown that closing the separation between cyclist and cars results in a 2-3 fold increase in accidents. Michael Sheehan is the county engineer with Olmsted County responsible for this idea. He indicated that they plan to add the rumbles to all the new roads! The rumble strips are designed to keep sleepy-drunk-text-messaging-cell-phone-yapping-coffee-drinking-drivers on the roads. They just added them to CR 8 south of Bamber Valley School. If this idea is replicated on all county roads, then fairly soon you will not be able to cycle anywhere in Olmsted County with safety. It is VERY important that all cyclists contact Michael to call for a halt to this project until such time as the county and the cycling community sit down and discuss this issue. Michael can be reached at sheehan.michael@co.olmsted.mn.us or call him at 507 328-7070 Fax: 507 328-7090, mail 2122 Campus Drive SE - Rochester MN 55904.