Announced cities include:

• Lake Tahoe
• Sacramento
• Auburn
• Modesto
• Livermore
• San Jose
• Seaside
• Paso Robles
• Solvang
• Claremont
• Mt. Baldy
• Santa Clarita
• Thousand Oaks

More info can be found at the official website

No related posts.

The UCI Finals, while not a tandem event per-se, is marking its first return to the United States in five years. That is five years without World Cup races inside the borders of the country that created the sport! To celebrate the milestone the local communities are pulling out all the stops to entertain and delight fans in attendance.

Beginning Thursday August 26 through Sunday August 29 fans and racers alike will be able to enjoy scenice riding in and around the race location. TandemBicycling.com plans on attending the various events and partaking in every opportunity to ride the various courses for fun.

Race categories are open to beginner and pros alike with cross-country, downhill, and 4x events taking place at the mountain. There will be free concerts and exhibitions taking place in town over the weekend. Access to all the events, again, is free while parking is $10 per day or $25 for all weekend.

Summer may fast be coming to a close but your opportunity to enjoy a bit of cycling history is not over. Find out more at www.racewindham.com.

Related posts:

1. Tandem Bliss in New York City With the passing of the first day of spring we...
2. Get on the Tandem Bike for Fall Riding With fall in full swing it is time too hit...

For Tandem Mountain Bike teams looking to race a national series in the US this development should be a positive move. The tandem category is not a UCI recognized category so it was up to the race promoters discretion as to allow tandems to race. Sho-Air and the US Cup were very supportive of the tandem category this last season. That support may continue as they refocus their efforts on building the series via partnerships with local promoters and applying the excess funds to marketing of the events.

“We do this by adding value to their event in the form of venue and course development, rider swag bags, event T-Shirts, number plates, onsite support and additional marketing,” said Ty Kady. “I feel it makes sense for us at this time, to take the money we would spend hosting and subsidizing UCI events, and put it back into the races, riders and venues.”

In the end, let’s be honest, how can a promoter have a true mountain bike race without tandems involved?

No related posts.

A race that in 4 years has gone from pipe dream to one of the biggest road races of the year will move further into the epic category with the improvements for 2010. The only issues with this years race is that it includes the long transfers between every stage, a real problem that impacted fans that wanted to travel along with the race.

Dispensing with the opening prologue the route will start in Nevada City and travel down the Sierra Foothills into Sacramento.

After a transfer over to Davis stage two will repeat parts of this same stage from last year (sans the rain) and travel to the newly established cycling mecca of Santa Rosa (Levi Leipheimer’s hometown).

Stage 3 will then launch from San Francisco (another long transfer from the day before) and head into Santa Cruz (this stage will offer fans some awesome scenery).

Stage 4 will take off from San Jose and head inland to Modesto. Best viewing will be along the San Jose foothill climbs.

Stage 5 will launch from Visalia and is proposed to go through the Seqouias and Sierra Nevada foothills before finishing in Bakersfield.

Stage 6 includes a 120 mile transfer to Pasadena where riders will be sent off on (in or opinions) the most difficult stage ever in the tour. Depending on approval from USFS (after the major fire in the area) riders will track Highway 2 along Angeles Crest Highway through Wrightwood and finishing in Big Bear.

Stage 7 after another 120 mile transfer will be a time trial in Los Angeles.

Stage 8 launches from the backyard of TandemBicycling.com in Thousand Oaks California and will potentially include our very own training loop up Mulholland Highway (past the Rock Store) and down Westlake Blvd for circuits in the Santa Monica Mountains. Best viewing for this stage may be at the Malibu Wine Vineyards just North of Kanan Rd on Mulholland Highway.

Conflicting directly with the Giro in Italy this is the first salvo by race organizers to say “We are a grand race”. We would venture a guess that a lot of the big name riders choose the Amgen Tour over The Giro.

No related posts.

A large number of active cyclists get drawn into bike racing to measure their skill against competition, ride new and exciting terrain under race conditions, and to provide a goal and reason for training.

The problem with racing is it tends to corrupt the whole reason for riding. TandemBicycling.com sponsored Mark and Katarina Koep to race the Kenda Cup West Series where they were able to accumulate enough points to win the series title. In the end we asked them what their overall opinion on the races was:

It was a lot of fun to race the different courses around the state of California but overall our experience was rather negative. Depending on where we were staged within the other classes and the type of course we would be racing we either held up faster groups behind us or were held up by slower groups in front. It is hard enough to ride a tandem mountain bike on single track, add in 100s of other racers and it becomes downright dangerous.

The one benefit of the experience was that we became better riders but we could have probably gained the same results if we simply went out to these different areas for fun.

So why race a tandem? There is no money in it, the turnout of tandem teams is low (1-2 per race), the tandems are lumped in with the single riders who travel at different paces at various points along the course, and in the end it is not that much fun for the dollar.

Keeping it Fun

In response to the cancellation of the World Championships we at Tandem Bicycling suggest that instead of organizing a big race for tandem mountain bike teams promoters focus on organizing a rally. Do provide trophies and skill challenges, such as hill-climbs and maneuvering challenges, while keeping the atmosphere fun and just about tandems. Teams that are competitive can get their thrill in winnning challenges while the others can just join in the fun.

Riding a tandem is more about the pure joy than being the fastest. Let’s ride not race.

No related posts.

No related posts.

The two riders carried the TandemBicycling.com flag to its first championship. Way to go team!

No related posts.

One of the pedal powered racers was a tandem team and guess what? They won handily! Go tandems More here

Photo credit: Shmuel Thaler/Sentinel

Related posts:

1. Inner Tubes for Tandems Like all the components on a tandem the tires and...

Should the allegations stick and she eventually be charged this becomes a sad twist in her career.

Read more over at the AP

No related posts.