Amgen bike tour - Rabobank NA to co-sponsor
Rabobank NA, the California subsidiary of Dutch banking giant Rabobank Group, has signed up to be a three-year sponsor of the Amgen Tour of California.
The nine-day professional international cycling competition starts its fourth race this year in Sacramento in February.
Rabobank will become a founding partner of the race and the official bank of the tour for the next three years.
The 2009 race runs Feb. 14 through to the finish in San Diego on Feb. 22. The race spans 800 miles.
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Bike ride, City parks weighs stripping nudists of bike ride
Every summer — because not a lot of people would do this in the winter — Daniel Johnson and dozens of others ride naked through Seattle’s streets and a few of its parks.
But while there are many who laugh and point at the bouncing spectacle, there are those who cover their children’s eyes and their own, then complain to the city.
In a proposal that pits the bicyclists’ desire to ride unencumbered against those who don’t want to see all that, Seattle park staffers are proposing a ban on nudity in city parks.
What has led to the proposal is the Seattle Naked Bike Ride, one of a number of worldwide nude rides. Taking a different route every year, the bicyclists circle through much of the city, including the Seattle Center, and have ridden through parks such as Gas Works and Alki.
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Bike ban proposal: ACPO explains its position on banning motorcycles
Following our report on the controversial submission by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to the Government regarding motorbikes, we spoke to David Griffin, Deputy Chief Constable of Humberside, this week, who was in charge of the report. Deputy Chief Constable Griffin is both entirely reasonable and pro?motorcycling – he rides a bike himself. He said that ACPO’s official position was neutral on power restrictions, was not in favour of any form of ban on road bikes and did not “consider motorcycles as nothing more than motorised toys”. He said, “These comments in the submission to the select committee need to be taken in the context in which they were made, which is part of one of our regular discussion groups where they were only some of many ideas being discussed. The bans were talked about while the problems of off-road machines with noisy exhausts were being aired; we are not calling for any ban on road bikes.” What about the inaccuracies? “We accept the comment about VED avoidance is wrong and we will be sending an amendment to the select committee correcting that.”
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Children bicycling to Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake, without bike helmets
Bareheaded children bicycling to Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake can’t say they weren’t warned if they are pulled over starting Monday morning.
Prairie Crossing Principal Brian Greene said safety concerns led to the idea of issuing written “citations” to students without bike helmets. Charter school policy requires students to wear headgear while on a bike.
“I’d rather be proactive than reactive,” Greene said.
Greene said no one at Prairie Crossing will actively seek children without bike helmets Monday and that violators won’t lose school privileges. He said parents were informed about the initiative in a newsletter he sent today.
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Sport Bike Polo: Bikes Cycle like Sharks, lithe and predatory - players a ball, a mallet
Brad Vest / P-I
Seattle bike polo players are ready to rumble under Interstate 5 at Northeast 65th Street. The hardcourt version of bike polo started in Seattle and has spread around the Northwest.
The sport is bike polo, the “urban/hardcourt” strain, as opposed to the more sedate variety on grass. All players need is a ball, a mallet — monstered together from a ski pole and PVC pipe, usually — and a
junker bike, often stripped of entangling elements like that pesky second brake and handlebar.
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Memphis Cyclists Showed Tremendous Talent on the Bicycle, mission beyond the competition
Reed set out to create a team of serious cyclists committed to road cycling under the name of a company he co-owned, “Memphis Motorwerks.” He later renamed the team “Marx & Bensdorf” after his real estate company.
“I’m 52 now, but as the sponsor of the team, the stronger riders have to let me stay around,” Reed jokes.
Reed handpicked Memphis cyclists who showed tremendous talent on the bicycle, but he wanted his team to be known for more than winning races. “They have to be a strong rider,” team captain Clark Butcher says about his teammates, “but they also need a strong reputation, a positive reputation, in the cycling community.” Butcher says that Marx & Bensdorf signs riders who earn respect on and off the bike. Read more