FYI: A decision on the Floyd Landis case will be handed down tomorrow by the Court of Arbitration for Sport five days before the start of the Tour de France. Keep an eye on www.bicycling.com for the latest updates.

Bike to Work Week is an annual event held within various communities across the Province. We are currently day two into Vancouver’s Bike to Work Week , and Victoria’s will follow next week. A number of events are held during the week long event, including commuter challenges, workshops, and the setup of "celebration stations" along popular bike routes. The Buzz According to Buzz has a really good post on events in and around the Vancouver-area.

A "celebration station" along North Vancouver’s Main Street Tuesday morning.

The purpose of these events is to promote cycling as a way of commuting to and from work. In the spirit of Bike to Work Week, Trainharder offers its own top ten tips for better bicycle commuting.

1. Know your route - cycling the same route that you would normally drive isn’t always the best option. You will want to consider the topography of the land (hills) and how safe the route is. Here are some links to bike maps for Vancouver , Burnaby and Surrey .
2. Give yourself extra time - you’ll need extra time to clean yourself up once you get to work, and to eat and drink something.
3. Pack your stuff the night before - this just makes things easier in the morning.
4. Prepare for rain - get fenders, wear booties, have a good water-resident jacket, wear warm gloves. Riding in the rain isn’t that bad, you just need to prepare for it.
5. Wear eye protection - for bugs, dust, debris kicked up by cars, cold wind, etc.
6. Make sure your bike fits you - handlebars, saddle, wheels, gears, and brakes can all be adjusted, but the frame has to fit from the start. To find the right frame size, straddle the bike: on a road bike there should be one to two inches of clearance between your groin and the top tube. On a mountain bike, the clearance should be two to three inches or even more.
7. Don’t carry things on your back - it’ll get sweaty and ache. Instead make your bike do the work, put your stuff into panniers.
8. Keep your cool - there are a lot of bad, inconsiderate drivers out there and eventually you’re going to meet one. Loosing your cool makes things worse. The driver will hate cyclists even more and you will have a dark cloud hanging over your head.
9. Have a good helmet -the most important piece of safety equipment. Research suggests that wearing a helmet reduces the risk of a head injury by up to 60 per cent. And it’s required by law. A helmet needs to feel comfortable, fit correctly and be suited to your style of riding.
10. And finally safety, safety, safety - make eye contact with drivers, make yourself seen, be patient and follow the rules of the road.

Please feel free to share your tips .

Chris Wille, a businessman from Victoria, has come in 3rd place in the Tour D’afrique, considered by many to be one of the world’s toughest bike races.

"It’s the worlds longest and toughest bike race. I am honored and grateful to have been able to ride/race the whole way. To take 3rd place, overall, against some very tough competitors was very sweet!" Chris said. "What an experience; over 3 hundred hours of racing, contested over 85 stages, more than 10,400 kilometers, nine countries, crossing the African continent, from top to bottom- simply an amazing, wonderful experience. Truly the opportunity of a lifetime!" He added. " It’s the best placing by a Canadian in quite some time."

The race began on January 12th at the Great Pyramids in Egypt and ended in Cape Town, South Africa yesterday, a total of 11,900 kilometers later.

Canadians were dominant on the woman’s side as well, as Deb Corbeil, a Canadian from Toronto, took the women’s title in a time of 469 hours and 31 minutes.

For more information:

• Tour D’afrique - http://www.tourdafrique.com/index.html
• Chris Wille - http://cw-iman.blogspot.com/
• Deb Corbeil - http://theplanetd.com/

The Burnaby Velodrome Maydays will be taking place May 9th to 11th. This weekend event will include races and other events for all levels of track cyclists. For more information about the weekend and a schedule of events please visit the BC Road Race Blog.

The following is from the Burnaby Velodrome’s website:

“Start off the summer race season with three intense days of track racing at the BVC Spring Challenge! Brought to you by the Burnaby Velodrome Club, the Spring Challenge takes place May 9th through 11th, and will feature racing for every category of racer, including the popular Kiddie Kilo!

The Spring Challenge is being run in a ‘3 Day’ format, with madison races in both the A and B categories counting towards the overall omnium. So if you’re racing as an A or B rider, and haven’t raced madisons, sign up for one of the BVC madison clinics that are being offered over the next couple of months and get some practice in!

The Challenge is also the first event of four in the BC Track Championship Series. The Series will see riders accumulate points at the BVC Spring Challenge, two of the Trackfests in Victoria, and will finish at the BVC Fall Challenge. A BC Track Series Champion will be crowned in the A, B, and C category. More information on the BC Track Championship Series will be posted soon…”

Cycling BC has recently released an overview of this year’s BC cup races:

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BC Cup Structure

Cycling BC met with various stakeholders to come to a collective decision on the structure of the 2008 Road BC Cup Series that best reflects Cycling BC’s diverse membership and encourages participation within all riders interested in competitive Cycling. As a result, a few changes have been made to the BC Cup Structure for the 2008 Season and we would like to encourage all riders review the revised structure in advance of the Harris Roubaix race this weekend.

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Written by Terry Bell and published in The Province on Sunday, March 30, 2008.

A few months ago, the Langley-based Symmetrics Cycling team’s riders were celebrating a championship 2007 season and dreaming of riding in the Tour de France. Now the 13-man, all-Canadian team might have to fold if it can’t attract new sponsors.

The team, led by International Cycling Union (UCI) 2007 Americas zone points champion Svein Tuft of Langley, won the 2007 UCI Americas team title. But it has lost three of its biggest sponsors — Coast Capital, B.C. Hydro PowerSmart and FarmPure — for the 2008 season and has had its operating budget slashed from $1 million to $650,000.

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Written by Jeff Nagel and published in the BC Local News on Tuesday March 18, 2008.

An ambitious plan is taking shape to expand the Trans Canada Trail to run on both sides of the Fraser River through the Lower Mainland and allow users to hike or bike a series of interconnecting loops. The idea is still at a preliminary stage, but advocates say it would boost recreation choices for trail lovers from Coquitlam to Hope.

Right now the Trans Canada Trail runs from Burnaby Mountain through the Tri-Cities, across the Pitt River Bridge, through Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge and across the Albion Ferry into Langley. From there it follows the Fraser’s south shore east into Abbotsford before cutting inland up the Chilliwack River to Chilliwack Lake and then north through the Silverhope Valley to Hope.

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