There are two upcoming events in July that I’ve historically attended.  The first one is next week at the Tour of Lawrence.  It is usually closer to July 4th, but they moved to the 3rd weekend to avoid scheduling conflicts.  It is a super fun weekend, with super prizes for all categories.   There are street sprints on Friday night in downtown Lawrence, Kansas, then two criteriums, with Sunday racing on Mass. St. in downtown.  A great course with lots of spectators.

They still looking for some race volunteers to help out with the race.  Here is a link to the volunteer page.  It has a chart showing the times when they are most in need of help.  You get food and a cool Tour of Lawrence shirt for helping out.   It is a really fun weekend, so if you happen to have a little extra time on your hands, maybe considering coming over to help.

Also, in two weeks is the Tour de Steamboat, in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  Last year Catherine, Bill and I rode the long ride and it is beautiful.  If you can’t make it out to the event, our team sponsor, Kent Eriksen is raffling off a complete Shimano Kent Eriksen titanium bicycle. The proceeds go to charity, everything is non-profit, so it is good for everyone.  The tickets are $50 each and it is limited to 400, which they haven’t sold out of, so the odds are pretty good. Not a bad way to get a dream titanium bike.  Here is the link to the Eriksen Bicycle page to get a ticket.

These two guys make the best titanium bicycle frames in the world.

The Guardian has a nice article on Marianne Martin, the first women’s winner of the Tour de France.  It was interesting to me because I had never heard a lot of what was in the article.  Of course I was following it as it was happening.  I was hanging in Boulder and the Daily Camera had daily articles on the race.

I’m not exactly sure when I first met Marianne.  It must have been when she first started racing. She was on the US National Team and thus we did a few training camps together, plus all the other various stuff.  We sort of shared an alley apartment in Boulder, which we had a little squabble about, but it was nothing.   She moved out to Santa Monica California for a bit and I used to ride from La Jolla up to her apartment one day, then back to La Jolla the next when I was training early season.

Anyway, It was a big deal when Marianne won the inaugural women’s TDF.  It really put women’s cycling, in Europe, on the big stage.

Marianne mentions me in the article.  I remember loaning her some money because it was such a last minute deal.  I think it might have been $400.  But even after she won, it wasn’t all that lucrative to race bicycles.   My brother Kris travelled a bit with her around Europe.  I don’t remember if that was right after this race or another time.

Anyway, click on the link above.  It is great cycling history and a good story about a super person.

Both of these photos were taken by Grahm Watson, a great cycling photgrapher.  He has an awesome website that has current Tour photos, plus music to accompany them.  

Marianne and Patty Peoples. I know them both still.

Fignon and Marianne. The first race I did in Europe on US National Team, I raced with Fignon virtually the whole trip. In France, then in Italy. I was surprised when he signed professional for Greg Lemond’s team. Renault-Elf was very dominate for quite a while.

Tucker starting his “creepy walk”, coming up on a bird, or butterfly.