Bobby Lea, the OUCH presented by Maxxis rider from Mertztown, Pa., is leaving his current team and joining a new squad started by former U.S. criterium champion Rahsaan Bahati, Velonews is reporting.
The Bahati Foundation Pro Cycling Team will operate as a UCI continental team, doing races within the United States. Lea is one of 15 riders on the new team’s roster for 2010.
Lea, an Easton, Md. native, has been a frequent racer in Lancaster County. Last year, he went to Beijing as part of the U.S. Olympic track cycling team.
He is the second Pennsylvanian to desert the OUCH team this week. Jonathan Chodorff, from Kennett Square, who turned pro this year, is moving to Jelly Belly next season. Along with Chodorff and Lea, Lancaster County native Floyd Landis has also raced for OUCH this year.
Dr. Christopher Thomas Thompson, the former emergency room physician who pulled in front of two bicyclists doing a 30-mph descent and slammed on his brakes, was found guilty of assault with deadly weapon this week, following a week-long trial.
A jury returned the verdict Monday, convicting Thompson of six felonies and one misdemeanor, Velonews reported.
Thompson’s attorney sought to keep the doctor out on bail until his Dec. 3 sentencing. Prosecutor Mary Stone argued against it, saying Thompson was a flight risk. “In terms of public safety, there isn’t a cyclist in Los Angeles who would be comfortable if he were out on the streets,” she added.
During the trial, Stone showed that Thompson had stopped his car abruptly once before in front of two cyclists going down hill. Those cyclists narrowly avoided colliding with his car. Another cyclist testified that a car matching Thompson’s had also stopped in front of him, but he was going slowly uphill and was able to avoid a collision.
In the incident that sparked the charges, on July 4, 2008, one cyclist clipped the back of Thompson’s Infinity sedan and flew off his bike into the oncoming lane. The second cyclist went into Thompson’s rear window. His nose was nearly severed from his face.
Thompson told an investigating police officer that he wanted to teach the cyclists a lesson.
Penn State Junior Bobby Longenecker and three of his fellow former Manheim Township classmates pedaled from the Mexican border in southern California to Lubec, Maine - the easternmost town in the nation - last summer.
The diagonal cross-country trek is chronicaled in a Daily Collegian article Tuesday, along with Longenecker’s effort to run marathons in all 50 states.
Mike “Meatball” Friedman, from Pittsburgh, will be joining the team, sponsored by the candy company. Friedman will be leaving the Garmin-Slipstream team, with whom he has competed in some of the European Spring Classics.
And Jonathan Chodroff, of Kennett Square, who turned pro this year with Team OUCH presented by Maxxis, will also be moving to Jelly Belly. Chodroff, a time trialing specialist and climber, appeared in several regional races this year, including the Millersville Road Race.
At OUCH, he was on the roster with two other Pennsylvanians, Bobby Lea, of Mertztown, and Lancaster County native Floyd Landis.
Landis, meanwhile, has been the subject of transfer rumors. Supposedly, he was considering a move to Rock Racing. Landis, who has a contract with OUCH through next year, has not commented on the rumor. He did, however, tell a New Zealand newspaper he believes it is unlikely he will ever race the Tour de France again. According to a Cyclingnews.com article, Landis acknowledged his lackluster comeback this year from a two-year doping suspension. He also blamed “politics” between the UCI, the sport’s international governing body, and the tour organizer. Landis is in New Zealand racing in the Tour of the Southland.
In case you missed it, the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era had a feature story on Thursday on the Old School Schwinn Bike Club, a group in Lancaster with restored or tricked out Schwinn, Sears or J.C. Higgins rides.
The most interesting courtroom drama in recent years is taking place this week in Los Angeles.
It is the road rage trial of a California doctor who passed two cyclists descending a hill and then slammed on his brakes. One cyclist swerved to avoid the car, clipped the back bumper and went flying into the oncoming lane. He had a separated shoulder that required surgery. The other cyclist fared much worse. He slammed into the back of the doctor’s car. His face went through the back window. It took 90 stitches to reattach the man’s nose, which was almost completely severed.
The doctor, who reportedly attempted to do the same thing to two other cyclists four months earlier, allegedly told the investigating police officer that he wanted”to teach them a lesson.” The doctor was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
An attorney for the doctor maintains it was an “unfortunate accident.” In his opening remarks Monday, he suggested bicycles are inherently unstable and the cyclists themselves are responsible for their injuries.
Velonews has been covering the case. The latest is here. The opening day coverage is here.
The New York Times has an interesting article today on the growing number of business travellers who cycle. They takes bikes with them or rent them where they are going.
Included in the article in an interesting statistic:
According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey data released last month, there was a 43 percent increase nationally from 2000 to 2008 in people who bike to work regularly, though the numbers are still small: 786,098 last year, compared with 488,497 in 2000.
Incidentally, included in the survey data, is the finding that Philadelphia had the most per capita bicycle commuters of America’s largest cities. Philadelphia has a minuscule 1.6 percent of its commuters traveling by bike, but that percentage is double the number commuting there three years ago and nearly triple the national average of .55 percent.
Slate writer Christopher Beam recently wrote about bicyclists regularly breaking traffic laws - including himself - and the evolution of those laws and the two different philosophies most common among cyclists for whether to follow them. His article, “How do the get bikers to obey traffic laws,” is a good read.
Cyclists usually have to be picked from a lottery of entrants to race the grueling, 100-mile Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race in Colorado. For one night only, you have the opportunity to see the race up close without breaking a sweat or going most of the way across the country. “Race Across the Sky,” a documentary film shot two months ago, will be shown in select theaters nationwide on Thursday.
The closest theater to Lancaster is the Susquehanna Regal 14 in Harrisburg. The theater is at 1500 Caughey Drive. The single showing is at 8 p.m. The cost of tickets is $12.50.
Featured in the film is seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, who won Leadville during his second attempt in August. Armstrong defeated Dave Wiens, a former professional mountain biker who had won the race for six consecutive years. Two years ago, Weins defeated Lancaster County’s own Floyd Landis, who began his career as a junior mountain biker.
The 1,400 racers each year ride against each other. But, they also ride against the terrain - which rises 14,000 feet and includes heat, but may also include hail and snow at altitude. And, they race against the clock. Those failing to make the 12-hour cut are eliminated. Finishers receive the coveted Leadville belt buckle.
If you want to see the pros race in 2010, you’ll have to start your engines … and expect to drive at least an hour.
The closest professional bicycle races in the National Racing Calendar released last week by the sport’s governing body, USA Cycling, are the Wilmington Grand Prix, in Wilmington, Del. on May 22; the Kelly Cup, in Baltimore,the next day; and the Liberty Classic, in Philadelphia, June 6.
There will be no professional races in Lancaster, Reading, Allentown or Altoona in the coming year.
Professional cyclists last came to Lancaster in 2007, when the last Commerce Bank Tom Bamford Classic race was held. Along with races in Reading and Philadelphia, the series was called the Pennsylvania Triple Crown. The Lancaster race, held each spring for 17 years, moved to Allentown in 2008 after the organizers wanted the race to return to Tuesday afternoon instead of Sunday and a larger financial contribution was sought from the Lancaster officials. Last year, the Allentown and Reading races disappeared completely when money got tight. The Philadelphia race was only held after a public plea was made for last-minute donations and additional corporate sponsors were found.
If you want to see the pros race in 2010, you’ll have to start your engines … and expect to drive at least an hour.
