NEWSWIRE: ToC Blog, Book Reviewed, Lube contin.

You may already know that the Tour of California, the most important race in America, commences in Sacramento on February 14 and will race right into my home town of Santa Cruz on the 16th. This is a huge deal for us and we're all working to promote the race and make it a success so it comes back again. For my part, I've begun blogging about the race for local Internet provider Cruzio.com and I wanted to give you the link so you can follow along (screenshot above). I'll take a local perspective on the race and keep it fun. Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to cover...............In other blog news of a commercial nature, I was delighted to see that top NorCal racer Michael Hernandez who blogs for the NorCalCyclingNews has some great things to say about my Your Home Bicycle Workshop book. I wanted to share his kind words (scroll a bit) and use this space to thank him, too. Appreciate the support, Michael...............Also, a reader added a great tip you might want to try in my post about chain lubing. He suggests simply using car wax to lube your chain. Scroll to the lube post and read the comments to get the whole story, and post your comments if you try it to let us know how you like it.

Have a nice cycling weekend!

Jim

NEWSWIRE: Lance returns, Interbike looms

The big news this week is Lance's return to the Tour de France, a story so huge you probably already know all about it. If not, there's a major feature story on it on Vanity Fair's site here. For we Santa Cruzans this means The Legend will finally be pedaling into our bike-crazy city since his first race will be the Amgen Tour of California, and one of the early stages ends here. Yay! Whether he wins or loses the Tour, Lance's return to racing will also be huge for cycling in general and should boost cancer-fighting efforts, too, both great things.

The other exciting news is that show season has arrived with Eurobike in progress and Interbike commencing September 22 in Las Vegas where we'll spend the week in two-wheel heaven. You can follow the fun at VeloNews and MTBR. Look for stories, photos and videos as the shows happen. In the meantime, here's a sneak peak of one product I hope to see there, Yuba's Mundo utility bike. It might be just the thing to get you out of your car - or even your truck - more often thanks to its ability to carry long, large and heavy loads - and even passengers. Look at the stretch frame and built-in rear platform and you can see how this is possible. These clever work bikes are already changing lives around the world and there are other designs like this, too, such as the Xtracycle and the Worksman industrial bikes and trikes. Fun stuff!