Imagine our surprise walking out of the west gate of campus (yes, it’s a gated campus) Sunday morning to be greeted by several hundred gleaming new blue and white dock-less bike share bikes! I took a few photos and thought I’d count them after our trip to the gym. I didn’t think that an hour later three-fourths of them would be gone, already in use. Throughout the day, everywhere I turned around campus I saw […]

After last week’s long and exciting ride to Luyi I was ready to explore more new territory. On the longer rides, you can notice a real shift in local character and cuisine. There is a snack, or variations of it, I often buy to refuel that can be found most anywhere I’ve been. It consists of a pita stuffed with any of the following: marinated tofu skin, boiled egg, kelp noodles, seitan, hot dog or […]

I finally did the ride to Luyi I’d been pining for since last spring. It’s like riding to Omaha and back, so I had to reserve a decent chunk of time. The pre-ride scouting I did last Thursday proved the route I’d planned was a little sketchy, as I ended up on different roads than I’d intended. County road signs are “low key” here, the number often not marked at all or, of course, in […]

It’s always interesting for me to ride my old routes from last year and see the changes. Certain aspects of Chinese culture and landscape might seem immune to change. The rustic villages with mud for streets, the farmers doing stooped labor in their fields, and then I ride by after some months, and it’s completely transformed. Even small villages have building booms, with prosperous farmers or merchants putting up new (sometimes ostentatious) buildings. Small towns […]

First off, congratulations National Bike Challenge and Black Shirt winners! Except for the crashes near the end, it was a great challenge. Lincoln continues to lead the way nationally with the back-to-back wins. Also like you in Lincoln, we’ve been getting a lot of rain here in Zhoukou, and more is on the way. Our holiday week saw little riding outside of the city. We’d been warned about trying to travel at the same time […]

From the constant destruction is coming reconstruction. The new mayor has set his sights on modernizing Zhoukou. The new river park was a done deal when he took office, but since we’ve been back, it seems like urban renewal (removal) has been kicked up a notch. Since I ride the river road through the city often it didn’t take long to notice entire neighborhoods have been leveled and a set-back from the river is being […]

National Bike Challenge Celebration Party Details Place t-shirt order

On Saturday, September 23, Randy Gibson was killed by a motorist, who was driving while under the influence. At the time of the crash, Randy was en route to meet his wife, Christy, who was waiting on the Homestead Trail to ride together back to Lincoln. Randy was a dedicated father, husband, and passionate cycling advocate. His kindness, quick genuine smiles, and friendly waves as he pedaled past will be sorely missed. He leaves a […]

It’s been a terrible week for Lincoln’s cycling community. It saw broken bones and death, as well as at least two more “accidents,” one hurt badly, involving motorists and cyclists. We are grieving the loss of Randy Gibson, as much a pillar of the cycling community in Lincoln as anyone has been. He was an active force in the National Bike Challenge, #2 last I looked, and one of the pirates of Pirate Cycling League, […]

Last Monday’s beautiful ride through the countryside had the unfortunate consequence of knocking me down for most of the week due to the lack of a mask. If I lived in the Pacific Northwest I might be experiencing the same thing right now from all the wildfires. I have masks but because of all the rain we’d been getting the air hadn’t been bad, under 50 pm2.5 (parts per million smaller than 2.5 micrometers, that […]