Santa Fe Bicycling in The New York Times

Shared:  An article by Henry Shukman about bicycling and the beauty of Santa Fe's new city trail system, published in this weekend's travel section of the New York Times. I don't know Mr. Shukman, but I'm guessing we've criss-crossed each other around town and exchanged passing nods on several occasions. I'm almost thinking that's Cat Downing in the lead photo with the Slurp Airstream Trailer.

Park the Pickup: Santa Fe by Bicycle (NYT, Oct 2012)

"...Every day I ride three miles to my office. These days there’s an autumn crispness in the air, and an almost detectable scent of frost. Along the way I pass under cottonwood trees, between adobe compounds and past the Capitol building before the morning rush has filled its parking lots, then follow the train tracks for a while along a dedicated bike trail, before reaching the rusty loft where I work. It hardly ever rains, and I have learned to love my bike..." 


Included are mentions of the recent IMBA World Summit, Melo Velo Bicyclery, Second Street Brewery (natch), and Counter Culture Cafe. A glaring omission was evident in leaving out Better Day Coffee. Inexcusable sir. Henry, send me an email when you read this and we'll hit it up, talk bikes and New Mexico, my treat.

This Summer Weather is no Joke

Tune-Up Cafe:  food + patio + bike logos = badass

Whoa, seems like it's been a while but I'm happy to say that my leg finally feels sturdy enough for some high mileage. April Fools suckas, the leg hurts and life sucks. The leg better get its act together because with this fine weather I'm going to start training the hell out of it and its close friend down there. That's right. First I've got to get through this ungodly tax season that is jacking up my physical well being. For this reason I don't have any good photos to post so here's one of the Tune-Up Cafe because their food and dessert and coffee is excellent and they have bike logos on their t-shirts and coffee mugs.

Plan to sneak out for a ride on Sunday, and a little nordic skiing up at Santa Fe since this is the last week of the ski season. What!? Winter's over? What the hell happened this winter? We got sold down the river this winter that's what, but summer's cool too so I'm ready to go hit it on the snow free trails up there.

I've been a bit out of the loop the last couple of weeks but here goes for some weekend notes:

• Apparently there's a Bike Swap tomorrow (4/2) in the Rob & Charlie's parking lot. It's being billed as the first annual Santa Fe Bike Swap being put on by BikeSantaFe.org. $2 admission. I'm down with that even though I expect the swap to be small. Hopefully they'll have some rockin' $2500 mountain bikes at a 99% mark-down.
• The Atomic Man Duathlon is four weeks out (Sun. 5/1). There's a $5 registration discount available till 4/15 with a password from their website. There's also a training program linked to the site from Aligned Play. I think I'm doing this race even if I'll still be a little wobbly. Hear that leg? Better straighten up and fly right buddy. Beers afterward at the Canyon Bar. 
• The La Tierra Torture is the same weekend (4/30-5/1). Short track race on Sat., Cross Country on Sun. The races are run out at La Tierra so bring a freaking map along with your ride and your gear.

• Ski areas statewide are closing up this weekend. Wolf Creek still has a crap load of snow (I gotta get my pictures up from Sunday (ed. got them up finally), but they're closing up shop on the 10th. This happens every April so I don't know why I get all bent out of shape about it.

That's all I've got, I'm going to the Hotel St. Francis for a drink and that ain't no April Fools.

Update (4/2):  One important add-on I forgot to list, The La Luz Trail Run is operating their registration lottery online this year rather than the old mail-in system. Registration for the lottery is open until April 10th on Ultrasignup.com, or just go here. In addition to the improved lottery system, registration slots have increased to 440 this year having been capped at 400 for as long as I can remember. This is the oldest, baddest trail race in New Mexico. Get at it folks.