Cycotherapy News Roundup: TDF info, battery fires, Appalachia and bike glamping
Hello my fellow cycopaths. Congratulations on making it to another Friday. And welcome to the best newsletter on Substack devoted to giving you fodder for your weekend rides and adventures.
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Happy reading and even better pedaling.
headlines
Get pumped, and informed, on Tour de France
It’s that time of year again, where a lot of people around the world pretend to be professional cycling fans. (Including me, frankly.) I love cycling, but it’s only been within the last couple years I’ve paid attention to the biggest bike race in the world. I don’t really know why. Nevertheless, I find it fun to watch.
about each American participating on the race. And here’s one about how you can watch the race, including deals on streaming services and how to use a VPN to tap into foreign networks. Oh, and by Spencer Martin will be all over TDF coverage. If you haven’t already, check out his super detailed newsletter. Oh, and gets poetic in their stage/race reviews every once in a while, if that’s your thing.
There are a number of articles out there designed to inform us on the ins and outs of this year’s race. This one from Cycling Weekly gives a general rundown of everything you need to know, from profiles of each stage to a fun quote from Tadej Pogačar. This one from Eurosport gives vignettes of each start rider of each team, as well as a roster for each team. Here’s one from
AI helped this college dude break a world record on his unicycle
A college student named James Cozens juggled seven balls for 16.77 seconds on a unicycle recently to earn him a new Guinness World Record. I probably wouldn’t have included this in the newsletter this week had the reporter not mentioned Cozens developed “tracking, visualization and simulation software that allowed him to improve his technique.” This dude took an academic approach to conquering one of the hardest skills ever, and arguably one of the most useless. Nevertheless, mad respect from Cycotherapy.
NYC just got $25 million for e-bike charging stations
Mayor Eric Adams got help from the state’s two U.S. senators to secure the funds. It took four people to die for this money to be doled out … Recently, a lithium ion battery caught fire at an e-bike shop in Manhattan’s Chinatown. “The fire and thick smoke spread to apartments above the shop, killing four people and injuring three others, including a responding firefighter,” reads the AP article. But that was only the latest. There have been more than 100 fires and 13 deaths in NYC this year and they’re all related to e-bikes. (Batteries overheat if improperly charged or defective.) It sucks that people seemingly need to die before commonsense solutions are tried. The money, according to the AP article, is going to be used to fund 170 charging units in about 50 locations throughout the city so that people stop charging them in their apartments.
feature of the week
This is a beautifully written piece by a guy who grew up in different parts of Appalachia, exploring and adventuring. The link above does not go to the online version of the story. I couldn’t find one because the story appears in print. So you’ll have to buy the magazine or buy the PDF version of it instead. But it’s worth a buy. Mountain Flyer, I think I’ve said before in one way or another, is great. Such good stuff about mountain biking. This story gives all the feels of autumn, a refreshing reminder of what’s to come in a few months after smoky skies and moist heat.
Anyway, here’s a little taste of the style in this piece: “When the winds pick up in early September, they’re subtle at first: a wisp here, a gust there. Though fleeting and sporadic, their brief, cool breath across the skin is instantly recognizable and immediately energizing. Slowly, the intermittent puffs grew to a reliable breeze, pushing out summer’s oppressive humid heat and inviting cooler, drier air to fill the void.”
And another: “At the age of 12 it seemed as if my thirst for adventure — my curiosity to explore the mountains — might finally be quenched. My parents had purchased five acres in a new development just outside the college town of Morgantown, West Virginia, in the heart of the Alleghenies. The 5-acre plot of land was perched near the top of a ridgeline and was completely covered by a dense forest of hemlock, white pine and maple, sloping down the mountainside toward the back of teh property. Its depth and beauty were all-consuming.”
book excerpt of the week
Judge Taylor was on the bench, looking like a sleepy old shark, his pilot fish writing rapidly below in front of him. Judge Taylor looked like most judges I had ever seen: amiable, white-haired slightly ruddy-faced, he was a man who ran his court with an alarming informality — he sometimes propped his feet up, he often cleaned his fingernails with his pocket knife. In long equity hearings, especially after dinner, he gave the impression of dozing, an impression dispelled forever when a lawyer once deliberately pushed a pile of books to the floor in a desperate effort to wake him up. Without opening his eyes, Judge Taylor murmured, “Mr. Whitley, do that again and it’ll cost you one hundred dollars.”
…
Judge Taylor had one interesting habit. Her permitted smoking in his courtroom but did not himself indulge: sometimes, if one was lucky, one had the privilege of watching him put a long dry cigar in his mouth and munch it slowly up. Bit by bit the dead cigar would disappear, to reappear some hours later as a flat slick mes, its essence extracted and mingling with Judge Taylor’s digestive juices. I once asked Atticus how Mrs. Taylor stood to kiss him, but Atticus said they didn’t kiss much.
Harper Lee — To Kill a Mockingbird
video of the week
This video is just so much LOL. But also … I bet there are people coming up with a better version of the glamping bike as we speak that are someday going to make a boat load of money.
That’s all for now folks. Have fantastic, wonderful, cycopathic weekend. Don’t forget to hit that share button below. Spread Cycotherapy to the masses, yo.