Liking Biking

Linda Burton posting from Boise, Idaho – Boise is for bicycles. And not just during the ExergyTWENTY12 event that’s bringing world-class cyclists into town this week. Ordinary folks are out there every day, on the streets and on the pathways, going ordinary places on their bikes. Like Ed, the retiree who volunteers at the State Capitol. “I ride my bike almost everywhere I go. I can hardly stand getting in a car anymore,” he said. He figures he rides about 200 miles a week. And like Terry, a part of the American Heritage Trolley Tour I took. Standing by the map on the back of my car, Terry pointed out the route he and his daughter took in the summer of 1992 when they biked across the USA. Daughter Lyalka was 14, Dad Terry was 44. They departed from Florence, Oregon and arrived in Long Island, New York 43 days later, Pacific to Atlantic. “People made a fuss over her,” Terry told me. “Bicycling across the country at 14. They should have been making a fuss over me. I was doing it at 44!” When I asked how they trained for the trip, he said they didn’t; they were already bike riders, so they just went. “You don’t have to be an athlete to do something like that,” he said.

Or, you can be an athlete, and a professional, like Boisean Kristin Armstrong, leader of the Exergy TWENTY12 Team, who brought home Olympic Gold from Beijing in 2008, and is aiming for London this year. How she got into cycling is a rather unusual story. » read more