cycling in aftermath of storm
When I first travelled to the US, back in 2000, I don’t think I did any cycling. There also seemed very few cyclists who dared to brave the streets of Queens, New York to cycle around. The US seemed a country built for the motor car, and everything else was a bit of an inconvenience.
In the past 10 years, I have noticed a small improvement in cycling facilities; there has been a greater acceptance of cyclists on the road. You don’t get beeped quite as frequently as you used to. This is just my personal experience, though the stats suggest that New York and some other cities have seen a boom in cycling (admittedly from a very low base).
A few Notes from Travels in US
Plane into JFK was delayed 5 hours due to storm (not the big hurriance, another one). On arrival in JFK you were subjected to TV screens blaring out CNN 24 hour news which happened to have British guy Piers Morgan interviewing some US Republican candidate who didn’t want to answer questions about her previous statements on contraceptions e.t.c. I’ve never been big on 24 hours channels, and this combination of Piers Morgan and republican politicians was enough to make you want to get on first plane back to England….
24 hour news channels at least had something new to talk about for their saturation coverage. – The big Hurricane. The advice was stay indoors, stock up on food and batten down the hatches. Americans don’t really need to be told to stock up on food, but the supermarkets were even fuller on the day before the storm arrived. I made a very half-hearted attempt to join in the panic. My token efforts at stocking up on food was to buy a packet of crisps from a local shop on the realisation breakfast places may be closed the next morning. (I never ate the packet of crisps, but if the city had closed down, I would have stretched those crisps out for ages). In Queens, the hurricane actually ended up being a tropical storm. Enough to blow down a few trees, but not enough to close Dunkin Donuts. New York was free to stock up on cheap calories by about 10.30am.
American Diet
In the US, I found myself struggling to pay any attention to good diet, and low GI food. American diet tends to involve a lot of potatoes, fried food and cheap carbohydrates (corn syrup seems to be in everything). Portions in America are very big. I reckon if I lived in America for 20 years and always got the ‘supersize’ option – even I might finally increase my weight beyond 10 stone (135 lbs for the US lingo).
Cycling in Queens
There are no official bike racks anywhere. This means you lock to anything you can see.
Cars travel very fast on local roads. Nearly all cars seem to be 4WDs or SUVs as they call them in the US.
Stop signs and traffic lights everywhere. The grid system of New York is probably very efficient for some things. But, it really doesn’t facilitate cycling. You constantly have to stop and start.
The Kissena Park velodrome was life saver. I wanted to do some training, and so would often go to a local velodrome. You might think it really boring going around in circles, but it was so nice to be able to cycle without traffic lights, you can really get into a good rhythm.
Training in New York
I was quite happy with the training I managed in New York. Perhaps 180 miles for the two weeks. This is quite a low mileage, but, I intended to have 2 ‘light weeks’ of training before last two months of hard interval training for hill climbs.
This training included quite a few high intensity rides. 2 minute intervals up short hill. 1 * 5 mile time trial on velodrome. 1 hour of threshold training.
Sunday is British time trial championship.
Related
A city made for cars (April post)
Hi Bob, thanks for comment. I would love to get a chance to cycle in other parts of America, friends say there are some great places, once you get out of the big metropolis’
Have read your blogs for several years. As a past serious cyclist, in both England & the US, I am often amused with your comments. I raced in England in the 50′s, & my TDF favourites of that era would have laughed at present day bicycles.
Using NY City as a standard gives US cycling a poor appearance. You should get out around the country to see a different picture entirely.
As an older ex English rider, who has lived in many places in this country. Has raced many years as a veteran in California, & officiated major events, including the 1984 Olympics, & 1986 Worlds Championships, I can say that cycling is very much alive here. After all, look at the number of US riders in major world events.
I still ride at almost 82 years of age, though no longer regard 40 miles as the minimum worth changing clothes for!