Earlier this week Rapha launched it’s brand new blog. Giving an insight into the world of Rapha from both sides of the Atlantic, the blog will feature aspects of design, news and photography and update readers on rides, events and upcoming products.
Check out the blog here: http://www.rapha.cc/blog
You can also follow them on Twitter @rapharacing
Back in June my family and I spent a week’s holiday in Burgundy and took the bikes down with us. We were based North West of Dijon in an area where the hills are gently rolling, weather on the whole was great and the excellent wine flowed nicely in the evenings (Top tip, if you want to enjoy a near Champagne taste at a fraction of the cost then when you are in Burgundy you should certainly try some Crémant de Bourgogne.).
My experience over the week was that the area is excellent for either road or off road cycling. I also have the impression that cycling in the region is very safe and on most of the country roads you’d be lucky to see one car every 10 minutes, and even those that pass generally seem very respectful to cyclists. It’s even quieter off road where you’d be lucky to come across anyone at all.
I didn’t have the time or opportunity to venture onto any single track but did experience the amazing set of farm roads that crisscross the countryside, highly recommend for a gentle off road cycle through the fields.
We also tried cycling along the Burgundy canal, this was brilliant for a family ride with the kids. The cycle path is essentially a dusty road that runs alongside the canal with a very gentle incline or slope each time you encounter a lock. The views along the canal are stunning as it meanders through the beautiful countryside, passing by the very quaint villages where you can take a short detour to have a refreshing beer and lunch in any of the delightful cafes and restaurants.
We had a great holiday and look forward to going back very soon, maybe we’ll try out one of the many vineyard cycle routes 
.
You can find a little further information about the Burgundy canal and cycling there here.
GPSies is a very cool website set up by Klaus Bechtold that shares your GPS tracks, allowing everyone to upload and download tracks very easily and view in Google maps.
Tracks are available to download in a range of file types from KXML to GPX , there is also a quick and easy option to export tracks to your Garmin GPS too.
But with so many tracks available it’s good to see that an excellent search facility is provided. Search results can also be filtered by the following catagories: By Foot, By Wheel, By Motor, On Water, At Winter and Others.
Once you’ve found an interesting track, detailed information can be viewed for it including an altitude profile, and users can provide feedback via ratings, so you’ll know if the track is going to be good or not!
But it’s not just us Joe Public using the site as I was delighted to see that MBR Magazine uploads their routes to the site, currently they have 52 tracks uploaded, see below,
If you have a Garmin Edge 705 and Memory-Map then I’m sure you’re probably having a few issues getting your routes downloaded to your Garmin device. I believe this is fixed with the latest version of Memory-Map but here is a way to get round the problem if you don’t have the latest version or just don’t want to run the update.
Before you get started you’ll need a small utility (GPX2CRS) to convert a GPX file to a *.crs file. The generated *.crs file can then be imported into Garmins Training Center application and then finally exported to your Garmin Edge. You can download GPX2CRS for free here.
The GPX2CRS utility also has some extra features like speed simulation, speed adjustment, track reversing and automatic creation of course points. And it also allows you to add track points to avoid the ‘Off course’/'Course found’ problem.
OK, to get your route over from Memory-Map to your Garmin just follow the steps below,
And that’s it, you should now have your course loaded onto your Garmin and be ready to hit the trails. It certainly works for me and I can convert my files pretty quickly now just following the simple steps above.
A quick heads up that Victoria Pendleton, Olympic Champion, will be making an appearance at CycleSurgery Holborn, London at 3pm on May 8th.
The event is organised by Oakley UK who proudly partner with the Lavender Trust at Breast Cancer Care. At the event Victoria will be promoting two special edition breast cancer awareness sunglasses which are new to the Oakley eyewear collection.
If you’re lucky enough to be on Melrose Avenue in L.A between 9th ~ 31st May why not drop into the Paul Smith store and view an exclusive exhibition of classic cycling jerseys.
The exhibition features a collection of iconic jerseys curated by Rouleur’s team of writers and photographers. A selection of vintage jerseys from Paul Smith’s personal archive will also be on display, including a commemorative jersey produced by Paul Smith and Rapha in 2007 to celebrate Le Grand Départ of the Tour de France in London.
I wish I could be there and would love to have a collection of classic shirts, how cool! Anyway back to reality, you can find out more about the exhibition by clicking the image below,
Well how about cycling from London to Paris? You could get a feel of what it’s like for the riders of the Tour de France and even raise some money for charity.
There are a few options for doing this in 2009 but looks like places get booked up pretty fast. I’ve listed a couple below, the September option might be best if you need to get some training in J And it’s the one I’d like to take part in, my request for a pack is in, so get moving if you want to take part!
26th – 29th June 2009 – www.ndcschallenges.org.uk/challenges/
9th – 13th September 2009 – www.londonparisbikeride.co.uk/
Thanks to BikeRadar.com here’s a great and very comprehensive guide to all UK cycle events planned for the coming months, Events Guide 2009
Planning a route for a walk, ride or a run and want to calculate the distance and view it on a map? Then why not check out www.walkjogrun.net. It’s a site that enables you to do just that using GoogleMaps. You can plan and view your route in either a Map, Satellite or Hybrid view, calculate pace, time and also calories burnt.
The site is mainly targeted at runners and there is a Groups and Community section, but I think the site could easily also be used for walking and biking. Take a look and hit the trails!
Those boys from Rapha certainly know how to have fun in the winter months . Check out this clip from their recent Tour of California
Wish I was biking through California listening to this, – California Dreamin’ by The mamas and the papas, one of my favorite all time tracks,
Bike Radar
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