News

We ended the weekend with coat-tails flying at the Brompton US Championship • 2012. Thank you to all who helped make this event a race to remember: Open Streets Minneapolis, Brompton Bicycles Ltd, Best-dressed judge John Meegan and everyone at Top Shelf, Aaron from Minneapolis Musette for his scintillating play-by-play commentary, Mayor RT Rybak, Brooks, Twin Six, Schwalbe, Banjo Brothers, and Nutcase.

Most of all, thank you to this year's participants and to those who helped cheer the racers on as we kicked-off Open Streets 2012 in style. Read on for the race results and links to the coverage of the race around the web.

Women's Division:

• 1st Place — Susan Todzy
• 2nd Place — Megan Turak
• 3rd Place — Sophie Breen
• Best-Dressed — Susan Todzy

Men's Division:

• 1st Place — Wallace Alexander
• 2nd Place — Pedro Becquer
• 3rd Place — Spencer Morse
• Best-Dressed — Spencer Morse

Championship coverage around the web:

• Top finishers Wallace and Pedro neck-and-neck in the Pioneer Press
• Participant Mark Skoine in his homemade Union-Jack helmet in the Pioneer Press 
• Chris Eidem shares a break-down of the race from the rider's perspective on his blog "Fat Boy Biking"
• Read *near* all-around-champion Spencer Morse's race recap at his blog "Why I Ride"
• Cycle Twin Cities put together a great recap of the event earlier this week, including video and photos
• Urban Velo's Scott Klocksin sums up the race with a video of the starting sprint and brief commentary
• See more pictures and add your own in the shop's BUSC2012 Flickr group
• Watch the shop staff's pre-race Brompton alley cat here

Photos by Perennial Cycle staff Martha Garcés & Kat McCarthy © Perennial Cycle, 2012

The DETAILS:

Date:  June 10th, 2012

Time: Registration 8:30 - 9:40am, Race at 10am
Dress Code: All participants must wear a jacket, collared shirt and tie.
Helmets are a must and lycra is banned (or at least all lycra must be covered up)

Where:  34th and Lyndale in Minneapolis, MN

Prizes: Win a trip to England to the Brompton World Championship!
More Prizes: There will be special awards given for a Best Dressed man and Best Dressed Woman as well as for the fastest fold.

Pre-registration Party: Saturday night (June 9th) with Fabulous Food and entertainment. Pre-registration begins at 5pm and food/Party is from 6-8. Then a fun urban ride to Merlin's Rest for a pint and a couple Pig-in-a-Jars.

Perennial Cycle is sponsoring the Brompton US Championship Race! This is definitely one of the funnest races ever and for that reason this race is growing in popularity in a big way.

Brompton Bicycle and Perennial Cycle have teamed up with Open Streets Minneapolis to bring even more bikie-ness to an already great day of cycling culture in the city that is ranked #1 for its cycle friendly atmosphere.

Brompton Folding Competition Fun:

Urban Cycling is an online book written and designed by Katie King Rumford. The design is very pleasing and the content is inspiring.
Definitely worth checking out.

This from the webpage:

"Urban Cycling is a book dedicated to addressing the problems of biking in urban areas by suggesting alternatives and solutions to problems. Urban Cycling is a final student project for a graduate level graphic design program. Photography and copy have been cited."

Read the book here:  Urban Cycling

Alan Barnard of EcoVelo fame is soon to write his last blog post for ecovelo.info.

For 3-1/2 years EcoVelo has inspired many people to do great things in a healthy, environmentally friendly way and Perennial Cycle owes a big thanks to Alan and Michael for their great work.

The blog is a huge resource for all people of all levels to work out the details of using their bicycle as a true means of transportation.

At least once every couple of days we find ourselves at the shop speaking about the blog in one way or other.

We will greatly miss the beautiful photos, great reviews and fun picture contests, but I will appreciate the memories of EcoVelo forever.
Thank You Very Much!

It's been a 6 year relationship that Perennial Cycle has had with Alan, because before the EcoVelo Blog Alan did TheRecumbentBlog. In 2005 Alan started TheRecumbentBlog and it was a stand out for a very high level of professionalism and a very keen eye for design (to say nothing of the high quality images).

The same high standards were carried into the crafting of EcoVelo, but to a larger audience. Both TheRecumbentBlog and EcoVelo brought people together that had been considered to be outcasts by the cycling industry in general.

As the final post is nearing for EcoVelo I can say that both cycling communities are better understood by the larger cycling world. Thanks in no small part to Alan and Michael's hard work.

Their impact is greater than it may seem. Nice Work : )

Nuts & Bolts: While this year will mark the end of EcoVelo's new posts, it will continue to be a valuable resource for commuters and the broader world of utility-minded cyclists for 2 more years, but without new content.

As I understand it, the site will remain active until January 1, 2014. Then it will have to rest in peace.