plus 3, Shani Davis of U.S. looking a bit vulnerable heading into 1,000 ... - YAHOO! |
- Shani Davis of U.S. looking a bit vulnerable heading into 1,000 ... - YAHOO!
- Ray Price Harley-Davidson teams with Triumph Motorcycles - MSN Money
- Lifelong passion earns Wiebler lifetime honor - Peoria Journal Star
- Rumble strips knock bike race off course - Bennington Banner
Shani Davis of U.S. looking a bit vulnerable heading into 1,000 ... - YAHOO! Posted: 17 Feb 2010 07:25 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. RICHMOND, B.C. - The men's speedskating 1,000 metres, which many experts considered a one-man race, has suddenly got more interesting. U.S. skater Shani Davis was considered a certainty to win the 1,000 metres Wednesday at the Richmond Olympic Oval until an unheralded South Korean won Monday's 500. Mo Tae-bum's surprise victory on his 21st birthday set him up nicely for a race that is twice as long and in which Davis is the world record holder and defending Olympic champion. "I'm even more confident going into my other events," Mo said. Davis, on the other hand, might be questioning himself just a bit after his first two events of these Olympics. He finished 12th in the 5,000 — nearly 14 seconds behind the winner, Sven Kramer — and didn't even bother finishing the 500 after placing 18th in the first of two heats. Deciding it was time to start focusing on the 1,000, Davis called it a day, leaving the spotlight to a 21-year-old South Korean who likes motorcycles and fast cars — and going fast himself. "The 500 metres was not my strongest," Mo said through a translator. "However, I am looking forward to the 1,000 and will try to do my best." Indeed, coming into the Olympics, Mo was only ranked 14th in the 500, having failed to crack the podium in any event this season. But he's second to Davis in the 1,000 standings, and there's already been a bit of gamesmanship between the two during their previous encounters. "I asked Shani before about the corner techniques and he said, 'Oh, we are rivals, we are competitors, so I won't be able to talk about that,'" Mo said. Davis spoke briefly with reporters about the sloppy conditions at this facility in suburban Vancouver, which has been plagued by problems with the ice-resurfacing machines. There was a delay of more than an hour right in the middle of the first 500 heat. "Bad ice is bad ice," Davis said. "You've got to be ready for anything." Later, he decided there was no need to take part in the second heat. "I think above all he wants to be fresh for the 1,000 and he wants to get ready for the 1,500 as well," said Nathaniel Mills, a former Olympic speedskater who is serving as Davis' spokesman at these Olympics. "The 500 has one of the greatest risks of injury and he just wanted to play it safe since he got everything he wanted to get out of this race." While the U.S. speedskating team has yet to win a long track medal in Richmond, South Korea — a country better known for its prowess on the short track — has two. Lee Seung-hoon claimed an unexpected silver in the men's 5,000 on Saturday. Mo did even better, winning his country's first Winter Olympics gold in a sport other than short track. "I absolutely did not expect it," he said. "I dreamt it, imagined it, but I didn't expect it at all." Canada's Olympic veteran Jeremy Wotherspoon will also skate in the 1,000 and Canadians are hoping he can bow out like American skater Dan Jansen He endured repeated heartache at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, before finally winning gold in the 1,000 on his final shot at the 1994 Lillehammer Games. Wotherspoon plans to retire at the end of the World Cup season. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
Ray Price Harley-Davidson teams with Triumph Motorcycles - MSN Money Posted: 17 Feb 2010 08:58 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. James Gallagher The Ray Price Road Racing Team, sponsored by Raleigh-based Ray Price Harley-Davidson, will begin riding Triumph Motorcycles later this month when the team travels to Daytona Beach for Bike Week 2010. The team had been riding Buell Motorcycles, but the company, which is owned by Harley-Davidson, has ceased producing consumer cycles. "We enjoyed a long and friendly relationship with our former partner," said Ray Price. "However, we are thrilled to be entering into an affiliation with such a well-known and highly respected motorcycle builder as Triumph. I am confident that our Road Racing team will continue to enjoy tremendous success riding their new machines." In addition to the Ray Price Road Racing Team, Ray Price Harley-Davidson sponsors the Ray Price Nitro Harley Team. Copyright 2010 bizjournals.com Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
Lifelong passion earns Wiebler lifetime honor - Peoria Journal Star Posted: 17 Feb 2010 08:22 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Wayne Wiebler has been around motorcycles virtually all of his life. It's his hobby, his job, his passion. As owner of Walters Brothers Harley-Davidson in Peoria, Wiebler has been working on and selling motorcycles and equipment to customers for years. What many of them might not know is that Wieber was a champion amateur racer himself in the late 1950s and early 1960s and his success has earned him a spot in the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame. Wiebler will be inducted along with the rest of the 2010 class on March 14 at the Peoria Civic Center. "I basically started riding motorcycles when I was 12 or 13 years old," said Wieber, who began working at Walters Brothers at age 14. He started racing cross-country enduros, which is a race against the clock, then moved to the amateur circuit in his late teens. But in 1959, when he was 22 years old, he had his best year ever, winning 29 races, finishing second 10 times and third three times and winning the American Motorcyclist Association national amateur title. Among his victories that season was the June TT race at the Peoria Motorcycle Club. "I scored higher than anybody in the nation in TTs, road races, short tracks and the half mile," he said. "It was a high compliment because racing was huge in central Illinois at that time." In fact, the second-place finisher, Don Howell, also was from Peoria. He scored 12 wins and 12 second-place finishes that year. "I'm told (Wiebler) was a heck of an amateur racer," said Bert Sanders, longtime race director at the Peoria Motorcycle Club. "He quit racing about the time I joined the club." In 1960, Wieber earned an AMA national number and moved up to the expert class. "But it took me three years to learn to ride like an expert," he said. "And by that time, it was 1963 and I was asked by my boss (Bruce Walters) to quit." Walters was having health problems at the time and was grooming Wiebler to take over the business, which he eventually did when he bought out Bruce and Gladys Walters in 1979. Wiebler also said he had planned to stop racing when he had children — and he had three by the time Walters asked him to stop. In all his years of racing, Wiebler was never injured. But the year he stopped, he was hurt when he was hit from behind by another rider while on their way to watch a race and broke his collarbone. Even though he hasn't raced for nearly 50 years, Wiebler has stayed involved with the sport. He took over the job as race director of the PMC in 1981, the year after Walters died, and continued through 1983. Sanders took over in 1984. He also is involved in the Ride for the Cure to benefit St. Jude and is heavily involved in the motorcycle festival at the riverfront the Saturday before the PMC Grand National TT in August. "We're involved in anything that has to do with motorcycling in the city of Peoria," he said. A life of motorcycles — racing, riding and selling — has been rewarding for Wiebler. "It was pretty hard work," he said, "but it worked out very well for me." Jane Miller can be reached at 686-3207 or jmiller@pjstar.com. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
Rumble strips knock bike race off course - Bennington Banner Posted: 17 Feb 2010 08:08 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Wednesday February 17, 2010 HANCOCK, Mass. -- A bicycle racing tradition that has drawn hundreds of racers, supporters and spectators to the Berkshires for 28 years has been indefinitely canceled due to the dangers posed by state-installed rumble strips on Route 7 in Williamstown, New Ashford and Lanesborough. The Shaun Thornton Memorial Jiminy Peak Road Race has been known to draw participants from around the U.S. and Canada. For regional racers, it served as the opening event of the season. But the USA Cycling Association declined to sanction the May race after the state installed rumble strips on the shoulder and grooves with reflectors in the middle of the Route 7 highway. The highway, which was repaved and introduced the driver-safety measures last summer, was a major part of the race route. "USA Cycling officials came and looked at it, and they said it's unsafe, and there's no way we could get a permit to have this race," said Kathleen Harrington, an organizer and promoter of the race. "There's no way you could have a race with over 120 cyclists now. It would be dangerous." The problem, she noted, is that cyclists would tend to avoid the rumble strip and the grooves. In swerving out of the way, they could end up in the path of oncoming cars. Also, a bike tire could get caught in a groove or strip and cause a mishap, he said. "We haven't had anyone sustain serious injuries, and we'd certainly hate for that to happen," Harrington said.According to Adam Hurtubise, spokesman for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation, the rumble strips are a proven safety measure to prevent inattentive drivers from going off the road. The Federal Highway Administration says "shoulder rumble strips have proven to be very effective for warning drivers that they are about to drive off the road. Many studies also show very high benefit-to-cost ratios for shoulder rumble strips, making them among the most cost effective safety features available." The course of the bicycle race began on Brodie Mountain Road in Hancock, headed to Williamstown on Route 43, and south on Route 7 through New Ashford and into Lanesborough, before finishing back on Brodie Mountain Road. The course is 30 kilometers, or a little over 18 miles. There were eight different classes of competition for various age groups and skill levels, including a professional/amateur race for men and women. The best of the riders raced through the course five times, a distance of 150 kilometers, in roughly 3.5 hours. In recent years, the event drew 700 racers and at least that many supporters and spectators. Mike Ward, a Pittsfield city councilor in Ward 4 and former participant and organizer of the race, said it didn't have a huge economic impact on the area, but it did have some. "A lot of people made a weekend in the Berkshires out of it," Ward said. "And for the others on the way out of town after the race, they would always stop and eat." The loss of the race, Ward added, "has left a huge void in the racing community. It was a very-well-thought-of event. So the racers are bummed." Last year, Ward was involved in discussions with state highway officials about the rumble strips and how they affect cycling. "Basically, they think it's an inconvenience for bicyclers and we think it's a safety hazard," Ward said. The race was dedicated to the late Shaun Thornton when the Berkshire Cycling Association member was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1993. Originally sponsored by Brodie Mountain, it was sponsored by Jiminy Peak in recent years. "We loved the recognition it brought us and the hundreds of people it brought here," said Betsy Strickler, marketing director at Jiminy Peak. "Not many of them stayed with us, but most of them visited the property or ate here, and it raised awareness of our summer offerings." She added that the race did provide an economic boost to gas stations, restaurants and hotels. Jay Kulpinski, treasurer of the Berkshire Cycling Association, said there is no way to reroute the race, which is a shame because "that was really a perfect loop with good hills, few intersections and good pavement. It would be really hard to duplicate what we had there." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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