| Tour of California - 2.1
It has been a long time coming, and now the North American cycling fans, as well as the rest of the cycling world, will know if the new Tour of California will live up to the hype to become the top race in the land. Finishing in Los Angeles, the race begins on Sunday with a prologue in San Francisco -- from the Embarcadero through Telegraph Hill up to the finish at Coit Tower. The start city is a little ironic with the last pro cycling race in San Francisco having been run out of town by the city. Regardless, one thing is certain, the cast of characters set to play out the drama on the roads past Hollywood shows that people are taking this race seriously. Without even glancing at the specific riders on the team list, the teams alone make for an impressive line-up. Of the sixteen teams in the race, half are ProTour squads -- the most ever to race on this continent.
Bike-theft suspect hangs self in hospital
A Longview man who faced multiple charges for allegedly stealing a string of expensive bicycles throughout the Northwest killed himself Saturday morning in a Longview psychiatric hospital where he'd been admitted after two previous suicide attempts. Jacob J. Bos, a 35-year-old podiatrist, was the subject of a Page 1 story Friday in The Seattle Times. Longview police spokeswoman Deborah Johnson said Bos committed suicide at St. John Medical Center in Longview at 6 a.m. Bos hung himself with a belt in a hospital bathroom, according to Dr. Richard Kirkpatrick, who owns the clinic where Bos worked. Bos had pleaded not guilty in Cowlitz County Superior Court to 12 counts of possessing or selling stolen bikes. Seattle police arrested him last month after they traced him through DNA on a coffee cup left at a Fremont bicycle shop, where he'd allegedly stolen a $6,800 bike, and on another occasion, a $5,500 bike.
Saturday Mechanic: Servicing Brake Discs
If the dime goes in beyond the top of the president's head, the score is too deep. If a score is too thin for the dime to slip in, it's harmless. Another test is to run your fingernail across the surface radially. If your nail catches, the rotor needs to be resurfaced. If not, you're probably okay, provided there's enough thickness left on a true-running rotor. Uniform thickness is critical. Measure each rotor with an outside micrometer at a number of evenly spaced points around the lining contact surface. A variation of .005 in. or more is enough to cause the pulsation you feel. Lateral runout is caused by a rotor that's uniform in thickness, but is wavy. Uneven thickness and excessive runout often go together. That is, the runout causes the uneven wear on the rotor.
No mean feat to get SA's women cycling
The bicycle has been hailed as having done "more than anything else in the world ... to emancipate women" -- the words of 19th-century American feminist Susan B Anthony. But for many women in South Africa, culture and tradition make it difficult to take advantage of the increased mobility and access to social and economic opportunities offered by bicycles, not to mention their reduced carbon footprint. "Most people think that cycling is for children, and definitely not for African women -- especially married ones," says Myolisi Njoli of Luvo Bicycles, a non-governmental group that manages a programme in the Western Cape called "Women in Cycling" on behalf of the provincial government. Marianne Vanderschuren of the Centre for Transport Studies at the University of Cape Town, the Africa convener for the Cycling Academic Network (a collaboration between Brazil, India, Holland and South Africa), has come across similar views in her research: fears that cycling makes a woman seem undignified or unfeminine.
Next Weeks Almanac Digest
In 1996, a suicide bombing at Sri Lanka's main bank killed nearly 100 people and injured more than 1,000. In 1999, a team of international scientists reported it traced the predominant strain of the AIDS virus to a subspecies of chimpanzee that lived in parts of Africa. In 2000, Illinois Gov. George Ryan halted all executions in his state after several death row inmates were found to be innocent of the crimes for which they were about to be put to death. Also in 2000, the European Union warned that its members would diplomatically isolate Austria if its anti-immigrant Freedom Party, led by avowed Nazi sympathizer Jorg Haider, entered a coalition government. In 2001, a Scottish court meeting in the Netherlands convicted a Libyan man in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
Snow, Windy Weather On The Way Into Columbus
A rain-snow mix will accompany rush-hour commuters this evening. The temp will be right around 32 degrees. Scattered flurries and cold temperatures are forecast for tonight. The low will be 24 degrees. Tomorrow will bring a chance of more flurries and 17 degrees, Nunnally said. Click here for Storm Team 4's current conditions, Live Titan Radar, hour-to-hour forecasts and more. Columbus' accumulations look like 1 to 3 inches. Northern areas look like 3 to 5 inches. Storm Team 4 Meteorologist Ben Gelber traveled north where he said the weather has run the gamut during the past 12 hours. Gelber said that in Delaware County snow was accumulating on the old ice at noon, which meant the temperature was at freezing level.
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