Category: girls

Dirt Series: She’s the pretty cyclist

I took some photos over the weekend of the Dirt Series women’s mountain bike skills clinic in Santa Cruz at the invitation of local travel writer Karen Kefauver. Karen’s a real sweetheart, a lot of fun to be around, and very enthusiastic about everything she does. She faceplanted into a sandpit while racing at the Sea Otter Classic the other weekend and laughed through the whole episode.

I’m just a hack with a blog and a camera, but Karen is a professional journalist who does research, checks facts and takes notes. She told me Olympic medalist Jill Kintner was at this clinic and asked me to take photos of her.

“Okay,” I say. “Where’s Jill at?”

Karen, with a completely straight face, tells me, “Jill is the real pretty one. Bye!” and then Karen goes back to her group for more mountain biking instruction.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am in a field surrounded by 60 athletic, stunningly beautiful women on bicycles, and Karen tells me to find “the real pretty one.” Uh huh.

Dirt Series in Santa Cruz: Mountain Bike Skills Clinic for Women

Dirt Series Women's Mountain Bike Clinic

Dirt Series in Santa Cruz: Mountain Bike Skills Clinic for Women

Karen writes about her experience at the Dirt Series mountain bike skills clinic in Santa Cruz. Drop by and tell her hello!

More: Pink pink pink pink Gnat.

GT Aerostream city bike

I saw Valerie at the GT Bicycles booth with the Aerostream cruiser bike and asked her to describe the benefits of this bicycle. GT Bicycles Aerostream bicycle has some nice features differentiating it from other bikes in the cruiser bike category.

GT Aerostream city bike

Valerie was kind enough to demonstrate some of the features of this bike:

  • Gates carbon belt drive
  • Shimano 3 speed hub
  • Efficient and smooth rolling 700 x 47 tires
  • Women’s model (shown) has a front basket for Valerie to store her pom poms. This front basket has a collapsible frame which is cheaper to ship (lowers dealer cost)
  • Men’s model has rear racks and panniers.
  • Unique rear triangle design eliminates the usual bolt off triangle used in other belt drive designs.
  • Lightweight aluminum frame is stiffer, less clunky and lighter than your standard beach cruiser. Valerie let me ride her bicycle and I can report that it indeed provides a very nice and smooth ride.

As you can see, just sitting on the GT Aerostream automatically makes anybody at least 14% hotter. This is what Valerie looks like off of the bike:

…And here’s another photo of Valerie on the GT Aerostream:

GT Aerostream city bike

Your mileage may vary.

Valerie also tells me that REI is now selling this bike and absolutely loves it.

Jennifer Lopez on a bicycle

39 year old superstar Jennifer Lopez completed a half-mile swim, 18-mile bike ride and 4-mile run yesterday in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon — her first — in a time of 2 hours, 23 minutes and 28 seconds.

Jennifer Lopez proves she is a super mom by competing in Malibu's triathlon this weekend. Lopez swam, ran and cycled her way to the finish line!

Other celebrities who swam, biked and ran in Malibue include Amanda Detmer, Nicholas Gonzales (who looks like a runner), Jon Cryer (who looks tired), James Denton, Matthew McConaughey, Brittany Daniel, Estella Warren and Eliza Dushku. Even real athletes like Anna Kournikova and Amanda Beard were among the 2,000 people who participated.

We see a *lot* of Specalized bicycles among the Hollywood celebrities! Here’s Eliza Dushku with what looks like a 2007 but brand new Specialized Ruby Comp (Compact).

Eliza Dushku with her Specialized Ruby Comp bicycle