Bicycling Trivia

Every now and then I run across bits of bicycle trivia that don't fit in a traditional "chapter" of this web book, but need a home. Thus this page will include a smattering of miscellaneous cycling related "stuff".

Rides

Hill climbs

Climbing the steepest street in the US (for fun).
Race to the Top - Five painfully steep but hugely rewarding challenges.
Now this is a climb!
Eight hill climbs (in the US) to add to your bucket list.

Wikipedia Glossary of cycling terms.

Bike History

The 25 most influential bikes of the last 200 years.

The evolution of bicycle clothing.

Motorola - the impact of a sponsor on professional cycling

This is a well written article focused on the comeback of Greg LeMond as he struggled to recover from a hunting accident. His final sprint down the Champs de Elysee is one of the legends of the Tour de France.

And another - Greg Lemond, the greatest sports comeback of all times.

The top 10 cyclists of all times.
- The best nine cyclist of all times who (it appears) never doped.

Tour de France

Could you complete the Tour de France? What it takes.
Beer, Trains and Other Things You Didn't Know About the Tour de France

The 7 worst crashes in the Tour de France history.

How much do the leading pro cyclists earn per year? As of 12/2023, Road cycling's top earners, per Gazzetta dello Sport - and this is purely on team salary, and does not include the wealth of appearance fees, sponsorships, and prize monies.
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates):$6.5 million USD
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike): $4.4 million USD
- A reliable domestique stands to make at least double the minimum wage, with most pocketing between Euro 100,000 - 400,000. This tier of riders likely includes the likes of Tim Declercq, Roger Kluge, and Michael Morkov; athletes that seldom win for themselves but play an invaluable role in helping the star riders of the team take home the flowers. Chris Froome's two Tour de France wins earn him a salary of around Euro 3m per year. Salaries increase with performance. As a new rider Froome would have earned Euro 80,000 when he was signed for Team Sky. As a super-domestique for Sir Bradley Wiggins, he was probably earning just over 700,000 pounds.
Superhuman energy outputs.
- In Stage 6 of the 2025 tour, Healy's Strava data reveals he averaged a 266W power output over the stage's 205km. A weighted average power output of 317W. Strava says weighted average power is its "best guess" at average power i.e. if you rode at the exact same wattage for the entire ride.
  Healy hit a maximum power of 969W for 3 seconds; 380W for 20 minutes; 356W for 30 minutes and 324W for 60 minutes. The 25-year-old averaged 44.7kph across the course, which included more than 3,500m of elevation. And Healy's Strava ride data showed an average heart rate of 154 bpm, with a maximum of 189 bpm.
- A few days before in the time trial, Evenepoel averaged 392 watts over 38 minutes of riding.
- In the 2025 Tour, Tadej Pogacar maintained 442 watts for 40 minutes.

Why should you avoid the white line along the side of the road in rainy weather? These lines, made reflective by thousands of small glass beads, are extremely slippery when wet.
Videos, Films, and Books.
- Top 10 cycling movies of all times.
- 10 favorite You Tube Videos
Ghost Bikes - Maybe you have seen one. A white bike standing by the side of a busy road. Started in 2003 in Saint Louis, the ghost bike movement emphasizes the need for more infrastructure of bicyclists. They honor cyclists who have been killed or injured by motor vehicles while at the same time boosting public awareness of the increasing number of people riding for transportation.
A bike focus in an urban lifestyle.

Bikes in an "Edited Life". Over the past few years, urban bike share programs have continued to grow. It has been a successful model to supplement transportation in our car centric culture. http://www.lifeedited.com/a-scooter-for-big-kids-aka-adults/ The LifeEdited website advocates the next steps to a "car-less" trend. Minimizing possessions (includes going car-less) and downsizing across your life. To quote: "LifeEdited shows how to design your life to include more money, health and happiness with less stuff, space and energy. It's life. Edited." But you will always need an alternative to walking (just takes too much time) and public transportation (doesn't always get you where you want to go). So here we see the ideal edited life transportation - a scooter, which is just a mini-bike.
Multimodal cycling - riding your bike and using alternate transportation along the way, or to get home at the end of the day. People like multimodal because it greatly increases the territory available in a single ride. Normally, a 100-mile ride that starts and ends at home would be confined to everything within a 50-mile radius. Alternative transportation options include:
- Uber/Taxi
- Ferry
- Train
- Bus/Subway
- Car share

Mechanical doping was a theoretical concept until January, 2016, when the UCI confirmed motorized doping at the cyclo-cross World Championships after finding a motor hidden in the seat tube of 19-year-old Femke Van den bike.
- And now we have the possibility of biologic doping. This is just a far out idea (of mine), but within the realm of the possible. What limits our maximum effort? VO2max. What improves our ability? Intervals, which improve VO2max via their effect on the energy factories in our muscle cells - the mitochondria.
  This article tells us that you can extract mitochondria from one area (abdominal wall cells) and then introduce them into others (damaged heart muscles in this case). The next step, which I'm sure someone else has considered and is already working on in some lab, is manipulating (basically "rev-ing up") isolated mitochondria in a test tube with the plan to re-infuse them into damaged muscles. Then it is just a short step to repeating the process with healthy cycling muscles (Quadriceps basically).
  On the edge of current capabilities, but then who thought you could revive damaged heart muscles almost certainly destined to die.
One step up from bikepacking - a "micro" airstream.
Buy and sell used gear.
Cycle more, be happier. I always feel better after a ride. And if the day is feeling a bit gray, I find the best therapy is 30 minutes out on the road. Guess I'm not alone.

All questions and suggestions are appreciated and will be answered.

Cycling Performance Tips
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