A Winter Guide for Staying Warm

The American Man's Scotch Pronunciation Guide

From Esquire Magazine

*Scottish Attire and Leather Chair Optional

Brian Cox, esteemed actor and proud Scot, sips his way through more than 40 brands names to help you out at the bar, the liquor store, and beyond.

Ned’s Secrets

From the pages of:

Ned Overend’s Secrets to Riding Forever

At 57, Overend is still one fast rider. The Energizer Bunny of mountain biking tells you how he keeps going, and going, and going...

By Brian Fiske

The Expert: Ned Overend (Specialized) has been winning races since the ‘80s, and even though his travel schedule keeps the 57-year-old from racing as much as he used to, it doesn’t keep him from winning tough events: “Deadly Nedly” won the Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb in 2011, and is the current Masters World Champion in Cyclocross. We caught up with Ned—a guy who won his first National Championship 26 years ago—on his way to Brazil for aSpecialized dealer launch (he does marketing and R&D for the company, as well as racing) to learn his secrets to staying passionate for the long haul.

Drop the Obsession: “I love to train hard and race, and I’m still passionate about riding,” Overend says. “And I think that’s because I’m not obsessive about my training.” According to Overend, a lifelong passion for riding can be hard to develop if you constantly push yourself to the limit, and then continue to push even when your passion starts to wane. Keep it up and you’ll put away the bike and take up golf.

Listen to Your Body: Rest makes you stronger, and your body will tell you when you need morerest. Your job is to listen. “Let’s say Tuesday is an interval day,” Overend says. “You can judge your rest by how you feel. Not on the first interval, because that’s always a shock to the system, but on the second, if things don’t start to improve and you still feel terrible, pull the plug and go for an easy hour-long spin.” The worst thing you can do, Ned says, is continue to push when your body’s not recovered—and that means no two-hour “easy” rides, either. “With that, you aren’t recovering, and you aren’t getting intensity,” Overend says. “You’re just getting more tired.”

Eat Well: Overend admits to liking healthy foods—he eats a lot of salad, pasta with red sauce, and lean meat—though he also has a sweet tooth and a taste for beer. Regardless of your personal preferences, though, Overend says the trick to staying energized is simply to keep your body supplied with the right balance of nutrients. “I’m not that strict, but I make sure I get the right things,” he says. “High-quality protein, fruits and vegetables, and I take a vitamin and mineral supplement, too.”

Do Something Else: “Back in the day, I used to cross train in the off-season to rebuild—trail running, swimming, and gym work ,” Overend says. “Now that I’m older, I do it throughout the season, too.” Why? Bikers tend to have overdeveloped quads and weak…well, most everything else, especially the upper body. And that makes us prone to injury. Overend’s gym routine consists of situps, back raises, pull ups, dips, bench press, curls, and lateral stability work—basically 15 exercises with lots of push and pull, in a workout that he can get through in 30 to 40 minutes. During riding season, it’s mostly maintenance work with lighter weights (strength development is for the off season). “You can’t get your ego involved,” Ned says. “A 100-pound woman gets off the machine and you’ve got to drop the weight down a couple notches. Yeah, that happens.”

Work with Your Body: Older cyclists aren’t necessarily slower cyclists—Overend is proof of that. But certain things do change, and you need to work with the change. One example Overend gives: His eyesight. “I bring reading glasses with me when I ride,” Overend says. “If something isn’t right on my bike while I’m riding, I like to fix it right then. I can fix a flat without reading glasses, but if I’m trying to see derailleur screws, I know I need the glasses.”

Long Live the Queen!

From the Durango Herald - September 22, 2012:

City Takes Top Honors at Transit Conference
Durango’s Multimodal Chief Earns Transit Employee of the Year Award
By Jim Haug, Staff Writer

Increased ridership, commuter incentives and a new Multimodal plan all propelled Durango’s transit system to top honors this week at the fall conference of the Colorado Association of Transit Agencies in Grand Junction.

Durango earned the Medium Transit System of the Year award, which goes to systems with 10 to 25 buses. The city’s multimodal administrator, Amber Blake, also was honored as the Transit Employee of the Year.

Amber Blake was recognized for completing a new Multimodal Transportation Master Plan, which was adopted by the City Council in July, and for her management skills and success in getting state and federal grant funding. In her 3.5-year tenure, Durango has received nearly $5.2 million in grants.

Click Here to Read More of this Article...

Multi Modal Plan Gets Green Light

by Tracy Chamberlin and Missy Votel

After more than 75 public meetings and three years on the ground, Durango’s Multi Modal Transportation Master Plan is a done deal. City Council unanimously approved the plan at its regular meeting July 17.

“It’s a significant step forward,” said councilor Dick White, noting that he campaigned on a platform of sustainability. “I commend the effort that’s gone into it.”

Fellow councilor Christina Rinderle echoed White’s sentiments. “It’s such a great asset. I can’t say enough about the collaboration,” she said, adding that she has already noticed changes around town, such as the newly revamped Florida Road. “It’s a complete street, with bike lanes, medians, sidewalks and trees,” she said.

The lone voice of caution came from councilor Paul Broderick, who referred to the plan as “lofty” and warned future councils about the costs associated with it. “If we were to add up all the costs of this plan, there wouldn’t be enough numbers on the calculator,” he said. “We need to be careful. Policy can have unintended consequences and huge costs.”

Mayor Doug Lyon defended the plan, noting that it is not set in stone, but rather a blueprint which could help facilitate future funding. “It’s a roadmap to the future and a good set of aspirations,” he said. “If we have the plan on a shelf, we can go out and get money to implement it.”

At the urging of the community, the city began work on a Multimodal Master Plan in 2009. The vision of the plan is to create a fully connected public transportation system that anyone can access with ease.

“The rule of thumb is if a middle school-aged child can walk or bike independently through Durango,” said Multi modal Coordinator Amber Blake.

Among the ideas  to achieve these goals are: bicycle boulevards, low-volume, low-speed streets; signed bike routes; extended bike lanes at intersections; additional bike lanes and “buffered” bike lanes; curb ramps; and facilities such as transit stops, bus storage, bicycle and vehicle parking and multi-use trails.

Ned Overend, Private Eye

22 Year-old Mystery Solved
Biking legend finds lost championship banner in France
Story from the Durango Herald

By Jim Haug, Staff writer

A banner from the 1990 World Bicycle Championship was missing for 22 years until it was recovered by Overend at a mountain biking celebration in France in June.

On the night of one of Durango’s biggest triumphs, hosting the first-ever world championship of mountain biking, the sky above Purgatory Mountain “let loose” with a deluge, recalled participants. People scattered from the storm at the Durango Mountain Resort. By the next morning, Purgatory had gained 18 inches of snow, but had lost the race’s start/finish banner that had been strung between two 40-foot tall poles.

Designed by local artist Metja Swift, it was one of the event’s two banners. The other was hung across Main Avenue and has since become a wall fixture at the Mountain Bike Specialists shop. A thief in the night apparently had taken the banner that had been photographed with champion Ned Overend crossing the finish line.

“The local organizing committee felt violated by the ‘prank,’” said Ed Zink, the committee’s chairman and owner of Mountain Bike Specialists. Efforts were made to “ferret out the culprit” and return the banner to Durango, but leads went cold and hope was fading, Zink recalled. “We feared the banner was just lying in the back of someone’s closet, or worse had been thrown away by an embarrassed middle-aged couch-surfing ex-racer,” Zink said.

Then came a rendez vous in the French Alps when Durango mountain biker Ned Overend went to the town of Villard-de-Lans in June to commemorate a mountain bicycling championship he won 25 years ago. Incidentally, the French competition also claims to be the first world championship for mountain biking, but the Durango bases its distinction on being the first competition to be sanctioned by an international governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, Overend said. Because the 25th anniversary of the French race celebrated the history of mountain biking, it was fitting that Overend found Durango’s lost banner strung across the main street of Villard-de-Lans. “It was a surprise,” Overend said.

Overend got the banner back during the festival’s ceremonial dinner, but this piece of Durango history has been not been hiding in a trunk in Europe for all these years. Rather, the banner has been as close as Southern California, stolen by one of the racers from the Durango competition who thought of it as a “big souvenir,” Overend said. He became remorseful, but did not know how to return it.

Overend got the story from Hans “No Way” Rey, a German mountain-bike stunt performer and celebrity who lives in Los Angeles. “He knew who this guy was and got him to give it up,” Overend said. “Hans thought it would be cool to display the banner at this festival (in France).” Rey has kept the identity of the thief a secret. “What difference does it make as this point? It’s just nice to get the banner back,” Overend said.

Zink said there are discussions to display it at the Cycling Village at Fort Lewis College during the USA Pro Cycle Challenge in August. Durango is the starting point Aug. 20 for the professional bicycle race across the Rockies. The banner will remind people of Durango’s role in mountain-bike racing. The world championship in 1990 “is key not just to mountain-bike racing, but also to Durango’s part in mountain biking,” Overend said.

Fans of the Tour

Rare and previously unpublished Life Magazine photos from the 1953 Tour de France, won by Louison Bobet. You can see all 25 at:

Tour de France ’53: Rare Photos of a Sport Spectacle:

From the New Yorker Photo Booth:

THE TOUR DE FRANCE TURNS NINETY-NINE
by James Pomerantz

The Bicycle Men

The Bicycle Men

August 15-19 at The Durango Arts Center!!

Get your tickets now, online or at the DAC box office!!

"So funny it's been banned in Bayfield!"
-- Durango Harold

"The most hilarious comedy I've yet to see!"
-- A close friend of one of the actors

"Even louder and more boisterous than Buster Keaton!"
-- Fatty Carbunckle

Clean Commute Week Schedule

Below is the schedule of events for Clean Commute Week. There's even more in the lineup this year, so there is something for everyone!

Saturday, June 16th - Bike Maintenance Clinic from 9 am - noon in the parking lot of the Transit Center (8th Street and Camino del Rio), just across from the Durango Farmer's Market. Get your bike ready for Clean Commute Week! Learn how to fix a flat, check your brakes, put you chain back on and much more! Light maintenance will be performed by local mechanics from Velorution Cycles.

Monday, June 18th - Pedometer Challenge: Pick up your FREE pedometer from the Transit Center and start counting your steps. The Challenge will run from Monday morning to Thursday at noon. Report your steps to the Multi Modal Department by 2 pm on Thursday. Winners will be announced on Thursday at the Love your Commute Party at Ska Brewing (Thursday, June 21). The pedometer is yours to keep!

Trails 2000 Corporate Commuter Challenge: Businesses can compete in this fun challenge to honor those who commute by bicycle.

Tuesday, June 19th - Pedal Vs. Metal: An in-town errand extravaganza! Choose your mode - walk, bike, drive, or ?? Meet us at the Transit Center at noon, get your errand list and get after it! Please E-mail us if you would like to participate.

Community Forum and Celebration at the D&SNGRR Train Museum from 5pm-7pm. We will walk through the draft Multi Modal Transportation Master Plan that is scheduled to be adopted by City Council in July, as well as thank the hundreds of citizens who participated in this process, making this a fantastic vision for Durango's many transportation networks. Food and beer donated byCarver Brewing Co, Ska Brewing, and Fired Up Pizza.

Wednesday, June 20th - Clean Commute Day Breakfast Stations for your morning commute at the Transit Center (8th Street and Camino del Rio), Mercy Regional Medical Center, and on 9th and Main in front of Steaming Bean. Stop by on your way to work to fuel your engine from 7am - 9:30am.

Thursday, June 21st - Love Your Commute Party at Ska Brewing from 5 pm - 8 pm. We will celebrate the winners of the Pedometer Challenge, Pedal Vs. Metal and the Commuter of the Year! Live music by Robby Overfield. Free bus rides back to the Transit Center (where you can park for free!) sponsored by Ska Brewing and Zia Taqueria.


Friday, June 22nd - Trails 2000 Bike After Work Party at Carver Brewing Company from 4 pm - 6 pm. Commuter Challenge Awards Ceremony and a special presentation by a representative from the League of American Bicyclists to Durango for our recent designation as a Gold Level Bicycle Friendly Community.


Click HERE for complete Clean Commute Week information.

Multi Modal Master Plan

After 3 years of public meetings, data collection and countless hours of help from the citizens of Durango, the Multi Modal Transportation Master Plan is in Draft form! The City of Durango would love your input on the DRAFT Multi Modal Plan, which at this time contains the following:

• Vision

• Plan Process

• Multi Modal Policy and Objectives

• Existing Conditions and System Deficiencies (by Zone)

• Proposed Improvements (by Zone)

Click HERE (ftp://ftp.ci.durango.co.us/Multimodal) to view the DRAFT Multi Modal Master Plan, and please e-mail Amber Blake or call her at 970.375.4949 to submit comments.


The Master Plan is a Community Based Implementation Focused Transportation Plan that examines the facility needs for pedestrians, bicycles, and transit. The plan establishes goals and objectives for each mode of transportation. It discusses Safe Routes to School, Carpooling and Park & Rides, and other modes of transportation. The scope of the plan is the City of Durango Comprehensive Planning Area. The goal of the plan is to establish a connected functional network of bicycle lanes/routes throughout the city, identify on and off street trail and transit connections, and to develop a new set of user friendly maps. The end result will be a list of projects, policy recommendations for bike lanes, bike parking, transit enhancements, ride-sharing, suggested locations for park and rides, and much more.

The Missing Link

From: Hall, Kevin

Date: May 17, 2012

Subject: Animas River Trail Mall Corner Section is Open!

The City of Durango is happy to report that the contractor’s have completed their work on the Durango Mall corner-section of the Animas River Trail. They removed the construction barricades earlier today, and we now have 7-miles of continuous Animas River Trail from Rivera Bridge to 29th Street. A community celebration of the Tail is in the works for later this year. We’ll keep you posted.

Enjoy!

Kevin Hall

City of Durango Director of Natural Lands, Trails and Sustainability