No wonder you have cyclists and drivers mixing it up out on the roadway…

Whistler’s emerging slopestyle star Brandon Semenuk won Crankworx Colorado, so now the pressure’s on for a twofer at his home Crankworx on Aug. 15. Other surprise results: Tyler McCaul, undoubtedly rooted on by brother Cam, pulled fourth place, and Paul Basagiota showed he’s not over the hill yet with a strong bronze medal. If the weather holds and fires stay away, the upcoming Kokanee Crankworx should be the best yet!

Fire on the Mountain! Whistler/Blackcomb got tagged with a lightning blaze Thursday afternoon, causing evacuation of both mountains. No one got hurt and Whistler’s crack fire response team was on the case. With the Winter Olympics coming up next year, they’re not taking any chances on the village.

Fire in the tree farm? Popular mountain biking areas, Tokul and Griffin Creek, look closed from fire danger, according to the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. Here’s the list posting:

Hancock: Snoqualmie Tree Farm. Includes Tokuls East and West and Griffin
Creek
CLOSED
Phone number: 1-800-782-1493
Pilchuck Tree Farm: all 3 tracts (Victoria, Armstrong, Pilchuck)
Open
Webpage: Pilchuck Tree Farm
Green Crow. Ames Lake Tree Farm – includes the South part of Tolt.
Open
Webpage: Ames Lake Tree Farm

Note: These trails systems are on privately owned, working tree farms. The
land managers are being generous by allowing us to use their land for free.
Respecting the fire closures, even though not all the trails are signed, is
an important part of keeping a good relationship with the land managers so
that they continue to allow mountain biking in their land.

Bring Out Your Dead: A 60-year-old British mountain biker went for his last ride at a good place, Chamonix. No conclusive word on what happened, but one can only hope his last thoughts were, “I feel happy, I feel happy…”

Is it also the end of the road for Mr. Clucky, the bike-riding rooster? Stay tuned…

BikePortland.org riffs on USA Today piece on Google’s move to put bike paths on Streetview. And reports on the Pedalpalooza kickoff.

Why can’t Seattle have something like Pedalpalooza? How come Portland gets all the cool bike events? I’m so jealous…

TechFlash: The cool thing about the iPhone is… if you want to bike it rather than drive it, there’s an app for that!

The Stranger: Dan steps out of his sheltered view of life and discovers what a real bike path looks like (these are coming to Portland as well and should have been on Stone Way North in Seattle before the city caved to business pressure…but I digress).

MyBallard.com: Kidical Mass returns tomorrow!

What you get when you talk trash about Obama: Right winger Texas Gov. Rick Perry broke his collarbone trying to ride a mountain bike. What is it with Texas politicians and mountain bikes? Bush spent 8 years in office riding like a banshee and did squat for the status of bicycling, mountain biking and alternative energy. Perry goes around talking about seceding from the Union and takes a header… wait a minute! Doesn’t Lance live in Texas????

To be fair, Lance supported Obama and still broke his shoulder.

Rick Perry talks about his accident. I have to hand it to him, he did the right thing. He protected his bike with his body.

Some kind words about mountain bikers in The Aspen Times: “Mountain bikers are nearly all courteous, and quietly move through the trail without disturbing other humans, wildlife or the trail itself, under their own power….”

Have a great weekend! Now get out ‘n RIDE!!