Monthly Archives: April 2011

Brad Quartuccio: The Tough Task of Writing About Riding In The City


Urban Velo co-founders Brad (left) and Jeff (right). Photo from flickr user Jeff Moser

The North American cycling world has been evolving over the last several years. As more and more people realize cycling isn’t just for sport, they are taking to bikes as their transportation for commuting, adventuring, exploring, and having fun in cities. As bicycling trends have changed, so to has cycling media with new magazines and a nearly infinite number of new blogs popping up to satisfy the interests of riders who would rather know about the best panniers and headlights than the most laterally stiff and vertically compliant race bike. Drawing on his own love of commuting and city riding, Brad Quartuccio co-founded Urban Velo magazine with Jeff Guerrero in 2007. I spoke with Brad about his cycling history, the birth of Urban Velo, the desperate media landscape, and more.

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File Under Bad-Ass Women In History


Alfonsina Strada

Though today’s major European stage races like the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France are about as difficult as any form of bike racing, their early incarnations were brutal beasts in ways the modern races are not. Racers would set out for 300km stages over unpaved roads on single speed bikes with little if any organized support along the way. Winning was as much about surviving as anything and the winner would often finish hours ahead of the lanterne rouge. Simply completing these races was an impressive feat. To do so as the only woman in history to race in any of the three Grand Tours elevates Alfonsina Strada to “serious bad ass” status.

Adventure Journal posted a link to the Wikipedia entry on Strada last week. She was a dedicated racer in early 20th-century Italy known for winning nearly every race she entered against women and many of those against men. Her reputation once earned her an invitation to race the Russian Grand Prix. Thanks to some clerical slight-of-hand, Strada was able to enter to enter the 1924 Giro d’Italia.

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