Rebecca Ruiz of Forbes investigates the starkly beautiful landscapes, natural history, and challenging trail riding opportunities near Fruita, CO.

“Embedded in the valley floor and its cliffs are shark teeth and dinosaur fossils. To the south ordinary-looking hills are a false front for the topography of the majestic Colorado National Monument. Also unseen are the hundreds of miles of mountain bike trails carved into the landscape.”

photo credit: Tim Brink

The BMX documentary The Birth of Big Air (part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary film series), directed by Jeff Tremaine and produced by Johnny Knoxville–both of Jackass fame, pays tribute to freestyle rider Mat Hoffman (“The Condor”) who has been instrumental for more than 20 years in progressing bike tricks, vertical-ramp riding, and helping to promote Freestyle BMX events worldwide.

At the Tribeca Film Festival, Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times interviews Hoffman, Tremaine, and Knoxville about the origins of their film, Matt’s experimental surgeries, and what it’s like to be knocked unconscious after an enormous jump:

“The first thing I learned, whenever I’m starting to come back to consciousness, is remember to never try to remember anything. All your most impactful and devastating memories come back first. You don’t have all those great memories to balance it out. But I got knocked out in Japan, and I wake up and look over to the side. And my wife is six months pregnant. And I’m like, We’re having a baby?” Mat Hoffman.

Downhill Freeride

Bicycle enthusiasts from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, known internationally as a top winter sports destination, are hoping in the next few years to begin leveraging the area’s already existing natural resources, in addition to adding “new trails, new terrain and, in turn, new events,” in a collective effort to market the town as a top biking destination.

“Facing a lengthy economic recession and lingering questions about the sustainability of summer tourism, and sitting atop what they swear are some of the nation’s best natural resources — summer or winter — leaders in Steamboat are seeking to add a second nickname: Bike Town USA,” writes Joel Reichenberger of Steamboat Today.

“‘Sounds corny to say synergy, or perfect storm, but it is the perfect storm,’ said Craigen, director of Routt County Riders. ‘…There’s been such a buzz in the positive direction and very little pushback. Maybe we can accelerate what might happen organically in the next 10 to 15 years into a three- to five-year plan.’”

photo credit: sharpneil

Yesterday search engine giant Google unveiled online biking directions alongside its existing mapping features, implementing a “Bike There” option to the user’s choice of directions between any two locations.

Shannon Guymon, a product manager for Google, described the functionality this way: “…[W]e wanted to include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes.”

“Bike There” reviews from CNN, The Christian Science Monitor, and the Bicycle Times.

Mountian Biking, Kootenays

John Bradley of Outside investigates the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the long history of excluding mountain bikers from “this country’s 170,000 square miles of Wilderness.”

“Through years of misinformation, mountain bikes have gotten lumped in with ATVs, snowmobiles, and other maligned vehicles by people citing environmental concerns. But on several different metrics—erosion, runoff, soil compaction, loss of vegetation—study after study has found the trail impact of mountain bikers to be equal to or less than that caused by hikers, and far less than equestrians.”

The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA)–an advocacy group from Boulder, Colorado–is doing its best to stem the tide: “IMBA works with environmental groups, land agencies, and legislators to create nuanced ‘companion designations’ for new Wilderness areas. These congressional designations, like National Conservation Area, National Recreation Area, and National Protection Area, offer many of the same safeguards as Wilderness regulations but without the bike ban.”

photo credit: Courtney Nash

Downhill Mountain Biking

British downhill mountain biking champion Will Longden and World Cup racer Marc Beaumont explain to Will Longden of BikeRadar.com the basic downhill riding techniques of body positioning, braking, riding roots and drop-offs, and cornering–bike setup and safety equipment also are covered.

On body positioning: “Think of a cone of movement, which is basically your weight pivoting around the bottom bracket. Whether the bike is pointing up or down, leaning left or right, you should be able to draw an imaginary vertical line through your core (the area round your hips) and the bike’s bottom bracket.”

photo credit: Jake Spurlock

Last year English cycler Douglas Whitehead spent nine months riding from Bruges, Belgium to India–and he’s not even sure why.

In The Daily Telegraph Whitehead recounts many wonderful anecdotes from his extended trip, like peddling 48 straight hours through Black Forest rain, sleeping with (and killing) Turkish rats, obtaining Iranian travel visas, “genuinely imminent death” in Azerbaijan, and the moment he knew the journey was finally over:

“I had been toying with the idea of ending my journey at the Taj Mahal, which was only 300 miles away now, but nine months had passed and that was long enough. Instead, I spent my last night in Amritsar, inside the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of Sikhism. Guests are allowed to sleep and eat free at the temple, but alcohol is strictly prohibited. There would be no riotous journey’s-end party, but that didn’t matter any more.”

Bike Lane

Lionel Beehner of The New York Times covers National Geographic Traveler’s top U.S. “bike-friendly” cities for local and vacationing riders (in the March issue), with Portland, New York City, and Boston topping the list:

“New York City, which rolled out 6,100 bike racks last summer and doubled the number of miles of bike lanes over the past three years to about 400, comes in a surprising second.”

photo credit: Ian Sane