ATLANTA (AP) _ The Tour de Georgia will not hold its annual race through the state in 2009 but plans to return in 2010.

The Tour de Georgia, the seven-day race billed as North America’s premier professional cycling event, has struggled financially as it could not find a title sponsor the last two years.

Support in the Tour de Georgia declined following Lance Armstrong’s retirement. The announcement to cancel the race came despite Armstrong’s recent comeback, including plans to return to the Georgia event.

The decision to cancel the 2009 race was announced by board member Tom Saddlemire on the race’s Web site.

Saddlemire said 2009 will be used “to plan ahead and properly position” the Tour de Georgia.

The above AP report is the sign of things to come in the US pro cycling world. Many teams from last year have not found sponsors including Jittery Joes, TOSHIBA-Santo, and Toyota-United. Riders are in a tough spot finding work especially riders over 28 years old due to UCI rules.

Come tonight to David Chen’s in Armonk to hear Westchester Cycle Club member Pearson Constantino’s story.
After two years of agonizing recovery from a life altering hit-and-run accident on Central Avenue in Hartsdale, WCC member Pearson Constantino, accompanied by his brother Pete, rode across America to make our roads safer and inspire more bicycling.

I rode with them from Albany one day in early October near the end of their journey and found their story so compelling. A documentary film, THE LONG RIDE BACK, is being made about Pearson’s inspirational comeback and the brothers’ epic ride by filmmaker Julia Wrona, Pearson’s wife. Please join us on Wednesday, November 12th to hear Julia and Pearson speak about this amazing journey and see photos and film clips from the documentary.

WCC has supported the project with a $1,000 donation.
Drinks are on you at 6:30 p.m., dinner will be served at 7:00 p.m. and our guests will take the floor at 7:30 p.m.

Please RSVP to the WCC Events page or email Leslie Schneider at Leslies28@msn.com so she can provide the restaurant with an accurate head count.
Location
David Chen’s Chinese Restaurant 85 Old Mt. Kisco Rd (NY128) Armonk

Tis the season for indoor training and the folks at Toga Bike Shops and Toga Multi Sport Club are rolling out the red carpet for their new state of art training facility. This includes Rockland County’s first and only endless pool.

The party is located at 530 North Highland Ave, Upper Nyack and starts Friday, November 14th at 7:00pm for TMC3 members and 8:00pm for the general public. The party will end at 9:00pm. I’m not sure ‘Bluto’ would approve ending a party so early.

Stop in for some food, drink, conversation and inspiration. You’ll have to become a member for the perspiration!

For more information give them a call – 845-358-3455 and here’s a link to their website.

Village Mayor Erin Malloy has resigned, saying that caring for her daughter who was seriously injured in a cycling accident in September, will prevent her from performing her village duties.

In a letter to the Board of Trustees dated Friday and posted on the village’s Web site, she wrote: “As you know, our daughter Mairin’s recent accident and the long road she faces in recovery have prevented me from participating in the governance of the village. It is clear that this situation will continue for some time. I resign not because the work of the Board of Trustees seems insignificant, but rather because I am convinced of its importance and I cannot give the time and dedication that our village deserves from its officials.”
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Malloy’s daughter Mairin Din, a freshman at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, was riding her bike on campus when she collided with a car on Sept. 24. Din suffered significant brain damage.

Mairin is now at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City and is making progress. Last Month more than 500 village officials and residents participated in a “Walk for Mairin” at Irvington High School. Din is a 2008 graduate of the school and ran for the cross country team.

Malina said that between 150 and 200 people had made donations to a fund to help defray medical costs for the family.
The letter also stated that it is expected that the Board of Trustees will appoint a new mayor at their next regular meeting on Nov. 17.

Read the Mayor’s letter at www.irvingtonny.gov/CivicAlerts.asp?AID=177.

Danielle De Souza and Dwight R. Worley of The Journal News writer contributed to this post.

Team Astana’s top GC riders meet today at the Allied Aerospace Low Speed Wind Tunnel in San Diego, California. Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, and “new” teammate Lance Armstrong worked on their time-trial positions on the new Trek prototype bikes and testing Giro helmets.

Contador had this to say, “We will work with my sponsors, Trek and Giro, for the next season. I am going with a lot of motivation, because the races are won by very little time [difference] and with the time trial I still have a good margin for improvement,”

I wonder what the mood was between the teammates? There was a lot of ego inside that tunnel today. Since I’m a photo editor here at The Journal News I can look at all the images that where sent through the Associated Press today from the test. Interestingly the only rider in any of the photos was Lance Armstrong.

Since I’ll be working late Election Day I’ll be leading a quick 30 mile, B+ ride for the Westchester Cycling Club from the Yorktown Town Hall Commuter parking lot on Underhill Ave and Saw Mill River Road / Rt. 118 at 09:00am.

I enjoyed a fast 32 mile (17.4 average) loop around the Titicus reservoir, though it would have been nice to share some conversation and hide on a wheel at times.  It was just a perfect day, but any day that I’d normally be sitting at my desk but insted I’m sitting on my bike is a good day.

Lance Armstrong was back racing a road bike this weekend in the Tour de Gruene in his home state of Texas. Wearing his all black LiveStrong skinsuit he rode the flat 16 miles or 25.6K course in a time of 33.14 or 46.489 Km/H winning the event.
Just buy chance one of the individual time trials in the year’s Tour de France was 29.5 kilometers long and was won by the juiced Stefan Schumacher in 35. 44 or 49.535 km/h, maybe a better comparison would be third place rider, David Miller’s time of 36.11 at an average of 48.918.

Can he make up 2.5 an hour or about 5 percent to be competitive at the Giro and Tour?

Two former pro cyclists finished the New York Marathon yesterday six minutes apart. While Lance Armstrong took this year’s marathon off to race and win a time trial event the Tour de Gruane in Texas.

This year’s marathon had former world champion and Tour de France winner Stephen Roche and Georgia’s hero Saul Raisin.

Saul Raisin is yet another American cyclist who has faced death in their prime and battled back to race again. Saul caught the attention of the Pro directors during the first year at the Tour de Georgia. He signed for the French team Credit Agricole and was winning in Europe. This all changed on April 4th, 2006 at age 23 when he crashed during a race and fell into a deep coma due to a head injury.

He amazed his doctors, friends and family over the next few months he was able to walk and even ride his bike the first time in August. Due to these injuries he can never race in the pro peleton again, but he can still compete. He finished the NY marathon in a time of 4:27.10 and did so without walking, which was his goal before starting.

He ranks up this run with learning to walk again and riding his bike after his accident and is now planning on competing an Ironman.

He is a terrific young man who is on a mission to better the lives of others who face Traumatic Brain Injury through his Raisin Hope Foundation. I met Saul in the spring during the U.S. Air Force Cycling Classic. He left me inspired knowing what he’s faced is my worst fear.

Richard Wilt, a veteran cyclist and marathon runner has lived for many years on Boone Road in Yorktown, which intersects with Route 100.
He cycled down to Route 100 countless times for safe rides along the broad shoulder, past the Muscoot Reservoir and Muscoot Farm. But on June 26, Wilt had a terrible accident.
He came onto Route 100, wasn’t prepared for the rumble strips the state DOT had installed a few months earlier, and lost control of his bike. He went down hard, face-first, on the pavement.
These pictures show what happened to Wilt, who has yet to fully heal from the accident, which chipped two teeth and split his lip so badly that he needed stitches to close it up. The New York City police sergeant still has issues with his jaw. And his teeth still need work.
Wilt has filed a notice of claims with the state of New York, the first step in the legal process to sue the state for compensation in the Court of Claims.
Wilt’s accident came more than two months after the state Department of Transportation had received a legal notice from attorney Larry Braunstein that the state had created a dangerous situation on Route 100 by installing the rumble strips.
On April 14, Braunstein, a White Plains attorney, sent by certified mail a two-page letter, alerting the state to the dangers it created on Route 100.
“The rumble strips are cut deep into the shoulder surface and when a bicycle, with narrow tires, passes over the rumble strips, the bicycle may become unstable, creating the possibility of the cyclist falling off of the bicycle onto the roadway, into the path of oncoming vehicles,” he wrote.
Braunstein added: “By installing the rumble strips, the DOT has taken what was the safest stretch of road for cyclists in Westchester and, in the name of safety, created conditions that are dangerous. It is my sincere hope that no cyclists are injured or killed as a result of the State’s misguided and uninformed action in installing the rumble strips.”
Since Braunstein’s letter, at least four cyclists have been injured, with Wilt’s the most serious. I fear there will be even more serious injuries if the state fails to pave over the rumble strips and restore the road for safe cycling.