Just how fast can a Texan pedal a bike?

Here in Austin, home of perhaps the most powerful pair of quads in the world, plenty of bicyclists are trying to find out.

They gather for weekly hammerhead training rides that depart area coffeehouses and bike shops. They line up for a 33-week bike race series staged on a track in East Austin. They drop $3,000 to $5,000 on road racing bikes that weigh considerably less than the tricycle you had as a kid.

Austin’s warm climate, varied terrain and obsession with fitness make it a great place for budding bike racers. And yes, there’s the Lance Armstrong effect. The seven-time winner of the Tour de France is regularly spotted training on the hills around town. Talk about motivation!

‘It’s definitely the hottest scene in Texas,’ says Andrew Willis, president of the Texas Bicycle Racing Association, the governing body of bike racing in the state, and the head of Holland Racing, every Thursday from March to October.

The Driveway Series isn’t exactly the Tour de France, but it does epitomize local bike racing.

Announcers call the action as cyclists zoom past on a privately owned, twisty paved loop usually reserved for race cars and motorized go-carts. Sponsors names hang from temporary fencing. Cyclists and fans dissect the action while munching burgers grilled under a tent. Riders throw their hands high as they blow across the finish line.

‘Anybody who races bikes in Austin does the Crit Series – it’s the perfect balance of racing and community,’ says John Trujillo, 27, a local racer who competes nearly every week in the series, which started March 18.

The races at the Driveway are staged on a 2.2-mile course that is partly shaded and partly exposed. Depending on how it is configured – eight variations can be set up, and they rotate each week – the route can be completely flat or include up to 90 feet of elevation gain. Sometimes the course is technical; other times it’s almost straight.

‘Other places will have group rides, but to have mock races on a closed course where the pavement is really smooth and there are officials and responsible parties should anything go wrong, and skills clinics available – that’s really unique,’ says Kate Sherwin, 30, a former professional racer who still rides in the Driveway Series.

The weekly event draws about 300 racers and spectators from as far away as Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. The races are divided into skill-based levels from beginners to elite. (In bike racing terminology, categories range from category 5 for entry-level riders to category 1, the top level in amateur racing.) There’s even a Kids Fun Lap, a special master’s series in June and July, and Ladies Night once a month hosted by the Austin Flyers cycling club.

For several years, Austin also hosted a downtown bike criterium, staged on urban roads around City Hall. Because of a lack of sponsors this year, that race has been canceled.

But bike racing isn’t for folks with light wallets.

Nearly 90 percent of bike racers are men, between the ages of 35 and 45 years old, with a healthy amount of disposable income. According to the National Association of Sporting Goods, the average household income of a bike racer is $75,000. The average racing bike costs about $3,500, but that number can easily climb to $5,000 or more. In Texas, 30 percent of racers earn between $100,000 and $150,000, and about half have bachelor’s degrees, according to a 2007 survey by Racing Post, a Dallas-based cycling magazine.

According to USA Cycling, the governing body of bike racing in the United States, Texas trails only California in the number of licensed bike racers.

The fastest-growing segment of racers is 50-years-and-older males who have retired from impact sports like running and triathlon. Cycling isn’t as hard on the knees.

But it is fierce, which might partly explain why it’s more popular among men than women.

‘Racing is really competitive, it’s ego-driven, and it doesn’t have the feel of a multi-sport event. People show up, they race, they check results and go home,’ Willis says.

Willis, a former professional racer himself, is now more involved in the business side of the sport. Last year he took over the Driveway Series from Barry Lee, who had started it in 2006.

‘It’s an incredibly rewarding sport,’ Willis says. ‘It forces you to stay focused, set goals and work toward them in a way just (recreational) cycling doesn’t.’

By Pamela LeBlanc of austin360.com – Link to Original Article here

The following is a guest post by Chip Seal of http://chipsea.blogspot.com/.  He has had several run in’s with the Ennis Police Department and here is his personal take on this situation:

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I had learned to ride a bicycle in California, and rode it for thousands and thousands of miles in that state. So when I took up cycling again in Texas in 2006, I wanted to be sure I understood Texas bicycle specific law and how to safely navigate on a streetscape that had few wide lanes like had experienced in California.

Texas law was straightforward: In Texas, bicycles are vehicles, so they have the rights and duties of all other traffic. Texas cyclists have the statutory right to the roadway, (travel lane) and a duty to follow all the traffic rules like automobiles.

Four years later, and after traveling 12,000 miles in Texas traffic, I was confident that I understood what the Texas Transportation Code (TTC) said. The City of Ennis says that I don’t know what I am talking about.

The way they interpret the TTC, a cyclist in the City of Ennis must either abandon the roadway and ride on a shoulder any time other traffic comes by, or a cyclist can only operate on a roadway in a school zone. (The only place a cyclist can travel close to the maximum posted speed limit.) The Jury wasn’t clear as to which result they preferred.

One of the officers who ticketed me said under oath that he had only stopped two other cyclists in the past year, and neither of them for “impeding traffic”, the crime I am accused of. He also testified that I was the only operator of any type of vehicle that he had cited for impedance.

This surprised me, for there have been only a handful of cyclists in Ennis that I have seen over the past two years who were operating lawfully.

I was likewise surprised I had been the only illegal impeder he had ever seen! Indeed many common vehicles in and around Ennis cause other traffic to slow, but are commonly accepted and not considered “impeding”. For example, traffic is impeded all the time by folks making left turns, vehicles pulling a heavy load, driving below the speed limit when towing other vehicles, slowing to park or turn into a driveway, garbage collection trucks, mail delivery vehicles, and the operation of a farm or construction vehicles on the public streets whose primary purpose isn’t transportation.

I am therefore not fully convinced that my cycling has been treated like all the other vehicles by the City of Ennis. But maybe I am wrong about this. If so, I would expect any vehicle unable to keep up with automobiles, like farm equipment, will be ticketed if they venture into Ennis this year. It may be a new enforcement policy!

In fact, the roads in Ennis have ceased to be public roads if the severest interpretation of the jury is adopted. The only vehicles that would be allowed on the formally public streets of Ennis are those that have obtained prior approval from the government to drive on them, and are carrying documents that can prove that. No unregistered vehicles allowed.