A Bike Ride of Peace and Music

Havens

At exactly 5:07 pm on August 15 Richie Havens took the stage with guitar in hand.  Havens was an interesting figure in American music.  Part Blackfoot Indian, part West Indies native he was born and bred in Brooklyn, New York.  Havens’ sound was folk with some funk.  On this late afternoon Havens was the first artist to perform at the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, 44 years ago today.  Havens, like most acts at Woodstock, was asked to plan for a set one hour in length.  He played for nearly three.  To conclude his set he belted out the old spiritual “Motherless Child” which morphed into “Freedom.”  The song was immortalized in the motion picture “Woodstock” and Richie Havens became an international star.  Havens was asked to extend his set because many of the other acts had not arrived having found themselves delayed by massive traffic jams to Max Yasgur’s farm.    Havens’ set was the longest at Woodstock.  Only three other acts played in excess of one hour—Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix (pictured) and a very pregnant Joan Baez.

Woodstock has been noted by many as the crowning achievement of the 1960s.  The three days of “peace and music” is remembered for just that.  Over 400,000 were in attendance with 32 acts performing.  Due to some poor planning and questionable security the concert was open to the public and free.  A number of lawsuits were filed against the Woodstock promoters so the entire three day event lost money.  The motion picture however, was successful and provided the funding necessary to pay off creditors and lawsuits.  

Today the farm field and the stage area are preserved.  The farm has been sold a few times over since 1969 with the current owner erecting the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.  The center is an outdoor amphitheater with seating for 5,000.  This evening Cheech and Chong will be onstage.  The Zac Brown Band plays live this Saturday at the center.  All of this rock music history makes a great bike ride.

For many years after Woodstock the nearby towns passed laws to prohibit future large gatherings.  Town council members and mayors were tossed out of office for allowing the massive throngs of “hippies” to invade their peaceful Catskill hamlets.  All of that has changed.  The “Woodstock generation” has money now.   Visitors today will find Woodstock themed shops, bed and breakfasts, restaurants, a museum and much more.  Monuments and plaques commemorating the event and its performers can be seen from the saddle.

Michael Lang, one of the four men to create and promote the festival wrote a book, The Road to Woodstock which tells the story of the three days and the efforts the men undertook to make Woodstock happen.  The book is a good read for rock historians.  It was Lang who produced the very successful Miami Pop Festival and it was his experience with that event that made the native New Yorker think a similar festival would work in the Empire State.    

Please visit our website for Joe Cocker’s performance at Woodstock.  See videos at www.stickybottleteam.net.  The website www.bethelwoodscenter.org has museum information and links to regional guidebooks. 

Tour of Utah set to go

The Tour of Utah rolls off beginning August 6.  It is a six stage event drawing some of the top UCI teams.  To be more specific it is the Larry Miller Tour of Utah.  Larry Miller, a rather non-descript name.  Might as well be the Bob Smith or Bill Jones Tour of Utah.  But then again that may be the SBT’s East Coast bias.  While we do blog quite a bit about the West Coast and the entire globe for that matter, we even have the “California Connection” that helps us with blogs, product reviews and was even our man at the AMGEN Tour of California, we have to admit we had never heard of Larry Miller.  

We do know some of the things that the Larry Miller Group owns and manages: Energy Solutions Arena (once upon a time it was the Delta Center), Total Care Auto, and the Utah Jazz.  The Miller Groups also owns the Salt Lake Bees, minor league affiliate of the LA Angels and since 2007 has sponsored the Tour of Utah.  Miller was born and bred in Utah and in his youth was a tremendous athlete which explains his avid interest in owning sports franchises.  He loved hot rods and racing cars.  This led to his first job as an auto parts salesman which led to a series of fast promotions.  Today the Miler Groups owns 41 automobile dealerships in seven western states.  In sum, the Miller Group owns and manages 18 corporations.  

Larry Miller died at the very young age of 64 due to complications from diabetes.  The long battle with the disease led to the amputation of both his legs below the knees and a series of heart attacks.  In life, Miller was concerned with public welfare and the human condition.  He gave generously of his vast fortune till his last days.  The State of Utah has not forgotten its native son and a number of entities bear his name: Larry Miller Campus at Salt Lake Community College, Larry Miller Softball Field, Miller Free Enterprise Center, Miller Motorsports Park and much more.    

  

First held in 2004 the Tour of Utah has grown steadily each year.  The 2013 route is 586 miles with 43,621 vertical feet of climbing.  The tour is really up in the air, 9,600 feet to be exact with the first stage leaving Brian Head at nearly 10,000 feet in the clouds.  Climbs and high altitude are hallmarks of the tour with Stage 3 showcasing a climb to 11,900 feet to Mt. Nebo, the highest point in the Wasatch Mountains.  

Jensie will be riding in Utah!

Some of the usual suspects will be in Utah: BMC Racing Team, Cannondale Pro Cycling, Orica-GreenEdge, Team Garmin Sharp and Radio Shack-Leopard-Trek.  We are happy to see Bissell Pro Cycling, 5-Hour Energy-Kenda and Team Jamis Hagens Berman too.  Keep an eye on the Hincapie Sportswear Development Team, the China-based Champion System Pro Cycling team and the team of MTN Qhubeka from South Africa.  Seven countries have sent teams, should be a great week of cycling.   

   

Fox Sports will have the action but the best way to follow is with the Tour Tracker app.  Download it where you get your apps.  The Sticky Bottle Team will be following the action as well so stay tuned to this blog and website for more information.  As always, please visit our website at www.stickybottleteam.net and follow SBTnetUSA on Twitter.

Vacations are for trying something new...

The SBT is on vacation this week in the wilds of Pennsylvania, specifically the Pocono Mountains.  To be really specific the Poconos are not a mountain range, rather a plateau region of the Appalachian Mountains.  Mountainous or not the Poconos are a popular destination for vacationers.  An easy drive from New York City, Philadelphia and most of the Northeast region, the Poconos are Pennsylvania’s largest tourist attraction.  Each year over $15 billion is spent in the area by tourists.  Most of the state’s largest vacation resorts are in the Poconos and at one time it was the place to go.  That is until the Depression hit. 

At the turn of the last century a brand new railroad network brought city dwellers to the wilderness.  Awaiting the urbanites were a series of lavish hotels and getaways.   For a generation the great hotels thrived until the Crash of 1929.  Beginning in the 1930s the hotels began to burn down.  The fires were an epidemic afflicting the region during the 1930s.  Not to point fingers but when times were good nothing caught fire.  When the bad times came the places went up in smoke.  When the interstate highway system was completed in the 1960s the all new Pennsylvania Turnpike began to bring people back to the Poconos.  

That turnpike brought the SBT to the Poconos.  We picked a nice day and took a bike ride but it wasn’t the round bar bike and road ride that we are accustomed--it was a mountain bike ride.  Hey, when in Rome…

A number of small bike shops in the region rent the fat tire, flat bar machines and they provide shuttle rides to the top of a mountain and let you loose for a ride back to town.  The bike shop the SBT selected offers 10, 15, and a 25 mile rides along long-abandoned rail lines.  The old railroads are everywhere in the Poconos.  At one point in time this was coal country and for a generation the “anthracite boom” provided the coal that powered American factories.  The boom went bust in the 1970s and slowly the railroads that moved the coal from the mines to the cities closed.  One such line was the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad.  Today it’s the D&L Trail and it was the 25 mile mountain bike ride enjoyed by the SBT.   When one thinks of mountain biking the brain conjures images of hopping rocks, jumping tree roots and fighting off hungry bears and salivating pumas.  

The D&L Trail is a flat, packed cinder path with a slow downhill grade with views of a flowing Lehigh River, green rhododendrons, and tall cedar trees.  The SBT passed some elderly pedestrians with grandchildren in tow.  On occasion the only danger may come from the local indigenous timber rattlesnakes.  They tend to venture out on to the trail and in the warm sun they fall sound asleep.

The 25 miles took the SBT 3 hours and 18 minutes to complete.  We rode at a slow 8 mph.  Once back to the bike shop it was short walk to a large pizza and cold beer.  

Please visit our website at www.stickybottleteam.net for a new promotion from our friends at Performance Bike.