Bikes and Art

Tree With Yellow Blossoms by Cai Guo-Qiang

Now what do I do? The Tour is over and I'm in withdrawal. I really, really enjoyed all of the coverage this year and learning more about cycling. I've even been reading all about what's happening now with all the riders. New obsession? Possibly. A lot of the excitement over this year's race was because of Lance Armstrong's comeback. One of the great results of his comeback is the STAGES initiative, an art show that benefits The Lance Armstrong Foundation with the support of Nike and Trek bikes. The goal is to heighten global awareness of cancer by engaging the creative community in the fight. The show is on now at the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris but will be coming stateside this fall, first New York then LA. I'd really like to see the show because I love the idea of sport and art crisscrossing for a great cause.

Untitled, 2009 by Christopher Wool

In addition to artwork on display at the show, specially designed bikes by Trek were made for several different races; they were done by:

KAWS (Brian Donnelly)

Kenny Scharf

Shepard Fairey

Marc Newson (bike ridden in the opening Tour de France time trial)

Yoshitomo Nara (ridden at the Annecy time trial)

And last but not least my favorite bike out of the bunch by Damien Hirst. I love this bike because it looks so striking and different. After reading more, I found that Hirst used REAL butterflies. Oh my! That sounds about right for Hirst though. All of the bikes will be auctioned off on October 2 in NYC.


For more on STAGES, check out Trek's site, the STAGES site and this article. Be sure to check out Trek's Flickr feed too, they have AMAZING shots of all the bikes.

Tour de France

Admittedly, I haven't been online to email, blog or surf the internet hardly at all the last two months. How could I after moving to the great, sun-drenched state of Colorado? When not being outdoorsy I've been pretty obsessed with the Tour de France, since today is a rest day I'm taking advantage and catching up on all things computer related.


I've sort of followed the Tour the past few years but this year I'm absolutely hooked on the fantastic coverage by Versus and Versus.com. Their website could keep you entertained and busy for a long, long time. They've done a great job with maps, interviews, behind the scenes and explanations of the overall race, the races within the race, the king of the mountains, time trials, sprinters...everything. The Tour's logo has even grown on me- bright yellow, whimsical, what's not to like? Oh, and I heart Phil Liggett. So, my advice is to check it out since we only have until Sunday then the Tour will be fini.


In edition to following the Tour I've been following Nike's Chalkbot. Haven't heard of it yet? It's AWESOME. It's this machine that's painting messages of hope all over France to raise cancer awareness. To take part just text 'LIVESTRONG' followed by your chalk message to 36453, and you'll receive a message in return when it's written. I texted mine and am waiting to hear when and where it was written. Until next time, au revoir!