Since he was a kid growing up in Florence, S.C., Curtis Dobbins has had a thing for bikes. Riding them, naturally, and because he was an inquisitive lad, tearing them apart and figuring out how to put them back together. He began riding seriously in high school and found work as a mechanic in a local bike shop. He moved to Raleigh in 1981 to go to N.C. State and got into bike racing at a time when Raleigh was one of the country’s hot spots (the old Capital City Criterium offered as much as $20,000 in prize money, enough to attract some of the nation’s top cyclists).
Category Archives: Cycling
Meltdown: The movie
OK, it’s no “Race Across The Sky,” but hey, it’s our first venture into film. Check out GGNC Productions short on “Meltdown at Harris Lake: The Movie.” For more on the Meltdown, check out Sunday’s post on the 6-hour endurance mountain bike race, the third in TORC‘s four-race winter series.
Scenes from a Meltdown
Scenes from Saturday’s six-hour Meltdown at Harris Lake endurance mountain bike race at Harris Lake County Park.
A rush from the mush
Recent snows, rain and cold weather (which keeps the trail from drying) have conspired to keep most mountain bike trails closed for the last month or so. That there even was a race Saturday was the doing of Amy Burke and her crew at Harris Lake. Race Director Chris White said Burke, who oversees trail maintenance at the park, had four people working on the trails full time last week and seven other employees pitched in when they could, building new boardwalks and infilling gravel in spots left perpetually wet by the recent snow and rain. The 8-mile course was soft in spots, but certainly rideable. Nice work by Burke & Co.
‘Meltdown’: Live coverage Saturday
Follow live coverage of Saturday’s Meltdown at Harris Lake 6-hour endurance mountain bike race on our Twitter network, JoeAGoGo. Coverage begins 7-7:30-8ish and goes until about 4 or I have a coronary because I haven’t been on the bike for an hour — let alone six — in the last month. Promises to be one entertaining event, since the nearly 60 riders registered have been sidelined by the recent wet weather.
House Creek Greenway construction to begin in April
Raleigh will break ground in April on one of its most anticipated stretches of greenway: the 3-mile House Creek Greenway. Runners, bikers, distance walkers and other greenway enthusiasts have been especially interested in the greenway because it will link the 11 miles of completed Crabtree Creek Greenway to the east with about 14 miles of greenway running from Meredith College, over I-440 to the N.C. Museum of Art, then along Reedy Creek Road into Umstead State Park and into Cary. Some quick cyphering reveals the House Creek link will create a 28-mile network of greenway.* And that’s only taking into account greenway already open.