About New York Cycle News (c)
Photo by Rebecca Letz (c) 2005

Nycyclenews.com draws on the large and very involved cycling community of New York City and was created by publisher Jen Benepe.
   
For example, did you know that New York is home to one of the largest and oldest bike racing clubs in the United States, the Century Road Club Association? It also boasts some of the best and most enjoyable bike routes in the U.S., has spawned several Olympic bike riders, including Mike McCarthy and Deirdre Murphy, and Six-Day Racers such as Lou Maltese, and is host to a number of bike events every year, including the Five Boro Bike Tour.
   
And now, rumor has it, none other than seven-time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong has an apartment in the city and regularly does daytime rides along Route 9W, a mere miles away in New Jersey and New York via the George Washington Bridge.
   
It is estimated by Transportation Alternatives that on average more than 100,000 people commute by bicycle to or in Manhattan every day, and that less than 40 percent of Manhattanites own a car. These amazing statistics, including the tremendous personalities of those who make up the cycling community, are what make New York a great place to ride.
   
Add a bit of panache, a complicated street system, horrendous traffic, and a sturdy steed of steel, and you have a plan worthy of execution.
   
Of course, all is not perfect in this imperfect world, and New York cyclists struggle every day to establish their place on the road, a difficult, dangerous, and often deadly preoccupation. But with growing participation of New Yorkers in this great sport, the street environment will become safer, drivers will become more courteous, and the city will create a better infrastructure for us all.

About Jen Benepe, the blogger.

   Benepe recently started her own bike jersy company whose primary objective is to provide women and men with a colorful alternative to dull, plain bike clothing, and team jerseys. The bold, graphic designs are also intended to help cyclists be more noticeable, and therefore safer on the road. Visit her new company at Hotvelociti.com.
   
Benepe started documenting the cycling scene in New York several years ago as a filmmaker. She was Producer of the popular TV show "The Bike Show" which she and her co-host Alan Lowe produced from 1996 to 2001.
   
The show highlighted city and out-of-city cycling, took viewers overseas to the best training locations, and documented bike advocacy and bike events around the tri-state region. But mostly they tortured their audiences with left-leaning, unbalanced politics about cycling rights, and how all of those rights are abrogated daily iin New York City.     
   
Benepe brought new one-hour live shows to the Bike Show, giving city officials and bike advocates an opportunity to face off on controversial topics, such as whether there is room in Central Park for cars (NO) , and whether helmets are really necessary for your safety (MAYBE).
   
These issues are still being hotly debated, more than five years later. (The Bike Show later became BikeTV in 2001, now run by Clarence Eckerson, and other cycling faves from Transportation Alternatives.)
   
Today, the city is a better place than it was when The Bike Show first previewed, because the Bloomberg administration has put their money where their mouth is, and improved bike lanes as well as hired a pro-bike Department of Transportation chief, Janette Sadik-Kahn.
   
As marketing and PR head for the Century Road Club Association for four years, Benepe helped the club transition to a safer and more palatable bike racing format using motorcycle race guides, and meeting the NYC Parks Administration's approval.
   
She also shot and produced a documentary about disabled cyclists participating in the 1996 Olympics held in Atlanta, Georgia, portions of which were shown on national television. Later her 2001 film "Cuba Carinosa," about Cuban cyclists showed how people live and compete in Cuba and chronicled the adventures of American cyclists in the Pan American Masters Competition of 2000.
  
As a road bike racer, Benepe has raced in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and in Oaxaca, Mexico. Iin 2007 she started racing again as a triathlete in the northeast U.S.
   
In 2002, Benepe received her Masters in Science in Journalism from Columbia Unversity. Her masters thesis, "Deadly Streets," published in 2002, documented how New York State and City laws inadequately protect the lives of pedestrians and cyclists because of the leniency shown to motorists even when they are culpable.
   
Benepe wrote the Gridlock Sam column for the NY Daily News from 2004 to 2005, where she advised the public on how best to avoid traffic in the five boroughs of New York and environs, helped readers decipher intricate NYC traffic and parking laws, and was Chief Editor of the book Traffic Conundrums (for which she did not get paid nor subsequently any credit, hey but that's okay it's not selling anyway!)
   
She also interviewed and wrote stories about cyclists over the age of 65 for the book "Looking Forward: An Optimist's Guide to Retirement," written by Ellen Freudenheim (2004, Stewart, Tabori, and Chang).  In 2005 she was writer for the United Nations News Centre, and is now a frequent writer and webcast producer for TheRealDeal.com, the only real work she actually does in any 24 hours.
   
She holds an MBA in international business from the Wharton Graduate School of Business, and speaks Spanish and French.
    On weekends you can find her riding up Route 9W from the George Washington Bridge, headed to Nyack, New York and the Runcible Spoon, a popular watering hole for cyclists.

About Tiggy the blogger for Tiggy Travels (c)
Tiggy was born about January 1993, in Maine, USA. She was most likely a mixed breed of terrier and artic fox (no joke, check out the photos in the NYT.) She was imported to New York City by two irresponsible New York University students, who were walking her one day near NYU where Benepe was taking a film course with (of all people) that actress who was dating at the time JFK Jr. You know whom I am talking about, the one who was in Splash.

Anyway, Benepe stopped to talk to Tiggy and her owner, and Tiggy looked up at her and barked her butt off.

"What a cute dog," exclaimed Benepe to the owner, "You wouldn't want to give her away would you?"

To her surprise, the owner called Benepe three months later when the semester was over and Tiggy was still pooping and pissing on the floor and wasn't a cute little puppy anymore but a bratty teenager, and offered Benepe little Tiggy.

It was the best decision Benepe ever made in her life. Even though she spent the next year and a half cleaning poop and piss off of her rugs, and had to go home every day after that for the next 13.5 years, little did she know that Tiggy could actually read and write!

I guess that was the advantage of hanging out with those stoned NYU students!

Turns out Tiggy wrote all their papers too, but Benepe didn't find out until years later when she bought a new Mac, and one night while getting a glass of water in the middle of the night found TIggy blogging away.

So was born Tiggy Travels which Tiggy used to pen in the middle of the night while her mommy wasn't watching (no one touches the MAC!) The blog was started as a means to complain about her mommy who was often referred to simply as "mother" when relations were tense.

Tiggy died a terrible death on May 1, 2007, after Benepe was out on a bike ride, and Tiggy wandered or was chased into the wet mud, where she was drowning for about 6 hours.  She could not be found for 3 hours during a very loud, windy day full of missed chances.

She was still alive when Benepe heard her bark finally, though her lungs were full of water and she was so cold she did not register a temperature.  She was rushed to the hospital emergency, and her lungs pumped for 7 hours. She died at 3:45 a.m. of a heart attack.

Hey actually, the real lesson is this--don't leave your 99-year-old mother out alone while you go on a 3.5 hour bike ride. Tiggy is buried upstate where she most liked to travel!

While she lived, she lived it up. She was the best watch dog in the world, she traveled across America and Mexico in a Subaru, and ate MacDonald's hamburgers in the back seat. And she was one of the best writers I ever knew!!

We really miss you Tiggy!

Tiggy continues to write from heaven, where she watches over all cyclists and tries to keep them safe from cars! Now she also provides motherly advice to Ana-Banana, or Anastasia, who has taken the helm at Tiggy Travels.

   
For advertising info please write to jbenepe@msn.com