Chickleta - My SBRing and other Adventures

I love bikes and I love riding them. Cycling completely changed my life and made it much more interesting. Cycling gives me the freedom to embark on new adventures, discovering new places and conquering new challenges. So, when this year I decided to go back to where it all started for me, mountain biking, and tackle one of the toughest one day mountain biking races in the world, Leadville 100, I couldn't possibly think of a better way to do it and a better team to do it with.   I am supporting World Bicycle Relief, an organization providing access to independence and livelihood through The Power of Bicycles, with a personal fundraiser ( Team World Bicycle Relief - Sharon Shachar ). The money raised through my fundraiser helps to provide specially designed, locally assembled bicycles to students, healthcare workers and entrepreneurs in rural Africa; connecting them with education, healthcare and economic opportunities. While for me cycling is about li...

I wrote the article below on "How to survive a winter in the Midwest (and northern US in general)" for BikePanel , which was published today ( here ) . Below is the English version of it with some changes and add-ons. I could not wipe the smile off my face While in some countries with warmer climates the fall marks the beginning of the cycling season and the season reaches its peak in the winter. In the  Northern  states of the U.S. most riders start to enter into winter hibernation. In Israel, where I grew up, this season marked the beginning of desert riding, the Gran Fondo events season, everything is green and blooming and other than a day of two of rain the weather is just perfect for riding. This is not the case in the  Northern  states in general and in the Midwest (where I live now) in particular. At this time of year everything freezes and most riders move their training from the outside into the pain caves and start spending quality time...

My teammates and me at the start line Last August I took part, along with some other VQ teammates in a unique gravel event called Rebecca's Private Idaho. I was asked to write a story about the ride for an Israeli on-line cycling magazine called  bikepanel . Flattered but a little worried (as it's been years since I wrote something in Hebrew that is longer than one sentence), I accepted (with the help of my friend Nimi editing and reviewing my Hebrew). Although it took me what seemed like forever to write, I enjoyed writing the article so much that I accepted the invitation to become a permanent panelist for the magazine. I also decided to translate my article to English (with some minor changes) and have that be my post about the event. I will skip the introduction to the article about myself (mostly written by Nimi) and head right to the article.  I am using the same photos that were used in the article.  The event photographer, Linda Guerrette, gave me p...