Bicycling Women

Seana Hogan is the only woman entered in the Race Across America, but don't for a minute think she won't have competition in this torturous transcontinental bicycle race. Once again, Hogan will be challenging the men when the 17th edition of RAAM rolls out of Irvine today on the way to Savannah, Ga., 2,906 miles to the east. Hogan, the women's division winner in five of the last six nation-spanning races, is hoping to become the first overall winner who happens to be female.

Seana Hogan is the only woman entered in the Race Across America, but don't for a minute think she won't have competition in this torturous transcontinental bicycle race. Once again, Hogan will be challenging the men when the 17th edition of RAAM rolls out of Irvine today on the way to Savannah, Ga., 2,906 miles to the east. Hogan, the women's division winner in five of the last six nation-spanning races, is hoping to become the first overall winner who happens to be female.

Bicycle fanatics are a varied lot--anarchists, rosy-cheeked environmentalists, punk couriers, thrill seekers--but they all seem to have the same supercharged current of enthusiasm. Surprisingly, the man who mounted one of the most impressive two-wheeled enterprises in these parts was not a bicycle fanatic. Horace Dobbins was simply a problem solver, and his veloway, an elevated bicycle highway, still looks to some like a solution for L.A.'s commuter woes.

"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling," women's rights advocate Susan B. Anthony said to reporter Nelly Bly in an interview for an article that appeared in the New York World newspaper on Feb. 2, 1896. "I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. . . . It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. . . .

Orange County residents are surprisingly focused on health and fitness, with nearly three of every four saying they are more concerned about diet and nutrition today than they were five years ago. A whopping 86% said they pay either a lot or some attention to diet and nutrition, and 72% said they pay either a lot or some attention to exercise and fitness, according to The Times Orange County Poll. A mere one in 10 residents polled said they favor red meat as "very much" a part of their diet.