Defending champion Lance Armstrong will not return to race the Leadville 100 on Saturday, but his RadioShack teammate Levi Leipheimer will be making his debut.

Also on hand for the mountain bike race will be David Wiens, the 46-year-old winner of six Leadville 100s from 2003 to 2008.

The Leadville is one of the most storied mountain bike races. The course is 100 miles long and all takes place above the 9,000-foot level on mostly dirt and gravel back-country roads in the vicinity of Leadville, Colorado. It was the subject of last year's documentary, Race Across the Sky (left).

While many enter the event (some 1,500 registered this year) ....   more »

Cyclist on a fund-raising mission
at Seattle Livestrong Challenge

Whether Floyd Landis's accusations are true or not, this federal investigation of Lance Armstrong is going to get plenty ugly before it's resolved.

As that ugliness may tarnish Armstrong's image, what will be the effect on his crusade to fight cancer and help survivors -- the Lance Armstrong Foundation? Devastating, says one expert.

The feds are looking for proof of the Landis claims that Armstrong and his teammates doped during his amazing string of 7 Tour de France victories.

Through all this, I've been wondering about the effect on Armstrong's biggest legacy outside the record books -- his establishment of the LiveStrong Foundation. .....   more »

As unidentified sources leaked that federal investigators are issuing grand jury subpoenas in the doping allegations raised by Floyd Landis, Lance Armstrong says he'll cooperate. He told the New York Times before the start of Stage 10 on Wednesday:

"As long as we have a legitimate and credible and fair investigation I will be happy to co-operate but I'm not going to participate in any kind of witch hunt."

Meanwhile, some inconsistent statements by Armstrong are throwing into question whether he held an ownership stake in Tailwind Sports. That's the group that owned the cycling team sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service.

Ownership is important because the feds want to find out whether the team was violating UCI doping rules to improve results, therefore gaining more money from the sponsors. That would make it fraud. ....   more »

Team RadioShack finally has something to crow about after domestique Sergio Paulinho won Stage 10 of the Tour de France on Wednesday.

The Portuguese cyclist was part of a 6-man breakaway that led most of the 111-mile race from Chambery to Gap over four climbs.

Andy Schleck remained in the yellow jersey, as the rest of the peloton finished about 15 minutes later, content to hear whether one of the two Frenchmen in the breakaway could win on Bastille Day. Neither could.

The 30-year-old Paulinho is an unlikely hero for the RadioShack team, but with Lance Armstrong locked in 31st ....   more »

"Lance lost this Tour for bad luck. Physically, there’s no reason to believe that he couldn’t have been competitive in this Tour. He came to this Tour in good shape with real ambitions to win. We knew it wouldn’t be easy for him to win this Tour, but we came here with that as a goal. Even today we saw Contador not as strong as he was last year. Today we simply didn’t have the luck.”

-- Johan Bruyneel, team manager for Radio Shack, talking about Lance Armstrong's crashes at the 2010 Tour de France in an interview with Andrew Hood at VeloNews .....   more »

The mountain-top finish at Morzine-Avoriaz will be remembered in Tour de France history as the place where Lance Armstrong's chances to achieve another championship appeared doomed and Alberto Contador showed he was beatable.

Andy Schleck had the strongest legs at the end of the 117-mile stage that included two Alpine summits as he beat Samuel Sanchez in a two-man sprint to the finish. Cadel Evans, left, and Alberto Contador were unable to match Schleck's final kick to the finish, although Evans did gain the yellow jersey for the first time at this Tour de France.

Seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong didn't take part in this battle, however. He was some 10 minutes down the mountain after getting caught in three crashes. He was just trying to put one of the worst days in his cycling career behind him. He Twittered after the race....    more »

France's Sylvain Chavanel regained the yellow jersey at the Tour de France on Saturday while former leader Fabian Cancellara cracked as the peloton entered the foothills of the Alps.

Chavanel won the 102-mile stage from Tournus to Station des Rousses and took the lead, jumping from 5th place overall to 1:25 ahead of the nearest challenger, Australia's Cadel Evans.

Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador and the other major contenders for this year's championship finished in a select group 1-minute 47 seconds behind Chavanel. Although Armstrong dropped from 2:30 to 3:16 behind the first place rider, he remained 50 seconds behind his rival, Contador.

The peloton faces its first major mountain stage on Sunday ...   more »

While house sellers tout "Location, location, location" as the three most important attributes of real estate, bike race sprinters must credit "Position. Position. Position."

For instance, Britain's Mark Cavendish had an ideal position in Friday's finish of Stage 6 of the 2010 Tour de France in Gueugnon behind teammate Mark Renshaw. The HTC-Columbia riders were following three cyclists for Garmin-Transitions, including Tyler Farrar.

As the finish line approached, Cavendish was delivered alongside the Garmin cyclists by Renshaw. Then Cav handlily beat Farrar across the line by more than a bike's length ...   more »

The strategy for a textbook lead-out for Team HTC-Columbia flew right out the window on Stage 5 of the Tour de France on Thursday, but Mark Cavendish took the sprint anyway.

It was the first sprint win for the Brit at this year's Tour. The cycling press had begun to wonder if Cavendish's reign as sprint champion had ended as previous sprints had been taken by Alessandro Petacchi (2) and Thor Hushovd (1). In 2009, Cavendish had won 6 stages of the Tour.

As the peloton neared the finish in Montargis, it looked like the drought might continue for Cavendish.

Bernard Eisel was leading the pack toward the finish, but he was followed by four cyclists from Garmin-Transitions ....   more »

Three bike changes for Sylvain Chavanel cost him the yellow jersey on Tuesday as Fabian Cancellara regained the overall lead of the Tour de France.

Cancellara powered himself back into first place at the front of a peloton split into smaller groups by seven sections of cobblestones in the 132-mile stage in the Paris-Roubaix's "Hell of the North" locale.

Lance Armstrong fell out of the top 10 and lost time to other top contenders, such as Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador. The RadioShack cyclist limited his losses by bridging across to the fourth group to cross the finish line.

One of the biggest winners of the day was Canadian Ryder Hesjedal ....   more »

Year in and year out, the name of French cyclist Sylvain Chavanel has become familiar for failed attempts at long-distance attacks on the peloton at the Tour de France.

Monday's Stage 2 marked only the second time in his career that he's survived to win a Tour stage, and the first time he's ever pulled on the yellow jersey.

While Chavanel was riding into the yellow jersey out front, many members of the peloton, including Lance Armstrong, were licking their wounds after a mass pile-up on a descent about 25 miles from the finish. With many teammates trailing behind, the main peloton finished en mass as a form of protest. ...   more »

Three crashes in Brussels, including a road-choking pileup, cleared the way for a victory by Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi in Stage 1 of the Tour de France on Sunday.

The finish of the 138-mile stage that started in Rotterdam was more like an episode of Survivor than a competitive bike race. Most of the sprint contenders had been on the ground by the time Petacchi crossed the line for his 164th career victory -- his first at the Tour de France since 2003.

The crashes didn't affect the overall standings from Saturday's prologue as they occurred in the protected zone in final kilometers; everyone in the peloton will receive the same time ....   more »

Australia's Tony Martin led the 2010 Tour de France prologue for most of Saturday until Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, left, scorched the 5.5-mile course through Rotterdam.

Lance Armstrong, riding in his last Tour de France, finished in 4th place overall, beating rival Alberto Contador by 5 seconds, who now sits in 6th place.

Garmin-Transitions's Tyler Farrar of Wenatchee, Washington, finished in 7th place, a surprisingly high finish for a sprint specialist. Another US cyclist, Levi Leipheimer on Santa Rosa, California, finished in 8th place.

While the prologue does little more than present the cyclists to the fans ....   more »

Disgraced pro cyclist Floyd Landis is making some bombshell disclosures regarding doping in the peloton, especially during his time with the US Postal Service team.

Landis rode alongside Lance Armstrong on that team for several years. During this year's Tour of California, Landis disclosed that the use of performance-enhancing drugs and illegal techniques were prevalent during that time. Landis is reiterating those assertions in "Blood Brothers," a Wall Street Journal article published Saturday, the first day of the 2010 Tour de France.

Armstrong says the WSJ article is "full of false accusations" at LanceArmstrong.com.

Among the latest allegations ....   more »

Biking Bis blog readers are favoring Lance Armstrong to win his 8th Tour de France victory this year.

Respondents to the poll "Who will win the 2010 Tour de France" gave Armstrong 36% of the vote. Last year's winner, Alberto Contador, received 31% of the vote.

While cycling pundits are saying this Tour de France is going to be a showdown between Armstrong and Contador, most are touting the Spaniard as the eventual winner. The 97th Tour de France starts this morning with a prologue in Rotterdam and ends in Paris on July 25.

Andy Schleck, the second-place finisher in last year Tour ...   more »

It's deja vu all over again for Lance Armstrong fans who read the following Tweet on Monday:

"And yes, this will be final Tour de France. It's been a great ride. Looking forward to 3 great weeks...... Doh, sorry, meant "my" final Tour."

Last time he announced his retirement, he was a 33-year-old with an unprecedented six Tour de France championships to his credit. He made that announcement to a roomful of reporters before the start of the Tour de Georgia in 2005.

He went on to win the Tour de France that year -- number 7, and made good on his pledge to retire -- for 3 1/2 years ....   more »

Surprising no one, Lance Armstrong has been named to the RadioShack roster for the 2010 Tour de France.

He'll be joined by Americans Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner.

Also on the roster are Andreas Kloeden of Germany, Janez Brajkovic of Slovenia, Sergio Paulinho of Portugal, Yaroslav Popovych of Ukraine, Gregory Rast of Switzerland and Dmitriy Muravyev of Kazakhstan.

The 38-year-old ...   more »

More than 900 members of the LiveStrong army took to the streets in Seattle and the hilly Eastside on Sunday to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

It was the second year in a row that the charity bike ride visited Seattle to raise funds.

Many participants wore the LiveStrong, Mellow Johnny or Fat Cyclist jerseys and seemed reluctant to cover them up with rain gear as a steady drizzle fell on the course.

All the bicycle riders started at the Seattle Center near the Space Needle on Sunday morning and took off on rides of 10, 45, 70 or 100 miles ....   more »

As Stage 8 of the Tour de Suisse drew to a close with a final climb on Saturday, Lance Armstrong attacked a group that was chasing a six-man break up the road.

The General Classification contenders reeled him back, but Armstrong proved that there's still plenty of life in his legs.

He emphasized that point on the final stage Sunday with a decent finish in the individual time trial that catapulted him into second place overall, just 12 seconds behind winner Frank Schleck. Aussie Tony Martin (HTC Columbia) won the ITT, and defending champ Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) trailed by 17 seconds.

Armstrong, riding for Team RadioShack, finished 11th at 1:09 behind. He reported to his Tweet followers ....   more »

Just about any European bicycle race this month is touted as a tune-up for the 2010 Tour de France. That's always been true for the just-ended Dauphine Libere.

It's also the case for the Tour de Suisse that started Saturday and runs through next Saturday. The Versus cable network will broadcast highlights of the race daily this week.

While Spain's Alberto Contador focused attention on the Dauphine as the training ground for his attempt for a third victory at the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, above right, is racing in the Tour de Suisse to prepare for his attempt for an eighth Tour de France championship.

Among others, he's going up against Switzerland's homeboy and defending champion Fabian Cancellara (spoiler alert) ...   more »

Lance Armstrong held onto third place overall as the Tour of Luxembourg came to an end Sunday, putting the 38-year-old cyclist closer to the condition he'll need for the 2010 Tour de France.

Armstrong shared the podium with overall winner Matteo Carrara of Vacansoleil and second-place finisher Frank Schleck of Saxo Bank.

The leader of Team RadioShack, which won the team classification, told reporters after the race that he felt good about the finishing on the podium, especially considering the illnesses and crash that marred his spring season. He's quoted at Reuters:

"Any time you can win a race, be on a podium, in preparation it's important. I wouldn't ....   more »

Lance Armstrong remained in 3rd place at the Tour of Luxembourg after Frank Schleck of Saxo Bank won the most difficult stage of the race on Friday and took the overall lead.

The five-day race around the tiny country ends Sunday. Armstrong will take a week off, then compete in the Tour of Switzerland from June 12 - 20 as he tries to ride himself back into shape for the 2010 Tour de France in July.

Armstrong, 38, will sit out the Dauphine Libere bike race that starts Sunday and runs through June 13. While considered a tune-up for the Tour de France, so is the Swiss bike race ....   more »

After crashing out early at the Amgen Tour of California last week, Lance Armstrong now says he'll ride for Team RadioShack at the four-stage Tour of Luxembourg that begins next Tuesday Wednesday.

Meanwhile, two reporters for the New York Times write that two unidentified sources told them that a federal drug probe into Armstrong and other cyclists accused by Floyd Landis might be broadened to include a fraud investigation.

Whether or not Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs, which he has vehemently denied for years, it will be interesting to see whether the distractions posed by reports of  investigations will detract from his performance at Tour of Luxembourg and the Tour de France in July ....   more »

Lance Armstrong dropped out of the 2010 Amgen Tour of California early in Thursday's Stage 5 not long after crashing.

About 15 cyclists went down just 4 miles after leaving Visalia for the 121-mile stage to Bakersfield.

According to text commentary from news sources, Armstrong received medical treatment at the scene of the accident and returned to the peloton with ...   more »

[Updates with reaction from Armstrong, Hincapie and WADA]

More explosive, however, are his assertions that Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie and David Zabriskie all participated in various forms of doping while they were together at the U.S. Postal Service cycling team.

Armstrong immediately rejected the accusations, but the World Anti-Doping Agency says it will investigate the charges.

Armstrong reacted  before the beginning of Stage 5 of the Tour of California, with team manager Johann Bruyneel at his side:

"It's our word against his word. I like our word. We like our credibility. We have nothing to hide. Nothing to run from." ...   more »

Levi Leipheimer won his second Tour of the Gila championship on Sunday while Aussie Darren Lill won the Stage 5 Gila Monster Road Race.

High winds and snow flurries, instead of high winds and heat, greeted the cyclists on the final day of bike race based in the Silver City, New Mexico, that has become a domestic training race for elite cyclists.

Lance Armstrong, who launched this retreat to southwestern New Mexico last year to test his recovery from a broken collarbone, finished in 17th, 6:53 behind Leipheimer. Finishing second and third overall were Tom Danielson and David Zabriskie. ....   more »

Taylor Phinney won the Stage 4 criterium at Tour of the Gila on Saturday. A member of the Trek-Livestrong development team, it's the second win in a row for the under-23 development team.

Phinney's teammate Jesse Sergent won Friday's individual time trial.

After Saturday's 43-mile criterium, Levi Leipheimer had the overall lead by 59 seconds. Tom Danielson was second ...   more »

If you're Lance Armstrong with nearly 2.5 million followers in the Twittersphere, this is how you issue a pending birth announcement:

"Getting ?'s today about someone I'm following, a certain @CincoArmstrong. What to say? Yet another blessing in our lives. I cannot wait!"

Suzanne Halliburton at the Austin-American Statesman quickly deciphered the message and got a confirmation from the hometown cycling hero Thursday night.

It will be Armstrong's fifth child ...   more »

Levi Leipheimer won the leader's red jersey in the Tour of the Gila after the first stage in 2009; he's still wearing it in the New Mexico bike race after Stage 1 in 2010.

Riding once again for Mellow Johnny's (a proxy team for the RadioShack pro cycling team), Leipheimer took the Stage 1 mountaintop finish on Wednesday ahead of No. 2 finisher Tom Danielson, a member of the DZNuts team (a proxy for Garmin-Transitions pro cycling team) .....    more »

Lance Armstrong helped shine an international spotlight on the Tour of the Gila in New Mexico last year when he showed up to compete in the five-day race with two compadres from the Astana team.

He's returning to the bike race again this year from April 28 through May 2 with defending champ Levi Leipheimer and Jason McCartney from the RadioShack pro cycling team. They'll be joined among the elite cyclists with three from Garmin-Transitions -- David Zabriskie, Danny Pate and Tom Danielson.

The arrival of the pros will definitely spark more interest in the race located in southwestern New Mexico near the Gila National Forest ...   more »

When someone clued Lance Armstrong about comments made by the host of a sports call-in show, he didn't like what he heard. His reaction on Twitter:

"Disgusting, ignorant, foolish. What a complete f-ing idiot."

The "f-ing idiot" was Tony Kornheiser, long-time sports commentator who had already been suspended from ESPN once this year for commenting on an outfit worn by a female co-anchor.

What drew Armstrong's anger was Kornheiser's comments about how motorists should hit bicyclists with their cars. He was running-off at the mouth ....   more »

For cycling enthusiasts, March Madness continues with Italy's Milan - San Remo bicycle race on Saturday.

Considered the opening day of the Spring Classics series, the one-day race will be streamed live on Universalsports.com beginning at 10 a.m. (ET), following by replays and highlights. The race will be broadcast on Universal Sports cable at 3 p.m. (ET), with repeats at 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday.

Americans cycling at the 185-mile slog include sprinter Tyler Farrar (Garmin) and George Hincapie, Brent Bookwalter and Jeffrey Louder (BMC Racing).

Lance Armstrong was scheduled to lead the Team RadioShack contingent...   more »

Lance Armstrong knows all the details of the epic l'Alpe d'Huez and the Tourmalet climbs in France. Now he can say he knows about the howling winds at the Cape Argus too.

Armstrong finished in 9th place among the elite cyclists riding at the Cape Argus Cycle Tour in South Africa.

The 7-time Tour de France winner traveled to South Africa immediately after the Vuelta de Murcia in Spain to ride to raise funds for a South African charity.

The Cape Argus is a massive charity bike ride that boasted some 35,000 participants this year. It has an elite cyclist element, however ....   more »

Lance Armstrong finished the Vuelta de Murcia on Sunday in 7th place behind winner Frantisek Rabon of HTC-Columbia; Armstrong's  plans include adding another race to his Tour de France preparations.

Meanwhile, his Team RadioShack teammate Levi Leipheimer opened the Paris-Nice bike race with a third place finish in the prologue, 6 seconds behind Lars Boom of Rabobank. The race will roll across France through Sunday.

More action unfolds this week as the Tirreno-Adriatico rolls out Wednesday for seven days across Italy. Highlights will be streamed live on the Universal Sports website.

Regarding his 7th place finish, Armstrong told reporters:

"Worried would be too strong of a word. ....   more »

HTC-Columbia's Czech time-trial champion Frantisek Rabon won Stage 5 of the Murcia bike race on Saturday and took the overall lead, as Lance Armstrong climbed into 7th place.

The Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia across southern Spain ends Sunday with a 75-mile stage that's expected to end in a mass sprint.

Elsewhere, the week-long Paris-Nice bicycle race starts Sunday in France, and Tirreno-Adriatico rolls out Wednesday for seven days across Italy.

While top racers struggle for top finishes in the Murcia bike race, most eyes are on Armstrong. RadioShack manager Johan Bruyneel made headlines ...   more »

Lance Armstrong returned to pro cycling at the Vuelta Ciclista a la Regiona de Murcia on Wednesday, more than a month after completing the Tour Down Under.

But it was Robbie Hunter, riding for US-based Garmin Transitions, who supplied the sparks to the first stage of the race across southern Spain that ends Sunday. 

The South African won a bunch sprint at the end of stage 1, beating the likes of Graeme Brown (Rabobank) and Daryl Impey (RadioShack), among others ....   more »

Update: Feb. 4 -- Also cycling in Cape Argus bike ride in South Africa

That's a change for Armstrong, who originally was scheduled to race in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya in Spain from March 22 - 28 .

Race director Christian Prudhomme made the announcement; he's also director of the Tour de France, which is owned by the same group that owns the Criterium. The schedule change ...   more »

Associated Press picked golfer Tiger Woods to be its Athlete of the Decade, beating out nine other male and female athletes, including Lance Armstrong.

Woods, whose squeaky clean image has been tarnished ever since he crashed backing out of his driveway last month, was chosen for dominating the world of golf for the past 10 years.

Armstrong finished second in voting by AP member editors. Woods got 56 to Armstrong's 33. And Armstrong finished far behind Woods in the number of late-night talk show jokes written about him.

More than half the ballots were turned in after the Woods crash that launched his sex scandal .....   more »

Some interesting news from Lance Armstrong buried in other items at the Team RadioShack press conference in Tucson this week was his tentative bike racing schedule for 2010.

VeloNews mentions just six races for Armstrong in the 2010 season, although there's nothing to prevent him from adding more.

Here are the races as reported at VeloNews and the dates ....   more »

Team RadioShack has issued a sneak peak of the prototype jersey the new US-based pro cycling team might be wearing next year.

Then Trek released a photo of the Madone that Team RadioShack will use in 2010. The graphic scheme will be available to the public in March.

I like the distinctive look of the jersey.

With the grey top and red through the torso, it should be easy to spot from helicopter camera views of the peloton. That's especially helpful if you're trying to find Lance Armstrong's team on a foreign language broadcast.

From the looks of the first day of training camp in Tucson on Monday, the team could use its own jersey. ....   more »

"Comeback 2.0: Up Close and Personal" is the story of Lance Armstrong's return to professional cycling in 2009.

The story is told in his own journal entries interspersed throughout the book with color photos by Liz Kreutz, who followed Armstrong throughout the 2009 season.

The 208-page book will be released on Tuesday and will be followed by book signings and TV appearances (on "The Daily Show" and "Live with Regis and Kelly") by Armstrong.

In an introduction written by Armstrong, the 7-time Tour de France champion tells what led him back onto the saddle after three years of retirement.

In an excerpt from the introduction ....   more »

Ever since Lance Armstrong announced the formation of Team RadioShack in July, the confirmed identities of bike riders on the roster have dribbled out like sprinters struggling across the finish of a mountain stage.

Team manager Johan Bruyneel has now announced the final roster, identifying a 26-man team from 16 different countries. A large percentage of those bike riders came from Bruyneel's and Armstrong's former team, Astana.

The delay in making a final announcement stemmed from ongoing negotiations with the Kazakhstan-based team, currently the home of two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador.

Bruyneel said the team's main goal in 2010 is the Tour de France, although the team is expected to do well in other stage races as well as the one-day classics ...   more »

The federal judge in the contract dispute between Trek Bicycle and Greg LeMond says both parties should think about an out-of-court settlement to avoid a messy trial on the lawsuits in the spring.

Central in the suit - countersuit are allegations that LeMond made against Lance Armstrong and the Texan's reaction to them. The judge this week said Armstrong would be subpoenaed to testify at the trial scheduled in March.

Lawyers for both LeMond and Trek said they're willing to meet for settlement talks ...   more »

The 2010 LiveStrong Challenge fund-raising campaign is returning to Seattle, San Jose, Philadelphia and Austin -- the same cities that hosted the events in 2009.

Because the current dire economic conditions that exist now may extend into next year, LiveStrong opted to put all expansion plans -- which may include charity bike rides outside the US -- on hold until 2011.

And no, don't expect to see Lance Armstrong at these events in 2010, organizers say. He'll be too busy training for the pro cycling season as he attempts an eighth career Tour de France win as the helm of his newly formed Team RadioShack.

Dates for the upcoming LiveStrong Challenges are ....   more »

"Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever."

The text message that Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel sent to Lance Armstrong after the American cyclist broke his collarbone at the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon bike race in March. Bruyneel told a Belgian magazine that Armstrong considered abandoning his comeback at the time.

Armstrong underwent surgery to the shattered bone ...   more »

"Race Across the Sky" is a documentary on this year's epic Leadville 100 bike race that featured a rematch between David Wiens and Lance Armstrong and about 1,000 mountain bike riders.

Wiens, at 45, had won the grueling mountain bike race six straight times, including in 2008 when Armstrong decided to get back into cycling. Armstrong, 37, had won the Tour de France 7 times, but really wanted this Leadville win in his adopted state of Colorado.

Tonight's documentary is being billed as a one-night event at theaters across the country. It runs tonight at 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CT, 6 p.m. MT with tape delay to 8 p.m. PT.   more »

This has to be a sad day in down in Shiner, Texas, population 2,070. It looks like native son Lance Armstrong has jilted good-old Texas-brewed Shiner Bock for Michelob Ultra.

Armstrong has signed a 3-year agreement to be the pitchman for the light beer brand owned by Belgium-based brewing giant Anheuser Busch InBev. The cyclist was in St. Louis on Tuesday to announce the partnership at an Anheuser-Busch sales and marketing event.

But we thought Shiner Bock was his favorite beer.

Armstrong will appear in two TV commercials entitled "Little Bumps" and "Escalator" that will be aired beginning in 2010. His likeness also will appear with Michelob Ultra print ads, packaging and sales displays ...   more »

Lance Armstrong's Team RadioShack will head to Australia in January to make the Tour Down Under the first race for the new team.

The Tour Down Under rolls out Jan. 17-24, 2010, and is once again based in Adelaide. Armstrong's return to professional cycling at the bike race earlier this year boosted the attendance over previous years by about 50%.

Even a year after his announced return to cycling, Armstrong is still a big draw. His bike ride around Dublin after the close of his cancer summit there drew more than 1,000 bicyclists. Although he had hinted at a ride in Dublin's Phoenix Park earlier in the week, he gave the final details only hours before he set off. ....   more »

This wasn't a great day for US cyclists at two European bike races.

Lance Armstrong dropped out of a rain-drenched Tour of Ireland with a sore back, and Tyler Farrar lost his overall lead at the Eneco Tour through Belgium and The Netherlands.

Many came out to see the 7-time Tour de France winner for the final of the 3-stage Tour of Ireland in Cork on Sunday. CyclingNews said large crowds were at the finish, but were disappointed when Armstrong pulled out on the first circuit, never facing St. Patrick's Hill. ...   more »

Lance Armstrong won the Leadville 100 mountain bike race Saturday with some added drama -- a flat tire and crowds that blocked the finish line.

In spite of those setbacks, he set a new record over the grueling course.

The 7-time Tour de France winner finished the race in 6:28:50, that's 16:55 faster than the course record set last year when Leadville legend David Wiens beat Armstrong by about two minutes.

While Armstrong had an 18-minute lead on the defending champion near the end of the race, he lost time after his tire blew about 5 or 6 miles out. Then in Leadville, police had to push back the crowds that were blocking Armstrong from the finish.

The course record of 6:45:45 was set by Wiens in 2008. The entire 100-mile bike race takes place above the 9,000-foot elevation mark ....   more »

Lance Armstrong's career has taken a sharp turn from the road-bike to mountain-bike podium finishes in the past two weeks. He won the Blast the Mass championship at Snowmass on Saturday, just two weeks after finishing 3rd in the Tour de France.

His next big mountain bike challenge comes next Saturday for the Leadville 100. He'll be seeking to unseat six-time champion David Wiens, who beat him last year.

The 23-mile course that Armstrong raced on Saturday had nearly 4,700 feet of climbing. Here's how his closest challenger, Mountain States Cup points leader Jay Henry, explained the race to the Aspen Times: ...   more »

Apparently one of the biggest controversies in Aspen, Colorado, this week is whether the city should sponsor a "Lance Armstrong LiveStrong Day."

Aspen is Armstrong's new home, where he bought a $9 million home to live with Anna Hansen and their less than 2-month-old son Maxwell Edward Armstrong.

At Monday's City Council meeting Mayor Mick Ireland proposed a special celebration to commemorate Armstrong. He told the New York Times: "It seems perfectly appropriate to acknowledge someone who is a part-time resident."

Others don't see it that way. Councilmember Steve Skadron said it was a cheap way to capitalize on Armstrong's celebrity, and another said the city should focus its support on local athletes.

In an editorial "Enough of the idolatry," the Aspen Times writes ...   more »

When Lance Armstrong announced last September that he was coming out of retirement to race once again at the Tour de France, I only hoped that he wouldn't embarrass himself.

He dropped out of pro cycing for 3 1/2 years and had turned 38 years old. He might have been a little beyond his prime.

But Armstrong has proven the past three weeks that he still has the stamina and guts to compete at the elite level. Remarkably, he never fell out of the Top 10 and spent most of the race in either 2nd or 3rd place.

A podium finish in Paris is damn good. We can only wonder at the result if he had a team working for him instead of sharing loyalties with the eventual champion, Alberto Contador.

Unless something happens on the way to Paris on the final stage on Sunday, here's how he reached the podium:

Stage 1: 10th place, 40 seconds behind -- Armstrong holds the best time in the individual time trial for much of the day in Monaco. Fabian Cancellara won the stage. ...   more »

RadioShack is sponsoring the new, US-based ProTour cycling team that will highlight Lance Armstrong as team leader in 2010.

A website, TeamRadioShack.com, already has been registered where fans can sign up for email updates.

The announcement at the LiveStrong Blog says Armstrong "will compete as a cyclist, runner and triathlete at events around the world, including the 2010 Tour de France ...   more »

The wheels of justice are catching up to those two hapless co-defendants involved in the theft of Lance Armstrong's bike in Sacramento during the Tour of California in February, as some ironic details emerge.

The man charged with taking the three bicycles -- including Armstrong's one-of-a-kind time trial bike -- from the Astana truck has pleaded no contest and will be sentenced to a 3-year prison term on Monday.

The man who pleaded no contest to receiving the stolen property already has been sentenced to a 3 years, suspended, and 90 days in jail.

Three years in prison might seem a little harsh for taking a bicycle, but the Sacramento Bee reports the theft suspect, 40-year-old Lee Monroe Crider, has a police rap sheet that goes back 21 years in Sacramento. He was on probation for a bike theft at Sacramento State. ...   more »

The 2,000 participants in the inaugural LiveStrong Challenge in Seattle this Sunday might be disappointed to learn that Lance Armstrong won't be appearing at the charity bicycle ride.

Instead, Armstrong announced Tuesday that he and teammates Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner will be racing at the Nevada City Classic that day.

Responding on his Twitter account to a discouraged fan, Armstrong wrote:

"I hear ya. If it weren't for the TdF then I'd be there. Have to get some racing in prior to the big race. Tough to balance it all." ...   more »

It's not quite time for "Lights. Camera. Action!" for the Lance Armstrong biographical movie, but apparently plans are shifting into a higher gear.

The screenwriter for the movie "Seabiscuit," Gary Ross, has been hired to write a script for the movie based on Armstrong's first book, "It's Not About the Bike."

The film's producer, Frank Marshall, told the Risky Biz Blog that the tale of the pro cyclist and the race horse have certain similarities ...   more »

Lance Armstrong's fiance Anna Hansen gave birth to the couple's son, Maxwell Edward Armstrong, Thursday night  in Aspen.

Armstrong had rushed back to their home  immediately after the conclusion of the Giro d'Italia so he could be present for the birth.

Known for his penchant of Twittering news about himself, Armstrong immediately established a Twitter account for his son -- maxarmstrong1. He wrote that he just he'd had his first night of sleep "out here." ...   more »

That failed sprint up Pinos Altos in the Tour of the Gila last Sunday must have sent the message to Lance Armstrong that he's not ready to win the 3-week Giro d'Italia that starts on Saturday.

In a dramatic turnaround, the 7-time Tour de France winner announced Tuesday that he'll ride in support of Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer, the 3-time winner of the Tour of California and winner of last week's Tour of the Gila.

Armstrong had said early in his comeback season that he wanted to race to win the Giro; it would be his first appearance in bike race around Italy. But a broken collarbone suffered in a crash at the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon in March delayed his training ...   more »

You might think the odds that someone could beat Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer in an uphill stage finish are about the same as a 50-1 horse winning the Kentucky Derby.

Well, Mine That Bird won at Churchill Downs on Saturday and Phil Zajicek, 30, won the final stage of the Tour of the Gila in New Mexico on Sunday.

Leipheimer and Armstrong, teammates on Mellow Johnny's bike shop team for this year, did finish 1st and 2nd overall in the five stage Gila bike race; Zajicek finished in 3rd overall ...   more »