Wasn't Lance Armstrong's seventh straight Tour de France bike race championship a big deal last summer? I remember lots of non-bicyclists following it on TV and in the newspaper, and OLN scoring its highest ratings ever during the event. In spite of that, competitive cycling was mostly ignored for nominations in the Sports Emmy Awards. The 27th annual awards event for TV sports is scheduled May 1. ...   more »

I often joke about being able to fix anything with a roll of duct tape, a tube of Crazy Glu or a can of WD-40. But I didn't even think of those when my right STI shifter on my bicycle stopped working.

My LeMond Tourmalet bicycle is six years old, and I always thought one of its coolest features were the STI shifters -- brakes and gear shifters all in one. Apparently riding in these wet, cold Northwest winters took its toll on these Shimano components, because a couple of weeks ago the right one stopped shifting. ...   more »

If it's true that one is an accident, two is a trend, and three is a movement, then the appearance of bicycles on wine bottle labels has become a movement as far as I'm concerned.

I wrote about labels on two wines yesterday -- Cycles Gladiator and Red Bicyclette. Then DT from the Fat Boy Deluxe Weblog left a comment about a third, Hill of Content.

I'm always impressed by the breadth of experience of people who contact me. ...   more »

The League of American Bicyclists has updated its website, and one of the coolest features is a search page called FindIt.

Member and nonmember cyclists can go to this page to search for local advocacy groups, bicycle clubs, bike shops, instructors and certification seminars, bike education courses, and league rides and events. ...   more »

 I'm not sure about the connection between drinking wine and bicycling, but some marketers of vino apparently want to create one.

Cycles Gladiator from Hahn Estates in California is the newest label sporting a bicycle -- and a red-haired nymph. Oh la la!

It joins Red Bicyclette, a French wine that I was surprised to learn comes from none other than mass wine producer E & J Gallo in Modesto, California. ...   more »

Remember earlier this month when Ohio University campus police went all "homeland security" on a bicycle that displayed the sticker "This Bike is a Pipe Bomb"?

College officials in Athens say they'll reimburse the owner for the bike that was first sprayed with high pressure hoses then ripped apart by hydraulic cutters known as the jaws of life. The owner, grad student Patrick Hanlin, could get between $800 and $1,000 to replace the Cannondale T700, a touring bicycle. ...   more »

I'm trying to hammer through our 2005 federal tax return before the mid-April deadline, and I come across a tax break reminder for hybrid car owners. I started thinking, "Why not bike commuters?"

The owners of fuel-efficient hybrids are being reminded to report their $2,000 tax deduction if they bought their hybrid before the end of 2005. Anyone who buys one this year might be eligible for up to a $3,400 tax credit, depending on the make and model, when they file in 2007.

But how about bicyclists? Don't they reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels to a big fat ZERO? ...   more »

The stories this bicycle could tell.

Some 30 years after the Schwinn delivery bicycle was stolen from its rightful owner in Portland, Kentucky, it's back in the family home again. The bike belonged to John Eaton, known locally as "The Bicycle Man," and was as well-known around town as Eaton. ...   more »

I thought fans of multi-day group bicycle tours in Maine might be out of luck this year after the Maine Wheels Bicycle Club announced it was taking a year off from both its Moose Tour and Coastal Tour in 2006.

But there's still the Trek Across Maine, a three-day supported bike tour across 180 miles of blue highways. It's a fund-raiser for the Maine Lung Association and 1,400 cyclists already have signed up, representing more than a quarter million dollars in pledges. It's just one of more than 70 multi-day bike tours this year ...   more »

Floyd Landis, the 30-year-old American bicyclist, already has two big victories under his belt in 2006: the inaugural Tour of California in February and this month's Paris-Nice.

So, instead of jumping into the Giro d'Italia in May, the team leader of the Swiss Phonak team is going to skip that three-week race to concentrate on the Tour de France in July. ...   more »

Moses Mathis, known as "The Bicycle Man" throughout the Sand Hills of North Carolina, might have to saddle up and move out over a lease dispute with the owner of the warehouse.

Mathis has been repairing children's bicycles and giving them away since 1991. The Tiffany Pines Community Outreach Center, which he founded in Fayetteville, North Carolina, has given away more than 8,000 bicycles to area children; 700 this past Christmas alone. ...   more »

President Bush's exploits aboard his Trek mountain bicycle are legend. But until this minute I didn't know that VP Dick Cheney was a bike enthusiast as well.

Make that a stationary bike enthusiast. According to the New York Times, Cheney's aides have been seen loading and unloading an exercise bicycle from Air Force II on his visits around the country. ...   more »

When it comes to poor bike lane designs and obstructions, some of the worst can be seen at the Warrington (UK) Cycle Campaign website.

Pete Owens has been collecting photos of truly bizarre bike lane attractions from around the UK since 2001. This image of a phone booth erected in a bicycle path is just one of dozens chosen as a winner in his "Cycle Facility of the Month" contest. ...   more »

Mountain bikers are known for eating dirt out on the course. The Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew program is designed to interest bikers who like to dig in the dirt as well.

The crew, sponsored by the car manufacturer and the International Mountain Bicycling Association, teaches volunteers and park service trail builders how to build trails that last, create minimal impact ...   more »

German cyclist Jan Ullrich will be back in the saddle at the Giro d'Italia in May, but just to tune-up for the Tour de France in July.

Ullrich, touted by Lance Armstrong as the best candidate to win this year's Tour de France, was said to be in outstanding shape when he arrived at the T-Mobile camp this spring, but has yet to race. Hmm...   more »

Gavin Rees, who boasts that he has more metal in his head than anyone else in Europe, is planning a summer fund-raising bike tour from the UK to L'Alpe D'Huez.

The 29-year-old teacher has 24 titanium plates and 131 screws in his head. The metal was put in to reconstruct his skull after he fell more than 100 feet after colliding with his friend while skiing in the Alps. ...   more »

"Every time I see a cyclist go over the Golden Gate Bridge and then look like he's lost and doesn't know what to do next, I think, 'We can do better than this.'" ...   more »

Cyclists who want to taste a small slice of Americana at 12 to 14 mph might be happy to know that the League of Illinois Bicyclists and the state have published a map of Illinois' Route 66 Trail.

Roger Kramer's Favorite Cycling Tours brings us the news that the maps with north to south (Chicago to St. Louis) cue sheets are available online.

For safety reasons, much of the 380-mile route doesn't actually use Old Route 66. You can't get many kicks if you're worried about getting run down on a busy highway. ...   more »

A Florida family is taking to the road this spring to bicycle from their  home to Washington state to prove "you can do anything."

Ron and Kate Nunes, with their 6-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, right, are pursuing the cross-country bicycle tour to raise awareness and funds for a group that offers support for orphanages in China. ...   more »

Next month's Ford Tour of Georgia bicycle race will feature six ProTour cycling teams in what organizers are touting as the only 2. Hors Classe race in North America.

Signed to compete are Team CSC (Denmark), Phonak (Switzerland), Davitamon-Lotto (Belgium), Prodir-Saunier Duval (Spain), Discovery Channel (USA), and Quick.Step (Belgium).

Although team rosters are not due until April, TdG organizers say they have commitments from 2005 winner Tom Danielson (Discovery), and 2006 Tour of California and Paris-Nice winner Floyd Landis (Phonak). ...   more »

How much would you pay to be the first bicyclist to pedal through a newly completed tunnel on a major rail-to-trail network?

An anonymous donor has ponied up $1,576 for the honor to ride a bicycle through the soon-to-be completed Big Savage Tunnel on the Allegheny Highlands Trail in Pennsylvania. But the donor isn't making the ride; it's a gift to a cyclist who will be named at the April 8 grand opening ceremony.

The Big Savage Tunnel is a 3,300-foot-long cut ...   more »

A few weeks ago I wrote about a short piece about the film B.I.K.E. (Black Label bike club documentary), an entry at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

A writer over at Dirt Rag has seen the film, and offers this review -- B.I.K.E. Movie Review. The film will be shown at the 6th Annual Bicycle Film Festival, which may be coming to a theater near you this summer. 

It sounds like it's as much about the filmmaker as it is about New York's chapter of the Black Label Bicycle Club, the group of "tall bike" riders that the film is purportedly about. ...   more »

www.flickr.com

There's nothing like being one of the first cyclists on a new bike path to instill that pioneering spirit.

After hearing from the Cascade Bicycle Club that the 11-mile East Lake Sammamish Trail between Issaquah and Remond was set for an opening ceremony Tuesday, I thought I'd head out there early.

I found a packed gravel trail -- I'd call it a bike path but walkers and joggers were using it too -- that had very few tires mark running through it. ...   more »

Bob "Tour DAY France" Roll is one of the newest members of the blogosphere.

The slightly twisted cycling commentator for Outdoor Life Network since 2000 is a former bike racer and author. Known as Bobke (Boob-ka), his new website comprises links to columns he's written for OLN, a Q and A, as well as his blog, entitled The Blog-ke. ...   more »

Not surprisingly, Milan-San Remo reads like quite a battle, with a 24-year-old QuickStep cyclist taking control of the sprinters at the close of the 6 1/2-hour race over 180-some miles.

Italian Filippo Pozzato (QuickStep) won the classic, followed closely by Alessandro Petacchi (Team Milram).

The only American in the bike race, Guido Trenti, played a part in helping teammate ...   more »

What do you do if you're 60 and suffer a brain aneurysm that renders you without the ability to read or write?

If you're Megan Timothy, left, you work hard for two years to recover your lost ability to communicate, write a book, sell it to a publisher and climb on a touring bicycle to make a cross-country book promotion tour.

"Because I've always been an adventurer, I'm going on this little adventure to prove myself whole again." ...   more »

(See update below: "Back to reality") Joe at the BikingToronto blog has an excellent summary of 8 strategies he uses to deal with traffic on his daily commute. He put in a lot of work on this and it's worth a look and a read.

You're probably familiar with most, if not all of these; I've read them all before, except one, at one place or another but it's always good to review. A couple are controversial, especially the debate between "taking the lane" or "staying way the hell to the right." Another of his secrets is a pretty good piece of common sense. ...   more »

Take a look at the Instructables website and you quickly realize that American ingenuity is not dead -- it's hard at work in the garage or basement.

The collaborative website offers step-by-step directions on how to make anything, including dozens of posts on making bicycles and biking accessories, as well as making stuff from old bicycle parts. ...   more »

What did the ads used to say for Benson & Hedges cigarettes? "You've come a long way baby!" Yeah, you ladies have come a long way toward increasing your cancer rate to that of men by smoking.

I'm thinking the same thing about Lance Armstrong this morning. The Tour de France blog cites a couple of sources that report Armstrong will drive the pace car in the upcoming Indianapolis 500. It probably will be a Corvette Z06....   more »

"You reach the top of a mountain pass … it’s real … it does something to you. Humping up a steep 1,000-foot elevation with 40 pounds of gear, it’s hard. You’ve accomplished something. And there’s still all this country there before you.”   more »