With some of the hot-shot sprinters dropped on an earlier climb, Norway's Thor Hushovd won Stage 6 against a reduced field in Murcia on Thursday.

It was the third career Vuelta victory for the 32-year-old, who rides for Cervelo. Belgian cyclist Phillipe Gilbert of Omega Pharma-Lotto ....   more »

Just because Black Hawk, Colorado, banned bicycling on nearly every street through town doesn't mean that they wouldn't welcome a bunch of conventioneering bicycle-types.

That's what Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, learned when he opened an e-mail solicitation from a Black Hawk casino asking him to steer some business its way. His description of Black Hawk sums up his reaction:

"... an unlikely destination for a national bicycling organization to choose for a meeting, unless perhaps we are planning some civil disobedience, or a field trip to see what life would be like ...   more »

When it comes to tripping a traffic signal with your bicycle, many of us get the feeling -- "Does anybody know I'm here?"

Those loops in the pavement don't always pick up your bike, especially if it's shy on steel or other metal parts.

Depending on where you live, sometimes pavement markings show where to line up. Placing your front tire on the "T" is supposed to work in Seattle, while "X" marks the spot in Bellevue.

Neighboring Redmond, Washington, has produced a video that gives some guidance on how a cyclist can trigger a stop light if there aren't any pavement markings.

Since July 2009, Washington state law requires that intersections with traffic sensor devices be able to detect bicycles .....   more »

Tyler Farrar certainly looked like he's over whatever has been ailing him as he beat Mark Cavendish in a man-to-man bike sprint to the finish on Stage 5 of the Vuelta a Espana on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old sprinter from Wenatchee, Washington, won the stage without benefit of a lead-out from teammates on his Garmin-Transitions cycling team.

In the closing kilometer of the race, he sat near the front behind ...   more »

French pro cyclist Laurent Fignon died at age 50 on Tuesday after battling cancer for the past year.

Although he won the Tour de France in 1983 and 1984, he was best known to Americans as the cyclist who lost the Tour to Greg LeMond by 8 seconds in 1989 on the final day of the race.

On a visit to France during the early 1990s, I had the opportunity to grab a photo of Fignon riding at the head of the peloton with Miguel Indurain (in yellow, of course) and Claudio Chiappucci (in the polka dot jersey). He was easy to recognize with his receding hairline and long blond hair.

Talking to my French brother-in-law later....   more »

One of the freshest faces at the Vuelta a Espana this year is US pro cyclist Tejay van Garderen, who is making a mark at his first Grand Tour.

In Tuesday's hard-fought Stage 4 with its steep climb at the finish, for instance, Van Garderen finished just 8 seconds behind the day's winner, Igor Anton (Spain) of Euskaltel Euskadi.

That helped preserve the 22-year-old cyclist's position in the Top 10 for the fourth day. He's currently sitting in 6th place, 29 seconds behind overall leader Phillipe Gilbert ..   more »

Albuquerque officially opened a new bicycle bridge over the Rio Grande River on Monday that helps link the city's 400-some miles of bicycle paths and trails.

The $6.9 million bridge just north of I-40 is named for Gail Ryba, the founder of Bike ABQ, the city's first bicycle advocacy group. She died of cancer earlier in May.

The Gail Ryba Memorial Bridge, together with the approaches, is about a mile long. It was built with $5.3 million in federal stimulus funds, along with $1.3 million kicked in by the city.

It provides a central link for the the north-south Paseo Del Bosque Trail ...   more »

Imagine that you're 70 years old and you have completed an organized bicycle century ride in all 50 states between 2002 and 2009. What's next?

If you're Al Emma of Exton, Pennsylvania, you keep rolling down the road on your bicycle.

Just about the time he was wrapping up his 50 100-milers in July 2009, Emma had started on his next endeavor -- riding a 100-mile century in each of the 10 Canadian provinces.

He started with the Southern Ontario Century Ride in Alliston on May 23, 2009 and completed the cycle with The Fredericton Freewheelers Century Ride in New Brunswick just a couple of weeks ago on Aug. 22 ...   more »

 If you're bicycling anywhere on the eastern half of the TransAmerica Bicycle Route over the next six weeks, keep an eye open for a cyclist wearing a yellow T-shirt that says "Tour de Frank: 1976 - 2010."

Wave, give him a thumbs up, or even stop for a chat. That's Frank van Dijk, a fragment of bicycle touring history.

The 58-year-old Dutchman is finishing his Bikecentennial tour that he started 34 years ago.

Frank was one of thousands who took to the road in 1976 to cross the United States by bicycle to celebrate the nation's 200th anniversary. Frank set out with a group of 179 cyclists called "The Dutch Apples" who left the Pacific Coast to ride east to Yorktown, Virginia.

Unfortunately for Frank, an elderly motorist ran into him with her Buick ....   more »

Here's some good news for the bicycling weekend road warriors of King County.

The new bridge on S.E. May Valley Road is finished and the road is open at least three days ahead of schedule.

The creek crossing on the lightly-traveled rural road between Newcastle and Issaquah has been closed since June 21 for a bridge replacement project. I just passed there Friday afternoon (Aug. 27) and the bridge was open ....   more »

The 2010 Vuelta a Espana rolls out one cycling team at a time on Saturday as the three-week Grand Tour across the Spanish countryside opens with a 10-mile team time trial.

Live broadcasts of the Vuelta a Espana can be viewed on the Universal Sports cable channel (check local listings) every day of the bike race, Saturday through Sept. 19. UniversalSports.com will provide live steaming coverage of every stage, plus other extras, at its website for $14.99.

Many of the cyclists who came up short during this year's Giro d' Italia or Tour de France will be battling for a final shot at a Grand Tour victory -- the coveted red jersey.

The Vuelta is celebrating its 65th edition by changing the leader's jersey from golden to red, the same color as Spain's national teams. The red jersey won't be awarded until after Stage ....   more »

Leave it to the Centers for Disease Control to boil down the human toll of highway carnage into cold, hard cash.

A report issued by the agency this month finds that the costs of medical care and lost productivity related to deaths and injuries in crashes surpasses $99 billion a year. Bicyclists' share of that is about $5.4 billion annually.

The study, entitled "Traffic Injury Prevention," reports that the U.S. is falling behind the traffic safety gains many other developed nations are making.

It concludes that there are some strategies that could save lives and prevent injuries. One of those is mandatory bicycle helmet use. That's definitely a hot-button issue among bicyclists, although the CDC authors focus their discussion on bicycle helmet use among children ....   more »

After I noticed this past weekend that Renton had lowered speed limits on the Cedar River Trail to 10 mph and imposed a $101 fine [see Monday's article], I contacted the Cascade Bicycle Club to see if they had an opinion about the city's action.

Here's the response from David Hiller, advocacy director for the Seattle-based bike club:

"We find Renton’s response to be unsound and grossly disproportionate. Though we promptly reached out to staff at the city following the tragic circumstances that led a pedestrian to die from a collision, none of our guidance was taken and, with the exception of one phone call from an apologetic staffer, the promised coordination never materialized.

"We continue to discuss mounting a full scale campaign to get Renton to reverse the course it has taken ....   more »

Update: Aug. 29, 2010 -- "Hundreds bike to honor Ohio woman...", Dayton Daily News. More than 300 cyclists pedaled to Michelle Kazlausky's funeral on Saturday.

Aug. 25, 2010 -- "Prosecutor reviewing death of Pelotonia rider," Columbus Dispatch. Coroner labels death a "homicide," but explains he doesn't have arrest powers and his ruling isn't a legal action.

Donations in memory of Michelle Kazlausky are pouring in to the Pelotonia fund-raising website after the woman was killed while participating in the Ohio-based charity bike ride on Saturday.

She was just one of some 4,200 cyclists who participated this past weekend in the Pelotonia, a two-day bike ride between Columbus and Athens that raises funds for cancer research.

Donors had pledged $7,500 in her memory as of 5:30 a.m. Monday. That amount had more than doubled to $16,500 by late Monday night. Many of the donations of $10 or $25 were given by fellow riders.

The public outpouring prompted her son, Jeff McMahon, to pledge to ride in the 2011 Pelotonia .....   more »

The City of Renton has lowered the speed limit for bicycles to 10 mph on most of the Cedar River Trail. Bicyclists must dismount on the remaining sections. [See maps below]

Violation of the speed limit carries a $101 fine, according to signs posted on the path.

The Cedar River Trail is a rail-trail that runs from the mouth of Lake Washington to Landsburg, a distance of about 17 miles. The restrictions of bicycle riders target only the western 4.5 miles of the trail in Renton.

The measures are a reaction to the death of an 83-year-old woman this spring after she stepped in front of a moving bicycle about a quarter-mile from where the trail passes under I-405.

Both the woman and the 57-year-old bicyclist fell to the ground and were knocked unconcious, according to news reports. The cyclist recovered at the scene, but the woman later died of her injuries at the hospital.

No charges were ever filed in that case. Renton's mayor and city council set about limiting or restricting bicycle use on the multi-use trail at its next meeting   more »

Levi Leipheimer notched his second championship for the month of August by hanging on to win the 6-stage Tour of Utah on Sunday.

The victory in the national-level road-race event follows his Aug. 14 victory and course record at the Leadville 100, a mountain bike race.

He won each bicycle race riding without the benefit of teammates. He represented RadioShack at Leadville and wore the Mellow Johnnys kit at the Tour of Utah.

Following the end of the Tour of Utah on Sunday ...   more »

My quest to ride by bicycle down all of King County's historic roads led me to a scenic stretch of pavement last week that I've pedaled along more than once.

What I hadn't realized is that West Snoqualmie River Road dates back to among the earliest byways in the hills and valleys between Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains and hasn't changed that much over the years.

The "Dan Henrys" painted on the pavement for the Tour de Peaks and other rides attest to this lightly traveled roads' popularity among bicyclists. It's flat, winding, and passes organic vegetable farms, horse farms as well as dazzling fields of flowers grown for market ....   more »

People in Andover, Massachusetts, aren't surprised anymore when they see Garth Lockhart riding around on his bicycle with the front wheel in the air.

The 30-year-old native of the West Indies is in training to pop a wheelie and ride it  down the road and right into the Guinness Book of World Records.

He'll attempt the feat on Sept. 12 by riding his mountain bike along Route 28 from his home in Andover to a bike shop in Salem .....   more »

If you have a few minutes and feel like commiting an act of bicycle advocacy this weekend, consider sending an email to your state's governor.

The League of American Bicyclists has a form letter that you can easily send word-for-word, or in your own words, that asks your governor to share the upcoming federal funding cutbacks among all transportation programs.

Based on past experiences, the League is concerned that programs that traditionally support pedestrian and bicycle projects will be singled out for the cutbacks ...   more »

There hasn't been much news lately about Frank Marshall's ("Indiana Jones", "Bourne" series) plans to make a movie about Lance Armstrong's life.

But there's another bicycling movie in the works. Filmmaker and retired bicycle adventurer Kevin Foster says he has a commitment from the Chinese government for funds to produce a film about his own life.

Why make a movie about Kevin Foster, you ask?

Twenty years ago Foster made headlines by becoming the first person, and an American at that, to ride his bicycle over a thousand miles of what was left of the Great Wall of China ....   more »

A high school junior is organizing a charity bicycle ride for this Saturday up in Blaine on the Canadian border to raise funds for a family whose daughter is undergoing treatment for leukemia.

Olivia Sellinger pitched in to help when she heard that Jessica Walters, her 3-year-old neighbor, had been diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the blood or bone marrow. Sellinger used to babysit for Jessica.

When she heard that Jessica was undergoing chemotherapy at Children's Hospital in Seattle, Sellinger began raising money to help offset the family's medical bills and launched plans for the "Ride for the Warrior Princess" bike ride ...   more »

One of the biggest misconceptions held by members of the motoring public -- especially when they relate to bicyclists -- is that they own the road because they pay for it.

Not true. Road construction and maintenance is paid for by a myriad of taxes, of which gasoline taxes are only one part. In fact, most cyclists also own cars, so they pay their fair share of gas taxes as well.

One place where motorists won't be making that argument, however, is Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society raised funds to help pay for a road repaving on a popular bicycling road ....   more »

We all know that Seattle is one of the top bicycling cities in the US, usually ranked near the top with the likes of Portland, Boulder and Minneapolis on the lists for "best 10 cities for bicyclists."

But how do Seattle's neighboring cities rank?

The Cascade Bicycle Club set out to determine that and published its results in a six-page publication -- Puget Sound Bicycle Scorecard -- released this week.

The top city was Kirkland, followed closely by Redmond and Renton. Bringing up the bottom of the list were Federal Way and Shoreline. ....   more »

I can ride my bike with no handlebars, but I can't  write and send a Twitter message while I pedal along.

But Janeen McCrae can.

That's because McCrae rides Precious, a bicycle that's been outfitted with sensors and electronics that enable it to send out Tweets with the push of a button. Actually, McCrae and Precious collaborate on the Twitter messages.

McCrae is riding Precious from coast-to-coast on Adventure Cycling's TransAmerica Bicycle Route to raise money for the Livestrong Foundation ....   more »

Leave it to the guy who's never competed on a mountain bike before to win one of the premier off-road bike races in the U.S.

Levi Leipheimer won the Leadville 100 mountain bike race on Saturday, setting a new course record in the process. His RadioShack teammate and defending champion, Lance Armstrong, didn't race due to injuries sufferd in the Tour de France.

Listening to his comments after the race, it sounds like the 36-year-old left it all out on the 100-mile Rocky Mountain route that ranges between 9,000 and 13,000 feet.

"Twenty miles to go, I didn't care if I was an hour behind or a half an hour ahead, I just wanted to get it done .... It was just torturous. .....   more »

A cyclist from the U.K. is riding across the U.S. on a bicycle with three goals in mind: To travel. To share. To inspire.

But Dominic Gill isn't making the journey alone. He's riding from the rear seat of a tandem bicycle that's outfitted so the captain sits in back and the stoker rides and pedals out front.

Gill's passengers are all people whose physical impairments would make it impossible for them to make the trip on their own.

Keith Rogers at the Las Vegas Review Journal writes about one of those passengers, Carlos Terrazas, 22, who has been blind since birth.....   more »

Apparently enough Republican voters in Colorado believed in Dan Maes's conspiracy theory regarding bicycling and the U.N. to support his run for governor.

The businessman told an audience last week about his fear that support of pro-bicycling projects, like the Denver B-cycle bike share program, were linked to a United Nations plot that would "threaten our personal freedoms."

His bicycling comments were roundly ridiculed in the past week, yet he must have touched a nerve. Voters in the Republican primary gave Maes a 1.3% margin over opponent and former congressman Scott McInnis, according to last night's returns .....   more »

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 »

A portion of the Cedar River Trail just east of Renton will be closed for repairs Aug. 16 - Sept. 3 as work crews repair damage to the levee from last year's storms.

The section to be closed starts at 154 Place SE and extends to 175 Avenue SE. That's essentially from the undercrossing just east of Ron Regis Park to the Riverbend Mobile & RV Park.

King County says the trail will be closed 24 hours a day and there will be no flagged reroute during construction.

To bypass the trail, bicyclists ....   more »

My bicycling buddy Kazuki and I are shown celebrating the exhilarating experience of crossing the soaring bridge over the Carbon River gorge on the way to Mount Rainier National Park this week.

This is one of the amazing landmarks on the way from our suburban Bellevue, Washington, neighborhood to our destination deep in the Mount Rainier National Park.

We had loaded up our mountain bikes and trailers and departed Thursday for a ride to the Ipsut Creek Campground. After spending the first night camping at the Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, our night spent in the wilderness campground inside the national park was completely different ....   more »

One of the Republican candidates for governor is expressing fear and loathing that pro-bicycling policies of his possible challenger in the fall elections is turning Denver into a stooge for the United Nations.

Dan Maes is quoted at length in the Denver Post saying essentially that Mayor John Hickenlooper's support of bicycle commuting -- as seen in the Denver B-cycle bike-sharing program -- could threaten personal freedoms.

Maes's comments were made at a campaign rally last week: 

"This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed ... This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms.... These aren't just warm and fuzzy ideas ...   more »

Colorado took the wrapper off its plans on Wednesday to host a week-long bicycle race next year entitled the Quizno's Pro Challenge.

Named for its sponsorship by the sandwich shop chain, the bike race is scheduled Aug. 22-28, 2011. It steps into the void left by the demise of the Tour of Missouri, which was unable to land a title sponsor during its short 3-year history.

Making the announcement were Lance Armstrong and Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter. Armstrong now makes his home in the Aspen area and has been lobbying Ritter for more than a year to host a bike race that would be a descendant of the famed Coors Classic ....   more »

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 »

It's too early to sign up for next year's STP, but it isn't too early to plan for the 200-mile bike ride.

The Cascade Bicycle Club released the dates for next year's Group Health Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic -- July 9 and 10, 2011.

As with all the Cascade bike rides next year, registration for members opens at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 4. Registration for nonmembers opens Feb. 1.

If history is any indication ....   more »

It's been a while since I've written about my monthly bicycling mileage totals, but July represents a good all-around biking month for me.

My monthly "tale of the tape" was a common topic of this blog back in 2008 when I was shooting for a 4,000-mile year; I finally achieved it by plowing my bike through the snow on the last day of the year.

With no goal in mind for 2009, I bicycled 2,496 miles. So far in 2010, I've covered 2,046 miles on either my road bike or mountain bike.

I don't have a hard and fast goal set for 2010, except for one objective: Stay ahead of Barry ....   more »

At least one of the 1,000 cyclists who rode in the Seattle Century on Saturday is all smiles after crossing Lake Washington on the I-90 bridge bike trail.

This was the last leg of the ride for the cyclists who headed from Seattle and into the eastside hills to the spectacular Snoqualmie Falls. The ride ended at Magnuson Park with ...   more »

Hundreds of cyclists dressed up in their favorite costumes and rode their bikes in the Tour de Fat bike parade around Seattle's Fremont neighborhood on Saturday.

The parade is the opening event in the day-long bike festival presented for the past three years here by New Belgium Brewery, for Fort Collins, Colorado.

After returning to the home base at Gas ...   more »

A RAGBRAI cyclist died after falling from his bicycle and two others suffered injuries from collisions with motor vehicles in the latter half of the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.

A 68-year-old RAGBRAI veteran died Friday from injuries he suffered when he clipped the tire of another bicycle and fell.

The man, Stephen Briggs of Waverly, Iowa, ...   more »

London launched its bike-sharing program on Friday, joining other forward-looking cities seeking to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality by making bicycles readily available.

The London system, dubbed Barclay's Cycle Hire for its sponsorship by the financial services chain, has distributed 6,000 bicycles to 400 docking stations.

That's a smaller start than the Velib system in Paris, which launched with 10,000 bicycles 3 years ago and has grown to 25,000 bicycles. But it's larger than two roll-outs in the US this summer -- Minneapolis's Nice Ride Minnesota with 700 bicycles at 65 kiosks and Denver B-cycle with 500 bicycles at 50 docking stations....   more »

For the Seattle bicycling community, the arrival of Tour de Fat is something like the circus coming to town.

The festival at Gas Works Park on Saturday is just one of the bicycling events in the Seattle area this weekend. Others include the return of the Seattle Century and a bike collection drive in West Seattle for the Village Bicycle Project.

This is the third visit to Seattle by Tour de Fat, a celebration of the bicycle put on by New Belgium Brewery, the makers of Fat Tire beer.

As always, the festival starts with a parade of decorated bicycles around the Fremont neighborhood .....   more »

Cyclists in the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina are coming to grips with the latest tragedy on local roads:

Two bicyclists riding single file along the white line were struck from behind by a Jeep Friday morning on a rural road south of the city. One cyclist, Donald Sunday, 62, of Winston-Salem, died at the scene. The other, Barry Leonard, 49, suffered a broken pelvis and rib.

News stories about the tragedy were accompanied by sinkening rants from motorists with a superior right to the roads....   more »

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa experienced an epiphany moments after he narrowly missed being right hooked by a taxicab and fell to the ground, breaking his elbow.

Bicycling in LA can really suck.

Mayor of LA since 2005, Villaraigosa already knew that his city needed to support bicycling as a way to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. He learned more about that by attending the climate conference in Copenhagen last December ....   more »

As I was wheeled down the hospital hallway to O.R. for prostate surgery a few years ago, I tried to carry on a conversation with the orderly about RAGBRAI, the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.

He'd been there with some friends and said it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Just before nodding out, I remember thinking, "If I ever get through this..."

Well, I got through it, but I haven't made it to RAGBRAI. Not yet. I give props to the 10,000 to 15,000 bicyclists who made plans to do the ride and are now on the road across the Hawkeye State for the 38th anniversary of the mass bike ride ....   more »

Here are some numbers that might be remembered as the books close on the 2010 Tour de France:

3 -- The number of career Tour de France championships won by Alberto Contador

0 -- The number of stage wins by Alberto Contador in the 2010 Tour de France

28 -- The number on the jerseys worn by Lance Armstrong's RadioShack team at the start of the final TdF stage and on the podium in Paris. Represents 28 million people living with cancer worldwide. The high commissioners of cycling threatened to disqualify them for this egregious breach of protocol. ....   more »

You might find it inspirational to learn that an 88-year-old man won three gold medals at the Connecticut Senior Games earlier this year.

But the back story for cycling enthusiast Bob Sawyer is so much more amazing than that.

A year earlier, the Bedford, Massachusetts, man had been hospitalized with lymphoma, complicated by pneumonia and the inability to eat because he could not swallow. His doctors had discovered the lymphoma on a CT-scan after he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.

So there he was in the hospital, wasting away. Everyone, including himself, had started to give up hope ...   more »

College students in a charity bicycling group that supports affordable housing on cross-country bicycle tours are mourning the loss of one of their fellow riders.

Paige Hicks of Chesterfield, Missouri, was struck and killed by a truck in South Dakota on Tuesday. She was a student at Brown University.

She was on her second cross-country bicycle ride for Bike & Build. The group organizes college students to raise money for affordable housing projects and help build houses at different locations as they ride their bikes coast-to-coast.

Hicks was riding the Providence, Rhode Island, to Seattle route this summer ....   more »

No one can beat Mark Cavendish if he can see the finish line from the front of the peloton.

He proved that again on Sunday when he won the final stage of the 2010 Tour de France in Paris.

The HTC-Columbia sprinter passed Alesandro Petacchi and Thor Hushovd on the Champs-Elysees, marking his 5th stage win at this year's Tour. It was his 15th career win at the Tour.

Decked out like a yellow canary, Alberto Contador finished comfortably in the pack to retain his lead and win his second consecutive Tour de France championship, the third of his career ...   more »

For just a moment on the road from Bordeaux to Paullac, it looked as if Andy Schleck was riding himself back into the lead in his battle with Alberto Contador for 2010 Tour de France championship.

Schleck attacked hard in the early part of the 32-mile individual time trial course, gaining 6 seconds on Contador at the first time check and coming with 2 seconds of regaining the yellow jersey.

That was as close as Schleck was going to get, however. Either Contador increased his tempo or Schleck began running out of gas, but Schleck started slipping back.

At the finish, the defending champion had beat his younger rival by 32 seconds ....   more »

Another mass sprint and another victory for Mark Cavendish at the Tour de France as the HTC-Columbia's speedster weaved through his rivals to win in Bordeaux on Friday.

While competing teams drove their sprinters toward the finishline, Cavendish coolly emerged from the pack and easily won his 4th stage of this year's Tour; the 14th of his career.

Meanwhile, there was no change in the overall standings as yellow jersey wearer Alberto Contador prepares for Saturday's individual time trial in anticipation of Sunday's championship in Paris. He still leads Andy Schleck by 8 seconds ....   more »

A British Olympic rowing star is recovering from head injuries suffered when he was struck from behind by a truck while bicycling across Arizona for a Discovery Channel film documentary.

James Cracknell and a crew, including his wife, were filming his cross-country challenge when the collision occurred on Tuesday between Flagstaff and Winslow on Interstate 40.

He was last reported to be concious and making a good recovery in a hospital in Winslow, although his cross-country adventure has been suspended ....   more »

The showdown on the Col Du Tourmalet lived up to expectations at the Tour de France on Thursday as Andy Schleck tried but failed to win back the yellow jersey he lost to Alberto Contador on Monday.

The contest for the yellow jersey on Stage 17 boiled down to the two men in the Pyrenees on the last climb of the race. Schleck attacked Contador time and again to close the 8-second gap, the Spaniard hung on.

The two appeared to glare at each other and exchange words. It's obvious there's no love lost between the two after Contador attacked Schleck on Monday as the Luxembourg cyclist struggled with a dropped chain. At the finish, however, the two exhausted competitors hugged and patted each others' backs. .....   more »

Lance Armstrong battled in the deciding breakaway on Stage 16 of the Tour de France all day on Tuesday only to bested in a 9-man sprint by stage winner Pierrick Fedrigo.

The 120-mile race over four major mountains came down to a sprint in the town of Pau as the overall race leaders struggled to stay together on the Col de Peyresourde, Col d'Aspin, Col du Tourmalet and Col d'Aubisque.

Although Andy Schleck wanted revenge on race leader Alberto Contador for winning the yellow jersey as he wrestled with a dropped chain on Monday, nothing came of that threat as Contador retained his 8-second lead.

This might have been Armstrong's swan song of the Tour de France ...   more »

I can't close off this cross-country bicycle trip without a postscript, because the tour really didn't end for me when we arrived in Oceanside. Still suffering from wanderlust, the trip ended for me up the Pacific coast with a chance meeting with another cyclist who had ridden ahead of us on our bike tour.

.... It made me realize that while we cross-country bicycle tourists are pedaling throughout the world, we're also cycling in our own world...    more »

A dropped chain cost Andy Schleck the yellow jersey at the Tour de France on Monday as Alberto Contador attacked after the mishap and made up more than the 31 seconds he had been trailing by.

The controversial decision by Contador to take advantage of a mechanical mishap on Stage 15 will surely dog him throughout the rest of the race. There are unwritten and debatable "rules" about gaining on adversaries who have crashed or suffered similar problems.

Angry and disappointed after the race, Schleck was asked whether he thought Contador's attack was fair:

"What's fair or not fair... it's not for me to decide. I would not have raced like that.

My stomach is full of anger. I want to take my revenge ....    more »

OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA -- Bruce and I achieved the goal -- to ride from coast to coast -- that we'd made up our minds to accomplish two years ago. It seems like the end arrived too soon.

Fittingly, this was one of the easiest days of the trip. From 2,727 feet, we were coasting down to sea level. Soon after leaving our pace quickened and we had to slow for switchbacks and suddenly we began passing orange groves. It was all so California. We passed a mission, but we didn't stop to investigate. As Lazy Louie would say, all the hills went down and we had the wind to our backs.

Traffic increased as we hit residential areas, and James nearly had a head-on as he sped around us in the van. We were all riding together, and each tried to be the first to spot the ocean. ...   more »

The two main rivals in this year's Tour de France battled so hard to outfox each other on the final climb of Ax Les Thermes on Sunday that they might have lost sight of the other competitors who finished ahead.

France's Christophe Riblon (AG2R) won the 114-mile Stage 14 from Revel to Ax-3 Domaines by joining a breakaway about 10 miles into the race. Riblon attacked and rode away from the break on the above-category Port de Pailheres and survived solo over the Ax Les Thermes.

Meanwhile, yellow jersey Andy Schleck and defending champion Alberto Contador played a game of cat and mouse as the race moved into the Pyrenees ...   more »

The last full day on the road ended in warm camaraderie making toasts around a picnic table. But it began much chillier than that for me.

I was slow waking up as I felt totally exhausted from the day before. I was finally breaking camp when I heard the crunch of tires on the road leading to the campsite. It was James in the blue van. Everyone was worried about me. They got an early start and would be passing by soon. He offered to carry my gear. No, I brought it this far, I'll take it the rest of the way.

I did take him up on the offer of water, though. A sign posted at the campsite spigot said the water wasn't potable.

He left, and by the time I got to the main road I assume they'd already passed. I was a little upset that my pride hadn't let me give my stuff to James. This extra gear was heavy ...   more »

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Some 10,000 bicyclists took to the streets in Seattle on Saturday morning for the 31st annual Seattle-to-Portland Bicycle Classic.

The popularity of this one- or two-day bike ride along 200 miles of scenic roads to Portland is growing every year. Although ridership has been capped at 10,000 for several years, registrations sold out in mid April. That's 2 1/2 months earlier than in 2009.

As you can see from these photos, the ride is not reserved for standard two-wheeled bicycles. There are recumbent bikes and trikes, handcycles, cargo bikes ....   more »

Say what you will about one-time suspended Alexandre Vinokourov, but the Kazakh cyclist makes things happen.

The Astana cyclist showed his fighting spirit for the second day in a row at the Tour de France on Saturday when he attacked the peloton on a climb near the finish.

Unlike Friday, when he was basically chased down by team leader Alberto Contador and finished 3rd overall, Vino extended his lead over the last 5 miles of the race on Saturday and won Stage 13 in Revel by 13 seconds.

Andy Schleck's overall lead of 31 seconds ahead of Contador remains unchanged...   more »

ANZA-BORREGO STATE PARK, CALIFORNIA -- Too much heat? Not enough water? Too much pedaling through the desert? Too close to the end of the trip? I can't explain it, but I isolated myself from the group today and rode up to a solitary campground in the desert.
Expecting another hot day, we set the alarm for 4:30 but didn't really get going for hours. We all stopped for pictures at the Arizona-California border then cycled on Interstate 8 near the Mexican border through an area aptly named the Imperial Sand Dunes.

Turning onto State Route 98, we left the sandbox and found ourselves in a lush farmland. Instead of sand blowing in our faces, we were pelted by thousands of small white butterflies flitting back and forth across the road between crops. ...   more »