Free Republic

Construction on a bike highway — hoped to connect communities to make high-speed, emissions-free commuting possible — is underway in Germany. But with funding in question, will this bikers’ dream still come true? […] The cost-benefit relation presented by the RVR is optimistic: Benefits equal nearly five times more than costs. Figures indicate the bike autobahn would save €11.5 million yearly on medical expenses due to the health benefits of greater physical activity and reduced pollution, while it would also save €6.3 million through prevented accidents. But money is lacking to complete the project, estimated at €184 million. For the...

Police in France are searching for the driver of a vehicle that tried to crash through a security barrier for the Tour de France, which ends in Paris later. The incident took place on the Champs-Elysees at about 08:00 local time, as the barriers were being put out. Officers opened fire on the car but the suspect drove away. The car was later found abandoned nearby. There is no suggestion of terrorism as a motive, according to the BBC's Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield. He says the car first hit a parked vehicle in the Place de la Concorde.

Another hugely dramatic day at the Tour de France, during which race leader Tony Martin abandoned the race with a fractured collarbone following a multi-rider pile-up and defending champion Vincenzo Nibali allegedly threw a bottle at new race leader Chris Froome, whom he accused of having caused the fall, ended in a racism controversy. It was claimed that an MTN Qhubeka rider was called a “f–– n––” during yesterday’s fourth stage of the Tour of Austria. The South African team’s principal, Doug Ryder, claimed last night that the incident was far from a one-off, alleging further racist abuse and bullying...

GENEVA (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry broke his leg in a bicycle crash Sunday, apparently after hitting a curb, and scrapped the rest of a four-nation trip that included an international conference on combating the Islamic State group. Kerry was in stable condition and in good spirits as he prepared to return to Boston for further treatment with the doctor who previously operated on his hip, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said. He said X-rays at a Swiss hospital confirmed that Kerry fractured his right femur. "The secretary is stable and never lost consciousness, his injury...

The Paris-Roubaix bicycle race in northern France features 32 teeth-chattering miles of cobbled roads. Landscaping apprentices help repair potholes along the way.

(CNN) -- "He never asked nor accepted any reward, because he was good and simple and did not think that one did good for a reward." (Primo Levi, If This Is A Man) Gino Bartali wanted to keep it to himself. How could a man, so famous and so revered, keep it a secret for so long? "Good is something you do, not something you talk about," Bartali once explained. "Some medals are pinned to your soul, not to your jacket." He was Italy's very own version of Babe Ruth -- a man whose personality, character and success transcended sport....

Armstrong was open about his doping with Crow, never suspecting that she would tell anybody about it. "Rather than try to hide the transfusion from her, Armstrong was completely open about it," the authors write, according to the Daily News. "He trusted that Crow would have no desire to tell the press or anyone else about the team's doping program. He explained that it was simply part of the sport - that all cyclists were doing the same thing."

The Department of Justice said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that cyclist Lance Armstrong was "unjustly enriched" while he used steroids to win multiple Tour de France titles. In the formal complaint, the Justice Department said they would seek triple damages against Armstrong, who admitted earlier this year that he doped to win his seven straight titles. The U.S. Postal Service paid some $40 million to appear as the title sponsor of Armstrong's team during six of those seven races. "Defendants were unjustly enriched to the extent of the payments and other benefits they received from the USPS, either directly...

Another day. Another scandal. Another high-profile celebrity headed to Oprah’s couch to express contrition and try to resuscitate his image. Today it’s Lance Armstrong, but tomorrow it will be someone else -- which is why I believe it’s time to say enough is enough. No more free passes for our children’s role models. I don’t know Lance Armstrong and apparently nobody else really did either. What I knew was the same cynically constructed fairy tale that he sold all of us: the inspirational story of a young cyclist who nearly died from cancer and was resurrected through the miracles of...

Lance Armstrong, who this fall was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping and barred for life from competing in all Olympic sports, has told associates and antidoping officials that he is considering publicly admitting that he used banned performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions during his cycling career, according to several people with direct knowledge of the situation. He would do this, the people said, because he wants to persuade antidoping officials to restore his eligibility so he can resume his athletic career.

After months of bad press, the greatest competitive cyclist of all time has officially hit rock bottom: The Lance Armstrong Foundation has dropped the name of its eponymous creator and will now be known as the Livestrong Foundation. Rest easy, Lance, it can’t get much – or is that any? – worse. His story is unparalleled, Shakespearean in scope and breadth. A cocky, gum-flapping athlete battled insurmountable odds after a devastating cancer diagnosis, his greasy soul barely slipping the surly clutches of a certain dirt nap. Ultimately, he rehabilitated his battered body and morphed into a champion. Not only did...

GENEVA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life on Monday after the International Cycling Union (UCI) ratified the United States Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) sanctions against the American. The long-awaited decision has left cycling facing its "greatest crisis" according to UCI president Pat McQuaid and has destroyed Armstrong's last hope of clearing his name. "Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling. Lance Armstrong deserves to be forgotten in cycling," McQuaid told a news conference as he outlined how cycling, long battered by doping problems for decades, would have to...

First of all, Lance Armstrong is a good man. There’s nothing that I can learn about him short of murder that would alter my opinion on that. Second, I don’t know if he’s telling the truth when he insists he didn’t use performance-enhancing drugs in the Tour de France — never have known. I do know that he beat cancer fair and square, that he’s not the mastermind criminal the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency makes him out to be, and that the process of stripping him of his titles reeks. A federal judge wrote last week, “USADA’s conduct raises serious questions...

AUSTIN, Texas - August 23rd, 2012 - There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, "Enough is enough." For me, that time is now. I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. Over the past three years, I have been subjected to a two-year federal criminal investigation followed by Travis Tygart's unconstitutional witch hunt. The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today – finished with this...

The Tour starts next Saturday, June 30th! Now I need to find my ping list & html templates!

Heading into Saturday’s Stage 20 time trial, Cadel Evans faced a 57-second deficit on the leaderboard that provided further drama to one of the most memorable races in recent years. With confident, dominant performance, he not only made up the gap to catch Andy Schleck, but blew past the overall leader to claim the yellow jersey and ensure a calm, celebratory ride down the Champs Champs- Élysées — glass of champagne in hand. Evans, a 34-year-old Australian, became the first Aussie to capture the most prestigious title in the sport and the second oldest rider to win the race since...

ST. FLOUR, France - Tour de France riders were furious after two of their number were injured in a crash involving a television car on Sunday's ninth stage. Spaniard Juan-Antonio Flecha crashed to the ground while Dutchman Johnny Hoogerland went flying into a barbed-wire fence. "He was lying in the barbed wire, completely in it, in the barbs, his pants were completely off, he was completely naked," said Michale Cornelisse, the sports director of Hoogerland's Vacansoleil team after rescuing his rider from a ditch. "I just saw him flying through the air. He has deep cuts in his legs, he...

Cycling News is reporting that the Spanish Cycling Federation has suspended three-time, now two-time, Tour de France winner Alberto Contador for one year.

All do respect to Andy Schleck but Fabian Cancellara is a two time winner of Paris Roubaix, the defending champion at the Tour of Flanders and is a four-time World Time Trial Champion. With credentials like that, Cancellara should be just as big a cog in the Leopard Trek machine as Schleck (if not bigger) and I wanted to know how the move was going to affect him?