bicycle.net -- cycling news, product reviews, original essays, podcasts & video :: tour de france 2008

Mario Cipollini made his return to the pro peloton last week in the Tour of California. Riding for the controversial Rock Racing team, “Super Mario” arrived in California the day before the race was to begin. He brought his own bike with him as well, instead of the De Rosa bikes the Rock team were [...]

For the third year in a row, Sausalito hosted the stage one start of the Tour of California. Also for the third year, the crowds were enormous in the quaint seaside town. As the team busses pulled into the staging area ahead of the race a few hours before start time, crowds were already on [...]

Young and old, big and small, from close by and far away, droves of cycling enthusiasts descended on Palo Alto Sunday to view the best cyclists in the world for the Tour of California prologue. A user-friendly experience, the prologue time trial course for the Tour was great for those looking to take in the [...]

As the 2008 Tour of California prepares to commence in Palo Alto on Sunday, an unprecedented field of talent will line up to contest the eight stage race. As in previous years, the field will be choc-full of talent, more so even than in the previous two editions of the race. In looking at the [...]

As cyclists, we’ve had almost as tough a run lately as your neighborhood mortgage banker or your favorite post-teen Hollywood starlette.  Seems we just can get no respect. 
More troubling, is that we often don’t exactly give it, either. A short and vastly incomplete list of Some Things We Don’t Like would include –
-          [...]

130mph? On a bike. Yeah… right. Yes, right!
Enough with the news about Floyld Landis for a moment… gravity beats chemistry as Austrian rider Markus Stoeckl used a Chilean ski slope with a 45 degree drop to get up to speed. The 33-year-old broke the world record for downhill series mountain bikes [...]

When most people think of bicycle frames, they have in mind materials running the gamut of aluminum, chrome-moly steel and carbon fiber. Not so a timber technology student in Germany. For his two-wheeled creation, he turned to the beech tree.
More specifically, Jens Eichler got himself some sheets of beech plywood, along with a strong glue [...]

Ten years ago, a Santa Cruz shop owner’s dog got him thinking. Now he hopes his concept will take root in Africa.
By J. Michael Kennedy, Times Staff Writer
June 18, 2007
Funny where an idea will take you. Ten years ago, Luna the dog — part pit bull and part Labrador retriever — was gnawing on a [...]

Giving your favorite cyclist a woodie has just taken on a new meaning.
Wired and Gizmodo discuss a wood bicycle by Jano.
Techchee brings us more wood gadgets.
For the environmentally-minded bike fan, would (wood?) a biodegradable bicycle appeal to you?

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) — Ryan Lipscomb lived to tell how it felt to have a truck run over his head. “Really strange,” he said.
Lipscomb, 26 of Seattle, suffered a concussion but was otherwise unhurt. He was shaken up, especially after he saw his mangled helmet.

Lipscomb, a graduate student in medical physics at the University of [...]

Solvang, CA. Veloguy spent the day hanging on at the time trials at the Amgen Tour of California. Beautiful day, weather was perfect, light wind for the early riders, wind got stronger, making it more difficult for the lead riders to go off at the end.
Without a [...]

We featured an article about Monica Howe early last month, Street Safety for Roadies, when she was featured in the Los Angeles Times.
I’ll repeat what I said then: We should all strive to make our cities more bike friendly. Lets get busy, raise our voices, and be heard. We have a right to roads [...]