With Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (results), the Belgian professional bicycle racing season has begun. Races are contested in the capricious spring weather, on devastatingly steep hills called hellingen, winding roads, and the cobbles known as pavé. Only cycling's true hardmen win these Spring Classics. [more inside]
posted by entropone on Feb 27, 2012 - 9 comments

L'Eroica in Italy offers something truly unique: a race on ancient roads using obsolete bikes, surrounded by gorgeous scenery and fuelled by a mouth-watering selection of food and wine. [Official site]
posted by bread-eater on Mar 10, 2011 - 19 comments

Why is (Radio) Shack -- a company that only markets to North Americans -- spending $20 million sponsoring Lance Armstrong and his team as he spends a year racing bicycles mostly in Europe? "Somewhere, someone has a Venn diagram showing the crossover between electronics geeks and cyclists. I’m sure those two sets have a lot of crossover." [more inside]
posted by ardgedee on Sep 4, 2009 - 78 comments

As the Tour de France concludes, let's spend a moment commemorating the derrière garde of world-class cycling, those bad enough to come in last but never bad enough to fail, les Lanternes Rouge. If Wim Vansevenant can retain his tenacious hold on 145th place in Sunday's stage he will be the worst cyclist to complete the Tour de France for three consecutive years and set a Tour record. You can, indeed, win by losing. [more inside]
posted by ardgedee on Jul 26, 2008 - 53 comments

I Finally own a Zipp Wheel… A little story of how a bike racing fan came to own a fancy, schmancy carbon race wheel during the recently concluded Tour of California. [more inside]
posted by turbodog on Feb 28, 2008 - 48 comments

The 10th day? A day of rest. Thank goodness for Caroline Yang's TdF photos. Ever wondered why McEwan rides so hard to stay in Green? What Ukrainian joy looks like? When you can wear socks with sandals? She's also got some decent shots of speed skating (oh, and real blood sports, like weddings).
posted by OmieWise on Jul 10, 2006 - 16 comments

An open letter to Lance Armstong.
Subject: Minor changes to your screenplay. You mean once he starts winning, he just keeps winning? There's never a serious doubt that he'll keep winning? It gets a little predictable, Lance. Think about this for a second: Rocky lost in the first movie, and that's the only one that was any good.
posted by RockyChrysler on Dec 8, 2005 - 41 comments

Odyssey 2000 has finally ended but many of the riders had complaints (and one person even lost a leg in Sweden).
posted by gluechunk on Feb 2, 2001 - 4 comments