Usa Cycling

Cycling isn't just about getting a good bike -- it's also about learning how to become a great rider. Join a live web chat on Monday, July 18, at 11 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. CT, 2 p.m. EST) with top cycling coach Joe Friel and learn tips that will make your training more efficient. Friel is a USA Triathlon and USA Cycling certified elite-level coach and has written 10 books on training for endurance athletes. Based in Scottsdale, Ariz., he has a master's degree in exercise science and is the founder of the Web-based TrainingBible Coaching . While a serious training program is essential for building endurance, speed and strength, so are recovery days.

Kristin Armstrong was blazing fast when she won the Amgen Tour of California women's time trial last month in Bakersfield. She was, as Phil Keoghan, host of Amazing Race and owner of a women's cycling team, said, "racing a different race. " And less than two weeks later, while competing in a stage race in her hometown of Boise, Armstrong, 38, took a hard fall and broke her right collarbone. For a moment, Armstrong thought her third chance at the Olympics was over. She won a gold in the time trial four years ago in Beijing.

Mark Whitehead, a member of the U.S. track cycling team that participated in blood doping during the 1984 Summer Olympics, creating a scandal that led to the practice being banned from the sport, has died. He was 50. Whitehead died in Frisco, Texas, while attending the USA Cycling Junior Track National Championships, USA Cycling announced Wednesday . The organization said no further details were available. His 20 national championships included the team pursuit in 1984, which contributed to his being chosen for the U.S. squad that competed in the Los Angeles Games, the cycling website VeloNews reported . Encouraged by their coach — and less than a week before the Olympics — Whitehead and seven other members of the U.S. cycling team took "advantage of the dubious practice called blood boosting," David Wallechinsky wrote in "The Complete Book of the Olympics.

Every family has its daily rituals. Loretta Butler's involves dragging a lawn chair onto the yellowed grass in the backyard of her Gardena home and watching daughter Patricia climb into a blue-gray plastic trash can filled with water and 28 pounds of ice. "For 15 minutes every day we just sit and talk about nothing," she says. "There's nothing that means more than that to me. " It's a good thing she values the visits because Butler, an unemployed waitress, has been paying as much as $600 a week for the privilege.

The launch of the Tour of California, an eight-day, 700-mile road cycling race modeled after the famed Tour de France, will be announced today at the Home Depot Center in Carson between sessions of the Track Cycling World Championships. Executives of AEG, the international cycling federation (UCI) and USA Cycling will outline the concept for the race, which will take place early next year on a route to be determined.

Question: My 8-year-old son, Blake, is a real bike enthusiast. He rides his bike year-round--rain or shine--to school, and although my husband and I have offered to enroll him in soccer, basketball, baseball or any sport of his choice, he's adamant about cycling. I try to nurture his enthusiasm by taking him to skate parks where he can practice and play on the ramps, but there's no instructor or coach around to help out. Where can we take him to learn more about cycling as a sport?

Kristin Armstrong was blazing fast when she won the Amgen Tour of California women's time trial last month in Bakersfield. She was, as Phil Keoghan, host of Amazing Race and owner of a women's cycling team, said, "racing a different race. " And less than two weeks later, while competing in a stage race in her hometown of Boise, Armstrong, 38, took a hard fall and broke her right collarbone. For a moment, Armstrong thought her third chance at the Olympics was over. She won a gold in the time trial four years ago in Beijing.

Tom Danielson was a mountain biker. Now he's a road racer, a member of the U.S. Discovery Channel team, a teammate of six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and grateful to America's iconic bike racer. "Shortly after I switched to road racing," Danielson said, "I got a chance to meet Lance. He sat down and talked to me for a long time, told me he thought I had potential and pretty much opened up my eyes to what I can do. It was such an honor. It kind of changed my life."

The Amgen Tour of California cycling race, which begins Feb. 17 in Palo Alto and ends Feb. 24 in Pasadena, will carry out doping controls more stringent than those used at the Tour de France last summer.

While Lance Armstrong pedaled across France for the last three weeks, Doron Kochavi trained six days a week, circling the Rose Bowl for hours and mounting grueling climbs on Angeles Crest Highway. Sixteen years ago, Kochavi's 4-year-old son, Ari, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Today, Ari is 20 and his father is one of 24 cyclists preparing to ride alongside Armstrong in the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope -- a cross-country relay that begins Sept. 29 in San Diego.

Cycling isn't just about getting a good bike -- it's also about learning how to become a great rider. Join a live web chat on Monday, July 18, at 11 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. CT, 2 p.m. EST) with top cycling coach Joe Friel and learn tips that will make your training more efficient. Friel is a USA Triathlon and USA Cycling certified elite-level coach and has written 10 books on training for endurance athletes. Based in Scottsdale, Ariz., he has a master's degree in exercise science and is the founder of the Web-based TrainingBible Coaching . While a serious training program is essential for building endurance, speed and strength, so are recovery days.

Mark Whitehead, a member of the U.S. track cycling team that participated in blood doping during the 1984 Summer Olympics, creating a scandal that led to the practice being banned from the sport, has died. He was 50. Whitehead died in Frisco, Texas, while attending the USA Cycling Junior Track National Championships, USA Cycling announced Wednesday . The organization said no further details were available. His 20 national championships included the team pursuit in 1984, which contributed to his being chosen for the U.S. squad that competed in the Los Angeles Games, the cycling website VeloNews reported . Encouraged by their coach — and less than a week before the Olympics — Whitehead and seven other members of the U.S. cycling team took "advantage of the dubious practice called blood boosting," David Wallechinsky wrote in "The Complete Book of the Olympics.

On Monday, Dr. Christopher Thompson, the driver who abruptly stopped his car in front of two cyclists last summer, was found guilty of six felonies and a misdemeanor. The trial, which lasted three weeks and captivated the cycling community, revealed a particularly virulent form of road rage. Christian Stoehr suffered a separated shoulder and Ron Peterson shattered several teeth and broke and nearly severed his nose when the two hit the back of Thompson's Infiniti sedan on Mandeville Canyon Road.

The Amgen Tour of California cycling race, which begins Feb. 17 in Palo Alto and ends Feb. 24 in Pasadena, will carry out doping controls more stringent than those used at the Tour de France last summer.

While Lance Armstrong pedaled across France for the last three weeks, Doron Kochavi trained six days a week, circling the Rose Bowl for hours and mounting grueling climbs on Angeles Crest Highway. Sixteen years ago, Kochavi's 4-year-old son, Ari, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Today, Ari is 20 and his father is one of 24 cyclists preparing to ride alongside Armstrong in the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope -- a cross-country relay that begins Sept. 29 in San Diego.

Tom Danielson was a mountain biker. Now he's a road racer, a member of the U.S. Discovery Channel team, a teammate of six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and grateful to America's iconic bike racer. "Shortly after I switched to road racing," Danielson said, "I got a chance to meet Lance. He sat down and talked to me for a long time, told me he thought I had potential and pretty much opened up my eyes to what I can do. It was such an honor. It kind of changed my life."

On Monday, Dr. Christopher Thompson, the driver who abruptly stopped his car in front of two cyclists last summer, was found guilty of six felonies and a misdemeanor. The trial, which lasted three weeks and captivated the cycling community, revealed a particularly virulent form of road rage. Christian Stoehr suffered a separated shoulder and Ron Peterson shattered several teeth and broke and nearly severed his nose when the two hit the back of Thompson's Infiniti sedan on Mandeville Canyon Road.

To this world-renowned destination, solace to so many seeking miracle cures, Lance Armstrong made a pilgrimage of his own in preparation for this year's Tour de France. For spiritual strength, perhaps, to ward off a recurrence of the cancer he so publicly has overcome? No. Not his style. Did he light a candle or bathe in the famed waters after an off-season marked by recurring rumors, never substantiated, of illicit doping involving Armstrong's team, the U.S. Postal Service squad? Hardly.

The launch of the Tour of California, an eight-day, 700-mile road cycling race modeled after the famed Tour de France, will be announced today at the Home Depot Center in Carson between sessions of the Track Cycling World Championships. Executives of AEG, the international cycling federation (UCI) and USA Cycling will outline the concept for the race, which will take place early next year on a route to be determined.

Mary McConneloug of Fairfax, Calif., won her appeal Tuesday to be nominated to the Olympic women's mountain biking team, overturning USA Cycling's selection of Sue Haywood and ending a bizarre process that probably will be remembered more for confusion than accomplishment.