Supervisors of Iowa's Hardin County have passed an ordinance [see below] requiring that any bicycle ride of 10 or more people carry at least $1 million of liability insurance.

This is discrimination against bicyclists, plain and simple.

Any group of cyclists that takes its chances and rolls through the county without the insurance can be fined $750.

Says the Iowa Bicycle Coalition:

"The ordinance will end bicycle rides by scouting groups, church groups, and even individuals who meet on a regular basis to ride their bicycles if they are not willing to pay estimates of $300 to $3,000 per bicycle ride [the cost of the insurance]." ...

If Kryptonite ever improves on its "New York Fehgettaboudit" bicycle lock, they might want to rename it the "Igor Kenk."

That's because Igor Kenk is the unofficial world champion bicycle thief -- not an achievement that's going to win him a spot on a box of Wheaties.

The 49-year-old Toronto bike shop owner was last credited with possessing 2,865 stolen bicycles. They were at his shop, his home and 10 garages he rented around Toronto ....

A mash-up called Ride the City uses Google maps to find the safest bicycle routes from one point to another across New York City.

This is sort of the answer to the petition posted earlier this year at the Google Maps "Bike There" blog that seeks Google to include a "bike there" choice on all its maps in big cities.

The only difference is that it only works in New York City, and it wasn't created by Google but by three cyclists -- Jordan Anderson, Vaidila Kungys, and Josh Steinbauer ...

Wouldn't it be cool if the Vuelta a Espana boiled down to a mano a mano contest between Carlos Sastre, winner of this year's Tour de France, and Alberto Contador, the 2007 Tour winner who was unable to defend his title in 2008?

After winning in the Tour de France in 2007, Contador and others on Team Astana were disappointed to learn they had been uninvited to the Tour de France. The team channeled its anger into winning the three-week Giro d'Italia.

Now the Vuelta a Espana has released the rosters for this year's three week race, rolling out Aug. 30 through Sept. 21. Sastre's Team CSC and Contador's Astana team will both be racing ...

All good bike trails must end, but some end before they ever get a good start.

Exporing some of the many bicycle trails in the Puget Sound area the past couple of summers, I've found that some bike trails begin and end in well-equipped trailheads with restrooms, drinking fountains and parking lots.

Others simply come to an abrupt end in a road culvert, padlocked gate, or a muddy trail that disappears into an overgrown right of way.

Many of these are rails-to-trails that are built on abandoned railroad beds. Rail-to-Trails Conservancy reports 1,534 completed trails covered 15,346 miles in the US ....

An Ohio woman charged with the hit-and-run death of a Michigan bicyclist in the Tour of Scioto River Valley this spring has pleaded not guilty.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Sara Bender, 35, of Lucasville was indicted by a grand jury with leaving the scene of a fatal accident. It's a third-degree felony that can draw a one-to-three-year prison term.

Bicyclist William Crowley, 57, of Michigan was killed when he was struck from behind along Route 23 the morning of May 11 as he pedaled to meet up with the 2nd day of the TOSRV ride ...

Thankfully no one was killed when a cab driver in Miami drove into a group of bicyclists out for a morning ride along the scenic MacArthur Causeway on Sunday morning.

The Miami Herald reports that the cabdriver apparently fell asleep at the wheel before striking the 11 bicyclists.

Six were sent to area hospitals, where one 48-year-old is listed in critical condition and undergoing surgery at a trauma center. The other five are all listed in stable condition. The five not hospitalized were treated at the scene for road rash and other minor injuries ...

Imagine the movie "Assault on Precinct 13" -- naked. That's kind of what happened in Vancouver, BC, this weekend.

After police there arrested a man who participated in a naked bicycle ride with his 3-year-old son on Saturday, the group rode through downtown Vancouver to the police station to protest the arrest.

Unlike the movie, there was no violence. Naked bicyclists don't carry weapons. ...

Cities large and small have been putting together bicycle master plans over the past few years to encourage bicycle use. Here in my neck of the woods, Seattle approved a plan last year and Bellevue is working toward a citywide pedestrian-bike plan.

The main idea is to make it easier and safer for people to use their bikes for errands and commuting. The result will be reduced traffic congestion and pollution.

It seems like the type of idea that San Francisco would jump on. But an article in the Wall Street Journal attributes San Francisco's years-long delay in implementing a plan to one man: Rob Anderson ...

Until I look at the results, I'd assume that the US would dominate in mountain biking at the Olympics. Didn't a cast of characters racing down Mt. Tam in Marin County, California, on old bikes launch the modern sport of mountain biking just 30 years ago?

That may be true, but the sport caught fire and spread across the globe so quickly that cyclists from other countries routinely eat our lunch.

That's what happened at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday morning. Two Frenchmen and a Swiss cyclist took all three medals in the men's mountain bike competition; cyclists from Germany, Poland and Russia medaled in women's mountain biking ...

All three US cyclists who raced in the men's and women's BMX finals won medals Friday morning at the Beijing Olympics.

Mike Day won silver and Donny Robinson took bronze in the men's finals. Jill Kintner of the Seattle area won the bronze medal in the women's finals.

As promised, the BMX finals produced rough and tumble action on the course. Three women went down in separate crashes as they went for broke in the race, and three men hit the dirt in one collision during the men's race.

This is the first Olympics to host BMX, and the sight of big people catching air as they race little bikes on the hilly course provides a lot of excitement...

Do you like irony? Then here's one for you:

An 18.8-mile bike path that's proposed to run alongside a toll road in the Washington DC suburbs is in danger of being blocked because it could damage environmentally sensitive parkland.

Never mind that the $2.4 billion, six-lane toll road follows the same route. In fact, the bike trail was originally proposed as an ecological offset for environmental damage caused by the new road between Gaithersburg and Laurel ...

Eric Gilliland, executive director of the Washington Area Bicycle Association, told the Washington Post:

"We really don't understand the rationale behind dropping a bike trail for environmental issues when they're already running a big highway through there." ....

What better way to publicize the advantages of urban bicycling to national decision-makers than to make 1,000 bicycles available for use at the upcoming Democratic and Republican national conventions.

The new Freewheelin' bike-sharing program will be in Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul during the conventions to lend out the free bicycles to anyone with picture ID and credit card.

The Humana health insurance company is behind the Freewheelin program, in partnership with the Bikes Belong advocacy group ...

Cervélo is recalling some 5,800 Wolf SL Carbon Fiber bicycle forks because the fork steerer can crack under normal use.

The fork is manufactured by True Temper Composite Material Products of Guangzhou, China, and used on some Cervelo bicycles.

Although Cervelo didn't make the forks, the Switzerland-based company says it is issuing the recall and will replace the forks with different models at no cost to dealers or consumers. The company has received a dozen reports of the forks cracking or breaking....

Update: BMX semifinals and finals delayed until 9 a.m. Friday Beijing time (9 p.m. Thursday EST) due to rainy weather. The entire US BMX team -- 3 men and 1 woman -- survived the early qualifying rounds and will compete in the upcoming semifinals for this event being seen at the Summer Olympics for the first time ever.

It was touch and go for one of the riders, Kyle Bennett, at left, who collided with a couple of other riders and dislocated his shoulder in last of 3 heats his group raced. He did not finish that heat, but scored well enough in the first 2 heats to advance. Doctors said he was good to go.

Mike Day won his quarterfinal to qualify for the semifinals, and Donny Robinson, like Bennett, finished in the top 4 of his quarterfinal run to qualify.

The lone woman on the US team, Jill Kintner of Seattle, raced in the seeding phase. She's ranked 7th for the upcoming semifinals ...

Chris Hoy has been dubbed Scotland's greatest Olympian after his amazing exploits at the Laoshan Velodrome in the Beijing Olympics over the past five days.

The 32-year-old won three gold medals in track cycling, the only Scotsman to ever accomplish that in any Olympic sport and the first athlete from Great Britain to do so since 1908.

Overall, Great Britain totally dominated track cycling at this Olympics. Of 10 golds issued, the Brits won 7, as well as 3 silver and 2 bronze.

Add Great Britain's gold in the women's road race and silver in the women's time trial and that brings the total medal haul from cycling to 8 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze. Not a bad result for 14 cycling contests so far ....

What's touted as the biggest-ever cross-country bicycle tour is currently making its way across the US.

The 2008 Sea to Sea, Ending the Cycle of Poverty bike tour boasts 127 cyclists who are making the entire 3,881-mile trek from Seattle to Jersey City, New Jersey. They're joined along the way by 91 other bicyclists who are riding different segments.

All cross-country rides have to start with a rear-wheel dip in the ocean. This is what it looked like, above, when the Sea to Sea bike carried out this tradition in Seattle. There's no ocean here, but getting wet in the Puget Sound at Golden Gardens Park is close enough ...

Marianne Vos of The Netherlands won the Olympic gold medal in the 100-lap women's points race at the Laoshan Velodrome on Monday.

She took the first of 10 sprints and lapped the field in the 25-kilometer track cycling race.

Bad luck plagued Sarah Hammer of the US, though, as she was caught in a crash caused by another rider. She could not finish the event and later was diagnosed with a broken collar bone...

Great Britain set the world and Olympic record in beating Denmark in the men's team pursuit at the Beijing Olympics on Monday.

Bradley Wiggins secured his second gold medal of this Olympics by his team's win. In setting the 3:53 record, the team beat the record it set in the qualifying round on Sunday and nearly caught the team from Denmark, which took gold. New Zealand beat Australia for the gold.

Meanwhile, Jennie Reed did not qualify for the finals in the women's sprint quarterfinals at the Laoshan Velodrome. Reed, who attended Issaquah High School and now lives in Kirkland, Washington, lost to Willy Kanis of the Netherlands ...

Whenever I head north along the Sammamish River Trail, a gravel trail that breaks off to the east about 6 miles from Redmond frequently catches my eye.

Leaving my road bike at home, I recently paid a visit to the Tolt Pipeline Trail, left, on the used Rockhopper mountain bike that I bought to explore the many dirt and gravel trails in my big back yard.

This trail is the right-of-way for a water pipeline the serves the City of Seattle. The total distance of the trail, not counting the interruptions, is about 12 miles. I  bicycled the 7-mile central section from Sammamish River Trail to just above West Snoqualmie Valley Road.

Steep grades

Those of us who are used to the oh-so-gentle climbs on rail-to-trail right-of-ways will certainly find these steep grades challenging. The pipeline simply goes from Point A to Point B and the trail follows, with no grading to get in the way ...