Tyler Farrar certainly looked like he's over whatever has been ailing him as he beat Mark Cavendish in a man-to-man bike sprint to the finish on Stage 5 of the Vuelta a Espana on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old sprinter from Wenatchee, Washington, won the stage without benefit of a lead-out from teammates on his Garmin-Transitions cycling team.

In the closing kilometer of the race, he sat near the front behind ...

French pro cyclist Laurent Fignon died at age 50 on Tuesday after battling cancer for the past year.

Although he won the Tour de France in 1983 and 1984, he was best known to Americans as the cyclist who lost the Tour to Greg LeMond by 8 seconds in 1989 on the final day of the race.

On a visit to France during the early 1990s, I had the opportunity to grab a photo of Fignon riding at the head of the peloton with Miguel Indurain (in yellow, of course) and Claudio Chiappucci (in the polka dot jersey). He was easy to recognize with his receding hairline and long blond hair.

Talking to my French brother-in-law later....

One of the freshest faces at the Vuelta a Espana this year is US pro cyclist Tejay van Garderen, who is making a mark at his first Grand Tour.

In Tuesday's hard-fought Stage 4 with its steep climb at the finish, for instance, Van Garderen finished just 8 seconds behind the day's winner, Igor Anton (Spain) of Euskaltel Euskadi.

That helped preserve the 22-year-old cyclist's position in the Top 10 for the fourth day. He's currently sitting in 6th place, 29 seconds behind overall leader Phillipe Gilbert ..

Albuquerque officially opened a new bicycle bridge over the Rio Grande River on Monday that helps link the city's 400-some miles of bicycle paths and trails.

The $6.9 million bridge just north of I-40 is named for Gail Ryba, the founder of Bike ABQ, the city's first bicycle advocacy group. She died of cancer earlier in May.

The Gail Ryba Memorial Bridge, together with the approaches, is about a mile long. It was built with $5.3 million in federal stimulus funds, along with $1.3 million kicked in by the city.

It provides a central link for the the north-south Paseo Del Bosque Trail ...

Riding out front of the Vuelta a Espana nearly all day wasn't good enough for Serafin Martinez to win Stage 3 on Monday.

The peloton closed a 30-second gap to Martinez in the next to last kilometer of the race to Malaga. Phillipe Gilbert (left) attacked on the climb and held off all challengers to win the stage and take the overall ...

Imagine that you're 70 years old and you have completed an organized bicycle century ride in all 50 states between 2002 and 2009. What's next?

If you're Al Emma of Exton, Pennsylvania, you keep rolling down the road on your bicycle.

Just about the time he was wrapping up his 50 100-milers in July 2009, Emma had started on his next endeavor -- riding a 100-mile century in each of the 10 Canadian provinces.

He started with the Southern Ontario Century Ride in Alliston on May 23, 2009 and completed the cycle with The Fredericton Freewheelers Century Ride in New Brunswick just a couple of weeks ago on Aug. 22 ...

 If you're bicycling anywhere on the eastern half of the TransAmerica Bicycle Route over the next six weeks, keep an eye open for a cyclist wearing a yellow T-shirt that says "Tour de Frank: 1976 - 2010."

Wave, give him a thumbs up, or even stop for a chat. That's Frank van Dijk, a fragment of bicycle touring history.

The 58-year-old Dutchman is finishing his Bikecentennial tour that he started 34 years ago.

Frank was one of thousands who took to the road in 1976 to cross the United States by bicycle to celebrate the nation's 200th anniversary. Frank set out with a group of 179 cyclists called "The Dutch Apples" who left the Pacific Coast to ride east to Yorktown, Virginia.

Unfortunately for Frank, an elderly motorist ran into him with her Buick ....

Mark Cavendish fans had to wait five stages in this year's Tour de France bike race before the HTC-Columbia speedster collected his first victory.

No such wait was necessary at the 2010 Vuelta a Espana, however. Cavendish led his cycling team across the finish line with the best time on Saturday to win the team time trial and capture overall leader's red jersey.

The 10-mile after-dark event in Seville launched the 65th edition of the Grand Tour around Spain. It ends Sept. 19 in Madrid.

Before Saturday's win, Cavendish had eight victories in 2010 .....

Here's some good news for the bicycling weekend road warriors of King County.

The new bridge on S.E. May Valley Road is finished and the road is open at least three days ahead of schedule.

The creek crossing on the lightly-traveled rural road between Newcastle and Issaquah has been closed since June 21 for a bridge replacement project. I just passed there Friday afternoon (Aug. 27) and the bridge was open ....

The 2010 Vuelta a Espana rolls out one cycling team at a time on Saturday as the three-week Grand Tour across the Spanish countryside opens with a 10-mile team time trial.

Live broadcasts of the Vuelta a Espana can be viewed on the Universal Sports cable channel (check local listings) every day of the bike race, Saturday through Sept. 19. UniversalSports.com will provide live steaming coverage of every stage, plus other extras, at its website for $14.99.

Many of the cyclists who came up short during this year's Giro d' Italia or Tour de France will be battling for a final shot at a Grand Tour victory -- the coveted red jersey.

The Vuelta is celebrating its 65th edition by changing the leader's jersey from golden to red, the same color as Spain's national teams. The red jersey won't be awarded until after Stage ....

Leave it to the Centers for Disease Control to boil down the human toll of highway carnage into cold, hard cash.

A report issued by the agency this month finds that the costs of medical care and lost productivity related to deaths and injuries in crashes surpasses $99 billion a year. Bicyclists' share of that is about $5.4 billion annually.

The study, entitled "Traffic Injury Prevention," reports that the U.S. is falling behind the traffic safety gains many other developed nations are making.

It concludes that there are some strategies that could save lives and prevent injuries. One of those is mandatory bicycle helmet use. That's definitely a hot-button issue among bicyclists, although the CDC authors focus their discussion on bicycle helmet use among children ....

After I noticed this past weekend that Renton had lowered speed limits on the Cedar River Trail to 10 mph and imposed a $101 fine [see Monday's article], I contacted the Cascade Bicycle Club to see if they had an opinion about the city's action.

Here's the response from David Hiller, advocacy director for the Seattle-based bike club:

"We find Renton’s response to be unsound and grossly disproportionate. Though we promptly reached out to staff at the city following the tragic circumstances that led a pedestrian to die from a collision, none of our guidance was taken and, with the exception of one phone call from an apologetic staffer, the promised coordination never materialized.

"We continue to discuss mounting a full scale campaign to get Renton to reverse the course it has taken ....

Update: Aug. 29, 2010 -- "Hundreds bike to honor Ohio woman...", Dayton Daily News. More than 300 cyclists pedaled to Michelle Kazlausky's funeral on Saturday.

Aug. 25, 2010 -- "Prosecutor reviewing death of Pelotonia rider," Columbus Dispatch. Coroner labels death a "homicide," but explains he doesn't have arrest powers and his ruling isn't a legal action.

Donations in memory of Michelle Kazlausky are pouring in to the Pelotonia fund-raising website after the woman was killed while participating in the Ohio-based charity bike ride on Saturday.

She was just one of some 4,200 cyclists who participated this past weekend in the Pelotonia, a two-day bike ride between Columbus and Athens that raises funds for cancer research.

Donors had pledged $7,500 in her memory as of 5:30 a.m. Monday. That amount had more than doubled to $16,500 by late Monday night. Many of the donations of $10 or $25 were given by fellow riders.

The public outpouring prompted her son, Jeff McMahon, to pledge to ride in the 2011 Pelotonia .....

The City of Renton has lowered the speed limit for bicycles to 10 mph on most of the Cedar River Trail. Bicyclists must dismount on the remaining sections. [See maps below]

Violation of the speed limit carries a $101 fine, according to signs posted on the path.

The Cedar River Trail is a rail-trail that runs from the mouth of Lake Washington to Landsburg, a distance of about 17 miles. The restrictions of bicycle riders target only the western 4.5 miles of the trail in Renton.

The measures are a reaction to the death of an 83-year-old woman this spring after she stepped in front of a moving bicycle about a quarter-mile from where the trail passes under I-405.

Both the woman and the 57-year-old bicyclist fell to the ground and were knocked unconcious, according to news reports. The cyclist recovered at the scene, but the woman later died of her injuries at the hospital.

No charges were ever filed in that case. Renton's mayor and city council set about limiting or restricting bicycle use on the multi-use trail at its next meeting

Levi Leipheimer notched his second championship for the month of August by hanging on to win the 6-stage Tour of Utah on Sunday.

The victory in the national-level road-race event follows his Aug. 14 victory and course record at the Leadville 100, a mountain bike race.

He won each bicycle race riding without the benefit of teammates. He represented RadioShack at Leadville and wore the Mellow Johnnys kit at the Tour of Utah.

Following the end of the Tour of Utah on Sunday ...

My quest to ride by bicycle down all of King County's historic roads led me to a scenic stretch of pavement last week that I've pedaled along more than once.

What I hadn't realized is that West Snoqualmie River Road dates back to among the earliest byways in the hills and valleys between Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains and hasn't changed that much over the years.

The "Dan Henrys" painted on the pavement for the Tour de Peaks and other rides attest to this lightly traveled roads' popularity among bicyclists. It's flat, winding, and passes organic vegetable farms, horse farms as well as dazzling fields of flowers grown for market ....

People in Andover, Massachusetts, aren't surprised anymore when they see Garth Lockhart riding around on his bicycle with the front wheel in the air.

The 30-year-old native of the West Indies is in training to pop a wheelie and ride it  down the road and right into the Guinness Book of World Records.

He'll attempt the feat on Sept. 12 by riding his mountain bike along Route 28 from his home in Andover to a bike shop in Salem .....

If you have a few minutes and feel like commiting an act of bicycle advocacy this weekend, consider sending an email to your state's governor.

The League of American Bicyclists has a form letter that you can easily send word-for-word, or in your own words, that asks your governor to share the upcoming federal funding cutbacks among all transportation programs.

Based on past experiences, the League is concerned that programs that traditionally support pedestrian and bicycle projects will be singled out for the cutbacks ...

There hasn't been much news lately about Frank Marshall's ("Indiana Jones", "Bourne" series) plans to make a movie about Lance Armstrong's life.

But there's another bicycling movie in the works. Filmmaker and retired bicycle adventurer Kevin Foster says he has a commitment from the Chinese government for funds to produce a film about his own life.

Why make a movie about Kevin Foster, you ask?

Twenty years ago Foster made headlines by becoming the first person, and an American at that, to ride his bicycle over a thousand miles of what was left of the Great Wall of China ....

A high school junior is organizing a charity bicycle ride for this Saturday up in Blaine on the Canadian border to raise funds for a family whose daughter is undergoing treatment for leukemia.

Olivia Sellinger pitched in to help when she heard that Jessica Walters, her 3-year-old neighbor, had been diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the blood or bone marrow. Sellinger used to babysit for Jessica.

When she heard that Jessica was undergoing chemotherapy at Children's Hospital in Seattle, Sellinger began raising money to help offset the family's medical bills and launched plans for the "Ride for the Warrior Princess" bike ride ...