Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa experienced an epiphany moments after he narrowly missed being right hooked by a taxicab and fell to the ground, breaking his elbow.

Bicycling in LA can really suck.

Mayor of LA since 2005, Villaraigosa already knew that his city needed to support bicycling as a way to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. He learned more about that by attending the climate conference in Copenhagen last December ....

As I was wheeled down the hospital hallway to O.R. for prostate surgery a few years ago, I tried to carry on a conversation with the orderly about RAGBRAI, the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.

He'd been there with some friends and said it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Just before nodding out, I remember thinking, "If I ever get through this..."

Well, I got through it, but I haven't made it to RAGBRAI. Not yet. I give props to the 10,000 to 15,000 bicyclists who made plans to do the ride and are now on the road across the Hawkeye State for the 38th anniversary of the mass bike ride ....

Here are some numbers that might be remembered as the books close on the 2010 Tour de France:

3 -- The number of career Tour de France championships won by Alberto Contador

0 -- The number of stage wins by Alberto Contador in the 2010 Tour de France

28 -- The number on the jerseys worn by Lance Armstrong's RadioShack team at the start of the final TdF stage and on the podium in Paris. Represents 28 million people living with cancer worldwide. The high commissioners of cycling threatened to disqualify them for this egregious breach of protocol. ....

You might find it inspirational to learn that an 88-year-old man won three gold medals at the Connecticut Senior Games earlier this year.

But the back story for cycling enthusiast Bob Sawyer is so much more amazing than that.

A year earlier, the Bedford, Massachusetts, man had been hospitalized with lymphoma, complicated by pneumonia and the inability to eat because he could not swallow. His doctors had discovered the lymphoma on a CT-scan after he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.

So there he was in the hospital, wasting away. Everyone, including himself, had started to give up hope ...

College students in a charity bicycling group that supports affordable housing on cross-country bicycle tours are mourning the loss of one of their fellow riders.

Paige Hicks of Chesterfield, Missouri, was struck and killed by a truck in South Dakota on Tuesday. She was a student at Brown University.

She was on her second cross-country bicycle ride for Bike & Build. The group organizes college students to raise money for affordable housing projects and help build houses at different locations as they ride their bikes coast-to-coast.

Hicks was riding the Providence, Rhode Island, to Seattle route this summer ....

No one can beat Mark Cavendish if he can see the finish line from the front of the peloton.

He proved that again on Sunday when he won the final stage of the 2010 Tour de France in Paris.

The HTC-Columbia sprinter passed Alesandro Petacchi and Thor Hushovd on the Champs-Elysees, marking his 5th stage win at this year's Tour. It was his 15th career win at the Tour.

Decked out like a yellow canary, Alberto Contador finished comfortably in the pack to retain his lead and win his second consecutive Tour de France championship, the third of his career ...

For just a moment on the road from Bordeaux to Paullac, it looked as if Andy Schleck was riding himself back into the lead in his battle with Alberto Contador for 2010 Tour de France championship.

Schleck attacked hard in the early part of the 32-mile individual time trial course, gaining 6 seconds on Contador at the first time check and coming with 2 seconds of regaining the yellow jersey.

That was as close as Schleck was going to get, however. Either Contador increased his tempo or Schleck began running out of gas, but Schleck started slipping back.

At the finish, the defending champion had beat his younger rival by 32 seconds ....

Another mass sprint and another victory for Mark Cavendish at the Tour de France as the HTC-Columbia's speedster weaved through his rivals to win in Bordeaux on Friday.

While competing teams drove their sprinters toward the finishline, Cavendish coolly emerged from the pack and easily won his 4th stage of this year's Tour; the 14th of his career.

Meanwhile, there was no change in the overall standings as yellow jersey wearer Alberto Contador prepares for Saturday's individual time trial in anticipation of Sunday's championship in Paris. He still leads Andy Schleck by 8 seconds ....

A British Olympic rowing star is recovering from head injuries suffered when he was struck from behind by a truck while bicycling across Arizona for a Discovery Channel film documentary.

James Cracknell and a crew, including his wife, were filming his cross-country challenge when the collision occurred on Tuesday between Flagstaff and Winslow on Interstate 40.

He was last reported to be concious and making a good recovery in a hospital in Winslow, although his cross-country adventure has been suspended ....

The showdown on the Col Du Tourmalet lived up to expectations at the Tour de France on Thursday as Andy Schleck tried but failed to win back the yellow jersey he lost to Alberto Contador on Monday.

The contest for the yellow jersey on Stage 17 boiled down to the two men in the Pyrenees on the last climb of the race. Schleck attacked Contador time and again to close the 8-second gap, the Spaniard hung on.

The two appeared to glare at each other and exchange words. It's obvious there's no love lost between the two after Contador attacked Schleck on Monday as the Luxembourg cyclist struggled with a dropped chain. At the finish, however, the two exhausted competitors hugged and patted each others' backs. .....

Lance Armstrong battled in the deciding breakaway on Stage 16 of the Tour de France all day on Tuesday only to bested in a 9-man sprint by stage winner Pierrick Fedrigo.

The 120-mile race over four major mountains came down to a sprint in the town of Pau as the overall race leaders struggled to stay together on the Col de Peyresourde, Col d'Aspin, Col du Tourmalet and Col d'Aubisque.

Although Andy Schleck wanted revenge on race leader Alberto Contador for winning the yellow jersey as he wrestled with a dropped chain on Monday, nothing came of that threat as Contador retained his 8-second lead.

This might have been Armstrong's swan song of the Tour de France ...

I can't close off this cross-country bicycle trip without a postscript, because the tour really didn't end for me when we arrived in Oceanside. Still suffering from wanderlust, the trip ended for me up the Pacific coast with a chance meeting with another cyclist who had ridden ahead of us on our bike tour.

.... It made me realize that while we cross-country bicycle tourists are pedaling throughout the world, we're also cycling in our own world...

A dropped chain cost Andy Schleck the yellow jersey at the Tour de France on Monday as Alberto Contador attacked after the mishap and made up more than the 31 seconds he had been trailing by.

The controversial decision by Contador to take advantage of a mechanical mishap on Stage 15 will surely dog him throughout the rest of the race. There are unwritten and debatable "rules" about gaining on adversaries who have crashed or suffered similar problems.

Angry and disappointed after the race, Schleck was asked whether he thought Contador's attack was fair:

"What's fair or not fair... it's not for me to decide. I would not have raced like that.

My stomach is full of anger. I want to take my revenge ....

OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA -- Bruce and I achieved the goal -- to ride from coast to coast -- that we'd made up our minds to accomplish two years ago. It seems like the end arrived too soon.

Fittingly, this was one of the easiest days of the trip. From 2,727 feet, we were coasting down to sea level. Soon after leaving our pace quickened and we had to slow for switchbacks and suddenly we began passing orange groves. It was all so California. We passed a mission, but we didn't stop to investigate. As Lazy Louie would say, all the hills went down and we had the wind to our backs.

Traffic increased as we hit residential areas, and James nearly had a head-on as he sped around us in the van. We were all riding together, and each tried to be the first to spot the ocean. ...

The two main rivals in this year's Tour de France battled so hard to outfox each other on the final climb of Ax Les Thermes on Sunday that they might have lost sight of the other competitors who finished ahead.

France's Christophe Riblon (AG2R) won the 114-mile Stage 14 from Revel to Ax-3 Domaines by joining a breakaway about 10 miles into the race. Riblon attacked and rode away from the break on the above-category Port de Pailheres and survived solo over the Ax Les Thermes.

Meanwhile, yellow jersey Andy Schleck and defending champion Alberto Contador played a game of cat and mouse as the race moved into the Pyrenees ...

The last full day on the road ended in warm camaraderie making toasts around a picnic table. But it began much chillier than that for me.

I was slow waking up as I felt totally exhausted from the day before. I was finally breaking camp when I heard the crunch of tires on the road leading to the campsite. It was James in the blue van. Everyone was worried about me. They got an early start and would be passing by soon. He offered to carry my gear. No, I brought it this far, I'll take it the rest of the way.

I did take him up on the offer of water, though. A sign posted at the campsite spigot said the water wasn't potable.

He left, and by the time I got to the main road I assume they'd already passed. I was a little upset that my pride hadn't let me give my stuff to James. This extra gear was heavy ...

Some 10,000 bicyclists took to the streets in Seattle on Saturday morning for the 31st annual Seattle-to-Portland Bicycle Classic.

The popularity of this one- or two-day bike ride along 200 miles of scenic roads to Portland is growing every year. Although ridership has been capped at 10,000 for several years, registrations sold out in mid April. That's 2 1/2 months earlier than in 2009.

As you can see from these photos, the ride is not reserved for standard two-wheeled bicycles. There are recumbent bikes and trikes, handcycles, cargo bikes ....

Say what you will about one-time suspended Alexandre Vinokourov, but the Kazakh cyclist makes things happen.

The Astana cyclist showed his fighting spirit for the second day in a row at the Tour de France on Saturday when he attacked the peloton on a climb near the finish.

Unlike Friday, when he was basically chased down by team leader Alberto Contador and finished 3rd overall, Vino extended his lead over the last 5 miles of the race on Saturday and won Stage 13 in Revel by 13 seconds.

Andy Schleck's overall lead of 31 seconds ahead of Contador remains unchanged...

ANZA-BORREGO STATE PARK, CALIFORNIA -- Too much heat? Not enough water? Too much pedaling through the desert? Too close to the end of the trip? I can't explain it, but I isolated myself from the group today and rode up to a solitary campground in the desert.
Expecting another hot day, we set the alarm for 4:30 but didn't really get going for hours. We all stopped for pictures at the Arizona-California border then cycled on Interstate 8 near the Mexican border through an area aptly named the Imperial Sand Dunes.

Turning onto State Route 98, we left the sandbox and found ourselves in a lush farmland. Instead of sand blowing in our faces, we were pelted by thousands of small white butterflies flitting back and forth across the road between crops. ...

Will the true leader of the Astana cycling team please stand up? It's Alberto Contador.

The defending Tour de France champion blasted past race leader Andy Schleck and Astana teammate Alexandre Vinokourov on the final climb of Stage 12 on Friday.

Joaquin Rodriguez of Team Katusha won the two-man sprint to the finish, but Contador gained 10 seconds on Schleck. He also reminded Vinokourov that he's the team leader.

Vinokourov seemed to have trouble understanding that concept in a couple of stages ....