Opposition to public bicycle paths can come from unusual sources in unexpected places.

For instance, the prospect of a public bike path running alongside a corner of the members-only Army-Navy Country Club in Arlington, Virginia, has some of its members up in arms.

Fourteen of the active and retired military commissioned officers at the club are suing the club's board of directors for letting such a proposal go through.

A Navy captain said:

"Once the word gets out to the younger generation there is a secluded place to come and visit and have some fun, you can bet they're going to be there. ... Gangs. Rivals. Hazards to pedestrians coming in and out. ...

YUMA, ARIZONA -- There are days on this cross-country trip that I anticipated from the first time I spread out the maps on the table in my apartment in Annapolis.

One was the climb up to the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia; another was going up and over Monarch Pass in Colorado. Today was another -- 80 miles across the desert of southwestern Arizona where nothing was marked on the map except a thin line for Hwy. 95.

We were up before dawn today, filling our water bottles and two 2-quart blue plastic water bladders that we'd brought along for this occasion. We'd been planning on this stretch for months, and we had vowed we wouldn't depend on the van for support.

So the four of us slipped out of Quartzsite into the cool, dry desert morning air at 5:30. We rode by the light of the blazing red sky... dawn was still an hour away. ...

The 10,000 cyclists making the 200-mile ride from Seattle to Portland this weekend will face light clouds changing to sunny weather the whole way. Look for highs in the mid 70s on Saturday, rising to the low 80s in Portland on Sunday.

At the risk of jinxing the ride for everyone, I'll tell you there's no chance for precipitation in the forecast. You can leave that rain gear at home.

This weekend marks the 31st anniversary of the STP Bicycle Classic, the Cascade Bicycle Club's premier presentation of the year. Popularity of the ride is so high that it sold out in April this year, earlier than ever.

Cascade has made a last-minute route change on the approach to Portland this year. Instead of taking the St. John's  Bridge, cyclists will be routed over the Steel Bridge. ...

What remains for debate, however, is how much some heavy-handed tactics by his HTC-Columbia lead-out man Mark Renshaw contributed to that victory. Renshaw, for his part, was booted out of the race by Tour officials.

Overhead views of the final sprint in Bourg les Valence show Renshaw head-butting Garmin-Transition's Julian Dean, who was riding on his right. Check out the video above at about 5:30 for overhead view of the finish. It's possible that Renshaw thought Dean was moving to the left to block Cavendish ....

Looks like most of the residents of Hope, Arizona,
have given up all hope...

I awoke about sunup this morning and ... no Bruce.

It had been so hot and dry, we didn't see the need to pitch the tent last night. We threw the tarp down and just slept on that, until, at some point in the night, I realized all kinds of insects were walking around on me. I took my mat and put it on a picnic table and went back to sleep. Jim had already booked the other table.

 Bruce woke up later, about 2 a.m., for the same reason I had, discovered the picnic tables already taken, and took off for a ride. He ended up at an all-night cafe where a group of 20 Native American runners showed up. They're members of the Sioux and are running from the Dakotas to LA to protest the Olympic Committee not allowing them to participate in the Summer Games in LA as their own nation. ...

As unidentified sources leaked that federal investigators are issuing grand jury subpoenas in the doping allegations raised by Floyd Landis, Lance Armstrong says he'll cooperate. He told the New York Times before the start of Stage 10 on Wednesday:

"As long as we have a legitimate and credible and fair investigation I will be happy to co-operate but I'm not going to participate in any kind of witch hunt."

Meanwhile, some inconsistent statements by Armstrong are throwing into question whether he held an ownership stake in Tailwind Sports. That's the group that owned the cycling team sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service.

Ownership is important because the feds want to find out whether the team was violating UCI doping rules to improve results, therefore gaining more money from the sponsors. That would make it fraud. ....

Team RadioShack finally has something to crow about after domestique Sergio Paulinho won Stage 10 of the Tour de France on Wednesday.

The Portuguese cyclist was part of a 6-man breakaway that led most of the 111-mile race from Chambery to Gap over four climbs.

Andy Schleck remained in the yellow jersey, as the rest of the peloton finished about 15 minutes later, content to hear whether one of the two Frenchmen in the breakaway could win on Bastille Day. Neither could.

The 30-year-old Paulinho is an unlikely hero for the RadioShack team, but with Lance Armstrong locked in 31st ....

Seattle Bike Supply is recalling 330 Redline Conquest Cyclocross bicycles and framesets because of a faulty fork.

The Kent, Washington-based company and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission says the aluminum fork legs can break off from the fork crown.

The company is urging customers to stop riding those bicycles as it has received five reports of cracks near the crown. Consumers can return the bike to a local dealer for a free fork ....

AGUILA, ARIZONA -- We're camping at the City Park here tonight. We've left all the cool, shady mountains behind us, and we're out where it's dry, sunny and hot. The park doesn't have much; just a picnic shelter and a small building for restrooms.
At the back of his building is a water spigot that drips. In the puddle underneath there sits a toad. I noticed him ...

Update: Tuesday, July 13 -- The Missouri Department of Transportation says the bicycle ban would have "no legal authority" and "could not be enforced," according to St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Not to be outdone, bike ban bill sponsor Joe Brazil says they'll pursue passage of the bill anyway and take it to court, if necessary. If the court rules in state's favor, he'll recommend the state legislators submit a bill to enable counties to ban bicycles on roads in their jurisdictions.

Also, Adventure Cycling Association says the ban would disrupt two corridors on the pending U.S. Bicycle Route system. Ginny Sullivan, special project coordinator for ACA, wrote the council members: ....

One day in the yellow jersey for Aussie Cadel Evans was about all she wrote as the 2010 Tour de France appears to be boiling down to a contest between Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador.

Shleck donned the yellow leader's jersey at the end of Stage 9, the most challenging so far with three major Alpine climbs over the 126 mile-route.

Contador grappled into second place overall, matching every one of Schleck's accelerations on the final climb on the Col de la Madeleine. Contador couldn't do that Sunday, but Contador was the sole contender who could do that on Tuesday. All others lost ground, with a disappointed Evans being the chief among them. He lost about eight minutes, dropping clear out of the Top 10 to 18th place ...

Cottonwood, Ariz. -- We've liked everyone who has crossed our path as we cycle cross-country. Today is the exception. The scenery here has been beautiful, though, and the terrain has been in our favor.

We faced a major chore breaking camp at the Motel 6 -- our laundering and bike cleaning resulted in our crap strewn from one of the room to the other.

It was sprinkling when we left (isn't this Arizona, why so wet?) and we headed south on Route 89A. We passed through a quiet Ponderosa forest and reached Oak Creek Canyon, which marks a 1,600-foot descent over the Mogollon Rim. The rim sits at the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau, which encompasses the Four Corners region. We've been pedaling across the plateau since leaving Albuquerque...

"Lance lost this Tour for bad luck. Physically, there’s no reason to believe that he couldn’t have been competitive in this Tour. He came to this Tour in good shape with real ambitions to win. We knew it wouldn’t be easy for him to win this Tour, but we came here with that as a goal. Even today we saw Contador not as strong as he was last year. Today we simply didn’t have the luck.”

-- Johan Bruyneel, team manager for Radio Shack, talking about Lance Armstrong's crashes at the 2010 Tour de France in an interview with Andrew Hood at VeloNews .....

PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- We spent much of today in the small gears, the stump-pullers, the grannies.

We started our climb almost immediately after leaving Dead Horse campground. Jim had already left -- we told him we always got a late start -- and we gingerly picked our way across that slippery low-water bridge.

The old ghost town of Jerome was only about 4 miles away, but 2,000 feet above us. From the brush along Route 89, we could see the town sitting on the edge of a mountain, with a big white letter "J" adorning a slope above it

The mountain-top finish at Morzine-Avoriaz will be remembered in Tour de France history as the place where Lance Armstrong's chances to achieve another championship appeared doomed and Alberto Contador showed he was beatable.

Andy Schleck had the strongest legs at the end of the 117-mile stage that included two Alpine summits as he beat Samuel Sanchez in a two-man sprint to the finish. Cadel Evans, left, and Alberto Contador were unable to match Schleck's final kick to the finish, although Evans did gain the yellow jersey for the first time at this Tour de France.

Seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong didn't take part in this battle, however. He was some 10 minutes down the mountain after getting caught in three crashes. He was just trying to put one of the worst days in his cycling career behind him. He Twittered after the race....

FLAGSTAFF -- We stayed here in Flagstaff another day to parcel out our time. We want to meet up with our friends from the UK in a couple of days further down the road.

It's hard to do nothing. We cleaned our bikes, did laundry, sat out by the pool, drank a couple of beers and it started raining. Back inside, the housekeeper slipped us a key to operate the TV -- this was a Motel 6 and we hadn't paid the extra few bucks for the feature. ...

France's Sylvain Chavanel regained the yellow jersey at the Tour de France on Saturday while former leader Fabian Cancellara cracked as the peloton entered the foothills of the Alps.

Chavanel won the 102-mile stage from Tournus to Station des Rousses and took the lead, jumping from 5th place overall to 1:25 ahead of the nearest challenger, Australia's Cadel Evans.

Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador and the other major contenders for this year's championship finished in a select group 1-minute 47 seconds behind Chavanel. Although Armstrong dropped from 2:30 to 3:16 behind the first place rider, he remained 50 seconds behind his rival, Contador.

The peloton faces its first major mountain stage on Sunday ...

Here we go again.

An elected official -- this time in St. Charles County, Missouri -- is proposing to ban bicycles from a number of county and state roads for safety considerations.

This comes on the heels of that bicycle ban enacted by the Black Hawk, Colorado, city council. That prohibition has gained notoriety among the bicycling public in recent weeks after police started issuing tickets. I wonder if that's where County Councilman Joe Brazil got the idea.

The roads in question are narrow two-lane highways in the southwestern part of St. Charles County that don't have a shoulder.  Brazil said:

"You're going 55 (mph) and there's absolute limited sight distance. You come around a corner and come upon a bike in seconds and you have to react." ....

FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ. - We rode through hail and back to get to Flagstaff today. Why we left the Grand Canyon, I have no idea. I guess we're just too accustomed to hitting the road  everyday.

We awoke at dawn this morning, and took all the gear off our bikes for a ride out to the South Rim for more sunrise pictures. We flew along without the panniers,and I found it difficult to steer the bike straight. Returning to camp, we loaded up to our old sluggish selves and left by 9, stopping at the camp store.

Remember that geology lesson of climbing up to the Grand Canyon? It worked in our favor this morning. We zipped along mostly downhill for 28 miles to Valle by 11 a.m. Passing the Flintstone Village amusement park there (with a huge sign of Fred Flintstone) we followed a hillier and more winding road to Flagstaff. ...

Some fellow cyclists who check out my ride and see the gear I use consider me a bicycling luddite, a descendant of those 19th century textile workers who fought progress.

For me, it's usually a matter of economics, instead of aesthetics. But for ultra-cycling promoter Chris Kostman, his choice of bicycles is definitely philosophical.

Check out Kostman with his bicycle in the picture here. What's a guy doing at the top of this mountain with a road bike? Then consider his "Mountain Bikes: Who Needs Them" article penned back in 1993 that announced his "Any Bike, Anywhere" manifesto.

Now, after all this time, Kostman is looking for other like-minded individuals to take part in a Rough Riders Rally on July 23 - 25 in Marin County, California. The event uses paved roads and dirt trails that wind through the scenic Marin Headlands overlooking the Pacific Ocean ....