While house sellers tout "Location, location, location" as the three most important attributes of real estate, bike race sprinters must credit "Position. Position. Position."

For instance, Britain's Mark Cavendish had an ideal position in Friday's finish of Stage 6 of the 2010 Tour de France in Gueugnon behind teammate Mark Renshaw. The HTC-Columbia riders were following three cyclists for Garmin-Transitions, including Tyler Farrar.

As the finish line approached, Cavendish was delivered alongside the Garmin cyclists by Renshaw. Then Cav handlily beat Farrar across the line by more than a bike's length ...

It's nearly two months into our cross-country bicycle tour, and I finally get off the bicycle for a hike. There's just no way to get into the Grand Canyon on a bike.

Before dawn Bruce and I broke camp and started our ride along the South Rim road to Grand Canyon Village. It was a short ride but it took forever -- just too many picture possibilities. Dawn and dusk are the best times to shoot the canyon because the low sun adds shadows that gives depth to the formations.

We reached the campground at 9 a.m. and there already was a line for camping spots. Bruce checked further and learned we didn't have to wait. Because we're bicyclists, they let us right in for $2 and let us camp in one of the two hike-and-bike campsites. The deal was that the campsites had to hold anyone who showed up...

The strategy for a textbook lead-out for Team HTC-Columbia flew right out the window on Stage 5 of the Tour de France on Thursday, but Mark Cavendish took the sprint anyway.

It was the first sprint win for the Brit at this year's Tour. The cycling press had begun to wonder if Cavendish's reign as sprint champion had ended as previous sprints had been taken by Alessandro Petacchi (2) and Thor Hushovd (1). In 2009, Cavendish had won 6 stages of the Tour.

As the peloton neared the finish in Montargis, it looked like the drought might continue for Cavendish.

Bernard Eisel was leading the pack toward the finish, but he was followed by four cyclists from Garmin-Transitions ....

Although I had visited the Grand Canyon a couple of times before, I never really appreciated in a personal way how it was formed until I rode there on my bicycle.

All the books (well, the scientific ones) say that eons ago, a plateau rose up in this area while a river cut through the rock. I always understood the erosion part, but I didn't get the rising plateau part until I realized I was climbing a big hill to get to the canyon.

After leaving Tuba City this morning, we passed the edge of the Painted Desert (above), an area whose colors change through the day. Because of the clear air and lack of reference points such as buildings, it's impossible to guess at the distances to the hills and ridges...

Here's my campsite at Alice Creek on the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, a rail-trail that stretches from near North Bend all the way to the Columbia River.

It seemed like one of the first sunny, dry days in a while, and I was lucky to be able to take advantage of it.

From where I live, this is a little too far for one of those sub-24 hour bike camping trips. It's about 50 miles and quite a bit of climbing for me to get there.

As you can see in the photo below, I don't travel light. That Yakima trailer carries ...

Here's my campsite at Alice Creek on the John Wayne Pioneer rail-trail in western Washington. It was one of the first dry, sunny days this summer. Ideal for bike camping. I checked out the

TUBA CITY, ARIZ. - We passed through the Hopi Reservation today, in an area where age-old conflicts and rituals still exist.

The Hopi generally live in settlements on three mesas, that look like three fingers jutting from a high plateau in the north. The road passes south of the First, but climbs over the Second (above) and Third. The Hopi have lived on these mesas for centuries and are believed to be descendants of the Anasazi, who left cliff dwellings scattered throughout the region. Amazingly, they have developed a form of agriculture in a land where water in extremely scarce. ...

Three bike changes for Sylvain Chavanel cost him the yellow jersey on Tuesday as Fabian Cancellara regained the overall lead of the Tour de France.

Cancellara powered himself back into first place at the front of a peloton split into smaller groups by seven sections of cobblestones in the 132-mile stage in the Paris-Roubaix's "Hell of the North" locale.

Lance Armstrong fell out of the top 10 and lost time to other top contenders, such as Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador. The RadioShack cyclist limited his losses by bridging across to the fourth group to cross the finish line.

One of the biggest winners of the day was Canadian Ryder Hesjedal ....

KEAMS CANYON, ARIZ. - We started riding across the wide expanse of the Navajo Reservation this morning and added to our tribe.

Just a few miles outside of Window Rock, we overtook bicyclist Geraldine Onslow, a spunky Brit from south of London.

Her's is a tale of tragedy and determination. She and her sister collected pledges for a cross-USA trip back home to raise money for cancer research after their father died of the disease. Geraldine, her sister Jane, and a cousin, James, who drove the support van, set out from New York City.

In West Virginia, an 80-year-old motorist ran into the back of Jane's bike. Both legs were broken in the accident, and she spent three weeks in a Morgantown hospital before returning home. Geraldine persisted, however, and a number of friends and relatives have ridden portions of the route with her. ...

U.S. cyclist Christian Vande Velde is abandoning the Tour de France because of injuries he suffered in Stage 2 on Monday.

Two other cyclists for Garmin-Transitions -- Tyler Farrar and Julian Dean -- also are bandaged, but will take the starting line for Stage 3.

They're all victims of extremely slippery conditions on the descent of Col Stockeu that took down dozens of riders in the peloton, among them General Classification contenders Lance Armstrong (Radio Shack) and brothers Andy and Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank).

This is rotten luck for Vande Velde, who has been injured multiple times this season...

Year in and year out, the name of French cyclist Sylvain Chavanel has become familiar for failed attempts at long-distance attacks on the peloton at the Tour de France.

Monday's Stage 2 marked only the second time in his career that he's survived to win a Tour stage, and the first time he's ever pulled on the yellow jersey.

While Chavanel was riding into the yellow jersey out front, many members of the peloton, including Lance Armstrong, were licking their wounds after a mass pile-up on a descent about 25 miles from the finish. With many teammates trailing behind, the main peloton finished en mass as a form of protest. ...

WINDOW ROCK, ARIZ. - Travelling cross-country by bicycle has put us in contact with many interesting folks we wouldn't have met ordinarily. Tonight we staying at the home of a World War II veteran; a member of a group of unsung heroes whose stories couldn't be told until recently.

Roy Hawthorne was a member of the cadre of Navajos who joined the Marines and became "codetalkers."

They fashioned a code based on Navajo words that represented military information. The Japanese never broke the code, and the codetalkers couldn't talk about their exploits until the government declassified the code in the late 1960s. ....

Three crashes in Brussels, including a road-choking pileup, cleared the way for a victory by Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi in Stage 1 of the Tour de France on Sunday.

The finish of the 138-mile stage that started in Rotterdam was more like an episode of Survivor than a competitive bike race. Most of the sprint contenders had been on the ground by the time Petacchi crossed the line for his 164th career victory -- his first at the Tour de France since 2003.

The crashes didn't affect the overall standings from Saturday's prologue as they occurred in the protected zone in final kilometers; everyone in the peloton will receive the same time ....

GALLUP, NM - I've seen fireworks shows at golf courses, football stadiums and along lakefronts. Never have I seen one at a rodeo grounds, where the announcer translated everything into English from Navajo, and where an errant flare set off a series of explosions that lit the scrubby undergrowth on a hillside.

We had read about the fireworks display at Gallup, so we got an early start at El Morro. We passed by the huge Inscription Rock and headed downhill into the Zuni Pueblo Reservation. A sign posted the rules: No pictures. No alcohol. We turned onto Route 32 and missed the Zuni Pueblo itself, one of the 7 Cities of Cibola sought by gold hungry Spanish conquistadors. ...

Australia's Tony Martin led the 2010 Tour de France prologue for most of Saturday until Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, left, scorched the 5.5-mile course through Rotterdam.

Lance Armstrong, riding in his last Tour de France, finished in 4th place overall, beating rival Alberto Contador by 5 seconds, who now sits in 6th place.

Garmin-Transitions's Tyler Farrar of Wenatchee, Washington, finished in 7th place, a surprisingly high finish for a sprint specialist. Another US cyclist, Levi Leipheimer on Santa Rosa, California, finished in 8th place.

While the prologue does little more than present the cyclists to the fans ....

Disgraced pro cyclist Floyd Landis is making some bombshell disclosures regarding doping in the peloton, especially during his time with the US Postal Service team.

Landis rode alongside Lance Armstrong on that team for several years. During this year's Tour of California, Landis disclosed that the use of performance-enhancing drugs and illegal techniques were prevalent during that time. Landis is reiterating those assertions in "Blood Brothers," a Wall Street Journal article published Saturday, the first day of the 2010 Tour de France.

Armstrong says the WSJ article is "full of false accusations" at LanceArmstrong.com.

Among the latest allegations ....

Biking Bis blog readers are favoring Lance Armstrong to win his 8th Tour de France victory this year.

Respondents to the poll "Who will win the 2010 Tour de France" gave Armstrong 36% of the vote. Last year's winner, Alberto Contador, received 31% of the vote.

While cycling pundits are saying this Tour de France is going to be a showdown between Armstrong and Contador, most are touting the Spaniard as the eventual winner. The 97th Tour de France starts this morning with a prologue in Rotterdam and ends in Paris on July 25.

Andy Schleck, the second-place finisher in last year Tour ...

EL MORRO NATIONAL MONUMENT, N.M. - We passed through several nations today; those of the Isleta, Laguna, Acoma, and Canoncita. They're all pueblo tribes that thrived here before the Spanish Conquistadors and missionaries enslaved them. English is spoken here, but it's not the native tongue.

None of that mattered to us this morning. We awoke out in the desert while there were still a couple of stars in the sky and the sun was brightening the East. We walked back to our bicycles hidden under the railroad trestle and Bruce removed that crudely carved horse's head, given to him in Missouri, from his handlebar pack and set it on the trestle support. I imagine it will startle whoever finds it. ...

The 2010 Tour de France bike race is going to be difficult to miss this year, given the daily live and recapped TV coverage, online video streaming, live animations, and text updates for computers and mobile devices.

You might even find the standings buried in the agate results of the sports section in the following day's newspaper. Actually, it has been years since that was the sole source of Tour de France information.

Leading the pack is the Versus television network, which is offering an average 14 hours of TV coverage every day. The broadcasts featuring Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen and Bob Roll start at 11:30 a.m. (ET) Saturday for the prologue in Rotterdam ....

SOMEWHERE IN ISLETA INDIAN RESERVATION, N.M. - When things are going well, I tend to leave things too much to chance ... at least until I'm brought up short by lack of planning and bad decisions.

That's why Bruce and I spent the night in our sleeping bags on a dry wash under the stars next to a railroad trestle. Except for the occasional freight train, the only sound was a soft breeze and the startling yelps of coyotes.

We left the motel late this morning and stopped by Old Town Albuquerque to shop. We looked at jewelry and learned the differences between the Zuni, Hopi, and Navajo styles. We had a lunch of tortillas and beer -- a true meal of champions, and picked up some odds and ends at a K-Mart before finally getting underway at 2 p.m. ...