Cycling

Robert Gesink, a Dutchman who rides for the Rabobank team, won the Tour of California with a main-field finish Sunday, confirming his place at the top that he had earned by climbing fast up Mount Baldy on Saturday.

Dutchman Robert Gesink won the difficult seventh stage of the Tour of California on Saturday to take a 46-second lead in the overall standings into today's largely ceremonial final leg.

BIG BEAR LAKE – Sylvain Georges of France pedaled to a long solo win, and Dave Zabriskie maintained his overall lead Friday with a main field finish in the mountainous Stage 6 of the Amgen Tour of California.

Dave Zabriskie won the individual time trial in hot and breezy conditions Thursday to take the Tour of California overall lead with three stages left.

Thousands of commuters are expected to pedal to work today around the Sacramento region as part of Bike to Work Day.

Slovakia's Peter Sagan raced to his event-opening fourth consecutive stage victory in the Tour of California on Wednesday to increase his overall lead to 16 seconds.

Peter Sagan of Slovakia won his second straight stage with a powerful and unchallenged sprint and retained the overall lead Monday in Stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California.

SANTA ROSA – Peter Sagan overcame a flat back tire with five miles left Sunday to win the first stage of the Amgen Tour of California in a wild sprint finish in downtown Santa Rosa.

After riding and crashing and periodically winning bike races around the globe for a decade, Tom Danielson had had enough. He realized he'd likely do better if he could see where he was pedaling.

Let's assume you're behind in your training, that spring sprung on you before you knew it and you're not as trim and fit as you had hoped.

The Tour of California will bypass previous stops in Sacramento, Auburn, Davis and much of the rest of Northern California this year. But from Bakersfield to Beverly Hills, the nearly 750-mile trek will offer the race's most diverse route.

Steven Tiller, the Sacramento carpenter-turned- designer whose bike storage rack could be poised for big things, has begun the manufacturing process but is still working out many details.

An eight-mile stretch of Scott Road will be closed to vehicle traffic Sunday so that bicyclists and walkers can enjoy some of the prettiest country in Sacramento County.

The driver of a small black sedan honked and leaned out his window one recent cold, windy Sunday. "Go ride on the sidewalk!" he yelled.

You don't have to be a pro cyclist with 5 percent body fat, a $10,000 race bike and million-dollar lungs to enjoy the feeling of riding like a pro.

For years, as Lance Armstrong ruled the Tour de France and carbon fiber became the material of choice for racers and recreational riders alike, high-end bikes got lighter, marginally faster and more mass-produced than ever.

A full-time bicycle frame builder and, an occasional competitive age-group rider, Paul Sadoff has spent most of the past 35 years accommodating discerning cyclists.

The simplicity of bike businesses to market and manage, combined with fuel savings and customers' desire to go green, are encouraging expansion and innovative uses for pedal power.

A detour will be in place for a one-mile section of the American River Parkway bike trail beginning at 9 a.m. today to allow for trail repairs.

Simple and functional when you ride them, bikes can become a clunky burden when it comes to putting them away.

The United States Bicycling Hall of Fame announced its first Legends Gran Fondo will take place in Davis on May 6.

All over town and out in the suburbs, folks hop on their bikes for the simplest of reasons, leaving their cars behind.

Cycling teams at the Tour of Qatar welcomed the end of a U.S. federal investigation into Lance Armstrong, saying Sunday they hoped the seven-time Tour de France champion finally could move on with his life.

Access to the Pope/Baldwin Bike Path in South Lake Tahoe, adjacent to Highway 89, will be restricted temporarily for the next 10 days.

Give Raymond Wiggins a bicycle - any bike will do: cruiser, mountain bike, BMX, even a 10-speed - and watch him transform it to something extraordinary, something more valuable than merely a mode of transportation.

We're still no bike-saturated Amsterdam or even bike-crazed Portland, but the bicycle has become a much more prominent option for folks in and around Sacramento.

This week, city leaders celebrated the completion of a $13 million project to transform a freeway segment into a landscaped boulevard with sidewalks and bike lanes.

The California Highway Patrol has launched a 10-month campaign to promote pedestrian and bicycle safety in north Sacramento County.

In the past 15 or 20 years, there have been countless technical advances in clothing for athletes and active folks.

California's world-class bicycle race won't speed past the Capitol next year – or anywhere else in the Sacramento area, for that matter.

If you're one of those folks who can never remember to turn back your clocks – the kind who shows up Sunday to your kid's soccer game only to wonder where everyone is – think about Greg Wilson.

City officials opened a new bike and pedestrian bridge over Interstate 80 in South Natomas on Saturday morning with a ceremony at nearby Peregrine Park in Natomas.

The city of Sacramento will open a new bike and pedestrian bridge today over Interstate 80 in Natomas that officials say will make it easier for cyclists in North Natomas to get to and from downtown.

Kirby Smith knows statistics and salesmanship. It's a good skill set for working in the cycling industry because Smith's job in "production and client development" is marketing a misunderstood bicycle.

The city of Davis now holds both first and second place in the record books for the "longest single line of bicycles."

A candlelight walk will be held Wednesday for an Elk Grove boy, 14, critically injured last week when a vehicle hit his bicycle.

Time to sign up if you're going to try to break a Guinness World Record by riding in the World's Greatest Bike Parade, which starts in downtown Davis the morning of Oct. 2.

Sacramento endurance cyclist Scott Brown, 47, is among the 230 riders selected to compete in the Furnace Creek 508 on Oct. 8 in the Mojave Desert.

Time to sign up if you're going to try and break the Guinness World Record by riding in the World's Greatest Bike Parade, which starts in downtown Davis the morning of Oct. 2.

The spectators for early fields of the Grand Prix – unlike for the Tour of California that raced through Sacramento in May – were mostly family, friends and other racers.

Roads will be closed around Capitol Park in downtown Sacramento today for the Sacramento Grand Prix bicycle race.

Some of the fastest cyclists in the country will be in Sacramento on Saturday for the Sacramento Grand Prix, a one-mile circuit course similar to that used for finishing stages of the Amgen Tour of California.

It's hardly anarchy on the American River bike trail, a tranquil oasis in an otherwise busy suburban landscape, but some Boy Scouts and the city of Folsom are striving to make it even safer.

Seeking a spot for the sixth time in the event's seven-year history, Sacramento has applied to host a stage finish of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California.

When 15-year-old Thomas Jessop was growing up, he came home every night to a 1981 Wyoming school bus, where he lived with his dad, brother and their three dogs. They had a makeshift kitchen, a toilet and another bus welded on top for a private sleeping loft, but they had no place of their own to park their home.

Six years into a pro career that catapulted him to mountaintops and victory podiums around the globe, Vladimir Efimkin decided in the summer of 2010 he'd had enough.

There's one sure way to keep high gas prices from ruining your summer road trip.

A bicyclist died after he was struck twice by vehicles near Davis on Sunday night.

Cadel Evans rocketed past the finish line Saturday, all but certain of his triumph in the Tour de France. As fellow Australians everywhere burst into celebration, Evans presented them with the portrait of a champion: body bent, muscles bulging, vigilant until the end.

After 2,105 miles and nearly three weeks of racing, through three perilously steep climbs into the Alps, the Tour de France will be decided today in a 26-mile sprint through Grenoble. This is like deciding a marathon with a 100-meter dash.

After weeks of the epic and exhausting Tour de France, millions of viewers have been treated to beautiful scenery, inspiring athletic achievements, huge crowds and sometimes bewildering behavior on two wheels.

A section of bike trail along the Sacramento River has reopened after four years of construction.

Challenge-seeking mountain bike racers annually flock to the Downieville Classic, a lung-searing, bone-rattling, 29-mile ride from Sierra City to Downieville over the Sierra buttes.

Seven Elk Grove residents will bicycle across Iowa to raise funds for Elk Grove Food Bank Services.

Inspired by the original Tweed Runs in London, where bicyclists wearing 1930s Scottish tweed come together for slow rides through city streets, Rick and Erin Houston began their own version in Sacramento in November 2009.

On Father's Day, when so many people are celebrating or taking stock, this father and son possibly hold the secret to happiness.

The eight-man team ranges in age from 29 to 51, and in rank from officer to chief. The goal is to bike across America in a week, raising awareness for law-enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

The wacky world of Peter Wagner, perhaps Davis' foremost recycler, is headquartered in an ordinary suburb on the west side of town.

Organizers of a new bicycle-sharing program in midtown hope to alleviate traffic and lure more customers – while also possibly benefiting from advanced software and security technology for the service.

Park lovers who gathered in the rain at the William Pond Recreation Area on Saturday spent more time discussing the past and future than chatting about the present weather.

More than 15 years into a career scattered with victories from Langkawi to Georgia and Switzerland to Monterey, Chris Horner saw his racing life change dramatically last year.

CYCLING

Levi Leipheimer of Santa Rosa has waited six years, but he finally got the first road stage win of his Amgen Tour of California career Saturday.

Thousands of commuters are expected to pedal to work today and participate in cycling events around the Sacramento region as part of Bike to Work Day.

So much for the notion of young riders leaving their elders behind in the Amgen Tour of California.

Thousands of spectators gathered under dark skies Tuesday in Auburn to watch the start of Stage 3 of the Amgen Tour of California.

Greg Henderson was not supposed to win Tuesday's Stage 3 of the Amgen Tour of California.

The pro cyclists screamed into town Monday, a blur of loud colors and the soft sounds of skinny tires on wet asphalt, did more laps than expected around the state Capitol and thrilled fans lining the streets, if only for mere seconds.

As the peloton reached the finishing circuits around the state Capitol, the rain falling as if on cue, three powerful teams fought for position in the Amgen Tour of California's second stage.

STAGE 2 RESULTS

The Amgen Tour of California's visits to Sacramento are taking on a British flavor.

Glum faces dominated the podium Sunday at a news conference following the Amgen Tour of California's cancellation of its first stage.

It was supposed to be a beautiful thing with a big payoff Sunday: a challenging 118-mile route around Lake Tahoe for an international field of pro cyclists and a picture postcard for tourism officials they could broadcast around the world.

As the weather worsened early Sunday afternoon, the wind and snow and cold producing a winter-like postcard from Lake Tahoe, safety concerns prompted a last-minute cancellation of the Amgen Tour of California's first stage.

Lorena Beightler has combined all her loves to produce not just a blog featuring candid shots of fabulously dressed and coiffed bike commuters, but also to host a monthly Sunday ride.

The big bike race is coming to town for its fifth successive year, and for you, the would-be spectator teeming with anticipation, that could mean one of two things.

At age 37, Levi Leipheimer represents cycling's old guard. The three-time Amgen Tour of California winner hopes to school the up-and-comers when the sixth annual race begins today.

With Mark Cavendish competing in the Giro d'Italia, HTC-Highroad will look to Matt Goss for sprint success in this year's Amgen Tour of California.

The Amgen Tour of California's first stage circles Lake Tahoe 1 1/2 times Sunday, with the race starting in South Lake Tahoe and concluding at the Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort.

The consensus among riders ready to test the sixth annual Tour of California: This is the toughest course in the event's history.

With snow forecast for Sunday's first stage, and the tragic death of Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt still rocking the cycling world, Amgen Tour of California officials said safety would be their top priority.

Climbers love the mountains. Time trialists savor one-day tests of strength and speed. General classification contenders cherish the challenge of a multi-day stage race.

With snow a possibility for the first stage at Lake Tahoe on Sunday, Amgen Tour of California officials are considering a variety of options for the opening day of the eight-day pro cycling race.

Even after he graduated from college, Christopher Jones didn't have designs on the kind of cool lifestyle he's enjoying now – getting paid to ride his bike.

The world's best cycling races drip with tradition. The Tour de France started in 1903, the Giro d'Italia in 1909 and the Vuelta a España in 1935.

On the bike, during lonely rural training rides when the imagination takes hold and flights of fancy soar, Trent Klasna would gaze longingly at parcels of farmland stitched along his Sierra foothills routes.

Andrea Lepore thought it would be great to have a local film in the upcoming Bicycle Film Festival.

Last year's inaugural Sacramento Bicycle Film Festival and its surrounding events met all Brian Clifton's needs for a night out: food, drink, free parking, recreation, escapism.

After the climb up Donner Summit, the long descent toward Sacramento strongly suggests a familiar finish Monday in the second stage of the Amgen Tour of California.

While there's no one safest method of towing children on bikes, most important is to find the style that works best for the family.

Cycling's version of free agency plays out every year. As riders seek their best opportunities, team management searches for the right mix in building rosters.

Jim Felt's career as a design guru and geek who owns an international bicycle manufacturing company may have begun with a run he never finished, a lunch he didn't hold down and the best $100 he ever lost.

A 17-year-old bicyclist was transported to the hospital with serious injuries after a traffic accident Tuesday morning in Land Park, Sacramento police said.

Folsom's Historic Sutter Street will be the site of a city-sponsored "viewing party" as the Amgen Tour of California passes through town May 17.

East Sacramento residents gathered Sunday for a forum on bicycle safety just blocks from where two "ghost bikes" memorialize cyclists killed in collisions with motor vehicles.

Imagine having eight days to showcase California to friends or relatives who come visiting every year.

A "ghost bike" memorial has been left at Sacramento State, reminding students of the death of one of their own.

More than 400 orphaned bicycles are set to be auctioned April 30 at UC Davis.

The rolling hills and the largely quiet country roads in and around Auburn make this area one of the most reliable for a great cycling experience.