Bikers compete in Tour De France-style race
The first of four Tour De France-style mountain bike races to be held in Brownsville took place Sunday at the Trail and Field Park on West Alton Gloor Boulevard, part of the USA Bike Race Series.
"I love the sport, I do it for fun," said Joe Aguilar, the first-place winner in the expert category. "I've been riding since I was 22. Now that I'm 40, I try and keep up with the younger ones."
Event coordinator Meri Heggie said the race, which had five competitive categories, was a success.
"We liked today's outcome," Heggie said. "We do this mainly to give people an opportunity locally, instead of having to travel."
The race started at 8:30 a.m. Race categories were 10 and under, 11-15, and beginner, sport and expert categories.
A $10 fee was charged for all entering racers. The money will be used to buy water, Gatorade, fruit and equipment for the next race, plus the medals and ribbons that are given to the top five winners in each category. [ read full article ]
Floyd Landis the talk of the town and the Tour de France
The Frenchwoman found her way last week to the Green Mountain Cyclery, a little bicycle shop here along Reading Road where a decade and a half ago 15-year-old Floyd Landis was introduced to the sport he now rules.
"I should kiss the ground he walked on," said the Brittany native, who signed her name Colette on the store's window.
"Better not," advised Jennifer Farrington, the owner's wife, "the floor's filthy."
That curious juxtaposition of the now-glamorous international sports star and the quaint but manure-scented corner of Lancaster County where he was born and raised was evident here on Saturday.
Seventy-five people, ranging from journalists for the French sports paper L'Equipe to Landis' old buddies at Conestoga Valley High School, gathered in the bike shop to watch the 2006 Tour de France's 19th and next-to-last stage.
Here, on a rented big-screen TV, they saw the red-haired American rider virtually clinch a Tour victory with a spectacular time-trial performance that left his supporters here whooping and hollering like Eagles fans. [ read full article ]
Landis prepares for long road ahead The Tour de France victor has yet to rest after his comeback
Back in his hotel room after seeing his overall lead evaporate like an ice cream cone in July, a depressed Floyd Landis rebuilt his energy and redesigned his Tour de France strategy.
Wednesday morning in the cycling race's mountainous 16th stage, an undernourished Landis looked to have blown his chances, not just relinquishing his advantage but falling more than eight minutes behind new leader Oscar Pereiro of Spain.
"Once I got something to eat and got my head together, I realized I couldn't change what happened," the 30-year-old Lancaster County native said in a telephone interview yesterday. "I knew that for me, [the 17th stage] was going to be a Hail Mary pass, that's all."
Landis, ironically less weary than his competitors because he had raced so slowly the previous day, completed the last-minute bomb. His astounding comeback in Stage 17 on Thursday -- when he made up all but 30 seconds of the deficit -- set the stage for him to become just the third American to capture cycling's premier event.
He won the event's final Alpine stage by a resounding 5 minutes, 42 seconds. Landis captured the Tour de France title on Sunday. "It was a bit of a roller coaster," Landis said from his Paris hotel room, a day after receiving the victor's yellow jersey on the Champs-Elysees. "I was as down after a race as I've ever been after Stage 16. And then after Stage 17, it was as happy as I'd ever been." [ read full article ]