Free Republic

Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the governing body for cycling, may revise its transgender athlete policy days after it defended the regulations when a male-bodied athlete won a women’s race.Townhall covered this week how UCI issued a statement defending its policy allowing male athletes to compete against women. This came after Austin Killips, 27-year-old a biological male, took home the overall win in the Tour of the Gila race in New Mexico this week.Breaking News:MAN wins WOMENS Prize 🏆 pic.twitter.com/0Kp6J5GvRe— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) May 1, 2023“The UCI acknowledges that transgender athletes may wish to compete in accordance with their gender identity,”...

The Tour de France will start in Italy for the first time in 2024 and the opening three stages will be held there, race organisers said on Wednesday. Italy gets the honour of hosting the Grand Depart 100 years after Ottavio Bottecchia became the first Italian to win cycling's most prestigious event. The Tour will start on June 29, with the opening stage from Florence to Rimini on the Adriatic coast. The second stage will be from Cesenatico to Bologna and the third will start in Piacenza and end in Turin.

Rob Wardell, 37, died suddenly after suffering fatal cardiac arrest Scottish world champion cyclist Rob Wardell unexpectedly passed away at his home on August 23, just two days after winning the elite Scottish MTB XC Championships. Wardell, 37, suffered a fatal cardiac arrest at his home. “We are devastated to confirm the news that international mountain biker & former employee, Rab Wardell, has passed away today,” a statement from Scottish Cycling read, confirming Wardell’s passing. “We have very little information at this stage, but we send our love & support to his family, friends & all those in our community...

The female Tour de France fell into chaos on Thursday as a mega-pileup swallowed dozens of riders just 45 kilometers from the finish line. Several of the riders sustained injuries and one was rushed to the hospital. Thursday was the fifth stage of the very first female Tour de France. This stage included a 175-kilometer trip from Bar-Le-Duc to Saint-Die-Des-Vosges. This stage was seen as a sprint before the challenging Vosges mountain range on Friday. With 130 kilometers out of the way, riders began to quicken their pace with an open straight up ahead. It was here that the pack...

Tour de France fans took matters into their own hands on Saturday as they removed a gang of eco-protesters threatening to disrupt the bicycle race by sitting in the middle of the road to block riders. MailOnline has more. "Eight climate activists from French campaign group Dernière Rénovation (Last Renovation) sporting T-shirts emblazoned with the message “we have 978 days left” to tackle environmental decline tried to stop the race during the 20th stage between Lacapelle-Marival and Rocamadouron on Saturday. "But their attempts to wreak havoc at the stage were thwarted by spectators, who stormed onto the road and dragged...

Prosecutors in the trial of a spectator who caused a huge crash on the first stage of the Tour de France have asked for a four-month suspended jail sentence, according to a lawyer for the riders' union. The French woman, who was not been named, was holding a sign up to TV cameras, with her back to the onrushing peloton. German cyclist Tony Martin hit the sign and fell to the the ground, with dozens more falling as they rode into him in a scene that grabbed global headlines. Most of the riders were able to resume the race, but...

Doug Ross runs a Top 20 Tweets from BadBlue Tonight feature: last night this came in at #16. Not something you often see. Route of the Tour de France temporarily blocked by llamas in fog. Photo from TdF Race Radio. pic.twitter.com/RSC5abj6I0 — John O'Connell (@jdpoc) July 15, 2021It turns out the photo is actually from the Tour de France a few years ago but since it got retweeted it qualifies and I think it deserves a much higher ranking than 16, based solely on the responses it engendered. While many observed that “Llamas in the Fog” would make an exceptionally...

The spectator whose cardboard sign sent riders tumbling to the road was charged with reckless endangerment and involuntarily causing injuries. A Tour de France spectator on the side of the road held up a sign that hit the German rider Tony Martin. He fell and caused a pileup of dozens of more. [snip] Camille Miansoni, the prosecutor in Brest, France, who had opened an investigation into the case, said that the spectator, a 30-year-old French woman, had been released from police custody pending her trial. She turned herself in on Wednesday. The charges under consideration carry a possible one year...

A woman facing prison for causing one of the worst crashes in the history of the Tour de France has been arrested after four days on the run. The suspect – who has not been identified – was arrested today and is now in custody in the small Brittany town of Landerneau. She lives in the Finistere department of Brittany, in which Landerneau is situated, according to an investigating source. ‘She did not have far to travel to get to the race, and clearly knew how to escape after causing so much damage,’ he said. ‘Numerous witnesses were interviewed, and...

French authorities have launched an investigation after a spectator interfered in stage one of the Tour de France on Saturday, causing a massive pileup with less than 30 miles until the finish line. The French Gendarmerie said in a statement posted to Facebook that they are actively looking for the woman who held out a cardboard sign into the road causing the crash that resulted in several riders sustaining serious injuries. Authorities said the suspect, dressed in blue jeans, a red and white striped shirt and a yellow raincoat, fled the scene before anyone could reach her. Several videos posted...

Pandemonium broke out in the cycling roads of France on Saturday when a massive crash broke out in Stage 1 of the Tour de France. A spectator stretched out a little too far onto the course with their sign and tripped up cyclist Tony Martin, causing a mass of bikes and bodies to pile up as a result. In addition to Martin, the whole Jumbo Visma team went down along with dozens and dozens of others. The fan that caused the crash was holding a sign that read 'Allez Opi-Omi!' written on it in black marker, which is a hello...

The Tour de France will do away with its traditional pair of podium hostesses, Tour director Christian Prudhomme announced at a press conference Wednesday. Instead, the Tour will have a male host on one side of the podium and a hostess on the other side.

Yes! Le Tour is here. The 106th edition of the race begins Saturday, in next-door Brussels, a nod to the stern-faced Belgian cycling titan Eddy Merckx, who won five overall Tours and 34 stages beginning in 1969... It’s got a case as the craziest and most beautiful event in sports, but it’s clearly an acquired taste. I’m really super-duper into it. You know this. ...the four-time Tour winner Chris Froome, was badly hurt in a crash, suffering a broken leg and other injuries. Froome would have been a favorite for this year. One of the more intriguing newbies is Mike...

The mobility needs of people who walk and cycle – often the majority of citizens in a city – continue to be overlooked, states Share the Road Programme Annual Report 2018. Even though the benefits of investing in pedestrians and cyclists can save lives, help protect the environment and support poverty reduction. Meeting the needs of people who walk and cycle continues to be a critical part of the mobility solution for helping cities de-couple population growth from increased emissions, and to improve air quality and road safety. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), safe infrastructure for walking and...

Renowned as the voice of cycling, ex-professional and NBC Sports analyst Paul Sherwen died Sunday. He was 62. The cycling community was reeling Sunday at news of Sherwen’s death. One of the most well-known and familiar personalities in cycling, his career as racer and later as broadcaster stretched decades. Officials from NBC Sports, where he covered five Olympic Games as well as 33 editions of the Tour de France as a commentator, sent a message of condolences. “We are saddened to offer our condolences to the friends and family of Paul Sherwen, who passed away this morning at his home...

“We reassert our desire to see the end of power meters in races, which annihilate the glorious uncertainty of sport.” ...C’mon now – anyone who’s been involved in major stage races (or any pro race) knows that the single biggest thing they could do to instigate more excitement would be to take away race radios. For those not familiar, race radios are small wireless radios worn by the riders that allow them to communicate with their team.

When JoJo McKibben was the victim of a hit-and-run on April 3 as she biked to work, she wasn't all that surprised. She was hit while biking by a drunk driver last summer and has come to expect that cars won't realize she's riding on two wheels. McKibben's boyfriend Brendan Sharpe said he has also been seriously injured by cars while he's biked in Austin, once in 2009 and again in 2015... Katie Delleoz, the executive director of Bike Austin, said she personally has nearly been struck at the same intersection McKibben was hit at last week

Sir Bradley Wiggins took drugs to boost his performance before winning the 2012 Tour de France, a devastating report said last night. In a bombshell conclusion, MPs rejected claims that the five-time Olympic gold medallist took triamcinolone before the Tour to treat his asthma. They concluded it was, in fact, being used – within anti- doping regulations – to ‘prepare’ Team Sky rider Wiggins for the gruelling event. ‘The purpose of this was not to treat medical need, but to improve his power-to-weight ratio ahead of the race,’ they said.

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES (FRANCE) (AFP) - Robert Marchand is chasing another world record when he jumps on his bike to compete in the senior hour endurance on Wednesday. Make that uber-senior -- for, while still sprightly, the Frenchman is 105 years old and racing in a category all of his own. Three years ago he managed to ride 26.927 kilometres (nearly 17 miles) at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome outside Paris, a record for someone aged over 100.

Bikes will be tested at the Olympics and Tour de France to try to find hidden motors and stop 'mechanical doping. Cycling's governing body, the UCI says up to 12,000 bikes will be tested this year using a new scanning system introduced in January.