Portal:Cycling

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Cycling is a means of transport, a form of recreation, and a sport. It involves riding bicycles, unicycles, tricycles and other human powered vehicles. A bicycle, the most notable instrument of cycling, is a pedal-driven land vehicle with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. As a sport, cycling is governed internationally by the Union Cycliste Internationale, headquartered in Switzerland.

Bicycles were introduced in the 19th century and now number about one billion worldwide. They are the principal means of transportation in many parts of the world.

Cycling is widely regarded as a very effective and efficient mode of transportation optimal for short to moderate distances. Bicycles provide numerous benefits by comparison with motor vehicles, including the sustained physical exercise necessarily involved in cycling, that cycling involves a reduced consumption of fossil fuels, less air or noise pollution, much reduced traffic congestion, easier parking, greater maneuverability, and access to both roads and paths.

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The 2012 Critérium du Dauphiné was the sixty-fourth running of the Critérium du Dauphiné cycling stage race; a race rated as a World Tour event on the UCI calendar, the highest classification such an event can have. The race consisted of eight stages, beginning with a prologue in Grenoble on 3 June, and concluded in Châtel on 10 June. The race was organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation, the same group that organises the Tour de France. It was viewed as a great preparation for July's Tour de France, hence why a majority of the contenders for the general classification of the major tour participated in the Dauphiné. It featured mountainous stages as well as an individual time trial quite similar in length to those that awaited the riders in the Tour.

The race was won for the second successive year by Team Sky rider Bradley Wiggins, who claimed the leader's yellow and blue jersey after the first stage, extending his race-leading advantage after winning the fourth stage individual time trial, and ultimately maintained that advantage. Wiggins became only the third rider to win the Dauphiné and Paris–Nice – a race that Wiggins had won in March – in the same year after Jacques Anquetil (1963 and 1965) and Eddy Merckx (1971) had previously done so.

Wiggins' winning margin over his team-mate and runner-up Michael Rogers was one minute and seventeen seconds, and BMC Racing Team's Cadel Evans completed the podium, nine seconds down on Rogers. In the race's other classifications, Liquigas–Cannondale rider Cayetano Sarmiento won the King of the Mountains classification, Evans won the green jersey for the points classification, Rabobank's Wilco Kelderman won the young rider classification, with Team Sky finishing at the head of the teams classification by over thirteen minutes, after placing four riders inside the final overall top ten placings.

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Handlebars of the Peugeot Onyx concept.
Photo credit: Clément Bucco-Lechat

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Gregory James "Greg" LeMond (born June 26, 1961) is a former professional road racing cyclist, entrepreneur, and anti-doping advocate.

LeMond was World Champion in 1983 and 1989, and is a three-time winner of the Tour de France. LeMond was born in Lakewood, California, and raised in ranch country on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, near Carson City, NV. He is married and has three children with his wife Kathy, with whom he supports a variety of charitable causes and organizations.

In 1986, LeMond became the first non-European professional cyclist to win the Tour (and to this day, the only American, following Lance Armstrong's and Floyd Landis' disqualifications). He was accidentally shot while hunting in 1987 and missed the next two Tours. LeMond returned to the Tour de France in 1989, completing an improbable comeback by winning in dramatic fashion on the race's final stage. He successfully defended his title the following year, claiming his third and final Tour victory in 1990, which made LeMond one of only seven riders who have won three or more Tours. LeMond retired from competition in December 1994. He was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1996.

During his career, LeMond championed several technological advancements in pro cycling, including the introduction of aerodynamic "triathlon" handlebars and carbon fiber bicycle frames, which he later marketed through his company LeMond Bicycles. His other business interests have included restaurants, real estate, and consumer fitness equipment.

LeMond is a vocal opponent of performance-enhancing drug use, and at times his commercial ventures have suffered for his anti-doping stance—as in 2001, when he first accused Lance Armstrong of doping and sparked a conflict that led eventually to the dissolution of his partnership with Armstrong's primary sponsor, Trek Bicycles, who licensed the LeMond brand. As recently as December 2012, LeMond even articulated a willingness to replace the UCI president on an interim basis if called to do so.

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WikiProject Cycling  WikiProject Transport  WikiProject Sports  WikiProject Olympics
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