Spent the Memorial Day weekend in the Saratoga Springs area, riding with the Mohawk Hudson Cycling Club (webmhcc.org).

We started the weekend off with a 24-mile warm-up ride around Saratoga Lake.

On Saturday and Sunday, we road with MHCC’s B group, which means I was able to hang with them for oh, about two or three miles before they disappeared over a hilltop. Luckily their ride leaders circled back to make sure we stayed on the cue sheets.

I did two longer rides with the club – a 46-miler across Stewart’s Dam on the Sacandaga River and then on to Lake Luzerne; and a 38-miler to the Saratoga Battlefield.

The battlefield ride is one of my favorites — it includes a 10-mile rolling loop through the historic site and past a series of gorgeous overlooks (nps.gov/sara/). You can stop and tour, or do what we usually do – sprint the whole way.

Getting back from a tough ride through the Adirondacks and soaking in a mineral spa –now, that’s what I call a holiday.

Saratoga’s a great town to hang out in – as long as it’s not horse racing season (August). There are a couple of bike shops, and plenty to do besides riding: the famous springs and spas, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Yaddo, and lots of pricey dining and shopping.

Wyeth in Pearl River hosted a Ride/Walk to work for a Cleaner NY day Wednesday and over 50 employees parked their cars and self propelled themselves to work. Wyeth conducts this once a year in partnership with the Clean Air New York campaign. Each person registered with the Wyeth GreenWheels program.

Pleas click here to view a video from the event by Journal News photographer Kathy Gardner.

Please click the photo below to view more images.

ANDREW DAMPF, AP Sports Writer, RIOMAGGIORE, Italy (AP)   Levi Leipheimer moved within striking distance of the Giro d’Italia lead Thursday. Now he hopes Lance Armstrong can help him get the pink jersey.

Leipheimer finished second to Denis Menchov in a grueling individual time trial and moved up to third overall, 40 seconds behind the Russian. Danilo Di Luca, who entered the 12th stage with the overall lead, dropped to second, 34 seconds behind Menchov.

“We have to attack,” said Johan Bruyneel, the team manager of Leipheimer’s and Armstrong’s Astana squad.

Leipheimer finished third in the 2007 Tour de France and was second to teammate Alberto Contador in last year’s Spanish Vuelta. He’s won all three races he’s entered this year — the Tour of California, the Vuelta of Castilla and Leon and the minor Tour of Gila — but still doesn’t have the reputation of a winner.

“I’ve never seen Leipheimer attack and he’s going to have to now if he wants to win this Giro,” Di Luca said.

That’s where Armstrong comes in. The seven-time Tour de France winner is still regaining his form after 3½ years of retirement and breaking his collarbone in March. Out of contention in 12th place, Armstrong can afford to sacrifice himself for Leipheimer.

“Lance Armstrong is very important for Levi, without a doubt. Everyone knows that,” Menchov said.

Menchov was timed in 1 hour, 34 minutes, 29 seconds over the nearly 38-mile route along the coastal area known as Cinque Terre. He dedicated his victory to injured teammate Pedro Horillo Munoz, who tumbled 60 yards off the side of the road in a high-speed descent Saturday. He is recovering from severe injuries at a hospital in Bergamo.

“He was very unlucky and I hope he bounces back soon,” Menchov said. “We had a nasty scare and now Pedro will realize that we’re winning and that will make him happy.”

Di Luca finished sixth, 1 minute, 54 seconds behind Menchov.

Menchov also won the race’s toughest uphill finish to Alpi di Siusi in stage 5 and has two Spanish Vuelta titles. But without Horillo and no other established climbers, Menchov’s Rabobank team may not be strong enough to defend the lead.

“We’ll see now how his team can deal with that,” Bruyneel said. “Obviously it would be better to be 40 ahead than 40 behind but there are still a lot of hard stages to come. We’ll just have to see and maybe take advantage of a bad moment of Menchov or one of the other favorites to attack and gain some time.”

Leipheimer was cut and bruised in a fall Wednesday when someone dropped a water bottle in front of him.

“It’s never the best thing to crash, especially the day before a time trial,” he said. “So maybe I can blame that a little bit, but I don’t like to make excuses and to be honest I felt good and I don’t feel like it held me back.”

Armstrong was 13th, 2:26 behind.

“We had this idea to not go full gas in the beginning and try to accelerate on the last climb and that was not possible,” Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel said, referring to Armstrong. “When he got to the bottom of the last climb he could maintain the same rhythm but he could not accelerate.”

Armstrong finished one spot behind defending Tour champion Carlos Sastre, and one spot ahead of former world time trial champion Michael Rogers.

“Of course, you always want to be as good as possible but overall I think it was a good time trial,” Bruyneel said. “More than 1½ hours of time trialing after such a long time — I think he’s doing well.”

Armstrong appeared bothered by a back problem and took his hands off the handlebars several times to stretch.

“I’ve never seen him do that in the past,” Bruyneel said. “Obviously it was a hard effort.”

Armstrong has stopped speaking to reporters, apparently angry over the fallout of a rider protest he helped orchestrate in Milan on Sunday.

This was one of most demanding time trials in recent grand tours, with riders needing about 30 minutes longer to complete than most other races against the clock.

Hugging the spectacular Ligurian coast, the route tilted uphill immediately with a nearly 10-mile climb. That was followed by a nerve-racking descent full of hairpin curves. Cliffs heading down to the sea lurked just over the guardrails.

A second climb of 5½ miles began shortly after the stage’s midpoint, with another harrowing descent. The nearly 86-degree heat was also a factor.

“The only word I can think of is epic,” Leipheimer said. “I know that word is used a lot, but it truly deserves to be described that way today.”

Stage 13 on Friday is a mostly flat, 109-mile course from Lido di Camaiore to Florence. The race ends May 31 in Rome.

The Westchester cycle Club held a Ride of Silence to honor cyclists killed on by motor vehicles and remind everyone of cyclists rights to the road. Over thirty riders participated in the eight-mile ride from Scarsdale to White Plains and back at an average speed under 12 miles per hour.

Thanks to Pearson Constantino, who submitted this ride report.

The ride was excellent, beautiful weather.  I counted about 35 riders, including myself, a couple of members from the Westchester Cycle Club and riders from Kraft Foods were also in attendance, riding in Memorial to a fallen Colleague Al Poggiogalle who was killed while riding his bicycle last year. ( See post below about Poggiogalle’s killer admitting to man-slaughter earlier this week. )

It was a deeply moving experience to see all the cyclists lined up riding, silently along with rather heavily populated traffic.  The traffic response was Fair, thankfully we had a police escort which helped us remain safe and protected.

It is without question that rides like this are crucial.  With people needlessly being run over, hurt or killed simply for going out for a bike ride is totally unacceptable and 100% avoidable.  Cyclists and  motorists need to communicate with each other so that our roads can be shared.  Obviously a 2000 pound car can inflict a lot more damage than a bicycle could so the responsibility lies a little more on the motorists to yield to the cyclists, and really its more than just slowing down for a few seconds to get past us, its really slowing down and moving over for our lives.  That to me is the most important part of any ride like this.

What it means to be part of an international event like the Ride of Silence;  it’s a very positive feeling to know that there is a Global cycling community with a singular purpose to keep each other safe, despite, race, religion and politics, having that in common with folks in Cyprus, UAE, the Philippines and all 280 rides is truly inspiring.

Here’s some photos from last night’s ride. Please click on the photo to see others.

Three cheers to the eighth-grade class in Pleasantville who collected about 50 used bikes yesterday for the Pedal for Progress campaign. These bikes put the Westchester Cycle Club’s tally at 80 bikes so far for the effort that will end this Saturday at the Trinity Lutheran Church at 2103 Route 6 in Brewster.

WCC members Bud Kroll and Ken Ball have again volunteered to move the bikes from Pleasantville to Brewster.

If you’d like t o donate a bike you can drop it off anytime this week at Metro Bicycles, 396 Main St. in New Rochelle or come to the Saturday event from 9:00am to Noon. A ten dollar donation is also required to cover the shipping costs for the bikes to Guatemala.

Larry Hertz, Poughkeepsie Journal,  A Putnam County man faces up to three years in state prison after admitting Tuesday he fatally injured a bicyclist on a highway in East Fishkill when he hit him with his van last year.

William Mancusi, 32, of Carmel, entered a guilty plea in Dutchess County Court to vehicular man-slaughter, a felony. He admitted causing the death of 48-year-old Alfred Poggiogalle of Hopewell Junction.

Responding to questions from Senior Assistant District Attorney Edward Whitesell, Mancusi acknowledged he had smoked marijuana and ingested morphine before he drove his van on Route 52 on the evening of June 12.

“And you admit that by ingesting these drugs, you operated your vehicle in a manner that caused the death of Alfred Poggiogalle?” Whitesell asked.

“Yes,” Mancusi replied.

The crime carries a maximum sentence of 21 2/3 3 to seven years in state prison. In exchange for his plea, County Court Judge Thomas J. Dolan said he would impose a one-to-three-year sentence.

Mancusi was jailed without bail pending his sentencing, scheduled for June 25.

Poggiogalle’s widow, Cindy Poggiogalle, and several friends and family members attended Tuesday’s court session.

Following the proceedings, Mrs. Poggiogalle said Mancusi’s guilty plea marked “the beginning of the path to closure for our entire family.

“There really can be no just sentence for what has happened,” she said, “and we were extremely disappointed to see (Mancusi’s) lack of remorse.”

The Westchester Cycle Club will be part of the “Ride of Silence” an international event to honor cyclists killed and injured while riding on public roadways.

Meet for the ride at 6:30 Wednesday, May 20th at 975 Central Park Avenue (Midway Shopping Center) in Scarsdale. The eight-mile ride will begin at 7:00pm with a police escort as it heads to White Plains on Battle Avenue and return the same way.

The idea of this ride is to go slow and silent the whole way to raise awareness of cycling. The maximum speed for these rides around the world is 12mph. The ride will be rain or shine.

For more information on the history of these rides click here.
My weekly B+ ride will slow down at 7:00pm for a minute and ride in silence.

These two photos moved on the Associated Press wire recently and struck me. They are worlds apart in many ways but all so similar in others. The first shows two Palestinian boys riding past Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank town of Aram. While the second image shows two boys on main street America. In this case the wall is shops in downtown Barry, Ill.

The mood they provoke speaks for themselves.

ANDREW DAMPF, AP Sports Writer, PINEROLO, Italy (AP  Danilo Di Luca won the longest stage of the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday with a late solo breakaway and added to his overall lead.

The 2007 winner attacked on a short climb almost two miles from the finish of the 10th leg. With the race resuming after a rest day, Di Luca was timed in 6 hours, 30 minutes, 43 seconds over the 163-mile route from Cuneo to Pinerolo that passed through the Sestriere ski resort.

“The stage suited me,” he said. “I recuperated well on the rest day, which was important because this was a very long stage, almost like a (single-day classic).”

Lance Armstrong finished 13th, 29 seconds back. He moved up from 25th to 18th overall but his gap behind Di Luca increased to 5 minutes, 28 seconds.

Armstrong won his first mountain stage in the Tour de France in Sestriere in 1999, setting up the first of his seven consecutive Tour victories. The Texan stayed with the lead group through Sestriere this time but dropped behind on the final climb, then clawed back to limit his damages.

“His form is improving,” Di Luca said. “He set the pace for a good way up the first climb.”

Franco Pellizotti was 10 seconds Di Luca, with Denis Menchov third with the same time. Di Luca, in the pink jersey, leads Menchov by 1:20 in the overall standings. He began the day with a 13-second lead over Thomas Lovkvist, but the Swede couldn’t keep up on the last climb and dropped 1:39. Di Luca also earned a 20-second time bonus for his victory.

Di Luca’s victory celebration was muted out of respect for a 69-year-old motorcycle driver who died in a crash heading toward the start of the stage. Fabio Saccani was riding in his 32nd Giro. He also worked the Tour de France 11 times for cycling photographer Roberto Bettini.

The death came three days after Spanish rider Pedro Horillo Munoz ended up in a coma for 24 hours because of severe injuries after falling 60 yards off the side of the road.

A minute of silence will be observed for Saccani before the start Wednesday’s stage, a 133-mile relatively flat leg from Turin to Arenzano.

The race could be decided Thursday in the nearly 38-mile individual time trial along the coastal area known as Cinque Terre. The race ends May 31 in Rome.

“My goal was to enter the time trial in pink,” Di Luca said. “Now we’ve got to try and keep it.”

Defending Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre finished fourth, 10 seconds back, while contenders Levi Leipheimer and Ivan Basso came in 29 seconds after Di Luca. Leipheimer remained fourth overall, but his gap behind Di Luca stretched to 1:40. Basso is seventh, 2:03 back.

“Di Luca showed once again that he’s the strongest,” Basso said. “We’re looking ahead with confidence to the next stages but if he continues like this, it’s going to be tough. The time trial is difficult but it could suit Di Luca in this type of condition.”

The stage included a more than six-mile climb to Moncenisio followed by the even tougher seven-mile ascent to Sestriere — the Cima Coppi (Coppi Peak) dedicated to Fausto Coppi, the star Italian rider of the 1940s and ‘50s. Each year the Cima Coppi marks the highest point of the race. Sestriere is 6,677 feet above sea level.

A long descent from Sestriere preceded a short climb to Pra Martino 6½ miles before the finish, followed by an even shorter uphill stretch where Di Luca made his decisive attack.

The stage traversed the area where Alpine events for the 2006 Turin Olympics were held. The leg originally was to have followed the route that Coppi covered in a famous 119-mile solo breakaway in the 1949 Giro. But organizers changed the route last month because of snowy roads and problems with radio reception in mountains just over the French border.

Stefano Garzelli attacked on the first climb and gained a 6:25 lead over the main pack at Sestriere. ISD teammates Giovanni Visconti and Andriy Grivko joined Garzelli on the high-speed descent but the breakaway riders were caught on the climb to Pra Martino.

A snapshot of the recent increase in U.S. bicycle sales from National Bicycle Dealers Association

NUMBER OF BICYCLES SOLD IN U.S.:

2008: 18.5 million

2007: 18.2 million

2006: 18.2 million

NUMBER OF BICYCLES WITH WHEEL SIZES OF 20 INCHES OR MORE SOLD IN U.S.:

2008: 13.4 million

2007: 12.8 million

2006: 12.7 million

The Assocated Press