DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  A Missouri professor has died from injuries he suffered in a bicycle accident during an annual bicycle ride across Iowa.

Donald Myers was a professor of engineering management at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Mo.

The school issued a news release Monday saying the 69-year-old Myers died Sunday at an Iowa City hospital from injuries he suffered while participating Saturday in the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.

The Des Moines County sheriff’s office didn’t specify how the accident occurred but reported Myers was found unconscious with a head injury. He never regained consciousness.

Officials say the accident didn’t involve a motor vehicle.

The ride is sponsored by The Des Moines Register and attracts about 10,000 riders.

By JOHN LEICESTER, AP Sports Columnist, PARIS / Well, well, there’s a sight you don’t see every day at the Tour de France: Lance Armstrong on the podium in Paris without — hold the presses — the race winner’s garish yellow jersey on his back.

Third. Not a result, in pure sporting terms, that ranks up there with the seven consecutive times he claimed the victor’s laurels on the crowd-lined Champs-Elysees, framed by the Arc de Triomphe in the background.

But how much more human.

Armstrong suffered on this Tour, the pain and effort etched into his craggy face. Like a wily fox, he used years of accumulated race smarts to compensate for what his 37-year-old body has lost in speed and resilience; a few seconds saved here, a few more clawed back there.

When the youngsters sped off ahead, he gritted it out behind. Winning, it became clear in the Alps, was beyond him. But he found enough gas in the tank to keep all but two other riders — winner Alberto Contador and runner-up Andy Schleck — at arm’s length all the way to Paris.

He spoke about hurting, about being tired — “I’m realistic. It’s part of getting older.”

He acknowledged that age and a 3½-year furlough from cycling had dulled his cutting edge.

And he was more likable and less otherworldly because of it.

Like that famed Paris arch of white stone blocks, Armstrong’s record of seven straight wins is hugely impressive. Imposing and likely eternal. But it also left many feeling a little cold.

The Texan was too pokerfaced, even uncouth and ill-tempered at times, to truly become a people’s champion. He made winning look like meat-grinding, relentless. No one else got a chance.

His single-minded pursuit of victory and sometimes brash ways ruffled French sensibilities. And the whispers and questions about whether a cancer survivor could be so dominant without resorting to banned chemicals refused to go away, no matter how much he insisted he was clean.

Combined, those factors ensured that what should have been his greatest triumph, his seventh win in 2005, left a bitter taste in many mouths. Tour organizers weren’t sad to see the back of him. His victory ceremony felt more like a divorce than the celebration of a seven-year union. Bitterness was evident in Armstrong’s podium speech, with his shot at “the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the skeptics.”

“I’m sorry for you. I’m sorry you don’t believe in miracles,” he said.

And off he disappeared into retirement.

Thankfully, that was not the final word.

Among the variety of reasons that drove his return to cycling was a desire to craft lighter, more positive final chapters to his racing career.

It’s been fascinating at this Tour to see Armstrong actually does care how people think of him and his legacy. He worked over the past three weeks and before to rub the tarnish off his image. He couldn’t win the race, but he won hearts and new ears in France and elsewhere for his other big passion outside of cycling — the fight against cancer.

He and the Tour are both better off for it. It wasn’t right that cycling’s most storied race and its greatest champion had parted on such sour terms.

“The fact of not being loved by a certain category of people, by a certain country, that must have gnawed at him,” the Tour’s director, Christian Prudhomme, said this week. “Now, he emerges human. … He has without a doubt become closer to the people.

“I only saw one negative placard about Armstrong over the entire three weeks!”

The hissers who gathered around Armstrong’s bus in 2005, whistling and booing as he rode to the start line flanked by bodyguards in the mornings, all but vanished this year, largely replaced by starry-eyed fans happy to see him back.

There was a French teenager in the Spanish city of Barcelona on the verge of tears after she failed to snag an Armstrong autograph and a banner on a hot French road declaring “Lance, yes you can.”

In an Associated Press interview on the eve of Sunday’s final stage, Armstrong himself said: “I am a more relaxed person.”

“I might still be the boss of the peloton, but it’s not this: ‘Hey, it’s my way or the highway,’” he said. “Everybody in that peloton can talk to me and, before, very few people could speak to me — I think was their impression.”

Cycling’s doping controls, even though they still have holes, are more believable now than they were when Armstrong was in his racing prime. Rightly, Armstrong’s been repeatedly tested.

He would like fans to believe the fact that nothing’s been found must show that he was clean in the past, too. Although that argument lacks logic, it is an interesting example of how Armstrong’s comeback is in part an effort to change others’ opinion of him.

Armstrong, in the AP interview, was honest enough to acknowledge that some cycling fans think he’s “got the egg on his face” because riders he beat in his heyday, such as 2005 runners-up Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, were subsequently brought down by doping scandals.

Winning over his doubters and countering the suspicions “was a goal of mine, to be frank,” he said.

“In my opinion, and this is mine and of course I’m bias(ed), but if you’re on the fence or you’re in the middle and you want to be objective, those questions have been answered,” he added.

To think Armstrong aimed for third, instead of the winner’s spot, this year to win sympathy is clearly wrong. He would have won if he could and will try to do so again next year.

But, this time, third was just perfect.

JAMEY KEATEN,Associated Press Writer, PARIS /  Alberto Contador won the Tour de France for a second time Sunday, and Lance Armstrong capped his return to the race with an impressive third-place finish.

Mark Cavendish of Britain collected his sixth stage win of this year’s Tour in a sprint after the 164-kilometer (101.9-mile) course ride from Montereau-Fault-Yonne to the Champs-Elysees.

Over nearly 3,500 kilometers and 21 stages of racing over three weeks, Contador repelled many challenges in the mountains, excelled in the two time-trials — winning a pivotal race against the clock in the 18th stage — and won the first Alpine stage.

Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, Contador’s biggest rival among title contenders in the mountains, was second overall.

Contador, the 2007 champion, also had to battle a rearguard action within his Astana team, where the comeback of Armstrong to the Tour after 3½ years of retirement raised questions about who would be the team leader.

“It has been an especially difficult Tour for me, but I savor it and it is more special because of it,” Contador said after the prize ceremony.

The subtext to the race was the open tension between Armstrong and Contador within Astana — a battle of egos between a proven cycling giant and another making the strong case that he’s one, too.

The body language on the winner’s podium said it all. As he climbed onto the victor’s stage, Armstrong gave a perfunctory handshake to Contador, then heartily shook Schleck’s hand.

The quintessential American competitor cast a long sideways glance at the victor’s bowl as Contador took it. Armstrong only gave a quick glance at his own crystal trophy.

The American had his whole clan on hand: his son Luke, twin girls Grace and Isabelle — all dressed in yellow — and their mom, Kristin; and his girlfriend Anna Hansen, with their baby Max in a sling.

Luke got a high-five and a word of congratulations “on the third place of your dad,” from Astana manager Johan Bruyneel outside the team bus.

“Thanks,” the twins said.

Massive crowds poured out onto Paris’ most famous avenue for the finish: Norwegians in Viking helmets, flag-waving Britons and an American in a stars-and-stripes top hat among them.

By the end of the race, Armstrong was talking less of squabbling within Astana and more about Contador’s greatness as a rider — and admitted his form wasn’t the best.

“I’m realistic. I did everything I could,” Armstrong said before the final stage. “For me, and even more for my kids, it’s probably a healthy thing for them to see, because they saw their dad that never lost, and the kids in their class (say) ‘your dad never loses,’ so it’s good for them to see dad get third and still be cool with that and still be happy.”

Asked on French TV what the hardest moment in this race, Contador replied: “It was in the (team) hotel,” without elaborating.

Contador and Armstrong reportedly had differences early in the race, as tensions grew over who was the No. 1 Astana rider.

“We are totally incompatible. In the end, Armstrong will go his way and I’ll go mine,” Contador said.

Some old habits died hard for the Texan.

On the ride into Paris, Armstrong — reviving a habit from his heyday — sipped Champagne in the saddle, only this time it was to celebrate Contador’s win and their collective win as a team.

Armstrong and Contador both took a few sips and posed with glass in one hand, handlebar in the other, but then tipped away the rest of the bubbly half-drunk and threw away the glasses.

The Spaniard did enjoy this victory more than in 2007. Four days from the finish that year, then race leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark was sent home for lying about his whereabouts during pre-Tour doping controls.

“In the key stages of this Tour, I found myself feeling more at ease than I did in 2007. But in situations outside of racing, I didn’t feel so comfortable,” Contador told Spanish broadcaster TVE.

After Oscar Pereiro’s victory in 2006 and Carlos Sastre’s in 2008, the Tour has been won by a Spaniard for four straight years.

Contador began the Tour on July 4 as the pre-race favorite. At only 26 years old, he is already one of cycling’s greats, having won all three Grand Tours of France, Italy and Spain.

He had to sit out last year because of a doping scandal at Astana before he joined.

Contador finished in 85 hours, 48 minutes, 35 seconds. The race looped from Monaco, across the Mediterranean rim into Spain, up the Pyrenees, diagonally across central and northeastern France to the Alps, and then down to Saturday’s race climax on the dreaded Mont Ventoux in southeast France before the Paris finish.

Schleck was 4:11 seconds behind. Armstrong was 5:24 back.

After three straight Tours decided by less than a minute between first and second place, Contador’s margin of victory was the largest since Armstrong collected his last title in 2005.

The 24-year-old Schleck won the white jersey awarded to the Tour’s best young rider. Franco Pellizotti of Italy picked up the polka-dot jersey given to the race’s King of the Mountains.

Armstrong, the 37-year-old seven-time Tour champion, is the second-oldest rider to reach the Tour podium. Raymond Poulidor of France was 40 he placed third in 1976.

Cavendish set his own record: no rider has ever won six Tour stages in a sprint. But Thor Hushovd of Norway beat the 24-year-old Briton for the green jersey given to the Tour’s best Tour sprinter.

Cavendish made it look easy, winning by several bike lengths in the last mad dash, trailed in second by his own lead-out man on the Columbia team, Mark Renshaw. Tyler Farrar of the United States was third.

“For sure, winning on the Champs-Elysees is a dream for every single sprinter — to see the Arc de Triomphe in the distance,” said Cavendish, acknowledging it would have been a “bonus” to take home the green jersey.

“I can’t go home from this Tour being disappointed — I won six stages,” he added.

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Want more information on the club? Simply visit rocklandbike.org.

SAMUEL PETREQUIN,AP Sports Writer, AVIGNON, France / Third place has never felt better to Lance Armstrong.

Following a 3½-year retirement, the seven-time Tour de France champion all but sealed his improbable comeback with a promised third-place finish in cycling’s showcase event and expects even better next year.

The Texan was tamed by the new Tour boss Alberto Contador — who is headed for his second Tour victory by keeping the yellow jersey after Saturday’s punishing penultimate stage. Yet Armstrong has no regrets.

On the eve of the final ceremonial stage on the Champs-Elysees, Armstrong told The Associated Press in an interview he did as well as could be expected.

“It’s different,” Armstrong said about getting third. “I have no regrets. I wouldn’t change anything about my performance, the tactics, about the preparation. I’m happy with that. For me it’s a healthy result, healthy in the sense that in my life, in my previous career, if you would have said ‘You’re going to get third,’ I would have been on fire. So to now be third and to be proud of that, and my kids to be proud of that, the fans, and the people of France. Everybody loves that. It’s a good thing.”

Armstrong, who had been written off by most cycling experts before the race started three weeks ago, lived through tough days on this Tour. Confronted by arguably the best rider in the world, his Astana teammate Contador, the 37-year-old Texan kept suspense alive for two weeks before realizing that his aging legs wouldn’t propel him to an eighth Tour win.

That was last Sunday in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier, where Contador dominated all other contenders with a move that gave him the leader’s yellow jersey.

“In Verbier, I knew that it wasn’t going to happen,” Armstrong said in the 20-minute interview in his hotel room.

Before Sunday’s last stage, Contador leads Andy Schleck of Luxembourg by 4 minutes and 11 seconds while Armstrong is 5:24 adrift.

Armstrong offered high praise for Contador, who won his first Tour in 2007. He said that even at his peak while winning the tour from 1999-2005, he may have lost to his 26-year-old Spanish teammate.

“Contador is that good, so I don’t see how I would have been higher than that, even in the other years, I think his performance this year would have beaten my performances in ‘01 and ‘04 and ‘05,” Armstrong said, referring to his best years on the Tour.

After the impressive Astana team time trial win in the first week of the race, Armstrong almost seized the coveted yellow jersey, missing by a fraction of a second. His lack of acceleration in the mountains and his failure in the Annecy individual time trial killed any chance of winning.

“Sure, we’ll change some things next year but looking back at this season we did everything we wanted to do, aside from the crash everything was pretty much on schedule,” said Armstrong, referring to a spill in March when he broke his collarbone.

Impressed by Contador’s tour de force, the Texan added the Spaniard was even better than Jan Ullrich, Armstrong’s biggest rival during the years he won seven Tours. “Absolutely,” he said. “Far better.”

If Contador had been 10 years older and had competed against Armstrong during his reign, “it would have been damned close. Much closer than what you all saw back then.”

Armstrong, however, expects to perform better in 2010 with his new Radio Shack team, and perhaps even beat Contador.

“I’m staying positive,” Armstrong said. “My level will be a little better next year. If he has the same level next year that he has this year, difficult to beat him. That’s just a fact, a scientific fact.”

Armstrong wants to come to the Tour with a strong outfit, including current teammates Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloeden, and together they could challenge Contador.

“There’s a lot of variables there,” said Armstrong. “My condition, his condition, team tactics, tactics of the race … But that’s why we do the race, so we know.”

Armstrong and Contador never got along well. When the Texan joined Astana to work with his longtime friend and mentor, manager Johan Bruyneel, the Spaniard said he might leave the team, fearful of being forced to ride in Armstrong’s shadow. Under contract with Astana, he had no other alternative but to stay and tensions between the two champions reached a new height during the Tour.

“I have run two races, one on the bike and one at the team hotel,” Contador told Spanish TV. “My conscience is very clear and I’m really happy with what I’ve achieved.”

Armstrong explained he never expected to be appointed Astana leader from the beginning of the race.

“I think perhaps he (Contador) did but you can’t do that, you’ve got to let the road sort that out,” he said.

Asked about his future beyond 2010, Armstrong said he would still be involved in cycling and in the fight against cancer.

“I mean, the two passions in my life, aside from my family, are cycling and cancer,” the cancer survivor said. “And I’ve got to stay involved in both of those. My life needs those things. And, I think, those things need me.”

Following his last Tour victory in 2005, Armstrong railed against the “cynics and the skeptics” who didn’t believe his triumphs were doping-free.

“There was a ton of doubters, and a ton of critics, negative people in the press room, I was sick of that. They are still there. I don’t think they are as many as they were, but they are still there,” he said Saturday.

A month after his retirement, L’Equipe sports daily reported that Armstrong’s B samples from the 1999 Tour contained EPO — a banned blood-boosting hormone. Armstrong insisted back then that he was the victim of a “witch hunt,” and a Dutch lawyer appointed by cycling’s governing body later cleared him.

Armstrong said his third place this year could help silence his doubters.

“If you are on a fence and you are objective about it, and you look at a 38-year old athlete, tested fifty-plus times this year … the only thing you can say is you have a super secret mystery drug.”

He dismissed that notion with a profanity.

Armstrong is back and he’s not going anywhere.

MONT VENTOUX, France (AP) — A brief look at Saturday’s 20th stage of the Tour de France:

Stage: A 104-mile stage from Montelimar to the Mont Ventoux, with a 13-mile final ascent at an average gradient of 7.6 percent.

Winner: Juan Manuel Garate. The Spaniard, who entered the stage more than 1½ hours behind race leader Alberto Contador in the overall standings, clocked 4 hours, 39 minutes, 21 seconds, holding off fellow breakaway rider Tony Martin of Germany by 3 seconds. Andy Schleck, who retained second overall, finished third, 38 seconds back — in the same time as Contador. Lance Armstrong was fifth, 41 seconds behind Garate, and Frank Schleck was sixth, 43 seconds back.

Yellow Jersey: Contador, who all but sealed his second Tour de France victory. He leads Schleck by 4:11. Seven-time winner Armstrong is third overall, 5:21 behind his Astana teammate.

Quote of the Day: “I think his performance this year would have beaten my performances in 01, and 04, and 05” — Lance Armstrong, comparing Contador to his best years on the Tour.

Next stage: Sunday’s last stage is a largely ceremonial 102-mile trek from Montereau-Fault-Yonne to the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

If you’re watching the Ventox climb today (and if you’re not, you’d better be doing something important like watching an elephant walking down Main Street) head over to the Live Chat I’m moderating over at BikeHugger. Chat with other cyclists, vote on polls and comment on the most important stage of the race.

Today’s stage will be a battle of teams, not individuals.  It’s all about the podium in Pairs. It will take teammates to fight through the winds of Mount Ventoux.

The teams are Astana, Saxo Bank, and Garmin-Slipstream, these three teams hold seven of the top eight positions in the general classification of the race.

Astana’s goal is to win overall with Alberto Contador first. Second is to keep Lance Armstrong in Third or move him to second. The last, but maybe sweetest goal would be to move Kloden into the top three as well and sweep the podium, something never done at The Tour de France before.

Team Saxo Bank’s team has shown they can dictate the pace low on the mountain and attack as a team setting up Frank and Andy Schleck. Look for Fabian Cancellara to destroy the peloton low on the slopes.

Garmin-Slipstream will try to move the newest podium challenger Bradley Wiggins onto the podium and he’s the biggest unknown. He’s been the best distance racer on the velodrome for years and to watch him transform this to the roads has been exciting. Today is his final test and last years surprise, Christain Vande Velde will be critical to guiding him up these sloops and protect him from the winds. Vande Velde will also try and advance his position and move up from eight.

Today will show how important the team is even in the mountains. It may show one or two of these top riders crack and drop for the sake of a teammate.

This will be a great day and battle to finalize one of the best tours in years.

Lloyd, thanks for the comment on this posting about Time Trial positions.

Looks like Contador was photographed while he was doing a mild uphill climb. You can tell that he is pulling hard on the aerobars to gain more pedaling leverage. Also, he’s probably sitting back on his saddle, probably to recruit a different set of leg/thigh muscles. In a time trial, if you can easily fatigue a specific set of pedaling muscles. Changing to fore/aft seat or other positions helps rest those frequently used muscles by using a slightly different of muscles. Otherwise, Contador, during most of his time trial, looks to have good form, compact, straight back, seat forward and forearms/upper arms at a nice 45 degree angle. His good aero TT form contributed to his 3 second victory. Goes to show that brute strength and power are not the only attributes that win races.

I’m going to chime in with a number of other’s who thing the three seconds came from the motorcycles which surrounded Alberto Contador including second place finisher Fabian Cancellara.

Fabian Cancellara said this, “On TV it looked like his bike was too close. My bike was very far away. For me the day is over and I’m looking forward to helping my teammates as much as possible until we get to Paris. Everybody was cracking, but those small details count and maybe he had the small details on his side. Both physically and mentally it would have helped him.”

“I did everything I could. It’s always hard, but when you start late you have an advantage of being informed about everything, but if you look [at the results, you] can’t say if he was stronger or not,” Cancellara said from his team hotel, consolation beer in hand. But that’s bike racing. You sometimes have the same in the Classics. Contador had it the same when he went away on Andorra. But I’ll drink my beer and I’ll be happy.”

Look at the AP Photo above of two motorcycles on either side of Cantodor and there were two other police motorcycles leading him. There’s little doubt that this would have provided him a small draft and maybe more important pacing.  Just having that many other elements of speed to give you a sense of pace helps. I can be behind another rider by 20 yards with no draft help but maintain a higher speed just by pacing off them, four motorcycles would do the same.

Terry Corcoran, The Journal News / MAHOPAC / A Somers man was flown to the Westchester Medical Center via helicopter late this morning after he was struck by a car while bicycling along Route 6, Carmel Police Chief Michael Johnson said.
James Wainer, 39, was heading east near Union Valley Road around 11:15 a.m. and was traveling on the shoulder when a westbound car driven by Francine Lusardi struck him as she was making a left-hand turn into a shopping plaza, Johnson said.

As if this is not bad enough here is the lead of a story nearly five years to the day,  July 21, 2004, by the same Journal News writer, Terry Corcoran.

A bicyclist was flown to Westchester Medical Center with shoulder, neck, back and head injuries yesterday afternoon after he was struck by a car while riding on Route 6, police said.

The bicyclist, James Wainer, 34, of Baldwin Place, was traveling east down a hill when he was struck by a car that was turning left at a low rate of speed from westbound Route 6 onto Buckshollow Road around 4:30 p.m.

Wainer, who was wearing a helmet, was hit by the front of the four-door 1993 Ford Taurus, driven by 46-year-old Gennaro Aceto of Buckshollow Road, police said. Wainer was thrown into the car’s windshield and shattered it before rolling off the car’s hood and landing on the road.

The force of the impact knocked off Wainer’s helmet and shoes, and there was a small pool of blood on the road where he landed. The front wheel of the 10-speed red bicycle was separated from the rest of the bike during the crash.

Mahopac firefighters and Transcare paramedics responded with police.  A statflight helicopter was also dispatched. Police and firefighters secured a landing zone in the parking lot at the A & P shopping center on Route 6, about a mile west of the accident.
Mahopac firefighters transported Wainer to the landing zone, where a Statflight helicopter out of Harris N.Y. in Sullivan County, landed and took the injured cyclist to the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla.
Johnson said that Wainer complained “of pain all over.”
The accident remains under investigation, Johnson said.

A neighbor of Wainer who works at the paper has told me his wife reports there is nothing broken.