First it was the clueless selfie-takers nearly crashing Tour de France riders out of the race's first week; now it's cellphone users almost taking down the race leader with only a few days to go in the Tour.

The latest incident took place Thursday on stage 18, the last mountain stage of the Tour, which concludes on Sunday in Paris. A spectator was hanging out on the last big climb of the entire three-week race, at Hautacam. She was apparently chatting on her phone with her back to the race and to the yellow jersey, Vincenzo Nibali of Italy.

Nibali was cruising up the climb, having broken away from his rivals. As he neared the top of Hautacam and toward his fourth stage victory, he was making his way around a turn and — smack!— he hits a spectator standing too far out in the road. Nibali makes a last-moment move to his right to avoid hitting her directly — and possibly going down and out of the race. He flicks his arm out to protect himself. The spectator's phone goes flying. Social media goes nuts. Fortunately, no one was injured. 

A cop following Nibali even taps the woman's shoulder after the hit.

Barring disaster — you know, crashes and clueless spectators — Nibali is set to win his first Tour de France on Sunday. There are just a few stages left, but the big mountains are done and dusted. The Italian has a lead of over 7 minutes on his nearest rival and has effectively been untouchable all race long.

Nibali managed to go on and win the stage without incident:

Earlier in the Tour, a rider was busted for using his cellphone during the race. He didn't hit anyone and was let off with a warning.

This wouldn't be Luca Paolini texting from his iPhone in today's stage, would it - at about 60-kph..! http://t.co/Spbcz5ZniL

— Graham Watson (@grahamwatson10) July 12, 2014

DON'T MISS: Newest Danger To Tour De France Cyclists: People Taking Selfies

SEE ALSO: Cyclist In Tour De France Was Busted For Using Cellphone At Nearly 40 MPH

Join the conversation about this story »

Four hours’ sleep a night. Seven-day workweeks. Diet Cokes around the clock. For her first few years out of college, this was Evelyn Stevens’ life.

After graduating from Dartmouth in 2005, Stevens worked as an analyst for Lehman Brothers before taking a job as an associate at investment fund Gleacher Mezzanine (known today as Arrowhead). Both jobs paid well, but the work was intense and left little time for much else.

Then one day in late 2007, while on vacation in San Francisco, Stevens’ sister talked her into doing a local cyclocross race, which at first seemed like a crazy idea. She’d played tennis in college, went to the gym, and did some running, but she rarely pedaled a bike, let alone raced one. And yet there, in Golden Gate Park, at age 25, she raced for the first time.

Somewhat anticlimactically, she crashed and got banged up, but she finished and was immediately hooked — "in love" even.

“I was like, ‘This is awesome — this is for me,’” she says about that first race.

Seven years on, far from Wall Street, Stevens ranks among the world’s best cyclists. At 31, she’s in the prime of her career. With major victories already crowding her palmarès, or race résumé, she’s now targeting the sport’s most coveted prizes: next year's world championships and Olympic gold, which could be hers in 2016.

Stevens recently sat down with Business Insider to talk about her remarkable, if improbable, career trajectory. We met her at a training camp in Richmond, Virginia, which in September 2015 will host the world championships.

Usually held in Europe, worlds are coming to the US for only the second time ever (the first world championships in the US were held in Colorado Springs in 1986). It’s an extraordinary opportunity for American cycling, and probably a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Stevens.

“To have worlds in the US — wow,” she says. “I feel lucky just having it in my career. Next year is the year going into the Olympics, so the world championships are always a really big goal in that year. I’ve never met a woman racer who doesn’t want to win worlds. We don’t have the three-week Tour de France [as the men have]. We have World Cup races and we have the Giro, which there’s not a ton of coverage of. And to be racing here with your stars-and-stripes on, in your home country, it’s fantastic.”

It all started after that first race in California. Stevens bought a bike of her own, but back in New York City she met an “intimidating entry point” — Manhattan traffic. So she’d walk her bike from her apartment over to the West Side Highway, then pedal up the path.

“I had no idea what I was doing at first,” she says. “I thought everyone in Central Park was a pro. I was in T-shirts and never looking the part.”

She signed up for a cycling clinic, where she honed her bike-handling skills and learned how to ride in a pack. In one of her first big amateur races, she didn’t just win but broke away solo and caught the pro field that was up the road. “That was pretty cool,” she says, “even though at the time it was like, ‘This is awkward — I don’t know how to pass them.’”

While still working long hours, she fantasized about going pro, but she was hesitant. In several races, she had shown real talent, but she would be coming very late to the professional ranks. Most pros start racing as kids or teens. One well-known rider, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, whom Stevens would later be teammates with, started competing when she was 6.

Stevens risked it anyway, and quit her job in July 2009. She won more than a half-dozen of the toughest races in the US, in addition to taking silver at the national time-trial championships. That September she went to the world championships in Switzerland, finishing 15th in the road race — a staggeringly impressive performance for someone brand new to the sport. She has now competed in six world championships in a row.

She still smiles when she thinks about that first trip. “I went to worlds with a bike that I’d paid for with my own money, a helmet I bought, sunglasses I bought, and shoes I bought,” she says, laughing. “At the time that didn’t seem weird, but I got 15th and my first professional contract started in 2010.”

As for pay, salaries for female cyclists vary widely, and are much lower than men's. The top riders earn over $100,000, but there are many who earn far less than that. There are bonuses, prize money, and endorsements. USA Cycling offered large bonuses to medal winners at the London Olympics, where American Kristin Armstrong won gold. Still, women’s cycling is far behind men’s when it comes to both pay and media coverage. According to Ernst & Young, as reported by the Guardian, the minimum wage for male UCI WorldTour cyclists — the sport’s highest level — is €35,000 [$43,000] a year, with the average salary reported at €265,000 [$325,000] in 2012. “Female elite cyclists reportedly earn just €20,000 [$24,500] per annum – and those are the lucky ones,” the Guardian wrote in November.

Since 2010, Stevens has since won some of the sport's most prestigious races — and she has twice won the US time-trial title. Perhaps her most impressive victory was in the grueling one-day classic Flèche Wallonne Féminine, in Belgium, where she went to the line with, and decisively beat, world champion Marianne Vos, whom many consider to be the greatest bike racer in the history of the sport, male or female.

Watch the finish of the Flèche Wallonne Féminine 2012, when Stevens raced the world's No. 1 rider:

Stevens' first coach, a former pro named Matthew Koschara, has not been surprised by her success. He calls her a “one in 10 million” talent.

“She has the right appetite, physiologically and psychologically,” Koschara told Business Insider. “She’s old school, she’s hard core — she’s a fighter.” He points to Stevens’ remarkable power-to-weight ratio, and although he won’t reveal stats from the time he coached Stevens, he says her three- and 10-minute power numbers, measured in watts, were “huge.” At five-foot-six and 120 pounds, she’s compact and very powerful.

“Evie is a very unusually naturally gifted person,” he adds. “She came so late to cycling, but I’d say she’s among the top three or four cyclists in the world.” Whereas she could win on 20% of courses a few years ago, she can now win on 80% of them, according to Koschara. A natural climber, she’s worked hard to become a more complete, all-around cyclist who can win on the flats and cobbles and in crosswinds.

“She’s made up any deficit she may have had coming late to the sport,” he says. “I’d be surprised if she didn’t medal in Richmond and Rio.”

Stevens says she approaches cycling as she did investment banking: with tenacity. After turning pro, she dedicated herself completely — she was "hyper-focused"— just as when she’d started her business career. 

“With investment banking and finance, it’s not a world you gradually go into it,” she says. “It’s not like I started and they told me, ‘Take your time, get comfortable, leave at 5 p.m.’ You’re on deals, you’re operating on a high level quickly.

"If you want to get to that high level, you have to go after it,” she adds. “Investment banking is like pro cycling: It’s not a career you have for 30 years. You realize, ‘I’m going for it.' For my career in cycling, every day it’s like, ‘What do I need to do better? What do I need to train?’ You can’t become complacent."

One big difference in Stevens’ life these days is how much more sleep she gets — eight hours, plus naps, about double what she used to get. “You have to sleep in and you have to eat healthy, and, no, you can’t drink seven Diet Cokes to keep you awake,” she says. “If you’re tired you have to rest.” For Stevens, businesses would operate at a much higher efficiency level if employees slept more: “I think about how many errors I probably made while being sleep-deprived. If I ever ran a company I’d have sleep pods.” (She's still thinking about one day getting an MBA.)

From the outside, if you meet Stevens in person, say, over coffee in downtown Richmond on a sunny fall day, it’s easy to think she’s intelligent and extremely determined. Her opponents on the road may also point out she's fearless and hungry. They might talk about the time she threw down with the world champ on one of the toughest uphill finishes in bike racing, and won.

If Stevens continues her climb to the very top of world cycling, there will be more such stories to tell.

“Cycling is a very finite sport, kind of like the world of finance, but magnified," she says. "There’s highs, there’s lows, and you see it so instantaneously — the crashes, the wins."

“I’ve had some big wins, but I’m not at the top level yet. So it’s like, ‘What do I need to do to become top level?’ I think it’s the same in finance. For those moving up that ladder, they’re constantly looking and thinking, ‘How do you do it differently? How do you do it better?’ It’s a constantly moving process.”

SEE ALSO: This Guy Started Some Of The Biggest Tech Companies, But What He Really Cares About Is Cycling

SEE ALSO: Max Levchin: Photos Reveal The Beauty And Intensity Of Star Entrepreneur's Passion For Cycling

Join the conversation about this story »

U2 frontman Bono has revealed he may never play the guitar again after breaking his arm in a recent bicycle accident.

The 54-year-old Irish rock star fractured his arm and shoulder in six places when he came off his bike in New York in November.

He underwent a five-hour operation in the US, which involved having three metal plates and 18 titanium screws fitted in his elbow.

He was expected to make a full recovery but has now revealed that the long-term effects of the accident and surgery mean he may no longer be able to play the guitar on stage.

But the musician, who is better known for his vocals, joked that few people would necessarily miss his efforts.

In a letter to his fans posted on the band’s website, Bono said he was having to work hard to recover physically from the accident.

He wrote: "Recovery has been more difficult than I thought. As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again. The band have reminded me that neither they nor western civilization are depending on this.

"I personally would very much miss fingering the frets of my green Irish falcon or my (red) Gretsch. Just for the pleasure, aside from writing tunes.

"But then does the Edge, or Jimmy Page, or any guitarist you know have a titanium elbow, as I do now? I'm all elbows, I am."

Bono said he had decided to cancel all his public appearances and diary commitments to prepare for the band's coming tour, which is due to begin in Vancouver in May.

He wrote: "The consequences of this freak accident are significant enough that I will have to concentrate hard to be ready for the U2 tour in fitness terms," he said.

"As a result I have canceled every public appearance and decided this missive is all the communication I can manage for the first half of 2015, beyond muttering and singing to myself of course."

After the accident, Bono's orthopaedic trauma surgeon, Dean Lorich, said the rocker would require intensive and progressive therapy.

It is understood Bono was trying to avoid another cyclist when he came off his bike in Manhattan.

Join the conversation about this story »

If you're worried about your body slowing down and losing your balance, reflexes, memory, and metabolism as you get older, rejoice.

There's something you can do to prevent or at least hold off this seemingly inevitable human decline, according to a new study.

It's all about exercise.

On many measures, active older adults can perform just as well as people decades younger.

We already know that exercising improves health, sleep, mood, and more. But in this latest study, published in The Journal of Physiology, researchers wanted to see how exercise affected aging in a group of highly active older adults. They looked at 84 men and 41 women aged between 55 and 79.

Researchers chose highly active healthy participants with similar lifestyles to try and control for lifestyle factors that may affect how people age (it's harder to control for genetic differences, though the researchers note that exercise helps prevent genetic damage in the first place).

Then they took a look at the physical profiles of their group — all were serious recreational cyclists, though not competitive athletes. They chose cyclists because bicycling is balance-intensive, and it requires and builds physical strength without putting too much stress on joints.

They looked at the group's cardiovascular systems, lung health, neuromuscular structure, metabolism, hormone levels, mental functions, bone strength, and general health. The question was if or how the group's age would show in these measures.

The results were surprising.

"If you gave this dataset to a clinician and asked him to predict the age" of any one of these individuals based on these test results, Dr. Stephen Harridge, senior author of the study, told the New York Times, "it would be impossible."

Age did have an impact on a couple of measures. The oldest members of the group had less muscle mass and less endurance than the younger ones. Even there, though, they were much closer to younger people than to people their own age.

But as for those other measures, including tests of balance, cognitive agility, reflex, and metabolism, Harridge told the Times that it seems "being physically active makes your body function on the inside more like a young person's."

They also noted that the group scored better on measures of mental health, including anxiety and depression, possibly due to the benefits of exercise.

It's worth noting that the group studied is a small sample size, and researchers want to confirm these results with more and different groups of people. Also, these participants were all cyclists who had stayed active and healthy for many years, which could influence results as well — and perhaps there's something particularly effective about cycling. More research is needed on all those questions.

But these results are still promising, and the researchers say that they'll follow up with this group in five and 10 years to see how things have changed.

Still, they think this provides important evidence that staying active is crucial to healthy aging.

SEE ALSO: A Small Amount Of Intense Exercise Can Have A Huge Impact On Your Life

Join the conversation about this story »

Disgraced American sports icon Lance Armstrong said that he would probably cheat again.

The BBC’s Dan Roan spoke with Armstrong in an interview published on Monday, at one point asking the Texan, “When it comes to the doping, would you do it again?”

“If I was racing in 2015? No, I wouldn’t do it again, because I don’t think you have to do it again,” Armstrong said. “If you take me back to 1995, when it was completely and totally pervasive, I’d probably do it again.”

He added: "People don't like to hear that."

“That's the honest answer?” Roan said.

"Yeah, that’s the honest answer," Armstrong said. "But it’s an answer that needs some explanation … it was a bad decision at an imperfect time, but it happened."

The interview is an excerpt from a half-hour special that will air on BBC on Thursday.

In the interview, Armstrong talks about how the sport of cycling saw a huge rise in popularity while he was racing.

For example, he says, he knows “what happened with [sponsor] Trek bicycles … $100 million in sales to a billion in sales. I know what happened to my [cancer] foundation, from raising no money to raising $500 million [and] serving 3 million people.

"Do all those people want to … do we want to take it away? I don’t think anybody says yes.”

At another point, Armstrong says: “I would want to change the man that did those things. Maybe not the decision but the way he acted, the way he treated other people, the way he couldn’t stop fighting.”

Regarding the past two years, he talks about how he’s hoping to finally get out of “time-out.” “What kid doesn’t?”

Here are some other highlights from the BBC interview with Armstrong:

• Regarding his ongoing punishment, such as being barred from running marathons, he says: “Nothing benefits me from going and running a slow marathon.”
• Referring to other cyclists who doped, he says: “Where are all the other players in the story? I get it — I need to be punished. But don’t we have to look at the whole play?”
• He says accusations of his being a doping ringleader and a bully “are not totally true.”
• While others who doped appeared to get off easy through deals with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Armstrong says he never got the same “call” or deal that others got.
• He said he regrets coming out of retirement in 2009, because it was “a bridge to the past.” “It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”
• In one of the most critical parts of the interview, Roan says to Armstrong, “Some critics would say you’re sorry for getting caught, not for doing it in the first place.They would argue that’s the lack of contrition. They want you to be sorry for doing it in the first place … do you understand that?” Armstrong replies: “I get that. Listen, I think all of us … I think we’re all sorry. We’re all sorry that we were put in that place,” referring to the period of rampant doping in cycling when he was winning those seven Tours de France.

Before he got caught for doping, Armstrong was considered by many to be the greatest cyclist in the history of the sport, which historically has been dominated by Europeans. He won seven Tours de France, a record, and won many other races along the way. 

The three-week Tour de France is the world's largest annual sporting event. It is considered the greatest and most physically demanding bicycle race, and the winner is regarded to be the best cyclist on the planet.

Before Armstrong, no cyclist had ever won more than five Tours. That Armstrong, a cancer survivor, won seven Tours in a row captured the attention of the entire world. The sport made him a multimillionaire and brought him fame.

In October 2012, USADA stripped Armstrong of all his Tour titles, saying that evidence against him showed “beyond any doubt that the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”

Since then, Armstrong told the BBC, “the fallout has been heavy — maybe heavier than I would have thought.” He said the aftermath has been “pretty brutal.” 

Armstrong's net worth, according to The New York Times, was estimated at $125 million in 2012.

In August he said he still believed he won those seven Tours de France.

Watch the full BBC interview here >>

NOW WATCH: Victoria's Secret Models Hit The Gridiron In Their Sexy Super Bowl Ad

SEE ALSO: This Guy Started Some Of The Biggest Tech Companies, But What He Really Cares About Is Cycling

SEE ALSO: This 'One In 10 Million' American Talent Quit Her Job On Wall Street And Quickly Became One Of The World's Best Bike Racers

Join the conversation about this story »

When asked if he'd consider "reuniting" with Livestrong, the cancer foundation he founded and was fired from, fallen icon Lance Armstrong referred to Steve Jobs' leaving and returning to Apple.

Armstrong was speaking to the BBC's Dan Roan, who interviewed the disgraced former Tour de France champion at his bike shop in Austin, Texas, for an interview that aired this week.

"I spent a long time trying to build up an organisation to help a lot of people,"Armstrong told the BBC, referring to Livestrong. "And I can't lie: It hurts that that has been put away, or almost forgotten, and almost, in some parts of the world, discounted as if it was a sham or PR. It wasn't. That was very real. It meant a lot to me. And the deepest cut was Livestrong saying, 'you need to step away.'"

Livestrong suffered a 34% slump in donations in 2013 after Armstrong admitted doping, Bloomberg reported in September.

Roan then asked, "How much did that hurt?"

"It doesn't get worse than that," Armstrong said, "but we are where we are."

Roan said, "There's no chance of reuniting with them — that's gone forever?"

"Forever is a big word," Armstrong replied. "I'm not going anywhere.

"Listen, if you asked Steve Jobs somewhere between leaving Apple and going back — somewhere right in those NeXT days — he would have said, 'I don't ever care to go back. I'm going to go build the next great thing.' But ultimately he goes back, and the rest is history."

NeXT was the company Jobs founded in 1985 after he was forced out of Apple, which he also founded. NeXT was eventually bought by Apple, in 1996, when Jobs rejoined the company.

"I want to get back to a place where I can help people and effect change," Armstrong said. "If [Livestrong is] there, great, and hopefully so. But if it has to be elsewhere, then I'll find that place.

"The numbers are there, the dollar value is there, the amount of people who were absolutely, directly served is there — more than 3 million people. And it's been disturbing to me to see the change in the organization, to see the drop-off in the organization."

After Jobs died from cancer, on Oct. 5, 2011, Armstrong wrote a post for ESPN in which he called Jobs "forever a world icon." Armstrong, a cancer survivor, said of Jobs:

We had some common bonds. We had the disease. We both never met our birth father. Neither of us had a college degree. We both like to bike a little. And yet we never talked about any of that.

After the US Anti-Doping Agency, or USADA, stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles, in October 2012, and after he confessed to Oprah Winfrey to having used banned substances, in January 2013, the Lance Armstrong Foundation changed its name to just Livestrong.

In its "Reasoned Decision," USADA said that evidence against Armstrong showed beyond any doubt that his US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team, with Armstrong as its leader, "ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

Also in the BBC interview, Roan asked Armstrong, "When it comes to the doping, would you do it again?"

"If you take me back to 1995, when it was completely and totally pervasive, I'd probably do it again,"Armstrong said.

Armstrong's net worth, according to The New York Times, was estimated at $125 million in 2012. In August he said he still believed he won those seven Tours but that he no longer wears his Livestrong bracelet.

Jobs famously called the computer the bicycle of the mind.

You can watch the full BBC interview here >>

SEE ALSO: This Guy Started Some Of The Biggest Tech Companies, But What He Really Cares About Is Cycling

SEE ALSO: This 'One In 10 Million' American Talent Quit Her Job On Wall Street And Quickly Became One Of The World's Best Bike Racers

Join the conversation about this story »

London Mayor Boris Johnson just got final approval Wednesday for his ambitious plan to reshuffle the city's roads into a more cycling-friendly format. The plan includes the creation of "cycling superhighways" through the British capital.

Traffic lanes will be converted, new curbs installed, and parking spaces moved to put Johnson's plan for the bike lanes with dedicated traffic signals in place. "Quietways" will also be installed, which are less segregated bike lanes on streets with less traffic.

There will be two main highway lanes — one north-south, and another traveling east-west — and the project is expected to cost $240 million, according to Britain's ITV.

These improvements, all part of London's massive $6 billion Road Modernization Plan, will reshape and modernize some of London's busiest intersections and roads, creating a very different flow of traffic in the British capital.

London's City Hall has reportedly also admitted this may cause traffic disruptions for motorists, though this worry hasn't borne out in other cities with dedicated bike lanes. Some taxi and business groups opposed the plan because of this, however, as well as the plan to ban vehicle turns at some intersections where turning is currently legal, according to the Guardian.

For a look at how drastically the roads will change, check out Transport for London's map of the changes below.

Johnson is famous for his championing of bike riding in London and was a main proponent of London's bike share program, which have been named "Boris bikes" in his honor. Cycling has doubled in London in recent years, but that rise is correlated with a rise in deaths from bicycle collisions with larger motor vehicles, according to NPR.

SEE ALSO: A Company Has Designed The Ultimate Urban Bike

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's The Life on Facebook!

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The new 'Furious 7' trailer is packed full of cars, explosions, and ridiculous stunts

Newly released photos of Lance Armstrong's crashed GMC Yukon, sent to Business Insider on Thursday by Aspen police, show the extent of the damage to the vehicle registered to the fallen sports icon after he allegedly crashed into two parked cars the night of Dec. 29.

His girlfriend, Anna Hansen, initially tried to take the blame for the accident in order to keep Armstrong out of national headlines, she told police.

You can see the photos of Armstrong's smashed-up SUV below:

Hansen was initially cited by Aspen police for failing to report the accident and exceeding safe speed for conditions before those tickets were transferred to Armstrong on Jan. 12.

The couple had attended a party at the St. Regis Aspen Resort on the evening of Dec. 29, the police report showed. Hansen initially told police that she had lost control of the GMC Yukon that she and Armstrong were driving home in and struck two parked cars in the West End neighborhood.

The Aspen Daily News first reported the story, saying that Hansen also allegedly lied about whether Armstrong had been drinking.

In the police report, an Aspen police officer wrote:

I asked Hansen if Armstrong asked her to take the blame for the accident once they got home. She replied, "No, that was a joint decision and um, you know we've had our family name smeared over every paper in the world in the last couple of years and honestly, I've got teenagers, I just wanted to protect my family because I thought, 'Gosh, Anna Hansen hit some cars, it's not going to show up in the papers, but Lance Armstrong hit some cars, it's going to be a national story.'"

...

Below are the two rental vehicles that Armstrong allegedly struck:

The US Anti-Doping Agency, or USADA, stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles in October 2012, and he confessed to Oprah Winfrey to having used banned substances in January 2013.

In its "Reasoned Decision," USADA said that evidence against Armstrong showed beyond any doubt that the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team, with Armstrong as its leader, "ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

In a BBC interview that aired last week, Armstrong was asked, "When it comes to the doping, would you do it again?"

"If you take me back to 1995, when it was completely and totally pervasive, I'd probably do it again," Armstrong said.

Armstrong is due in court March 17.

He has hired Pamela Mackey as his attorney. She also represented Kobe Bryant. 

Mackey has not responded to a request for comment from Business Insider. Mark Higgins, Armstrong's publicist, also has not responded to a request for comment.

On Wednesday, Armstrong posted to his Strava account, writing, in part, "Still can't drive in the snow." He also retweeted a Deadspin tweet that read, "Most people can't drive in the snow for shit; don't be like most people." 

Read more here >> 

SEE ALSO: Lance Armstrong allegedly crashed into 2 vehicles and left the scene, and his girlfriend tried to take the blame

SEE ALSO: Lance Armstrong invoked Steve Jobs when asked if he'd ever be reunited with Livestrong

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We Put A GoPro Through The Recycling Process

Behold the new home-run king of bicycles: the S-Works McLaren Tarmac, which former baseball star Barry Bonds bought this week for 20 grand.

The bike was inspired by Formula One leader McLaren and made in collaboration with Tour de France-proven bike company Specialized of Morgan Hill, California. Only 250 of these carbon-fiber rockets were made.

Bonds is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time, and not without controversy. At 50, he's also a passionate cyclist — with an incredible bike to boot.

This is what Barry Bonds' limited-production, custom-sized bike looked like early on in McLaren's hands.

Each bike was custom-painted at McLaren's Special Operations Center in the Surrey, England.

Back in Specialized's Morgan Hill, California, wind tunnel, reporters got a primer on aero efficiency.

Forget horse racing and bourbon distilleries. Next time you go to Louisville, bring your bicycle and head underground to the world's largest indoor bike park, which officially opened Monday.

The Mega Underground Bike Park is located in an old limestone mine 100 feet below ground. It's the latest addition to Louisville's Mega Cavern, a massive entertainment complex where you can ride zip lines, swing from aerial ropes, and take historic tram rides, in addition to partaking in other activities.

There's over 320,000 square feet of space, 45 trails, jump lines, pump tracks, dual slalom, BMX, cross country, and singletrack, and it's 60 degrees year-round. Eventually there will be a bike rental. A four-hour pass is $24 and helmets are required.

The owners said they had to cover 320,000 square feet of floor with dirt.

This is what the jumps looked like early on. This photos shows about 5% of the bike park.

A worker smooths out one of the many berms.

Disgraced American sports icon Lance Armstrong has been ordered by a Texas arbitration panel to pay back $10 million in prize money that he received for winning the Tour de France in 2002, 2003, and 2004, The Dallas Morning News reports.

Armstrong, 43, had earned millions in bonus payments from Dallas-based SCA Promotions for winning the Tour from 2001 to 2003 in a deal with the US Postal Service Team, the AFP notes.

But after admitting on national television to Oprah Winfrey, in January 2013, that he had cheated during his career, SCA went to court to get its money back.

'Perjury must never be profitable'

In a statement on its website, the plaintiff, SCA Promotions Inc., said, "The $10 million award, which must be paid directly to SCA Promotions, is believed to be the largest award of sanctions assessed against an individual in American judicial history."

Bob Hamman, SCA's president and founder, also wrote: "We are very pleased with this result. It is hard to describe how much harm Lance Armstrong's web of lies caused SCA but this is a good first start towards repairing that damage."

The summary of the panel's decision reads, in part [emphasis ours]:

Perjury must never be profitable. Justice in courts of law and arbitration tribunals is impossible when parties feel free to deliberately deceive judges or arbitrators. The case yet again before this Tribunal presents an unparalleled pageant of international perjury, fraud and conspiracy. It is almost certainly the most devious sustained deception ever perpetrated in world sporting history. Tailwind Sports Corp. and Lance Armstrong have justly earned wide public condemnation. That is an inadequate deterrent. Deception demands real, meaningful sanctions. This Arbitration Tribunal awards sanctions of Ten Million Dollars ($10,000,000.00) against Mr. Lance Armstrong and Tailwind Sports Corporation.

You can read the full court document below.

Once the news hit social media, one journalist quoted lawyers for SCA regarding the decision:

How good do SCA's lawyers feel about the Armstrong win? One just told me: "I don't think Lance can blame his girlfriend for this one!"

— Neal Karlinsky (@NealKarlinsky) February 16, 2015

It's just the latest bad news for the fallen champion, who, before he got busted for doping, won a record seven Tours de France and was considered one of the greatest cyclists of all time.

In December he crashed his SUV into two parked cars in Colorado and left the scene without contacting police. His girlfriend, Anna Hansen, tried to take the blame, telling Aspen police she wanted to keep his name out of national headlines.

In an in-depth interview with the BBC that aired in January, Armstrong said that if he had to go back to his Tour de France days he would probably cheat all over again.

The US Anti-Doping Agency, or USADA, stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour titles in October 2012. In its "Reasoned Decision," USADA said that evidence against Armstrong showed beyond any doubt that the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team, with Armstrong as its leader, "ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

Armstrong's troubles are far from over. He is also being sued by the federal government and former teammate Floyd Landis in a whistleblower fraud action, the AP notes.

Armstrong's net worth, according to The New York Times, was estimated at $125 million in 2012. In August, Armstrong told Dan Patrick that he still believed he won those seven Tours.

Here's the summary of the decision:

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How To Know If Someone Is Lying To You

Every week it seems like there's a new story with the headline "Cycling Is The New Golf."

While golf "still commands the highest portion of participants with household incomes above $100,000 among popular sports," according to Reuters, its popularity is waning, and the number of courses has been on the decline in the US the past eight years.

The Economist says "golf's appeal has become its undoing. Its meditative quality does not suit the frenetic pace of modern life."

Many articles point to cycling as — yes — the new golf.

(That Tiger Woods is playing worse than ever before, and is now taking a break from golf, does not help.)

So when I recently profiled Max Levchin— who cofounded PayPal, sold Slide to Google for $228 million, sits on the boards of Yahoo and Yelp, and is now busy leading Affirm and Glow— I asked him if he actually thought cycling was the new golf.

Here is what Levchin, a hardcore cyclist, told me [emphasis mine]:

In Silicon Valley — and the East Coast as well now — there are lots of successful companies with younger executives. The sport of choice where deals are made and ideas are thrown around and relationships are forged is definitely traditionally golf. That's where you don't have to sweat — you just walk around with people you like, and occasionally pretend like you're doing something physical [...] but it's not very quantified. It's just kind of aim, hit the ball, and pray. I'm sure the skills involved eventually remove the prayer necessity, but it's pretty open-ended.

So you have this current generation of young executives, and they're not particularly interested in walking around slowly. They want to do something physical, especially outdoors. They are very quantified, because that's definitely a thing now:It's not so much fitness as they are interested in fitness that they can measure. So the blooming of the Fitbits and Misfits the Jawbones of the world is all about people saying, 'I don't have to go to the gym, feel crappy for an hour, and be thankful that it's over.' You can actually see what you've done. The quantified-self stuff has perforated the popular conscience.

Numbers from the National Golf Federation bear out Levchin's analysis. Golf is becoming less popular overall every year, according to the NGF:

Meanwhile, according to USA Cycling, the number of people taking out a cycling license from 2002 to 2013 increased a whopping 76%:

But it's not just about quantifying workouts. There's the bling factor, too, says Levchin:

There's also the combination of quantified and social, and — for better or worse — the showing off of the equipment, which for cyclists is basically road jewelry. For golfers, it's about having clubs of some special alloy or whatever craziness. It's definitely very out of fashion to have an amazing house to show off, at least I feel that. The real-estate showiness is fading, and showing off your fitness and your fitness equipment is increasing.

Sure, cycling is expensive. You can easily spend 20 grand on a bike and full set of kit, but it's easier for me to justify than spending 20 grand on a set of golf clubs I'll never use.

And speaking of $20,000 bikes, here's our marked-up picture of Levchin's road bike, a limited-edition Cervélo Rca, which we figure costs at least 20 grand (more photos here): 

So if you're seeing fewer and fewer young entrepreneurs and executives out on the links, it could be because they're out on the road.

Read our full profile of Max Levchin here >>

SEE ALSO: Why Cyclists Shave Their Legs

SEE ALSO: Photos: Max Levchin And His Stealth Road Bike

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 9 Surprising Facts About Under Armour — The Hottest Sportswear Company In The World

A damning report published on Monday shows how cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, colluded with Lance Armstrong from 1999 to 2009 to circumvent accusations he doped and to cement his status as the pre-eminent personality in the sport.

The report reads: “There are numerous examples that prove Lance Armstrong benefited from a preferential status afforded by the UCI leadership … UCI did not actively seek to corroborate whether allegations of doping against Lance Armstrong were well-founded [but] fell back to a defensive position as if every attack against Lance Armstrong was an attack against cycling and the UCI leadership … there was a tacit exchange of favours between the UCI leadership and Lance Armstrong, and they presented a common front.”

The tone was set at the episode in the 1999 Tour de France when Armstrong’s doctors provided a backdated prescription for cortisone after he tested positive for the drug. “The UCI failed to apply its own rules … which constituted a serious breach of its obligations … to govern the sport correctly,” states the report.

The report, by the Union Cycliste International’s Independent Commission for Reform in Cycling, concludes the governing body bent its own rules, as it adds: “Direct contact was initiated between high-level UCI officials and the Armstrong entourage, during which the latter was advised to produce a medical certificate … when a medical certificate was produced … it should have been obvious to UCI that [it] … was backdated and solely provided to justify a posteriori the traces of triamcinolone found in the rider’s urine. Therefore, disciplinary proceedings should have been opened.”

It continues: “His doctor issued a certificate where not only was the date wrong but also what it attested. The CIRC considers that it was a case of a false medical certificate and therefore the case should have been reported to the criminal authorities.”

The CIRC was set up soon after the arrival of Brian Cookson as the head of the UCI in September 2013. It was made up of the Swiss politician Dick Marty, the anti-doping specialist Ulrich Haas and the former Australian military man Peter Nicholson, who were given a brief of looking into the sport’s doping past, and in particular allegations that the UCI’s relationship with Armstrong was corrupt. Those who have been interviewed include Armstrong himself, the former UCI presidents Hein Verbruggen and Pat McQuaid, and current team heads Bjarne Riis and Alexander Vinokourov.

The 1999 race, billed as the “Tour of Renewal” following a doping scandal involving the Festina team the previous year, marked the first of the American’s seven Tour wins and in retrospect was a missed opportunity by the UCI to nip the Armstrong drugs saga in the bud.

Damagingly, the report infers that the 1999 cortisone episode was common practice, as the UCI “appeared to have a policy of accepting backdated prescriptions and to be lenient in applying the rules on therapeutic use exemptions [TUEs]. The practice was justified by arguing that, from a health perspective, it made little difference whether the prescription was provided before or after testing. Prescriptions were seen by riders as a means of covering up positive tests results.” TUEs allow riders to use prescribed prohibited substances for the treatment of legitimate medical conditions.

Letting Armstrong off the hook in 1999 was only the beginning and proved doubly damning for the UCI when allegations of EPO use by Armstrong surfaced in later testimony to the US Anti-Doping Agency from his former colleagues Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis. Armstrong was tested five times during the 2001 Tour of Switzerland and the samples analysed at a laboratory in Lausanne.

According to the report, “the laboratory made the following comment: ‘strong suspicion of the presence of recombinant erythropoietin’” though it declared the samples negative. The report adds: “Several sources indicated that Lance Armstrong and his entourage were informed by the UCI of these suspect test results shortly after receipt of the results by the laboratory.

Through the 2000s, as Armstrong became ever more successful and famous, and as doping allegations piled up, “the suspicions of doping were sufficient to justify target testing Lance Armstrong by all competent agencies. UCI should have … been circumspect in its relations with the athlete. However, the CIRC considers that former [UCI] presidents actually initiated a special relationship with Lance Armstrong and failed to establish a more distant relationship … Special consideration was allowed for Lance Armstrong and, to return the favour, Lance Armstrong was used in UCI’s battles against various third parties on different fronts.”

The report adds that Armstrong assisted the UCI president Hein Verbruggen in his dispute with the World Anti-Doping Agency head Dick Pound in 2004 – an open letter from Verbruggen to Pound in January 2004 was drafted by Verbruggen and Armstrong’s agent – and that the UCI “worked with the rider’s lawyers” during his legal cases against the Sunday Times and its journalist David Walsh and the insurance company SCA, “obtaining statements and/or affidavits” … “and to respond to accusations of doping and defend the effectiveness of UCI’s anti-doping policy.”

Armstrong issued a statement in response to CIRC’s findings in which he apologised for his actions.

“I am grateful to CIRC for seeking the truth and allowing me to assist in that search,” it read. “I am deeply sorry for many things I have done. However, it is my hope that revealing the truth will lead to a bright, dope-free future for the sport I love, and will allow all young riders emerging from small towns throughout the world in years to come to chase their dreams without having to face the lose-lose choices that so many of my friends, team-mates and opponents faced. I hope that all riders who competed and doped can feel free to come forward and help the tonic of truth heal this great sport.”

Last month Armstrong was ordered to pay $10m (£6.5m) in his dispute with SCA for an “unparalleled pageant of international perjury, fraud and conspiracy” that covered up his use of performance-enhancing drugs.

The report’s conclusion is the UCI’s relationship with Armstrong could not be described as corrupt. However, CIRC concluded the UCI “did not act prudently” in soliciting and accepting financial donations from Armstrong, particularly because he was suspected of doping. In 2002 Armstrong had donated $25,000 towards the UCI’s costs for drug testing and in 2007 a further $100,000 towards a drug-testing machine. In 2008 Verbruggen requested a further £100,000 towards drug-testing costs but the report found “no evidence to prove that Lance Armstrong complied with this request”.

Last month an arbitration panel ordered Lance Armstrong and Tailwind Sports Corporation to pay $10m (£6.5m) in a fraud dispute with a promotions company.

A particularly damaging passage of the report covers events after an inquiry by l’Equipe in 2005 alleged the blood booster erythropoietin had been found when Armstrong’s urine samples from the 1999 Tour had been tested for research purposes. The UCI commissioned an independent report from the Dutch anti-doping consultant Emile Vrijman, which cleared Armstrong of wrongdoing.

CIRC revealed the UCI president, Pat McQuaid, instructed Vrijman to restrict his inquiries to the “formal irregularities”, which led to l’Equipe getting data enabling it to conclude its inquiry.

CIRC concludes: “UCI specifically excluded from Emile Vrijman’s mandate an examination of the EPO test … UCI’s primary concern was not to examine the veracity of the allegations and the consequences thereof but to restrict the inquiry from the outset to procedural issues”.

Still more damning is the fact Armstrong’s lawyer Mark Levinstein was involved in drafting the report. Levinstein, CIRC says, “inserted substantial amounts of text … to make [the interim report] more critical of Wada and criticising in detail the credibility of the [French doping agency]’s methods and procedures, citing numerous alleged deficiencies”.

Further mark-ups of the report went to Verbruggen, then vice-president of the UCI, and he “then proceeded to draft an executive summary of the report for which he received extensive input from Mark Levinstein”. CIRC states: “UCI, together with the Armstrong team, became directly and heavily involved in the drafting of the Vrijman report … The main goal was to ensure the report reflected UCI’s and Lance Armstrong’s personal conclusions. The significant participation of UCI and Armstrong’s team was never publicly acknowledged, and was consistently denied by Hein Verbruggen.”

There were other instances of collusion, notably when Armstrong returned to racing in 2009. The UCI bent its rule that an athlete had to be in the anti-doping pool for six months before competing in order to allow him to ride the Tour Down Under in Australia. “UCI failed to apply its own rules,” states CIRC, “… sending the message rules applied differently to some athletes.”

There was, says CIRC, no direct evidence that a change of heart over the matter by McQuaid was down to Armstrong’s decision to ride the Tour of Ireland – run by McQuaid’s brother Darach, and facing financial issues – but “documents show a temporal link … in the morning Pat McQuaid told UCI staff he had decided to let Lance Armstrong participate in the Tour Down Under, and that same evening Lance Armstrong told McQuaid that he had decided to participate in the Tour of Ireland”. According to the report: “Mr Armstrong agreed to ride in the Tour of Ireland for free.”

Armstrong’s attorney Elliot Peters added in statement: “Lance Armstrong co-operated fully with CIRC. He met in person for two full days with CIRC senior investigators, including Peter Nicholson and Ulrich Haas, answered every question they asked without any restrictions, agreed to meet again if they wanted, and provided all documents requested to which he had access.

“Lance’s sole interest in doing so was to facilitate the emergence of the truth about cycling. While Lance has borne the brunt of anti-doping enforcement efforts and attendant negative publicity (and consequences), the truth is that the sport he encountered in Europe in the 1990s was a cesspool where doctors, coaches and riders participated daily in doping and covering up doping.

“Young riders on elite teams competing in Europe faced a simple choice: dope and lie about it or accept that you could not compete clean. We applaud CIRC for taking a courageous and unvarnished look at the truth. In the rush to vilify Lance, many of the other equally culpable participants have been allowed to escape scrutiny, much less sanction, and many of the anti-doping “enforcers” have chosen to grandstand at Lance’s expense rather than truly search for the truth.”

Interviewees who agreed to be named in the report

The committee interviewed 174 people including at least 25 riders. These are the main ones:

Brian Cookson – current UCI president

Pat McQuaid – UCI president 2005-13

Hein Verbruggen – UCI president 1992-2005; IOC member 1996-2008; chairman of the coordination commission for the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008

Mario Zorzoli – current UCI doctor and scientific adviser, suspended because of allegations of malpractice

Pedro Celaya – former doctor at Motorola, US Postal Service and Once teams, currently serving an eight-year ban for involvement in doping at US Postal

Bobby Julich – third finisher at 1999 Tour de France, subsequently coach at Team Sky until 2012 when he left after admitting to doping during his own racing career, now at Tinkoff-Saxo team

Dr Roger Palfreeman – former doctor at British Cycling Olympic team, now working part-time at BMC

Bruno Roussel – former directeur sportif at Festina team, admitted overseeing the team’s doping programme in 1998, after which he left the sport

Bjarne Riis – 1996 Tour de France winner, subsequently admitted to doping but never banned, currently head of Tinkoff-Saxo team

Bob Stapleton – brought in to relaunch T-Mobile as a clean team, subsequently headed up HTC-Columbia squad, now chairman of USA cycling

Alexander Vinokourov – Kazakh cyclist banned for blood doping in 2007, winner of Olympic road race in London after end of ban, now head of Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali’s Astana squad

Jonathan Vaughters – former team-mate of Lance Armstrong, founder of the Garmin-Sharp professional team

Lance Armstrong – seven-times Tour de France winner stripped of titles due to doping

Nicole Cooke – 2008 Olympic and world road champion, now retired

Chris Froome – 2013 Tour de France winner

Tyler Hamilton – former team-mate of Lance Armstrong, banned 2004 for blood doping; his confession was key element in Usada’s inquiry into Armstrong

The former cyclist Tyler Hamilton was among the interviewees for the CIRC’s report.

Dick Pound – former head of Wada, involved in bitter dispute with Hein Verbruggen in 2005

Professor David Cowan – head of the King’s College, London doping control centre

Sandro Donati – leading Italian anti-doping activist, author of a key report into EPO use in the professional peloton in 1992

Damien Ressiot – l’Equipe journalist who alleged in 2005 that urine samples delivered by Lance Armstrong in 1999 Tour had been found to contain EPO

David Walsh - campaigning Sunday Times journalist who exposed Armstrong’s work with Italian trainer Michele Ferrari, who was banned in 2012

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

This article was written by William Fotheringham from The Guardian and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's an easy fat-burning circuit workout you can do using only a line

Trade like a pro (cyclist).

Saxo Bank, the Danish investment bank, has long sponsored a WorldTour cycling team. This year, it shares lead sponsorship with the Tinkoff Credit Systems, a Russian bank.

Saxo has apparently challenged members of the elite Tinkoff-Saxo cycling team to a trading competition, competing to raise money for charity (as most traders do, surely).

The young Slovakian sprinter Peter Sagan asked for help on Twitter on Wednesday.

Hey guys – New video update is out!– I’m trading stocks with @saxobank. Help me beat my teammates! #TradeLikeAProhttps://t.co/3bfhoQ0z26

— Peter Sagan (@petosagan) April 1, 2015

And there's video showing who is doing best (it's the Danish rider, Chris Anker Sørensen):

Cyclists may not know a lot about finance. But they do know a thing or two about risk.

SEE ALSO: I Just Took A Spin Class Taught By A Top-Ranked Pro Cyclist And My Heart Almost Exploded Out Of My Chest

Join the conversation about this story »

Bike racing can be a very dangerous, hard-hitting sport.

But usually that's not because cars are crashing into the riders.

Things got really dangerous on Sunday at one of professional cycling's biggest one-day races, the Tour of Flanders, when reckless driving sent two cyclists crashing to the ground.

(The Tour of Flanders, or the Ronde van Vlaanderen, is one of the biggest sporting events in all of Belgium.)

The first incident happened when a Shimano neutral-service car — which normally provides spare wheels and bikes to riders in need — struck Jessee Sergent, a rider from New Zealand.

Sergent, who rides for the US-based Trek Factory Racing team, was leading a breakaway group when a car tried to squeeze between him and the side of the road.

But there was not enough space to pass, and the car hit Sergent.

The cyclist was sent flying and crashed hard on the ground.

This GIF, via Sporza, shows what happened:

Sergent's race was suddenly and dramatically over.

His team tweeted that he suffered a broken left collarbone in the crash.

Not long after that, a second incident happened when another Shimano neutral-service car slammed into the back of an FDJ team car — which was shunted into one of its very own riders, Sébastien Chavanel (via Eurosport):

SEE ALSO: Millionaire entrepreneur explains why cycling — and not golf — is the new sport of choice for young professionals

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: NYC Bike Messenger: Cab Drivers Are Not The Biggest Problem On The Road

Most cyclists across the country have had close calls with their bigger road companions – cars, vans and trucks.

At night, the risks increase if visibility isn't optimised.

An innovative new product from Volvo – called LifePaint – could soon be a must-buy for cyclists if it makes it to market.

Being trialled in a select few shops in the UK, the reflective safety spray is only visible in the dark.

It can be sprayed on clothes, backpacks, helmets, gloves and bikes, is completely washable and lasts about 10 days after application.

Swedish-based designer Anders Wellving explains how it works:

When you apply it to a surface, the reflective particles will stick together with a special adhesive, making it invisible by day but light up at night in the glare of headlines.

About 2,000 cans are being given away in the trial and, if successful, the project could expand internationally.

"Every year more than 19,000 cyclists are injured on the UK's roads," said Nick Connor, Managing Director at Volvo Car UK. "At Volvo, we believe that the best way to survive a crash is not to crash, and are committed to making the roads a safer place by reducing the number of accidents."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A lawyer in Florida has come up with an ingenious way for drivers to evade drunken-driving checkpoints

Paris (AFP) — The French state railway company on Monday demanded police action against "irresponsible" Paris-Roubaix cycle race riders who breached a safety barrier seconds before a high speed train hurtled by.

The SNCF company made an official complaint to French prosecutors saying the action in Sunday's prestigious race had risked a deadly tragedy.

The last of the riders went through the barrier in northern France about eight seconds before the TGV train arrived at the Waller crossing, 87 kilometers (54 miles) from the end of the so called "Hell of the North" race.

As the barriers came down, several cyclists swerved to avoid them and continued across the tracks:

One rider from the Belgian Lotto team was clipped by a barrier as it came down.

The cyclists who didn't make it across the tracks waited as the train went through:

John Degenkolb, winner of the race famed for its 26 sections of bone-jarring cobbled roads, was among the group who went through the barrier as it closed. Race organisers said it had not been possible for the leaders to stop in time.

"Several riders deliberately, and against all safety rules, crossed a closed safety barrier," said a SNCF statement announcing the complaint to French prosecutors.

"Millions of television viewers saw live this extremely grave and irresponsible action which could have been tragic," the company added.

"A few seconds later, a TGV ran on this line and could have hit the peloton."

When the last rider had gone through the crossing, a police motorcycle was in place to stop more riders going through.

Normally riders who go through a closed safety crossing are disqualified. But Guy Dobbelaere, president of the jury of race commissioners, defended the action of the riders on Sunday.

"It wasn't possible for the leading riders to stop sufficiently safely," said Dobbelaere.

"The peloton was 10 metres away when the barrier started to close."

Race director Thierry Gouvenou added: "By neutralising the race for a few moments to not penalise those who stopped, we respected the spirit of the rule.

"In theory, those who pass when the barrier is down are thrown out of the race.

"This time, that would have been unjust in respect of those riders who weren't identified," said Gouvenou.

Race officials slowed the leading riders so that those held up by the barrier could catch up.

In 2006, three riders were disqualified for going through a closed railway crossing.

The three -- Leif Hoste and Peter van Petegem of Belgium and Russian Vladimir Guseve -- were less than 10 kilometers (six miles) from the finish and had been disputing top places.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's how much sex happy couples have every month

When I saw Pauline Ferrand-Prévot win the world championship on a hazy September day in Ponferrada, Spain, I felt as if I was witnessing not just the coronation of a new champion but a bona fide changing of the guard in women’s cycling.

The young Frenchwoman was not the favorite to win the rainbow jersey that day, but it wasn't for want of talent. She was already a seven-time French national champion in four disciplines — road cycling, time trialing, cyclocross, and mountain biking — not to mention a former junior world champion. But save for the prestigious one-day classic Le Flèche Wallonne Féminine, the 22-year-old hadn't won a major road race at the elite level.

The favorite in Ponferrada was Dutch rider Marianne Vos, who, along with Belgium’s Eddy Merckx, is the finest rider the sport has ever seen. She's won everything. For many, the talk wasn’t about who would win but about how Vos would win. Would Vos, the London Olympic champion, attack on the climbs and cross the finish line solo, or would she, the seasoned world champ, wait until the end to outsprint the stacked field?

When four riders, including Vos, attacked over the last climb on the final lap, it looked like it was game over for Ferrand-Prévot, who couldn't quite keep pace. But PFP, as she's called, fought on, and, to her surprise, the Vos group had slowed after the descent. With 300 meters to go, Vos sprinted, and it was the crafty Ferrand-Prévot who jumped on her wheel first. The young gun soon surged past the Dutch master and didn't look back. She'd timed her sprint perfectly, winning by inches and taking her greatest victory.

But PFP wasn’t finished. A few months after sprinting to gold in Spain, she lined up in Tábor, Czech Republic, to race in the cyclocross world championship. And in what was the most thrilling women's 'cross worlds in years, PFP stunned the favorites with a near-perfect ride in the cold and the mud to take another gold medal. And once again she beat Vos, herself a seven-time world 'cross champion.

No one should write off Vos, of course. She herself is still only 27, and Vos and PFP are teammates when they aren't racing world championships. But if in fact Vos is slowing and a new breed of younger riders is taking over, its leader is PFP.

For the Reims native, the remarkable pair of gold medals was the crowning achievement after a dream season, and no other rider, male of female, dominated cycling the past year like Ferrand-Prévot. In her we see the speed and racecraft you usually find only in the great riders.

Today, at just 23, and with seemingly endless talent, the question is, how great will Ferrand-Prévot be?

SEE ALSO: The 50 most dominant athletes alive

Join the conversation about this story »

Sir Richard Branson has added yet another company to his business empire - Virgin Sport.

The new company will organise cycling and running events. 

Billionaire Branson, who began his career as a music store tycoon, announced the launch of Virgin Sport on Twitter and on his website this afternoon.

Branson said in a blog post that the new company will "support people of all shapes and sizes to push the boundaries of what’s expected of them, live life to the fullest, and strive for greatness."

Branson and the Virgin brand already have an association with sport. Virgin has long been a sponsor of the London marathon and Virgin Active has operated a chain of gyms around the world since 1998. 

The creation of Virgin Sport means there are now well over 30 Virgin brands and 58 Virgin companies around the world. The businesses span everything from health to casinos and even space travel.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We got our hands on 'Kinder Surprise Eggs' — the global candy favorite that's still illegal in the US

Recently I tried out Moov's personal-fitness device, a wearable that offers workout data and virtual coaching in real time via updates using a smartphone screen and audio feedback.

Moov raised a ton of cash last year through crowd-funding, and this week it is rolling out its first cycling app, which is what I used the Moov for. (There are Moov apps for other activities, but I used only the cycling app.)

The Moov is a sleek circular gadget about the size of an Oreo cookie. The company calls it "the world's most advanced fitness device." For cycling, you wear it on your left or right leg using the provided ankle band, and it connects to your phone via Bluetooth. It charges via USB cable. The Moov device costs $79, and the cycling app is free.

I tested the beta version of the app for iPhone 6, the final version of which will be available Wednesday at midnight PST, according to the company. The Android version of the app is still in beta testing and will be released in two to three weeks, the company said.

In case you're wondering, the Moov never popped out of the ankle band while I was using it; it stayed firmly locked in until I took it out, and it never felt as if it might come loose.

And this is basically how the Moov device and Moov Cycling app work:

As you pedal your bike, the app tracks your ride data (speed, distance, climbing, power, cadence, and more) and gives you updates and tips. As you complete each mile of your route (there's a built-in GPS map), the app updates your current ride details, and a Siri-sounding voice gives you a quick update about how your ride is going.

After giving you details about how far you've ridden, your average cadence, how much you've climbed, and so forth, the app's audio prompt might offer a tip such as "Increase your cadence to lessen the strain on your knees" and "Increase your cadence to get a better cardio workout for the same speed."

To end your workout, you swipe right on your screen and a summary of your ride appears; each workout gets stored in your history. You can tweet, Facebook, and email your workout summary right from the app.

As for the audio feedback, the company puts it like this: Moov coaching "occurs over audio to help you remember when to shift gears. Real-time coaching aims to teach you to save energy so you can ride farther and faster."

To get the audio updates and coaching, you obviously need to be wearing earbuds or be able to hear your phone's speaker. If you don't want the audio prompts, you can just view the updates on your phone's screen. That requires you to have your phone attached to your handlebar using a separate mounting bracket.

I don't normally ride my bike while wearing earbuds. I just don't think it's safe (this is my preference, and others will have theirs). I bike in and around a major city, and being able to hear what's around me — cars, other cyclists, pedestrians — in traffic or in my local park is, for me, an added layer of awareness and safety. This goes for commuting and when I'm out for a long ride on my road bike.

For this reason, I would probably never use this app's — or any other app's — audio feature via earbuds while pedaling outdoors. I would use it while riding my indoor trainer, which I do mostly in the winter and on bad-weather days for a power hour of high-intensity intervals and sprints, or on a stationary bike at the gym.

Second, I find that having my iPhone 6 on my handlebar is cumbersome and distracting. Plus, like a lot of cyclists, I have to ride on crappy streets and over gnarly potholes, so I'd be worried that my phone might pop out, hit the ground, and break, no matter how secure the bracket.

I could just pedal with the app turned on and keep my phone in my pocket and then check everything after my ride. But a significant appeal of the app is that it gives you updates and motivational prompts as you pedal in real time. So there's something of a dilemma for me here.

For these reasons, I'd use the app on my home trainer or at the gym (with my phone mounted on the handlebar or in my hand). Out on the road, I'd keep my phone in my pocket and let the app run in the background, then check my ride info after. I'd still get the data.

Now, if you like riding with your phone on your handlebar or you wear earbuds while you ride, you'll be able to get the coaching feedback from the app.

Pedaling with the app

While out on a long road ride, I got several audio prompts telling me to increase my cadence (pedaling speed). This was good advice. The idea is, pedal an easier gear with a higher rpm, which should get you using your legs and lungs most efficiently.

Other prompts I got included:

Your cadence is very low. Try an easier gear. An easier gear will help you increase cadence and reduce knee strain.

Climb update! You've gained 100 feet over the last kilometer.

That's where the Moov Cycling app did a good job generally, with one or two exceptions. As I was riding on a flat road and approaching a climb, my pedaling cadence was pretty high and I was doing over 20 mph. Good work on this effort, the app encouraged me.

As I was riding up the climb, I was already in a good/low gear, but the situation was that I could not ride that much faster as the climb was over 6% in gradient, there was a pretty good headwind, and I was trying to pace myself so that I could make it to the top without imploding. Then I heard:

An easier gear will give you a more aerobic workout for this same speed.

As I was already riding at a challenging but doable pace, it didn't make a lot of sense that the app was telling me to use a lower gear, mainly because I didn't really have one (!!). Of course it didn't know that, and it appeared the app wasn't able to read this part of the effort accurately. It just kept saying things like "using an easier gear will help you increase cadence," which, having heard it a few times, made me a tad frustrated but mostly just made me laugh. I maintained the pace and kept on top of the second-lowest gear I had up to the summit.

Another prompt I got as I climbed a hill was, If you stand during a climb, try using a slightly tougher gear. Shift back to an easy gear when you sit back— again, solid advice in most cases. These two tips are cycling basics that a lot of beginner and even intermediate cyclists probably don't know about or forget to follow. Those people would benefit from using Moov in this situation.

And here's a related thing I see a lot: cyclists laboring heavily, and unnecessarily, up a climb because they are way overgeared. They can barely keep going, and they fight their bike, straining and grimacing and grunting, all because they're trying to churn a massive gear when they should really be spinning a much lower one.

If you go to your local park or popular hill climb, you'll see a lot of this, especially among newer riders and some weekend warriors. This is exactly where a device like Moov could come in very handy: It generally does a good job at reading your effort, and if your cadence is really low, it'll tell you to drop a gear and get spinning.

Save for a couple of instances, the coaching and updates made sense. While I did get an accurate update each mile, which was helpful, beyond that it was a lot of prompts about cadence and a couple about climbing technique, in addition to some pats on the back.

The Moov gives pretty good coaching advice generally, and when I asked the company about getting more specificity, it told me it was something it would be looking into. As with a beta version of anything, there's room for improvement.

Beyond that, I really liked the app's clean look and feel. The device and app make for a sleek combo, and the price makes it attractive. The various data points and graphs are useful, and it offers a nicely presented breakdown of ride information. All the data for my rides was accurate.

I think a lot of cyclists would like all this easily digestible data, especially if they're not very experienced or if they've never used a personal-fitness device before. I also think the per-mile ride updates are helpful during a serious workout.

For example, "Moov Power," which monitors your effort based on speed, elevation, cadence, and "Moov technology," could be valuable for those who want a quick, simple indicator of the quality of their workout without too much fuss.

"With your Moov power, you can tell how hard you are working instead of just how fast you're going,"the company says.

To put it another way, if you do not want to dish out lots of cash for a power meter or a sophisticated cycling computer, which can easily run several hundred dollars, the Moov device and cycling app together offer a lot of data and are very, very easy to use. I'd go as far to say that for many people the Moov is the best, most affordable, and easiest-to-use fitness tracker for cyclists.

In sum, the Moov device and cycling app are best for beginner and intermediate cyclists who want an easy and relatively inexpensive way to improve their fitness with a real-time virtual coach and desire audio updates and tips as they ride, along with detailed info post-ride.

It's also good for those who use an indoor trainer or ride a stationary bike at the gym. I could also see someone who is training for a triathlon benefiting from the cycling app.

In addition to affordability, a key benefit of the Moov is that you can take it anywhere and use it with any bike. If, say, you go on vacation and want to get in a cycling workout, just find a bike, put on the device, fire up the app, and pedal away.

SEE ALSO: Why cycling — not golf — is the new sport of choice for young professionals

DON'T MISS: Max Levchin: photos reveal the beauty and intensity of the star entrepreneur's passion for cycling

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: NYC Bike Messenger: Cab Drivers Are Not The Biggest Problem On The Road