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After the greatest career in American cycling, what do you do for an encore? If you're aspiring race-car driver Greg LeMond, you find a whole new way to go fast.
By Ned Zeman

At six-five and 300 pounds, former NFL lineman Darryl Haley doesn't fit the stereotype of an Ironman triathlete. Which is why he's making one of the biggest splashes the sport has ever seen.
By John Tayman

Forget overpaid middle relievers and $4 hot dogs. 'Tis the season to hop onto a two-wheeler for your own spring training.

When you're the official record-keeper for the Guinness Book, metal-eating Frenchmen, spinning kayakers, and trailer-size puddings are all in a day's work.
By Giles Smith

To them–the teeming devourers of human habitations–they're just doing their ecological duty. To us, who watch in morbid fascination as they munch ships and terrorize suburbs, they're a harbinger of apocalypse. Or are they?
By Mark Levine

Departments

Hemorrhaging money and bemoaning its rapidly dwindling fan-base, USA Track & Field gives its executive director the boot. A Texas entrepreneur plays Amelia Earhart but hopes to rewrite the ending. Yes, it is lonely at the top: Star athletes try to make friends through the World Wide Web. Siegfried and Roy branch into zoology on the Vegas Strip. A physician-cum-environmentalist goes postal–and 11 heifers pay the price. Tow-in surfing makes its competitive debut, to the chagrin of its big-wave pioneers.
Plus: America's first "oxygen bar" gets set to open its doors; Lynn Jennings wins an unparalleled ninth national cross-country title; Al Gore leads the fight to save an endangered…train? and more.

Chartering the Caribbean: Everything you need to know before you take to the sea, whether your sailing fancy includes skippering your own or hiring a salty crew. Sailing schools that'll teach you how to do it yourself the next time. Cruising the sea less traveled: live-aboard options in French Polynesia.
Plus: Kayaking, biking, fishing, and boardsailing around Florida's little-known barrier islands; the long-overdue return of the North American Telemark Festival; a guided expedition to view this month's total solar eclipse; and more.

For 400 years, the Isle of Sark has been a place of remarkable tranquility. That is, until identical-twin billionaires came, built a ”25 million castle, and declared their intent to secede.
By Richard Todd

The notion of being "at one" with nature is tired indeed–but the tale of the fellow who'd become part Homo sapiens, part plant, was something else entirely. On the banks of the Warm Springs River, our man tracks the legend of Moss Man.
By Randy Wayne White

Is alpenglow a scientific phenomenon or just a poetic term? Why are planets round? What are snow fleas, and what in the world do they eat?

The pre-workout stretch, debated: We've all been taught to limber up before we exercise. But are you doing it in the way that's best for you? A look at static and dynamic stretches, "total-body elasticity" routines, and the mysterious but effective method known as PNF. An updated stretching sampler for would-be Gumbys. How to shape up for a century ride in a scant six weeks. A very (ahem) hot new training aid: chile peppers.

Racks for the long haul: Be they attached to roof, hatch, or hitch, the latest car-mounted carryalls secure your gear better–and are a lot easier to use–than their utilitarian ancestors. Eight of today's best for toting bikes, skis, snowboards, boats, and anything else you care to strap down. A digital camera for the common man. The North Face's convertible yet technical Lhasa travel pack.
Plus: A dry top that eliminates the need for layering; Glass, Paper, Beans: Revelations on the Nature and Value of Ordinary Things, by Leah Hager Cohen; The Beach, by Alex Garland; and more.