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In February, Andy Schleck became the official winner of the 2010 Tour de France when Alberto Contador was stripped of his title following a positive drug test. This year, he plans on winning it in Paris.
Sasha DiGiulian has already climbed harder than any American woman in history. We caught up with her to talk about college and whether women will ever outclimb men.
The world record holder dishes on his diamond grills and his plans for London
The legendary daredevil talks about recovering from the accident that almost killed him
Priceless advice from world-champion decathlete Trey Hardee, who has distilled a decade of training and nutrition wisdom into one customizable gold-medal fitness formula.
With Andy Schleck (right) out of the Tour, there will be no repeat podium in 2012. Photo: HTO3/Flickr Last fall, when two of the biggest teams in pro cycling, Leopard-Trek and Radioshack,…
Behind the scenes of Carlos Serrao’s July cover shoot with the World’s Greatest Athlete, two-time decathlon champion Trey Hardee.
Leipheimer en route to winning the 2012 Tour de San Luis. Photo: OPQS/Tim de Waele On April 1, while training in Spain the day before the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco, American Levi Leipheimer was struck down by a car and suffered a broken fibula. Not…
Catching up with the Kiwi kayaker between races about his upcoming debut at the London Olympics; his girlfriend, Martina Wegman; and how he tries to close the gap between slalom kayakers and creek boaters
For the past 12 years, Middaugh, a seven-time X-Terra National tri champ with seven more events on his schedule for this summer, hasn't gone more than a month without competing
Hornanyi takes a breather atop Powell Point during the 2011 Dixie 200, which she went on to win. This morning, June 8, over 100 riders will line up in Banff, Canada, to undertake what might be…
Lewis dishes on the nuances of slackline tricking competition, the newest event at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail
Irmiger talks about the gender divide in mountain biking and the challenges of making it big
Born with scoliosis and a left foot that toes out, the running legend focused on distance, where length could forgive injury, fatigue, bad form, and illness. In an ultra, the most important thing is your mind—and your willingness to push on.
Alex Honnold solos the Pancake Flake during a speed ascent of El Cap in 2010. Photo: Tom Evans/elcapreport.com Just two weeks after free-climbing Yosemite's Triple Crown with Tommy Caldwell,…
Little ripper, going big: Alex Mason at the Teva Games. Photo: Teva Mountain Games Competitive slacklining. If that sounds like an oxymoron, you must not have been in Vail this past weekend, when the sport made its debut at the annual Teva Summer…
Duggan becomes the national champion. Photo: Casey B. Gibson. Liquigas-Cannondale racer Timmy Duggan didn't enter last week's U.S. National Championship road race as a heavy favorite, but he proved that the odds don't always…
A Q&A with an ϳԹ in Aspen participant
Professional climber; two-time junior national speed-climbing champion
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Gr1vdCmxE3k If you watched the Amgen Tour of California, you might have seen a catchy advertisement from Spy Optics that pitted outgoing U.S. national road racing champ Matthew Busche against freestyle rider Mike Montgomery. The ad starts with…
Big air, bigger views kick off this weekend in Vail. Photo: Teva Mountain Games With long days and warm nights, summer is festival season. But if you want more from your weekend than sitting on your butt on a blanket, swilling beer, and listening to live…
A Q&A with an ϳԹ in Aspen participant
A Q&A with an ϳԹ in Aspen participant
A Q&A with an ϳԹ in Aspen participant
Hesjedal takes the trophy in Milan. Photo: Garmin-Barracuda On Sunday, Ryder Hesjedal won the Giro d’Italia to become the first Canadian in history to stand atop a Grand Tour podium. The three-week race turned into a tense,…
No better place to be on Memorial Day weekend. Photo: MountainFilm Telluride MountainFilm Festival kicks off today— always one of the best reasons to decamp to this gorgeous box canyon in southern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. The schedule’s packed with outdoor screenings, panel…
Chris Sharma. Photo: Mary Catherine O’Connor As we’ve reported before, California’s state parks are in the midst of a crisis that could result in many of them closing on July 1. While the initial list contained 70 parks, many of these have received at…
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The clean before the mud. Photo: Merrell Down and Dirty Mud Run Last year, more than a million people participated in obstacle-course races like Tough Mudder, Muddy Buddy, Spartan Race, and Warrior Dash.
Chris Horner took control of the 2011 ATOC on Stage 4. Photo: Richard Masoner/Cyclelicious/Flickr The seventh edition of the Amgen Tour of California started yesterday in Santa Rosa with a thrilling stage that…
I'm looking for ways to gauge improvement. If I can soak through my wicking base layers, I call that a good day. Do better athletes sweat more?
Screenshots from Instagram A few weeks ago, the Internet started humming over the news that Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion—it was a great investment for…
The Quidditch World Cup sounds dorky, and make no mistake: it is. But these sorcery-loving Harry Potter fans play pretty rough, as Eric Hansen found out when he captained a bad-news team of ex-athletes, ultimate Frisbee studs, slobs, drunks, and some people he knows from Iceland. Brooms up, and may the best Muggles win.
With Contador banned, the 2012 Giro is wide open. Photo: Petit Brun/Flickr The Giro d'Italia starts in Herning, Denmark, tomorrow, and it promises to be one of the most interesting and wide-open races…
High-altitude alpinist Hilaree O’Neill is unlike most of her fellow climbers hunkered down at Everest Base Camp this week, waiting for a weather window to make their summit push. For starters, she came prepared to ski off the South Col. And out of some 600 alpinists vying for…
Two years after undergoing surgery to correct a debilitating heart condition, the Australian triathlete is poised to qualify for the Olympics
Before our first daughter was born, I obsessed over what kind of stroller to buy. I coveted the fancy designer Bugaboo with a quilted bassinet attachment for strolling around town during naptime. (I found a used Frog on eBay.) I wanted a knobby-tired jogging stroller for getting…
Tommeke wins Roubaix. Photographer: Courtesy of Roxanne King on Flickr. With Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, the 2012 Spring Classics season drew to a close, and there were two big winners this year. Tom Boonen,…
Ueli Steck and Freddie Wilkinson reveal how Nepal's permitting system is holding climbers back in the Khumbu
Eight of the biggest icons in the world ϳԹ offer their hard-earned tips
Mike Dion's first feature-length film, Ride The Divide, followed three cyclists on the inaugural Tour Divide, a 2,700-mile self-supported bikepacking race along the Continental Divide from Banff, Canada to Antelopes Wells, New Mexico, a dusty crossing on the…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=tbjzZHuGTng%C2%A0 Twelve-year old Tom Schaar has been skating since he was four, but only started attempting the 1080 a couple weeks ago. The Malibu-based prodigy made four attempts on March 26—and nailed it on his fifth try, landing three complete mid-air rotations off a 70-foot tall mega ramp at Woodward…
Tom Boonen fights the cobbles at the 2011 Tour of Flanders. The Tour of Flanders, Belgium's biggest bike race, is set to go off tomorrow, and pundits and cycling fanatics have spent the last few weeks speculating who has the form to win this important spring…
Stay-at-home-mom (sort of): Wendy at work on the steeps of CB [courtesy Wendy Fisher] Officially it’s spring, but here at Rippers, we’re determined to squeeze every last drop out of winter. In honor of fresh snow in the Northwest, epic powder onslaughts…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DHDGv1RR2v4%C2%A0 “The Hunger Games” may be rocking the box office this weekend, but we have a better bet for family night at the movies: the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour. The show, which brings the best of the annual Banff Mountain Film Festival to venues on seven continents, came…
When you're coming back from injury there is a moment when you are finally healthy, everything is fine, and you're badly out of shape. Nate Jenkins, whom I've written about in the past, and whose struggle to become a very good marathoner I find…
Dallas Seavey [all photos courtesy of Loren Holmes; http://lorenholmes.com] Last week, 25-year-old Dallas Seavey became the youngest musher ever to win the Iditarod. A third generation musher—his father and grandfather (one of the race’s founders) are past Iditarod champions—Seavey…
Our photo director Amy Silverman goes behind the scenes of our January cover shoot.
This past Wednesday, an avalanche in the Wyoming backcountry killed the creator of the popular backcountry skiing blog, TetonAT.com. A few days before he died, we spoke with Romeo about the growing popularity of backcountry and sidecountry skiing.
Nobody climbs faster than Swiss superman Ueli Steck, whose rapid ascents of classic routes are just as demanding as three-minute miles. Now Steck is taking his death-challenging act to the Himalayas, which have a way of slowing even the best men down.
Photo: Young Hoon Oh Young Hoon Oh, South Korean PhD candidate in anthropology at UC Riverside, is headed to Nepal at the end of the month to attempt his second Everest summit. But his itinerary extends well beyond the days he'll try to reach the top…
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I recently discovered the website, Kids Who Rip. Not sure how I missed this one, but it’s rad little video library of kids killing it on bikes, skis, kiteboards, surfboards, skateboards, balance beams, and pretty much every other conveyance and game known to childhood. You can submit…
Can Caroline Queen win a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=heeQnBsnx2Y%C2%A0 “It's been a funny one since becoming a so-called professional rider. I actually ride a lot less than I used to,” says trials phenom Danny MacAskill midway through this clip. The quote sums up the new video: It's more about MacAskill's personality and background (oh, and lots of gratuitous product…
Matt Carnal and his trusty fixie. Photo by Jake Drevs. Before you brag to your buddies about how hard you’ve been training, meet Matt Carnal. Over 26 days in January, this 32-year-old cycling coach from Tulsa, Oklahoma,…
I snuck away on Saturday for a ski day at Taos, my first of the season. The mountain was in fine form, thanks to a storm track that dumped nearly two feet of snow last week, and my little posse and I started the day with a hike to 12,481-foot…
Tommy Chandler/Competitive Cyclist This week I had the chance to spend a few days at the Tucson training camp with the Competitive Cyclist racing team. One of a few notable domestic pro cycling outfits, this team leapt…
Lindsey Van talks about the new film Ready to Fly and her struggle to get women's ski jumping into the 2014 Winter Olympics
Tele boy Bennett goes big On Saturday evening at the base of Vail Mountain, Drummond—one of 8 top tele freestylers invited to participate in the “dueling trick session”—ratcheted up the awe factor once again, hucking a 70-foot gap and launching over a raging…
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I admit it: It’s a little hypocritical for a blog about raising adventurous, outdoor kids to be reviewing TV commercials, but I can’t resist reposting this ad, “The Next Ones,” which aired on the sly during the Super Bowl post-game show yesterday. The commercial, for NBC Sports Network, pays tribute…
In November, 2010, slackliner Andy Lewis rigged a 130-foot length of webbing between two sandstone cliffs outside of Moab, Utah, and walked it—out and back—with no safety harness or net. The line, dubbed Shakes McCoy, was the longest anyone had ever free-soloed. Lewis has soloed 44 highlines—swaying, bouncing…
The Dangers of Drugs via Shutterstock, Photographer Julien Tromeur The cycling world is collectively sighing this morning, some in relief, others in disgust. If you're like me, no matter how you feel about the two big…
A couple of months ago, I caught up with 21-year-old pro surfer and youth activist Kyle Thiermann. Possibly the world's most upbeat environmentalist, Kyle's spent the past five years surfing his way through Indonesia, Chile, Peru, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, Australia, and Hawaii, shooting documentaries…
On Tuesday, Russian marathon runner Tatyana Aryasova was stripped of her 2011 Tokoyo Marathon title after she returned a positive test for a banned drug, hydroxyethyl starch, that is commonly used to mask doping in endurance athletes. The news broke on Japan Running…
Aksel Svindal has three Olympic medals, two World Cup titles, and the affections of fellow ski racer Julia Mancuso. But can he transcend the sport and become the next Hermann Maier? HAMPTON SIDES tracks down the Norwegian beast slopeside to talk about the 2007 crash that nearly ended his career and his chances of dominating the 2012 World Cup.
It’s late January. The days are getting longer, the sun is getting just a teensy bit stronger. Who doesn't have beach days or bluebird powder days on the brain? Which brings to mind one of parenthood’s more onerous tasks: applying sunscreen. It’s sticky, the kids are wriggly, and if…
A couple weeks ago on Raising Rippers, I wrestled with the dilemma we face when writing or posting about rad kids and their outdoor antics. Are we exploiting them for our own purposes or holding them up as inspiration to all? The answer is obvious when you…
Australian Pat Farmer is on track to finish a ten-month pole-to-pole jog—without taking a single day off
Hurdler Lolo Jones was the feel-good story of the Beijing Olympics, until a tiny mistake cost her a medal—and made her tale even more compelling
If Lance Armstrong went to jail and Livestrong went away, that would be a huge setback in our war against cancer, right? Not exactly, because the famous nonprofit donates almost nothing to scientific research. BILL GIFFORD looks at where the money goes and finds a mix of fine ideas, millions of dollars aimed at “awareness,” and a few very blurry lines.
From bureaucratic wrangling to the death of the sport's most exciting star, the sport of running was in flux a year before the Olympic Games