While Bradley Wiggins of Britain captured the 2012 Tour de France title on Sunday, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has its own award-winning cyclists, including Cary Forest (Physics), Ullrich Langer (French and Italian), Steve Nadler (Philosophy), and Mark Craven (Biostatistics and Medical Informatics/Computer Science).
True, their national and international awards are for research and teaching rather than cycling.
But, in late May they broke out of the library and laboratory to conquer the Col de Peyresourde, which was one of the tougher climbs on this year's Tour de France, and the Col d'Azet, where they stopped for a group photograph.
Both climbs were of the Category 1 variety - the only harder designation is hors categorie, a French term for those that are "beyond categorization."
