Saturday update

Italian U23 rider Gianandrea Mariola has tested positive for EPO in a test from the baby Giro. Always great to see the U23 riders getting an early start practising their doping skills. Prior to the race start, four other U23 riders were kicked out for strange blood values.

New Kimmage article.

Amusing photo shoot of Columbia riders by TDWSport, which also has good Tour photos after each stage, along with Cor Vos, Bettini, Graham Watson.

New book from Matt Rendell.

ITV podcast is usually a good listen for insider insights during the Tour.

Watched part of the time trial today, but the Versus advertising-to-race ratio is maddening. It is far better to watch one of the ad-free live streams, but many were getting shut down for copyright violation. I guess it is rather too easy for the copyright nazis to track down these free streams when they are listed on assorted cycling sites, but it still stinks when your only option is listening to endless Cialis ads (when the time is right, I am going to throw the tv out the window). Craig Hummer's voice also reminds me of a braying donkey. Great ride by Wiggins. I was a little worried about Zabriskie, who didn't look at all happy waiting to start. Maybe it was just concentration? Hope so. Sounds like Danny Pate was a bit disappointed in his ride, or more likely he just joking on his twitter when he said, "37th! Hmm... Guess I will be working at burger king next year."

In the bad luck and trouble category, Michael Rogers had technical difficulties with his chain and lost 1:13, after also crashing earlier in the week, bruising his hip. In the less than expected category, we have Menchov wilting and Columbia's other GC guy Kim Kirchen losing 1:57. Ouch. Yet somehow it seems only fair that Columbia gets a bit of bad luck for once. Maybe it will make them quit picking on Garmin. Karma? In the mysterious unknown rider category, there are quite a few riders I have never heard of in this year's Tour, which is likely due in part to the inclusion of Skil-Shimano, but also probably because I haven't been paying enough attention. Marcin Sapa? Maxime Bouet? Simon Geschke? I guess I need to do some remedial reading. Then there are those enigmatic riders whose names are certainly very familiar but whose likely performance or lack thereof in the upcoming weeks seems totally unpredictable, such as José Angel Gomez Marchante or Igor Anton for example. They have shown flashes of potential brilliance in the past but then melted silently into invisibility again. Who knows?

Meanwhile human-rocket Cancellara has apparently fully recovered from whatever was ailing him earlier in the season, and now again has enough blatant superiority to demoralize the rest of the time-trialists who simply don't have a chance. Bert Grabsch, for one, seemed not to bother today, although perhaps it was the climb that put him off, not the inevitability of getting crushed by the Swiss tidal wave. In the narrow escape category, watching Millar's back tire jumping around like a bucking bronco in that bad corner made me feel slightly ill, as it looked like he was only seconds from taking a potentially Tour-ending header straight into the barricades. Worst possible way to leave the Tour is by crashing out on the very first stage. Well...I guess maybe there are worse ways to leave the Tour, like say getting caught with dope in your room or something. Just ask Duenas. In the dangerous dark horse category, watching Kreuzinger's smooth-as-glass pedalling today made me think of a sharp blade through butter.

Yet, the best thing about the Tour is that in the minds of the fans and in the sweep of its history, it is far bigger than any one rider, regardless of how famous they may be either in reality or in their own over-heated imaginations. The world's media may be magnetically attracted to the Second Coming's antagonisms, but the Tour is not really about any of that if you ask me. All the fans are not there just to cheer for their favorite rider, they are there to celebrate the spirit of the race, its history, tradition, human drama, inspiration, and beauty. Even Lance cannot change that.

And lastly, don't be a sheep.

Wednesday update

I am very pleased to see Dekker getting caught at long last. Finally the rider forever dubbed by the Dutch as The Great Talent is revealed for what he really is, just another doper. I hope that many more of the past samples that contained Dynepo will also be re-tested, as I am sure that there are many other riders who were doing the same as Dekker, including Rasmussen for one. I guess that could count as a second offense and the Chicken could get life. Good riddance. The more and more times we see these rumors of doping being proven true, the harder it becomes to ignore other unproven rumors under the proviso of innocent until proven guilty. Time after time, it seems that those riders who have a cloud of suspicion over them, and who make loud protestations of how unfairly they are being treated, turn out to be guilty. Ricco, Sella, Piepoli, Rebellin, Schumacher, Kohl. It also provides more firepower for those who rightfully object to riders using doping doctors such as Cecchini or Ferrari for "training plans". Dekker's once-close relationship with Cecchini was such that the good doctor claimed he viewed him as a son, and Dekker moved to Italy specifically to live nearby. Shows what a bit a bad fatherly advice will get you. Busted.

This turn of events also casts a dark cloud over Silence-Lotto, for the very fact that they hired Dekker (never mind Kohl) while many other teams refused to hire him based on the evidence they reviewed. Notably, Garmin thoroughly examined Dekker's background and blood profiles and found something that made them refuse to offer him a contract. Lotto surely reviewed much of the same evidence, yet their scrutiny reached a very different conclusion. Why? It seems clear that Garmin's standards are just plain higher and they have a lower tolerance of risk for those riders whose behavior and past falls into that vast gray area of suspicion. Lotto's willingness to overlook whatever it was that made Garmin reject Dekker suggests that they seriously need to reevaluate their hiring criteria. Kohl's comments on this topic were also instructive, as he thought that Silence-Lotto looked at his blood profiles, knew exactly what he was up to, and hired him anyway precisely because his profiles showed that he was skilled at careful blood doping without raising overt suspicion.

The next piece of the puzzle in this case is the Humanplasma scandal which involves a variety of former and current Rabobank riders. Dekker's close friend at Rabobank was Boogerd. Boogerd's retirement and breaking of links to Rabobank, Dekker's now-not-so mysterious fallout with Rabobank, Rabobank's increased fear of doping after the Rasmussen debacle, the first press reports of the Humanplasma case (including Boogerd's name), and Kohl's reported naming of names to AFLD (perhaps including Dekker?), now all seem to possibly be pieces of the same sprawling puzzle, slowly fitting together. Kohl's quite specific information on the transfusion business run out of the Humanplasma lab makes all the flat denials of implicated riders such as Boogerd, Menchov, and Rasmussen seem rather empty. Kohl's case proves that a doping ring was run from that lab and he was hardly the only rider involved. Perhaps it is only a matter of time before more of these riders are caught based on the growing web of evidence arising out of the Austrian crackdown linked to Kohl and his manager, the bio-passport data, and more retro-active testing.

Another issue this case raises is what role physiologists or trainers play in catching doping. In tests with the Dutch national team at various ages, and in other venues, Dekker was constantly heralded as a great talent based on his physiology and natural ability. So was he actually clean at those times, or were the testing values being manipulated by doping that all the power gurus and number crunchers were simply oblivious to? Was he really a great talent, or was he just good at using dope and fooling people? Should a good physiologist be able to tell by power numbers and other data when a rider starts and stops doping, or if he simply has impossibly good numbers? (Seems that Lim's experience with Landis says no?) Consider the fact that Rabobank was so desperate to keep the long-awaited new hope for Dutch cycling success on their team, that when Dekker said he was going to start working with Cecchini, they were actually afraid to tell him flatly that he was forbidden to do so. They wanted to keep him happy so he would stay on their team, such was the overwhelming perception of his vast talent. Yet, since Dekker stopped working with Cecchini, his performances have been intermittent at best, inexplicably terrible at worst (often blamed on his hip problem, which may be real, but is also rather convenient). So far this season, he has been strangely invisible in most races, hardly up to his old standards. Did he go clean? And if he is clean, where is all that great natural talent? Or was it just dope all along and all those drooling physiologists were just duped? LeMond has suggested that data from power output can be a way to detect doping. Yet, with known-doped riders whose power outputs and physiology have no doubt been recorded and studied in great detail, such as Dekker and Landis, it did not seem to have alerted anyone to doping until it was far, far too late...unless perhaps there was marked tendency toward willing suspension of disbelief? Heads in the sand? A refusal to be the one to discredit The Great Dutch Talent? Was Dekker so clever he could fool a raft of coaches, physiologists, and trainers? Or did they just not want to see the evidence right in front of them?

In other news, I was looking at Tour rosters and especially Cervelo's. It got me thinking...is it not a bit strange and even rather sad that the defending Tour de France winner does not even get a whole team devoted to his cause at this year's race? Look at the Cervelo roster and it is one of those lame mish-mash sprinter/GC teams like Lotto used to always be with Evans and McEwen. Half for Hushovd/Haussler and half for Sastre. I am afraid that poor long-suffering Sastre may find his chances of repeating as victor reduced by the lack of enough support riders specifically dedicated to his cause. If Hushovd ends up being in the running for the green jersey, it will even be worse. Cervelo is showing precious little faith in Sastre by hedging their bets in such a manner, especially after all those now-seemingly rather misleading early season claims that the Cervelo team would be built around Sastre. Not so much. If anyone can quietly persevere despite a lack of commitment from his team, it is the implacable and stubborn Sastre, whose amiable exterior masks an iron-willed tenacity, yet it gives me a bad impression of both the Cervelo management and sponsors that they are not willing to commit 100% of their team's resources to supporting the success of a deserving rider who has proven that he is capable of winning the Tour. If Sastre wins again, it will seem to be despite rather than because of his team's roster. Riders such as Haussler and Hushovd have already had their big chances for success this year, and have achieved it, so what would be the harm of Cervelo picking a Tour team where all nine riders were there for one reason only, to win the Tour. It must sting for Sastre to see his unfortunately hostile ouster from Saxo Bank and much heralded move to Cervelo go this way. He has so rarely had the chance to ride for himself on a team dedicated totally to his success. Last year he had to fend off the inter-team squabbling between himself and the Schlecks and the seeming ambivalence of Riis. Before that, he was often called on to ride support for dopers such as Basso, a rider who he apparently is better than when the playing field is rather more level. Now he is again given less than a clear shot at a Tour win and it just seems wrong. Without a single bad day in the mountains like he had at the Giro, and with a bit of luck and form, Sastre could win the Tour. If he does, Cervelo will have some very awkward PR scrambling to do to try to explain their tepid half-baked support of his success. People have heaped criticism on Cervelo's tactical bungling after the Pauwels incident at the Giro, yet it seems to me that this is hardly Cervelo's only glaring mistake this season. If Sastre crumbles at the Tour, I guess they will look smart, but it still would have been an honorable and decent thing to do to grant their greatest champion their full and complete commitment.

In other weirdness, I was on Myspace yesterday and there was this giant ad on the top of the page. A set of eyes peering at me (just like this ad from Youtube). I stared, taken aback. Could it be? No? A certain recognizable visage, with that tinge of arrogance and conceit. Yes, it was LA staring evilly at me from Myspace, part of the giant and loathsome Nike ad campaign. I can't escape it, even when engaged in totally non-cycling related endeavors, he's everywhere! This may be a long July....

Saturday update

New Kimmage article: "In the shadow of Mount Ventoux"

Good article on LeMond: "Even relentless fighter now sees cycling as a lost cause."

Lance shows his true colors and they are ugly.

British Cycling's Brian Cookson blogs.

New Kohl interview.

New Cancellara interview.

Garmin goes 1-2 at the Canadian TT champs. Nice!

Article on VandeVelde from 5280 Magazine.

Savio denies interest in Sella. Suggestion that he may be courted by Carmiooro A-Style. Ridiculously short ban for his offense.

JV on future of Garmin.

Columbia is already seemingly winning the neo-pro signing battle for next season: Patrick Gretsch, Rasmus Guldhammer (Riis must be gnashing his teeth!), Jan Ghyselinck, and TJ Van Garderen have all reportedly signed on the dotted line for Stapleton. Quite a big chunk of talent there. Question is who is leaving to make room?

Tales of the Tour of Colombia with a Rock Racing mechanic.

Garmin documentary Blood, Sweat, and Gears will be shown on the Sundance Channel on June 29 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. Wish I had that channel.

Interview with Sylvia Schenk on corruption in sport and what can be done about it (if anything).

"...those who say the Tour will never be free of drugs and their ramifications may well have a point."

Commentary on Second Coming from John Wilcockson, Richard Williams, Mike Grisenthwaite, Pierre Ballaster and David Millar.

Brailsford states that no one with a previous doping violation will be hired for the Sky team, and he will only hire British doctors who have never worked in cycling before to be team doctors. Guess that rules out Millar.

Selfishness vs teamwork

There are a lot of things I like about Garmin, but Julian Dean's bad attitude is not among them. After being offered many opportunities to ride for himself last year, and getting decidedly meager results, he now has been quite fairly asked to serve as a leadout man for Tyler Farrar at the Tour. In response, instead of showing some enthusiasm and dedication, he posts resentfully on his blog, "Unfortunately I'm not going to have the same freedom for myself as I did last year." In an article in the New Zealand Herald, he whines, "I won't have quite the same freedom as last year as my main goal will be the lead-out for Tyler. We are an American-owned team and Tyler is their real star for the future. He is the only rider to have beaten Mark Cavendish this year although it's only been once from 15 sprints against him." Note that he says "their rider" as if he's not even on the same team, and just has to point out the exact number of times that Farrar has lost to Cav. So supportive of his teammate. It is actually as if he thinks he's the better sprinter than Farrar and ought to be allowed to go on riding for himself, when his results simply do not support such a conclusion.

So, as many great riders on various teams find themselves sadly left at home as the Tour rosters are announced, a rider who is actually lucky enough to be going to Tour finds it worthwhile to complain about being asked to do an important job for his team, rather for riding for his own glory. His begrudging attitude is hardly what Garmin needs as they head into the Tour, and I find it a bad sign that one of their most senior and experienced riders (who should know better) goes around publicly making statements that undermine team unity. Let's just hope that this sort of attitude is not widely tolerated at Garmin. It is quite jarring to consider the gaping difference between Dean's attitude and the sort of eager, dedicated teamwork seen previously at the Tour from Columbia or Saxo Bank. People may laugh at Saxo's elaborate team-bonding camps, or make fun of Stapleton's constant plugging of his warm and fuzzy "all-for-one" team theme, but maybe there is some real value to actively fostering a certain team ethos. Seems like Garmin could use some that unity. There is a lot more to team success than just cleanliness, although that is the first hurdle.

I also wonder a bit if there is anyone in charge at Garmin who really calls riders to account when they behave badly, and demands that they toe the line when the s*** is hitting the fan. Anyone actively fostering the importance of teamwork in the way that Riis and Stapleton devote much effort to? After retiring from the team, Magnus Backstedt stated on Cycling.tv that he felt no one was really in charge at Garmin. As the Tour approaches, I hope he is wrong. Perhaps their response to Dean's statements will indicate the state of their leadership, or lack thereof. Let's just hope that Dean's less-than-total support for leading out Farrar will not cost the team a victory they dearly need.

Monday update

Steegmans has refused to sign Katusha's new contract clause that requires the rider to pay five times their salary if caught doping. (No link to article at CN, because I refuse to link to CN since they have ruined their site.) I agree with his refusal, which may sound odd, but Katusha is an absolutely classic example of a totally hypocritical team where the shady old-school management demand results and place enormous pressure on the riders to deliver, while at the same time pretending to be strictly anti-doping by announcing with much trumped-up PR drama this useless contract clause, which does nothing to actually support riders staying clean, and which likely no rider would ever actually pay anyway. (Just like no one has paid the UCI's anti-doping charter's one year salary penalty.) For evidence of how badly this team is run, just look at the sad situation of Kenny Dehaes who hated it so much he just left the team.

The Katusha management is giving out two totally contradictory messages. One says that the riders must deliver results according to expectation (and salary level) or they are publicly berated and openly threatened with being fired. Basically, win or else. (Colom and Pfannberger show exactly what you get with this backwards dark ages attitude.) At the same time they pretend to be anti-doping by putting forward this supposedly tough contract clause, where all the punishment falls very heavily only on the rider. Because, of course, the dictatorial and iron-fisted demands of the directors and the huge pressure of unrealistic sponsors never has anything at all to do with desperate riders giving in to temptation to dope, right? Please, Katusha, spare us the false proclamations of righteousness and just admit it, your contract clause is nothing but a big fat reminder to your riders that they sure as hell better be smart enough not to get caught while they are churning out all those great results required not to be tossed on the trash heap.

The other aspect of Steegmans' refusal that makes his actions understandable to me is that he has already found himself publicly criticized by his team for his lack of results this season. So you have a rider already very at odds with his team management. (Maybe he won't sign because he actually wants to get fired?) He is likely being paid a fairly hefty salary, which now Katusha may no longer want to keep paying. The team may want an excuse to get rid of him. If he did sign, how easy would it be for them to claim he failed an internal control or had strange blood values? Does the contract clause only apply to positive tests from a regular UCI or national doping test, or could they demand the salary penalty for an internal test or blood profile abnormality? Good excuse to get rid of him, while also theoretically making themselves look good by firing a presumed doper and earning themselves a large sum of money as well. Indeed, there are some who think that this is pretty much what happened to Vladimir Gusev. (Without the specifics of the CAS ruling, which is missing from the CAS website, this is impossible to verify.) Plus, it would hardly be the first time that a team had used doping as a way to get rid of an expensive rider who they no longer wanted on the team. The story has long circulated of a well-known Belgian team boss who told one of his riders in no uncertain terms to go home and "prepare" himself for a certain upcoming race. The rider, not being a fool, knew what that meant and did as he was told. The team boss then promptly sent an anonymous tip to the local police to raid the rider's house, where the police naturally found the rider's dope. End of contract. Perhaps when judging Steegmans, we should remember that anti-doping clauses can be used in rare cases by unscrupulous teams as under-handed ways to get their way in rider disputes. (Rumors also exist that few rides dare to publicly cross the UCI due to the strange tendency for critics to suddenly find UCI testers knocking on their door with an odd frequency.) Of course, some people probably think that Steegmans refused to sign the clause because he is a doper and knows he might get caught, which is also certainly entirely possible. However, be that as it may, I doubt it is that simple, and regardless it does not excuse the blatantly two-faced hypocrisy of Katusha's management, which epitomizes the worst ways in which teams actually foment doping within their ranks while pretending to want to prevent it.

In other news, do you regularly view the videos posted via the Second Coming's twitter? Did you notice that all these videos are posted at Livestrong.COM? This means that every time you go watch that video you are directly contributing to pageviews and ad revenue which is fattening LA's wallet. Livestrong.com is a for-profit website run by Demand Media and features plenty of ads. Livestrong.ORG is a separate site, yet few people seem to realize this. Whenever you see LA riding around in his Livestrong kit, people assume that he is using this to raise awareness for his anti-cancer campaign. Yet Livestrong is also the name of his for-profit website. So that kit is also one big advertisement driving people to Livestrong.com where they are earning revenue for LA. So next time you see the Livestrong logo plastered everywhere, ask yourself, does this really have everything to do with cancer, or is he advertising for his for-profit website and earning ad revenue under the banner of fighting cancer? You might also reconsider the whole point of all those videos. Each time he posts one, the traffic to that page of Livestrong.com must go through the roof. Pageviews equal money. He just refuses to speak to the media, creates his own videos, drives traffic to his site to earn money. But the comeback is all about preventing cancer.

On another topic, Cyclingnews, in all their wisdom, recently managed to enrage almost their entire reading audience by redesigning their site into a sort of clunky, slow clone of Bike Radar. Just read the feedback in their forum, where there is a veritable virtual riot going on, complete with flip-outs by their own staff who are clearly fed up with being subjected to severe reader criticism. Despite the critics, it seems that CN is refusing to alter the redesign for the most part, so here are a few alternative ideas for the fed up (besides the very obvious ones like Velonews and Pez):

Cycling Weekly: British site with news, analysis, and commentary. (They also recently redesigned their site but it is rather less egregious than CN, although a bit buggy at times.)

Cycling Quotient: for complete race results, detailed rider and team info. (According to their twitter, their traffic numbers have already increased a lot since the CN redesign.)

Cycling Fever: great for rider & DS interviews

SBS Cycling Central: Australian TV cycling page with news RSS feed and videos, lots on Aussie riders.

Eurosport Cycling: cycling news with RSS feed

Feltet.dk: Absolutely stellar cycling news site from Denmark with RSS feed. OK, it is in Danish which is a challenge, but for ease of use, utilize the built-in Google auto-translation in Google Reader.

Tuttobiciweb: Italian site with great news feed. Covers all the Italian polemica.

L'Equipe Cycling: Well it is in French but this is essential.

Le Monde: Read any articles their journalist Stéphane Mandard writes on cycling.

I could go on all night as I have way too many such sites listed in my RSS reader. Suffice to say that there are tons of alternative to CN, so no one should feel required to wade through their new design if they don't like it.

Doubt

I should just stop reading so much. The more you read, the more cynical you become. Like quicksand. The harder you struggle to understand, the less hope you have of ever understanding. Dueling doping experts who can't even seem to agree on fundamental scientific issues. An endless parade of shifty-eyed riders whose denials range from teasingly plausible to absurdly fantastical. Illusory hopes of semi-certainty repeatedly crushed under new cascades of doubt. Rumors piled upon speculation built on a rotting foundation of betrayed trust. Half-formed, flimsy explanations glued together with arrogance and officious self-congratulation. Just trust us? Please. And that goes equally for both sides.

Cycling as a sport may not hold a monopoly on smooth-talking, suspicious enigmas whose prodigious charisma somehow is permitted to obscure their mercenary ways (see tennis), yet we do seem to reign sadly supreme when it comes to the sheer volume of confounding controversy and ambiguity over issues of doping and anti-doping. I need a magic decoder ring, because I possess no ability to make sense of the morass of contradictory rhetoric. Kohl might be right, or he might just be a self-serving liar who is making up a bunch of good stories to make himself feel better. Gripper might be telling the truth, or she might just prefer to be employed rather than unemployed. McQuaid might be right to praise the bio-passport, or he might just be trying to make himself appear so very virtuous in the eyes of the imperial IOC, whose recurring distaste for cycling's filth is well-known. I might be right to think catching 5 minnows in a sea of sharks is hardly worth crowing over, or I might just be another miserable whiner polluting the interwebs with my useless opinion.

Meanwhile a number of notably dark clouds loom on the horizon, perhaps awaiting the media frenzy of the Tour to begin pouring more rain upon any hopes for a semi-syringe-free past or future. Samples from the 2008 Giro are being retro-actively tested after they were seized by Italian police. That could be scary or great or just plain pathetic (I vote pathetic, especially for whatever shreds remain of the CSF Navigare desperadoes). CONI supposedly has other riders in the crosshairs beyond just poor persecuted Valv.Piti (CAS, here we come, again). Next in line may be Amigo de Birillo or Luigi. (Cue image of Bjarne Riis wearing his familiar tormented martyr expression and guzzling hard liquor.) Too bad that Amigo de Birillo is rather closely related to Riis's mother lode, the golden boy also known as Hermano de Amigo de Birillo. Wonder if Golden Boy ever was tempted to donate funds to an unknown, unnamed person for undelivered training plans? IQ, or lack there-of, does tend to run in families, does it not? Oh wait, is Golden Boy a favorite for the Tour? He is? I should quit asking such inconvenient questions. Damn miserable whiner. Then there is Luigi, whose actual identity is a sort of non-mystery mystery. Two illustrious riders are said to vie for the prize of bearing this coveted nickname, with the winner being granted two years to cry in their red wine (Italian or Swiss) and proclaim their innocence against unjust persecution. (Piti has taught them all well.)

In other happy news, results of your standard, run-of-the-mill dope tests from the Giro could arrive at any time, or not, who knows. Judging by the approximate quality of the final podium's doping skills, the doping doctors may just have won this round. Unofficial score: Santuccione/Humanplasma 1 - fans 0. CONI seemed strangely absent from the Giro this year, with a notable lack of any unexpected evening tests, which in the past found several adult riders to actually be toddlers in disguise, at least according to their steroid levels. No wonder they throw so many tantrums when someone eats the last of their muesli. Perhaps Ettore Torri has simply tired of being subjected to the eye-bleeding fashion disasters that Italian riders insist on wearing to doping hearings for some unfathomably Italian reason. "I may be a cheat and a fraud, but the important thing is that I dress well." Priorities are priorities. Because we all know that a stunningly expensive watch and the right sunglasses outweigh any misdeed.

In other news, latest issue of Procycling has an excerpt from Cocky Cav's rather premature life story Boy Racer, in which he relates a horror story about an incompetent ACE tester mangling his arm with a large needle while searching for a vein during the Tour last year. Boy Wonder was so angry and traumatized over the tester's painful flubbing that he refused to be tested by ACE ever again. That's right. No more tests for the remainder of the season. The vaunted ACE, subject of so many column inches of PR hype for the "clean teams", now seems to have left some rather conspicuously gaping holes in their testing procedures and protocols. If riders can just opt out, what is the point anyway? More doubt. Seems ACE's demise was hardly mourned by the Columbia crew, and why should they? If ACE couldn't even find qualified staff to handle their testing, then what does that say about the professionalism of their entire organization? Doubt.

I almost forgot to mention that World War III, the pro-cycling version of mutually assured destruction, is now set to explode sometime in 2010, as Trek (aka LA's puppets) takes on LeMond in a potentially no-holds-barred trial, which could in theory drag a huge amount of very dirty laundry out into the glare of the media spotlight. You think the SCA case brought about some serious revelations, just wait. Some people think this case will be settled long before trial to avoid damaging testimony that could hinder the Second Coming's political aspirations (gag), while others think that Trek and LeMond will fight to the bloody death, side-effects and lawyers' fees be damned. Regardless of who wins any eventual trial, the potential stakes for LA are huge.

Stay tuned for more semi-coherent rambling from the addled post-Twitter-withdrawal version of CFA, who has given up reading Cycling News and just reads Bike Radar instead, since they are the same damn thing anyway.

Days or weeks...

NYT: Cycling to Use Blood Profiles in Doping Case by Juliet Macur

"Mr. McQuaid would not say how many cases were being prepared or how many athletes were involved, adding that it may be one or three or six riders. He said the doping actions would begin in 'the coming days and weeks.'"

Days or weeks...let's hope he means it this time.

In the meantime...

http://twitter.com/cyclingfansanon

Tuesday non-update

I've started to think that there is no point in updating this blog until the UCI announces the results of the bio-passport. So it may be a long wait...next week, next decade, never? Enjoy the season if you can, such as it is.

Comments are closed.

Friday update

The strange contradictions of having Amgen sponsor a race.

Sam Abt finds better things to write about than pro cycling. I don't blame him.

TDWSport has a sequence of photos showing Armstrong shoving and knocking over a fan (dressed as a yellow devil) who was wearing a cape with the slogan "Live Clean" on it, and who was carrying a pitchfork fashioned of syringes. Read the first comment on this blog entry to get the Yellow Devil's own point of view.

How comforting to know that our current reigning Olympic gold medalist is fully supportive of dopers. First Bettini, now Sanchez....some things never change. Those Olympic rings sure are strangely tarnished.

The yellow chalk is getting a little annoying at the ToC, as riders and spectators might prefer to actually be able to see and breathe in the finishing straight, rather then be choked and squinting through a giant cloud of yellow dust. As Team Type 1 rider Chris Jones said, "You couldn’t see and you couldn’t breathe the last three kilometers. It was like riding in a yellow fog....I heard the guys from the city complaining about the chalk on the road and how it’s going to take a lot of time to clean it all up."

Scott Nydam, in his own words. Lots of crashes at the ToC, it was like attack of the killer rain capes, with Nydam, Freire, and Kirchen all taken out by very unfortunate mishaps involving jackets. There is a truly terrible photo of Nydam's accident at Graham Watson's site. Makes me shudder. Glad to hear he is more or less alright.

ToC blog by CW's Simon Richardson, providing a rather funny alternate viewpoint on the race.

Blog from Jelly Belly's Phil Gaimon, providing a good-humored and welcome dose of refreshing humility and reality on surviving in the back end of the peloton.

Liquigas's Brian Vandborg calls his days in ToC "brutal" and faces asthma problems.

Nice tatoo.

Astana's Chris Horner has been blogging on the ToC for the Oregonian.

Basso surprised everyone by DNSing the ToC time trial due to hitting his knee on his handlebars earlier in the day. Seems that he had some sort of problem with his chain that caused him to unclip suddenly, and his knee was injured enough to make him abandon.

What passes for "journalism" at Gazzetta. If you are going to interview Di Luca, there are real questions to be asked.

Something is truly askew in the universe when even the Village Voice is writing about Armstrong.

"To cover with accuracy and honesty Armstrong’s comeback to professional cycling this year is one of the hardest stories in sport. There are many who simply do not try. Kimmage can never be accused of that."

Daniel Martin interview.

The sad tale of Scarponi.

Dr. Evil, still finding clueless new recruits to his army of darkness.

The Science of Sport blog writers dare to express an opinion on the Kimmage vs His Royal Highness incident, and find themselves besieged by apoplectic commenters. I can sympathize, as I just had to close all comments on my previous Kimmage post, exhausted as I was by the legions of Livestrong fans showering me with their hatred and bile for having expressed my support for Kimmage's anti-doping stance. Really, god forbid that I oppose doping in cycling!? My views on this topic are perfectly summed up by the eloquent letter sent to VeloNews by Charles Howe. Bravo Mr. Howe. And you better believe more than a few people are waiting with great anticipation for Kimmage's next upcoming article, where it seems likely that he will have a lot to say. Keep an eye out at the London Times come Sunday.

Graham Watson is a loyal company man, and it is unheard of for him to criticize anything to do with Astana, so it was with surprise that I read his criticism of the motorcycle crash incident involving none other than Liz Kreutz, official photographer of the Second Coming.

Sean Yates blogging from ToC.

I am trying to go easy on the Versus ToC coverage, because I know that it is not the best idea to bite the hand that feeds you, so to speak, but I can't keep quiet any longer. I HATE CRAIG HUMMER!! Dear god, please spare me one more second of his inanity, his total cluelessness, his intolerable ponderous intonation, his incredibly irritating booming pep-rally tone of voice that sounds like a cross between a loud used car salesman and Zeus pronouncing judgement on the pitiful mortals from the mountaintop of the gods. I can't take it. I just can't. Has anyone ever suggested to him that he just try talking in a normal, calm tone of voice, that he not try to make his every dumb comment sound like a holy oracle gifting his followers with momentous morsels of perfect wisdom on the meaning of life? I think Paul and Phil must just sit there silently moaning and wincing under the Hummer onslaught, wishing they had giant earplugs to drown out the infernal stream of nonsense that pours out of his mouth. And then today...today I wanted to reach into the TV and strangle Mr. Hummer, when he made totally uncalled for and totally uninformed derogatory comments about Svein Tuft. That was too much. And then, you really don't want to get me started on those bizarre segments with the comedian lady....whoever thought up that idea must have been high or something. Has it ever occurred to Versus that cycling fans tune in to see the race? THE RACE! Not stupid segments with comedians, or eons-long gag-worthy worship-fests on His Royal Highness's saintliness, not features on Specialized's latest damn cycling shoes, but THE RACE! Please Versus, more race, no Hummer, and all will be well. (And just thank god for the Tour Tracker, where it is all race all the time, and Frankie commentates without talking down to the fans.)

Great to see Peterson doing so well for Garmin (some confidence he's got, eh? check out his blog), and to see Z back riding well after his injury last season. Of course, I really wanted Z to win the time trial, but he still did a great ride to get second. I just hope that in the final two stages all the teams throw absolutely everything they have at Astana, and don't let them walk off with the victory without a hard fight. Gesink for one needs to try something big on Palomar. Also, I have a question...why exactly did Cavendish point at his crotch when he won the stage into Paso Robles? Is this some sort of new-fangled victory salute specially designed to annoy those of us who already have a serious aversion to the "too-much-information" aspect of the dreaded white cycling shorts? Or what? You've got poor Stapleton doing the interview rounds on Versus trying to talk down the idea that Cavendish is arrogant and full of himself, then Cavendish wins and proceeds to frame his crotch proudly for the world's camera? Someone has suggested that his new nickname should be Isle of Manhood...

In rumor-mill news, it seems that many people think the whole stolen TT bike episode was actually a manufactured publicity stunt organized by Trek to gain media attention for their bikes. If so, it sure as hell worked, considering the insane number of column inches that have been wasted on this story so far.

Pretty strange to see that spat between Cunego and Basso over the idea of transparency. Cunego seems to forget that he rides for Lampre, a team which produces positive tests with such plodding regularity that I bet their press officer must keep a re-usable template for the usual "shocked and surprised" press release always at hand. But Cunego wears a doping-free temporary tatoo, so really, he must be clean and therefore has every right to chastise (ex?)dopers on other teams, even if he conveniently forgets about the dopers right under his nose on his own team.

As for Valverde and Schumacher, their lies are so obvious and pointless, I cannot imagine how they can even delude themselves into thinking that anyone believes them. Torri isn't giving up, and Valverde will hopefully get his due, along with the other Puerto dopers whose cases may come next (the Saxo Bank fans tremble...). It is a very sad commentary on the Spanish justice system that they keep right on blatantly trying to protect Valverde and obstruct justice. Serrano doesn't seem to care that he is making himself a total laughing-stock, and neither does Valv.Piti himself.

Anyone heard from Anne Gripper? Bio-passport? Hello? Anyone out there, or should we just expect to wait until the next Ice Age is over for any sanctions? Has a black hole swallowed the data? A freak storm cut power for the UCI press service? An empty echo chamber replaced the UCI headquarters?

Questions

For Travis Tygart:

If CONI can pursue a case to ban Valverde over his Puerto involvement, why doesn't USADA pursue cases against Mancebo, Gutierrez, Sevilla, and Hamilton? You can get blood samples of all these riders while they ride in California, and the Puerto bloodbags are seemingly now available for request. Mancebo is making a joke out of the Tour of California, so why don't you stop him? If CONI can do it, why can't you?

For the Saxo Bank team doctor:

Was Cancellara really sick?

For Frank Schleck:

Would you like to invest all your savings in my very profitable Ponzi scheme?

For Mancebo:

What are you on?

Sunday update

ToC was total mayhem today due to the atrocious weather, and I felt sorry for all the riders suffering in that cold. Big-time chaos on the road, as no one seemed to know the time gaps, or who was in what group, or even the basics of what was happening in the race. Frankie Andreu was attempting to commentate on the Tour Tracker, and was pulling his hair out in total frustration as they had no video, seemingly no accurate race radio much of the time, and were just trying to talk about anything and everything to fill the time. Johan Bruyneel was also losing his temper in the team car, taking the ToC race radio to task, because he had no accurate info on who was in the front chase group and who wasn't. I am not sure that the eventual sketchy reports of who was in that front group of favorites were totally accurate either, so we will have to wait for the official results later to gauge the extent of the carnage.

As for Mancebo, he's not part of the bio-passport, and he's a known Puerto doper, so his "win" means nothing at all to me. Rock can preen and crow all they like, but an empty victory by an unrepentant doper is hardly something to be all joyful about. Sometimes the ends do not justify the means. And the anarchy symbol on the Rock jersey has to be the lamest and most inappropriate appropriation of a supposed counter-culture symbol for commercialized marketing purposes ever. Although I would admit that anarchy is a fairly good description of the state of pro cycling at the moment. With the Italians taking on the prosecution of a Spanish doping scandal, the UCI bio-passport stalled somewhere in mystery-limbo-land (free Anne Gripper!!), Damsgaard-run anti-doping programs at Saxo and Astana on the chopping block of oh-so-convenient expediency, Madame Amaury chasing profits over truth at L'Equipe and ASO, and the Second Coming's groundswell of vituperative nastiness threatening to drown us all in a tidal wave of sewage.....well, you get the idea. And the next person who mentions the damn word "transparency" should be sentenced to 24 hours straight locked in a room with nothing to do but read Basso's twitter. I go to sleep...I get massage...I eat dinner...I go to race...I go to sleep...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....I die of boredom. I tell you, the only twitters actually worth reading are the many Fake Floyds and a certain cycling reporter who shall go unnamed to save him from being ex-communicated by the Second Coming.

Meanwhile, if the latest El Periodico article can be trusted, CONI seems poised to deal the sport a few new crushing body blows. CONI is said to have 42 of the Puerto bloodbags and is working on the DNA matches, testing against samples from the Tour, Giro, and (the Italian fans tremble in horror...) the World Championships as well. The article specifically states that CONI is proceeding with 4 additional cases beyond Valverde, and makes special mention of an unnamed star rider who has worn the yellow jersey. Hmmm, so hard to guess who that might be...really, help me out, it is just too puzzling? OK, OK, so maybe it isn't Frank, lots of guys have worn the yellow jersey over the years, right?

Steroid Nation lays it on the line, talking about the Kimmage vs Armstrong incident: "Pro cycling will never rid itself of doping...while the cycling mafia controls the enterprise (and rooms like this). Cycling fans and various groupies will adorn Armstrong with attention. Pro cycling will ignore doping, to the detriment of the fairness of the sport. Denial is a powerful force. Death and disability from doping is powerful too. Remember, doping kills -- just like cancer."

Poor Garmin, mechanical incidents and problems with the UCI TT bike rules are haunting their time trials lately...with the latest victim being Peterson with a flat at the ToC. Maybe one of these would be worth getting?

Why do I blather on and on, when others manage to say it all in a few concise sentences? Er...don't answer that.

Svein Tuft interview.

Toto, will you be my Valentine?

Friday update

Phew, things have taken an ugly turn, and the race hasn't even started yet. You wouldn't believe the level of anger in the emails and comments flying around the interwebs these days. Or, actually, you probably would if you've followed cycling for any length of time. There really are people out there who fully believe that if you are anti-Lance, then you are by default also pro-cancer and a Very Bad Person who deserves to be drawn and quartered, slowly. In exchange, I guess this means that I am now allowed to believe that the next person who criticizes me or this blog is pro-doping and sincerely wants every single athlete to be injecting enough EPO every night to turn their blood to sludge. Sorry, but without me getting a lobotomy that non-logic ain't happening. Call me crazy, but I think that many cycling fans are in fact both anti-cancer and anti-doping, and that being one is not mutually exclusive of the other.


This article in El Periodico claims that the CONI anti-doping lab in Rome now has possession of the Puerto bloodbags and is comparing their DNA with CONI samples taken from riders at multiple Italian races including the Giro and the Tour stage to Prato Nevoso. While Spanish judge Antonio Serrano had previously steadfastly refused to release the blood to pretty much anyone including the CAS, it seems that when Serrano went on vacation around Christmas, a substitute judge who received an official legal request for the blood from the Italian officials went ahead and approved sending it. Just like that, Serrano's years of infuriating stonewalling were neatly side-stepped by the substitute judge. If this is really true...wow, Serrano and all the athletes he was protecting surely must be cursing his decision to take that potentially fateful vacation. The real question now is whether CONI will be able to find more DNA matches beyond just Valverde. Valverde's involvement has been widely known for ages, so the bigger blow for the sport will be if other well-known riders are also suddenly exposed as blood dopers. I would bet that there are some nervous riders at the ToC right about now. It is also notable that blood taken from tests at the Giro is also potentially being compared to the Puerto blood, as this may expand the number of riders under threat. You really have to give CONI and Ettore Torri credit for their recent success in banning many dopers in the huge Oil for Drugs case and now taking on Puerto. While questions remain about potential jurisdictional issues in CONI's investigation, there is now at least some shred of hope that CONI's actions may serve to break open the Puerto case's long-shrouded secrets once and for all.

Bonnie Ford parses the nuances of the latest Lance drama, and finds little but confusion.

Paul Kimmage video interview with Canadian Cyclist.

Mark Zeigler provides an in-depth survey of Landis' recent past and provides the first information I have seen anywhere about the payment of the $100,000 fine to USADA.

James Raia headlines his latest blog post "Tour of California torment."

Juliet Macur doesn't back down.

The weather forecasts in California sound dreadful, and I just hope that the riders' safety will be given the first priority.

Thursday update

Kimmage vs Armstrong. I bet Kimmage was the only guy in that room with the balls to ask that sort of question. Good for him.

Millar on the end of the no-go Catlin program: "Naive."

Lionel Birnie deftly dismantles Armstrong's empty promises of transparency.

Details of the CONI case vs Valverde. Seems like F. Schleck may be next in line to go. Other Saxo riders were also tested at that Tour stage, so more could possibly be under the gun. I am especially interested to see if they match the Luigi blood bag to anyone. Now that would set fire to the sport.

Austin Murphy on the power of confession.

Seems that Beltran's ban may soon be in place after all.

WADA has suddenly dropped their CAS appeal of Sella's short ban, and it is suggested this is due to WADA's gratitude toward CONI for taking on the Operacion Puerto case of Valverde. So Sella gets off easy while Valverde is nailed. Fair?

Doctor Andreas Zoubek sued the Kurier newspaper for writing articles about him allegedly selling doping products, but a judge ruled against him. Zoubek claims to have lost his job and basically had his life ruined. Yeah, getting involved in doping has a tendency to do that...too bad more people don't bother to worry about that before they take the plunge into the dark side. No word on whether Zoubek was actually involved in the Kohl CERA case, as the Kurier had previously suggested. Kohl refused to name his supplier.

The be-all-and-end-all of epic interviews with Allen Lim.

Multi-stage winner Gavazzi in Langkawi has a comeback story of his own. Can't be the greatest situation for a former addict to be riding on Savio's team, can it?

I've heard lately that a recent trend among certain sprinters is to use sublingual isosorbide in the last few kilometers of a race. This drug, known as Carvasin in Italy, is a vasodilator which is currently fully legal to use according to WADA guidelines. It is rumored to be in use in a current race, but hey, if it is legal, who cares, right?

Sometimes I feel sorry for non-cycling reporters who just don't have a clue what they are up against, and who get conned by the smooth scam artists of the sport without even realizing it.

OUCH says that Landis is OK despite a crash in training today that left him ominously absent from the ToC press conference. Hmm, hope he didn't land on the bionic hip. Must come in handy sometimes to have your sponsor be a medical center.

Mr. Adorable almost moos in delight after winning one for the cow team. Maybe he just wanted to set me straight about the whole lactose intolerance issue? Even better, look who's in second.

On the Garmin twitter, Vaughters was fuming over some sort of unnamed problem at the start of the TTT at the Tour of the Med, where they came in second. According to later comments at the Garmin website, it seems that Ryder Hesjedal had a mechanical problem at the start that resulted in him being delayed and actually having to ride the whole TTT by himself behind the other guys. Hesjedal finished at 1:59 down.

I am getting a little worried about the ToC weather. Sounds like it could be a death march of cold rain, even snow and ice. Sounds bad for all involved, and worse for the image of the race.

CONI links Valverde to Puerto

Gazzetta: Il Coni inchioda Valverde "Quel sangue è suo"