The Cycliste Moderne, October 31, 2005

Tour de France Announcement

Thursday was the launch of the Tour de France with the presentation in Paris. Next year’s Tour will follow a fairly traditional route. The Tour will pass through Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain as the race makes the counterclockwise trip around France.

The Tour’s homage to the Spring Classics continues with trips to Valkenburg in the Netherlands (the finish of the Amstel Gold Race) and Huy in Belgium (the finish of the Fleche Wallone). The mountain stages have some of the classic climbs of Tours past. Stage 11’s finish in Spain comes only after passing over some of the most famous climbs in the Pyrenees: the Col du Tourmalet, Col d'Aspin, Col de Peyresourde, and Col du Portillon. The first stage in the Alps finishes on the slopes of the L’Alpe d’Huez. The next stage crosses the Col du Galibier before going over the Col de la Croix-de-Fer. The Tour will include two individual time trials of 52km and 55km.

The big change in the Tour de France this year is the elimination of the Team Time Trial from the route. The event had returned to the Tour in 2000, having been part of the Tour off and on over the years after being removed from the Tour in the early 1990’s. Clearly Lance Armstrong and his team have been the dominant team in the team time trial over the last three years.

Next year’s Tour should be exciting if you are actually able to watch it.

Tour de France Announcement Part Deux

The actual announcement of the Tour, however, only came after the Tour’s organizers made a lengthy presentation on the problems of drugs in cycling. The organizers made no reference to Armstrong’s past seven victories other than to say they were closing a “very long chapter” in the Tour’s history. The Tour organizers appeared to be in a time warp. From the content of the Tour announcement, you would have thought that nothing had been done to address doping in cycling or that anything had happened since the Festina scandal.

In fact, the video montage displayed by Tour organizers conspicuously lacked any references to Armstrong, causing you to wonder if the Tour had not happened since 1998. Many of the team directors in attendance were critical of the approach taken by Tour organizers. Johann Bruyneel, director of Discover Channel, was highly critical of the snubbing and criticism of Armstrong’s legacy.

Clearly the Tour is glad to have Lance gone.

Media and Cycling

This week I was faced with a significant dilemma in my consumption of television. Dish Network and Comcast are engaged in a bitter broadcast dispute which resulted in Dish removing OLNTV from its satellite system. Dish has advised viewers that they can watch the Outdoor Network instead of OLNTV.

Dish has in the past cut off networks in fee and broadcast disputes. When they cut off channels my kids watched for a few days, I did not really care. However, when OLNTV got cut off I sent Dish an e-mail indicating that when my cable system got rid of OLNTV, they told me that I could watch the Outdoor Network instead which caused me to go and get satellite. Guess how Dish responded? They told me I could watch the Outdoor Network instead of OLNTV.

I guess I will be moving to DirecTV come March when OLNTV’s spring cycling schedule starts. Oh, the occupational hazards of running a cycling media company and blogging on the status of European cycling. I am really torn, however, because DirecTV does not have RTPi, which I get so I can watch the Portuguese Superliga Saturday Match of the Week, as well as “Top Mais” the Saturday morning Portuguese music show.

Media and Cycling Part Deux

If you did not stay up and watch Lance Armstrong host Saturday Night Live, you did not miss much. Lance took the expected shots at the French and their treatment of him. Of course, they started with the requisite urinalysis jokes, cycling jokes and Sheryl Crow jokes. The monologue was the highpoint of the show. Armstrong clearly ought to race bikes and do commentary because comedy is probably not going to be his next career.

Happy Halloween

Though this is the least favorite of the Cycliste Moderne’s holidays, this Halloween has shown that we have succeeded in brainwashing our son. Our nine-year-old is trick-or-treating as a cyclist. We call it simply “going for a ride.” He is bemoaning the fact that he does not have a pair of cycling tights. He is even wearing a musette for his treat bag. He will look quite authentic begging for candy alongside a cheerleader and a bunny.

Cycliste Moderne Hiatus

The Cycliste Moderne will take a hiatus over the next couple of weeks as we make our annual pilgrimage to the Netherlands to buy cycling art and memorabilia. We are going to visit cycling museums in Roeselaere and Oudenaarde, Belgium as well as Nijmegen in the Netherlands. We will be sure to give you a complete travelogue when we return.

The Cycliste Moderne, October 24, 2005

Well, the ProTour season has reached its end. We are now at the beginning of the cyclocross season in the US and Europe and the racing season is ramping up in Australia. But that does not mean there is not anything to talk about? No. There is a lot.

Why would you steal that?

Police in the Netherlands are on the lookout for a stolen team Rabobank vehicle. Last week sometime somebody stole a Rabobank team station wagon. Now, cycling teams are frequently the victims of theft of equipment. But why you would steal a Rabobank team vehicle defies logic.

It is not like an orange and blue station wagon with Rabobank plastered on the sides is not conspicuous enough. No, it probably also has racks for 20 bikes on top. Clearly somebody had a little too much fun on a Saturday night. What is more amazing is the fact that they evidently have not found the car yet.

So, in the interest of helping our Dutch friends out, we encourage all readers of the Cycliste Moderne to be on the lookout for a car that looks like this.

Doesn't the UN have Better Things To Do?

This week UNESCO, or the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, declared war on doping by introducing the International Convention against Doping in Sport or ICDS in UNSpeak. The ICSD would not displace WADA or the IOC and would only be binding on those countries that actually sign it. Why the UN thinks it needs to interject itself into the doping debate when you have sports federations, national antidoping agencies, WADA, and the IOC all involved in the fight and fighting amongst themselves is beyond me.

If you want significant discussion about the virtues of the United Nations with a slightly John Birch slant together with the liberal appologists for the organization, go read the letters to Velonews.com last week. No, what you are going to get here transcends politics. It goes to the fundamental problem with the United Nations. The United Nations generally and UNESCO specifically are incompetent and utterly incapable of undertaking the actions that they pursue.

The UN has failed miserably and repeatedly in its attempts to lead anything. It has failed to stop genocide in the Balkans, Ruwanda, and Dafur even though it has had a presence in those regions. It failed to adequately monitor Iraqi oil sales due to graft and corruption in the entity. UN member states spend years talking about problems that do not exist while ignoring very real atrocities that the organization was intended to stop.

In light of what we have learned from Congressional hearings regarding governmental response to Hurricane Katrina, it is evident that Louisiana Governor Blanco, New Orleans Mayor Nagin and Former FEMA Director Brown all have careers ahead of them at the UN and its various entities as they all exhibit the strength of character and moral leadership that is typically only reserved for leadership at the United Nations.

For those fearful of black helicopters and world government, I can only tell you that you obviously have not been paying close enough attention to what really goes on in the world. Experience has shown that the United Nations is utterly incapable of organizing anything complex or sophisticated. So, I do not expect the United Nations foray into drugs in sport to have any more effect than the United Nation's attempts to bring peace and justice to the world.

Cool Bikes

Just to direct you to a site from our bike friends at Cycles Gaansari, they have launched a new line of single speed bikes under the Skidstrong brand. Way cool. Check them out.

The Cycliste Moderne, October 17, 2005

End of Season

Saturday was the Giro di Lombardia, which is also known as "the race of the falling leaves." Traditionally the last event on the European calendar, the race in northern Italy favors strong riders who can climb. Paolo Bettini fits both categories and as a result won the race. With the rise of the ProTour, Lombardia does in fact represent the last race of the season where ProTour points can be earned. Danilo Di Luca had wrapped up the individual title the week before as CSC had done with the team title. No one is quite sure what that gets you, but both hadcommendable seasons.

Amazingly, the second placed country in the ProTour behind Italy was the United States. The ProTour's national standings are based upon the aggregate ranking of riders of each nationality. The United States had four riders in the top 10 in the individual ProTour standings. Not suprisingly, those four – Armstrong, Leipheimer, Julich and Hincapie – accounted for 529 out of the United States' 559 ProTour points. Even without Armstrong, the season long performances of Leipheimer, Julich and Hincapie alone would have netted the Americans 5th place in the ProTour Nations standings ahead of such cycling powers as Belgium, Netherlands and France.

The ProTour remains at odds with the Grand Tours and it has adversely affected smaller races throughout Europe. ProTour officials are expected to announce changes to the points system it employs to provide greater rewards for stage wins than had been provided this year. However, all in all, the first year of the ProTour undeniably raised the level of racing at the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de Suisse, the Deutschland Tour and Paris-Nice. The Vuelta a Espana was largely uneffected due to its position at the end of the season.

Fassa Bortolo Aftermath

Fassa Bortolo was the only team on a one year ProTour license. The rest were on 2-4 year licenses. Fassa Bortolo, an Italian cement and construction materials supplier, had signed on to support the team only through the end of the 2005 season. Many of Fassa Bortolo's best ridershad agreed to follow Alessandro Pettacchi to the new Milram team which was just the rebranding of the smaller, albeit ProTour team, Domina Vacanze.Then around the start of the Tour of Spain, rumors began to circulate that team management had a long term big budget deal worked out to keep the team together. There was speculation that the new team would keep Fassa Bortolo's ProTour spot. Team management began to sign riders such as Gilberto Simoni and Stuart O'Grady. They even announced the sponsor would be Sony-Ericsson and had committed to the team until 2011.

Then things unraveled this week. It turns out that team management was not dealing with a representative of Sony-Ericsson with authority to make the agreement. The various press reports are still kind of sketchy as to whether team management was working with an agent who represented the existence of a deal with Sony-Ericsson or with local Italian Sony-Ericsson representatives. Regardless, Sony-Ericsson issued a press release denying it had entered into an agreement to sponsor a cycling team and stated that it was not interested in sponsoring a cycling team. The riders are now scrambling to find rides.

There have always been teams that fold halfway through a season, like the Le Groupement team in the early 1990's and the collapse of Mercury-Viatel team when Viatel filed for bankruptcy and the team did not get a wild card to the Tour de France. More troubling however are the stillborn teams where there appeared to be little or no financial backing at all for the team. From the 2001 collapse of Linda McCartney team, to the ghost US domestic team Noble House in 2001 and Italian team Stayer in 2004, it is apparent that every year there are team managers that are willfully blind to the lack of an actual sponsorship agreement or blissfully naive enough to believe that meeting with a guy who is meeting with a guy who knows somebody who wants to fund the team constitutes an actual agreement.

Invariably, good riders are left in the wake of such failed teams. Max Sciandri and Kevin Livingston had signed with Linda McCartney, Marty Jemison had signed for Noble House and Giovanni Lombardi had signed with Stayer. All were left without rides. All had enough experience in the peleton that they should have known that the teams were either doomed tocollapse or that they were in fact ghost teams. But if you race bikes, then you have a great willingness to accept physical and financial risks anyway.

And now for something completely different . . .

To keep myself proficient in Portuguese, I have RTPi, the international station operated by Radio Televisao Portugues. It is difficult to watch TV in a foreign language when you have a wife and kids who don't speak the language, so in a familial compromise, I can sometimes get away with watching Top Mais, the Portuguese music countdown show, on Saturday mornings. My kids like it because they sometimes play videos from American artists, my wife likes it because of its global musical orientation, and I like it because the dialog is fairly simple.

After returning from coaching my son's soccer team early on Saturday, I was surprised to find that my wife had recorded Saturday's edition. I generally only watch it if I have time and expected to miss it. My wife and daughter were excited to share with me the extensive use of bicycles in Saturday's edition of Top Mais. Evidently Franz Ferdinand's new video makes use of bicycles as kinetic art. Don't know, have not seen it. But my wife was thrilled to share with me a video by some Eurochantuse, Kate Melua (whom I have never heard of), for the song "Nine Million Bicycles." Now, there are not nine million bicycles in the video but there are in Beijing. I do not think that Cyclista.com will start offering Ms. Melua's album, which is entitled "Piece by Piece" as it definitely fits the category of "girlfriend rock," but if you need a gift for your cycling significant other and they are not into Metallica, you may want to track down the album.

The Cycliste Moderne, October 10, 2005

Paris-Tours Recap

The penultimate ProTour race of the season ended Sunday with the traditional bunch sprint in Tours, France. Paris-Tours is the race for sprinters as it is a flat course with a 3km finishing straight, made for the teams of the big sprinters to deliver their leaders to the line. However, in recent years, Paris-Tours has been won by a rider on a long breakaway with the power to hold off a hard charging pack. With the long season wrapping up and Alessandro Petacchi and Tom Boonen having concluded their seasons, it was a perfect day for Erik Zabel to try and win his third Paris-Tours in his last race with T-Mobile.

Zabel has spent thirteen years with Deutsche Telekom/Telekom/T-Mobile team. He is moving to the new German-Italian Milram team next year. Milram is the successor sponsor to the Domina Vacanze team. The team keeps Domina Vacanze’s ProTour license and is thus guaranteed entry in all the Grand Tours and ProTour races. With Alessandro Petacchi and Erik Zabel joining the team, it will clearly be built for winning field sprints. Zabel will have the type of support he has not had for years at the Tour de France, although you have to wonder if he stayed with T-Mobile a few years too long.

At 35, Erik Zabel is not too old to win bike races, as other cyclists such as Johann Museeuw and Andrei Tchmil had success in one day races after that age. Zabel may be too old, however to mix it up day after day in field sprints with the younger faster riders, especially with Robbie McEwen, Alessandro Petacchi, Thor Hushovd and Tom Boonen having increasingly occupied the position that Zabel once did in field sprints. Zabel will benefit from being on a team designed for speed. With all the racing required of ProTour teams, you would think there will be enough opportunities for victories for both Zabel and Petacchi. However, both riders have won Milan-San Remo and next year’s event will give some indication as to how the sprinting superteam will function.

The bunch finish almost did not happen as Discovery Channel’s emerging Belgian talent, Stijn Devolder, and Philippe Gilbert of Francaise de Jeux managed to get away and gain almost a minute on the pack. However, the two quit working together late in the race and were caught by the bunch less than 200 meters to the finish. Devolder was following the instructions of his team not to take any pulls at the front and as a result lost. Erik Zabel beat Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Caffita) by half a wheel, with Alan Davis (Liberty Seguros) taking third.

Dopes on Doping I

Both Procycling.com and Cyclingnews.com reported on the results of a survey underwritten by L’Equipe regarding European views of doping. According to the results of the survey, 48% of French respondents thought that a majority of professional cyclists dope. That was significantly higher than the percentages reported for Italian, German and Spanish respondents. German respondents demonstrated a greater belief that cycling was getting cleaner with only 12% of respondents stating that a majority of professional cyclists dope and 50% indicating their belief that doping occurred among only a limited number of riders in the peleton.

What was most surprising was the belief of French respondents that it is impossible to have success in the Tour de France without the use of illegal drugs. 71% of French respondents agreed that it was impossible for a cyclist to have a strong performance at the Tour without doping. Ultimately, 97% of French respondents indicated that cycling was the sport they most associated with doping.

If those views are statistically valid, then you have to wonder why the French continue their strong support of the Tour de France. The Tour remains a national holiday in France. The country stops every afternoon for the daily race finish. The crowds on the mountain stages, while international in make-up, are still predominantly French. The crowds on Bastille Day remain huge. Every village and every town that is passed by the Tour stops for the momentary passage of the peleton. The French love affair with the Tour de France is utterly inconsistent with the public beliefs on doping. Certainly, French media reports regarding doping has influenced public opinions.

As discussed before, the French have adopted the view that the nation’s lack of cycling success is due to the fact that the rest of the world dopes. That is not consistent, however, with the continued war on drugs in cycling. French cyclists continue to be suspended at a rate consistent with other nations. French cycling has not had a strong Tour de France rider since 1989. The belief that French riders and French teams are “clean” has for too many years been used by French cycling as an excuse for poor preparation, poor tactics, and poor talent. Assuming the Festina matter represented the worst in doping in the sport, the French seem to forget that Festina was a French team, loved by the French for its strong riders and strong results. If the French are truly disillusioned by drugs in cycling, then they need to make their objections known by not supporting the sport.

Dopes on Doping II

Saturday, Prentice Steffen, an American doctor who worked for US Postal Service in the mid 1990’s retracted statements he had made to L’Equipe regarding his experiences and knowledge of doping practices. Steffen had been acting as the team doctor for Jonathan Vaughter’s Team TIAA-CREF, which has a strong anti drug ethos.

In 2004, Steffen was interviewed by L’Equipe and indicated that team members had asked him how they could improve their performance during the 1996 Tour de Suisse. Steffen claimed that his refusal to provide doping products resulted in his termination after the 1996 season. US Postal Service vigorously defended the team’s ethics and painted Steffen as a disgruntled former employee. This past week, L’Equipe published an interview with Steffen where he outlined how riders are continuing to evade drug tests in the European peleton. Steffen went on to state in the L’Equipe interview that if Armstrong and Tyler Hamilton were not punished that he would leave cycling forever.

It is important to note that Steffen was never employed by the team while Lance Armstrong was on the team and that Steffen’s own biography indicates that while he has continued to provide medical support to other domestic cycling teams, he has had little or no experience in the European peleton over the last nine seasons. That said, Steffen was interviewed by L’Equipe and made statements earlier this week regarding doping practices in the European peleton, including the use of transfusions to raise and lower hematocrit levels. He claimed his information was from an unnamed “well placed source.” The only confirmation of his claims was a doping expert who stated that the methods Steffen described were plausible and possible.

However, Steffen’s description of significant numbers of transfusions being used by riders to raise and lower hematocrit levels is lacking evidentiary support. If Steffen is correct and teams are using transfusions in such a manner then you have to wonder where the evidence is. It is clear that French and Italian police have aggressively monitored cycling races and have conducted numerous raids and investigations. Blood transfusions require significant amounts of medical equipment, require storage of blood and most importantly generate significant amounts of medical waste. None of which have ever been found in any of the police raids and investigations. During the 2002 Winter Olympics medical waste was the basis for doping actions against various cross country skiers who utilized transfusions to avoid doping detection or to increase their own hematocrit levels. Medical waste is not something that you put in the garbage and no one notices.

Saturday, he published a retraction of his statements and indicated that he was no longer working for Team TIAA-CREF. It would appear that Steffen received a letter from Armstrong’s legal team during the week as he retracted all statements about Armstrong. Here is the text of his retraction from Velonews.com.

I do not fault Steffen for wanting to clean up the sport. I do fault him for the witch hunt mentality that has been furthered by WADA chief Dick Pound. Rumor, innuendo, and suspicion without any factual or legal basis for such will not clean up the sport. Such conduct makes the public more suspicious, makes the peleton more isolated, and detracts from legitimate efforts to clean up the sport. Do not think that I am soft on doping. I think the one thing I got from being a death penalty prosecutor when I graduated from law school is an appreciation for due process. Even the guilty have the right to have their guilt proven before they are convicted.

Dopes on Doping III

Cyclingnews.com is reporting that Stefan Van Dijk of Belgian continental pro team MrBookmaker.com is facing suspension for failing to take a drug test. Everyone should know by now that failure to take a drug test or attempts to evade a drug test will be treated as a positive doping event. Reports out of Belgium are that Van Dijk returned home to find a random drug test team waiting for him. He fled in his vehicle, although he testified to Belgian authorities that he was not home at the time of the random tests. Apparently Van Dijk recognized the yellow drug test van outside of his home and just kept driving by to avoid having to take the test. Belgian doping authorities may need to rethink their need for a bright yellow doping van if they really want to catch drug cheats. This raises issues on so many levels, but that is all the doping news for now.

The Cycliste Moderne, October 3, 2005

We find ourselves at the end of the season with much less news to discuss and analyze. As such, the Cycliste Moderne will be regularly published on Mondays with special editions if necessary to address breaking news.

Interbike

This last week was Interbike, the big annual cycling trade show in Las Vegas. Unfortunately the practice of law got in the way of going to Interbike again this year. Interbike is the place where you see stuff you cannot afford, stuff you will never use, and people you only read about.

In sad news, Allan Butler, who had a strong season on the Utah race circuit, was killed at Interbike when he was hit by a taxi that ran a red light on the Strip. Butler was a member of the Logan Race Club’s Healthy Choice team and had won the Utah Cycling Association’s season overall title for Cat 1-2.

Championship of Zurich

Sunday marked the 92nd Championship of Zurich. Moving to October from the place it has historically occupied in early August, this one day race has long favored strong riders who can climb and sprint. Sunday was no different as Quick.Step’s Paolo Bettini broke away to win by almost three minutes. More importantly, ProTour leader Danilo Di Luca finished fourth to all but tie up the first ProTour individual championship. Other than Davide Rebellin of Gerolsteiner, most of the other top 10 in the ProTour standings have finished their seasons. There are only two more ProTour races left this season and Di Luca has sown up the overall ProTour title.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

I read with amazement Neal Rogers’ Friday column at VeloNews.com regarding a new condominium development in Boulder, Colorado called “The Peleton.” The developer noted in its press release that it chose to name the project for the “main pack in a bike race” because “it is an analogy for people living together and working together.” Please.

As most of you know, I am a real estate attorney and represent a variety of commercial and residential developers. As you also know, I am of the firm belief that the homebuilding industry is driven entirely by demand, not by supply. Residential development occurs because there is a demand for housing. Residential development does not create demand for housing.

I like to think I am selective in my clients as there are many developers and builders that I will not represent, even though I have had the opportunity. However, it never ceases to amaze me how new developments get named and marketed.

I was on a long ride earlier this year with my occasional ride buddy, Tom Blair, as we rode through southwest Ada County. We discussed the stupid names that are given to subdivisions. Recognize that much of the subdivision naming process in Ada County, Idaho, is driven by the ultra narrow reading of Idaho law by the Ada County Engineer. According to the Ada County Engineer, every subdivision must be platted with an absolutely distinct name to avoid “confusion.” As such, you cannot have a “Cartwright Ranch” because there is a “Cartwright Canyon.” You cannot have a “St. Mary’s Crossing” because there is a “St. Maries Subdivision.” You cannot have a “Hobble Creek” because there is a “Hobbler Creek.” You cannot have a “Harris Ranch” because there is a “Harris Subdivision.” However, the platted name of a subdivision is not the name that the subdivision is marketed as. Thus you have subdivisions marketed as Cartwright Ranch, St. Mary’s Crossing, Hobble Creek and Harris Ranch. So marketing your subdivision with a stupid name is your own fault.

As Tom and I rode through Ada County, we passed theme and variation on Tuscany: Tuscany Forest, Tuscan Villa, Tuscany Lakes, Tuscan Hills, Tuscany Green, Tuscan Woods. The problem is that the areas being developed look nothing like Tuscany, nor do they evidence any familiarity with Tuscany, or any other similarities with Tuscany either. Apparently, the term "half way to Kuna" loosely translates as "Tuscan" in Idahoo. We did not see any of the great Tuscan cyclists out on that ride either.

How you can call a subdivision of faux Craftsman houses “Tuscany Villa” is beyond me. Similarly, subdivisions that are built out with faux Italian amenities but given a WASP name are the product of developers who are just creative enough to cause problems. Fortunately for them, the limits of their buyers’ international experience is the Fiesta Chicken at Applebees. If I am buying a house in a subdivision called Tuscan Villa, I expect my neighbor to be Mario Cippolini, not Joe Six Pack. If I am buying a house in a subdivision called Tuscany Hills, I expect my neighbor to have a garage full of Bianchis or Colnagos or Pinerellos, not ATVs. If I am buying a house in a subdivision called Tuscany Green, I expect my neighbor to invite me over for a fine dinner of pasta, not elk stakes or nachos.

Thus, people who buy in “The Peleton” are most likely going to be the type of people who are disappointed that the parking stalls are not big enough for them to park their Ford Expeditions and who will get upset when somebody brings their bike up on the elevator after a hard ride on a sloppy spring day.