The Cycliste Moderne, October 15, 2006

STP Preview

It is not too early to think about next summer's rides. I think I have convinced Mrs. Cycliste Moderne to do Seattle to Portland with me on our tandem in one day. I have a conference in New York the following weekend and I do not ride on Sundays, so that means a one day ride, July 14, 2007. It is a great event but an event that you need to have a buddy to do right. I figure a tandem is the best way to ensure your buddy sticks with you. If anybody is interested in joining us next July, let me know. We are thinking about driving to Portland on the Thursday before the ride, then taking the bus they run from Portland on Friday and staying in the UW dorms Friday night, ride Saturday and drive home on Sunday. Another buddy is talking about doing LOTOJA in September, which is a much more intense event. STP is like riding in Flanders, LOTOJA is like riding in the Alps.

Giro di Lombardia Recap

The last significant race of the season and the final ProTour race of the 2006 season was this weekend’s Giro di Lombardia or the “Race of the Falling Leaves.” A hilly race around Lake Como in northern Italy it is a race that typically favors an all around rider. Paolo Bettini repeated as champion having won last year, but doing it this year by proving he is one of the strongest riders in the world as he road away from a strong breakaway group to win in the race in the world champion’s jersey. It was an emotional victory for Bettini as his brother had recently passed away.

The race was not without controversy, however, as RCS the organizer of the Giro di Lombardia is also the organizer of the Giro d’Italia and is locked in a fight with the other Grand Tour organizers, the ASO and Unipublic, over control of the sport refused to have a podium ceremony for Alejandro Valverde, who won the ProTour title this season. Valverde and his team Caisse d’Epargne had threatened to boycott the race as a result of RCS announcement that it would not have a separate ProTour jersey awarding ceremony. As a result, no podium celebration for the winners was held either as the other teams refused to participate in post race celebrations if there was not going to be an award to the ProTour title.

All in all, it was a good conclusion to a crisis filled season.

Dope #1

Saturday’s edition of L’Equipe included an account of a 2005 instant message exchange between Jonathon Vaughters and Frankie Andreu regarding doping practices at US Postal Service. Vaughters is now backing away from statements attributed to him. Here is the account from Cyclingnews.com.

Dope #2

Spanish judicial officials have ordered federations not to use information from Operacion Puerto for disciplinary purposes until the legal process plays out in Spain. However, Italian officials have already closed their disciplinary action against Ivan Basso declaring that there is not enough evidence in the information that has been provided to them to support a disciplinary action. The UCI has threatened to appeal the action of Italian doping officials to drop the prosecution of Basso.

Dope #3

Meanwhile, Swiss officials have provided diverging information as to the status of disciplinary action against Jan Ullrich. Some accounts say disciplinary action is imminent, other say that nothing is pending. Who knows, but this whole mess will take years to get resolved.

Dope #4

Floyd Landis posted his defense on his website this week. Here is the link if you are interested.