This, That and the Other

I recognize it has been a while since I have posted. We spent last weekend at the Seattle International Bike Expo and that travel, together with work, has kept me away from the keyboard as well. So here we go:

Seattle International Bike Expo Recap

We took Cyclista and CyclingMovies.Com on the road to the Cascade Bicycle Club's Seattle International Bike Expo for the third straight year. Here is what we did and saw.

I rode a prototype of Kona's AfricaBike which Kona has built for distribution to NGO's and nonprofits in Africa. It will be available hopefully in April to consumers here in the United States and I have already gone to my local Kona dealer to tell them that I want one as soon as they get one. It is the ultimate in utilitarian commuter bike and it is a product which is making meaningful differences in people's lives in Africa.

I actually rode the Kona AfricaBike on E Motion Rollers built by Inside Ride. They build an idiot proof set of rollers as evidenced by the fact that they had people up and riding them on a Kona AfricaBike. Most impressive was the fact that Troy of Inside Ride spent almost two whole days riding on the E Motion Rollers. Their booth was next too ours and it was like being next too the freak show as Troy spent probably twelve hours over two days riding on rollers and Larry got everyone who was willing to try up and riding the AfricaBike in about fifteen seconds.

We met Brett Horton the foremost collector of cycling memorabilia in the world. You can find portions of his collection on line here. You can buy his book "Cycling's Golden Age" here. Mrs. Cycliste Moderne attended all three presentations that Brett made on cycling memorabilia and history. He even gave our business a pitch. Most impressive was the fact that he came and spent over an hour discussing cycling history and memorabilia with me in our booth on Saturday afternoon. Among the memorabilia he not only showed me, but let me handle and discussed with me were the original stopwatch from the Tour de France and the Tour de France Start flag both visible here. He also let me handle the winner's medal from the first Paris-Roubaix in 1896 and the winner's medal from the first Paris-Brest-Paris in 1891 both visible here.

Met the cool guys at Pedal Dynamics, a small shop in Seattle that has developed its business based upon serving corporate clients. They go on site to service bikes so the big companies can keep their geeks in their cubicles longer.

Operacion Puerto: No Smoke, No Fire

Spanish judicial authorities last week shelved the Operacion Puerto investigation for lack of a crime having been committed under Spanish law. Prosecutors have appealed the decision, however, it has become apparent that Spain's lack of specific doping laws at the time in question probably precludes further prosecution of the matter. The UCI, WADA and the French teams are all up in arms but the reality is that Operacion Puerto was more about meia attention than it really was about cleaning up sport. No other sport has had athletes named in the investigation even though the principal doctors have all been affiliated with some of Spain's largest and most important soccer and basketball clubs. Here is CyclingNew.com's recap of the status of Operacion Puerto.

Paris-Nice Recap

Sunday concluded Paris-Nice the first ProTour race of the year. It managed to go off after a last minute deal was struck between the UCI and the Grand Tours. What did we learn from Paris-Nice:

(1) Discovery Channel has no friends in the peleton. As evidence at the Tour of California, Discovery Channel has no friends left in the peleton and none of the other teams are willing to help them out. Obviously animosity over the signing of Ivan Basso runs deep and still lingers and Discovery cannot expect other teams to help them out. Case in point, during Armstron's last Tour de France, Team CSC with Ivan Basso clearly road defensively to protect Basso and second place in the final few mountain stages. That was great assistance to Discovery as it could count on Team CSC to assist it in marking T-Mobile's efforts. There is no love lost between the teams now and Team CSC will attack Discovery at every chance.

(2) Discovery Channel is still one of the strongest and most tactically savy teams in the peleton. Winning the race on a last stage attack on the final climb, Alberto Contador overcame Davide Rebellin's six second lead on the final climb after Discovery had put Leipheimer, Popovych and Danielson at the front as the peleton raced over the mountains above Nice ending on the promanade in nice. Contador won two stages, Popovych won another.

(3) If the French really believe that they cannot win because everyone else cheats, you have to think that the early part of the season is where they should have some success. Clearly, they cannot. Only JP Nazon of AG2R won a stage and there were no French riders in the top 10. You have to show up at home, especially in a race that the French teams had made it clear they would race in even if the UCI had forbade it.

Sprinters Cannot Count

Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico both showed this week what happens when sprinters and their teams lose count of who was up the road. Both Tom Boonen and Bernard Eisel celebrated what they theought were victories but were in fact sprints for second place and fifth place respectively after they failed to keep track of the number of riders in breakaways.

ProTour RIP: Unibet Gets The Shaft

The UCI and the Grand Tour organizers reached a "settlement" last week permitting Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, the first two ProTour teams to go forward. Basically, the UCI sold out Team Unibet to ensure the season goes forward. The Grand Tours seem now to be parroting French officials that Unibet is an "illegal" sponsor and thus not eligible to race in their respective countries. Unibet was not offered a start at either of the ProTour races this week, however, Italian officials have now invited it to race at Milan-Sanremo this weekend.

Ironically, the ASO, the organizer of the Tour de France, Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege had no qualms about inviting Unibet's predecessor "Mr. Bookmaker" to some of their races over the past few years as Mr. Bookmaker had a podium finish as recently as 2004 with Roger Hammond finishing third at Paris-Roubaix. It has also been reported that the ASO had attempted to recurit Mr. Bookmaker as the sponsor of the sprint jersey a few years ago for Paris-Nice. How Unibet can be an illegal gambling company while Mr. Bookmaker is a legal one that French race officials actively sought as a sponsor is beyond me. Maybe some one in the ASO's office failed to realize that "making book" is not the same thing as printing books.