The Cycliste Moderne

End of an Era

2007-08-12T20:18:00.000-06:00

Discovery is no More.

Tailwind Sports the owner of the Discovery Channel Cycling Team has announced the team will disband after the 2007 season. Even though the team has had significant success winning eight out of the last nine Tours de France in the current climate in cycling it is not surprising that the team elected to disband. Although team officials had announced that they felt they were close to having signed a prime sponsor for 2008 to replace Discovery Channel, the fact that they had not announced anything at the Tour lead some to believe that the team's demise was imminent. Historically, new sponsors have always been announced and attached to teams during the Tour.

Discovery has been one of the largest and best funded teams in the peleton. As discussed in previous issues, however, it is not unusual for most riders to be on short term contracts of one to two years. The period following the Tour de France is typically the time that teams and riders begin to announce their line ups for the next season. While the loss of major sponsors does result in riders losing their jobs, invariably another team steps into the void.

When Motorola met a similar demise in the mid 1990's, it was a dark period in American cycling as it was the end of the 7-Eleven/Motorola legacy as the first American team in Europe. Jim Ochowitz found himself unable to find a replacement sponsor for the team and it too disbanded leaving many young American riders scrambling for rides elsewhere. Although 3-4 riders signed with the new French team Cofidis, including Lance Armstrong, it was the small American team Subaru-Montgomery Securities that filled the vaccum created by the demise of Motorola. The team had signed USPostal Service and had began to look to expand its presence in Europe. Many former Motorola riders ended up at US Postal Service which after a couple of years of growth became a mainstay of the peleton.

The demand for top talent, including American talent is always present even in an environment that is as toxic as the current sponsorship environment in cycling. Teams are always hiring riders. It is just that some teams do not have the budget that other teams have. Some teams look to move up by hiring top talent, i.e. Slipstream, which has already announced the signing of David Millar, Dave Zabriskie and Magnus Backstead. Other teams hire riders based upon the marketing goals of its sponsors. Prior to the doping announcement regarding T-Mobile's activities in the mid 1990's there had been some speculation that T-Mobile was going to become less German and more American. George Hincapie had previously been linked to a move to T-Mobile although that has yet to be confirmed. Discovery's Belgian national champion was sure to move to either Predictor Lotto or Quik.Step this year as both teams are willing to pay a premium to have the national champion wearing their jersey for the first part of the season.

In reality Discovery Channel had largely ceased to be an American team as Americans were in the minority of its riders and Discovery did not even contest the races that make up Philly week in June. Levi Leipheimer should have no difficult finding a ride for next season. Alberto Contador will likely have some difficulty unless and until Operacion Puerto is finally resolved.

Teams fold and teams are born each year. It is a difficult process and it is sad to see a team with the history of Discovery Channel calling it quits. Just like it was sad to see Mapei and ONCE disappear. The key to the ongoing viability of the sport, however, is long term sponsor support and that is jeopardized by a culture that still does not seem to understand the long term damage that doping in pursuit of short term gain causes. As Lance Armstrong noted in announcing Discovery's demise, the ASO's threat to return the Tour de France to national teams makes the search for sponsors difficult as sponsors want quantifiable return on their investment. They want to make sure that the team has significant exposure and that the team does not undermine its core marketing goals or injure its brand. Right now in cycling, that is difficult if not impossible to guarantee.

So What Happens Next Year?

At the end of the day, all cycling is driven by sponsorship. Sponsorship is driven by marketing. Marketing is driven by the desire to get products and brands as much positive recognition as possible in a cost effective manner. The UCI needs a top level team with strong ties to the United States. The ASO needs a top American team committed to racing clean. I would therefore expect that Jonathon Vaughter's Team Slipstream will not only be lining up for next year's Tour start but that it will be invited to join the ProTour in Discovery's absence.

There are other teams which will potentially fold this off season but there will be others to replace them. At the end of the day, the UCI's real difficulty is its desire to have a 20 team ProTour paying 20 licensing fees to it for entry into all the top races, the Grand Tour organizers really only want to have to invite 15-18 teams to their races and want freedom to invite more domestic teams. The Vuelta has long shown that the Italian teams do not take it seriously. There really are only about 15 teams that have the wherewithal to actually compete at the level the ProTour demands.

The loss of Discovery, the impending suspension of Astana, and questions around the ongoing sponsorship of Unibet.com, Cofidis, Credit Agricole, and Gerolsteiner all make it likely that this could be the end of the ProTour as the UCI has desired. The UCI formed the ProTour to ensure that sponsors got value for their commitment. The problem is that finding sponsors who want to run the risk of the baggage that comes with cycling is diminishing. Having a Tour de France contested by national teams may not be the worst thing that could happen.

Way Post Tour Recap

2007-08-05T20:11:00.000-06:00

For those of you waiting for my Post Tour Recap, who have been waiting a week, I apologize. First, having returned from vacation and having not seen much of the Tour's final week, it took awhile to get up to speed in the real world. Second, I followed up nine days of vacation by taking this Friday off to go to my niece's wedding. Third, I had committed to go climb a mountain with our older scouts on Saturday. So, when you have been out of the office for more than a week and you are going to be out of the office for a couple of more days immediately thereafter, you have to focus on first things first. Plus, I jokingly told someone who ask this week that this year I would not do a Post Tour Recap until all the drug tests had been processed. So here are my random thoughts on various things that transpired at the Tour.

Why Dope

The whole issue of drugs has been beaten to death by the cycling media, the regular media and average joes. However, in evaluating cycling, it is important to take a step back and evaluate what really causes the use of drugs in sport. It is easy to claim that cyclists are not very smart, but I think that is an argument which can be applied to all professional sports. First, have you ever noticed that with the exception of former US Senator/Rhodes Scholar and and New York Knick Bill Bradley, that there are very few athletes who had strong academic credentials?

But it is easy and elitist to claim that cyclists are just stupid. That ignores the fact that they like most people are rationally calculating hedonists who seek to maximize their economic return for their skill set. Cycling is no different that motorsports, soccer, baseball, basketball and other professional sports. Cyclists seek to maximize their economic return which is determined by their in sport success. In general, most cyclists are making very modest salaries. There are a few big named riders who make significant salaries. Most of the rest make very modest salaries with the riders on small teams making almost nothing. Very few of them have adequate health insurance. None of them have retirement plans. So, if you want to make money, you have to win. By winning, you get to keep the prize money you win, and you can turn wins into a move up to a bigger team and a better salary. Adding to that is if you win you can build your own brand through personal sponsorship arrangements.

Another factor cannot be ignored, and that is the fact that relationships in cycling are very short term. Cyclists are typically on very short contracts. The average guy in the peleton is on a one or two year contract. Only the top riders, i.e. dominating sprinters and strong GC contenders, ever get a three year deal. Deals longer than that are almost unheard of in cycling. If a rider has a bad year, it has very real economic impact on them. So there is a short term bias towards generating results now.

Moreover, with sponsors and team management demanding results, there is added pressure on cyclists. Teams want winners, and they claim they want riders to win clean, however, short of locking all your riders in their rooms when they are not training and racing, you cannot ensure that riders will not succumb to the pressure to get instant results and improvement. It is beyond dispute that many teams either engaged in active doping programs over the years or willfully ignored the evidence that their riders were engaged in systematic doping.

Cycling is a blue collar sport which, I posit, has much more in common with stock car racing than Americans would ever concede. If Richard Petty or Dale Earnhardt, Sr., had been born in Belgium, I bet you that their names would have been Eddy Merckx or Freddy Maertens. However, there are a lot of other guys out there who want to be the Intimidator, the King or the Cannibal who will never accomplish that who spend their weekends racing at lower levels in hopes of moving up. Most never will. Of those who do, most will have modest success.

So why do riders keep doping when they know it is bad for their health, they know that they may get caught, they know that it is expensive? It is because the think they have to in order to remain competitive. While the long term ramifications of doping are serious and severe, when a guy is concerned about making a living next year, you will never get riders to think about the long term. So mediocre riders cheat to compete. Star riders cheat to win. They all cheat because doing so is what they think they sport demands for them to be honored and appreciate and most importantly to get paid.

Finally, I find the press attention that cycling got from the American press during this last edition of the Tour focusing on the impact that drugs has had upon the validity of the sport incredibly hypocritical when Barry Bonds pursues Hank Aaron's career home run mark in the midst of an ongoing drug investigation by federal officials. Everyone knows Bonds did steroids and he even conceded to the federal grand jury that he utilized drugs provided by BALCO although he thought it was "flaxseed oil." Yeah, Barry, Richard Virenque claimed the same thing.

On Contador

Alberto Contador won the Tour in a manner that he himself conceded was not the way to win it. The young Spaniard is, however, a legitimate GC leader as evidenced by his win at Paris-Nice earlier this year. He was not able to match Rassmussen on all of the climbs, and I think that all the main teams made a major tactical mistake when they let Rassmussen go on the first big climbing stage. I think they all believed that Rassmussen would follow the approach he had done in prior years to win the KOM polka dot jersey, which was to attack on the first climbs, get a big lead and then defend that jersey. I don't think anyone thought he would improve as he did on the time trial. Contador will continue to be hounded by his link to Operacion Puerto which resulted in his exclusion from last year's Tour before being cleared of wrong doing. Contador did provide a DNA sample and has not been linked to any of the blood seized in the Puerto investigation. He may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time riding for a team that it has become apparent now was engaged in a systematic doping program.

On Leipheimer

Levi Leipheimer gives hope to hard working normal guys. He has never been flashy, never been dominating in a Grand Tour, has had more bad luck over the years than good luck. I felt that when he returned to Discovery that he would go from being a perennial top ten GC rider to a top five and maybe a podium rider. He becomes only the second American to finish on the podium in two different Grand Tours with his prior third place finish in the Vuelta to join Greg LeMond who finished on the podium both in the Tour and the Giro. No one has ever questioned Leipheimer's skill and he has never been linked to doping. He has always just gone about getting the job done in a consistent manner.

On Rassmussen

Dane Michael Rassmussen has always been something of an enigma. He has always been strong in the mountains, but he never seemed to engender confidence of his teams or teammates. He was always at best a KOM rider not a GC threat. His downfall this year comes from the fact that he not only may have lied about where and how he was training but also that he attempted to engender confidence in his "cleanness" by telling everyone that he could be trusted. As one contributor to VeloNews noted, challenging the media a la Gary Hart, just guarantees someone is going to take you up on the challenge and catch you in inconsistencies. Most importantly, no one is going to get the benefit of the doubt for accidentally forgetting to tell doping authorities where you are in this day and age. There is no excuse for a professional athlete to not know that failure to comply fully with all doping regulations will bring you under suspicion regardless of whether you are clean or not.

On Vinokourov

The man let down a whole country that was supporting his effort to be the first Eastern rider to win the Tour. As much as I have enjoyed watching his aggressive riding over the years, Vinokourov's career is over. It is sad to see him become an even bigger Kazakh joke than Borat.

On Hypocrisy

I was dismayed by the protest by the French and German teams at the start of Stage 16 who to protest doping held things up. While it is good for riders to take responsibility and address the issue of doping and their objections to those who do, Cofidis participated in the protest only to withdraw from the Tour later after its rider Christian Moreni failed a drug test and was arrested and T-Mobile participated after Patrik Sinkewitz had dropped out but was found to have failed a pre Tour drug test.

On Testing

Testing is working. More people are getting caught and more importantly more people getting caught are conceding that they cheated.

Reforming the Grand Tours

If Tour organizers really want to recapture the moral high ground, then it has become apparent to me that they have to change the way they organize the race. All three mountain stages in the Pyrenees were nearly 200km long. The tradition of six high mountain stages in the Alps and Pyrenees probably needs to change. Especially where riders are forced to ride over 5 or more categorized climbs. The time trials are also too long. If you don't want riders to dope, then you cannot have courses that are so demanding that they all but encourage riders to cheat. So here is what I propose for reform of the course to improve the likelihood that riders won't be forced to dope:

1. Mountain stages shall be no longer than 15o km and have no more than four categorized climbs. Mountain top finishes shall only be permitted to cities/resorts which are capable of housing all the teams at the end of the stage. Are you really committed to clean racing when you put 13 categorized climbs and 600km of racing in the final mountain stages of a grand tour and riders have to face a long transfer back down the mountain after a stage?

2. Rolling stages like Stage 5 which mimic some of the one day classics with multiple small categorized climbs shall not 175 km and shall not have more than eight categorized climbs. If you are going to have a "dangerous" stage, make it important, but not decisive.

3. Flat stages shall be no more than 200 km long. Isn't this a stage race lasting three weeks as opposed to three classics or semi-classics strung out over a week?

4. There shall be no more than three time trials, including the prologue, all individual time trials, and any team time trials. No time trial shall exceed 45km and the total of all time trial mileage shall be no more than 100km. Who really wants to watch the 95th rider on GC slog through a 55km time trial to lose another 6 minutes on the leaders?

5. Let teams have ten man rosters with seven riders allowed to start every day. Four riders must ride every stage to be considered for the GC competition and any other competition, i.e. points, KOM, young rider. Of the other six riders, teams can use them as they like. Even soccer allows large rosters and substitutes.

6. Make the Team GC competition more meaningful by increasing the prize money and increasing the number of spots that are paid. At any given Tour, there will only be ten teams with legitimate contenders for the GC, Points and KOM prizes. To encourage better team performance, make the team award more meaningful and eliminate any team from the running for any doping violation or significant sanction. Individual pressure to keep up and perform caused this mess, so rewarding positive teamwork and team performance will hopefully improve the situation.

7. If you are going to change race history to remove past transgressors, then remove them all. If Riis cheated to win in 1996, then you cannot remove him, without also removing the whole podium which consists of Ullrich his teammate and Richard Virenque of Festina, all of whom have been touched by doping. You cannot claim the moral high ground only when convenient.

8. Move the prologue to Friday night and have rest days every Monday. That gives you a prologue and two sprint stages before a rest day and then two more rest days later on. By moving the prologue to Friday night, you keep the same number of stages in the race. Give the riders a legitimate opportunity to recuperate on a reasonable schedule.

9. As a corollary to number 1 above, no city hosting a stage finish nor stage start shall be selected that has inadequate hotel facilities to accommodate all riders. Before starting or after finishing the need for immediate rest and recovery for all riders is imperative. Long transfers are bad and must be eliminated.

10. Implement a "fair play" team and individual award that is significant. Recognize those teams and riders who embody what is good and reward them appropriately. Poor sportsmanship, rules violations and doping all detract/eliminate riders and teams from contention and are to be discouraged. Provide meaningful rewards will encourage good behavior.

Tour Top Ten

2007-07-19T20:35:00.000-06:00

I am going to be on the road for the next ten days. I am not likely going to see much of the rest of the Tour so I will be relying on Cyclingnews.com and VeloNews.com for my Tour fix. In light of the fact that Mrs. Cycliste Moderne will be attending Monday's taping of the Letterman Show, I am going to give you the Top Ten Things to Look For in the Last Half of the Tour de France:

10. Will Michael Rassmusen lose less than ten minutes over the two time trials? The "Chicken" cannot time trial. He is in the lead now but I expect him to be more than three minutes behind come Saturday.

9. How far back will Vinokourov come? Vino has shown strength over the last two days. Probably cannot win, maybe able to climb back to the top five. Who knows with how the Tour is progressing.

8. Will Moreau be able to attack? French champion Christoph Moreau got caught out in the cross winds today and suffered as Astana hammered away at the front. Moreau has never been an aggressive rider but he will have to attack in the coming mountains to climb back to the top three.

7. Has doping been reduced? I think from how up and down the racing has been, see Vinokourov, that there is some evidence that riders are suffering more and are less enhanced. The only doping issue so far has arisen from a pre Tour test. I think the answer is yes?

6. Will Discovery find a new sponsor? Typically if teams are going to get a major new sponsor they make the announcement at the Tour de France or shortly thereafter. If Discovery does not announce a new sponsor by August 1, it is likely that the team's current incarnation will change significantly.

5. What will happen at T-Mobile and CSC? Both teams have aggressive anti doping policies and practices, but both have been rocked by doping intrigue over the last month. While T-Mobile appears to be moving in the right direction, the latest scandal involving Patrik Sinkewitz may be too difficult to over come. If the team survives it is clear that it will have a much more American flavor.

4. Who will win the Green Jersey? The sprint jersey is wide open this year. Every major sprinter except Zabel has won a stage. It has been a different cast of characters everyday. The real question is who gets over the mountains and too Paris. Probably Boonen, but you never know.

3. Will Leipheimer win? I don't think so. I think he can finish top five but he has ridden much to defensively. We will see what happens with the time trials. He is not even the best climber on his team, that is Contador.

2. Which sponsor has the best podium girls: Credit Lyonnaise, Aquarel, Champion or PMU? That is a matter of personal preference.

1. Who will win? I really think that Cadel Evans is likely going to be the first Australian to win the Tour. Predictor does not have to defend Robbie McEwen's sprint interests since he went home already. The team has not had to put any real efforts in and Evans has ridden a perfect race to date. He sits in fourth and probably is the best time trialist of the current leading group.

I will see you all in about ten days. Enjoy.

But can Danes Time Trial?

2007-07-15T21:25:00.000-06:00

This Has Been Fun

This year's Tour de France has been much more exciting than I really thought it would be. The crashes and carnage has been wide spread. Team CSC, T-Mobile, Discovery and Astana have all had riders in spectacular crashes.

The first week has been marked with spectacular individual efforts. Michael Rassmusen's victory Sunday was a herculean individual effort. It was not unexpected as the stage was of the type that favored the former mountain bike champion. Rabobank's mountain goat has historically attacked on such stages and proven himself able to get off the front, seize the King of the Mountain's jersey. He rode a really strong race dominating the day.

In past years Rassmusen has taken a page from Richard Virenque and Laurent Jalabert who grabbed the polka dot jersey with a huge effort on the first climb and then defend the lead in the mountains competition for the rest of the Tour. While Rassmusen is a very strong climber, do not forget that he cannot time trial. Unless he has done significant work in the off season in the wind tunnel and worked on his equipment, Rassmusen could conceivably lose ten to eleven minutes in the two remaining individual time trials totaling more than one hundred and ten kilometers. The time trials are too long and too flat for Rassmusen. He can go uphill really well but just cannot keep it together on the flat.

T-Mobile's Linus Gerdemann had a short but quality stint in yellow with his win on Saturday's first Alpine stage. Because it was a downhill finish, it was unlikely that any of the expected leaders would have gotten away from the other leaders, so the stage favored the very type of breakaway that succeeded. Although T-Mobile did not expect to defend the yellow during Sunday's stage, it was good to see a young rider get yellow and enjoy it.

All of the sprinters you would have expected to win stages have done so. Quick Step's Boonen, Predictor's McEwen, Credit Agricole's Hushovd, Liquigas' Pozzatto were all deserving winners during the first week. Additionally, Team CSC's Cancellara honored the yellow jersey with his attack of the front to a second stage win. So far there has not been a single stage where the ultimate winner did not put in an effort that was worthy for the victory.

It is apparent that we may be seeing a return to some of the classic Tours. No team has been able to stamp its control on the race like Banesto, Telekom, and USPostal Service/Discovery have done in the past. Astana could not get Vinokourov back into the peleton after his big crash. That would not have ever happened in the past.

Moreover, Astana, Discovery, Team CSC and Caisse d'Epargne all came to the Tour with multiple leaders free to ride for themselves. The all for one approach is not being followed this year in large part because there are no really dominant riders on any of the team. Even though Astana was built for Vinokourov, it is clear that it came with more than one card to play with former podium finisher Andreas Kloden on its roster.

As impressive as Rassmusen's ride was on Sunday, Christoph Moreau gets my nod for the best old school ride. Historically, Moreau is not known for his attacking prowess. However, on Sunday Moreau rode like Bernard Hinault going off the front and aggressively attacking. Moreau very well may have his best chance to win the Tour ever.

My Saturday Ride

Saturday I raced my first triathlon in eleven years in Twin Falls, Idaho. I had a decent swim, a really good bike, and then totally blew up on the run with severe knee pain. At the end of the bike leg, I was ten minutes ahead of my goal for the race. Then I proceeded to have a disastrous five mile run. I am not too depressed about that.

I knew the run would be tough and I ended up only four minutes slower than my goal time. It was very frustrating to have a run that was as poor as it was. There were only four people that had slower run splits than I did. I can honestly say, however, that I had as good a day as I could have hoped for. My food and water intake were good, I had good legs on the bike, I got out of my wetsuit without too much difficulty. A year ago there is no way I could have done the race. I do not have any knee pain today which leads me to believe that it may just be a shoe problem that can be resolved with new shoes and more miles. So next year, I know I can easily shave fifteen to twenty minutes off my time if I can have the type of run that I know I can do.

I always liked doing "local" triathlons. The kind that attract the locals who want to prove themselves and who are not necessarily concerned about how much carbon fibre they have or how aerodynamic their helmets are. They are just there to do it and have fun. One older guy who racked his old Dave Scott steel Ironman bike without any aero equipment by me, raced in his 1980's navy blue shorts and old headband. Of course there was also the guy who rather than walk the 100 yards to the restroom to change into his race shorts. No, he stood behind a tree right in the corner of the transition area dropped his pants and took about thirty seconds to get his lycra pulled up. Buck naked in the middle of a city park in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Wild Week

2007-07-11T22:21:00.000-06:00

The first week of the Tour has been much more exciting than I really expected. Good crowds, exciting racing, the expected long breakaways and aggressive riding have all been present this week. Additionally, the fact that there has been no dominant team in the sprints and no team has seemed to be able to really put its stamp on the race and control the final lead out day after day after day may be evidence of the fact the peleton is cleaner than it has been in years. Teams and riders do seem to be paying for their big efforts. So here are my brief highlights of the first week so far.

The Big One

There is always a monster crash in the first week of the Tour. In variably it is some over aggressive inexperienced rider who causes it and knocks somebody important out. However, this year "the Big One" came during Stage Two and was caused not by a neophyte but rather Erik Zabel one of the best and most experienced riders in the peleton. Zabel swerved violently setting off the chain reaction that took down the Tour leader Cancellara from Team CSC, who initially seemed to have suffered a severe injury. Zabel is better than that and amazingly only Discovery Channel's Lithuanian sprinter Thomas Vaitkus had to abandon after the carnage.
However, Belgian Tom Boonen failed to win at home as he did not manage to get around his lead out man and settled for second.

It was Just a Flesh Wound

Proving that he was a worthy yellow jersey wearer and doing something that has not been seen since the reign of Bernard Hinault in the 1970's and 1980's, Team CSC's Cancellara roared past the four man break away in the final kilometer and held of the sprinters to win Stage 3 in Compiegne. Cancellara is not only the world time trial champion but he is also a former Paris-Roubaix winner which starts near the finish of Stage 3. It was an unbelievable finish as Cancellara showed grit, speed and determination in jumping off the front and managing to stay away to the finish. You do not see that much anymore. Obviously the winding finish over cobbles kept the peleton's speed low enough that the man in the Maillot Jaune could attack when he did.

Doping is not the Story

German officials and media continue to focus on doping as opposed to racing. Governmental officials threatened to pull funding for this year's world championships in Stuttgart due to doping issues. The ARD network took discraced pro Jorg Jaksche to Ghent for the finish this week. The ZDF network claims that cyclists are cheating because they are left alone. And then German rider Matthias Kessler's B sample comes back positive for testosterone which he claims must have been caused by the four packages of "natural supplements" with "chinese writing on them" he ingested before Fleche Wallone.

I am starting to think that the Germans just don't get it. If they want to combat doping then really take a stand as opposed to just keep threatening to shut down races or to stop TV coverage. Second, do not reward guys like Jaksche who has been under a cloud of suspician for several years now and who like Richard Virenque before, denied, denied, denied, before then spilling the beans on everyone he knew when it was good for him. Third, they need to recognize that the doping culture within German cycling arose largely in the context of the rise of cycling nationalism as Team Telekom/T-Mobile functioned as the defacto national team for Germany during the 1990's and early 2000's.

Cyclingnews.com has all of the details of the German media's frenzy but reported that irate viewers called demanding that the commentators covering the race stop talking about drugs and start talking about the race.

The Tour Begins

2007-07-08T19:14:00.000-06:00

Prologue Recap

This weekend's British launch of the Tour de France has to have made Tour organizers happy. London embraced the Tour with incredible crowds. Racing the prologue through central London past many of the famous sites resulted in huge crowds. The television coverage showed wall to wall people along the entire route. Because it was a slightly longer route than past prologue courses have used, it is clear that the British certainly have not turned their backs on the sport especially since Great Britain really is not a great cycling hotbed. Although there have been some great British cyclists the country's laws and sporting culture have not fostered a long term relationship with the sport.

Team CSC's Fabien Cancellara showed why he is the world champion in the time trial. His dominating performance was the ride of the day. To win by more than thirteen seconds is really impressive. My toddler and I sat down to watch the coverage off the DVR and he stood and screamed at the television "Go, Go, Go" which is exactly what the Swiss rider did.

As I had predicted last week, however, the prologue's length resulted in the unfortunate outcome that none of the sprint favorites will likely be able to wear the yellow jersey this first week. The time gaps are just too large as a result of the fact that the prologue took most of the riders nine and a half minutes to complete. A shorter prologue results in smaller time gaps leaving sprinters within shouting distance of the lead as the time bonuses available on flat stages can catapult a sprinter into yellow. However, all of the favorite sprinters, Milram's Erik Zabel, Credit Agricole's Thor Hushovd, Predictor-Lotto's Robbie McEwen, Quik.Step's Boonen and Rabobank's Oscar Freire, lost more than forty seconds to Team CSC' Cancellara. Even with twenty second time bonuses available to stage winners on flat stages, for a sprinter to wear yellow this week they will have to likely win three or more stages to close the gap to the leaders. That is unlikely to happen.

Team CSC will likely be somewhat motivated to keep and defend Cancellara's jersey this week. While Carlos Sastre is the team's leader, the doping news regarding team manager Bjarne Riis has clearly had an impact on the team and has caused Riis to stay away from the Tour. The team seems to have its sponsor's support, having only lost one secondary sponsor but naming a new important sponsor just before the Tour. CSC is a well disciplined team and knows what it needs to do to make sponsors happy and that is lead. I would expect Cancellara to be in yellow until the race hits the mountains.

Stage 1 Recap

Sunday's crowds for Stage 1 finishing in Canterbury were just as large and as impressive as Saturday in London. However, the amazing event of Sunday was Predictor-Lotto's Robbie McEwen who came from nowhere to win. McEwen had been involved in a crash about 20km from the end. His team dropped back and raced him back to the group with about three miles to go. McEwen did an incredible job getting through the peleton, getting to the front, and timing his sprint for the win. He won by a big margin.

Now, I am not a big McEwen fan but you have to give him a tip of the hat for today's performance. He did not panic, his team worked him back to the front and he positioned himself perfectly.

The tactics of Quick.Step, Lampre and Milram have to be questioned though. All three teams were at the front setting up the train over the last 10km for their sprinters: Boonen, Benatti and Zabel. However, their speed was not high enough. The basic physics of cyling dictate that if the peleton is moving along fast enough at the end, anyone dropped in the closing kilometers just cannot get back on. Although the three teams were cooperating to some degree at the closing setting up the trains for their leaders, the peleton was not strung out in the long single file line that you used to see for Mario Cippolini in his days at Saeco. The peleton was strung out but clearly was not moving along fast enough to keep McEwen from getting back on and getting to the front and then getting around the lead out men for those teams. Really smart riding by McEwen and his team. Really dumb riding by the others.

Tour Ephemera

Somethings you may have missed:

Discovery Channel is wearing green accented team kit to highlight its environmental program.

ESPN.com's Jim Caple gives you an irreverant explaination of why the Tour is still cool and relevant. Like Caple, I am debating whether it is time to buy a Slingbox so I can watch the last week of the Tour while I am in New York from my laptop.

Pezcyclingnews.com has an interview with Anthony Pope, the man behind ProCycling Magazine's Plastic Peleton People cartoons depicting cycling events with Playmobil people.

Lance Armstrong has released a strong and detailed rebuke of David Walsh's latest doping book.

Tour Preview and Who Will Win?

2007-07-04T23:22:00.000-06:00

Why I am not yet Excited about the Tour Preview

It is less than three days before the Tour de France’s historic launch in London and I really have yet to get excited or interested. It is a combination of factors really. First, with the doping cloud hanging over the sport, it has been tough to get excited about the most important race in the world when the media and even race organizers seem to surmise that everyone is cheating.

Second, organizers have shied away from some of the more classic stage finishes. While different is good, a race that included more of the classic climbs and finishes would better link the old with the new and help the race move beyond its recent tarnished history. Throw us a bone. Why not return to Mont Ventoux, L’Alpe d’Huez or have the classic finishing sprint in Bordeaux. Those are classic “comfort” stages.

Third, downhill finishes on Stages 9 and 15 waste the efforts of the riders. Stage 9 climbs the Col du Galibier from the north, which requires the riders to first climb up the Col du Telegraph, which results in nearly 40km of climbing over what is arguably the longest climbing section racers ever face in the Tour de France. However the short finishing climb into Briancon comes after a 35km downhill and almost trivializes the effort.

Fourth, the time trials will be boring. The opening prologue is almost too long at 7.9km as it will likely result in time gaps that will prevent the frequent changes of the yellow jersey among the sprinters the first week. With the start in London, Saunier Duval’s David Millar and Cofidis’ Bradley Wiggins will be gunning to win at home. The first individual time trial does not come until after the Alps in stage 13, but comes the day before the first stage in the Pyrenees. At 54km, it is quite long and will result in significant time gaps. Stage 19 is similar as it is even longer at 55km. Neither are particularly technical, so look for big time gaps as the strong time trialists should be able to put 4+ minutes on the climbers like Rabobank’s Michael Rassmusen and Team CSC’s Carlos Sastre.

Fifth, I have a conference in New York and then family vacation in Washington DC from July 20-29. Versus access is suspect at this point, so why get excited when you don’t have a guarantee that you will be able to see that much of the race anyway. For that reason alone, it may result in being one of the greatest Tours ever.

So who will win?

As is the case most of the time only a handful of teams come to the Tour with reasonable possibilities of having a rider win. So, you can automatically rule out the winner of this year’s race coming from Agritubel, Barloworld, Bouygues Telecom, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Francaise de Jeux, Gerolsteiner, Lampre, Liquigas, Milram, Saunier-Duval. Cofidis, Credit Agricole, and Rabobank will not threaten in the GC but will likely have multiple stage winners, but they likely cannot put a man on the podium either. So that leaves you with the possible winners.

Astana’s Alexandre Vinokourov is the favorite. He has been preparing to be a leader for years and is one of the most aggressive riders in the peleton. His team is focused on deliverying him to victory. He is the second most famous Kazakh in the world, after Borat, naturally. However, Vinokourov has never raced the Tour as a leader and that is very different from racing opportunistically as he has done in the past. If Vino does not win this year, then he probably never will win. I am not sure that he can, however.

Predictor-Lotto’s Cadel Evans has shown good form this spring in preparation for the Tour. He has had good results previously in the Tour, but Predictor-Lotto goes to the Tour to support Robbie McEwen in the sprints and in the Green Jersey points competition. The two long time trials and the lack of a totally dedicated team, probably mean that Evans can finish on the podium but cannot win.

Levi Leipheimer of Discovery is being advertised as the next great American hope. He has been consistent over the years at the Tour showing annual top ten potential when he stays out of trouble. The move to Discovery has paid off with strong time trial results this spring. However, Alberto Contador is probably a stronger climber and Johann Bruyneel’s stated goal of getting him on the podium probably is a reasonable one under the circumstances.

Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d’Epargne is advertised as the next big thing, however, he has yet to finish a Tour de France. You need to finish one before you can win one. Maybe a top 5 is possible although I think his time trialing will be exposed with the 110km of time trials squeezed into the last nine days of the Tour.

CSC’s Carlos Sastre should finish in the top 5 again, however, like Valverde, the long non-technical individual time trials likely preclude him finishing on the podium.

T-Mobile’s Michael Rogers should have no trouble with the time trial as a multiple world time trial champion, however, he has never shown that he can hang in the high mountains. Top ten is likely top five would be a surprise.

So, that brings us to AG2R which is not on any of the lists above. Christophe Moreau is my dark horse. He recently won the Dauphine Libere and capped off the French national championships with his first ever national title. He will race the Tour in the national champion’s jersey. He has twice finished fourth in the Tour and he is a perennial top 10 rider. Since moving to AG2R, he has shown more aggression than he did in all his years at Credit Agricole. He will have all of France pulling for him. Do you think the guys down at the Tour headquarters have noticed that it has been more than 20 years since a French rider won? If ever there was a year where the Tour de France needed a French winner to keep the home crowds and sponsors happy it is 2007. However, Moreau is the only French rider with the remotest possibility of being anywhere near the top 10. 2007 could be Moreau’s best shot ever at winning Le Tour.

A Few Races Have Happened

2007-06-24T21:52:00.000-06:00

There have been a few pre Tour tune ups that have happened over the last few weeks.

Dauphine Libere

AG2R’s Christophe Moreau had one of the biggest victory of his career with his win during last week’s Dauphine Libere. It was his second victory in the important Tour de France warm up, which he also won in 2001. He showed tactical acumen that he has rarely shown in the past. With a win in the stage finishing on Mont Ventoux, Moreau seized the lead and held on for the win. While Astana had a good performance as a team winning four of the eight stages, Alexandre Vinokourov did not show the form you would have to believe he wanted to show for this important Tour warm up. Vinokourov lost significant time in the mountains

While it is important to do well at the Dauphine, past winners have maybe peaked too early and have had Tour let downs. Although Lance Armstrong had won the Dauphine in 2002 and 2003, it has long been believed that his Dauphine victory in 2003 took so much out of him, that it resulted in his smallest margin of victory of just over a minuite over Jan Ullrich in clearly his most difficult Tour victory.

Astana has to be considered one of the favorite teams for the Tour, however, Vinokourov has never had the pressure of racing as a favorite at the Tour. He has performed well in the Tour when he had the ability to be opportunistic. It will be shown whether he has mental strength to win the Tour as a team leader.

Tour de Suisse

The Tour de Suisse ended with a major victory for French-Spanish team Caisse d’Epargne with Vladimir Karpets showing good form in the mountains and in the time trials. Karpets also won the Tour de Catalunya a few weeks before and is a former Tour de France white jersey winner (2004). However, much like the Dauphine, winning the Tour de Suisse is not really a good indicator of potential for winning the Tour de France because winning the “Fourth Grand Tour” two weeks before Le Tour just requires too much effort to keep one’s top form for nearly six weeks and have a team which can successfully defend for the better part of thirty plus race days.

Eindhoven ProTour Team Time Trial

Sunday was also the ProTour Team Time Trial in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Originally created as a way to provide the ProTour with a team time trial to help teams prepare for the Tour de France, Tour organizers ASO torpedoed the significance of the event by elminating the team time trial from the Tour. While organizers of both the Giro and the Vuelta a Espana have both added team time trials to their events, without a eam time trial in the Tour the event is largely irrelevant and has been plagued by a lack of sponsor support and general interest. Most importantly, the race always goes past the Holiday Inn where I always stay when I am in Eindhoven. Note, I have not informed you that Team CSC won the race because, well, it just does not really matter. Most teams send the B Team and no one is going to remember who won this year.

New Stuff I Have Purchased

I bought another bike two weeks ago at my friend’s garage sale. I felt like I was taking advantage of him, but hey, if someone offers me their KHS track frame as well as HED disc wheel for one ridiciulously low price, I will go ahead and take a set of tubulars wheels and Continental tires too. My seven year old daughter expressed her concern as to whether I was spending too much money on bike stuff and not enough on food for our family. Of course she thinks, correctly so, that she probably ought to get the next new bike at our house. So I doubt she will complain when I buy her a new bike for her birthday.

Early Summer Recap

2007-06-10T20:53:00.000-06:00

Giro Recap

Danilo Di Luca proved to be the strongest rider at the Giro and is a deserving winner. Saunier Duval-Prodir had the strongest team with four riders winning stages, the team winning the team GC competition and the king of the mountains competition being won by one of its riders. That said, there really was not a single moment of the race where you honestly thought that Saunier Duval would put Di Luca in jeopardy. He rode a smart race and was a deserving winner. That said, with all of the turmoil surrounding T-Mobile/Team Telekom and the other goings on in Italy and with weekend coverage only available on VS. it was not really easy to get excited about the race. I did however keep the live text recap of the climb up Monte Zoncolan up on my computer at work.

CoreStates/First Union/Wachovia/Commerce Bank Philly Week

With the loss of the US Pro Championship leaving the Philadelphia week in jeopardy as well as the in sponsorship support, it is clear things have changed for what was once the most important week of American cycling. This year, T-Mobile showed up and had a good week, although the T-Mobile men once again showed how to ride a tactically poor race where they had the final train lined up and could not deliver the win on Sunday in Philadelphia. The races have really lost some of their importance and excitement as evidenced by Discovery Channel's notable absence from any of the three Pennsylvania races. They just aren't as relevant or important as they used to be as noted by my lack of discussion of who actually won any of the races.

Maybe France Will Get It Together After All

In case you missed it, recently elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy received a clear legislative and ruling mandate with Sunday's first round of elections for the National Assembly. I think that the poor performances that the French have had in the last twenty Tours de France is a direct reflection of national malaise and a refusal to accept social responsibility. Sarkozy has struck a chord with the French public who are tired of the bureaucratic and economic chirrosis that permates French life. More importantly, Sarkozy's victory is a reflection of the fact that the French public is willing to support his desire to reform French society. So what does that mean? Nothing really, but the current generation of cyclists in France were born and raised during the Mitterand/Chirac eras. Sarkozy has already in just his first few months in office repudiated the notion that France is right to do things differently by pointing out that 40 years of doing things differently in Europe has resulted in an unproductive workforce and a clear lack of national identity. Maybe in 25 years France will be able to celebrate a French champion once again.

Various Things I Have Experienced Recently

1. Cat 5 blowing a tire and then blowing a gasket when no one would give him a wheel at the Tour of Eagle criterium. Dude, the rule "wheels in, wheels out" applies to everyone. It is not like you were leading the Tour de France.

2. Cat 3 indignantly asking where he was supposed to put his schwag bag after registering for the race. Dude, we gave you a couple of coupons, a t-shirt and some stickers. Put it where ever you want it.

3. Lady in pickup truck pulling on to turn 3 of the Tour of Eagle race course and when stopped telling me that "I know the road is closed but I want to go to my friend's house." When asked where her friend lived she noted it was a block away. She was totally put out at having to walk a block.

4. Saturday as I rode in on the final miles of the metric century at the Bob Lebow Ride in Nampa, Idaho (when you help set up and tear down a criterium course the night before, you don't get up to do the full century) I passed a guy whose bike gloves were leather roping gloves, a girl aparently doing the ten mile route in flip flops, and a guy riding a Specialized Allez with a kickstand.

5. For all that is said in Idaho about 2C and 2O drivers, I did not have a single car honk at me, make me think there was going to be an accident, scream at me, or throw anything during the Bob Lebow Ride. Never have either. The folks in Canyon and Owhyee Counties are always courteous and polite clearly recognizing that they have a great event.

The Killer, Rabbits, and the World Champion

2007-05-26T21:36:00.000-06:00

The Killer

Danilo DiLuca showed why they call him the Killer on Sunday. He got tag teamed by Saunier Duval-Prodir and found himself without teammates for much of the last half of Sunday's stage of the Giro d'Italia. However, he did not get anxious, rode a solid race and when the time came to put the hammer to the small group that was with him consisting of Cunego, Simoni, Schleck and Salvoldelli, he put the hammer to them and rode away from them to finish sixth on the stage. Now, his Liquigas team will need to provide more support for him than they have as Saunier Duval has two men in the top ten in Simoni and Ricco.

During the final week teams will start looking to defend their leaders which will provide Liquigas some assistance. Milram's Alessandro Petacchi is leading the points jersey and there are at least two more stages which should result in a sprint finish. CSC's Andy Schleck is leading the young rider competition by less than a minute over Saunier Duval's Ricardo Ricco. As such, Ricco and his teammates should expect CSC to watch them like hawks to protect Schleck, which will benefit Liquigas and DiLuca. Finally. Saunier Duval's Leonardo Piepoli is leading the king of the mountain competition. Although Saunier Duval has hopes of winning the Giro with Simoni or Ricco, if Ricco does not make up time on Schleck and DiLuca then the team will likely aggressively defend the climber's jersey before next Sunday's finish.

However, I do not think that Liquigas will let anyone get too aggressive over the final week and DiLuca has shown himself to be much stronger in the mountains this year than ever before. Stage 16 has climbs in the first portion of the race with a downhill run to the finish with a flat 15km before the end of the stage. DiLuca should lose no time on this stage to the top contenders. Stage 17 on Wednesday will likely be the decisive stage for this year's Giro. With the short, 10km, but very steep, 11.9% average with areas nearly 20%, final climb of the stage is up Monte Zoncolan, DiLuca should be in good shape if he gets to the base of the climb with one or two teammates. He is certainly stronger than any of the other favorites at the moment. With more than a three minute lead on both Simoni and Cunego, DiLuca should win his first Giro.

Look out Bunny !

Saturday was my first multisport race in almost 11 years. I raced the Bucyrus, Ohio YMCA triathlon Memorial day weekend in 1996 and then raced the Edinboro, Pennsylvania Triathlon the following weekend. I have done a few 5k's since but my multisport days ended with the birth of our first child.

Last summer I finally decided that I needed to get control of my diet, exercise and career. Since then, I have lost 70 pounds and last month I started running again regularly. I figured a good test for my new fitness would be Boise's Camelback Duathlon put on by the YMCA. The short course had a short 2k run followed by a 15k ride and a 2k run. I can run 4k and the bike is not a problem so I submitted my registration on Monday.

Tuesday morning I bent down to pick up a set of plans off my floor and decided just to kneel down and look at what I needed. Right then my right knee crumpled and I felt a knifing pain through my righ quadricep. I went over writhing in pain on my office floor. I did my best to stretch my right leg out but i was rather concerned about whether I had just kissed $39 away. Tuesday night I went to the gym just to see if I could get the right leg to relax a bit. The pain continued but as the week went on I felt pretty good by Friday afternoon.

Saturday morning I rode the three miled from my house to Camelsback Park. Eventhough Saturday was supposed to be fairly warm and the race did not start until 9AM, I decided to wear my Nike bib knickers due to the additional support and warmth they give my legs. It was a good decision because they did not end up being too hot and did not constrict my run.

So, how did it go, and where is the bunny? I started the opening 2k like I typically do in a duathlon. I run from the very back of the pack because I am really slow. I don't really run. It is more of a waddle. I passed a few grandmothers and found my pace with the heavy guys. I ran a slightly slower than 10 minuite pace for the first 2k. Then, I had a very solid ride. This last week I converted my old Trek 1220 road bike into a dedicated time trial machine. It is much heavier than my new Trek 5200 and it only has a 7 speed rear cassette. I put cowhorns on it and my aero bars. I had about 45 minutes total of training on it prior to the race. So I was very happy with my performance.

The first two miles were up Bogus Basin Road which is a very constant climb. Then you got to turn around and come back down. I was going 8 miles an hour going up hill but 38 miles an hour coming down. About 400M after the turn around, I just tucked into my aero position and was really pushing my biggest gear, when a small grey rabbit ran across the road in front of me. We made eye contact and I think he knew we were both gonners if he did not move faster so he did. I would hate to think what would have happened to both of us if I had hit him at 30+ miles an hour. Anyway my hear rate spiked and I just flew down the hill rode a solid time trial and got back to the transition area to be greeted by my wife and two youngest children. We high fived and I went out and ran an 11 minute mile pace for the final 2k.

Now, I have lost 70 pounds this last year and now weigh about 198. Had I sandbagged, I could have still raced in the Clydesdale category. I was tempted to register for the Clydesdale category but my fear was that race officials would catch me as a sandbagger who raced with weights in his pocket just to race in the big guy category. I am glad I did not, although I would have won the shortcourse Clydesdal category. As it was I finished 3rd in the 30-39 men. There were actually 6 men in the category so I did not finish 3rd by default. Had I realized how well I had done, I would have stayed for my ribbon. As it was, we came home, I took a shower and we went to Lowe's.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Becker Ridge Road.

The long and short courses (30k and 15k) used the same first 12k which included a climb up past the intersection of Bogus Basin Road and Becker Ridge Road before descending back down to Hill Road and then riding along Hill Road to the ultimate turnourounds for both courses. As I pushed my way up the Bogus Basin climb, I heard the distinctive sound of a disk wheel coming up behind me. Boise's own world champion Kristin Armstrong came flying by me in her world champion kit. It was really cool. She rode the 30k course almost 9 miles an hour faster than I rode the 15k course. She was part of a relay that of course had the fastest time of the day. My eyes glazed over as my hear rate spiked as I rode up Bogus Basin Road because I don't recall seeing her come down the hill.

Unnecessary, Unseemly and Revolting

2007-05-17T22:29:00.000-06:00

I don't think that I am going to waste any more time blogging about the Landis doping hearing. Thursday's events at the hearing with Greg LeMond's testimony will reverberate for a long time. Ultimately, LeMond's testimony neither addresses the issues of the science nor does it establish any "confession" on the part of Landis. Landis and his entourage have not acted in the way that you would expect an innocent person to act in this type of matter. I have no objection to his "Wiki defense" or his aggressive attacks on the lack of commitment to due process that WADA, USADA and LNDD have shown in this matter. However, hacking and witness intimidation are never appropriate defense strategies. At the end of the day, it is hard to believe that a guy is innocent where such egregious conduct can be directly attributed to him and his advisors.

Again, as a former prosecutor, I am a firm believer in due process, I am a firm believer in innocence until proven guilty, and I am a firm believer that you have no obligation to incriminate yourself. However, if you are ever accused of anything do not talk, to anyone, at any time. And most importantly, the more you try to cover up things, or appear to do so, the more guilty you look. Cover up always results in bad things.

So if you want to read what is going on go to Cyclingnews.com or VeloNews.com. You are not going to hear any more on this subject from me until I get this horrible taste out of my mouth.

The Giro and Dope

2007-05-13T20:41:00.000-06:00

The Giro Starts

Saturday was the start of the Giro d'Italia with a very difficult team time trial. Many of the teams criticized organizers for creating a stage that was not really suitable for a team time trial as the course wound over and between the islands of Caprera and Maddalena. An undulating course which crossed the road between the islands, the results showed it was difficult as few of the teams were able to keep their riders together. Astana rode a good race for its team leader Paolo Salvoldelli but Liquigas won the stage.

It was not without some internal controversy however, as Liquigas' sprinter Enrico Gasparotto crossed before team leader Danilo Di Luca and took the first pink jersey. Although the team tried to play down the result claiming it was intended, it appeared that Di Luca was quite agitated at his team mate for failing to let the team's GC leader take the first pink jersey. Discovery had a solid ride, but team leader Yaroslav Popovych crashed in the final kilometer and the team finsished fifth as it had to wait for its leader and fifth rider on the road.

Sunday's stage ended with a sprint finish which was taken out by Predictor-Lotto's Robbie McEwen. The Giro follows a difficult course with a mountain top finish on Tuesday's Stage 4, which could set the GC for most of the rest of the race. A short stage of 150km the final climb is approximately 17km and averages 5%. The Giro's organizers have put similar stages as early in prior editions and with no clear strong favorite, it may not be too decisive, however, it is potentially difficult enough to end someone's Giro if they are not paying attention.

Dopes Part Un

The cycling world was rocked early this week as news reports indicated that Ivan Basso had confessed to Italian authorities that he had doped and had been involved with the key targets of Operacion Puerto. Within 24 hours, however, Basso had indicated that he had only confessed to "attempted doping" and that all of his major victories had been clean.

As a former death penalty prosecutor, I can tell you that I have heard a lot of excuses for why people do the things that they do. The ones who iritate me the most have always been those who confess to their wrongdoing and minimize what they did based upon the claim that while they attempted to do something they did not follow through. Evidently Basso is not naming names, however, I would have had a lot more respect for him had he said nothing after he had confessed his involvement other than to say his confession spoke for itself.

Basso's admission appear to open the door to others as Michele Scarponi also confessed to his involvement in the scandal to Italian officials as well. This appears to be the crack in the wall of silence and denial as press reports indicate that some thirty Spanish cyclists are seeking to make a deal with Spanish authorities to accept bans in hopes of returning to race by next year's Vuelta a Espana. So it appears that there was merit to the Puerto investigation and at a minimum some of the implicated riders are now ready to come clean.

Dopes Part Deux

There have also been reports that the non-Spanish ProTour teams are considering a boycott of Spanish ProTour races if Spanish authorities do not move more quickly to resolve the outstanding issues regarding the eligibility of certain riders implicated in the Puerto matter. Althought the Vuelta a Espana organizers have claimed that they will not let any rider implicated in Puerto start its race, there seems to have been a very laissez faire attitude to the participation of Spanish riders and teams implicated in the scandal. Vuelta organizers have also bemoaned the lack of action against Spanish riders and have noted the quicker action by other federations and nations outside of Spain.

What is most disconcerting however, is the fact that while stating that they are concerned about doping in the sport, Vuelta organizers have stated their desire and anticipation that Alejandro Valverde will start the race this fall, even though Valverde has been identified as a rider whose blood was seized in the Puerto investigation and showed evidence of EPO treatment. While Valverde is the biggest name in Spanish cycling at the moment, Vuelta organizers cannot have it both ways.

Dopes Part Trois

The Floyd Landis doping hearing starts Monday. Landis fired a major shot across the bow of WADA and USADA alleging that they offered him a deal if he would implicate Lance Armstrong in doping during his Tour de France victories. Landis' take no prisoners defense has started to get attention outside of the cycling media as evidenced by these articles in Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. I do not know if Landis doped or not. If he did then he is one of the most stupid people ever to compete in sports, with his kamikaze ride to regain the lead and having been in yellow previously, Landis knew or should have known that use of testosterone would more likely than not be detected.

The whole matter has been unseemly and will not result in an outcome that anyone can be confident will result in the correct outcome. From Dick Pound's salacious comments, to the appearent sloppiness of the French lab, to the apparent lack of due process in the retesting of Landis' B samples by the same French lab that found the initial positive test, to Landis' claims that USADA is just using him to get to Armstrong. I have come to the sad conclusion that while most of the Puerto riders, including American Tyler Hamilton, probably are guilty, the Landis matter reeks of a witch trial where the top doping officials in the sport either conspired to create the scandal or ignored the very safeguards intended to protect the innocent. Either way, no one wins, and no one will ever be sure what happened with Landis.

Getting Ready for the Giro

2007-05-06T21:01:00.000-06:00

Tour de Romandie Recap

Former Giro d'Italia winner Paolo Savoldelli of Astana showed that he should be a contender for the GC this year, as he won the opening prologue of the six day Tour de Romandie, the final stage race tune up before next Saturday's start of the Giro. Although Rabobank's Dutch phenom, Thomas Dekker won the overall with his win Sunday in the final 20km time trial, Savoldelli showed strength in both the prologue and final time trial, where he finished second, as well as Saturday's queen stage when Savoldelli finished fifth behind the group of Dekker and Lotto-Predictor's American Chris Horner and two other riders. Horner wore the leader's jersey for one day but finished overall in fifth after he lost almost a minute on the time trial. All in all, Savoldelli has to be a favorite for the Giro. He is on a strong team, he has had good results, and he has won it before on just pure guts. Dekker also returned to the form that caused many to say he was the next big thing two years ago at the age of 20 before injuries sidelined him last year.

Operacion Puerto Update

The news early this week was Ivan Basso's requested release from Discovery Channel. This gave Discovery an out leading up to the Giro with its team leader having seen the investigation into his relationship with a Spanish doping ring reopened in Italy. Already, small Italian team Amore & Vita McDonalds has expressed its desire to sign Basso. Although the team's ownership rails against the big time evils of drugs in sports, the timing of the announcement was likely just a publicity stunt for the team sponsored by the Catholic Church's anti-abortion program and the American fast food giant.

Spanish news outlets are also reporting the impending relase of another, larger dossier implicating another fifty cyclists, among whom are reported to include some of the largest names in the sport. It is unclear why these documents were not previously released with the prior documents but they promise to keep the scandal on the front burner.

In other Puerto news, Alejandro Valverde who has continued to race this spring as rumors surrounded him as to his link to the scandal is now being linked to EPO tainted blood recovered in the investigation. Although blood purportedly belonging to Ivan Basso has been identified by media sources as not containing EPO, Valverde's blood has now been identified as blood which showed evidence of EPO boosting. Regardless of whether EPO is used or not, blood transfusions are banned.

Here is the latest from Cyclingnews.com's archive on Puerto.

The Little 500

ESPN.com's Page 2 had this excellent account of Indiana University's Little 500, which inspired the great cycling film, Breaking Away.

The End of the Classics

2007-04-29T20:52:00.000-06:00

The Ardennes Classics

This week represents the end of the Spring Classics. With last Sunday's Amstel Gold Race followed by Wednesday's Fleche Wallone and today's Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the most important one-day races from the first half of the season come to an end. This is typically an opportunity for the GC men for the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France to test themselves and each others. The "Ardennes Classics" are as hilly as the "Flanders Classics" are flat. Although, the climbs of the Belgian and Dutch countrysides are usually significant enough to break things up, this week's races were almost an exact replay of last week's Amstel Gold Race. Large groups in good conditions brought danderous breaks back very late in the gam eto put a large group of the men you would expect to be at the front for these races together at the end.

Wednesday's Fleche Wallone ended with the peleton together for the third and final climb of the Mur de Huy. Although the Mur de Huy has areas approaching 20% it is only about 1.5km long so while it breaks things up on the final results, typically, the final attacks of the leaders only occur over the last 500m. Gerolsteiner's Davide Rebellin rode a solid race and found himself at the base of the final climb with the expected protaganists, DiLuca, Valverde, Kesler and Schleck together at the end. Ultimately, Rebellin easily rolled to a six second victory over Valverde and DiLuca.

Today's Liege-Bastogne-Liege almost seemed to be a replay of Wednesday's race. The leaders stayed together and out of trouble until the closing kilometers of the race. All of the expected contenders stayed together and watched each other as they raced back to Ans outside of Liege. Again with about 500m to go, the leaders attacked and Liquigas' Danilo DiLuca was able to ride away from Valverde and Schleck.

So, what do we take from this week's races? First, the men you expected to be strong were strong. The top ten from the Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege were almost identical. Rebellin, DiLuca, Valverde, Kessler, Schleck all had good results. Rabobank and Saunier Duval-Prodir both had strong showings over the races. Second, the races were almost boring. The big riders all road defensively in the peleton, with largely unthreatening breaks getting away for most of the day, only to be brought in at the end. Third, Danilo DiLuca is in good form and will likely be in good form for the Giro d'Italia. He still probably cannot win a grand tour but he will contend for the podium and should spend some time in pink. Fourth, Liege, Belgium looks an awfull lot like Akron, Ohio. Having traveled through Liege a few years ago, its absolute ugliness cannot really be described.

Puerto Update

Italian doping officials reopened their investigation of Italian riders implicated in Operacion Puerto, in particular, Ivan Basso. With Jan Ulrich's blood having been matched to his DNA, Italian officials are looking to do the same and determine if any of the blood seized by Spanish officials was taken from the riders named by judicial officials. As a result of the reopening of this investigation by Italian officials, Ivan Basso has been removed from competition and is likely done for the season barring absolute proof that his blood is not in any of the bags held by Spanish police. Basso's season is likely over. Discovery Channel is in the hunt for a new sponsor and is not likely to go to the mat for Basso if it were to threaten its start at the Tour de France, the only race Americans care about. Levi Leipheimer was originally signed to be Discovery's GC leader for the Tour. The signing of Basso earlier this year resulted in some serious friction at Discovery Channel among the team's remaining few Americans, Leipheimer and Hincapie. Leipheimer has shown excellent form this spring at the Tour of California and the Tour of Georgia. Discovery has shown team strength at significant stage races this spring and the loss of Basso will not be a negative as both Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador provide strong GC riders for the Tour.

My Big Ride

Saturday marked the most significant ride I have taken in a long time. I rode to Bogus Basin, the local ski resort here in Boise. It is twenty miles from my front door to the parking lot at the base of the resort. The base is about 6,100 feet so the climb results in about 3,600 feet of vertical gain over fifteen miles. It is a long constant slog up the mountain. The first half of the climb has the steepest climbs. The second half, is fairly constant although it is not an easy ride finally flattening out over a couple of miles. What is amazing is the fact that the winner of the race typically does it in around 55 minutes. It took me about twice that to do it yesterday. However, I have been able to make some climbs over the past few weeks that I have not undertaken in several years. Thanks to a lighter bike and a signficant lighter me, I have been willing to undertake some challenges I have not ridden in close to seven years.

Amstel Gold Recap

2007-04-22T16:03:00.000-06:00

Amstel Gold Recap

Steffan Schumacher of Team Gerolsteiner won the 2007 edition of the only Dutch classic, the Amstel Gold Race. On yet another unseasonably warm day, the peleton rode under clear sunny skies as the peleton raced through multiple laps and turns in the southeastern region of the Netherlands, in and around Maastricht, finishing in Valkenburg on the famed Cauberg.

Once again the mild weather changed the race a bit as most of the peleton stayed together far longer than had occurred in the past. An early break of no-names went away early and with about 50km to go, Jens Voight of Team CSC and last year's second place finisher Stefan Wesemann of Wiesenhof, who was also fresh off his Paris-Roubaix podium, attacked in what looked like could have been the decisive move of the day when they bridged up to the early break. However, they did not stay away even though Voight and Wesemann certainly are strong riders who have shown strength in these types of races.

The peleton ulitmately shook things up and the final move came on the Eyserbosweg which was the twenty-eighth climb of the day. In the decisive move was an elite group of former winners, including Gerolsteiner's Davide Rebellin, Rabobank's Michael Boogerd, Liquigas' Danilo Di Luca as well as Paolo Bettini of Quickstep, Matthias Kessler of Astana and Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d'Epargne in the group. However, this group of strong men spent the last 20km watching each other and riding defensively with Gerolsteiner's Rebellin and Schumacher in the group.

As the potential victors watched each other as they raced towards the finish on the Cauberg in Valkenburg, Schumacher attacked with about 3km to go and road away from the group and to the win. Dutch favorite, Michael Boogerd failed in his attempt to win as he was left covering the riders in the chase group and finished fifth on the day. Boogerd has had an impressive career at home with one win, four second places and two thirds over the last ten seasons at the high point of the Dutch season. Boogerd has announced his retirement.

The "ride" of the day may have to go to last year's winner Frank Schleck of Team CSC who crashed hard with about 50km to go but managed to ride hard back to the peleton to finish the race in 10th. Cyclingnews.com's account of the race does to provide some detail of the amount of "assistance" that Schleck received from his team car, but the video stream covered his chase back closely and even the race commentators had to note that Schleck seemed to be getting an inordinant amount of assistance. The race commissars did not sanction Schleck but probably could have for improper assistance.

Tour of Georgia Recap

Discovery Channel showed dominance again this week at the Tour of Georgia. The race was over on GC after a thirteen man breakaway put twenty nine minutes on the peleton. Discovery won three stages with Gianni Meersman won Stage 3, Levi Leipheimer won the individual time trial in Stage 4, and the climb to Brasstown Bald, Georgia's highest point on Stage 5. Discovery's Slovenian all arounder, Janez Brajkovic, was in the Stage 3 breakaway, had a strong time trial in Stage 4 and spent the rest of the race marking Team CSC's Christian VandeVelde ultimately winning by 12 seconds. Discovery's Tom Danielson also looked very strong on the climb to Brasstown Bald, finishing second to Leipheimer.

Like occured in the Tour of California, only Toyota United was able to steal a stage win in Stage 2 away from the European based teams with Discovery, Predictor-Lotto, Team CSC and Tinkoff Credit Systems getting the rest of the stages. The gap between the european teams and the domestic US teams is still very large. The Stage 3 gap created a somewhat distorted GC with thirteen riders gaining 29 minutes on that stage, including many of the smaller domestic teams. However, the reality is that the domestic teams are still far removed from even the weaker teams that Saunier Duval, Tinkoff and Predictor-Lotto sent for the race.

#$%@# Global Warming and Subaru Drivers

2007-04-15T21:21:00.000-06:00

Global Warming Sucks

Well, Al Gore is right. Global warming is a catastrophe waiting to happen, and truth be told, this week's unseasonably warm and dry conditions ruined my favorite week of bike racing. With temperatures in the 80's, no rain, and nothing but sun, the Northern Classics were lacking everything that makes them both northern and classic.

Now, I cannot fault the winners of the races this last week. Ballan at the Ronde, Burghardt at Ghent Wevelgem and O'Grady at Paris-Roubaix all road strong races and were deserving winners. Ballan and O'Grady are certainly riders who have shown in the past that they could win these types of races. However, the conditions were too good for races of this caliber and the fact that large groups stayed together right up until the last 20km of both the Ronde and Paris-Roubaix evidenced that fact.

However, Team CSC's Stuart O'Grady rode an excellent race on Sunday to become the first Australian winner of Paris-Roubaix. He did not panic after a flat in the Arenberg Forest, latched on to Tom Boonen's group and followed what proved to be the decisive attack at about 30km to go. O'Grady then powered away to win by a minute over Rabobank's Juan Antonio Flecha and Wiesenhof's Steffen Wesemann. Boonen again lacked the legs he has shown in the past and none of the main Belgian protagonists showed anything today.

Team CSC once again showed why they are such a great tactical team. Team CSC had excellent numbers at the front of the race throughout the day. They covered the dangerous breaks and made strong attacks that put everyone else on the defensive. T-Mobile continued to show throughout the day that even with a retooled team, their tactical acumen still is pathetic. They once again had the numbers and failed to capitalize in the Hell of the North. Maybe it is the pink kit that keeps them from winning it.

Still a great race and O'Grady is a very deserving winner. But I really prefer the race when the temperature is in the 40's, it is raining, and it is an all day long war of attrition. When you see spectators in mini skirts and flip flops, you know that global warming has claimed yet another casualty.

Subaru Drivers Suck Too

After an exhilarating ride Friday afternoon after taking the day off to work in the yard with my wife in celebration of our 16th anniversary, I was brought back to reality by a fool in a Subaru as I rode down Idaho Street at 5:30 pm. Now, this individual may just be an idiot, but Subaru drivers tend to be rather sanctimonious about their outdoor bona fides and their love of the environment. Take a look here at my friend, Bike Boy's blog entry earlier this year where he had an exchange with a self-righteous Subaru owner.

Anyway shortly after climbing all the way to the end of the pavement on Shaw Mountain Road (800 feet of elevation gain over 2 miles with segments at the very bottom and the very top of the climb at or near 10% grades) for the first time ever on my road bike, after taking the steepest approach to it (Haines Street to Shenandoah Drive), something I had only ever done on my mountain bike using the full capability of my compact triple, I was accosted by a guy in a white Subaru at 6th and Idaho who did not like the fact that I was riding along with traffic on the right side of the road. He was the second idiot that day who had decided that me riding along with traffic somehow precluded them from getting where they wanted to be. Now, when you are riding at 20-25mph in traffic you are not slowing anybody down and not making anybody late.

While turning to give him a long "Lance glare" I refrained from pointing at him or showing him who was number one. But that did not mean that I was going to not protect myself from SubarDude. So, I moved over to the center of the lane to make sure he did not try to put me into the parking strip and held my line. When I crossed Capitol Boulevard, I dropped into the bus lane, sped off and chuckled as SubarDude was left in the mess that occurred at 10th and Idaho as a result of the closure of two lanes at rush hour for construction. I think he may still be stuck in traffic.

I do have to give thanks, however, to the school bus driver and the construction worker who patiently waited at intersections along my climb leaving me the right of way as I struggled through two of the steepest segments of the climb. They got a smile and a waive.

Easter in Flanders

2007-04-08T21:49:00.000-06:00

De Ronde Recap

Sunday was an unusual Tour of Flanders. With sunny weather and warm temperatures, the conditions were not going to dictate who won. That did not keep Gerolsteiner riders from falling off their bikes however. Crashes did take their toll as an early crash probably kept Tom Boonen from getting his third title.

I was somewhat disappointed with the Versus coverage today. I went to my cousin's wedding in Salt Lake and when you share a hotel room with your two little boys, you cannot fire up the laptop and watch it live, so I recorded it on the DVR and avoided looking at the results. So when I realized after sitting down to watch it that they only had an hour's worth of coverage and of that hour only about 40 minutes was devoted to actual race coverage and that they only picked up the last 40km. Thus, while it is better than no bike racing and no Ronde, it kind of left me unsatisfied.

Anyway, Lampre's Alessandro Ballan had a great day as he rode the type of Ronde that proved why it is a classic. He had been riding well all spring and has showed good form. After covering Boonen's attack on the Muur of Geraardsbergen Ballan rode away with Predictor's Leif Hoste. The two got a lead and worked well together. Hoste has come close to winning in both 2004 and 2006 when he finished second. However, the final sprint between Ballan and Hoste proved to be about 100 meters too far for Hoste who looked to have the race won before Ballan came around him at the very end.

Hoste now has three second place finishes over the last four years. That is really hard luck for a Belgian in his home town race.

US Whatever They Called It on NBC On Saturday

In case you missed the race that almost was not, the Belgian weather on Saturday was in Virginia. NBC committed two hours of prime Saturday afternoon sports coverage to the US Open Cycling Championships which was run on a course from Williamsburg to Richmond, Virginia. The first year race had been plagued by management and sponsorship issues. However, they had the A-team out for race coverage with Bob Roll, John Eustice, and Frankie Andreu working the race with Al Trautwig. They had helicopters and motorcycles providing pictures just like you would expect in Europe. Unfortunately, bad weather delayed the start of the race and some of the domestic teams were upset about having to ride in cold, snowy and wet conditions. The course was more difficult than some of the domestic races that get run with cobbles and climbs making it Belgium like over the closing circuits in Richmond. Symmetrics Svein Tuft won the race. It is good that the race got TV coverage. However, poor weather, poor organization, poor racing and poor spectator turnout made the race less than appealing to watch on TV.

Domestic Sponsorship Blues

With the excitement permeating American cycling last fall with everyone announcing their big races, the concerns I expressed then about saturation in the market and sponsorship issues have come true. The US Open Cycling Championship failed to land a major sponsor and slashed its prize budget by 2/3rds. The Tour of Georgia only got a replacement for Ford last week announcing that AT&T would be its presenting sponsor. The Tour of Utah announced a one year hiatus to get things lined up for 2008. None of this is good for the sport. Many promoters do not realize how expensive putting on top races can be. There is a reason that great domestic races like the Coors Classic, Tour Du Pont, San Francisco Grand Prix and the Ore-Ida/HP Women's Challenge have gone out of business: expenses exceeding sponsorship revenue ultimately doom even the best events.

The Best Week of the Year

2007-04-05T23:47:00.000-06:00

My focus this week has unfortunately been on my legal practice. It made me miss Criterium International, which is one of my top ten favorite cycling events. It made me ignore last weekend's great racing in Flanders with both Boonen and Freire having impressive wins. It made me miss the NCAA finals. Yes the law really gets in the way of cycling.

However this next week is the one week of the year that I live for: this Sunday it is the Ronde van Vlaanderen, Wednesday, Ghent-Wevelgem, and next Sunday, Paris-Roubaix. That is like having Christmas, your birthday and your anniversary all in the same week. It is the week you wait for gleefully each year.

So for you neophytes, here is what you need to know about each:

De Ronde Van Vlaanderen: If you are Belgian and you win this race you will not have to buy your self for a beer for a year. If you win it twice you won't have to buy a beer every again. The winner of the Ronde, if he is Belgian is a hero for ever. They have an entire museum dedicated to this single race. While luck is important, the Ronde produces winners who have earned it. There are no flukes here. It is a race of pure aggression where each cobbled hill further reduces the size of the main group. It generally does not end in a sprint.

Ghent-Wevelgem: This is the entertaining intermission next Wednesday. It is the transition to Paris-Roubaix. Not as many of the hills as De Ronde, shorter, crazy stuff likely to happen. It produces great sprint finishes. Mario Cippolini won this race three times, including in 2002 when he bridged to the leaders on his own and outsprinted Americans Fred Rodriguez and George Hincapie.

Paris-Roubaix: If the Ronde is a race of pure aggression, Paris-Roubaix is a race of pure power. Not a single hill on the route. Pan flat. Riders head northeast from Compiègne to the Belgian border and then take a left heading northwest. The cobbled sections are not like in the Ronde where they are well maintained. These are farm roads and alleys. This race requires a monster chain ring, a strong team and a lot of luck.

So, if you have not already done so and you are in the United States, get to Cycling.tv, pay your annual subscription and get ready for the greatest week of the year in cycling.

The Hardmen Rule

2007-03-25T21:15:00.000-06:00

Milan-San Remo Recap

The longest of the Classics celebrated its 100th Anniversary with an exciting and satisfying finish. Oscar Freire, Rabobank's Spanish one day rider once again showed that he is one of the smartest and most competetive riders in the world. I have sung his praises in the past because, when healthy, he is consistently one of the strongest riders there is today. He is not necessarily as fast as the absolute fastest sprinters and does not necessarily have the strongest team support. He consistently keeps himself at the front, picks the right wheels to follow in important races.

Freire has won three world titles, two Milan-San Remo titles, consistently wins Grand Tour stages and sprint stages in minor tours. But for back problems that have plagued him most of his career, Freire probably could have had significantly greater successes. Clearly he is the best Spanish classic rider of the current generation. While Feire rode an excellent race and beat an excellent field, the day was most impressive by some of the shows of strength by the peleton.

With Boonen, Petacchi, Zabel, McEwen and O'Grady all finishing in the top 10, it was a strong field and a strong sprint. However, Milram and Petacchi need to be concerned with his recovery from last year's freak accident during the Giro d'Italia where Petacchi broke his kneecap. Even "Ale-Jet" conceded after the race that he does not have the speed he used to have. Milram set everything up perfectly for their leader and he could only muster a top 10 finish.

World Champion Paolo Bettini got caught behind a crash on the Cipressa, the second to last climb, some 30km before the finish. Bettini is racing with broken ribs and has had a couple of rough weeks. Yet, he raced back to the leaders and animated things on the Poggio for his teammate Boonen.

Discovery Channel's Yaroslava Popovych attacked on the Cipressa, then attacked again when caught on the Poggio. It was the type of move that really showed how strong Popovych is this year. I think the jury is still out on whether Popovych can be a GC contender in the Grand Tours, however, he has shown himself to be a much more opportunistic rider this year than in years past.

Saunier Duval's Ricardo Ricco, is really young but has had a good week coming off of a good showing at Tirreno-Adriatico. He had told the press he would attack on the Poggio and after Popovych was caught attacked and nearly got away to the finish with Francaise de Jeux's Philippe Gilbert. They unfortunately were caught before the finish but made the peleton race hard to bring them back.

Nasty Crashes

Gerolsteiner suffered two nasty crashes in the race that put two of their riders in the hospital. The first, David Kopp, went down hard and suffered facial injuries. TV did not capture the crash, but any time you see a rider lying on the ground and his bike is nowhere to be seen you know it was a bad accident. The second, Andrea Moletta, suffered a broken leg. Moletta had been in the attack with Popovych initially, however, coming around a curve, he could not hold his line and ploughed directly into the concrete utility pole seen at the right of the linked photo. He took the utility pole head on ending up stradling it and being whipped around. Maybe if Gerolsteiner had more manly kits, the asphalt gods would not be so hostile to them.

Better Coverage?

Today's two hour broadcast on Versus gives me some hope for the future of cycling broadcasting in the United States. Phil Ligget and Bob Roll did the race commentary as you would expect. However, Versus ran a profile and interview of Paolo Bettini and also had an interview with Charlie Wegilius of Liquigas on what it is like riding for Filippo Pozzato. Next week is Criterium International which should have more Americans racing in it but if today's coverage is any indication, Versus may have realized that banking all of your cycling coverage on one or two Americans may not be the best way to build a long term audience.

This, That and the Other

2007-03-17T22:13:00.000-06:00

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.

The Real Season Begins

2007-03-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

This needs to be a really short post because I am in the midst of multiple Idaho Supreme Court appeals and am getting ready to go the the Seattle International Bike Expo this weekend with Mrs. Cycliste Moderne.

The Real Season Begins

Saturday marked the begining of the real European season with the first major Belgian races of the year: Saturday's North-South traverse of Flanders, Omloop Het Volk, and Sunday's East-West traverse, Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne. Fillipo Pozzato and Tom Boonen won the races respectively and both are worthy winners and will be in good form for the rest of the Spring Classic season, assuming we have any racing.

The Stand Off Continues

Friday's meeting of the council of ProTour teams failed to result in any action, other than for the teams to sternly announce their displeasure with both the UCI and the Grand Tours. Something will have to give by next weekend's start of Paris-Nice, otherwise the season will be thrown in to turmoil. Unfortunately, it will be the riders who suffer from this stand off. My prediction: the French and German teams disregard the UCI's warning and show up for Paris-Nice. The Spanish, Belgian, Italian and remaining ProTour teams hold out and boycott Paris-Nice. Ultimately, the UCI will blink and the ProTour will be dead as the sponsors will demand their teams race.

Boise Bike Swap

This year's Boise Bike Swap was something of a let down. Now, I have bought bikes at the event each of the last two years and in the years prior to that purchased a lot of parts. This year seemed to be poorly advertised. Additionally, the selection of bikes was not as good as in years past. Finally, even the selection of used parts and components was disappointing. Maybe my recent purchase of a Trek 5200 clouded my judgment but others I talked to were of the same belief. At least my parents managed to sell their older 5 speed tandem. They bought a brand new Raleigh road tandem at last year's event and decided to part with their old red tandem. Of course they only sold it in the parking lot after they picked it up after it failed to sell at the swap.

A plague o' both your houses

2007-02-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

"A plague o' both your houses"
-Mercutio
--From Romeo and Juliet (III, i, 94)

Mercutio had it right in Romeo and Juliet when he cursed both the Montagues and the Capulets. We all should sit back and say the same thing to the UCI and the Grand Tour organizers as their actions threaten the start of the season. For those that have not been following events and how we got here or who have not taken time to review all of Cyclingnews.com's archive, here is the Cliffs Notes version:

Former UCI President Hein Verbruggen organized the ProTour in an attempt to provide greater assurances to sponsors of top cycling teams entry into the top events; increase the television revenue; and provide greater control over the top of the sport.

The ProTour replaced the former Division 1, Division 2, Division 3 structure the UCI had maintained which had resulted in some lower quality European teams in the top division of the sport, but the top races did not necessarily invite all of the top teams. Sponsors would bet everything on getting into the Tour de France and when they did not, sponsorship would dry up midseason resulting in turmoil for riders.

The ProTour structure was intended to provide greater professionalism and greater consistency for teams. ProTour licenses would be for multiple years and would entitle the holders of ProTour licenses entry into all the top races. ProTour teams were required to meet certain requirements in terms of finances, roster size, and ethics.

The ProTour replaced the World Cup which consisted of one-day races as well as the UCI's confusing ranking system based upon a rolling point system over the course of two seasons.

Races given entry into the ProTour calendar would include the Grand Tours, the World Cup one day races, and the important secondary stage races.

Immediately, teams and race organizers began voice their objections. No longer would the Grand Tours be able to show the domestic bias they had in inviting teams. Historically, the Giro d'Italia was primarily Italian and the Vuelta a Espana was primarily Spanish. Although the Tour de France was historically the "Super Bowl" of cycling, it typically invited minor French teams. The Grand Tour organizers would have their own selection requirements which frequently resulted in the exclusion of quality teams with strong results.

Historic races excluded from the ProTour calendar were limited as to the number of ProTour teams that they could invite. Additionally, because all ProTour teams were required to race all ProTour races, when there were overlapping ProTour events, even with the larger ProTour squads, ProTour teams were stretched thin and quit racing races that they historically had participated in Portugal, Spain and Italy.

That had an impact on television coverage as national TV channels were no longer interested in covering national races when the top national teams were racing at that time in the ProTour races.

So how did it play out?

Some smaller races have gone by the wayside.

Television coverage and sponsorship has increased for the big events, decreased or ceased for smaller races.

The organizers of the Grand Tours have seen their power increase as a result of the fact that the three organizers, the ASO, RCS and Unipublic, actually promote and control the most significant races of the year: Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Fleche Wallone, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana, Paris-Tours, and Tour of Lombardy. These races constitute well over 100 days of racing and are controlled by three entities.

The Giro and Vuelta have balked at having to invite teams that really have no interest in participating in their race. The Tour de France has balked at only being able to select minimal wild cards.

From the beginning, the Grand Tours have declared their independence from the ProTour.

This year the ProTours announced that they would recognize not the 20 ProTour teams designated by the UCI, but rather the 18 teams that existed at the end of last season, and would put into place their own structure for points, prices, and invites for their races in the future.

To start this season the ASO announced the invited teams for Paris-Nice and excluded the newest ProTour team, Unibet.com. Similarly, RCS announced the teams for Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo and also failed to include Unibet.com.

The Grand Tours and the UCI attempted negotiations to end the impasse last week but those negotiations broke down in acrimony.

With just over a week to Paris-Nice, the UCI announced that ASO could not exclude Unibet.com or it would not sanction the race. The ASO announced that it would sanction and run the race under the auspices of the French Cycling Federation. The UCI announced that its regulations precluded the participation of ProTour licensed teams and Professional Continental teams (the second tier of professional teams) were prohibited from participating in nationally sanctioned races.

Of course the French ProTour teams have now announced they will ride Paris-Nice while the rest of the ProTour teams have announced that they will not.

Thus, Mercutio had it right. "A plague o' both your houses." The Grand Tours and the UCI are screwing up big time.

Tour of California

In case you have not watched or followed any of the Tour of California here is the recap:

Vs. has had excellent television coverage this year. The production quality is better than ESPN's coverage last year and it has been on at reasonable times.

The race has upgraded the competition with the inclusion of Liquigas, Quick.Step, Rabobank, and T-Mobile.

Levi Leipheimer has led the race since winning Sunday's opening prologue in San Francisco.

Team CSC has been very strong and very aggressive. Their team tactics have put Discovery in difficulty during Stages 3 and 6 where Team CSC has aggressively put riders into breakaways that have left Discovery chasing for most of the day without much help from the peleton. Discovery has defended well. However, letting Jens Voigt get away in Stage 3 and Stuart O'Grady get away in Stage 6 when both were well positioned on GC, represents a tactical error on the part of Discovery. Discovery spent a lot of time and manpower shutting down long breakaways that threatened Liepheimer's lead.

The domestic American squads have largely been pack fodder. The top domestic squads, Health Net, Navigators, and Slipstream have tried to flex their muscle but have been no real match for the European ProTour squads. The smaller squads have done virtually nothing.

Team CSC and Discovery are clearly the most disciplined teams in the world as evidenced by their collective performance in the Solvang Individual Time Trial where the two teams had the top nine riders on the stage.

Domestic teams frequently have hideous uniforms: Jelly Belly, Priority Health, and Slipstream should be fined for bad fashion sense. However, Liquigas is pretty bad this year as well.

Discovery clearly brought a strong team with the intention of winning, however, for the Grand Tours, Discovery is really going to miss Slava Ekimov who retired this year. I really do not think that Discovery has the horses that it has had in years past. They don't seem to have the roleurs that they have had in the past.

Sunday Update: Adding to the herculean effort of Discovery Channel on Saturday was the fact that George Hincapie actually broke his arm in the crash early in Saturday's stage. He finished the stage and provided the strength the team needed to defend Liepheimer's lead. Sunday, Hincapie had surgery to put a plate in his arm ending his Spring campaign. Hincapie will not contest Paris-Roubaix in the stars and stripes jersey which is unfortunate.

Update on Landis

Reports from the Los Angeles Times indicate that there is evidence that the French lab that tested Floyd Landis' sample, which was found to have an impermissible testosterone ratio, may have violated WADA protocols for testing. If true, the Landis test may be invalidated as was the case for Inigo Landaluze whose positive EPO test was thrown out for the French lab's similar violation of protocol in 2005. We will see if this is really a story with legs.

The Season Begins

2007-02-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

President's Day weekend is typically my "unofficial" beginning to the cycling season. The last couple of years we have spent it at the Seattle Bike Expo. In prior years I have used it for the first really big ride of the year. The European season really starts to ramp up mid-February. The last couple of weeks have been a real grind at work. I have had numerous public hearings, appellate briefs, mediation events, and other projects which have consumed most of my time. I had a significant brief due on Friday and I did not get it done early enough to get a ride in Friday. Anyway, I have not worked at all this weekend, although I will work on Monday to get a jump on things. Here are assorted news, thoughts and stuff for your President's Day weekend.

The Tour of California, Part 1

Sunday was the start of the Tour of California with the Prologue in San Francisco. Levi Leipheimer won the uphill prologue for the second year in a row. This year he did it for Discovery Channel. The field for this year's Tour of California is a significant upgrade over last year's event with additional ProTour teams from Europe participating. Even better, the television coverage appears to be much improved over last year's middle of the night, ESPN8, broadcasts. Vs., the home of the Tour de France, is broadcasting this year's race and after one day, the prodution quality is greatly improved. We will see how it goes over the mountains, where last year's coverage kind of fell apart. Here is Cyclingnews.com's home for the Tour of California.

The Tour of California, Part 2

One of the greatest innovations at last year's Tour of California was the Specialized "Angel," America's answer to the Devil seen in Europe. Here is PezCyclingNews.com's interview with the Angel detailing her experiences last year. She returns for a second year. To be "fair and balanced" here is PezCyclingNew.com's interview from 2004 with the Devil.

The Tour of California, Part 3

The Tour of California organizers and sponsors were chagrined this week when they confirmed that there had been no testing done last year during the Tour for EPO in a story by the New York Times. Amgen, the Tour's sponsor, had viewed the race as a way to promote the benefit of EPO for cancer patients while distancing itself from the taint of the recent drug scandals. It appears someone screwed up and based upon past experience and the reporting of Cyclingnews.com, it was probably someone at USACycling.

Will the Riders Boycott?

Team Unibet.com continues to get bad news. Giro d'Italia organizer RCS announced its invitations for Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and the Giro d'Italia on Friday, omitting Unibet.com from the list of participating teams. Unibet.com became a ProTour team after Phonak withdrew from the sport. The Grand Tour organizers had announced that they would only recognize and invite the 18 ProTour teams left at the end of last season. The Spanish team that was Liberty Seguros and then became Astana ultimately was reforumlated as a Swiss-Kazakh team and recieved the other ProTour slot for the season. Astana has been given a "wild card" into the Italian races and is a much more attractive team than Unibet.com. Cyclingnews.com had an interesting article about the responses of some of the teams to Unibet.com's exclusion from the ProTour races so far this year by RCS and ASO. If the ProTour teams do not show solidarity and actually show up and race Paris-Nice after the exclusion of Unibet.com and if the UCI fails to take some action, then the Grand Tours will have won and the ProTour will be dead. If the teams boycott the opening ProTour races, Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, then they will once and for all show a maturity in the sport that has never been shown before. Regardless of what happens, I expect a train wreck.

First Family Ride of the Year

Saturday was sunny and in the mid 50's here in Boise. Andrew and I replaced the old 650C tires and tubes on his Fuji road bike I bought last year, which even though just a 43cm frame was too big for him. We put on the odometer he received from his grandparents as a Christmas present and he, Kristin and I went for a family ride on our road bikes. We had our Cyclista.com jersey's on over longsleeves. We ended up going nearly 18 miles on the first ride of the year and Andrew's bike handling skills have greatly improved. The first nice day of the year is always the most dangerous in Boise as you have to dodge the twice-a-year Greenbelt crowd who dust off the Wal-Mart specials and take to the Greenbelt with all 26 kids in tow. Either that or you have old folks on cruisers who think you can ride two abrest. Once we got past Municipal Park we were alone with the more serious riders. One dude even asked which club we rode for, I told him we are the corporate team for Cyclista.com and he thought that was cool. No one cried, no one complained of pain, and Andrew did his best Marco Pantani impersonation riding up Amity road to Federal Way as he struggled to get up the hill in his smallest gear.

I am Glad People Ride, but Really . . .

Last Wednesday night, heading home in rushour traffic, I passed a family riding from the Albertson's grocery store on Overland down Orchard. They had been shopping and the mom had one kid plus the groceries in her trailer. I like seeing families out on their bikes, but it was a cold day, none of the kids had adequate coats on to be riding. None of them had a helmet. The kids were probably 6 and 8 and were weaving down the sidewalk ahead of the mother who was talking on her cell phone. Unfortunately, this was a situation with an accident waiting to happen.

Random Thoughts When You Do Not Have Time

2007-02-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

Well,

I am in the midst of a really pressure packed period at work. With multiple public hearings, appellate briefs, and other important meetins, as well as a speech at BOMA Boise's Commerical Real Estate Symposium this week, I have not had a lot of time. So here are some odds, ends and random thoughts:

Discovery Channel Ends Sponsorship

Discovery Channel is ending its sponsorship of cycling at the end of this season. While the company has indicated it was a decision driven by internal marketing objectives and a major management shakeup, the current toxic environment in cycling could not have helped.

You Have Got To Love The French

Gambling is a waste of time and money. Gambling preys upon those least able to afford it. The gambling industry has amazingly convince much of the world that throwing money away on what is inherently a guess or luck is in fact entertainment. However, you have to shake your head at the French. French authorities have barred ProTour team Unibet.com from wearing their jerseys in the opening races in France this season. So Unibet.com has raced in France with a question mark jersey. Now, French authorities could do it for the fashion travesty that is the team kit of the Swedish-Belgian team. Instead French officials have barred the team from advertising the online gambling site because such gambling violates French law. Nevermind the fact that Francaise de Jeux, used to be FJD.Com and is the French lottery and gambling site, or that PMU is an official sponsor of the Tour de France and is off track parimutuel betting, that Predictor Lotto, is sponsored by the Belgian national lottery and that Unibet.com's predecessor Mr.Bookmaker.com raced throughout Europe before the team was rebranded.

What Would The Response Have Been If They Weren't Teammates?

The European cyclocross season is coming to an end and there is always animosity among the riders, even frequently on the same team. However, you have to wonder what Richard Richard Groenendaal's reaction to Sven Nys' recent victory would have been had they not been on the same team.

Dick Pound Gets Slapped Down

WADA chief Dick Pound was reprimanded this week for his vocal criticism of Lance Armstrong and allegation that Armstrong won the 1999 Tour de France as a result of performance enhancing drugs. No word yet if he will have to write on the blackboard 100 times "I will try to be impartial and not defame cyclists" when he gets sanctioned for his tasteless comments about Floyd Landis.

On Cyclocross and Las Vegas

2007-01-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

US Dominance at Cyclocross Worlds

This weekend was the greatest showing ever by Americans at Cyclocross Worlds. With Jonathon Page taking Silver in the Men’s Elite final after riding a dominant race, Katie Compton taking silver in the Women’s race, and Danny Summerhill taking silver in the juniors, it was the greatest weekend the United States has ever had in any world championship event. All three were in contention for the victory until the bitter end. All three over came poor staring positions due to their respective rankings.

Page came back from an incredibly disappointing early season as he found himself in early October with an injured shoulder from a fluke accident which resulted in surgery. Without the ability to race and earn UCI points until December, it was a miracle that Page was able to get to the front of the race as early as he did on Sunday.

Compton similarly lacked UCI points which put her farther back on the starting grid. She too overcame the poor starting position to dominate the race. With more experience racing at the top levels, Compton should be able to become America’s first women’s world champion in cyclocross.

Even more exciting is the UCI’s confirmation that the United States will host a world cup race next fall. The world cup season will kick off in the United States in October.

They don’t ride bikes in Vegas except inside the Aladdin.

I was in Las Vegas this weekend for meetings for the commercial real estate trade association I am the president of here in Boise. The weather was perfect with temperatures in the low 60’s. We were staying out at the JW Marriott Resort which is on the northwest side of Las Vegas in Summerlin. While the roads in and around Summerlin are posted with bike lanes in the western hills above Las Vegas, I only saw three cyclists in four days. Of course all three were bundled up like it was a snowy day in Belgium. What a bunch of little girls.

The only other cyclists I saw were the pedicab drivers and garbage guy inside the Aladdin who rode their cab and garbage bikes through the streets of the Aladdin’s “bazaar.” Although there is talk of having a criterium in conjunction with Interbike, I just don’t know where you would have a criterium in the vicinity of the Strip. I guess they could race up and down the faux Champs d’Elyssee entrance to Paris, I just don’t know where they would go when they turn left. Now, you certainly could set up an awesome cyclocross course in and around the construction sites along the Strip. Maybe an indoor cyclocross course starting inside the Bellagio, heading through the construction site to the south and then racing into the Monte Carlo and back again would be the perfect course.