Well it is good to see Vino back in the saddle. I can believe reports that he is riding with a lot of anger. Let us hope that he can make the Tour of Germany interesting. I would usually put all my money on Vino in a Vino/Levi race but Vino has been out of the picture for some time and that is going to have to hurt.

More Levi news, it seems that Levi signed in a leader role with Discovery. Not sure about the logistics of that move. Levi has been doing better lately, but he is getting old and Discovery already has a stable of 'Levi' level riders. I think they should have either gone with 'old and proven' or 'young and tonnes of talent'.

Dear Lord please get rid of this doping issue

As I go to sleep tonight please let this whole doping inquiry end quickly. I do not think I am strong enough to go through another Tyler 'I'm gonna appeal' Hamilton episode. Floyd's B-sample is supposed to be tested by Monday. Oh I hope it is done on time and it comes back negative. Not because I think Floyd is not guilty (I do not think one way or the other) but because I do not want to see article after article about Floyd's fight with the UCI, WADA, and the USADA. I just want to see the big boys ride at the big races.

Don't try and tell me that big boys who cheat should not be at the races. They got rid of the 'cheating' big boys for the Tour of France and....hey...what do you know there still seem to be problems of people doping. What I want is for God himself to come down and put his fear into any one who dopes, that seems to be the only way to get rid of the problem.

Here is a surprise. Dick Pound was criticising the UCI. Well done Dick! Please explain to me how the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency has the cojones to get up on stage and throw mud at the UCI about doping. I am pretty sure the UCI does everything it can to catch the dopers, they use all of the tests that you provide, you know, the ones that don't work. Dick you need to get rid of that law degree and hit the lab, maybe pick up a chemistry degree along the way. Once you develop a useful test, pass it on to the UCI and then if they do not use it...well then you can start lipping off.

Excellent video

check this out for some midday dreaming

Why doping will not go away

It seems that here in North America our biking education is approaching a level to see that dope is almost as necessary as the bike to win a big race. With the last three grand tours being won by someone who has been touched by the suspicion of doping, not to mention others that were on the podium, it is hard to ignore it.

What to do about it? It seems that the UCI pays lip-service to catching dopers and, as we see, sometimes does catch them. However, the ones that pass all the tests but still dope seem to be the part of the iceberg that is under the water. When riders do not say 'who dopes' but 'who does not dope' it forces you to step back and re-think things.

It is apparent that testing riders only catches the minority. The dopers are always one step ahead of the testers. Even if a rider does get caught he usually comes out on top. Tyler Hamilton will not have to work another day in his life if he does not want to (well not unless he develops a dope problem of a different nature). Jan Ullrich, if found guilty, is also set for life. The financial incentive to dope is large. Doping has been around since at least Anquetil’s ‘the Tour cannot be won on mineral water alone’ time but probably not at the same level that it has gotten to in the last couple decades. Money and cheating mix like gin and tonic.

Some say that doping should be made legal. That does seem like an easy solution. However, following that idea to its logical conclusion results in an unacceptable conclusion for the UCI.

Doping being legal would lead to riders doping more. More doping would lead to some crazy riding (which would be great to watch), but eventually there would be a death. That could be swept under the carpet, but then there would be another death and another until the carpet had such a bump that we could no longer ignore it. The deaths would make bad publicity for the sponsors. The sponsors would pull their money, and the financial incentive to dope would be gone. Sounds like a good result. However with the sponsors no longer bank rolling the sport, the sport would lose its profile. A reduced profile results in a lack of power for the UCI. The actions of the UCI suggest that it is a collection of power hungry guys. Since they currently have the power to ‘ye or nay’ any decisions about what is done in the fight against doping, I find it hard to believe that they would do something that would result in a reduction of the influence they wield over anything. The UCI will never make doping legal, not because of the moral argument but because of the self interest argument.

You cannot catch the riders if doping is illegal and you cannot make it legal.

How can the sport be cleaned up and the UCI maintain its influence. As previously stated the financial incentive needs to be eliminated. This may seem extreme but why not make the riders post a bond. As long as they stay clean the bond is safe. If they want to risk it and dope then they also run the risk of losing the bond. If they are found guilty of doping they do not ride off into the sunset counting their money. Instead they end up like any average Joe would if he was found cheating at work, no job and no money. The amount of the bond would have to directly correlated to the rider’s contract to ensure that the ‘big boys’ end up in the same position as every one else.

The only way to clean up the sport is eliminate the financial incentive to cheat. Good luck getting the riders to agree to a bond.

Landis and the dope

The awful mist of scandal continues to fall on the Tour of France with Landis being the latest victim. The story is that he tested positive for high levels of testosterone. Only the A-sample has tested positive so the press is constantly reminding us that he is not guilty yet, but I think the people who believe this should go talk to Ullrich.

It is no surprise that Phonak is getting out of cycling. It seems that any grand tour they do well in ends up with them getting the call from the UCI later on; Hamliton, Perez, Gutierrez and now Landis. I cannot see how all this bad publicity is helping their brand.

Hopefully Landis' B-sample turns out to be negative. I don't think any one wants to go through another set of appeals 'a-la' Hamilton. Let's also hope it is negative so that Phonak can at least enjoy one of their grand tour accomplishments.

Let's hope that iShare has a better stomach for this business.

Serious bike skill

Wow, check this out for some serious bike handling skill.

Ullrich and Discovery

I can only imagine that the addition of Levi to Discovery's team means that the search for a GC contender is over. I do not understand why Discovery went with Levi though. Discovery has one of the best names in the ProTour and has an excellent chance of signing any rider they set their sites on. There is the Levi is American connection, however Discovery has stated that they are an international team. You would think the American part would work against Levi as they already have a number of American riders.

The main missed opportunity is Ullrich. Word on the street was that Ullrich was in talks with Armstrong. I guess you can say that the train has not left the station, but why bring on Levi to ride as a super domestic for Ullrich. Discovery has a whole stable of super domestics, they do not need to be adding to it. What they need is a guy with an engine big enough to win the Tour. That is a limited number of people and I don't think Levi is one of them. Basso is loyal to CSC so he will be a hard guy to pick up, not to mention that CSC is probably the only other team that can match Discovery as a team. Landis is staying with Phonak, soon to be iShares, and seems to be very happy there. Vino will feel loyal to his countries president and will not jump ship to another team. That basically leave the Jan.

Who knows maybe I am wrong and Discovery is trying to put together a dream team of cycling.

Well it seems that Levi does not think the Ullrich thing will happen. (see Leipheimer happy with Discovery Channel move)

Well done Spanish authorities!

Seems that Vino could have given the Tour a go after all. Wow I have to say excellent timing. The Spanish authorities present documents that look poorly on over half of Vino's team right at the start of the Tour of France and then less then a week after the Tour ends we find out that the documents do not even stand up enough in court to start to try and charge the riders.

I am sure Vino has been punching a few holes in a few walls lately. He is probably thinking...Landis, I could eat that guy for a snack. Landis is getting all the glamour for taking a page out of my book. I think it is in chapter twelve - The Suicide Attack. I wrote that book!

As a spectator, I feel a little cheated also. Don't get me wrong I think it is great Landis won and he is a true champion with a champion's season. It is hard to come down on a guy whose season includes wins in four tours of which two are solid tours and two are up and comers. Any way you look at it Landis has had a stellar season. However, I would have liked to see Landis fighting it out with Vino, a worthy competitor.

Next thing we are going to find out that the documentation against Jan and Ivan is equally crappy and they should have never been kept out of the Tour. Hopefully the Spanish legal system will be equally quick with their cases and we will get to see the giants do battle in the Vuelta. hmmmm....if I was a conspiracy theorist one might think maybe the Spanish authorities are clever little devils and concocted the whole thing to bring up the prestige of the Vuelta.

Crazier thinks have happened.

Just got back from a ride and enjoyed it so much that I decided today was the day to move my passion for riding onto the web. I have been riding for twenty years and basically have been mountain biking since the beginning, not California ride my ten-speed down gravel roads beginning, more the 'what the hell are you crazy people doing riding on my hiking trails. I better get organized and get you off them' beginning. I originally was a roadie but when I went into a bike shop in 1989 to buy a new road bike somehow I walked out with a mountain bike, a Kona Lava Dome with Suntour X-1 groupo. It had a 2.1 tire on the front and a 2.0 on the back and, being the rookie I was, I decided to ride it to my parent's home which was about 400 km away. I pushed those knobbies 150 km for two days in a row and then 100 km the third. I don't know what I was thinking, except obviously, maybe I should have put slicks on for this trip.

The Kona Lava Dome got stolen and was replaced by a Rocky Mountain Stratos which was stolen and replaced by a Rocky Mountain Hammer as a commuter and a Rocky Mountain Blizzard for the trails. The Hammer is still a commuter and I am currently riding a third generation Blizzard. However as age makes itself better known my reactionary ways are starting to fade and I am starting to realize (I am a slow learner) that full suspension is on the horizon. I was one of those rider who believed that suspension took away the 'truth' of the sport. The suspension hides the connection to the trail. When I was twenty I loved the connection, now I believe the connection could use some serious hiding. The trails I ride tend to be substantially bumpier than the trails I rode 15 years ago.

I ride in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. We ride twelve months of the year and sometimes we are lucky enough to ride in shorts on Christmas day. My passion is bikes, both road and mountain, with a slight preference for mountain. I like riding up hills more than going down them (I know a dying breed). I follow road racing fairly closely, mainly the European circuit.