Could they be for Real?

Check it out.  T-Mobile moved American Bob Stapleton to head up the men’s pro-cycling team.  Does this mean that T-Mobile will actually have some intelligence in the way they race?  No more suicide attacks, no more attacking their own riders?  What fun will this be?

T-Mobile also announced that they will put the “Worlds Greatest Climber, Rolf Aldag” in the position of director sportif.

Pretty strong moves.

DickHead Pound

I hope that when (if) Floyd is exonerated he has an Amstel on the grave of this Frog Scumbag.

PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling: "Dick Pound Shoots Off At The Mouth Again
For this to happen in your marquee event, that�s a stunning indictment of the state of the sport. They have a huge problem, a really serious problem, but first they have to recognize it. It's like an alcoholic. Unless you acknowledge you have a problem, it's very hard to move toward a solution, as the infamous Dick(head) Pound is quoted in Juliet Macur and Carla Baranauckas' article on Landis' case today in the New York Times."

TESTosterone

Floyd Landis is on the hot seat and I don’t think this can end well. First, if Floyd cheated, it is a continuation of a bad precedent for cycling. Second, ifFloyd didn’t cheat, the testing methodology is flawed and many other riders have gotten screwed by this system.

Velonews had some interesting comments this morning:

The T/E ratio can vary widely within individuals, and in some cases the T/E ratio may be above the 4:1 ratio without doping while others can stay below the threshold despite cheating. The ratio tends to be constant over time, but wild swings may indicate doping. Other factors can cause swings in the ratio, such as dehydration, fatigue and even alcohol.

The T/E ratio is not a sure-fire way to measure testosterone in the body, but it's the only detection method currently used under anti-doping controls.

I would bet that Floyd tests positive on his second sample and is subsequently stripped of his title. I would also bet that he has his “endocrine” test performed; if not already. If Floyd has a naturally occurring high T/E why wouldn’t there be a baseline already established? As it states above, T/E ratio is relatively constant within individuals.

Like I said before, this will not end well.

Changes

As you might have noticed, I have been fooling around with the Mastheads and Footer. I picked up a few photoshop tips that have helped to liven this stuff up. Hope you like the constant changes and don't forget to check out today's footer; it might be one of the more clever layouts that has come to me.

Fat Jan to Discovery Channel - Could it Be?

Velonews is reporting that Jan Ullrich has had talks with Discovery Channel about riding for Disco next year. How bizarre would that be? The only thing that would hold Jan back from being a great Disco is his ability to accept failure. To be a proper Disco (or Banshee for that matter), a loss must totally piss you off. A great example of this would be Floyd’s stage 17 or Lance’s attack of Kloden at the finish of the Col d For Croix. Jan has been second so many times without a single explosion.

Levi to Disco???

Early reports are that Levi Leipheimer will leave Gerolsteiner to join Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.  Not sure that I like this acquisition.  Levi certainly showed some nuts during the Tour.  However, I am not sure that he would want to play super domestique to Popo or Danielson.  Clearly, Levi wants to be a captain riding for the overall win.  Maybe Disco is thinking that they need to replace Eki with Levi??

Bob Cook on Fire

A very good friend of mine raced in the Bob Cook this last weekend.  What is wild is that she won her age group.  Check it out.

 

CW 50-59

   1   Jewsbury, Wendy                       2:57:17

   2   Alexander, Ruth                            3:01:03

   3   Feeney, Kathy                              3:20:54

   4   Dekoster, Lisa                              3:30:44

   5   Torrence, Claudia J                       3:36:22

   6   Yeiser, Ellen                                 3:39:42

   7   Thompson, Joanne                        3:54:33

   8   Brown, Nea                                  4:14:14

 

Disco Announcement

I got the following from Reeeeeshard regarding a Disco announcement for tomorrow:

Both Johan and Discovery Network President Billy Campbell thanked the riders for their efforts and promised that the team would be back in its winning ways soon. And because you're a faithful reader of this column, I'll tell you to look for a major signing announcement Tuesday morning, US time! It's big and you're gonna like it…

GUESSES?  I'll say Valverde or Cadel Evans.  No basis for making these my picks, other than Disco needs a GC contender with no baggage.  Levi's too old.  Floyd re-upped with Phonak for a year.

I’m gonna go with Kloden or Rodgers.  They have got to hate the fact that T-Mobile’s tactics keep them from winning a tour.  Furthermore, with the drug scandal wiping out their sportif, it might be a great time for change.

Allez Floyd

Do you remember this one?



Got to love it. How cool to see Floyd throw'n it down at the TdF. In my mind, the best part might be the fact that he did it "American Style". It ain't over till its over.

Also, did anyone notice Jean Marie le Pig's irratation on the podium when he had to crown another American as the champion? I wonder what he said to the Mayor when they were chatting on the side of the podium.

I find it shaming to be as a fax number treated

So Fat Jan got canned today.  Seems the Mobiles asked dude to produce some evidence to contradict the Operacion Puerto evidence.  I am not sure that this is completely fair to Jan; but then again, I don’t know the facts.  What I do know is that Worldlingo.com is quite possibly the coolest tool on the net.  I punched in Fat Jan’s official statement to be translated to English and got this beauty.

The notice of T-mobile is not acceptable for me. I am very disappointed over it, that me this decision not personally, separate by the T-mobile-lawyers only by fax one communicated.

I find it shaming, that I after so many years of good co-operation and after everything which I for the team did, as a fax number is treated.

This is priceless gibberish.  I don’t care that I can figure out what he is saying.  The literal translation is poetry enough. 

Christophe Moron...er Moreau

Check out the link to the video of Christophe talking about Floyd.

Christophe is stupid

American tactics?  Hey Christophe, when was the last time Frog tactics worked?  I used to respect this guy when he rode hard for Credit Agricole.  Now it seems that he had his brain transplanted with rocks.

 

Double Monarch TT

Take a look at the profile of tomorrow's key TT stage.

At just over 35 miles on a curvy course, this looks a lot like a double Monarch. Now all the pundits are saying, "this is Floyd's tour to lose" I am not so sure. Remember, Floyd did a psychotic ride to save his chances. Sastre could just as easily do the same thing tomorrow. Sastre also has the advantage of starting right after Floyd. It ain't over till its over.

On another note, did anyone see that Fat Jan is without a team? T-Mobile dropped the termination into the fax machine this morning.

Another great stat from yesterday's stage was that Floyd took 70 water bottles from the team car. In honor of Floyd, I think I will do the same thing with my work day.

HOLY YELLOW JERSEY

I got this note from Redlight after today’s stage:

IS THAT JUST INSANE, OR WHAT?

 Dirt, looks like Five Card will still owe you money.  30 seconds is nothing in the TT.

 Now, here's the question:  Roberto Heras did something similar in last year's Vuelta (Menchov second, Pereira third).  We all know Heras is now busted.  Is Floyd on something?  EPO is known to blow recovery out of the water...  And since he is most likely retiring anyway, did he juice to win and run????  Boy, I'm a skeptic.

The first thing that comes to mind is that Redlight is still so friggn Euro!  Innocent until proven guilt my friend.

On the serious side,  Redlight poses the great question, “how could someone actually ride that hard?”  I would like to think that Floyd rode that on shear will and aggression rather than some undetectable performance enhancing drug.  Mind you, I thought Tyler was innocent.  But Floyd didn’t ride very hard yesterday.  Also remember how fast the dude was in both time trials.  If Floyd had a team that could climb, there would not be any question.

Lastly, I think we should start calling Floyd, Dr. Panache!

 

Col du Joux-Plane - Floyd Style

What an incredible stage!  Floyd shows the world that cyclists are studs and that he has a “never say die” heart.  I had to tear myself away for an early meeting but was able to listen to the last 5k of the Joux-Plane to the finish over the phone.  I also loved the post on the TdF website:

16:57 - It’s All Downhill Now Floyd!

Landis has reached the top of the final climb of stage 17. He is going to follow in the footsteps of: Greg LeMond, Davis Phinney, Jeff Pierce, Andy Hampsten, Lance Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie and Dave Zabriskie... the other Americans to win a stage at the Tour.

Makes me proud to be an American!

Drug Free and LOVE'n it

What happens when you take the drugs out of professional sport?  An even playing field with completely unpredictable results.  This is so cool and thrilling to watch.

A great example is today’s stage;  FLOYD what happened?

 

Bombs

How cool to watch Schleck take the stage on l’Alpe d’Huez.  Certainly I would have loved to see Floyd put the hammer down in a commanding fashion but he does not seem to be that type of rider.

Besides watching Disco get blown back to the Stone Age, did anyone notice how many T-Mobiles there were on the top of the hill?  Kind of makes you wonder if you were able to keep Fat Jan off the juice if dude might just have won the stage/tour today.

PS – Note to Disco…….get some climbers.  You’re performance is an embarrassment.

Beautiful Ride; but not for Verbrugghe

Hammerson and I got out for an early spin up to the Tech Center.  Pretty cool riding main streets that normally are jacked with cars.  We climbed the Yosemite Bridge over I-25 which is short and steep.  Normally cars are flying across this but at 6:45 am, not a soul in sight.

 

The same couldn’t be said for the breakaway in today’s Tour stage.  I would have expected somebody to sweep the sand out of that corner before the Tour got there.  Might cost Verbrugghe his career just like Beloki on the same road.  Did anyone else notice the fourth rider that skidded in that corner?  It’s not hard to imagine all six going down on that turn.  Stupid Tour.

The Party Line

In a response to a question posed at Velonews, Bontragger had this to say reagrding George's failed steerer tube at Paris-Rubaix:

Technical Q&A with Lennard Zinn: Landis's drivetrain, Hincapie's steerer, Thomson stem and chain-pin replacement: "After careful analysis of the broken parts, as well as replicating the failure in our test lab, it was a convergence of issues that combined to cause the failure, with the predominant factors being George's first crash earlier in the day and the brutal nature of Paris-Roubaix itself. "

Puhleeeez! A steering tube ought to survive a crash and continue riding on Rubaix.

Delete the dope and what do you get..

…Tour de France 2006! 

Phil Ligget had an interesting comment on last night’s pre-race show.  He suggested that maybe the reason that the tour was so up in the air was that most of the strong riding dopers got bounced the night before the race.  What an intriguing thought.  Now I hardly believe that the entire peloton is clean.  But consider for a moment that there does not seem to be a clear “bad ass” after two weeks of riding.  Consider also how many riders and teams are getting uncharacteristically shelled on the climbs.  While there could be many other reasons that The Tour has unfolded as it has, Ligget’s comment is especially curious in that dude has been watching tours for 30 plus years.

Faster than a speeding cement mixer

Rolled Monarch this morning with Hammerson.  Warm day with a headwind going up hill.  The most notable moment of the ride was the decent of the double hill.  We were making about 40 mph downhill when a cement mixer passed us.  The draft was so big that it sucked me to over 51 mph.  That speed carried all the way through the little rise before the middle school.  What a thrill!

Gin and Tonic

Some German newspaper is reporting they have the contents of Fat Jan’s doping schedule.  If this is true, it is hard to believe anyone would stuff this into their bodies; unless of course they were sipping it by the pool.

“On the first day, according to the SZ, the hormone HZ was listed, the second day insulin I-3, the hormone TGN and cortisone, the third day TGN and PCH (a testosterone shot), on the fourth day HMG, a hormone mixture, a "rest day" on the fifth day, the sixth day insulin I-3, and on the last day, the re-infusion of his own blood, as well as insulin I-3 and vitamin E”

Bizzzzzaro World

Stage 11 and who would have thunk it!  Levi finishing with the leaders, Disco getting totally shelled, Iban Mayo DNF and Horner in danger of not making the cut.  George at 46^th!!!  Dude, pedal already.

FYI – I have a bet standing from a week ago that Landis would win it all.  It is looking good halfway through.

 

Notables:

2. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Gerolsteiner, 00:00
3. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, 00:00
4. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 00:17
5. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 00:17
9. Andréas Klöden (G), T-Mobile, 01:31
15. Azevedo José (P), Discovery Channel, 04:10
16. Gilberto Simoni (I), Saunier Duval, 04:10
26. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery Channel, 06:25
33. Damiano Cunego (I), Lampre, 10:03
35. Christian Vande Velde (USA), CSC, 11:08
36. Mickael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, 11:08
46. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, 21:23
50. Paolo Savoldelli (I), Discovery Channel, 23:04
64. Egoi Martinez (Sp), Discovery Channel, 27:45
101. Pavel Padrnos (Cz), Discovery Channel, 35:47
102. Viatceslav Ekimov (Rus), Discovery Channel, 35:47
104. Benjamin Noval Gonzalez (Sp), Discovery Channel, 35:47
117. David Zabriskie (USA), CSC, 40:32
148. José Luis Rubiera (Sp), Discovery Channel, 44:20
154. Christopher Horner (USA), Davitamon-Lotto, 44:20
Did Not Finish
 Iban Mayo (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi

 

 

Farm Tube scores

It is always amazing when a break works.  Juan Miguel Mercado of Agritubel wins Stage 10 of the Tour by cutting around Dessel in the final 200 meters. 

 

First, what the heck is Agritubel?  Farm Tube? 

 

Second, how about this quote from Mercado, “I asked Dessel if I could have the stage, but he refused this.”  Yeah, no shit Juan.

 

It must be my capitalist/competitive leaning, but I can’t ever imagine having the guts to ask such a question.

Camera Hog

Who doesn’t love superMario?  Dude shows up to the tour de FRANCE and uses the Italian spanking of France in the World Cup to grab some camera time.  I am pretty sure he is an ‘SC alum.

 

Super Mario

 

Hooray!!!

Bring on the Java. From today's Denver Post:

DenverPost.com - Caffeine gives athletes a leg up, numerous exercise studies show: "Contrary to what many trainers and coaches have maintained over the years, caffeine won't leave you dehydrated and can actually improve your endurance."

Tommy D crushing the second tier

It seems the Tommy D has quietly (although Hammerson noticed) won the Tour of Austria.  The following is from the procyclingnews.com website.  I love how they credit Connecticut as his home town.  Did dude move?

 

Connecticut's Tom Danielson got his first ever GC win on European soil, and the first ever U.S. overall success in the Hervis Tour of Austria. Despite not winning any stage, the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Tour moved to the top of the leaderboard after his excellent performance in Saturday's 31-km ITT and kept things under control in Sunday's final leg, a typical sprinter's stage with no difficulties around, from Podersdorf to Vienna's Rathausplatz over a distance of 129 kilometres.

Crack of Death

Rode Monarch this morning and I am pretty sure that I found the crack that launched Redlight.  It is incredible how many cracks are actually out there waiting to take you down.  I guess I have a renewed hyper sensitivity!

 

I also saw two huge deer and a cop that nailed several speeders.

 

Oh yeah, my time sucked.

Love or Hate?

What do you think of the new mastheads?  As you can see, I have figured out a few cool tricks to make them more interesting.

FW: If only Redlight was a tour rider

From Reeeechard -

Valverde starts training
Alejandro Valverde has resumed training after breaking his collarbone in a crash in stage 3 of the Tour de France. Valverde had surgery last Thursday, and two days later he was able to ride on his home trainer: 10 minutes on Saturday, then half an hour on Sunday. He is being monitored by Dr Martínez Romero, who performed the operation, and is visiting him each day to check that everything is healing well.

Valverde expects to be back on the road in less than 10 days, and he will resume competition after that with the aim of starting in the Vuelta a España on August 26. "I am feeling rather ok", said Valverde, "Even if I really suffer when I watch the Tour on TV. In fact that hurts me much more than my shoulder does!"

 

Will they ever learn

One of Zabriskie’s quotes after the TT.

 

"I was hoping for the win, but sometimes it doesn't work. Honestly, I wish could have seen this course in advance. It was hard to get a feel for it."

 

It is stunning to think that these skinny dudes are paid millions to ride the tour yet can’t find the time to preview the stages.  The route was announced months ago.