'Tis the Season!

--I got another pic on VeloNews! It's one I took at my first kermesse two summers ago in Belgium.



--The EPO era has finally come to an end. No, I'm not talking about Lance's retirement after the coming Tour Down Under. I'm talking about the death of Eugene Goldwasser, the scientist who isolated EPO.

--My friend Dylan has been off all semester at Columbia which means for the last few months he's been freezing. He sent me an email forwarded to him by the Columbia cycling team about calculating wind chill. The sender had gotten frost bite in her finger a few years back. Ouch. Here's a pic from one of his rides.



Anyone else doing any crazy winter training? Let's see it! Snow, sun, rollers, whatever your winter training is send it over.

--Looks like Stybar is in talks with Quick Step. The article says the initial offer was for 525,000 Euros, but that was rejected. Looks like he's probably making about 650,000 Euros a year.

I'm always interested to hear about salaries and budgets in cycling. They aren't as public, at least in English cycling journalism, as they are in other sports. In this article about Team Geox it says the team has an estimated budget of $8m Euros, $2.5m of that from Geox and $2m of that from Fuji. Sastre is reportedly bringing in $2m and Menchov another $1.4m.

--I mentioned in the last post a piece by Johnathan Vaughters. I finally read it all the way through and it provides a really good overview of how we got to the current ProTour ProTeam debacle. Definitely worth reading.

--Basque officials are suggesting fans should be charged for watching bike races. This is me laughing. One of the brilliant Basque officials stated: "Cycling, unfortunately, is a sport that costs much and in which the spectator at the roadside does not contribute financially," he said. Exactly, and that's the way it has worked for the last hundred years. The fan "pays" by looking at all the riders and all the banners and all the lead and follow cars and sees HTC, Cofidis, and in their case a little telco named Euskaltel. Just seeing the brands "pays" for the sport, not to mention the increase in tax revenue when bike races come through.

And it just hit me, I once paid to watch a kermesse in Belgium...

--La Gazzetta has some beautiful pics of the recent Sky training camp.

--One more reason to get a MTB...

--UCI still taking shots at Landis. Guess Landis struck another nerve...

--Here's a cool cycling mag that Jim (@jwbender) sent over. Pretty solid content, plus this issue is free.

--Anyone seen the new Campy electric? It's looking super jank. Definitely doesn't have that killer design like the rest of Campy's stuff.

--Ted King has a new blog post up about riding for Liquigas. I think it'd be pretty fun to ride for an Italian team, that or a French team. Here's another good reason to ride for an Italian team.

--Looks like there's another Clenbuterol positive. This is similar to Colo, the Italian ISD rider who tested positive right after the Tour of Mexico. You'd think after this spate of positives the riders would either: a) stop using Clenbuterol as a drug, and/or b) stop eating red meat. I mean, if your job's on the line...

--Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys the holidays and gets lots of riding in!

Tweet

Rest

--After getting smashed two consecutive weekends I decided I needed to take some time off the bike. This week I just commuted to work a few times with no real rides. I also had about a pound of BBQ between two sittings at Memphis Minnies, after not having eaten meat in about six years. Sunday I got on the bike and my legs felt amazing. They felt better than they've felt in a long time.

There's a slight chance I was just feeling a little of the "clen" from the beef. But more likely is that I actually got some rest. My legs felt so great I'm going to take next week off as well.

It totally got me thinking about training and how after I started working full time and had less time to ride, my legs felt better and I felt stronger. So my conclusion is to rest more.

Anyways, I had planned to ride just out to the beach but then remembered the headlands was open so we did that.



I had never done the full loop since it was closed when I moved to the city. It's probably my new favorite ride. You get up to the top of the nice climb and your view is about what that picture is (I took it from one of the batteries up there). The other side is a one way, single lane road that starts off at 18% grade. You can fly down it without any worry of oncoming traffic. Beautiful.

--Last week I bought up the Bike-Boy.com domain. You can now reach me on either location.

--Good news! RadioShack, HTC, Garmin, BMC, and Liquigas are all coming to the Quizno's Pro Tour (Tour of Colorado)! This is going to be sick! So great to see another top US race on the calendar. I'm already thinking of flying out to catch a stage or two.

--Recently Cyclingnews had a story about a kid named Silvère Ackermann who just retired at the age of 25. His name probably won't ring any bells because he was just on a Euro Conti team (if it does, you're PRO). He has some brilliant and telling quotes.

"I'm tired of cyclists being morally held up as something they're not. The media, politicians, sponsors, the heads of the UCI - often these are people without any morals, they use double language all the time. They ask the athletes to be highly competitive and to respect so-called moral values at the same time. Those who advocate these sort of ideas must be joking, because they would be unable to apply them to their own activities."

After all, people cheat in the workplace everyday. Why would we think that cyclists wouldn't cheat in their workplace? Or baseball players?

Ackermann went out in true Jerry Maguire during the Swiss championship road race this year. "He was part of a race-leading breakaway and could have battled for the national title, but he stopped at the road side and called it quits."

He isn't the only up and coming rider who has quit. This year alone I've seen at least two others. One was an HTC rider named Rasmus Guldhammer. He said he wasn't ready to be a professional yet. The other was Sergio de Lis from Euskaltel. He quit right before the Tour citing family issues.

These are just the riders who got big enough for us to hear it when they quit. There are no doubt countless others who quit long before that. It's unfortunate to see the sport's rising talent quitting for greener pastures. But this is what we should expect. I'm tempted to say that the gains from PEDs are greater in cycling than in other sports, but I don't think this is the case. No matter the sport, massive performance gains can be had from PEDs. No amount of testing or witch hunting will ever prevent the use of these. Anyone who thinks so is deluded. As long as there is a buck to be made on the bike, or swinging a baseball bat, there will be doping. Just like in the workplace.

--Speaking of riders quitting, Oscar Pereiro is quitting for entirely different reasons. The Tour de France winner (after Landis was disqualified) has decided to take up soccer!

--In other news, the Contador decision could come any day now. Let's hear it!

Oh wait, McQuaid says it's not coming before Christmas. Well, bah humbug to you too.

--Okay, I told myself this post I wouldn't be all about doping but this one is pretty interesting. Looks like this Lampre rider and his family has been banned from attending races. This is similar to Basso's sister who was banned.

The interesting part of the article is that the guy is close friends with Petacchi...

--Thor's new Cervelo looks pretty sick.



Cervelo also did a really nice job on the bikes from the Olympics back in 2008.

--Speaking of Cervelo, Gerard Vroomen has some really interesting comments on the recent debacle surrounding ProTour, I mean ProTeam, selections. Basically, teams are in a position of having to guarantee entrance to the biggest races, Le Tour being the most important, in order for companies to give them millions of dollars for marketing, obviously. The problem with the current system is that it's almost a crap-shoot which teams will and won't receive ProTour ProTeam status. This places most teams in a Catch 22. The teams have to sign sponsors as early as possible, but to do so they have to be able to guarantee they'll ride Le Tour. But since they can't guarantee that, they can't get sponsors.

Geox is one case where this has happened recently. You might have heard of them, they signed both Tour winner Carlos Sastre and Giro winner Denis Menchov. Despite these signings they still were denied ProTeam status.

It gets worse, Geox isn't the only team this has happened to. Pegasus, the Aussie team, was also denied ProTeam status and on account of it lost it's primary backer.

This is absurd. As if cycling doesn't already have enough problems getting and keeping sponsors, money is actively being turned away from the sport. Even Bob Stapleton, owner of HTC-Columbia one of the best, if not the best, teams in cycling has trouble getting adequate sponsorship. Given the difficulty in getting that ProTeam spot it should be more expensive to sponsor these teams, meaning the same net amount of sponsorship money goes into the sport. That would be the case if teams could guarantee entry. However, under the current system everyone plays a hand (ie puts money on a team) and the ones that don't get selected just take their money to F1 or another elite sport. No bueno.

Johnathan Vaughters also has a good summary of the problem and its origins.

--In more team news, Team Luxembourg is set to be called Team Leopard. It's named after the management company of Brian Nygaard who put the team together (not those hideous bikes!).

--Here's a cool article Lucas sent me about where bikes are made.

--I'll leave you with this sick video from Velogogo of Ryder Hesjedal.


Ryder Hesjedal Bear Mountain Hill Climb - 2010 Victoria Cycling Series from Media One Multimedia on Vimeo.

Tweet

Lucas Goes PRO

--My buddy Lucas Binder has gone PRO! He's riding for SKLZ-Pista Palace this season. He'll be riding alongside Rahsaan Bahati on his new Time with Campy 11. So sick.

A while back I posted Lucas's race reports on Posterous. If you haven't read any of these, you should, they're fantastic. This coming season his posts will be featured on SoCalCycling.com and I'll repost on Posterous.

--Yesterday I went out with Matt and Oliver and rode for a bit. Only a few minutes into the ride my legs were already feeling sore and I was lagging behind them. I think it's time to take a week or two off the bike. I did this last year for 2-3 weeks.

The ride was really great, despite not feeling so hot. Matt took us up this route that I had never been before, through Mill Valley to the Four Corners. Once at the top they headed to Muir Woods. I peaced out and headed home.



(I've been posting all my riding pics on my Tumblr.)

On the way home I met a guy who just got a custom Parlee, my dream bike. It also had Edge clinchers and Di2. All black. So sweet. One of the most PRO bikes I've seen.

--Last week I sent one of my pics in to VeloNews for their Reader Gallery. This one made the cut!



That was at my first cross race in Belgium last summer. Here are the rest of the pics from that day. I submitted a few more for next week so we'll see if they get picked.

--Speaking of cross pics, Bart Wellens was in a pretty gnarly crash recently...



--Landis has reiterated his statements that doping is easy in the PRO peloton. I think he's probably right on about this. McQauid has fired back calling Landis a "liar."

Isn't that libel? I mean, if Landis can prove his claims, which it sounds like he can. After all, he was caught doping. And by the head of the UCI no less. I mean, can't we deduce who's telling the truth by simple psychology? If Landis's claims are so outlandish, is there a need to respond? And if you do, do you do it with an ad hominem? I mean, if you have nothing to hide.

VelnoNews had an interview with Papa McQuaid this week. He says the Contador case is going at the pace it should and that nothing is abnormal about the process.

--Speaking of the Contador case, if, like me you thought the "tainted meat" defense was original, think again! Apparently a German table tennis player had already used that one. Really? I mean, I know speed walkers are all about the EPO (see: Operation Puerto), but table tennis? No, not all athletes are dopers. Yes, all sports have doping, even the beloved American sports.

--Okay, last piece about doping. I'm not sure why this is news at all but old man Coyle had EPO shipped to his house. This was the Colorado Masters racer who recently got a suspension. Of course he had them mailed to his house, they were bought from Joe Papp's online store.

The part I love, though, is that Coyle felt he was "out of options." I hear you, man, trying to win every local crit can totally wear on a guy. Competitive Cyclist summed it up the best:

Boulder is the Hamptons of endurance sports. Amateurs doping to haul ass up Flagstaff is like Manhattan milfs doing Botox for the cocktail circuit, no? Chuck Coyle, you're pure Americana and I don't resent a bit of it. Desperation to stay young: We're all guilty in our own way.

--I emailed HED last week about getting a new spoke for my Bastognes. They emailed me back on Monday and asked me to send a pic. I sent one back, no response. A few days later I sent a follow-up email asking about the spoke. They replied saying I needed to call in and order one. I emailed back asking about the warranty and they said it was nil because the wheels were older than the two year warranty.

Contrast that to my experience with Sram last weekend. I showed up at a cross race on my road bike. I asked the Sram mechanics working the cross race to check out my right shifter. The Sram mechanic replaced my shifter with a new one and sent me on my way. No questions asked.

Once I get the spoke from HED the wheels are going on eBay. As for Sram, I'll be a lifetime customer.

--Good news, L'Angliru is going to be in the 2011 Vuelta! This climb is unreal. Here's a clip from the last time they went up it in 2008.



I remember a quote from Sammy Sanchez at the time which was something like "I can see the Angliru from my house. I've never ridden it."

--Garmin has unveiled its new jersey and bike. The kits aren't bad, although I love orange. The bikes, however, are awful. Cervelo, cool. Mixing in the argyle on the paint, not cool.

--Okay I'm getting tired but a few more notes. So Cervelo and Garmin combining but a lot of riders, those who weren't clear leaders on either team, in a tough spot. One of these casualties was Daniel Teklehaimanot from Eritrea. This kid was a stagaire for Cervelo but with the team combining he's been left without a team. I saw this kid earlier this year and was really stoked to see him doing well. Let's hope he finds a team.

--Rasmussen is still having trouble finding a team. I'd like to see him find one. In the meantime, his team drama has made for a funny Toto. (You'll have to watch this to get the joke about dancing.)

--Galicia guys weren't being paid, a la Astana '09. I'm not sure how this even happens given each team has to have a bank guarantee. When does it kick in? The guys say they haven't been paid in months. Fortunately a group (I'm not sure if they're associated with the team or not) has agreed to pay the riders.

--Italian Cycling Journal has an interview with Cunego. The interview itself is so-so, but the pics are fun.

--I'll leave you with an awkward one of Simoni and Cunego "chillin'" from Velominati.



Tweet