Teutenberg and Vos, Heads in the Clouds Over Minimum Salary

--On Sunday there was a story on Cyclingnews about Vos, Teutenberg, and Bronzini calling for a minimum wage for women cyclists.

"We're living in the 21st century so there should be equal rights for everybody," said Teutenberg.

"I think we all do as much for the sport as the men do, so why not equal it?" asked Vos.

Yes, there should be equal rights for everybody. But equal rights doesn't constitute equal economic demand.

As many of you know, there is a minimum wage rule for men's cycling. The minimums for men are:

ProTour - €35,000 (€ 24,000 for a new professional)
Pro Continental - €27,500 (€23,000 for new riders)

Given that the men's minimums are quite low, how low would the women's minimums need to be to be feasible? One tenth? And if there was a minimum set for women, what would happen? It's likely more than a few teams would fail because they couldn't afford to run one. It's not an equality issue, it's that demand isn't there.

Back to the men's minimums, there is another issue which isn't mentioned. These minimums are paper only. It's common for cycling teams of all levels to sign riders and never pay them this money. They are given two contracts, one that has the minimum pay on it and one that has $0 on it. The one with the minimum is sent to the UCI and the other is their actual contract. This is how the teams get around the artificially high minimum and lack of economic demand to support it.

In the end, the UCI could enact a minimum salary rule for women's teams, but in the end the women would still end up like most male cyclists: riding for free.

--In my post Tuesday I argued that Renshaw's absence cost the Aussies worlds. I saw Vroomen Tweeting yesterday so I asked if he agreed:

@gerardvroomen
Gerard Vroomen @jstreebin @trackcycling Actually no, I don't think Renshaw would have made a difference. Avoiding a sprint would have.
Sep 28 via webFavoriteRetweetReply

In addition, he had some solid points on what he thought made a difference in his post yesterday.

--The new Giro director plans on balancing out next year's route. The 2012 edition will start in Denmark. The new director, Michele Acquarone, summed up his successor well:

"I think Angelo did a great job at rebuilding the prestige and importance of Italian cycling. He made people listen. It’ll be difficult for me to follow in his footsteps. However perhaps one thing I have to accuse him of is that he made too many enemies. I prefer to get on with people and negotiate. I don’t think that life is just black and white. Most of the time it’s different shades of grey. Of course I’m not afraid to make decisions."

--Speaking of grand tours, next year's Tour will begin a week earlier, running June 30-July 22.

--Next year's race calendar is up! Anyone want to create a Google Calendar with those dates? I'll give you some free swag!

--Despite talk of changes to the rules around clenbuterol, there will be no change for 2012.

--Lastly, Skil adds its name to the list of sponsors leaving the sport. No reason was cited but the team will still exist with current and new sponsors.

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Cav Wins Worlds!!! (And Goss Loses Because Renshaw Wasn't There)

That was so cool to see. I haven't been this psyched about a world champ since Ballan. Apparently he had been after the rainbow jersey all year:

"He’s been saying 'I'm going to put the stripes on the house here, I'm going to put the stripes on the car that way, I’m gonna buy a Harley with a rainbow tank...' so you know, it's always been in his mind."

Goss, who was my wild card, ended up getting second and Matt White was happy with his selection. Whitey was the one who dropped Renshaw from the team because he didn't think he was suited to the course, or as his completely transparent decision indicated, if they won worlds he wanted it to go to someone on GreenEdge.

White says "I think the guys we picked; we could rely on to deliver Gossy in the finish." Except they couldn't. He himself says they "got a bit lost" near the end. I've never heard of Renshaw getting "a bit lost" while leading out a sprint. Here's a thought experiment: Cavendish had the best leadout and won worlds. Goss had the second best leadout and got second. What if Goss had had the best leadout guy in the world?

Instead of saying what a brilliant selection by White to get the Aussies second at worlds, people should be saying his stupid political move cost the Aussies a world championship. Let's hope he doesn't kill their chances at a gold medal as well.

--The UCI has decided to hold off on the race radio issue. Patty says it's because they want to study the issue, although he still disagrees with the teams. Translation: I put together this Tour of Beijing race and in order to get the teams to actually show up I had to give in on race radios. Chapeau to the AIGCP for all its work in keeping the race radios. As long as there's a Tour of Beijing to boycott, there will be race radios...

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Lance Paid Doping Doc

--More details of the Lance's relationship with the infamous Italian doctor Michele Ferrari. The two have worked together for years but last has distanced himself from the Italian after bad press. The doctor has come forth and confirmed Lance was a client.

Speaking of everyone's favorite cancer survivor, what's up with the investigation? The economy has taken center stage, but what about selling bikes for dope?

--In other news, Worlds is Sunday! The course isn't steep enough to favor uphill superhuman Gilbert, but it could still play to his favor if he gets in a break. Cav is on good enough form to win in Britain but we'll see if that carries through to Sunday. Hushovd is up there and Goss will be fighting. Freire has said he'll retire if he doesn't win a fourth world championship. I guess Farrar is around but I don't see him doing much.

I want to see Cav win. I know, I pull for him every chance I get but it'd be cool to see him as world champ. He's my prediction and my wild card is Goss. Wait, it was Goss and then I remembered Sagan. Now that would be cool.

--Meanwhile in Denmark, an errant spectator was manhandled by police during a TT:



--Cancellara surprised everyone and walked away with bronze and
says he has a contract with Leopard. Riis added that he's willing to make up with Spartacus.

--Worlds is headed to Richmond in 2015! The two other bid cities dropped out of the race earlier and it was given to the city represented by McQuaid's brother! Now, I'm not usually one to call foul when it's going my way. That is, unless McQuaid is involved. (Oh and his son just happens to be a cycling agent.)

--Tax evasion, like doping, runs deep in cycling. And it's not just bike racers who are the culprits. Recently, Leopard financier Flavio Becca's home and offices were searched because he's under investigation for tax evasion. Tax evasion? In Luxemburg? Maybe there's more to the merger than we're hearing.

--Levi will indeed be riding with QuickStep-Omega Pharma.

--I'll leave you with this pic of Pouty McPoutypants...



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Interbike Pics!

--Interbike was a lot of fun this year. There was a great race, some cool gear, and even a few PROs. I wish I'd taken more time to look around the expo, though. That place is like ADD overdrive. Every direction has more and more bike gear and you just get lost in a sea of it.

Here are some of the highlights:



These are some sick DeFeet socks made for Cuddles. I tried (many times) to get a pair but they wouldn't budge.



Wood rollers



New shifters from Vision



Big George at the BMC booth



Vittoria podium shoes. I had seen the Mavic ones but thought hey were the only ones who made them.



I saw a guy wearing these Specialized ones as well. Unlike the Mavic and Vittoria ones, you can buy these.



Another in the Liger series. Apparently the guy who commissioned it lives in Jersey. It even included the "Taint Tickler" saddle...







Another super light BH (10.5 lbs)



Matthew Busche and Horner signing posters



Funny pic of Gilbert



LeMond and me. Jim (@jwbender) and I chatted with him for a good 10 minutes.



Greipel's beast. These are pretty sick in person. I've never been a big Canyon fan but this one wasn't bad.



Cal's own Max Jenkins



Odessa let him out of the hotel room, but only for a bit. When asked if he was going out later that night he responded "No...I'm gonna be good tonight..."





Look LeMond 25th anniversary. Look had some amazing bikes there this year.



Tour bike 1



Tour bike 2



The new weightless Giro shoes!



Interesting poster from Capo...



Rojas's Tour bike



Cobo's bike fresh from the Vuelta

For more great Interbike posts, check out BikeRumor.com and VelocityNation.

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Vino is Back!

--Okay, I got back from Las Vegas Saturday morning sleep deprived and with more fun to be had Saturday and Sunday so I haven't even downloaded the pics I took. I'll get them up soon, though.

A couple of the highlights were CrossVegas, the Sram swag giveaway (they were giving away whole groupos), getting a pair of Q Rings, and a chat with Greg LeMond. I had a great time hanging out with Jim, Wick, and Henry for all those.

--Vino is going to do one more season! Looks like he's healed well and ready for another year of bike racing. For those of you who haven't liked him on Facebook (or me), I highly recommend it. Otherwise you'll miss out on regular updates like this:



--Looks like Gesink is out of Worlds with a broken femur. Meanwhile, Cav and Boom look to be on form for Worlds.

--Speaking of Cav, the other day at the Tour of Britain Eisel got off his bike on a climb to cheer Cav on! Hilarious!

--The recent Rasmussen case has gotten interesting. He looks to be innocent of doping but not of stupidity. Apparently, he's just really disorganized (according to a Tweet by Greg Henderson). Not to say that reporting your future whereabouts three months at a time is easy, but it's your job. Oh, and you can update via email or SMS. That being said, I consider myself pretty organized and if I were to, okay it wouldn't be that hard. The interesting part is that you can screw up two times within an 18 month period and not get busted. That's enough for two flights to St. Moritz.

Also, it looks like there might have been an error made by the authorities in the case so he may not get busted. However, the damage is already done because he's been fired by HTC and has lost the two year contract he had just signed with Garmin.

--WADA is considering a rule change for clenbuterol (and the steak). This could have some serious implications for Contador's case, not to mention the countless other non-superstar riders who are now out of work for two years.

--I'll leave you with this vid from the Tour of Britain. Check out the funny crash in the last turn (7:50)



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Interbike is Here!

--I got in yesterday at 530 and ended up getting to CrossVegas just in time for the PRO race. There seemed to be about 10-20% more people there this year which was cool. Telnet-Fidea brought Bart Wellens and Rob Peeters and Rabobank brought two guys, Lars Van der Haar and Bart Aernouts. As far as I know none of these guys had raced here in the US.



Lars went on to win in an amazing sprint finish. Then, we got out of dodge before the pile up of rental cars and shuttles headed back to the strip. The guys went off to donate to assorted Vegas gaming companies and I went to bed.

Today I'll head over to the convention and see what new gear I can find and try not to miss the Cannibal...

--In other news, Sastre just announced his retirement. He said "It’s time to end this cycle. Winning the Tour and being part of the winning team (at the Vuelta) were the best moments of my career. It’s time for a new stage in my life even if I don’t know what that will be at the moment."

Freire has also decided to retire decided to win worlds or retire. That's right, if he doesn't win worlds he's retiring. That's one way of doing it. My guess is he retires, but then again he did pull surprise at Milan-San Remo last year. I just wonder how hard he's going to be racing at worlds. All out knowing if you do end up winning you're going to ride another year?

--Alex Rasmussen has been suspended from racing and fired by HTC. You may remember his massive frame barreling across the line first in Philly this year.

--On that note, Jeannie Longo is going to miss worlds not because of any ban but because the recent accusations have upset her so much.

--CompetiveCyclist was just given a PRO team. Coming on the heels of its recent acquistion by Backcountry.com, the Realcyclist.com team (also owned by Backcountry.com) will now be the CompetitiveCyclist.com team. That should be cool.

--This should be a bit scary, there are even more merger rumors circling. This time it's Saxo Bank and Astana. El pistolero you only thought he could get away from Astana. Apparently Specialized, after seeing Trek's good luck of having two of its teams merge, was encouraging the merger.

Saxo Bank is also rumored to be in talks with Vuelta revelation Chris Froome. I don't know about that one. At least if he stayed on Team Sky he knows he can outride the main GC guy. Not the case if he joins Contador's team.

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No Worlds for Renshaw...

--In a move that wreaks of politics even more than Renshaw's disqualification from the 2010 Tour, the best sprinter in all of Australia has been left out of Worlds. The reasoning? Matty White says it's because the course doesn't suit him. And it somehow suits Haussler? Maybe in 2009, but that guy hasn't won anything since...2009? Not to mention the guy's not really Australian. Okay, so he's half, but my guess is he just changed citizenships so he can drive again after his DUI!

Here are the guys who made it:

Simon Clarke GreenEDGE
Baden Cooke GreenEDGE
Simon Gerrans GreenEDGE
Matthew GOSS GreenEDGE
Stuart O'Grady GreenEDGE
Heinrich Haussler Garmin Cervelo
Mathew Hayman Team Sky
Michael Rogers Team Sky
Chris Sutton Team Sky

Take for example, Matthew Hayman. Nothing against this guy, until you compare him to Mark Renshaw. In fact, there are only three guys in Renshaw's league on this list: Rogers, O'Grady, and Goss.

Poo poo on Matty White and poo poo on GreenEDGE.

--Interbike is here! I'm heading out on Wednesday and will be there just in time to watch the Euro PROs ride CrossVegas! I'll be posting pics to Twitter (@jstreebin) and will work on getting a post or two out while I'm there.

Anything you guys want to see? The cannibal? Electric SRAM shifters? Leave it in the comments or tweet me.

--The case about Jeanie Longo gets even thicker. Apparently Joe Papp sold EPO to her husband. Now, one option is that given her husband was a cat 4 phenom, the EPO could have been just for him. However, I'm not sure why this didn't come out earlier when the rest of Papp's customers were outted.

--The Vuelta wrapped up on Sunday with Froome never able to make up the remaining time. Either way, it was an amazing tour with some incredible stages. I think the Vuelta gets it right in terms of difficulty. You don't have unsafe conditions, okay unless you count the olive oil last year that took out VDV, and the riders didn't consider staging any protests. At the same time, there are still stages like the Angliru to keep the excitement high. It was a great tour and I'll be tapering off my morning viewings with the Tour of Britain.

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Jens to Do One More!!

--Jens has signed a one year extension with LeopardTrekShack to finish up his career. His contract was set to expire at the end of this year but fortunately they found room for him.

--Jim (@jwbender) sent over an article recently about a cyclist dying in Seattle. It looks like it may have been the bike lane's fault.

--Here's an interesting interview with the GreenEdge financier. He swears he's in it to make money, but maybe he just hasn't been keeping up with the sport? My guess is Stapleton, High Road's owner, broke even at best on cycling. Not to mention the long, torturous case of Andy Rihs.

I always say, cycling is like art. There aren't investors, only patrons.

--Jeanie Longo missed two doping tests! The real shocker is that she doesn't own a cell phone or a laptop!

Longo goes on to say she's "the most tested athlete in the world"--we've heard that before. But more interesting, the article says "Right now, she is surprised to be considered still part of the target group of high-level athletes obliged to give their whereabouts given that in principle, this designation, which was given to her in 2008, was limited to a duration of one year."

--I mentioned that AIGCP must have reached an agreement with the UCI since the major teams will all be racing the Tour of Beijing, or as I like to call it the Tour of that's Not Fog, That's Smog. Apparently, the UCI agreed to have the race radio issue looked at by an independent commission.

Well, at least Uncle Patty's not in charge of the issue. That is, depending on who gets to elect the commissioners.

--Lastly, Matthew Busche has a great post up about riding the Vuelta, his first grand tour. He mentions that on the Angliru many riders would trade water bottles for pushes up the climb! I knew they pushed riders but I never knew they incented the fans to do so. Very cool.


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More Drama at LeopardTrekShack

--Looks like there's still a lot of uncertainty about the merger of Leopard and RadioShack. First, there was the completely vague PR which Vroomen took issue with. On top of that, head DS Kim Andersen didn't even know about the merger.

Car sponsor Mercedes was also unhappy about Nissan taking it's place as the car sponsor. Mercedes's deal with Leopard was supposed to last two more years (and they were very nice team cars to ride in). Becca responded by saying they had a contract they could cancel at any time. Let's hope those marketing dollars come back to the sport through another team. Although after an incident like this it's unlikely.

This morning an article came out with statements by Becca and Bruyneel. Looks like Leopard has 25 current riders with five set to expire. In those five are O'Grady and Jens(!!). There are 30 current riders at RadioShack but a recent post by Vroomen indicated there were only 13 signed for this year. The new team will have 30 total riders with 20 from Leopard.

Meanwhile, Riis isn't worried since he has the "best racer in the world."

For those of you interested, Vroomen goes into detail about the licensing issues associated with merging teams.

--The past few stages of the Vuelta have been off the chain. Tuesday, there was a mix up on which way to go around a roundabout in the last k which totally threw off the sprint. Wagner apologized for going the wrong way even though he followed the motorbike. Not only was the wrong side of the roundabout open, but the leading moto went that way!

This is a total fail by the Vuelta, but after cars and motos gunning down riders at the Tour, seems like a minor infraction. No less, Haussler and Bennati were not happy

JJ Haedo was on top of things and ended the stage very happy...



--Looks like after Cobo's amazing win on the Angliru there was chatter about doping. To which Wiggins gave Cobo the benefit of the doubt. Wiggo said the right thing, and lucky for him considering his own teammate beat Cobo yesterday!

--Speaking of, yesterday was one of the most exciting finishes this year. The battle in the last k was out of this world.

--Competitive Cyclist has been acquired! These guys have done it right for a while now and hopefully this will help them do more of it.

--The political showdown in Italy over austerity measures (or the lack thereof) has hit cycling. The other day at the Giro di Padania protestors took down route signs and attempted to block the race (which was diverted to avoid problems in the city center).

Even the beloved Basso got slapped.

--LeMond, as in Greg LeMond, is coming to Cali to do an assortment of Fred rides. He'll be in Palo Alto for the events put on by Echelon.

--In a last bit of transfer news, De Maar is heading back to UnitedHealthcare. He's had his fair share of time in the big leagues with stints at Rabobank and recently Quick Step, not to mention being in break at the Vuelta the other day, but he's yet to find anything that sticks.

Meanwhile, Craig Lewis is one of the few from HTC who hasn't found a ride for next year. It looks like there will be a whole batch more of these guys once the Leopard Shack merger falls into place.

--I'll leave you with this pic of Sagan doing a no-handed wheelie up the Anlgiru (courtesy Competitive Cyclist):



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Leopard Trek to Merge with RadioShack

--Looks like where there was smoke there was fire. Yesterday it was confirmed that RadioShack will merge with Leopard Trek.

Despite what Vroomen said about 27 riders already being signed with Leopard and 13 with RadioShack, the article states: "All contracts with riders and staff that are already signed with Team Leopard-Trek or Team RadioShack will be respected." I'm not sure what that means if the new team will have 30 titles. Someone's math is off or Vroomen had the numbers wrong. (He also had some really interesting comments right before it was announced.)

Anywho, this seems like bad news for cycling from simply a dollars in perspective, little on making it that much more difficult for non-super teams.

--Sunday morning was the one of the steepest stages in cycling, the Angliru. Contador won here in 2008 with a 34x32! It's so steep Sammy Sanchez said he can see it from his house but he's ridden it only once. This stage truly separates the men from the boys and that's exactly what it did this morning.

One thing that stood out was Wiggins losing time again. I know, it's one of the toughest climbs there is, but am I the only one who thinks this guy isn't going to pan out? His own domestique, who by the way has done an awesome job, finished ahead of him--I'll say nothing of the poor kid having to give up his chances at the leader's jersey just to help Wiggo choke. Let's just call a square a square, and the 2009 Tour a fluke. He's had plenty of chances (and will get plenty more), but I can't see him every winning (or even podium?) a grand tour.

--The investigation of Ricco's emergency room visit has concluded. The investigators believe he did in fact give himself a transfusion. No surprise there.

--Looks like after all Tommeke's saddle issues at the Vuelta he crashed out. Unfortunately, this ruined his chances for Worlds, which I wasn't banking on him doing well, but it did get him some time to heal his back side, which is nice.

I'll leave you with a pic of him from the good ol' days...



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Riders Fret Over Coming Merger

--Transfer season is wrapping up. Tony Martin has confirmed he'll be heading to Quick Step (but still no word on Levi). This is one I didn't see coming but could be interesting to see how he does on a classics team like Quick Step.

Martin's current teammates Teejay Van Garderen and Marco Pinotti are heading to BMC. Looks like Teejay will be the GC guy for all the other races besides the Tour.

BMC is shaping up to be the ultimate super team for next year. Thor, Gilbert, Evans, Teejay, and a host of support. These guys should do amazing, although will be interesting to see how Thor and Gilbert relations play out since they share similar abilities on mild uphill sprint finishes, not to mention the elephant in the room of Evans's refusal to go to the Tour with a sprinter.

We still don't have any word on Cavendish which I guess means he's going to Sky? It'll be nice to have someone to root for on that team.

In related news, some of the Leopard Trek riders are nervous, as they should be, about a possible merger with RadioShack. Bruyneel won't comment on the situation but the writing is on the wall considering he's only signed 13 for next year.

I'm not going to go into this but the biggest teams in cycling failing and/or consolidating is very bad news for the sport.

--Speaking of problems with the sport, looks like the planned boycott of the Tour of Beijing isn't happening after all. I guess the AIGCP and the UCI worked out some sort of compromise, although I'm not sure what it could have been since there hasn't been any news about it.

--In more important news, Boonen has been riding the Vuelta with some serious saddle issues. (If your saddle sores make the news, they're serious.) His saddle issues are so serious that Cyclingnews even wrote a second article about the "hole in his perineum." Yikes!!

--I'll leave you with these sick downhill vids taken with a GoPro.

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No More RadioShack??

--First, it was rumors about Leipheimer leaving RadioShack for Quick Step. That was big news in itself given where he's at in his career and the season he just had.

On top of that, there are now rumors that RadioShack will merge with Leopard Trek. Gerard Vroomen had two posts recently addressing the issue. The first post says that Bruyneel never said he re-upped with RadioShack specifically, just "our current partners."

He also mentions that Trek likely spends 3-5m Euro on each team and a consolidation would definitely help its bottom line. In addition, there have apparently been some issues with the financing of Leopard Trek.

In the second post he goes on to say that only 13 riders have been signed for RadioShack and we're already halfway through the Vuelta. If RadioShack weren't merging, why would Bruyneel have only signed half a team? On the contrary, Leopard Trek has signed 27 riders. Maybe the merger came up after they'd already filled the team?

He's not the only one commenting on a possible merger, looks like the rumors have even gotten to Contador. The Spaniard fears another super team in the hunt for grand tour wins.

The bigger issue here is the continued consolidation of the sport. The "middle class" of cycling teams is totally disappearing. Give it a few more years and all competition will be gone. There will be the super teams dominating and the have nots going for stage wins.

--Good news, the Golden Gate Bridge project is wrapping up two weeks early! What a surprise! After the project was delayed months--it was supposed to happen last November--I never expected it to be done on time.

--Bettini had to make an emergency landing the other day in an ultralight aircraft. Just last year his long time friend Franco Ballerini died in a rally car accident.

--The Tour of Beijing is about to kick of and Velonews has some killer pics up of the parcours and the locals.

--It looks like Richmond is going forward with its campaign for the 2015 worlds.

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