Somebody Stole My Bike

There are those cyclists who have had their bicycles stolen and those who will. Like death and taxes this is an inevitable fact of life. Over a million bicycles are stolen in the United States each year and only twenty percent are ever recovered.

Being an old hand at the cycling game I thought I had all of the bases covered. Ride and old bike when commuting not your precious Cannondale Six-Thirteen. Park your bike in a visible area with allot of pedestrian traffic. Do not use an old Kryptonite U lock with a barrel key as these locks can be picked with a Bic pin, including some older barrel lock Kryptonite New York locks. Older U locks with barrel locks should be replaced with U locks with flat keys. All cables can be cut with a bolt cutter and should be avoided.

Sounds like good advice. But keeping honest people honest will not stop a determined bicycle thief from taking your bicycle. Cyclists try to protect their bicycles from thieves so they think like a thief would think. "Unbreakable" U locks are a figment of the imagination. My cycling friends have told me a dozen of ways to break them in a matter of seconds. Of course, I have no intention of sharing this information.

Keep a good description of your bike and record the serial number in case it is stolen. If your bike is stolen file a report with the police. Your bike will be entered in a national stolen bike registry in case some one tries to pawn it or if your Local Bike Shop runs the serial number.

My stolen bike is a 1989 KHS Touring Bike.

Top Tube: Blue
Chain Stays: Blue. One chain stay has a black chain protector labelled "Sun Tour Equipped."
Seat Stays: Blue.
Front Forks: Gray. KHS painted the forks gray. Under the paint the forks are chrome.
Seat Tube: Gray.
Down Tube: Blue.
Derailleurs: Sun Tour Alpha 5000
Chain Wheel: Sugino 52-42
Free Hub: Shimano Hyperglide 13-15-17-19-21-24-28 Seven Speed
Chain: Shimano HG 110 links
Brakes: DiaComp Deluxe
Brake Hoods: Black (factory issue)
Hubs: Shimano Parallax
Wheels: Vapor (silver)
Tires: Cosmos Cycle Cross 25X700c.
Down Tube Shifters: Sun Tour Alpha 5000
Water bottle cages: Avenier (2) Silver, Blue
Handle bars: Bulls horns (factory issue)
Decals: Missing
Frame: Decal missing: probably a Tang. Cro-Moly Steel
Handle bar tape: White
Pedals: Campagnolo clones (quill)
Saddle: Viscount
Skewers: Shimano
Saddle Bag: Planet Bike (black). Contains two spare 700c tubes, two tire irons, one six inch Crescent wrench.)
Helmet: Gray Bell helmet with silver stripes. (stolen with the bike)
Cable: (stolen with the bike)
Padlock: Master Number 1 pin tumbler. (stolen with the bike)

Stolen from the South side bicycle rack of the University of Utah Medical School on June 13, 2009 between 1300 and 1800 hours Mountain Standard Time.

Velo Vortmax is offering a reward for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who stole this bike. Forward all information to velovortmax@yahoo.com or call your local police department. This bicycle is on a national stolen bicycle registry. I will add a photo of this bicycle to my blog soon.

Of course, this bike will never be recovered. My stupidity lies in the fact that I figured that nobody would be interested in a twenty year old bike that I bought for twenty dollars. Wrong. Some people will steal anything. Take nothing for granted.

The UCI Must Abandon LNDD and WADA

Current Red Flag: The "Whistle Blower" Documents

The latest news of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) head Pierre Bordry seeking an international arrest warrant of Arnie Baker and Floyd Landis to testify to issues related to alleged hacking of LNDD computer networks by Kargus Consultants should be the last straw for the International Cycling Union (UCI). If the "whistle blower" documents are validated in a French court as authentic and not forgeries, then this would end a long trail of misdeeds by LNDD. The "whistle blower" documents are provided by Arnie Baker in the Floyd Landis wiki defense "What's Fair is Clear Slide Show." The "whistle blower" documents provide a history of mis-identification of athletes and an organized attempt by LNDD to destroy evidence to obstruct judicial inquiries. If the content of "whistle blower" documents prove to be valid and correct; not some deranged fabrication by a demented author, then this should be the last straw even for the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA). The WADA laboratory located at Chatenay-Malabry, France should immediately lose it's accreditation and be subjected to a judicial inquiry by anti-corruption Judge Tom Cassuto.

WADAwatch has written a brilliant argument of the Kargus Consultants LNDD hacking incident. WADAwatch insists that Pierre Bordry must prove that the contents of the "whistle blower" documents are authentic in court; a mere belief or assertion of the factual basis of these arguments by the AFLD is not enough to establish a crime. Therefore, Pierre Bordry would have to provide to the court not only the author of the documents but other witnesses who were responsible for the original mis-identification of athletes and the people who requested that the lab document packages of these mis-identified athletes be destroyed by LNDD. Until the AFLD fulfills these requirements WADAwatch insists that neither Floyd Landis or Arnie Baker need comply with the AFLD request to appear for interrogation since the basis of a crime of hacking has not been established.

Pierre Bordry and the AFLD should heed the parable of "give them enough rope." The AFLD is doing more to discredit LNDD than Arnie Baker could ever do by highlighting alleged mis-deeds of LNDD in the "What's Fair is Clear Slide Show." If Judge Cassuto requires the AFLD to meet the requirements outlined by WADAwatch then the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will have no other choice but to revoke LNDD's accreditation and the International Cycling Union (UCI) will have no other choice but to find another laboratory to do testing for the 2009 Tour de France.

Historical Precedent: Red Flag. The Vrijman Report.

The UCI has had plenty of warnings about LNDD and has ignored them to the peril of athletes world wide. In the Vrijman Report Emile Vrijman made the following statement in reference to the assertion that Lance Armstrong and six other athletes had tested positive for traces of r-EPO during the 1999 Tour de France.

1.15 "The results reported by the LNDD that found their way into the L'Equipe article are not what they have been represented to be. They did not involve proper testing of urine samples, as explained in this report. While the testing conducted may have been useful for research purposes-which remains to be determined-the failure of the underlying research to comply with any applicable standard and the deficiencies in the report render it completely irresponsible for anyone involved in doping control testing to even suggest that the analyses results that were reported constitute evidence of anything. To suggest in any way that any of the analyses results could properly be associated with a particular rider or riders, is misleading and constitutes as least gross negligence, given the complete absence of an internal or external chain of custody, proper record keeping and security with respect to the urine samples from the 1998 and the 1999 Tours de France that were tested, and the absence of any protection against samples having been spiked with r-EPO or contamination by other samples.

The investigation recommends the UCI to refrain from initiating any disciplinary actions whatsoever regarding those riders alleged to have been responsible for causing one or more alleged 'positive' findings, on the basis of the confidential reports of the LNDD 'Recherche EPO Tour de France 1998' and 'Recherche EPO Tour de France 1999' and to inform all the riders involved that no action will be taken based on research testing by the LNDD."

Emile Vrijman's concerns about the validity of the 1998-1999 Tour de France rEPO results were amplified by statements made by Montreal WADA accredited laboratory director Dr. Christiane Ayotte in a August 23, 2005 VeloNews article. "Ayotte was extremely surprised at her laboratory 'that urine samples could have been tested in 2004 and have revealed the presence of EPO. EPO in its natural state on the synthesized version- is not stable in urine, even if stored at -20 degrees Celsius. EPO is a protein hormone and it is not stable in urine, even when kept frozen.'" Given this caveat by Christiane Ayotte it is impossible to understand how synthetic r-EPO isoforms could measure 100% from the 1999 Tour de France prologue test even if the Lance Armstrong sample was spiked in 1999. A far better explanation would be that the 1999 prologue sample was tampered with in 2004 by someone who had knowledge of the anti-doping report form number assigned to the sample and displayed on the bottle. Emile Vrijman reported that the anti-doping report form numbers were coded on the bottles at the time the tests were conducted; at the insistence of WADA president Dick Pound.

More to come.

Pierre Bordry Authenticates LNDD Whistle Blower Documents

Pierre Bordry of AFLD may have cleared up one more mystery in the Floyd Landis doping saga. According to Shane Stokes Pierre Bordry accuses Arnie Baker M.D., and Floyd Landis of hiring Kargus Consultants to hack computer files of LNDD to steal and publish confidential documents with the intention to discredit the Chatenay-Malabry accredited WADA laboratory. The French cyber crime police have linked an ISP address to Arnie Baker. These documents were later published on the Internet as part of the Floyd Landis wiki defense.

Under "Floyd Landis; What's Fair is Clear" Slide Show a summary by Arnie Baker M.D. of the so called "whistle blower documents", slides 42-47, can be found. On slide 42 Arnie Baker makes the statement:

"The documents in the following slides have been sent to me, multiple times, from whistle blowers. Although I cannot be certain of their authenticity, they appear genuine. I base the discussion that follows evaluating the substance of the letters. If the letters are fabricated, this discussion is moot."

The whistle blower letters document mis-identification of athlete test results and request that these documents be destroyed to prevent inquiries. If true, the contents of these letters would form a basis for WADA to revoke the accreditation of LNDD.

Most experts had considered the whistle blower documents to be forgeries. Pierre Bordry and the AFLD have confirmed their authenticity.

Pierre Bordry and the AFLD sent orders to Floyd Landis and Arnie Baker to appear in a hearing to explain what if any involvement thay may have had with Kargus Consultants and the infiltration of the LNDD computer network. Floyd Landis has not replied. Arnie Baker sent the AFLD an e-mail requesting information as to the length and duration of the interrogation and the expenses involved, but he did not agree to comply with the AFLD request for a personal appearance at the hearing.

Stephane Monard in a Le Monde article, makes this enigmatic statement.

"Judge Cassuto did not respond to Bakers e-mail. However, he asked Bordry to indicate the date and circumstances in which Floyd Landis could be formally informed of the number corresponding to the positive sample during the 2006 Tour de France."

"The number corresponding to the positive sample...?" Confused? I have no idea what this means. In the What's Fair is Clear slide show Arnie Baker shows numerous examples of mis-identification by LNDD of Floyd Landis in the Lab Document Package. Perhaps the judge is asking Pierre Bordry to explain the numerous errors, the "white out" page, who made the corrections and why they thought it necessary to violate WADA code that requires that all evidence is "irretrievably linked to the athlete."

Wishful thinking. Pierre Bordry is requesting an arrest warrant for the victim of LNDD's incompentence Floyd Landis, rather than arresting the true criminal, LNDD director Jacques de Ceaurriz. Instead of focusing on Floyd Landis and Arnie Baker AFLD should be more interested in prosecuting those responsible for the behavior outlined in the whistle blower documents since they are genuine. WADA should revoke LNDD's accreditation until the investigation is completed.

The AAA arbitrators made a mistake in their decision. They cited the white out page and other mis-identification of athlete forensic errors by LNDD in the Floyd Landis case as a possible basis to dismiss an adverse analytical finding in future if the errors were repeated. These athlete mis-identification errors as the whistle blower documents show have been a chronic problem at LNDD for some time, the AAA arbitrators should have punished LNDD and dismissed the Floyd Landis Adverse Analytical Finding.

The Tour of Utah has announced that team OUCH will participate. The team rosters have not been published yet but this is the one race I have been waiting for. To see my hero Floyd Landis race would be a dream come true. I just hope that when the Tour of Utah gets to Salt Lake City that Floyd Landis is not languishing in a French prison.

That would be the real disaster.