Velo Vortmax

What Motivates Ryan Braun?

2012-01-28T13:23:00.001-07:00

There was the facetious notion that the steroid era was over, that sport has entered a new "clean" era where competition was based upon natural talent and hard work. This fantastic notion was short lived and unrealistic, there seems to be an incredibly strong incentive among professional athletes to perform at a level that would be considered beyond any physiological medical possibility and for sustained periods of time, with remarkably short recovery times also considered physiologically impossible. Consider Ryan Braun. Ryan Braun was voted as Major League Baseball's most valuable player, a man who lead the Milwaukee Brewers to the first post season playoff possibilities in years. And yet, even though Ryan Braun was considered an academic success with a outstanding scholastic record, a role model for children to emulate as a hero, he tested positive for synthetic testosterone that was synthetically derived from a carbon 13 supplement. Why do these things happen? What would motivate a person to risk all, to be derided in the press as a villain and subjected to ridicule, to face a certain 50 game suspension, loss of revenue, and a eternal tarnished legacy? The answer is obvious, "greed is good." There seems to be something genetic in the makeup of the modern athlete that compels these people to bask in the glow of accolades, there seems to be something positively endearing with the knowledge that in the era of twenty-four seven sport radio, that your name is being discussed as the topic of conversation and the current trend, it seems to be addictive to be regarded as the leader who is leading a struggling, average team into a new era of successful competition. Me, me, me! There is, as the old cliche says, "there is no I in team," except when you are pounding out 33 home runs a year and batting a .400 at bat average. And hey, when you are at the pinnacle of the sport there is an absolute desire to stay there as long as possible, to extend a career, to negotiate a lucrative contract extension...built in incentives that motivate otherwise outstanding role model athletes to cheat by using performance enhancing substances. But this is the nature of a cut throat business, sport demands outstanding performance levels of the most elite athletes, the top one tenth of one percent, performance dictates duration and duration determines contract extensions. Injuries, the bane of athletic performance, are unavoidable and additive, injury leads to decreased athletic ability, injuries lead to questions as to the continued sustainability of the athlete over a long term bases and therefore to the long term beneficial feasibility of this athlete to the overall long term success of the team, should this person be retained or waived or released? Consequently, there is an incentive to speed recovery from injury in the shortest possible time, for the longest possible duration, with the shortest possible discomfort, and with the smallest possibility of re-occurrence. Injuries, as all athletes know lead to side-effects that become manifest over time, debilitating arthritis being one of the most common and most devastating. So why not use human growth hormone at the sight of injury to speed recovery and increase performance levels? There are always young hungry athletes coming up through the AAA ranks ready to bask in the limelight of the big leagues, and youth will replace an aging athlete every time.Ryan Braun does what most indicted athletes do, he denies everything and then claims extenuating circumstances as an alibi.

Ryan Braun is claiming that he has a medical condition that requires testosterone supplementation. Very good. No one has a better understanding of his body than Ryan Braun. But as Rob Dibble sneeringly notes on Fox Sports Radio Major League Baseball provides in the rules an exemption for athletes with existing medical conditions, the Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). The therapeutic use exemption allows athletes with medical conditions that can be ascertained by a medical doctor and verified by medical documentation such as laboratory test results, attestations from the doctor as to the legitimate nature of the disorder and to the necessity of a known performance enhancing drug to be used as an medically necessary and efficacious treatment option, to be given an exemption to use a performance enhancing drug during a professional sport event, or during a professional sport season. But, even though the requirements are very straight forward and though every medical doctor treating an professional athlete should be aware of and explicitly understand these rules, there seems to be an astonishing number of cases where after an athlete tests positive for performance enhancing drugs, there is an astonishing number of people who claim confusion of or ignorance of these basic rules. Thus originates among the scathing public, commentators, bloggers, doubt as to the truthfulness of these claims. Frankly, Ryan Braun will certainly lose in an impartial arbitration hearing if he argues an existing medical condition as an extenuating circumstance. Of course, nobody wants to rush to judgment in this case, or in any other case.

Major League Baseball should be congratulated for their outstanding effort to ensure fairness, accuracy, and credibility in this case. When Ryan Braun tested positive for testosterone on the testosterone/epitestosterone screening test at an "incredible level" they sent the test results to a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratory for verification! Whoa! WADA! the golden standard for testosterone/epitestosterone testing throughout the world! You are laughing, mon ami? Outside of the delusional world of WADA the testosterone/epitestosterone testing done by WADA accredited laboratories resembles more of the tin foil standard than a golden one, with variable results obtained from a single urine sample! So much for reliability and validity at WADA! Ah so, if Ryan Braun and his defense want to attack anything it should look no further than the Floyd Landis arbitration award to document the incompetence of WADA testosterone/epitestosterone testing! However, there is an independent confirmation of the testosterone/epitestosterone test available at an independent laboratory, and even worse, a carbon isotope ratio (CIR) test that confirms the existence of a synthetic carbon 13 base for this testosterone "spike." Nevertheless, Major League Baseball made an inordinate effort to state their case as to the validity and reliability of their test results beyond the tinfoil standard of comfortable satisfaction. WADA, as the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) knows full well, will never allow anyone to question WADA results by independent means, ye simpletons! Therefore, even thought the Super Bowl is one week away the dispute over human growth hormone testing is unresolved due to the intransigence of WADA, who refuses to release information as to the reliability and testing of their testing methodologies. Disgusting.

Ryan Braun has no chance. The carbon isotope ratio results allow for no extenuating circumstances.

Alberto Contador: A Lot of Blather

2011-12-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

Whew. There was an incredible amount of simpering about the mistaken positive test of Alberto Contador for clenbuterol: a known anabolic steroid commonly abused in cycling to enhance performance. Equally perplexing was the incredible amount of leniency shown by the Spanish authorities who concluded that the positive clenbuterol test could be explained by eating contaminated steak imported from Spain into France during a second rest day dinner of the 2010 Tour de France. The Spanish Sport Federation acceptance of the Alberto Contador alibi was an incredible leap of pariah faith; meat as a source of contamination that would test positive by modern valid and reliable testing currently used by WADA accredited laboratories was declared an impossibility by some medical experts. The whole farce was compounded with an incredible exoneration by the Spanish Spot Federation that supposedly adhered, as a World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) signatory to the sacrosanct, ironclad rule of strict liability, or the notion that an athlete is responsible for the chemicals that are contained within their bodies, in proper ratios, whether legal or illegal. The concept of strict liability was the guiding principal of the Richard Young WADA code; sacrosanct and unsuccessfully unchallenged by any athlete in the history of doping arbitration, and this bedrock principal should never be modified under any considerations ever. There must have been a breakdown in communication, or a brief period of lunacy, by the Spanish Sport Federation who for inexplicable selfish reasons, forgot to enforce the golden standard. WADA calls for harmony of all adherents whether it be the laboratories or case management and detractors are sadistically prodded back into line with electric devises, like cattle.

It must have been quite a shock to WADA when the Spanish decided to protect their cycling hero by accepting insidious propositions by blatantly ignoring the universal concept of strict liability; a concept that has caused an amazing amount of pain and suffering among innocent athletes who made silly mistakes or who acted in ignorance. But under the WADA dialectic silly mistakes or ignorance are unforgivable and indicate intent. Even in rare cases where it can be conclusively proven that intent be absent, suspensions and loss of income and prestige continues unabated, only for a shorter duration. And this cornerstone founding principal of the war against doping; strict liability: would continue a gilded guiding principal, except for the fact that these nation states continue to insist on ignoring the obvious test results that prove doping, and substitute fictional fables in order to protect their favorite sons reputations against unfair onslaughts from vindictive skeptics who are intent upon debasing a honest athlete's character.

Not that WADA or it's signatories need any examples on how to defame character, although after the demise of Dick Pound there has been a vast improvement. Alberto Contador and his legal team have insisted that the Court of Arbitration of Sport plug the leaks, after all, the arbitration hearings are to be held in "strict confidence" to protect the athlete from arbitrary and unfair assaults from the media, blogs, and other assorted riffraff. Perhaps the paranoia generated from the cruel and unreasonable assault upon hapless Floyd Landis made these WADA people reconsider their own orchestration of the media and riffraff attacks. Incredibly, in the new evolutionary theory of fairness WADA has initiated a new era of caution; warning their people to shut up and let justice prevail.

So will justice prevail? There were hints that WADA was even considering modifying the golden standard of strict liability and concede that accidents happen even in the presence of a prohibited substance residing within the body of a "cheater," considering the formerly unheard of pleas of accident or ignorance, but only in exceptional cases, and only with certain known anabolic steroids, like clenbuterol, and only if the athlete happens to be an international favorite like Alberto Contador. As of days of yore, all other athletes and performance enhancing substances would have to adhere to the "old standard of strict liability" and serve the minimal bans as before, without exception. Whether modification of the strict liability rule would have been an improvement or a liability in the case of Alberto Contador, with his lame excuses, and accepting the fact that other athletes would provide similar lame excuses as to the cause of known anabolic steroid positive tests, it is difficult to conceive of a proper cost- benefit analysis as a guide for leniency in relaxation of the enforcement of strict liability rules as a proper action, considering human nature and the need to succeed under any circumstance where the ends justify the means. So you see the modification of the rule does not seem so clear cut and may invite others to engage in practices that would support a deception of detection, a hoodwinking of the fools, and money and fame in a sport event that is based on evil acts.

In any case the Court of Arbitration of Sport decision, rightly or wrongly, will closure on Alberto Contador soap opera. At last.

Human Growth Hormone Testing Goes Viral

2011-11-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

There are some new and interesting developments in anti-doping world that deserves some attention, and if some action was forthcoming instead of interminable delays there would be a need for some commentary as well.

Alberto Contador

First, there is the never ending Alberto Contador saga, which, after two years of delay and possible re-structuring of the strict liability rule appertaining to the possible accidental ingestion of clenbuterol, an anabolic steroid that promotes accelerated lean muscular mass and acts as a bronchial dilator; also a substance incidentally, that has been abused for years to gain an unfair competitive advantage in cycling; as an incredible substance that could be ingested accidentally at the dinner table, causing a false positive test, and a possible two year suspension from professional cycling. This tale of woe could not possibly get any more bizarre, but believe it or not, a final resolution to the problem may be forthcoming in November, 2011. Break out the champagne! An issue that, according to the history of the WADA anti-doping crusade strict liability rule, is like everything else in the WADA world, a slam dunk conviction, no need for supplemental evidence that probably will not be admitted into evidence, like an excessive level of plastics consistent with blood doping. For as history will show with a constant consistency, a rare value in WADA, a constant, anyone who has any amount of an endogenous steroid in the body is subject to suspension, intent be damned. Not like any endogenous substance that seems to have variable values that could sustain a averse analytical finding, based upon a weak lab document package, or no lab document package, depending on the flavor of the International Standard of the day, as interpreted by the WADA signatory of the day.

NFLPA, the NFL, and Human Growth Hormone Testing

Boomer Esiason shocked me with his well founded assertions that as much as twenty percent of all current National Football League players may be abusing human growth hormone, as he stated on a syndicated radio channel Westwood One. Boomer Esiason claims that this information comes from contacts within the professional teams. What knowledge do these people have that support their claims that human growth hormone abuse is as high as twenty percent of all current football players? Are they providing the dope? Do they know of others who are providing the dope? Are they injecting the dope? Boomer Esiason claims that the National Football League Players Association is dragging their feet to protect their players from testing. And depending upon the level of punishment, suspensions from games and fines, will these punishments not lead to an astronomical decline in quality of the games, chaos that will be created from absences in the rosters? These factors could devastate the game as we know it. Who wants to watch a third string quarterback blunder away the ball with a half a dozen turnovers a game, or a defensive lineman who can't block, or a safety who can't cover a receiver? Without the human growth hormone is the game of football going to become a second rate affair without all of the former speed and power of the former juiced athletes?

This undocumented estimate of current use of human growth hormone within the NFL better be wrong, or there are going to be some very disappointed fantasy football fans, and a great deal of interest and revenue in the NFL is generated from fantasy football.

It is an academic argument that has no potency since there is not human growth hormone testing currently in effect in the National Football League at the present time and the arguments over whether the union is stalling for time because the players want to eliminate all of the synthetic methods, or markers, or isoforms, or metabolites of synthetic human growth hormone abuse before they agree to allow WADA accredited laboratory testing is absurd. Probably, more important than the cheaters trying to appear innocent, is, as Boomer Esiason admits, the concern over the trustworthiness of WADA accredited laboratories, and the proven ability of WADA accredited laboratories to conduct tests in a competent fashion. But in the rush to prove the existence of synthetic human growth hormone in players in the NFL, reasonable objections as to competence of the laboratories to measure accurately human growth hormone supported by a reasonable amount of independent peer reviewed scientific literature that demonstrate the un-contestable WADA scientific concusions that their testing has reliability and validity seems trivial and unnecessary. After all WADA has used the current human growth hormone testing in the Olympics without the test results being contested. Independent peer review of WADA testing seems to be an unnecessary bother to people like Boomer Esiason, independent peer review of scientific assertions, seem more like weak fabricated excuses and stalling tactics designed to delay the commencement of human growth hormone testing. After all, the collective bargaining agreement contract between the NFL and the NFLPA called for human growth hormone testing and this testing should have been done long ago.

A wonderful mess, maybe they will resolve all of these issues and commence testing by the 2012 season, and maybe by then Alberto Contador will be stripped of two grand tour titles.

USADA : International Standards Need Not Apply

2011-10-13T13:33:00.079-06:00

It is simply astounding the amount of ignorance that exists among the representatives and senators of the United States government in relation to the World Anti Doping Agency and it's signatory(s) satellite U.S. taxpayer funded organization(s) such as the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). In a rush to testing of human growth hormone (hgh) among players in the National Football League, the good representatives invited the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) Corporate Executive Officer Travis T. Tygart and several World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) officials to a tete a tete conference and demanded to know why the testing had not commenced to "protect the interest of the children from the ravages of performance enhancing use and abuse."

Forgotten in all of these assurances of the incontestability of the WADA science and test results was the athletes who, sure as twice two make four, will certainly be accused of testing above threshold for human growth hormone based upon voodoo science and a rambling disagreement on what constitutes a criteria for a positive test, and his or her name will be dragged into a media circus by the blowhard pundits on ESPN Sports Center and the "beer and brought" herd on ESPN Radio, who will quickly scatter cow pies of calumnies on the trail.

Because as the cowherd assures us, according to the bogus scientific self report questionnaire he conducted on his audience, nobody gives a crap about cycling races, but they sure do care about football.

Alright. The U.S. Congress has about as much awareness of reality as a visitor from Neptune, and they seem to forget the little guy in almost everything. They certainly forgot to invite the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), Maurice Suh, his group of concerned scientists, and worried football players who are intelligent enough not to trust WADA, the accredited laboratories, the testing, the results, the threshold values, or USADA.

Should there be concern among the players about the behavior of USADA? Absolutely. USADA has one goal, to continue it's own existence and financing by convicting athletes of doping infractions. The ends justify the means and Travis T. Tygart is a man who is not loath to circumvent the exactness of the judicial process with subterfuge if he is losing the public relations campaign. Indeed, in the Floyd Landis arbitration case Travis T. Tygart presented an argument to the American Arbitration Association that destroyed the very foundations of WADA code and International Standards.

Background: The 2006 Floyd Landis Tour de France Alternate "B" Tests. The USADA justification for the necessity of this testing, and the Floyd Landis defense counterargument.

USADA argued that since the Stage 17 carbon isotope ratio confirmation "B" test that was required to prove the existence of precursor(s), metabolite(s), marker(s), or method(s) of a prohibited substance [synthetic testosterone] were inconclusive, and because Floyd Landis challenged the methodology of the WADA accredited laboratory LNDD who performed the Stage 17 tests, that alternate "B" testing would be required on the urine samples Floyd Landis provided during Stages 11, 15, 19, and 20 of the 2006 Tour de France. USADA argued that supplemental testing would provide supplemental evidence that Floyd Landis used synthetic testosterone during the entire race. Floyd Landis and his defense team argued that the testing would not be done in a random double blind fashion, that the people doing the testing would know the identity of his samples, and that this would motivate the testers to confirm the Stage 17 adverse analytical finding. The Floyd Landis defense team also argued that there would be no "A" sample confirmation tests since it was determined that so much of the "A" sample urine(s) had been used in previous "A" sample testosterone/epitestosterone screening tests that there remained an insufficient quantities of urine for carbon isotope ratio "A" confirmation tests of the alternate "B" test results. There was another concern: the Stage 11, 15, 19, and 20 urine samples were domiciled at the WADA accredited laboratory at UCLA where they had been shipped for storage after the French WADA accredited laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry, France had done the initial "A" testosterone/epitestosterone screening tests on Stages 11, 15, 19, and 20. Unfortunately, UCLA laboratory director Don Catlin announced that the GC/MS and GC/C/IRMS would be off line and unavailable for testing due to routine maintenance, thus there would be a need for further transport of the sample(s) to a suitable WADA accredited laboratory for carbon isotope ratio testing. Due to the unavailability of the UCLA testing facility the Floyd Landis legal team also argued that the samples would encounter additional chain-of-custody problems, problems with security of the samples, and possible contamination and degradation of the samples that could result in false positive results. After the AAA panel ruled in favor of USADA Mr. Landis was given a choice of laboratories for the additional "B" sample testing, LNDD where the original tests were conducted or at the WADA accredited laboratory in Montreal, Canada. Mr. Landis objected to the Montreal laboratory because the director Ms. Christiane Ayotte had made several inflammatory statements to the press of her conviction that the stage 17 carbon isotope reflected the presence of the precursor(s), and metabolite(s) of synthetic testosterone even before the commencement of the oral Pepperdine law school arbitration arguments, and Mr. Landis was concerned that her testing would reflect her convictions. Therefore, the remaining "B" samples were tested at Chatenay-Malabry, France.

Here is the discussion in the AAA Floyd Landis Award.

a. Additional Sample Testing
31. On 27 December 2006, the Applicant notified the Respondent of its intention to
perform further analysis of the samples the Athlete had provided after seven
stages of the Tour other than Stage 17. In answer to this notification the
Respondent sought to prevent further analysis of the Respondent’s remaining B
samples from the Tour.
32. Written arguments in relation to this matter were received by the Panel on 5
February 2007 from the Respondent, 9 February from the Claimant and a Reply
was received from the Respondent on 13 February 2007. The oral arguments
were presented to the Panel on 22 & 23 February 2007.
33. In response to the Respondent’s numerous allegations regarding the flawed
testing methodology at the LNDD, the Claimant proposed to test the
Respondent’s remaining “B” samples to use as corroborative evidence in these
hearings. The Respondent’s position in relation to this matter was that the anti doping
rules prevented the Lab from testing these samples as there were no
accompanying “A” samples remaining and as such the “B” samples could not be
used as proof of a positive test. The Claimant argued however, that as a result of
its contract with the Respondent, the “B” samples were now the property of UCI
and they could do as they pleased with the Sample. Furthermore, they would not
be using the results of these tests to charge the Athlete with an anti-doping rule
violation, but rather the results would serve as corroborative evidence in
response to the Respondent’s arguments methodologies at the
Lab were flawed.
34. The Respondent also submitted that the re-testing would not be blind and this
would significantly impede the process and would not allow for an unbiased
result. The Claimant in response however pointed out that the “B” sample
testing is rarely ever completely blind and the Athlete and/or his representative
would be present during this re-testing to ensure that the proper procedure and
protocol was followed. Accordingly, a compromise was reached between the
parties and it was decided that additional samples other than those of the Athlete
would be added to the “B” samples to create a blinded analysis.

Christopher Campbell dissented from this conclusion. Under the heading:

I. The LNDD failed to provide complete documentation on the Adverse Analytical Findings for the additional tests done on the B samples from stages 11,15, 19, and 20.

Mr. Campbell made the following rebuttal argument to the testimony of USADA witness Ms. Mongongu that the Floyd Landis carbon isotope ratio urine sample results of stages 11, 15, 19, and 20 were "adverse analytical findings."

Mr. Campbell argued that LNDD did not meet the minimum requirements to declare an adverse analytical finding on the additional tests because:

38. WADA Technical Document TD2003LDOC ("Documentation Package") mandates that all documentation packages provided shall contain the following information. "A" sample confirmation procedure data [and the]"B" sample confirmation data. The International Standards define a "confirmation procedure" as follows: An analytical test procedure whose purpose is to identify the presence of a specific prohibited substance in a sample. [Comment: A confirmation procedure may also indicate a quantity of prohibited substance greater than a threshold value or quantify the amount of a prohibited substance in a sample.]
39. Regarding the "A" sample confirmation the International Standards 5.2.4.3.1 states presumptive identification from a screening procedure of a prohibited substance, or marker(s) of the use of a prohibited substance or method must be confirmed using a second aliquot(s) taken from the original "A" sample.
40. WADA code Article 6.4 titled "Standards for Sample Analyses and Reporting" Laboratories shall analyze doping control samples and report results in conformity with the International Standards for Laboratory Analysis.

It is interesting that in spite of the panel's assurances of anonymity of the samples, when the samples were shipped from UCLA to Chatenay-Malabry they were marked with a piece of tape, and a laboratory worker testified under oath that she knew of the identity of the person of whom the samples belonged to. Was there pressure from supervisors during the testing to confirm previous results?

Mr. Campbell also raises another pertinent issue:

42. Given the amount of tests done on the Stage 17 sample [four different testosterone/epitestosterone tests that resulted in three different test results: one was discarded: forever refuting the reliability of the testosterone/epitestosterone test forever] why did the LNDD run out of urine for the "A" samples in other stages?

Why indeed? Where was the "A" sample urine for the other stages? Gone from repeated testing to find a "surprising result?" On Stage 17, the test results read:
4.7:1, 5.1:1, and 11.4:1. Considering the incredible performance of Floyd Landis on stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France the only correct value had to be the 11.4:1 result, which was promptly reported to the press.

But, you can read the rest of the Christopher Campbell dissent for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Conclusion:

The arbitration panel should have never agreed to allow the additional stage "B" tests without confirmation. The "B" sample tests should never have been allowed into evidence to support the existence of doping by Floyd Landis during the 2006 Tour de France because it forever lowers the bar as to what constitutes an adherence to WADA code and International Standards by WADA accredited laboratories and the USADA. And by allowing the additional tests to be submitted as evidence the AAA panel forever undermined the protections written into the WADA code and into the International Standards to protect the athlete from prosecutorial abuse.

USADA like WADA considers every step of the judicial process from sample collection to the final award in the Court of Arbitration of Sport to be variable in nature. The number of tests can be variable, the criteria that constitutes threshold is variable, the International Standards are variable, WADA technical documents can be interpreted in a variable way, the rules can be modified at a whim for every arbitration hearing, and former awards have no bearing on the case at hand.

I am tired of ringing the clarion bell: warning if this sort of behavior on the part of USADA can happen to Floyd Landis it can happen to you. I hope the National Football League Players Association considers this sort of conduct on the part of USADA and WADA before they agree to any human growth hormone testing. You must demand that International Standards and WADA code be adhered to and not subjected to a surprise "fishing expedition" by the prosecution.

Because if you test positive to a false positive and the prosecution demands unconfirmed tests from samples that you provided in other games...you won't stand a chance.

Congress Ignores WADA Pitfalls

2011-10-04T13:10:00.038-06:00

In a rush to "protect the children from performance enhancing drug use" some representatives from the United States government have met with some WADA people and with Travis T. Tygart of the United States Anti-Doping Agency to pressure the National Football League to rush through WADA testing for human growth hormone (HGH), according to the New York Times. Not included in the discussions were the National Football Players Association (NFLPA), concerned NFL players, or Maurice Suh and his scientific team concerned with resolving scientific reliability and validity claims made by WADA about their human growth hormone tests. Reviewing the past history of WADA behavior in testing and adjudication of tests for performance enhancing drug use in sport, there are a rational grounds for concern.

This discussion is not intended to be a dissertation of the complexity of the scientific issues involved in determining the presence or absence of performance enhancing substances in an athlete sample. For example, in the Floyd Landis synthetic testosterone case, there were multiplicitous issues. Serious students of the anti-doping process interested in the minutiae of the scientific issues raised by the Floyd Landis case should visit the excellent and very comprehensive Internet site trust but verify. Some of the scientific issues raised by the Floyd Landis defense are very technical and very alarming and should serve as dire warnings to all athletes never to trust WADA. In a football analogy, WADA would change the rules in the middle of the game to ensure that no matter how many yards they rushed on any given play, the result would always be a first down. For the defense, every play would result in a forth down, no matter how many yards they gained. Thus, it would be impossible for WADA to lose the game.

Accusing an athlete of doping is a very serious concern and cannot be taken lightly. The burden of proof, in the current anti-doping system, is pointed straight at the athlete. The athlete has the burden to prove that the laboratory made a mistake in the testing process to clear his or her name. The athlete must provide his or her own legal counsel, expert witnesses, the athlete must pay for any antecedal information that would support his or her contention of innocence, and if an award goes in favor of the prosecution, must pay additional legal costs. Meanwhile, anti-doping agencies are flush with legal counsel, expert witnesses, and cash. It costs nothing for USADA to refuse to provide documentation under it's control to the defense, even after oral argument and a arbitration panel order, but the cost to the athlete is exorbitant; needless delay while the defense team examines the evidence to prepare a proper argument. Travis T. Tygart refused to comply with an arbitration order to release evidence to Floyd Landis until moments before the oral arguments in at the Pepperdine law school were about to commence. In a normal constitutionally convened court of law, all of the prosecution evidence would have had to be surrendered to the defense. Prosecutorial surprises, in most cases, would be deemed inadmissible as evidence.

WADA repeats tests until it gets the desirable results:

First there was the repeated testosterone/epitestosterone samples conducted by the French accredited laboratory LNDD located in Chatenay-Malabry, France. I have mentioned these tests before as an example of WADA incompetence and chicanery. As a justification for a necessity for a carbon isotope ratio test to determine the justification for the presence of synthetic testosterone in Floyd Landis, the laboratory ran three separate testosterone/epitestosterone tests to determine threshold, even though after the first sample result of 4.7:1 further tests were unnecessary. Perhaps the additional tests had an ulterior motive: press rattling sensationalism. When the 11.4:1 test result was measured, an employee of LNDD raced at full speed to the office of Amaury Sport Organization owned L'Equipe writer Damien Ressiot with the startling news. Before the ink was dry on the lab document package, news organization all over the world repeated the myth that Floyd Landis had tested positive for high levels of testosterone. And in a rush to judgment most media outlets were claiming that Floyd Landis would also test positive for synthetic testosterone as well.

WADA changes the rules on what constitutes a positive test:

There was a problem with the metabolite androstanediol in the Floyd Landis case that created a nightmare scenario for WADA. The problem centered around a generally understood criteria that for the presence of synthetic testosterone to be conclusively proven in a sample two C13 metabolites must have a three delta unit separation from C12 background endogenous metabolites to establish threshold, since synthetic testosterone is derived from C13 based supplements, stigmasterol, for example, and these supplements must be metabolized in order for it to be utilized by the body, and while being converted into energy a waste bi-product is produced, metabolite(s) of C13 based testosterone, androstanediol, 5-alpha androstanediol, and others.

Very well, the science seems quite clear and the criteria on what constituted a positive sample seemed as clear until the metabolite androstanediol did not meet the WADA established criteria for threshold. A separate tested metabolite 5-alpha androstanediol did meet the three delta unit threshold value at -6.39 delta units and was therefore not in contention. A single metabolite above threshold, however, did not meet the WADA requirement for detection of synthetic testosterone in the sample. This would require a second metabolite, androsterone, because the other two metabolites measured did not reach threshold, the delta unit separation was below three delta units. The "B" sample confirmation score for androsterone was -3.51 delta units, and at first glance one would come to the conclusion that this score was above three delta units, therefore constituting threshold. But not so, there was a catch, known as the published lab uncertainty of +/-.8 delta units, meaning that the score could be argued by the prosecution as above threshold and by the defense as below threshold, and both versions would be the correct answer.

WADA was so desperate to avoid a determination that the test was inconclusive that they changed the rules as what constitutes a positive test for synthetic testosterone by exploiting a loophole in a WADA technical document. The document stated that C13 based metabolite(s) above three delta unit threshold constitute the presence of synthetic testosterone in the sample. Therefore, the technical document did not necessarily require the presence to two metabolites above threshold.

The American Arbitration Association (AAA) Panel of Patrice Brunet and Richard McLaren agreed with the WADA single metabolite requirement over the strenuous objection of Christopher Campbell, and the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) voted against Floyd Landis in a 3-0 unanimous vote. So you see, changing the criteria on what constitutes a positive test has the most desirable results: a perfect conviction rate of "doping" athletes.

Of course, it cannot be forgotten that the actual uncertainty of LNDD carbon isotope testing was not the published value of +/-.8 delta units, but actually the measured values were incorrect by a factor of twenty percent! So all the raging academic debates that occurred during the Floyd Landis hearing were moot, uncertainty had no bearing on the case, the single metabolite 5-alpha androstanediol was so far above threshold at -6.39 delta units that it could not possibly be effected by a twenty percent uncertainty in measurement, as the Court of Arbitration of Sport pointed out in the Floyd Landis award.

WADA got lucky with Floyd Landis, he doped during the 2006 Tour de France and was caught red handed. Next time with variable rules and with repeated tests to obtain a desirable result some innocent person may be the next WADA victim. With some of the lower profile athletes who do not have the financial where with all, in the form of millions of dollars in ready cash to challenge "clear laboratory results" they may have already been victimized, helpless to defend themselves. It is imperative that the NFLPA does not become another UCI and that before any HGH testing takes place that issues in technical document wording, and other issues of this nature are addressed before testing commences, to assure players that WADA is not operating with a variable playbook that changes depending upon the results of any given test, and to assure players that WADA is adhering to it's founding principal of "harmonization" and "fair play."

The United States government needs to wake up to the problems that WADA and people like Travis T. Tygart create with unfair practices that only serve to feather their caps at the expense of athletes. Congress needs to give the defense a chance to express their concerns too, in a special meeting. Congress would be shocked to learn all that Maurice Suh knows, but perhaps they simply don't care about a "fair process." There is plenty of time to test athletes for HGH. Better is to work out all of the problems in advance before another rush to L'Equipe.

NFLPA: Stand Firm Against WADA!

2011-09-30T13:13:00.048-06:00

This is the most amazing development, a sport union refusing to capitulate to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Forever sports have been dictated to by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and WADA under the threat of exclusion from the Olympic Games, and sports governing bodies such as the International Cycling Union (UCI) have been rendered as impotent as de-fanged, claw-less tigers. Pat McQuaid, president of the UCI, has no option but to join with the chorus of defamation of athletes, and Pat McQuaid must eagarly praise and defend WADA accredited laboratory test results; instead of defending his athletes against defamation by WADA.

Not so the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) who are fighting for their players, an original "anti-defamation league." NFLPA is demanding that WADA provide documentation related to WADA Human Growth Hormone (HGH) tests for independent scientific verification before the players union will allow WADA to conduct tests upon players in the NFL.

According to Juliet Macur of the New York Times, the NFLPA group demanding the documents is being lead by former Floyd Landis lead attorney Maurice Suh. Mr. Suh is complaining that WADA is refusing to release documents required to validate through independent research their scientific suppositions pertaining to HGH testing. Mr. Suh is also complaining that without the documentation, once a case reaches arbitration there will be no scientific basis to challenge a false positive test result.

Athletes the world over should applaud the efforts of the NFLPA scientific group and encourage them to continue to pressure WADA for scientific information. If the NFLPA forces WADA to lay their cards on the table before the case goes to arbitration this will save athletes millions of dollars in legal expenses and fees. These issues of scientific validity and reliability of HGH testing must be resolved by independent analysis of the data before the first drop of blood is drawn and before WADA tests the first sample, otherwise the testing will never be verified by independent means. WADA will enforce omerta, the code of silence among it's operatives and challenges by innocent athletes of WADA accredited laboratory generated false positive results will be so expensive and time consuming as to be prohibitive. Dr. Olivier Rabin and David Howman will be popping champagne corks over the successful prosecution of another convicted "doper," who lacked the time, energy, and resources to challenge "a clear laboratory result."

From the New York Times:

WADA officials said the false-positive rate [of WADA HGH tests] is as least one in 10,000 or that the test is 99.99 percent accurate.

Fine. That is a perfectly acceptable statement taken on trust. But as Ronald Reagan so aptly stated, there is a need to verify.

From the New York Times:

The Union said it wants to prove that false positive rate itself by letting its scientists examine the raw data. That includes data regarding the population studies done on athletes that helped set the limit that triggers a positive HGH test.

Ah yes, the classic threshold argument. What ratio of 22 kilodaltons to 20 kilodaltons constitutes threshold and synthetic HGH use? If the threshold is lowered, is it not also obvious to conclude that the false positive rate will increase?

From the New York Times: WADA science director Dr. Olivier Rabin replied to the NFLPA requests for documents this way:

What they want to do is to dig into more details and more things and we say that is not necessary because you have seen our results and we aren't hiding anything from you.

Trust us. You have seen our results and you have to accept our false positive rate. Therefore, you need not verify our conclusions through independent examination of the evidence. If Dr. Rabin offered me prime ocean front property in Arizona based upon this logic, I would refuse to cut him a check until there was independent verification of the property. Thus the problem: WADA truth may be nothing more than opinion, spin, and blue smoke blown up your posterior. Best to make sure through independent verification the validity of preposterous statements rather than to be swindled by deceptive promises that may not exist anywhere else but in WADA reality.

From the New York Times: Dr. Rabin raises another concern.

We are also very careful because people can misuse the information we used to generate the test. We have to protect our information from people who may be advising the athlete on how to cheat.

Yes, of course. Independent examination of WADA raw testing data is going to provide doping doctors with clues on how to deceive WADA laboratory detection! How quaint. That statement is quite scatological and even calamitous if it is directed at Maurice Suh and his independent group of scientific investigators. Even libelous!

This dispute is would be hilarious if so much was not at stake. But I have a solution that would go far to resolve the reliability question, a simple experiment.

A control sample containing a given ratio of 20 to 22 kilodalton isomers of HGH would be distributed to every WADA accredited lab in the world. This would be a simple double blind study because the person providing the sample to the laboratory and the people doing the testing would be blind as to what the sample contained. The instructions would read "test it, and keep a complete laboratory record of your work." At the conclusion of the testing all of the results would be shipped to Maurice Suh and his scientific team for analysis along with a team of WADA scientific experts. If all the laboratories have identical results this would prove once and for all that the test is reliable. If there were many disparate results this would suggest the following possibilities:
1) The test is unreliable.
2) A laboratory or several laboratories doing the testing are incompetent.
3) Therefore: any single result could be construed as a false positive result.

A test is only as good as the person doing the testing. If I hand a person a piece of paper with a one inch line drawn upon it and a ruler, and tell him to measure the line three times, the measurement should be one inch three times. If the measurements do not equal one inch every time, then I can conclude that the problem is not with the line or the ruler, but with the person doing the measuring.

Yes. WADA accredited laboratory Chatenay-Malabry did three testosterone/epitestosterone measurements on one urine sample of Floyd Landis and arrived a three different results. There is a great deal of certainty that the urine sample heated up during the testing and provided at least two false positive results. So, you see, WADA accredited laboratories are capable of making mistakes. WADA accredited laboratories are fallible and capable of generating false positive results and never should be used to test cyclists, football players, or any other athlete.

WADA should not object to my little reliability experiment should they? There is still a question of validity which would not by proven with my experiment, but that is a topic for another day.

The NFL and WADA: A Unholy Alliance?

2011-09-28T13:48:00.087-06:00

Football? For your information I am a J-E-T-S fan. Naturally, the Patriot and Dolphin fans will think I am an empty concrete head. Unlike some asinine egocentric pundits, I embrace more than one sport and I worry about the consequences of dubious performance enhancing drug use and testing at all times, in all sports.

USA Today has an outstanding story about the current brouhaha over human growth hormone testing that was negotiated between the NFL and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). There seems to be questions raised by the players union over the validity and reliability of the WADA HGH testing.

NFLPA has requested WADA to provide documents related to the scientific validity of the WADA HGH testing, according to NFLPA spokesman George Atallah. To quote from the USA Today article:

The players have asked WADA repeatedly for information related to their testing program. Those requests have been denied. For us to move forward with a fair, safe and effective testing program, it is critical that we receive that information.

David Howman WADA director general responded to the NFLPA request:

The union is seeking information that does not exist. There is nothing that we can give them.

Welcome NFLPA to WADA world, the land of fruits and nuts! It is reasonable, prudent, and justified to question WADA about the reliability and validity of their HGH testing in advance of any testing of NFL players. Why? Because if you don't work out ironclad legally incontestable stipulations with WADA, once they get their foot in the door, it will be much too late, too expensive, of too long duration, and too litigious to force them to provide legal documents to justify their methodology and laboratory practice to the defense, if, an athlete contests WADA laboratory results.

NFLPA has a reasons to fear for their players, but there is hope depending upon how NFL commissioner Roger Goodell deals with with truculent WADA director general David Howman. The best possible result for the NFL would be to force WADA to comply with NFL requests for information in an ironclad non negotiable agreement. The NFL is not an Olympic sport and, therefore, must be exempt from International Olympic Committee (IOC) blackmail. The case should be an internal NFL matter exempt from the WADA strict liability rule. If commissioner Roger Goodell acts as czar, if commissioner Roger Goodell imposes a sanction after a positive test for HGH, and if the sanction is contested by a player, in the interest of fairness, he must demand all of the relevant lab document package information be released to the league, and, any other requested information that pertains to WADA accredited laboratory testing that could be contested by the athlete. WADA would also be forced to comply with NFL requests for information pertaining to adherence to International Standards for Testing (IST) or Laboratories (ISL), or to issues pertaining to calibration of equipment, chain-of-custody, security of the samples, or to any other information that would be considered germane to a case. Then the NFL could provide all of these requested documents to the defense team for consideration, before a potential arbitration hearing or civil trial could be convened. Of course, this may force WADA laboratories to become a transparent organization for the first time in history, the sloppy laboratory practices exposed, the cover-ups exposed, the whole system vulnerable, unprotected by the IOC umbrella.

Wouldn't it be better for the NFL to reconsider the necessity of using WADA accredited laboratories UCLA and UTAH (PAC-12!) and instead seek another organization with an accreditation in International Standards for Laboratories and Standards, and avoid all of this nonsense?

Because the scientific issues of HGH testing seem to be very straight forward according to David Burns, pathologist, University of Virgina:

HGH comes in two isoforms weight 20 or 22 kilodaltons. Synthetic HGH comes in only one weight or the other and can't easily be mixed to achieve the "proper ratio."

The proper ratio? Whatever that means. The NFLPA wants a population study done to establish a "baseline," rather than to accept an arbitrary "normal" physiological "range."

Perhaps the NFL could establish the NFL Biological Passport and establish a baseline for all NFL players. The concept seems so basic, the International Cycling Union (UCI) has used one for years, they have even suspended cyclists in the absence of a "clear laboratory result," based upon red flag tendencies voted upon by a committee convened for the purpose to establish the presence of doping. And the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) has determined that banishment of riders by committee consensus is appropriate, incontestable, and has no appeal to a higher power! Of course, the NFL does not come under the jurisdiction of the UCI or the CAS, so, they can invent their own committee to establish doping offenses based upon suspect biological parameters, if desired. And they could even convict some poor guy from the practice squad and use him as an example of how successful the program is, and how this justifies the contribution made to the program by all of the teams in the NFL. Besides, if you are going to select a scapegoat you sure are not going to highlight film suspect values from Payton Manning or Aaron Rogers, and you sure are not going to use them as examples of dopers in the NFL, even if you are convinced that they are using HGH, because they put butts in seats and generate revenues. In sport, money is the bottom line. In football, careers are short, competition is intense, performance is demanded in a violent environment. In football, injury is a common occurrence, and injuries can terminate lucrative contracts. So the goal is to recover as quickly as possible from injury, and HGH has been alleged to speed recovery. Therefore, there is a temptation to cheat! Baseline scores are all well and good, but be careful what you wish for, baselines can be manipulated by micro-dosing of prohibited drugs, which make individual differences meaningless, and a biological passport system can be manipulated in the interests of money. For example, WADA has an interest to modify the strict liability rule in the interests of a single athlete, Alberto Contador, because the organizers of the Tour de France are worried that even a one year suspension of a Spanish cycling idol, required under the WADA strict liability rule, would cause the television stations in Spain to stop televising the race like the German television stations did a couple of years ago. And non televised races cost millions of Euros in sponsorship fees and advertising!

Roger Goodell, don't invite corruption to stain the shield. Dump WADA before it is too late.

Cycling: Doping Femme Fatale?

2011-09-20T13:24:00.098-06:00

Just when you thought the doping news was on the wane, unexpected things happen. Jeanne Longo, the French female cycling sensation withdraws from the UCI Road World Championships after allegations that her husband and coach Patrice Ciprelli was linked to a purchase of rEPO in 2007. To make matters worse, the French Cycling Federation (FFC) has reported that Jeanne Longo has missed three random out-of-competition drug tests because her whereabouts were unknown. The FFC has announced that they are considering disciplinary action that may result in a two year suspension.

Does it not seem suspicious that a fifty two year old woman is trouncing young twenty something femme fatales, in their primes, at the height of their athletic abilities, in a time trial, with a normal physiology? Doubtful. In any event, this episode reminds me of Michael Rasmussen, who missed random out-of-competition tests, misreported his whereabouts, and then was fired by Rabobank during the 2007 Tour de France while wearing the malliot jaune. Michael Rasmussen was and then suspended for two years by the Monaco Cycling Federation. The Michael Rasmussen suspension was affirmed by the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) on appeal. And under normal conditions the fate of Jeanne Longo seems certain, but...

These are strange days. WADA has gone off the deep end by admitting that athletes can be contaminated by performance enhancing drugs without wilful intent to increase performance. This accidental contact seems to be limited to a single drug, clenbuterol: a drug that theoretically could be transmitted from a contaminated beef stake into an athlete by ingestion. However, this hypothetical contamination by ingestion argument is not shared by all biochemists, some experts have reported that for a beef stake to infect an athlete, the concentration of clenbuterol present in the meat would be toxic enough to kill the athlete.

Well, this is certainly a curious argument and one wonders why WADA would suddenly consider a single anabolic steroid beyond the Richard Young standard of strict liability. One wonders if there is not some conflict of interest involved here. Perhaps the motive is to protect a single athlete? Never, in all the years of the current anti-doping Inquisition, has a single athlete escaped the wrath of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), WADA, and the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS). Never have the powers relented and accepted a rational argument in a humane fashion under the declaration of human rights.

Until now! It should be obvious to everyone that WADA and the UCI never had any interest in appealing the Spanish Sport Federation (RFEC) exoneration of Alberto Contador. Now, WADA wants to exempt clenbuterol from the strict liability requirement before his case is heard before the CAS....where under appropriate pressure there is a high probability that the case will be dismissed.

Why? Because WADA wants only one disgraced Tour de France champion who will live in infamy for doping...the son of a poor American Mennonite farmer, Floyd Landis: a man who was vilified in the most inhumane way by WADA, USADA, the UCI, and the CAS. Unfortunately, during that period they were burning one hundred heretics a day at the stake during the splendid auto de fe.

But, when a European prince is accused of wrong doing and faces certain expulsion, WADA has suddenly abandoned the stake in the interests of humanity. Ye reek of hypocrisy.

Behind me hence, Satan. If I were running the UCI, association with the IOC and their maniacal satellites would terminate henceforth. The IOC thinks that the UCI and many nation states can be blackmailed and forced to comply with their agenda as signatories; their threat? submit or be excluded from Olympic athletic competition. I would call their bluff, begone! cycling would end the incestuous relationship with WADA. WADA accredited laboratories would be excluded from all cycling testing, including Tour de France testing, and replaced with competent testing laboratories from internationally accredited organizations independent of WADA and the IOC. Appeals of decisions of national cycling federations would be directed to an arbitration panel independent of WADA. If, in retaliation, the IOC decided to eliminate all cycling sport from the Olympics as punishment, the UCI would encourage outraged cycling fanatics to demand that the sport of cycling be returned to it's rightful place in the pantheon. Then the UCI would demand that the IOC publicly apologize to the riders and their supporters, then demand that the IOC make further concessions.

If the national cycling federations insist upon protecting their favorite sons with outrageous exoneration of "clear laboratory results" then the UCI would be responsible for the direction of the final appeal to an judicial review board independent of the UCI, the IOC, and their alphabet soup affiliates. Got it?

Good. And don't even think of doing Jeanne Longo any special favors!

WADA: The Death of Strict Liability?

2011-09-17T11:22:00.071-06:00

Wow, astounding news. WADA is considering relaxing the strict liability rule for clenbuterol, a prohibited substance, anabolic steroid, and bronchodilator that has been abused among professional cyclists to increase performance for years. The pretext for relaxing the rule comes under the auspices of accidental ingestion by athletes of the drug through contaminated meat products. According to the British Broadcasting System Radio large quantities of clenbuterol are used in China and Mexico to induce lean muscle mass among cattle destined for slaughter.

Wonderful. WADA has finally admitted that the draconian, unreasonable strict liability ethos of mere presence of a prohibited substance detected in an athlete constitutes a grounds for criminal culpability and a grounds for punishment; regardless of intent. For years WADA has treated athletes who by accident came into contact with a prohibited substances through ignorance, or by chance, or through the carelessness of pharmaceutical companies, or because of changes in chemical formulations; the same way as they they treated athletes who used prohibited substances to gain an unfair advantage. Even in cases where it was clear that the athlete was not to blame; WADA still exacted a year long suspension.

This farce has always been considered as an unfair judicial process that dehumanizes the athlete, subjects the athlete to prolonged media attacks, introduces into the process unfair characterizations and innuendos, and jeopardizes future career opportunities. Also, the concept of strict liability exacts an outrageously large and prolonged financial burden on the athlete in legal expenses, a financial burden that is not equally shared by the anti-doping authorities who are publicly financed. Cases that are complex in nature may require complicated arbitration rulings, additional testing, discovery challenges, appeals: all the while the athlete is expected to live in limbo as to the final resolution of his or her case. Certain cases have had litigation costs into the millions of dollars, and have taken over to two years to resolve.

It is commendable that the WADA executive committee should consider allowing for a possible extenuation in the case of accidental exposure to clenbuterol; but why not expand the same reasoning to include all substances on the prohibited list? It is as likely to be accidentally exposed to one drug as another; and in the interests of harmony all accidental exposure should be treated in an equal fashion.

However, there is the danger that in reducing the criteria of strict liability for prohibited drugs detected, to a new standard of drugs detected explained away by an argument of accidental exposure; that this relaxation in policy will encourage recreant behavior by athletes, team doctors, professional medical consultants, or coaches, who may encourage the use of micro dosing techniques; in effect, rolling the dice in the hope of foiling the current doping detection methods with an obvious intent to gain an unfair advantage over the competition. And, as in the case of clenbuterol, once the genie is out of the bottle, it is most convenient to explain to the anti-doping federation that the meat was most unfortunately imported from China, and shipped to the dinner table in a hermetically sealed blood transfusion bag. A preposterous story of this nature attempts not only to justify the presence of a drug, but even better, the unusually high level of plastic residues found in blood and urine tests of this hypothetical athlete. And, of course, this fable explains away everything in a most convenient fashion. If this fable is successful in eliciting an exoneration by the anti-doping agency responsible for case management of the athlete, instead of a suspension for the athlete, this will encourage fables of a similar origin. Fabricated excuses will be invented ever and anon every time a doping strategy is detected by the laboratories.

Catch-22, damned if you do, damned if you don't. There are perils in both arguments. But the reform of the WADA code has taken much too long to evolve.

1987 Trek 1000

2011-08-20T16:53:00.082-06:00

Facts about the old classic aluminum frame trek bicycles link here.

Parts list:

Bontrager handlebar gel tape
Cateye Enduro 8 cycling computer
Suntour Cyclone 7000 font and real derailleurs
Suntour 6 speed freewheel
Decals: Trek (white with gold streamers)
Down tube shifters: Suntour Cyclone 7000 (black)
Side pull breaks: Dia-Comp Alpha-II (black with white lettering)
SR "250" Oval Tech chain wheel rings: 52-42
Matrix Titan S Wheels. Made in the USA, Waterloo, Wisconsin. (black rims)
Trek TX Aluminum Alloy Tubing
Paint: gray/black
Pedals: Shimano 105

Here are some updated photographs of my 1987 Trek 1000 Aluminum Tube Bicycle. The bicycle has one drawback, poor acceleration off the line, and the SR Oval Tech chain wheels are difficult to adjust to, but they were in vogue once. Read Shimano Biopace. At a certain point in the stroke, the oval wheels were supposed to increase power from a 52 to 53, or a 42 to a 43. I doubt whether an increase in power is helpful on a difficult mountain climb, and there have been suggestions of knee damage with oval chain wheels.

This bike is in excellent condition and has received many flattering complements from people. Yes, the bicycle and the Matrix wheel set are original and were built in the United States of America at Waterloo, Wisconsin. Nowadays, Trek is a huge behemoth and the lower end Trek bicycles are built in Tiwan, and the 1000's are junk.

Aluminum frames have a very short lifespan, about five years. Every time I rebuild an old bike it is like rolling the dice, you never know when the frame will break, you never know what people did to the bike before you found it, and believe me, I have had steel frames break at the most unexpected moments. But as Tommy Simpson says, get off the pavement, dust yourself off, and "put me back on my bloody bike."

Notice the Shimano 105 pedals and the beautiful, exceptional paint job.

Notice the unique front derailleur mount. Suntour Cyclone 7000
Matrix Titan S Wheels

Trek TX Aluminum Alloy Tubing

SR "250" Oval Tech Chain rings 52-42 and Suntour Cyclone 7000 Front derailleur.

The classic Trek logo. The side pull breaks are Dia-Comp Alpha-II, black with white lettering.

White decals with gold streamers. Down tube shifters. Suntour Cyclone 7000.

Suntour cyclone 7000 real derailleur and Suntour 6 speed freewheel.

The cockpit. Bontranger gel tape. Cateye Enduro 8 cycling computer.

Thanks for looking at my steed and have a nice bicycle ride today!

Tour of Utah: Stage 4 Photographs

2011-08-17T13:16:00.137-06:00

Yes, the Tour of Utah is over and yes, defending champion Levi Leipheimer won again. The results of Stage 4 link here.

Stage 4 of the Tour of Utah consisted of a loop throughout the downtown area with climbs and descents with varying degrees of difficulty. Some of these photographs were taken at the intersection of 11th Avenue and Virgina Street and others were taken at President's Circle on the University of Utah campus, they will be marked accordingly. The photographs show the lead group followed by the chase group for a few of the laps, stragglers are not shown. Although the quality of the photographs are limited due to an archaic digital camera shutter speed, they are shown as a part of the historical record, and serve to document the changing composition of the pack during a criterium style race.

The Stage 4 temperature was around 98 degrees Fahrenheit. The pavement was dissolving in some places on the Virgina Street descent with an oily, slick, shiny sheen. I can verify this fact from personal race time experimentation, because after watching a couple of laps on 11th Avenue, I told a race marshal that I was going to ride down to President's Circle via Virgina Street. Happily, I hopped on my trusty steed and loosened the reigns, zoom! On the descent I felt just like Joseba Beloki moments before a momentous crash. Very lightly feathering the breaks, my cycling computer instantly hit 34.5 miles per hour, vortices's and eddies of air streamed off my body into space. Exhilarating! No time for riding in the drops, no time for an aerodynamic tuck. Suddenly, I spied a policeman frantically waving an orange flag and blowing a whistle, at me! The police ordered me instantly to exit the course at 5th Avenue thus ending the experiment, but unimpeded, I could have rode down Virginia Street, up University Street, and in triumph around President's Circle like one of my heroes without interfering with the race in any way, shape, or form.

Imagine the riders drafting in the sweet spot down that hill on 53x11 carbon fiber steeds. Whee!

For general information: Ski Utah had some of the men's team riding the course handing out long red plastic horns. I shook my head "no." I didn't want to be any part of the girl who kicked the hornets' nest.

Steve Miller would do every radio race fan a favor and fire 1320 KFNZ. It is obvious to every professional bicycle racing fan that the local KFNZ sport jocks know nothing of bicycle racing and it seems too much of an effort for the Tour of Utah to either hire or provide a professional racer to explain stage racing tactics to them. KFNZ has an idiot who can croon out refrains of Queen, [Bi-screech-cycle!] and then giggle uncontrollably for fifteen minutes, but KFNZ does not have five minutes to spare during a local show to include an exclusive Tour of Utah segment that contains an intelligent discussion of the daily stage, the general overall classification, the teams, and other rudimentary points of the race. Unfortunately, in addition, the Tour of Utah real time race updates were so rare that it did not seem worth the time to listen to the third rate rants and obscene shouting arguments over every trivial point of the local Brigham Young University versus University of Utah rivalry that seems to obsess these people.

All in all, the Tour of Utah seemed to pass like a thief in the night, but one stage was better than nothing at all, since unlike years past, the prologue and most of the stages no longer funnel into Salt Lake City. Maybe the expanded stages to include more of the state was an improvement, it is probably a matter of perspective.

Lap 1. 11th Avenue and Virgina Street. Here comes the pack!

The team cars. Lap 1. 11th Avenue and Virgina Street. At the turn pandemonium ensued with screaming breaks and several near collisions as riders and team cars fought for position.

President's circle. University of Utah Campus. The lead group riding hard, the gap board read 2:20.

Team Radio Shack setting the chase tempo.

The breakaway group: "Paco" Mancebo attacks out of the saddle!

The pack descends from President's circle, across University Street, and down 200 South.

Stage 4 had 7.4 laps around the loop, I think this is the end of the chase group.

Team Radioshack on the front. Yes, that is Levi Leipheimer in yellow, and yes alumni, that is the Park Building.

Thanks to all the teams and riders who participated in the 2011 Tour of Utah. See you all next year!

2011 Tour of Utah Preview

2011-08-08T13:14:00.041-06:00

The 2011 Tour of Utah touted as America's Toughest Stage Race, with thirty thousand feet of climbing, begins with a prologue time trial at Park City, Utah, on August 9, 2011. The race has been updated to from a USA Cycling sanctioned race, to UCI 2.1, which has increased the stature of the race, and the quality and number of participating teams. The course has been altered significantly, the Ogden, Morgan, Big Mountain, Emigration Canyon, Research Park stage has been changed to a loop starting and ending in Ogden, Utah. And the downtown criterium that circled in a flat loop around the Salt Lake City Public Library has been expanded to include a very large area downtown, with a steep uphill wall past the Utah State Capitol Building on Bonneville Boulevard, a loop and descent to flat riding past the Salt Lake City Cemetery on 11th Avenue, then a quick hair raising descent down Virgina Street, to a turnaround point on President's Circle on the University of Utah Campus, then a short and quick descent to South Temple and flat riding with a slight downhill slope back to Bonneville Boulevard and back up the wall. Virgina street seems to have a very rough pavement surface with numerous exposed sewer lids, beware! but the University of Utah seems to be engaged in a resurfacing project of President's Circle, for aesthetic purposes? the condition of South Temple looks bad in some spots too.

The time trial at Miller Sports Park has not changed and the queen stage up Little Cottonwood Canyon has not changed.

Who will win the 2011 Tour of Utah? The best team, if everyone stays healthy, would be BMC, with Jeff Louder, Winner of the 2008 Tour of Utah. Brent Bookwalter, and George Hincapie. In 2010, George Hincapie had an unexpected crash and withdrawl from the Tour Of Utah after a freak accident on the Mount Nebo climb which injured his knee. Nevertheless, BMC has the most experienced team and should be dangerous contenders.

Team Radioshack has fielded a team with defending Tour of Utah champion Levi Leipheimer and rock hard teammate Jason McCartny. Even though Levi Leipheimer did not have an over successful 2011 Tour de France, suffering from mutiple crashes, and finishing the race twenty minutes behind race leader Cadel Evans, he should still be regarded as the favorite to win the 2011 Tour of Utah.

Then there is realcyclist.com pure climber Mancebo Francisco "Paco" Perez the winner of the 2009 Tour of Utah and runner up in the 2010 Tour of Utah. If there is not a major accident or illness the race may come down to a duel up Little Cottonwood Canyon in queen stage 5 between Levi Leipheimer and "Paco."

However, there are other competent contenders who could throw a wrench in the mix. Garmin-Cervelo sports Christian Vande Velde cannot be ignored, a very consistent, tough UCI pro tour rider. United Health Care features Rory Suterland a exceptional professional with a very extensive history of success. And HTC Highroad features Danny Pate who was under twenty three time trial champion, who should not be considered a threat on general classification, but who could win the time trial stages and provide a great deal of entertainment for raced starved fans. Then there is the wild card team Gobernacion De Antioquia-Indeportes Antio with a group of Coumbian riders born to climb and an unknown factor...

The Final Podium

1) Francisco "Paco" Mancebo Perez
2) Levi Leipheimer
3) Christian Vande Velde

See you there!

Cadel! Cadel! Cadel!

2011-07-30T11:56:00.055-06:00

Abandon hope all who enter here
-Dante

Or the admonition written on the gate to sinners destined to hell, in the epic poem The Inferno. Indeed, there were doubters, cynical people who insisted, with some justification, that the Australian sensation Cadel Evans would falter somewhere on the torturous cols of the Alps. There was some very strange behavior on the Alpine climbs: on the south side of the Galibier Alberto Contador struggles to survive, on the north side of the Galibier Alberto Contador attacks then inexplicably soars up L'AlpeD'Huez like a falcon. Thomas Voeckler crashes his bicycle into a roadside automobile, he loses contact with Alberto Contador on the Galibier and slams his water bottle into the pavement in frustration, his legs finally lock up on L'AlpeD'Huez, and after ten heroic days his quest for the malliot jaune ends. Then there was the bewildering, almost fatal tactical blunder. On the col Izoard, thirty miles from the finish, Andy Schleck attacked the Evans group and amazingly no one responded. This was a brilliant move by Leopard Trek because Andy Schleck joined a teammate down the course who had escaped from the peloton in an earlier breakaway. Therefore, Andy Schleck rode as a protected rider: paced and sheltered from the wind by his teammate. Meanwhile, Cadel Evans seemed to be waiting for someone to chase down Andy Schleck who was gaining more and more time, and when nobody responded, he was forced to lead the chase himself, unprotected: fighting the wind, in a brutal out of the saddle effort. This worked to the advantage of Frank Schleck who rode protected in the group and was required to do no work to keep pace. What happened here? Obviously, Frank Schleck was not going to chase his brother and teammate. Thomas Voeckler was riding on borrowed time, so he had no inclination to chase. The other riders in the group were not serious enough contenders in the general classification to have an incentive to chase. There is unwritten etiquette in cycling races: there comes a time in every Tour de France where the riders will back off and let the two men with the highest certainty to win fight: mano a mano, in single combat. The reasoning: if Cadel Evans wants to win the Tour de France he has to prove it by chasing down Andy Schleck by himself, without help, and if he founders he will get no sympathy from us! It is astonishing that Cadel Evans and his team did not realise the danger and the implications of not responding in a responsible manner. Andy Schleck gained 2:15 on the col Izoard, won the stage, and moved into second place in general classification. Frank Schleck moved into third place in general classification, and Cadel Evans dropped from second to fourth in general classification. Malliot Jaune? Thomas Voeckler.

In retrospect none of this mattered. Andy Schleck was crowned malliot jaune on L'AlpeD'Huez after Thomas Voeckler faltered. But the critical time in general classification between the Schleck brothers and Cadel Evans did not change on L'AlpeD'Huez. The "race of truth" would decide the issue once and for all.

Cadel Evans standing on the podium, on the Champs Elysees, in Paris, malliot jaune. A proud man. There is hope for cycling yet.

Andy Schleck will win the Tour de France. Andy Schleck is most likely the true winner of the 2010 Tour de France. There is a WADA doping appeal pending in the CAS against Alberto Contador. Abandon hope all who cheat here?

Au revoir mesdames et messieurs until next year.

Next stop? The Tour of Utah.

2011 Tour de France: Second Rest Day Reflections

2011-07-20T14:12:00.025-06:00

The second rest day of the 2011 Tour de France is past; hopefully without a performance enhancing repast as of days of yore. Very suspicious the performance of past champion Alberto Contador: in the early stages he suffered from numerous crashes and bruised his knee, he looked weak and unable to keep pace with the attacks of Andy and Frank Schleck, he lost time, he looked cooked. But wonders! After the second rest day Alberto Contador seemed to regain his form, attacking on the Category 2 Col de Manse, out of the saddle in explosive bursts, only Samuel Sanchez and Cadel Evans were able to keep pace. The Schleck brothers were dropped like a rock. Perhaps this recovery in the performance of Alberto Contador is a little too unusual? It would be no surprise to anyone, given the past doping history of Alberto Contador, if Christian Prudhomme arranged UCI and WADA sanctioned anti-doping chaperons to sprint to the finish line, urine sample beakers in hand, and escort Alberto Contador to dopage control for a sample forthwith! It is equally astonishing that the French gendarme did not invite themselves to the second rest day Saxo Bank team meal, darbies in hand, to taste the meat before it was served to the riders. Thus the police could have provided samples to confirm the concocted alibi with self examination of the evidence.

Alexander Kolobnev tested positive for a prohibited substance during the 2011 Tour de France, hopefully this will be the last positive test.

UCI President Pat McQuaid assures us that because Thomas Voeckler maintained his malliot jaune throughout the demanding Pryenees stages that this is an indication that anti-doping efforts are working. Pat McQuaid also assures us that if dope was not detected during the Tour de France then the anti-doping efforts are a failure.

Perhaps the logic of Pat McQuaid is flawed; Thomas Voeckler was malliot jaune during the 2004 Tour de France; riding against a large collection of suspected and convicted dopers. A wonderful film exists on youtube called Jan's Attack. In the film Jan Ullrich is hammering up a hors categorie (beyond category) climb at an astonishing rate of speed, attacking and dropping Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, and the US Postal squad like a rock. Meanwhile, Thomas Voeckler is wearing the golden fleece and he is clearly suffering, cycling for dear life, out of the saddle, in a fruitless attempt to keep his jersey. There is an astonishing number of miscreants in the film: Ivan Basso, Richard Virenque, Floyd Landis, Jan Ullrich! Probably the only person not juiced to the gills on performance enhancing drugs is poor Thomas Voeckler! Thus, the Pat McQuaid logic seems flawed at best and irrelevant at worst.

There is still L'AlpeD'Huez to come and if Thomas Voeckler is still malliot jaune, he may win in Paris. But Thomas Voeckler is such a practical man that he admits that this possibility is very remote, if not impossible. A very honest assessment from a very likable man.

Unlike Pat McQuaid who is an idiot and an embarrassment to cycling!

Cadel Evans will win the 2011 Tour de France.

Thomas Voeckler: Malliot Jaune

2011-07-13T14:02:00.027-06:00

Thomas Voeckler is the current malliot jaune of the 2011 Tour de France; [per Stage 11] a Frenchman and very charismatic man who fights to maintain his laurels with honor, a very rare quality among riders these days. Thomas Voeckler is a man of supreme tenacity and the golden fleece will not be easily lifted from his back; but alas, Thomas Voeckler is not a gifted climber, his time gap over the best climbers is not large enough, he will be caught and dropped on the cols of the difficult Alp and Pyrenees stages yet to come. Although Thomas Voeckler will be malliot jaune on Bastille Day and though this may briefly re-assure the patriotic athletic sentiments of the French people, on the Champs Elysees in Paris, a Frenchman will not win 2011 Tour de France.

Some favorites are still competing although many have dropped from the race in bloody crashes. Gone are Tom Boonen, Alexandre Vinokourov, David Zabriskie, littered along the road in wet, bloody, bandaged, broken heaps. Inexplicably, collisions occurred between riders and motorcycles, riders and press cars, sending riders into barbed wire fences and off to hospitals.

Rain has pounded the race with a vengeance causing a great deal of suffering with the mountains still to come! Long descents in the pouring rain can lead to incredible accidents if not managed properly; Bobby Julich in a decent during the 1998 Tour de France left the road and ended up plowing into a recreational vehicle while trying to negotiate a turn. Luckily no one was seriously injured! The 2011 Tour de France seems to be haunted by a pernicious kami.

Barring another catastrophe one of the following riders will win the 2011 Tour de France.

Cadel Evans. Very good climbing skills, very good time trial skills, formidable. May finish on the podium. Grade A
Andy Schleck. Excellent climbing skills, good time trial skills. Second to Alberto Contador in 2010 Tour de France. May finish on the podium. Grade A-.
Frank Schleck. Excellent climbing skills, good time trial skills. May finish on the podium. Grade B+
Andreas Kloden. Very good climbing skills, very good time trial skills, past podium finisher. Grade B
Ivan Basso. Excellent climbing skills, good time trial skills. Won Giro d' Italia. Grade B
Damiano Cunego. Very good climbing skills, very good time trial skills. Won Giro d' Italia. Grade B+
Alberto Contador. Excellent climbing skills, good time trial skills. Three time winner Tour de France, winner Giro d' Italia, winner Vuelta d' Espana. Grade A-

Levi Leipheimer can no longer be considered a threat after his acrobatic crash and loss of time. Leipheimer lost traction after riding on a wet zebra stripe and nearly impaled himself on a roadside guardrail. Only a miracle of misfortune will find Levi Leipheimer on the podium this year.

Final Podium
1) Cadel Evans
2) Andy Schleck
3) Alberto Contador (if he is not disqualified before the end of the race for blood doping or performance enhancing drug use.)

2011 Tour de France: Year of the Aussie?

2011-07-06T13:43:00.017-06:00

Blood and carnage everywhere you look in this year's Tour de France with multiple crashes on multiple stages. Christian Vande Velde went down in a rush and his head went bang right off the pavement with terrific force; the best argument ever for wearing a helmet, protecting your dome. The asphalt is hard enough to crack your skull and fracture your bones; as most riders can testify to; pain twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, for years...then arthritis.

Yeah. Alberto Contador went down too and has lost time from being caught behind an earlier accident. After stage 5 Contador is 1:42 behind mighty Thor Hushvold: world champ and maillot jaune. Cadel Evans beat Alberto Contador by a tire width in stage 4 on a climb; even though Contador tried an out of the saddle attack, an attack that dropped nobody and may have shown his vulnerability; "man where is the clenbuterol!"

Yes, yes, yes, time for a change! Back in the olden days the British Empire transported the garbage to Australia and America, the poor people, the criminals, the Scots, the Irish. The American exports came back to Europe and dominated your Tour de France for eight straight years! The Europeans hated the American dominance so much that they had to make an example of the American riders as performance enhanced drug fueled cheating rotten liars. Alas, not so the European riders and most certainly not the French contingent. Bernard Hinault, the badger, how did he suddenly evolve into such a fearsome competitor, the snarling, roid rage induced snears? How about the Deutsche Telekom erythropoietin fueled Tour de France victory of Bjarne Riis, the only serious threat was teammate Jan Ullrich. Doped to the green gills. Ah, yes, then there was Festina and the French darlings. A double standard in cycling does not exist! Alberto Contador is allowed to race unmolested; the Spanish darling. Tyler Farrar sprinted to victory! take a lab sample and run every number! American riders cheat!

Yeah, right. Cadel Evans is a good man. He has never been implicated in anything except exceptional athletic ability on a bicycle. He has never been accused of attacking a malliot jaune with a dropped chain on a col, or of eating imported contaminated meat, or of anything else suggesting nefarious race behavior. Cadel Evans is a "diesel" a guy with great big legs and a great big heart, and barring injury hopefully will stick it to the Europeans and win the 2011 Tour de France!

Serves them right for throwing us under the bus in the first place, stinking hypocrites!

Lance Armstrong and Tyler Hamilton Barroom Brawl?

2011-06-25T11:22:00.054-06:00

Just when you thought nothing else could happen in the perpetual Lance Armstrong versus the world federal doping investigation; a strange encounter ensued at a popular Aspen restaurant, which Lance Armstrong frequents: Tyler Hamilton entered with a complete legal team and supporters to dine at the establishment, and alas a confrontation erupted between the two former US Postal teammates who unfortunately happened to be in the bar at the same time, a verbal confrontation, which Tyler Hamilton claims contained threats to his reputation as a potential prosecution witness. Lance Armstrong was reported to have said, "We will rip out your lungs on the witness stand and make your life a living hell," according to Chris Manderson, Tyler Hamilton's lawyer. Manderson accuses Lance Armstrong of witness tampering and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) thinks the encounter serious enough to do an investigation into the matter. Problem is that the witnesses to the Armstrong/Hamilton discussion have no recall of what the conversation was because no one could hear them talking, there may have been some choice words spoken, but certainly not fisticuffs, the body language postures between the combatants suggested nothing of the sort. And so on. Another in a long series of he said/she said unverifiable accusations that seem central to the Lance Armstrong doping investigation, and after hours of grand jury testimony, still no indictment.

Yes, the wheels of justice move slowly, ask Alberto Contador. Declared innocent by the Spanish Sport Federation as a victim of clenbuterol meat contamination innocently introduced into the Alberto Contador diet by an unsuspecting friend who provided beef stakes from Spain. During a Tour de France rest day team meal, no less. You can't get more imaginative than that for an excuse. A work of art! Soon to be emulated by other athletes. Horrible. Anyway, the nutcase WADA and UCI faction that is supposed to be ensuring "fair play" appealed the whole contaminated meat charade to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) who promised a speedy resolution to the case, at least before the beginning of the 2011 Tour de France. Christiane Prudhomme, the Amaury Sport Organisation guru, is befuddled by this development and is in a quandary. The 2011 Giro d' Italia winner, Alberto Contador, is a man who is accused of doping, lying, and cheating in the 2010 Tour de France and has a pending doping case before the CAS. Alberto Contador could be suspended from the day of the offense if found guilty and forced to forfeit all of his prizes from that day forward. Yes, indeed, Alberto Contador could be the first man in history to forfeit two Tour de France titles and one Giro d' Italia title on the same day: an eternal monument to scoundrels world wide. Christiane Prudhomme could circumvent this possible disaster by refusing to invite the Saxo Bank Cycling Team as Tour de France participants because the Tour de France is a privately owned entity and teams are allowed to enter the race by invitation only.

Racejunkie made me laugh with her Ben Hur allusion to bladed wheels in a race, not bladed spokes. The epic Ben Hur criterium, four horse power chariots, with beautifully matched horses, and a bum dressed in purple who has an uncanny resemblance to Pat McQuaid. The chariot race can be seen here and is good for a laugh. The moral is quite clear, cheaters never win: even with bladed wheels, bullwhips, and doped horses. The tactics used in the chariot race are deplorable but so adaptable to modern bicycle racing, criteriums, classics, and grand tours. And unlike the movie, cheaters do often win, often frequently, and they never get caught! And Pat McQuaid is still dressed in purple.

The Lance Armstrong Doping Investigation Heats Up

2011-05-27T15:03:00.058-06:00

The Lance Armstrong doping investigation is heating up with a new round of accusations by Tyler Hamilton on 60 Minutes. Most of the Tyler Hamilton allegations against Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel, and the United States Postal Professional Cycling team cannot be directly confirmed, except for the claim that Lance Armstrong tested positive for recombinant erythropoietin (r-EPO) during the 2001 Tour of Switzerland. It has been reported on Fox News Radio that an investigation is currently underway in Switzerland to either confirm or deny the Tyler Hamilton allegations of a positive rEPO test for Lance Armstrong. If a positive test for rEPO exists, the Tyler Hamilton assertion that Lance Armstrong paid the International Cycling Union $100,000 for a drug testing machine and an additional donation of $25,000 to the UCI slush fund to suppress the positive rEPO test may have some relevance. Currently Pat McQuaid and the UCI deny any such cover-up deal with Lance Armstrong.

One aspect of the Tyler Hamilton interview that seems concerning is his denial of doping during the Olympic games, where Hamilton won the Olympic time trial gold medal, when the Olympic testing laboratory found markers in his blood indicating a double cell population, common with blood transfusions. This is very ingenious because there exist documents written by WADA warning Tyler Hamilton of blood irregularities long before the Olympic positive test. Tyler Hamilton was allowed to keep his Olympic gold medal because the Olympic laboratory froze his confirmation sample by mistake rendering the blood useless for testing purposes. The fact that Tyler Hamilton kept the medal, instituted a campaign to deny his doping, and even at the present time, denies any doping during the Olympic games, renders his testimony very self serving and very questionable.

Marion Jones, non analytical positives, and USADA

USA Today writer Christine Brennan wrote an article that quoted an interesting e-mail reply from Travis T. Tygart.

The fear of testing positive serves as a strong deterrent for many athletes who might otherwise make the decision to defraud sport by doping. That being said, we know that some well-resourced, sophisticated dopers with the infrastructure in place can evade a positive test. Fortunately for clean athletes, authorities also have the ability to sanction athletes using dangerous performance enhancing drugs based on reliable evidence other than a positive test.

Christine Brennan says: "That's the way the U.S. Government finally caught Jones, and it might be the way it gets Armstrong, if he's indicted."

Clearly Travis T. Tygart is correct in suggesting that teammate testimony may lead to an non-analytical positive and a suspension if there is proof of the allegations. But Ms. Brennan's conclusion is certainly incorrect, a non-analytical positive did not catch Marion Jones. Advances in doping detection and some good luck caught Marion Jones.

1) Athletes testified to the fact that they saw Marion Jones using the "clear," a newly formulated, previously unknown, and unlisted designer steroid.
2) Anti-doping laboratories chemically typed and developed a test to detect the "clear" (GC/MS) after a track coach provided a sample of the previously unknown steroid.
3) Olympic laboratories and international laboratories had stored Marion Jones urine samples "on ice" and her career urine samples were available for re-testing for the "clear."
4) The anti-doping jackals were closing in.
5) Knowing that she was caught, Marion Jones confessed to using the "clear," surrendered her Olympic medals, and admitted that she lied under oath about never using performance enhancing drugs.

Lance Armstrong, sans a possible positive test for r-EPO during the 2001 Tour of Switzerland, has never tested positive for any performance enhancing drug even though a test for r-EPO was available, and even though Lance Armstrong was extensively tested for performance enhancing drugs from 1999-2005. Thus it is very unlikely that a unknown designer steroid magic bullet exists with Lance Armstrong, a "smoking gun" that could be identified with re-testing of his urine samples. However, Lance Armstrong does have an unusual case history that seems suggestive of possible performance enhancing drug use.

1) Teammates accuse Lance Armstrong of using r-EPO and other performance enhancing substances. (1999-2005)
2) A test for r-EPO existed in 2000 to present.
3) Tyler Hamilton claims that Lance Armstrong and USPS used r-EPO during the 1999 Tour de France.
4) In 2004 French WADA accredited laboratory LNDD (Chateny-Malabry) claims to have detected r-EPO in Lance Armstrong's 1999 Tour de France urine samples.
5) Emile Vrijman hired by the UCI to investigate the 2004 LNDD "scientific" re-testing of the 1999 Tour de France urine samples declares that the testing "constitutes nothing" and recommended that the UCI take "no action," because their was a lack of security, no clear chain of custody in regards to the urine samples tested, and other problems that invited sample tampering. Other problems emerged concerning the 1999 urine sample re-tests. All four of the prologue samples tested resulted in 100% isoforms of r-EPO. Christiane Ayotte called such results "surprising" and "improbable." Ayotte explains that r-EPO is a biological agent and is therefore prone to degrade over time even when stored at -40 Celsius. The 100% prologue isoforms imply that the r-EPO was in pristine condition, almost like it was added to the samples the day before! There were other problems, the aliquots were labelled with the dates when the samples were taken and possibly the athlete doping control form numbers. Mario Zorzoli the UCI medical expert provided L'Equipe reporter Damien Ressiot with all of the Lance Armstrong doping control numbers form the 1999 Tour de France. Consequently, it is logical to conclude that Ressiot and some LNDD miscreant put two and two together and knew which samples belonged to whom and engaged in sabotage. Interestingly, L'Equipe knew the results of the Lance Armstrong 1999 Tour de France tests before WADA or the UCI. The UCI requested no rider suspensions result from the alleged r-EPO "positive tests."
6) A controversy erupts over a cortisol (cortisone) topical cream Armstrong used for saddle sores during a Tour de France. There is some argument over whether Armstrong filed a valid medical therapeutic use exemption for cortisol.
7) France accused USPS Professional Cycling Team of using actovegin after a French television station recovered some USPS medical waste from a dumpster. Actovegin used with localised platelets at the sight of injury is supposed to speed recovery. However, actovegin may have no medical efficacy other than a placebo effect. Actovegin is currently a banned substance and it cannot be imported into the United States. After a two year investigation the French government decided that there was insufficient evidence to prove that Armstrong and USPS were engaged in doping practice.
8) During the Motorola period (pre-cancer) Armstrong is accused to testing above the testosterone 6:1 legal limit.
9) Betsy Andreu claims that Armstrong admitted to using e-EPO and other performance enhancing drugs during the Motorola period (pre-cancer)in a medical interview with Indiana University Medical Center doctors. Frankie Andreu claims to have heard the Armstrong admission. No medical records of such an admission exist. Frankie Andreu also claims that USPS used performance enhancing drugs.
10) Lance Armstrong had a business relationship with "Doctor Blood" Michele Ferrari.
11) Michele Ferrari was convicted of providing r-EPO and doctored blood products to athletes by an Italian court.
12) During a Tour de France an enraged Lance Armstrong chased down and threatened Filippo Simeoni after Simeoni accused Lance Armstrong and Michele Ferrari of having an improper relationship.
13) Greg LeMond accused Armstrong of making threats during a cell phone conversation that LeMond received at an airport. Kathy LeMond supposedly transcribed the conversation. LeMond claims Armstrong stated that he could provide a hundred witnesses who would claim that LeMond used r-EPO.
14) Floyd Landis claims that the USPS team used r-EPO. Landis claims that the USPS team would stop along a Tour de France course and receive midnight team blood transfusions at rest stops on the team bus.
15) In 2009 a AFLD chaperon showed up at the Astana team facility to gather out of competition hair, blood, and urine samples. There seemed to be some dispute over the credentials of the AFLD chaperon, so while Johan Bruyneel called Pierre Bordry for confirmation, Lance Armstrong left the presence of the chaperon to take a shower, which is a direct violation of WADA code and should be construed as a punishable violation. Many critics complained that Lance Armstrong was doing more than showering, like employing strategies to defeat detection.
16) Ed Coyle, a University of Texas physiologist concluded that several factors accounted for the tremendous improvement in Lance Armstrong's athletic performance post cancer, post Motorola, and post Cofidis. Improved pedal efficiency, performance increase per kilogram of weight loss and low lactic acid production. rEPO use would also account for about a 15% increase in performance if Lance Armstrong had not used r-EPO pre-cancer. Micheal Ashenden and other excercise physiologists assert that Lance Armstrong is not a unique cyclist, his pysiological parameters are a wee bit above normal, but not exceptional. The post cancer weight loss has been questioned and discounted, so how do you account for such an exceptional increase in performance post cancer if Lance Armstrong was using r-EPO pre-cancer? An abnormal hatred of Cofidis?

And yet... there is more, probably so much more... and yet...there is nothing but smoke and mirrors. The anti-doping agencies did not suddenly discover a new BALCO designer steroid magic bullet with an unknown chemical signature, or an exogenous designer steroid that did not appear on the WADA prohibited list. Consequently, the non-analytical positive sanction that USADA and the Federal Government is planning on, without an admission by Lance Armstrong of engaging in past doping, is unlikely to happen ever. So you might agree with some of the critics who proclaim that this investigation is a colossal waste of tax payer dollars that could be spent more productively on anti-doping research to catch the next batch of the "clear."

Giro d' Italia Fables and Other Fables

2011-05-27T12:59:00.023-06:00

There has been a virtual cavalcade of bad news for Lance Armstrong lately. His trusty lieutenants from his incredible seven year Tour de France reign have turned and are now accusing Armstrong of using and encouraging the use of performance enhancing drugs.

Some of the former teammates of Lance Armstrong have mental and long term substance abuse issues. Floyd Landis confessed to use and abuse of performance enhancing drugs throughout his career. During the 2006 Tour de France, Floyd Landis tested positive for metabolites of synthetic testosterone. But, instead of an admission of testosterone use, Floyd Landis mounted a vicious innocence campaign, accusing the WADA accredited laboratory LNDD with sloppy laboratory practice. Landis had a good grounds for his attack because examination of the evidence suggested an incredibly appalling laissez faire approach to laboratory testing, poor work, errors, mistakes. In reality, WADA and their laboratories had never been challenged openly in a public arbitration hearing where their mistakes were openly exposed by the defendant, [Landis posted his Lab Document Package online]. Every numerical item of the Floyd Landis Lab Document Package was debated by experts in gas chromatography substance identification, numerous errors and omissions were detected. The problems were so severe in analyses of the Floyd Landis data that a clear question emerged, is Floyd Landis innocent? No. The single metabolite above threshold was the correct finding; synthetic testosterone was present. Over two years and millions of dollars were wasted; people were duped into contributing money to the Floyd Fairness Fund convinced of his innocence, money which Floyd Landis has never re-paid. Defenders of his honor were exposed as dupes. Floyd Landis can not be trusted, now, in the future or ever. His testimony should be regarded in all cases with a severe degree of skepticism, if not as outright fabrications or embellishments of the truth and discarded as nonsense. The man has no honesty and he is a master manipulator. Beware of this clown.

Tyler Hamilton is another case of mental illness, substance abuse, cheating, lying, and should never be believed, ever. The Tyler Hamilton Foundation "Believe Tyler" campaign of innocence, created after Tyler Hamilton tested positive for a double red cell blood population during the Tour of Spain, was a masterful show of manipulation, featuring beautiful women groupies wearing "Believe Tyler" tee-shirts shouting out "Believe Tyler!" to any dupe within hearing range. Tyler Hamilton was guilty as sin of blood doping, he was correctly detected, he lied then, denied, denied, denied, refused to surrender his Olympic gold medal, lived a lie, then dropped an atomic bomb on the world with accusations against his former patron and teammate Lance Armstrong in a 60 minute interview.

Egad! Where do these people come from and is cycling forever to be plagued by a group of mentally incapacitated people? Believe me, a good lawyer is going to have a field day with these people, their reputations as outstanding members of the community are forever tarnished by endless doping, cheating, lying, why should anyone believe their fables of wrongdoing by other people other than themselves?

If you believe Alberto Contador and his fabrications of tainted meat caused his "analytical positive" for an anabolic steroid; clenbuterol, then you are another in an endless list of dupes ready for the slaughter. Are cycling fans dupes? You would think that Diogenes could find an honest cyclist in the peloton before he could find an unobstructed bicycle lane, but alas no. If I were running the Giro d' Italia, I would have stopped every vehicle crossing the Italian frontier and demanded an inspection of the meat.

"And what, signor, do you intend to do with these steaks? To the dining table of Alberto Contador, the cyclist? What country of origin, Spain? Arrest this man! To the laboratory this meat immediately!

Damn straight. No cover-ups with fantastic fables in my Giro d' Italia!

Tyler Hamilton: Bold Accusations

2011-05-20T13:59:00.081-06:00

Tyler Hamilton has created another seismic shockwave by accusing seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong of using and facilitating the use of recombinant erythropoietin (rEPO) during the 1999 Tour de France when Hamilton and Armstrong were teammates at the United States Postal Service Professional Cycling Team. Tyler Hamilton has a long history of doping and mental illness, commented upon by this author two years ago when Hamilton was banned for eight years while United States road champion for taking a holistic substance to battle ongoing bouts of manic/depression.

"Rise and Fall of Tyler Hamilton" created some adverse comments from people who mistakenly thought that the article was an attack on people suffering from the debilitating medical and behavioral effects of manic/depression. Not true. Mania and retarded depressive disorders cause long term adverse effects that can cause disastrous long term results, not only to the people suffering from the disorder but to families, friends, acquaintances. Manic episodes have long been argued to be independent of voluntary cognitive control in some cases; "word salads" incoherent sentences of incoherent rambling thoughts totally unrelated in context to one another. Before the discovery of psychoactive drugs (lithium salts) that lowers the resting potential of the neuron from an hyper-excited level to a normal range (~-70mv) some manic patients were warehoused in the back wards of mental hospitals for years, lost causes, never to be restored to a level of behavior that would be considered normal in society.

Drug interventions stopped superstitious reasoning of mental illness that predominated during the "dark ages." Early superstitious "causes" of mania and schizophrenia were attributed to demonic possessions and required exorcisms, among other idiotic cures. However, with the accidental discovery that lithium salts caused rats to behave more tranquilly, and that this discovery might have application with human beings, did it become obvious to psychiatrists that manic episodes were a medical condition. Lithium salts do allow chronic manics to function quite well in society, absent the word salad cognition, and uncontrolled impulsive destructive behaviors. As long as they take their medication as prescribed.

As everyone knows psychoactive drugs cause side-effects and have different medical efficacy depending upon the patient, the medical condition, duration, severity. There has never been or ever will be a snake oil that will cure everything. If one drug does not help, talk to your doctor, he or she will try something else, there is no need for self experimentation with holistic drugs or herbs. In fact self-experimentation with herbs may lead to toxic results because in some drugs the therapeutic dose and toxic dose are almost identical. Blood levels of lithium salts must be monitored at all times to prevent toxicity because lithium is stored in blood platelets and can reach a toxic level even though a doctor prescribes a therapeutic dose. Thus the problem.

Therefore, Tyler Hamilton has no excuse for experimenting with a drug that had no proven medical efficacy and that also contained an ingredient that is on the WADA prohibited substance list, DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone.) Tyler Hamilton admitted that he knew that the herbal remedy contained DHEA and that this substance was banned. Tyler Hamilton, was not so incapacitated at the time that he needed immediate relief from a manic state that would have resulted in behavior considered "harmful to himself or others." Suicidal ideation or behavior reported as harmful to others usually requires hospitalization of the patient, even if only for a brief period. But maybe Tyler Hamilton wanted to self destruct, his marriage was falling apart, maybe he wanted people to feel sorry for him, maybe he was feeling sorry for himself, maybe he wanted to be banned?

So what is with the new Sixty Minutes Tyler Hamilton accusations of Lance Armstrong? More self-laceration? Does Tyler Hamilton crave attention, is he envious of Lance Armstrong's seven year reign, is he another idiot like Floyd Landis? Is Tyler Hamilton seeking a large, lucrative advance on a potential book? What is his motive? And does Tyler Hamilton have any proof?

So, no, we cannot simply leave Tyler Hamilton alone. So sorry.

At the Pioneer Park Downtown Criterium

2011-05-13T13:45:00.044-06:00

Out for a ride I ran into a couple of Ski Utah women riders at a rail road crossing, who were waiting for the train to cross. I did not speak to them at the time, not wanting to be considered an intrusive, rude bore, and because I thought they were merely out for a training ride. Little did I know that there was a crit in process at Pioneer Park. Imagine my surprise when I glanced down the street to check traffic at an intersection and saw a pack of riders flash past. Whoa, a crit! I must check this out immediately!

A group of category 5 men riders were half way through their race, the wind was blowing from the West at about ten miles an hour. The view of the race is unique for a crit because the park is very flat and there are very few obstructions to block the view. Into the wind the pack tended to spread out somewhat, but by the time the pack reached the start/finish line with a tailwind they were gruppo compacto in the classic arrowhead formation. All of the weak attacks off the front, and they were rare, were promptly reeled in by the peloton. The race ended in a classic every man for himself mad sprint to the line.

Good show. Next race, much to my surprise, was the women category 1/2/3 race, and the Ski Utah women that I saw at the railroad crossing were participating in the race! [The results are found here.] At the start the women rode gruppo compacto until a green lap. A green lap offers a premium to the riders, usually in the form of money, for the first rider to sprint across the start/finish line. In this race when the women sprinted for the line a gap opened up in the pack like magic, and in spite of my better judgement, I started shouting, "Well done! You have a gap! Go! Four of the ladies went, much to my immense satisfaction. When they completed one lap and went past again I could not resist shouting, "Work together! Form an echelon! Take a pull and rotate! When they came around again I saw the ladies riding a perfect pace line, three riders in the fast lane and one in the slow lane, pull and rotate, much to my immense satisfaction. The gap began to widen with every lap. Perfect. They will never be caught.

In fairness, I tried to convey to the chase group the same strategy as the escapees. Work together in a pace line and you will catch them. Because the chase group contained more riders than the escapees, it is only logical to assume that the work load and energy expenditure among the chase group would have been much smaller than with the escapees. Even the weaker riders among the chase group could have skipped a pull and rested because of the superior number of riders. But, if riders of the escape group would have skipped pulls, even if it was only one rider of the group, it is safe to assume that they would have been caught. And the momentum of the chase pack of riders would have had a superior push/pull effect, the front riders are pushed and the rear riders are pulled by sheer force.

Well, I thought the outcome of the race be clear, until a second green lap, when the announcer offered a fifty dollar premium to the chase group of riders only. Near the start/finish line the ladies went into an all out sprint with determined effort and bang the gap diminished to the point where I thought the escapees would be caught outright! But, after the premium sprint, for the rest of the race, lap after lap, the same lady pulled the chase group and the other riders followed in her wake, they either could not or would not work, while the escape group continued to work together and ride a perfect pace line. The escape group was never caught and finished the race and their names should be written in gold, one, [151] Laura Howat (Ski Utah) two, [153] Kristen Kotval (Primal Utah) three, [157] Chantel Thackery Olsen (Primal Utah) four, [155] Laura Patten (Ski Utah Market Star). Only one problem ladies, when you have two team members in a four person escape group you should win the stage with ease with a lead out and a sprint. Protect your teammate until the last minute, shield her from the wind, she should stick on your wheel like glue, while your opponents are playing cat and mouse games with each other and with you, while eating wind! With a sudden burst of acceleration the victory should be a forgone conclusion! You have to decide among yourselves who is strongest, and make a sacrifice for the team.

Yes, I was very happy watching the ladies on the day before Mothers Day. I was in my element surrounded by cyclists and racing. The women probably wondered who was that deranged clown, gesticulating and shouting near the start/finish line. Even so, it was a great day with lovely weather, blue skies with wispy cirrus clouds, and there were great races with A+ performances.

Wouter Waylandt killed during a terrible accident during the Giro d' Italia, R.I.P.

Giro d' Italia Follies

2011-05-04T13:51:00.040-06:00

Poor Floyd Landis is being attacked by the UCI, again. A lawsuit is filed against Floyd Landis for impugning the integrity of the anti-doping crusaders, who claim never to protect performance enhancing drug abusing cheaters, neither suspected clenbuterol user Alberto Contador or suspected Michele Ferrari supercharged blood transfused seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong! Indeed, who would ever suggest that these two entirely clean, upstanding examples of cycling purity would need protection against alleged accusations of doping?

Not Pat McQuaid, who denied ever knowing that a clenbuterol positive for Alberto Contador taken during the Tour de France ever existed! If an enterprising German television reporter had not learned of this positive [through a verboten laboratory leak?] the world would live in ignorance and Alberto Contador would be allowed to continue to race, even to compete in the Giro d' Italia with the blessing of Angelo Zomegnan himself!

Good old Angelo Zomegnan who has decided, as a professional medical scientist, that he should determine the amount of time needed for a rider to return to a "normal" physiological level. According to Angelo Zomegnan, some riders return to a "normal" physiological level at an unusually rapid pace, and this suggests manipulation of "abnormal methods" that leads to "normal" results. Whatever that means. Of course, with everyone these days, with the exception of Floyd Landis who endures daily verbal attacks from the cycling establishment, Angelo Zomegnan refuses to comment on the Spanish Cycling Federation exoneration of Alberto Contador, who is innocent until proven guilty! What a change from the days when Angelo Zomegnan threatened to refuse to allow Alberto Contador and Team Astana to ride the Giro d' Italia, the team was relaxing on the French Riviera, drinking cerveza and scoping out lovely mademoiselles, instead of training rides and power bars, bewildered because Angelo Zomegnan was accusing former USPS director sportif Johan Bruyneel of running an organized team doping program with Astana. Nevertheless, under tremendous pressure and at the last moment, Angelo Zomegnan collapsed and invited Alberto Contador and Team Astana to participate in the Giro d' Italia, which Alberto Contador won. It is interesting that Angelo Zomegnan can accuse Johan Bruyneel and the USPS Professional Cycling Team of doping to the gills and testing positive in repeated tests, the results of which were suppressed by WADA and the UCI, and face no sanctions or lawsuits, but when Floyd Landis makes the same claims, he is sued to the gills by WADA and the UCI.

These Floyd Landis lawsuits by WADA and the UCI are a little premature are they not? The Jeff Novitzky investigation is still ongoing is it not? The Federal Grand Jury still hearing witnesses and evaluating testimony are they not? Zut alors!

The CAS Upholds the UCI Biological Passport

2011-04-23T12:02:00.025-06:00

Just when you thought Angelo Zomegnan was fast asleep, he has resurfaced with another round of controversial statements relating to his total commitment to protecting the sanctity of the sacred Giro d' Italia from the ever present scourge of doping. Angelo Zomegnan has informed the world that the current system of punishment in doping cases is insufficient to deal with the offenses and he recommends the world adopt an "additional quarantine" or an additional period of time for an athlete to return to normal health, the same way cyclists who have suspicious biological values above the normal range are suspended for health reasons, until the values return to normal. Who can argue with that sort of logic?

This is old news, but the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) has confirmed the notion that doping violations can be confirmed using longitudinal biological values, without a direct confirmed positive test for a prohibited substance, Pietro Caucchioli and Franco Pellizotti were suspended for two years. The Pietro Caucchioli CAS award is included here for students who are interested in how the CAS justifies their actions, even though it is in French, because these awards suddenly vanish into the ether, never to be seen again. The Franco Pellizotti CAS award was impossible to find even after an active search of the Internet. There merely exists a carefully orchestrated CAS press release stating that Pietro Caucchioli and Franco Pellizotti were suspended, without providing the awards. What seems to be the problem in examining CAS awards in cotroversial high profile cases where the public has an invested interest in knowing what the CAS is up to?

This once again is a reflection of the arrogant attitude that exists among the anti-doping crusade, this lack of access to important ground breaking awards. All CAS awards should be a matter of public record, indexed, archived, and available though a standard Internet data base at a click of a button. CAS awards should be available in both French and English for perusal. The era of the vanishing CAS award should cease.

Never mind the platitudes of WADA and the UCI. The glowing approval of the Pietro Caucchioli and Franco Pellizotti CAS awards can be found in unlimited press releases. The reversal of the Fanco Pellizotti Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) exoneration, which stated that although some suspicious blood values did exist: this did not establish guilt, therefore warranted no suspension, was in fact, overturned by the CAS. The legal reasoning for this reversal, the justification of the UCI biological passport as a legal bases for guilt without a positive test for a probhibited drug, is explained in the award, and to understand what legal logic and medical justifications the CAS used to arrive at this conclusion, the award must be read.

Spring Reflections: Bad Drivers Kill Cyclists

2011-04-16T12:40:00.072-06:00

Spring has arrived once again in the state of Utah, with typical twenty four hour temperature fluctuations of forty degrees, with clear, broken, overcast skies, and with rain and snow all occurring in the same day; nevertheless, cyclists are emerging from their cocoons like multi-colored butterflies. Which is a good sign. Too bad the driving behavior gene of motorists in Salt Lake City has not mutated, because you see the weirdest driving behavior of local motorists on a bicycle. Automobile drivers who refuse to yield when they are required to by law, but, who refuse to proceed at an intersection when the law requires the cyclist to yield. People who use scarce bicycle lanes as a parking or construction lot. People who pass you on the left, then turn right, or worse stop and back up. There is nothing more frustrating in this world than a brain dead motorist who is unqualified to drive a car, or a twenty thousand ton bus, or a loaded "eighteen wheeler." There are people who drive down the bicycle lane instead of in the traffic lane, and who insists on merging right, right over the top of you. There are times in life where you are tempted, against the rules of cycling etiquette, against the rules of common decency and common sense, to middle finger idiot motorists who lack common sense and a brain. Unfortunately, an irresistible temptation also exists of shouting out instructions on how to drive, "put down the cell phone and pay attention to what you are doing!" The exasperation factor approaches critical on so many occasions. Of course, in these cases you invite aggressive people to perpetuate assaults, and that is a very bad idea, because cyclists are assaulted enough already for no reason at all by idiot motorists who have no business on the road.

That felt good, for the moment, erupt like Mount Vesuvius. But there is forever the sickening news reports of dead cyclists, of injured cyclists, of hit and run cyclists, who die because of inattentive motorists, or who were driven from the road intentionally by some psychopath who had a bad day. People who scream in your ear to "get off the road."

WADA director general David Howman wants to resurrect the idiot concept of abandoning the "B" urine tests that confirm that the "A" tests have validity and reliability. In all doping cases where a positive test for a prohibited substance has been found, a "B" confirmation test is currently required by WADA code if requested by an athlete, and the testing procedure may be witnessed by a scientific expert representing the athlete, if requested. David Howman considers these safeguards costly and unnecessary because WADA labs have a very high confirmation rate of "A" sample diagnoses. Once again WADA expresses the concept of an unwarranted laboratory infallibility and a flippant disregard in respect to athlete rights and protections. Howman argues that there is no need to continue to ensure protections of these rights against possibly unwarranted assumptions or accusations. Incredibly, even doping expert Don Catlin disagreed with David Howman's opinion, citing a limited quantity of sample available (blood or urine) for testing and the possible necessity of testing needed to confirm a result; a "B" test without any material available to conduct the test.

It is endlessly the same old nonsense with these people! Spend the money to ensure fairness, David Howman, that is the right thing to do.

Are National Sport Federations Inept?

2011-04-09T11:39:00.039-06:00

A BBC reporter caught up with Pat McQuaid at a velodrome and he offers an explanation for the seemingly circuitous and protracted process the UCI took to appeal the surprise Alberto Contador Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) exoneration to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS). Pat McQuaid assures everyone that the UCI considers the Alberto Contador excuse of "tainted meat" as unbelievable nonsense worthy of an appeal. Therefore, McQuaid assures us that the UCI felt compelled to appeal the Spanish decision to the CAS.

Of course, no one is going to argue the merits of an appeal of an exoneration that most cycling fanatics deem a unbelievable, unwarranted gift. The deed is done, the works are in process, it is only a question of how long will the appeal process take? Will we have a decision before the Giro d' Italia, before the Tour de France, or before the next Classic begins? Pat McQuaid was asked the very pertinent question, if Alberto Contador is allowed to continue racing until the CAS makes a decision, if Contador wins the 2011 Tour de France or the 2011 Giro d' Italia, or more Classics, will the UCI be forced to disqualify everything, in addition to the 2010 Tour de France victory? That could prove to be a sticky wicket of a legal problem for the UCI, the legal experts could argue until doomsday over the legal jurisdictional issues in the case, because as Pat McQuaid assures us, the CAS is an "independent body" of the UCI and the RFEC.

Botheration, we are not talking of chump change here, but of thousands of Euros of prize money and an infinetly contestable circus. The whole issue could have been avoided if the AFLD would have forced Alberto Contador to sign an illegal seperate agreement not to race in France as long as the case was active, since they had a historical precedence for such an action. But, since Pierre Bordry resigned protesting French government inaction, interest, and funding of anti-doping programs, the AFLD has been reduced to the status of toothless tiger, weak and inept. Of course, Amuary Sport Organization could employ the Marco Pantani rule: all former champions who are under suspicion of doping, and their teams, will never be allowed to compete in a Tour de France, since the race is privately owned, and the teams are allowed to compete by invitation only. This would prove ASO "independence" from both the UCI and the CAS. If only they would act.

The RFEC decision will forever be regarded as a huge blunder and that is a shame, because it destroys the notion that national federations can act in an unbiased, independent fashion. Clearly, most national sport federations (Spain and Kazakhstan excepted) are very competent in zealous prosecution of performance enhancing drug abuse and they insist upon letter perfect suspensions allowed by statute. If all national federations were consistent, there would be no need for the UCI, WADA, or other alphabet soup. Imagine the savings to riders and teams who have to make mandatory monetary contributions to these organizations.

Just saying.

UCI Anabolic Steroid Thresholds: Facetious Folly

2011-03-26T12:38:00.040-06:00

There come times in this world where the limits of human endurance are surpassed by idiotic reasoning that never should be entertained. Thus the newest logic of UCI president Pat McQuaid, who assures us with straight countenance that the WADA code of anabolic steroid strict liability should be abandoned in favor of a "threshold": based upon an arbitrary and capricious range, that would ensure performance enhancement. This is an absurd notion that would encourage the likes of Victor Conte and like minded drug innovators, who work constantly to defeat modern laboratory detection methods by introducing into athletics unknown substances and practices to cloak these substances. Better would be to leave the strict liability concept intact and instead focus on the true intent of the athlete! Accidental ingestion or mistaken use of a medicinal product that contains an ingredient listed on the WADA prohibited substance list should be forgiven as inconsequential if there was no desire upon the part of the athlete to gain an unfair advantage. There should never be any desire upon the part of athletes or their medical facilitators to manipulate anabolic steroids in ways that would ensure that laboratory tests reveal below threshold values. But under the UCI threshold argument this temptation would be ever present, in fact, a perfect danger would emerge that competition would ensue among medical experts in developing innovative tactics to ensure a below threshold value for a whole constellation of anabolic steroid drugs. In any case WADA would never agree to any threshold madness.

An introduction of threshold would also invalidate the already questionable value of the UCI Biological Passport. There are many sceptics who argue that the use of longitudinal studies purported to ferret out suspicious trends do nothing but confirm undetectable manipulations of athletic physiology by unscrupulous people. Longitudinal studies of manipulated data sets introduced by devious means do nothing to aid detection of deception, they merely facilitate cheaters. Without a clear "positive" test for a prohibited substance no number of "red flag" results can be considered "conclusive" evidence of doping. But if the insane UCI threshold proposal was allowed, then the entire passport concept would be discarded as useless because there would be a huge number of "positive" tests and the "normal" physiological values of the athlete would be taken for granted as under manipulation by any number of drugs at all times.

Idiots should remain in the asylum where they belong.

The UCI Will Appeal the Alberto Contador Exoneration

2011-03-24T13:08:00.043-06:00

At the last moment Pat McQuaid under universal pressure acts. Instantly, the universal claims of UCI cowardliness by outraged cycling fans were circumvented by bold action.

There seems to be a general consensus that the Alberto Contador clenbuterol positive test would have never been revealed except for the diligence of a German television investigative team. When Pat McQuaid was asked to verify this positive clenbuterol test he claimed, "I don't know what you are talking about." A virtual volley of accusations and recriminations followed from a sceptical cycling world, what is the UCI doing? Are they trying to sweep the Alberto Contador positive test under the rug? Are they trying to protect Alberto Contador? Pat McQuaid could have merely stated that he did not want another Floyd Landis disaster of proclaiming guilt before the ink was dry on the "A" testosterone/epitestosterone screening sample, and that it is patently unfair to proclaim the guilt of an athlete on the front page of L'Equipe and the New York Times before an athlete has a chance to see the evidence or review the charges lodged against him or her. We could attribute this "lack of knowledge" proclamation of the UCI to an exuberance of caution, learned from painful lessons of how not to conduct press interviews or how not to leak sensitive confidential laboratory information to the press: not merely an all out conspiracy to protect a favorite.

How much will you pay for ocean front property in Arizona? Pat McQuaid had no choice but appeal the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) decision, otherwise he would have been forced to resign.

Times Change: Cycling Insanity Remain

2011-03-14T13:56:00.067-06:00

Alberto Contador wins the Vuelta a Murcia after the unexpected gift exoneration by the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC). Imagine anyone in cycling making money after testing positive for a performance enhancing drug during a Grand Tour! Jan Ullrich who was linked to Operation Puerto was chauffeured back to the hotel from the 2006 Tour de France depart over simple allegations of a connection with Operation Puerto, villianized in the press, declared public enemy number one, suspended, and forced to retire! Phew! What rubbish! The sanctimonious born again sainted Ivan Basso, was given a escort from the premises in the same caravan of shame! Why? Suspected links to Operation Puerto! Ivan Basso suspended for two years by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI)! Yes, there was an iron determination across the world in the days of yore to eliminate the use and abuse of performance enhancing substances by the UCI and WADA.

Except in a single case: Alberto Contador.

Poor Floyd Landis, miracle worker on the bike, dropping the peloton like a hot potato on tough mountain stage 17, 2006 Tour de France, oh my, such things are impossible, no matter how many water bottles you drink and pour over your head, especially if you bonk the day before. Or so goes the consensus of opinion. Failure on the bicycle during the Tour de France, from that point, all goes down hill with little prospect of recovery, without some kind of concoction, say elixir of newt, brewed by the witches of Macbeth. The UCI dost not like performance enhancing substances whence magic spells cast upon, and boiling cauldrons, where wayward sisters danced singing incantations. Nope. Wayward witches are very innovative with their recipes, however, so innovative, that WADA must expend extravagant amounts of money to develop tests to detect their potions. Hist! Time to get out yonder rack and force a confession whence after a protracted legal battle and certain financial ruin for the athlete, confession dost fail to be expressed voluntarily. Toil, toil, time and trouble. Have good legal representation because you are going to need it, not to mention two lost years from your life. Then a extended suspension and certain lifetime banishment from cycling forever! Yes the UCI and WADA used to enforce the law with an iron fist, no excuses and no exceptions!

Poor Floyd Landis: the amount of testosterone detected in his system was deemed not of sufficient quantity to enhance performance; but he was suspended anyway. The only case where the amount of a prohibited substance detected was deemed insufficient to enhance performance and allowed without sanction? Alberto Contador.

Where are the days of Dick Pound, inflexible, determined man of action, an advocate of comfortable satisfaction, strict liability, and punishment? In the new days we have Pat McQuaid, weak, indecisive, a man who proclaims the philosophy of exclusive exceptionalism. Pat McQuaid declaims from the loftiest tower that those who test positive for clenbuterol must be given a free pass; and Pat McQuaid applauds those who proclaim intentions to fight appeals of Spanish Cycling Federation madness; by the UCI or WADA; "to the utmost of mine physical and mental state" as laudable. Of course, there is nothing better when physical and mental attributes fail than to retain highly experienced legal counsel, which may be needed after all, if and when the hypocritical powers awaken to action. Alberto Contador retain your lawyers, you may need them yet, if the corrupt system is to remain in tact. And then your exclusive exceptionalism may not survive; in spite of your egotistical assertions to the contrary.

Beware the ides of March!

The UCI: To Appeal or Not Appeal?

2011-03-05T11:20:00.075-07:00

It is official, after interminable delay, Pat McQuaid has ordered International Cycling Union (UCI) lawyers to investigate the basis for an appeal to the unexpected Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) exoneration of three time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, who tested positive for clenbuterol during the second rest day of the 2010 Tour de France. The UCI has thirty days to appeal the RFEC decision and the appeal must be filed by March 21, 2011. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) may also appeal the RFEC exoneration with an extended time limit if the UCI fails to act.

The UCI must act or face certain ridicule as an organization that tolerates innovative dopers and their confederates cheat clean riders in open defiance of the stringent WADA code. The WADA code demands a no tolerance/strict liability policy against prohibited substance use, the mere presence of a prohibited substance detected in the body, regardless of intent, constitutes a violation and warrants a mandatory one year suspension. Athletes found to have engaged in prohibited performance enhancement use or methods that would facilitate an unfair advantage; an increase in performance; are suspended for two years.

Recently, there has been a call to modify the code to take into consideration the absence of motive of athletes who test positive for prohibited substances; to declare human fallibility as a basis for exoneration from punishment. More controversially, many critical thinkers have suggested that the amount of a prohibited substance detected should be considered as a factor; a threshold value. Prohibited substances detected in blood and urine samples below a known performance enhancing level threshold would be deemed a non-violation. Although threshold as a mitigating factor would be pertinent in some cases, it would not apply to all situations. Unfortunately, the threshold argument has a weak scientific foundation, invites a danger of opening a Pandora Box of abuse by innovative doping methods and strategies by unscrupulous doctors who have formulated designs to keep performance enhancing drugs below detectable levels. Possible solution: an intelligent and thorough investigation of the circumstances of a case in an impartial way, with an independent investigative body, considering all of the factors. This would trend toward a more fair judicial determination of the merits and deem what course of action would be proper in these cases.

But for now, we have nothing but the worthless UCI appeal of the ridiculous RFEC decision based upon the inflexible concept of "strict liability." A reasonable discussion of alternatives to the present code and conduct of the anti-doping agencies is not considered possible, even in the face of the insane anti-doping world application of arbitrary and capricious rules, the unequal treatment of athletes based upon ethnic and cultural considerations, and the total failure of the system to curtail doping in sport.

Spain Makes A Mockery of the Anti-Doping Process

2011-02-19T11:50:00.055-07:00

The Spanish Sport [Cycling] Federation (RFEC) makes a mockery of the anti-doping quest to rid sport of doping products and methods to increase performance; and thus conveys an unfair advantage to Spanish cyclists. Alberto Contador was recently absolved of all responsibility for testing positive for clenbuterol, a synthetic steroid, during the 2010 Tour de France, because the RFEC claimed that intent could not be reasonably ascertained. Rekindles memories of the WADA phrase "comfortable satisfaction."

Sounds familiar and all too predictable for the Spanish.

Alejandro Valverde was positively linked to Operation Puerto by a perfect DNA match of blood bag 18 found in the office of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes when the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) tested Alejandro Valverde during the 2008 Tour de France. Yet, in spite of this perfect DNA match, the RFEC refused to suspend Alejandro Valverde, allowed Alejandro Valverde to continue to race for two additional years, and win the Vuelta d' Espana!

Of course, the UCI and WADA were forced to act, after interminable delay and pressure from CONI, to file an appeal of the RFEC inaction to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), which resulted in a two year suspension for Alejandro Valverde for his ties to Operation Puerto.

Until very recently, in Spain, no law existed to punish dopers in athletic competitions. Alberto Contador was cleared of his involvement in Operation Puerto, because of this loophole.

Manolo Saiz, when director sportif for Liberty Seguros, ran an organized doping program with ties to Operation Puerto. Saiz was arrested by the Spanish Civil Guard. Alberto Contador was a member of the 2004 Liberty Seguros team, but was never implicated in this affair.

The UCI provisional suspension of Alberto Contador is no longer in effect. Unless WADA and the UCI file an appeal of the Spanish decision to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), Alberto Contador will be allowed to retain his 2010 Tour de France title and prize money and he will continue to race.

Allowing a man who tested positive for a performance enhancing drug during a Grand Tour "walk" sets an incredibly bad precedent. The UCI and WADA have no option but to appeal.

Spain regards cyclists as favorite sons who are incapable of error: even in the face of conclusive proof: thus making a mockery of the entire anti-doping effort to ensure "fair play." Although it would be very difficult to change Spanish culture with regards to their heroes, there still remains hope that they will understand the severity of the doping problem and modify their attitudes toward combating misuse and abuse in sport; and act accordingly.

Take That WADA! Alberto Contador Exonerated!

2011-02-15T12:54:00.037-07:00

How now John Fahey, Pat McQuaid? The Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) has just smashed the WADA code into oblivion: now you have no option but to appeal this insanity! The moniker of "strict liability" will vanish like a mirage if the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) does not salvage your sorry system! To allow Alberto Contador to race; without any punishment; after a positive test for a prohibited substance detected during a Grand Tour: Horrors! Athletes in every country everywhere will fabricate similar excuses and escape from the WADA gauntlet, um sonst!

UCI President Pat McQuaid has a big problem too. To appeal or not to appeal: that is the question. If the UCI does not appeal will the peloton turn into a shooting gallery where the most innovative methods in illegal performance enhancement prevail?

Yes, the Spanish love their man and they could not force themselves to find him guilty in spite of the evidence, much like the O.J. Simpson jury.

Remember the 2006 WADA executive meeting lamenting the fact that "wealthy" athletes spend inordinate amounts of money challenging "convincing laboratory results?" What an outdated notion! Now athletes spend nothing and win cases loaded with "convincing laboratory results!" Clenbuterol increases performance: clenbuterol was present in Alberto Contador's urine: clenbuterol is on the WADA prohibited list: these are convincing proofs! If WADA was less arrogant: invested more time and money into science and research: the plastic metabolites found in Alberto Contador's urine would have been convincing, not hypothetical bunk and speculation!

Indeed, my head spins over this decision. Compared to the brutal, draconian, treatment of past athletes; this is impossible to believe! The UCI must not allow this decision to stand or there will be an endless number of "contaminated food" arguments; and exoneration!

There is absolutely no reason to argue that doping in cycling is ongoing among a majority of riders. There is no reason to suppose that the total prevalence of doping within the peloton will ever reach more than one percent. But this decision by the RFEC will act as temptation; because riders will reason that the anti-doping establishment has loosened the reigns of vigilance and will allow provable violations to go unpunished if the excuses are imaginative enough.

Alberto Contador Strikes Back

2011-02-12T12:03:00.081-07:00

Alberto Contador is an amazing man. First, he claims that the anti-doping science is inadequate to catch cheaters using new sophisticated methodology, then he complains that his Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) is capitulating to pressure from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Cycling Union (UCI): who refuse to accept his tainted meat argument as the source of his positive test for clenbuterol during the second rest day of the 2010 Tour de France. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero goes even farther by claiming that "there is no legal reason to sanction Contador."

But sanctioned Alberto Contador certainly will be, for one year, by the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC): a trifling punishment: suggesting a lack of intent. There is a fundamental disagreement among experts as to the source of the clenbuterol, contaminated meat being most unlikely, blood transfusion most likely, no test to verify either with absolute certainty. WADA lives in a fantasy land, claiming that the tests they do have will detect anything. Seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong would dispute that claim and stands as a perfect example of WADA lies, stupidity, and arrogance: if he doped? Nothing was detected in the USPS cycling team medical waste dug out of a dumpster by a French television station during a past Tour de France and examined by a laboratory, except actovegin, which combined with a rich infusion of platelets at the sight of injury may speed recovery. May speed recovery, an outrageous claim, thousands of dollars are charged by quack doctors who may be providing nothing more than an expensive placebo. Thus the problem, even though traces of actovegin were found among the medical waste; was actovegin a part of the WADA prohibited list at the time? Does actovegin have any medical efficacy? Do we draw the same sort of conclusions that WADA does that the mere presence of a substance regardless of medical efficacy: the ability to increase performance or the ability to increase recovery: constitute mens rea, intent and criminal responsibility? The French probe into the USPS cycling team alleged doping activity generated a large case file, adorned with a photo of Lance Armstrong cycling down the Champs Elysees: with a second photo superimposed of a syringe inserted into his posterior. If this is the result of a three year expensive French investigation into the doping activity of the USPS cycling team, the US Federal government may have to explain away the costs of their Salem like witch hunt without results! The President of the United States of America would have a difficult time proclaiming that there "is no legal bases to sanction Lance Armstrong."

The circle the wagon WADA mentality of defense when questioned by doping experts as to the state of the testing: how could you let a man win seven consecutive Tour de France races against known dopers without a positive test? How could a man associated with Operation Puerto and allied with a team with a known record of doping offenses, Astana: Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for a double cell population after a Tour de France rest day, Alexander Vinokourov injured early in the Tour de France after a collision with a motorcycle, miraculously wins a demanding time trial, without a prohibited technique? Yet, people of teams with notorious reputations, riders with checkered pasts are never red flagged as potential offenders and are allowed to compete and win without discomfort: Phonak! Except for Lance Armstrong, who had the most extensive testing and UCI biological passport data compiled in the history of cycling: during the comeback: yet, LNDD could find no anomalies? How can anyone disagree with Alberto Contador about the disgraceful, deplorable state of the anti-doping crusade?

Will the Spanish release the Alberto Contador case file for public inspection, or will we be held in ignorance about their reasoning until the appeal by the UCI? Is Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero privy to inside information, was he sent a copy of the case file? We are endlessly cautioned not to make inferences without being presented the facts, a posteriori.

Fine, patience is a virtue, there has been an inordinate amount of delay in this case already, but the vital signs would be intriguing.

Reform The WADA Code

2011-02-05T12:36:00.038-07:00

Alberto Contador wants to go down swinging. He insists that he is a victim of an unfair anti-doping crusade that insists upon "strict liability." Alberto Contador argues that the minuscule amounts of clenbuterol found in his system did not enhance his performance and should be discounted as an anomaly. Alberto Contador claims to have ingested tainted meat contaminated with clenbuterol; a one year suspension is an outrageous affront to his dignity. He hopes that the Spanish Cycling Federation will change their minds and allow him to keep his 2010 Tour de France title and Saxo Bank contract. You have to feel sorry for the guy.

The arguments used by disgraced cyclists are legion: Floyd Landis argued that the synthetic testosterone measured in his urine samples had little or no performance enhancing qualities, yet he was suspended for two and a half years and was forced by Pierre Bordry to sign a seperate agreement not to race in France while his case was pending. Alberto Contador, in comparison, is being treated humanely with dignity, not as a possessed satanic fiend from hell, like poor Floyd Landis was. Perhaps the anti-doping crusade has become immured, desynthesized to inflicting mental and physical abuse on athletes with these expensive long drawn out legal battles and outrageous suspensions...?

No. Indeed. Alberto Contador can argue till doomsday that the testing science and methods are pre-historic, barbaric monstrosities of a bygone era, but if they were improved? Alas, be careful what you wish for, Alberto Contador, for if the testing were improved the plastics found in your urine would have provided supplemental evidence of your guilt! Very difficult to explain away plastic residues; they are not encoded into one's DNA and reflected in one's physiology. You cannot simply provide a receipt from a doctor, like you can a butcher!

Sorry. For all the shouts for reform nothing happens. For all the calls for "independent oversight," away from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) umbrella, nothing happens. The UCI refuses to wean cycling from WADA. "Conflicts of interest" favor prosecutions. Outcomes are more important than serious considerations of scientific evidence. The anti-doping crusade must enhance it's monetary existence by foul means. The Court of Arbitration of Sport needs to be abolished. The WADA code scrapped!

Because, my friends, no matter your opinion of the Alberto Contador case and aftermath, innocent athletes have been demeaned by the current system and this system needs reform. One year suspensions for athletes who make simple mistakes with no intent to increase performance, or cheat, is outrageous! It would be simpler to disallow an athlete for a competition: or as is done in cycling, prohibition from competition for a fixed period of time "for health reasons."

Yes, Alberto Contador has it all wrong, the science and methods of testing are adequate, not perfect, could be improved, true, but adequate. The punishment extracted by the UCI is Byzantine and bizarre, antiquated, worthless, and nonsensical. Athletes are human beings and are fallible. They should be treated in context, not universally stereotyped as dopers and cheaters. Common sense needs to happen now!

But would such sensible change open the door for dopers intent on cheating the system and create more problems than it solves? No. A simple change would not lull the anti-doping crusade into somnolence, the vigilance will not diminish, there is nothing to fear, but maybe very much to gain.

Independent Oversight of the Anti-Doping Process?

2011-02-03T14:04:00.049-07:00

ESPN writer Bonnie Ford writes an excellent summary of the "conflict of interest" that exists in the anti-doping establishment as it pertains to results management by nationality; Spain gives Alberto Contador a light suspension of one year. Alberto Contador claims this means that his federation agreed with his lack of intent to dope argument. But the Spanish would prefer to let Alberto Contador race with no punishment at all, because unlike America, the Spanish value their Tour de France champions, and unlike America, don't see any value in protracted witch hunts.

Ah! A standardized system of judicial review of doping cases by an international committee "independent" of the athlete's country of origin. Bonnie Ford has an excellent idea and this should be implemented immediately. However, this original concept should be expanded to include an "independent" body that would oversee all testing and accreditation of World Anti-Doping laboratories, results management, anti-doping review boards (ADRB). All Adverse Analytical Findings (AAF) should be reviewed by an "independent" committee before being filed; much like an indictment, which is filed after a determination from a grand jury examination of prosecution evidence and witnesses.

The problem, very simply stated, lies in the anti-doping organizations monopoly of the process and the attempt to maintain perfect conviction records. Employees of the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) are precluded from offering any testimony that would question the methodology or testing results of the laboratories, even though they note egregious errors and violations of International Standards.

"Independent" observation of the confirmation "B" tests that included an unbiased group of experts in mass spectrometry, in addition, to the athlete's representative, would add not only invaluable information as to the veracity of the testing but would prevent problems encountered in the past. In the Floyd Landis case, a defense expert complained that parts of the confirmation test was done outside of his vision. In addition, an "independent" group could mediate the defense requests for "crucial" information that the prosecution must provide to the defense in the discovery process. Despite repeated requests for documents pertaining to the French WADA accredited laboratory LNDD, Allen Lim and the Floyd Landis defense were "stonewalled" and denied access to documents by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), for one entire year, until the AAA arbitration panel ordered USADA to comply. This unconscionable "stonewalling" by Travis T. Tygart is unacceptable practice, motivated for advantage in an adversarial system, and costly for the defendant. "Stonewalling" defense requests for information should be illegal and punished to the full extent of the law!

Christiane Ayotte

WADA would miss a perfect opportunity for prosecution perfection if they do not choose Christiane Ayotte to lead the certain Alberto Contador appeal of his one year suspension to the Court of Arbitration of Sport. (CAS) Indeed, let the maestro conduct the orchestra, and no evil will prevail. Ms. Ayotte certainly does not buy the Alberto Contador tainted steak argument, her comments on the subject border on hilarity: "You'll never find a ton of clenbuterol [in an athlete's urine sample] because the doses are really small. Most of the samples are below one nanogram [a billionth of a gram]". (Bonnie Ford, 2011) Ms. Ayotte claims that the Montreal WADA accredited laboratory that she directs has tested over 20,000 clenbuterol samples. There seems to be a very large incidence and prevalence among cyclists of clenbuterol use and detection, according to Ms. Ayotte: "Is there a genetic predisposition to eat more contaminated meat in these [cycling] sports?" (Bonnie Ford, 2011) Excellent! The maestro cannot be played by preposterous fables! John Fahey and WADA this is your moment to sparkle in the Sun! This is the moment for Ms. Ayotte to become a legend! Strike while the iron is hot! Put her in charge of the Alberto Contador appeal!

And let Floyd Landis race again! Enough is enough!

Alberto Contador Is Toast

2011-01-29T11:56:00.030-07:00

Whew! One day away from the computer leads to the most interesting results! "Baby Contador" is suspended for one year! Kudos to Strbuk, who predicted this outcome! (I have added one of her blogs to my blog list as a reward for her perspicacity.) Now we wait for the UCI to lower the boom and order the Amauary Sport Organization to rescind Alberto Contador's 2010 Tour de France title!

A one year suspension by the Spanish Cycling Federation suggests that the clenbuterol was taken by accident. Maybe so, maybe Alberto Contador ate a contaminated stake raised by some hack Spanish farmer. There have been reports of sickness due to tainted Spanish meat; but not for a number of years...

Ah well, nothing to be concerned about as the suspension allows for an appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport...probably nothing more than a rubber stamp formality of the Spanish Cycling Federation ban. A more interesting question: If Alberto Contador does appeal will the UCI insist that the ban be increased. Most doping cases carry a two year ban. The jurisdiction for management of the case has been transferred to WADA at UCI request, so will WADA appeal for an increase in sanction? Is WADA intervention in this case legal?

So many questions, and such a different approach from the days of yore, when the anti-doping establishment loved to hand out excess banishment. The UCI pro-tour teams were precluded from hiring a rider with a doping related suspension for four years; until Liquigas upset the apple cart and hired reformed doper extraordinaire Saint Ivan Basso to a contract! Take that Pat McQuaid, you nitwit! Old innocent, without intent to cheat, Floyd Landis, a guy we should be willing to excuse because everyone is guilty of some transgression: why cast stones when living in glass houses! got a two and a half year suspension for synthetic testosterone. True, Floyd Landis did race the Leadville 100 after testing positive, and the Leadville 100 is sanctioned by NORBA, and the UCI probably thought that Floyd was rubbing their noses in excrement. Add six months more of punishment!

My, how things change! The Alberto Contador case is so complex because you can't really determine what happened; tainted meat or transfused blood? And nobody cares enough to inquire among the team to ascertain the possible existence of a second Doctor Blood.

Christiane Prudhomme and Amauary Sport Organization are playing their cards are very close to the vest with typical French indifference, waiting for everyone else to play their cards first!

Alberto Contador To Be Suspended?

2011-01-27T13:33:00.049-07:00

The Christian Science Monitor has reported that a rumor is afloat that Alberto Contador will be officially suspended by the Spanish Cycling Federation for his positive test for clenbuterol during the second rest day of the 2010 Tour de France, and as a consequence his 2010 Tour de France title will be rescinded. Is Alberto Contador a scapegoat, a victim of an over zealous doing establishment bent upon a policy of no tolerance; or a doped cheater who would drop the maillot jaune with a dropped chain in clear violation of cycling etiquette?

WADA code states a policy of no tolerance even if substances listed on the prohibited list were mistakenly taken; apply a topical solution without first checking on the ingredients will result in a two year suspension; because WADA reasons that presence indicates culpability and intent. Clenbuterol was present, this is a violation, thus a suspension.

But WADA code provides for an appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS). The Court of Arbitration of Sport is a bizarre organization where the case starts anew from scratch; where old opinions do not set precedence; where rules are made up as they go along. The arbitrators have unlimited power. Arbitrary and capricious rulings are allowed. There is no legal appeal to any court outside of Switzerland where the CAS is domiciled. Most of the time the arbitrators are scientifically unqualified to render a competent decision. Expert opinion and testimony from WADA laboratory experts that question laboratory methods and procedures are prohibited if they favor the defense of the athlete. Independent experts who are deemed qualified to interpret highly technical or complex scientific issues are selected by the arbitrators: one arbitrator representing the prosecution, one the defense, and one "independent" arbitrator: the selection usually is a WADA laboratory director who is constrained from presenting a unbiased opinion of the evidence. CAS testimony is conducted in secret; apparently with the motive of protecting the athlete. The entire International Olympic Committee (IOC) structure of anti-doping management would be jeopardized without a continuous string of guilty verdicts. If Pat McQuaid and the UCI had any sense they would abandon the IOC once and for all! Until they do, the ends justify the means, regardless of fairness.

There should be reform of the process; but where do you draw the line? The Floyd Landis case was a disaster for the anti-doping crusade, because the most basic standards were ignored. The measurements were questioned because the laboratory made dozens of fundamental mistakes; ignored WADA code; LNDD refused to maintain a credible chain-of-custody; calibrate the equipment properly; employ people capable of understanding the equipment they were operating. WADA maintained a laissez faire, arrogant, laboratory can do wrong cavalier attitude, above the law, subject to oversight by no legal authority. Yet, in spite of running a disastrous operation, the GC/C/IRMS measurements were correct! Floyd Landis later admitted his doping behavior after spending his entire fortune fighting the anti-doping establishment! So where do you draw the line?

Should the system base everything on the amount of a prohibited substance detected being enough to increase performance? What about the theory that plastics were detected in the blood that indicates a blood transfusion? Should this evidence be ignored even though it may indicate traces of contaminated blood taken from the rider during a training period and re-infused during the Tour de France? There are no easy answers here!

WADA and the UCI are not investing enough money and the code needs reform; how to reach reasonable goals remains a serious question. Perhaps a panel of scientific experts should convene; and the problems solved by committee!

Lance Armstrong: Roberts and Epstein Article: Nothing New

2011-01-22T11:45:00.056-07:00

Sports Illustrated has a new article which deals with the never ending Lance Armstrong investigation. There was also an interview of Selena Roberts on All Things Considered.

Reading through the Sports Illustrated article was disappointing, old rehashed accusations, innuendo, nothing of interest except Don Catlin. Good old boy Don Catlin, pioneer, anti doping crusader, expert in detection of doping, accused of cooking the books for Lance Armstrong? Indeed?

There were some old [Lance Armstrong] records of testosterone/epitestosterone ratios above 6:1 that David Epstein and Selena Roberts declare "a positive?" Not so. Testosterone/Epitestosterone ratios are not "positive" tests, they merely suggest suspicious values that should be investigated further: for possible abuse of synthetic testosterone, precursors of testosterone, analogues of testosterone, etc. Before the development of mass spectrometry (MS), a test developed by Don Catlin, suspicious testosterone/epitestosterone values were verified with longitudinal studies. The notion that an athlete could maintain a constant rate of high testosterone/epitestosterone over time by artificial means was considered very improbable. If it was determined over time that the testosterone/epitestosterone value declined to a baseline value and remained constant; say 1:1 only then could the measured "peak" above 6:1 be considered an analytical positive. Later, of course, high testosterone/epitestosterone levels could be examined by carbon isotope ratios to determine if a Carbon 13 synthetic testosterone supplement was present; a clear violation of the WADA prohibited substance rule. In this case, the presence of the synthetic testosterone; constitutes the violation; the testosterone/epitestosterone level merely supplements the violation with additional evidence; additive but not essential to confirm an adverse analytical finding. Later WADA changed the normal testosterone/epitestosterone range to 4:1. Nevertheless, the statement made by Selena Roberts and David Epstein that the old "high [Lance Armstrong] ratios had not lead to sanctions," is misleading, for the above mentioned reasons and should be discarded as sheer nonsense.

One other thing should be mentioned. In the Floyd Landis case, a notorious example of incompetence of testosterone/epitestosterone testing occurred, a single urine sample returned four different results! This wanton disregard by a WADA accredited laboratory proves that confirmation by carbon isotope ratio tests are absolutely essential. Since the old Lance Armstrong testosterone/epitestosterone tests have no longitudinal or carbon isotope ratio confirmations they are essentially useless as evidence. There is an option of opening the urine sample safe, extracting the frozen urine sample, and doing the carbon isotope tests post facto. If the old urine samples do not exist: nothing can be proven!

What is not nonsense is the fact that Don Catlin tried to cover up positive drug tests of Olympic athletes, according to old witness testimony. If true, this could prove to be very problematic for Don Catlin! If a lie, this could prove very problematic for his accusers! Floyd Landis's opinion that Lance Armstrong was Don Catlin's favorite athlete and that this suggests a motive for cover up is insane babble by Landis; his favorite occupation of late; and proves nothing! It also should be noted that Floyd Landis had an insane hatred of Don Catlin, because Catlin refused to bend from his opinion that Landis had used performance enhancing drugs! Foo! What nonsense!

Last point: investigators found e-mail messages from team Radio Shack to "Doctor Blood" Michele Farrari, dated in 2009. Lance Armstrong employed Michele Farrari as a consultant, but, claimed to have severed all ties in 2004? Doctor Blood claimed that rEPO used properly was as dangerous as drinking orange juice? Very interesting. However, even if Radio Shack did have contacts with Michele Farrari in 2009 this does not prove that Lance Armstrong had any contact.

So nothing new. No bombshells. Nothing of importance here that would be of concern to Lance Armstrong. A dud. No new evidence of prohibited substance use. Yawn. A bore.

Floyd Landis Advocates Universal Doping?

2011-01-19T14:37:00.044-07:00

What? Floyd Landis calls for universal doping? Man that guy creeps me out. I mean the object is to end doping for all sports, in all athletes, not to promote a race to the bottom in innovative, creative, drugs and methods to promote exponential increases in performance!

Floyd Landis retires according to Rant Your Head Off. Rant explains Floyd Landis' behavior, an interesting summary. True, the cycling community treated Floyd Landis in the worst possible manner...indecently. Floyd Landis was portrayed as the worst of villains, a serial cheat, how else do you explain his incredible run of success? In 2006 Floyd Landis was an unbeatable machine, The Tour of Georgia, the Tour of California, the Tour de France! Doped to the gills in every race too, which, is an unfortunate thing, that doping. Floyd Landis had an expectation of never being detected, the laboratories were so incompetent! After all Lance Armstrong and the entire US Postal Service team doped with impunity and Jacques DeCeaurriz and LNDD so stupid! AFLD for all their bluster, their braggadocio, the detested Pierre Bordry, the clowns, were in such a hurry to vacation, rushed the testing, with nothing to fear from Dick Pound and WADA! Ah, but we can't stop there, because Travis T. Tygart and his over zealous USADA brood were hunting the peloton for dopers and Floyd Landis skated by right in front of their noses!

There are people who help these greedy good for nothing dopers cheat and they are never investigated or caught or arrested with rare exceptions. This is not a justification for cheating or doping or encouraging people to dope or cheat. But the practice continues unabated in spite of the fact that Pat McQuaid shouts imprecations for reform down from the ivory tower he has barricaded himself in. Action not words are required for reform; even though the UCI does not act. Arrests and jail, not empty rhetoric are required to incentify honesty, Mr. McQuaid, you infernal buffoon!

No...no...no...synthetic hemoglobin is unacceptable, DNA manipulation is unacceptable, athletes who are laboratory rats is unacceptable! Floyd Landis you are insane, you were forced out after a sensational drug induced year, we don't need you around cycling, clear out! Retire back to your cabin as a recluse; fend off your lawsuits best you can. You are a cancer, a bad example for the youth of America and the World.

Good thing they caught you in time or juniors or category three guys would want to follow your example, and risk all for the Grand Tour glory. If they listen to your insane advice the road to ruin will not be far behind. Go away!

Alberto Contador On The Verge of Death?

2011-01-15T11:17:00.066-07:00

Last post wondered with incredulity as to the state of Alberto Contador's health atop the Tourmalet col; smiling and chatting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy like a celebrity, instead of feigning symptoms common with clenbuterol poisoning. But, perhaps it is bad etiquette to show suffering anywhere but on the bike? Looking at the film, Alberto attacks out of the saddle, without any sign of discomfort; with a closed mouth and even breathing, he hardly breaks a sweat! Signs more of bronchial dilation and increased oxygenation of the blood by artificial means, than from symptoms of acute clenbuterol poisoning...

Alas, a quick Internet search reveals the symptoms of clenbuterol poisoning: increased heart rate, muscular tremors, headache, nausea, fever, chills. From a deductive evaluation of the evidence, the presence of French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the podium could account for all of the symptoms independent of clenbuterol! But, how to explain those explosive attacks, a look over the shoulder at Andy Schleck, then sprint for dear life! Very strange behavior of an emaciated man on the verge of death!

The AFLD Gets Creative

The Spanish Cycling Federation afraid that people will interpret a verdict of innocence in the Alberto Contador case as a blatant form of patriotism by the Spanish doping authorities: have requested the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to join in a unified verdict. This would eliminate the most inconvenient expedient of a protracted appeal, examination of evidence, and trial of Alberto Contador by the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS). Perhaps the Spanish are concerned that the case will drag on past the start of the 2011 Tour de France. UCI president Pat McQuaid has suggested such a possibility, confounded idiot! When, one wonders, will the UCI learn to keep quiet in these matters; instead of stirring up the hornets!

Sure, the 2011 Tour de France will be a wonderful race to watch, with or without Alberto Contador! Pat McQuaid please refrain from telling us what we already know; you are embarrassing yourself again; which you promised not to do ever again; remember?

2011 has gotten off to an outstanding start. Encore!

2011: A Clean Year In Cycling?

2010-12-31T15:36:00.027-07:00

Deja vu: we have all been here before, lamenting the year and pleading for sanity. 2010 has to stand as one of the worst since 2006, a second Tour de France champion in disgrace! Cycling in disgrace! The anti-doping crusade on the verge of disgrace if not adamant in enforcing the rules! Madame Defarge will you accept the challenge or cringe in cowardice?

Who would ever suggest that Pat McQuaid could be so stupid as to encourage behavior that reeks of conflict of interest? The UCI in accepting money from Lance Armstrong, currently under investigation for doping, in the form of a bribe, as asserted by supreme disgrace Floyd Landis: is a unacceptable breach of conduct and inexcusable! The UCI should ensure that this sort of thing never happens again, the oldest and most trite cliche ever penned by man! Conflict of interest with such people as notorious, suspected dopers--what were you thinking?

On bended knee, weeping, I begged the peloton to stop doping! A slap in the face followed. At the Tour of Utah riders threw water bottles over my head, filled with energy drink! I cheered them on with enthusiasm! No number of positive tests makes me waver. Addicted to cycling, there is no cure. I ask once again, 2011 is here: make it a clean one.

The Spanish Cycling Federation has one chance: conviction. Anything else will permanently damage cycling and the anti-doping crusade forever. There are no apologists for Alberto Contador here.

The UCI biological passport is a failure as predicted. Gianni Bugno claims that Franco Pellizotti is being blackmailed by the UCI. Riders are being excluded from racing contracts based upon suspicion. Blame yourselves, there are too many variables to explain the variance, biological ranges are much too large and do not account for individual differences, without a positive test nothing can be proven. The UCI biological passport has morphed into an abusive practice that is being applied unfairly to riders; excluding those who should have a right to a fair process of clearing defamatory conclusions; based upon tendencies not concrete facts!

Foo! Another year of this nonsense, nonsense that should have ended this year! We still have the Lance Armstrong case, the Floyd Landis allegations, and the Alberto Contador fiasco to contend with, shameless.

Cynical people refrain from your jest, someday this madness will end. The eternal optimist has spoken.

Update: Does Alberto Contador look like he is suffering from clenbuterol posioning to you?

Floyd Landis and Pat McQuaid Feud Into Irrelevance

2010-12-27T14:50:00.031-07:00

The Floyd Landis and Pat McQuaid feud is dwindling away into irrelevance. Floyd Landis accuses McQuaid and the UCI of covering up positive tests of prohibited substance use by star riders like Lance Armstrong in exchange for bribes; in the forms of donations. Pat McQuaid accuses Floyd Landis of being a liar and has threatened to sue him in court for libel because of an interview Landis did in a German periodical. I love the German sense of humor; attention, dopers! with a syringe being plunged into an imaginary athlete with dramatic sound imagery. Current stories of doping miscreants Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador are featured in doping webmagazin; Landis makes an assertion that the Postal boys were doing blood transfusions on a regular bases and therefore it would be quite impossible to avoid detection by WADA accredited laboratories. So hence the cover up, with promises of money to the UCI by doped riders in exchange for silence, corruption and conspiracy. Ironically, Landis seems to forget that he spent two years and millions of dollars challenging not only the motives of the UCI; but the laboratory methods and competence of WADA accredited laboratories that detected testosterone in his samples! Why did Pat McQuaid and the UCI refuse to make a deal with Floyd Landis if the desire of the UCI is greed only? Very improbable that Pat McQuaid would strike a deal with Lance Armstrong and the US Postal team and ignore a goldmine opportunity with Floyd Landis.

In the spirit of the season; bah humbug! a plague on both of your houses; Floyd Landis and Pat McQuaid!

The United States Government seems to take the Floyd Landis testimony of doping by Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service Team quite seriously. For now. We duped fans are still waiting for an indictment, trial, and conviction of the criminals. Meanwhile 2010 is near death and 2011 looms large, with another year of misdeeds fading in statute of limitations oblivion.

Slow torture works faster than the United States federal government. Lance Armstrong might escape and then sue Floyd Landis from sheer ennui, and lack of interest. But Floyd Landis is a poor man who owes money to the Floyd Fairness Fund donaters who were duped into making contributions to his cause; and Lance Armstrong probably might have to wait until doomsday to collect his damages.

Pat McQuaid will have to wait until other players extract a pound of flesh from Floyd Landis; no need to mention the French government and the outstanding warrant for computer hacking; before he can carve the beast. The UCI should call the Landis nonsense absurd and stop there.

As for justice: if a judge asks Pat McQuaid if anyone believes that the UCI took money from riders to cover up doping misdeeds and McQuaid says no, the case will probably be immediately dismissed as outrageous. Which it is.

The Alberto Contador Doping Allegations Drag On

2010-12-18T12:15:00.051-07:00

Breaking news! The Alberto Contador case will drag on until middle January when, no matter what the decision, the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) assures us that there will be an appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport!

Incredible! I was thinking that maybe, by some miracle, Alberto Contador would plead guilty and we would be done with this charade!

No, no. Saxo Bank gave Alberto Contador eight million euro reasons to deny doping, much to the disgust of pure cycling advocates everywhere.

Pat McQuaid assures us that all is not lost, the UCI has transferred authority of the Alberto Contador doping allegations to the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA). The World Anti-Doping Authority is an adamant anti-doping organization that insists on strict liability. Clenbuterol is not an endogenous substance found in either man or livestock. The case is clear, Alberto Contador tested positive for clenbuterol. The "B" sample confirmed the "A" sample. The meat allegedly served to the Astana professional cycling team for dinner was not contaminated. Clenbuterol is still a WADA prohibited substance. Two years! What is there to appeal?

No need to bother to mention the presence of common plastics found in blood transfusion bags in Alberto Contador's urine samples, or to the blood transfusion theory asserted by most doping experts, because the test for these plastics does not have one-hundred-per-cent validity and reliability that proves culpability. As a purist, science demands one-hundred-per-cent validity and reliability in all doping tests that are subject to an extensive literature of peer review; not to tests that invite theoretical challenges that are subject to hypothetical bunk and speculation!

I have maintained all along that the guillotine is a better punishment than a firing squad; remember my references to Madame Defarge on the Floyd Landis Topix forum? Madame Defarge, the crazy lady from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, who knitted names of the French aristocracy and clergy who would be executed during the Reign of Terror, into her shrouds! I accused Christiane Ayotte, the head of the WADA lab in Montreal, of being the reincarnation of Madame Defarge when she went full speed ahead against now confessed doper Floyd Landis. Put Christiane Ayotte in charge of the Alberto Contador case, let her sharpen the blade! After all, Christiane Ayotte said that she would be appalled if WADA dropped the strict liability doctrine adopted by Richard Young! If a few innocent athletes are ensnared in the process, well WADA is investing money into research to assure that this does not happen. Unlike the AFLD, who don't care about anything, especially how there worthless laboratories operate.

I respect and admire Christiane Ayotte as a true scholar of doping science and I trust her opinion implicitly. I have cited her statements on numerous occasions and I truly believe that she would be the be the best possible WADA prosecution representative available.

Alberto Contador must be suspended for two years. There is no other option.

Pierre Bordry Resigns!

2010-11-27T12:14:00.090-07:00

The anti-doping crusade is rid of Pierre Bordry at last!
This is a most ironical development, because, if one recalls, Pierre Bordry used strong arm tactics to force Floyd Landis after he tested positive for synthetic testosterone to sign a separate agreement stating that he would not race on French soil even though the basis for this agreement had no legal bases in French law.

In 2006, people like Pierre Bordry talked tough about doping and people like us were shouting about a rigged system and fairness. In 2010, in order to protect wonder boy sensation Alberto Contador, his Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) is flaunting the rules; pretending that nothing is amiss. So are Bjarne Riis and Saxo Bank. Query: where is the French AFLD and their notorious separate agreements?

Looks like Pierre Bordry was thrown out with the rubbish just in the nick of time. No need to embarrass suspected dopers with an improbable argument that the sanctity of the Tour de France and the French classics should be protected against miscreants! Not in 2010, unlike the past. Not with clenbuterol positive tests, or with Spanish cyclists.

Anti-doping agencies have evolved from the shoot first and ask questions later logic espoused by crusaders such as Pierre Bordry. If given his way, Pierre Bordry and the AFLD would have illegally forced Lance Armstrong to sign a separate agreement not to race in France: when the 2005 "scientific" tests of the 1999 Tour de France prologue samples showed perfect one-hundred-percent isoforms of rEPO. Pierre Bordry would have insisted that this was a proper method, ignoring the problems of the time, sloppy laboratory methods and no confirmation tests. The UCI probe into LNDD by Emile Vrijman exposed numerous problems with the French laboratory: no chain-of-custody and lack of security, among the most egregious. Vrijman came to the conclusion that the tests constituted nothing, and recommended that the UCI take no action. Christiane Ayotte argued that the one-hundred-per-cent isoforms found in the 1999 prologue samples "surprising" and "improbable" because rEPO is a biologically active substance and is prone to degrade over time, even when frozen at -40C.

Nevertheless, Pierre Bordry insists that the 1999 prologue isoforms is conclusive proof of doping by Lance Armstrong. However, Pierre Bordry forgets that if all four of the prologue samples tested positive for one-hundred-percent perfect rEPO isoforms, they could have been tampered with by LNDD personnel. Remember that the sample aliquots tested contained labels providing the date samples were taken and the doping control form numbers. L'Equipe reporter Damien Ressiot had a UCI provided list of all of signed doping control numbers that Lance Armstrong provided during the 1999 Tour de France, and contacts with LNDD personnel. So, it would not take a rocket scientist to refute the nonsensical argument that tampering with all four 1999 Tour de France prologue samples by LNDD personnel was impossible. No margin of error for the prologue: no matter what what Pierre Bordry thinks. Retests of the samples in 2010 will have the same results as 2005 if they were tampered with; but this may not reflect the state of the samples as they existed in 1999. Pierre Bordry and AFLD present weak logic!

Better to blame the association of Lance Armstrong with Nicolas Sarkozy; who in a secret combination conspire to cover up obvious drug use. Sarkozy and Armstrong are powerful men, Pierre Bordry and the AFLD are weaklings. Instead of showing will to combat doping in sport, Nicolas Sarkozy in a great act of cowardice: dumped honest anti-doping crusader Pierre Bordry into the garbage container.

Makes you want to laugh at this madness!

Doping in Cycling: Sickness Unto Death!

2010-11-05T13:54:00.045-06:00

Aha! Agents of the Federal Government are being very creative in rounding up witness testimony in the Lance Armstrong doping allegation case. Yaroslav Popovaych was approached outside of Mellow Johnny's bike shop after signing autographs by black suited, jack booted thugs serving a federal grand jury subpoena: appear or be imprisoned! Mr. Popovaych was duly sworn and testified to the grand jury, although the contents of his testimony are secret!

Good to see that the wheels of justice are in movement. The mysterious testimony of the participants will not be know unless the Federal Government files an indictment. Stephanie McIlvain confuses us more than ever. But make haste gentlemen, the statutes of limitations will soon make it impossible for you to take away one malliot jaune from the miscreant Lance Armstrong; if this is your stated desire.

Because, Americans, like Amuary Sport Organisation, go after former Tour de France champions with a vindictive hatred that is enhanced by the fanatical Lance Armstrong doubters: of which there are legion. Yes, the courtroom will be filled with fanatics, who with inquisitorial self righteousness will be more than willing to torture; with the rack; heretics standing in the dock. Greg LeMond acting as Torquemada will extend his finger toward the accused while pontificating his purity: "I am without sin, so I shall cast the first stone!"

Perhaps, the Spanish who originated the Inquisition in the first place, should follow the American example and attempt to determine the truth of the Alberto Contador association with Operation Puerto. In 2006, the Spanish Civil Guard arrested and imprisoned former Liberty Seguros sport director Manolo Saiz: who was accused of being a kingpin associate of Dr. Eufamiano Fuentes, a man who was convicted of a conspiracy of illegal manipulation of blood of athletes, for a fee. Alberto Contador who was riding for Manolo Saiz, was implicated in Operation Puerto when his name was found in Dr. Eufamiano Fuentes office records as a client. The Spanish judiciary cleared Contador of any involvement in Operation Puerto: in spite of overwhelming circumstantial evidence to the contrary: but this certainly could not preclude a re-examination of evidence, based on witness testimony of Manolo Saiz, et al.

But, the Spanish defend their sons even if they appear to be serial offenders: unlike their American counterparts. But, as Lance Armstrong says, with some justification, the American government would be better off spending their money on something other than baseless accusations, if indeed, they are baseless! But, what would the mob do without their bread and circuses! Everyone would be so disappointed, deprived of a bloody spectacle! The Armstrong doubters want to be justified that they were correct all along. After all, buckets of ink have been written on the topic: so many people in agreement with your viewpoint can not be wrong!

Finis!

Hurrah For Alberto Contador!

2010-10-29T13:38:00.034-06:00

Hurrah for Alberto Contador! avowed victim of Spanish serendipity! Tainted beef is not, at this point, a plausible excuse; for as the Spanish agricultural trust will exclaim indignantly, in every instance of testing of beef for clenbuterol this year, there has not been one positive test!

Nevertheless, the joyful people of Pinto, Spain who offered Alberto Contador new citizenship, defend his honor most voraciously, in spite of the agriculture inspections. The Spanish culture loves champions, unlike past American Tour de France champions, who sprint to the microphone in a heated rush to judgment. But a Tour de France champion is something to be proud of in Spain; unlike America.

Saxo Bank, if it survives unsold or an investigation, assures Bjarne Riis full support after signing Alberto Contador to a two year, nine million euro contract. Saxo Bank is under the belief that Alberto is innocent and fully supports the embattled Tour de France champion. Saxo Bank was ready to terminate the team after Frank and Andy Schleck defected to a pro tour team that is being formed in Luxembourg. But, with the Alberto Contador contract, Saxo Bank decided to venture on, with or without their newly signed star.

Bikezilla, with his mouth agape in astonishment at the thought that I would support laboratory findings that indicate prohibited substance and illegal blood transfusion abuse rather than preposterous fabricated alibis, is shocked at my conclusion. Under WADA code; under strict liability; a mere presence of a prohibited substance implies culpability; no exceptions! Clenbuterol is not an endogenous substance, the mere presence of which may be disputed by simple fluctuations in carbon atoms. No, indeed, clenbuterol is an exogenous beta-2 adrenergic agonist that works on receptors of the smooth muscles of the nasal passages to dilate obstructed airways.

Clenbuterol is a substance that is abused to increase performance in athletes and has been banned by WADA. Cyclists who suffer from asthma or other health related problems have an opportunity to apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption; if approved by a creditable physician. International standards pertaining to Therapeutic Use Exemptions should be harmonized; therefore, they should apply to all cycling entities affliated with WADA or the UCI. The understanding of the rules and the punishment for violations are clearly delineated. People who work with athletes should review new updates of rules if they are confused...poorly contrived de facto excuses of ignorance are unacceptable!

But, to be fair to Alberto Contador and his inventiveness, ingestion of clenbuterol tainted meat has had "outbreaks of acute illness in Spain, France, Italy, China, and Portugal 0.5-3 hours after individuals ingested liver and meat containing clenbuterol residues." The symptoms of acute clenbuterol poisoning from eating tainted meat was usually "resolved in two to six days." As a defense lawyer it would be advisable to gather testimony from the Astana teammates of Alberto Contador: dispositions stating that team Astana was suffering from symptoms of acute clenbuterol poisoning; but deus ex machina recovery was instantaneous enough for the Astana team to pilot Alberto Contador to a virtual tie in time with Andy Schleck on a tough mountain climb the very next day!

Very unlikely that the entire Astana team made such a remarkable, immediate improvement in health. "Pish-posh," indeed.

That excuse should provide some very entertaining, though unconvincing testimony!

The UCI Ensures Fair Play

2010-10-20T13:23:00.037-06:00

It is good to know that UCI president Pat McQuaid is assuring the skeptical cycling public that the wheels of justice are in progress; without any favoritism to three time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador.

Why would anyone doubt otherwise? The UCI has always been very forceful when dealing with suspected doping violations: especially when dealing with Spanish riders. You laugh? You question this assertion? What about Alberto Contador and Operation Puerto? Operation Puerto was a raid on the offices of Dr. Eufamiano Fuentes conducted by the Spanish Civil Guard. Fuentes was suspected of doping blood to increase athletic performance among several sports; including cycling. During the raid, several bags of doctored blood were seized along with medical records of athletes written in code. One code name was "son of Rudy," a reference to long time coach of Jan Ullrich; Rudy Pevenage. The Civil Guard investigated the records and compiled a very large list of suspected cyclists, including Liberty Seguros rider Alberto Contador.

Although Eufamiano Fuentes was charged with illegal blood tampering, Spanish judge Antionio Serrano dismissed the case arguing that the prosecution argument did not prove any violations of Spanish law. At the same time Alberto Contador was cleared by the Spanish judiciary of any link to Operation Puerto. Of course, the Spanish cycling federation felt no compulsion to investigate or suspend Alberto Contador for a possible involvement in Operation Puerto after the Serrano decision. The UCI did not interfere with this affair even though action seemed warranted.

The Strange Case of Alejandro Valverde

Alejandro Valverde was another name found in the medical records of Eufemiano Fuentes. The case would have probably gone the route of Alberto Contador: swept under the rug, if not for the Italian Olympic Association (CONI). During a Italian race Alejandro Valverde was requested to provide a routine in-competition urine sample. There was a suspicion that a code name found in Eufemiano Fuentes office referenced the name of a dog owned by Valverde. CONI did a DNA sequence of the sample provided by Valverde during the race and compared the results with DNA profiles of blood bags found during the Spanish Civil Guard Operation Puerto raid. The DNA results were an identical match: proof that the tainted blood belonged to Alejandro Valverde.

This is simply remarkable. The Operation Puerto raid was conducted in 2006 but nothing was done to restrict Alejandro Valverde from racing for four years. The UCI did nothing to prevent Valverde from racing even though the Italian government banished Valverde from racing in Italy. Italy was so upset from the lack of action from the Spanish and the UCI that they insisted that if Amaury Sport Organisation did not prevent Valverde from racing the Tour de France which crossed into the Italian territory: that the Italian government would erect barriers at the frontier. Not until 2010 was Alexander Valverde banned from cycling, the Spanish complicated matters by allowing Valverde to compete in and win the 2009 Vuelta d' Espana.

The UCI: bastion of fair play.

Paper tiger Pat McQuaid inspires fear and loathing in dopers. This is evident by his prompt plan of action; his acumen of the science; his insistence that riders play fair; his insistence on transparency. Pat McQuaid insists on lecturing his inferiors by claiming that any conclusion reached in the Alberto Contador case is inaccurate: the plastic residue finding that indicates tainted blood rather than a tainted steak is incorrect. Nevertheless, with the history of the UCI in dealing with Spain there is no doubt what-so-ever that the UCI will insist on fair play by appealing to the Court of Arbitration of Sport any outrageous suspension of Alberto Contador that the Spanish cycling federation might award due to the clenbuterol positive.

Alberto Contador if you are so innocent provide us with a copy of your Lab Document Package: post the information on the Internet, I guarantee you that this information will generate a very lively discussion on the cycling forums. You will have as many supporters as detractors. But if you are counting on a Chatenay-Malabry style of incompetent slop to support your position: be advised; the Germans are a very precise people!

Alberto Contador: A Serial Doper?

Alberto Contador was given a free pass during Operation Puerto, because, as some claim, he has a link to royal blood. Perhaps, he thinks, like other convicted dopers, that he has a right to use performance enhancing substances. He was excused by a Spanish judge of involvement in Operation Puerto without a slap on the hand, like royalty. Perhaps, he thinks that he will always be excused from undesirable consequences of his behavior by a sympathetic government. Perhaps, he thinks that Pat McQuaid and the UCI are too weak to interfere.

Pat McQuaid: do you have a set of cajones?

Alberto Contador: The Noose Tightens

2010-10-05T14:16:00.041-06:00

The Associated Press has reported that the WADA accredited laboratory at Cologne, Germany has found metabolites of a common plasticizer found in bags used in intravenous transfusions in the Tour de France urine samples provided by Alberto Contador. If true, the claim by Alberto Contador that he ate a clenbuterol tainted stake provided by a friend to the Astana cycling team seems nothing more than a preposterous fable.

Metabolites of plasticizer di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) were found in samples provided by Alberto Contador on July 20, 2010 at eight times the normal limit. On July 21, 2010 during the second rest day of the Tour de France, Alberto Contador tested positive for minute amounts of clenbuterol; a finding that anti-doping expert Rasmus Damsgaard claims could possibly have been a result of a transfusion of tainted blood stored during a out-of-competition period between races. A blood transfusion used during the race would boost oxygen supply (red blood cells transport oxygen) a common tactic employed by cyclists to gain a competitive advantage. Autologous transfusions of stored blood of one cyclist transfused into the same cyclist has no known laboratory test.

The perfect crime: or one would surmise, unless the criminal was a very careless person? Apparently, Alberto Contador was a very careless person. The WADA accredited laboratories are perfecting the detection of deception by searching for analogues of storage vessels like plastic bags; metabolites of plasticizers; illegal substances! One would surmise that Alberto Contador and those who possibly assisted him would have examined the purity of the blood prior to transfusion!

Indeed, the tainted meat fabrication, as such, seems more incredible by the second. Experts in meat contamination claim that if clenbuterol was introduced into an animal that most of the drug would be stored in the liver, that the amount of clenbuterol used in the animal to produce the positive test found in Mr. Contador would have killed the animal outright, and that it would be impossible to test positive for clenbuterol by eating a contaminated stake!

Not knowing all the circumstances of this case and not wanting to sound like Dick Pound; I will not expostulate guilt and guillotine. But the facts do tend in a direction probably not to the liking of Mr. Contador and his legal team. The results of the plasticizer test results could be challenged as unreliable or as invalid; and some people have suggested that that the urine could be stored for the next seven years as insurance in case some new test is developed; what rubbish!

Sounds to me like another case of denial, denial, denial! Alberto Contador should come to his senses and think! millions of dollars in legal fees! two years fighting the anti-doping agencies! Bad Karma! If you are guilty, confess! The Ivan Basso road is much easier than the Floyd Landis trail. Do you wish to be regarded as persona non grata for the rest of your life?

Confess and most of us will forgive you; lie and we will never forgive. Ask Floyd Landis.

Alberto Contador Tests Positive For Clenbuterol

2010-09-30T13:38:00.041-06:00

Well now, the mysterious ways of WADA and the UCI continue. Alberto Contador winner of the the 2010 Tour de France tested positive for clenbuterol during a rest day of the race.

The date of the final Alberto Contador positive test results done at the Cologne WADA accredited testing laboratory is unknown; but it has been asserted from numerous press releases that a "B" sample confirmed the "A" sample. Therefore, WADA and the UCI cannot be accused of a premature release of the laboratory results as was the case during the Floyd Landis case. In fact, when Pat McQuaid was questioned as to the validity of the Alberto Contador positive result, he denied the rumor as unfounded. Some speculation exists as to whether the UCI withheld public information to provide Alberto Contador and his legal team more time to improve a credible defense. This astounding about face by Pat McQuaid and the UCI is directly apposite of the furious "rush to judgement" that Floyd Landis experienced during his "A" sample positive test for testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France. Judgements to the guilt of Floyd Landis were forthcoming from the mouths of anti-doping authorities before Floyd Landis or his legal team even had time to see the Laboratory Document Package or before a confirmatory "B" test could be run. Current critics of the anti-doping crusade should not be too condemnatory about an abundance of caution in the Alberto Contador alleged doping case; indeed, this cautious approach should be commended.

Clenbuterol is a beta-adrenergic agonist and is used as a decongestant and bronchodilator. Clenbuterol has been used in cycling since the middle sixties. Clenbuterol is listed on the WADA prohibited substance list. Clenbuterol is also used illegally in meat production to increase protein syntheses and to promote leanness in cattle.

Alberto Contador insists that his test results were caused by a friend giving him tainted meat imported into France from Spain. Of course, this reasoning is speculative because there is no way to prove that the meat was tainted; other members of the Astana cycling team did eat the same meat but none were randomly tested that day for prohibited substances; so there is no independent confirmation of Alberto Contador's claim.

Notable anti-doping expert Rasmus Damsgaard believes that Alberto Contador tested positive for clenbuterol because he received a blood transfusion from stored blood taken before the Tour de France then transfused during the race. If Damsgaard is correct: Alberto Contador would be guilty of two separate doping violations, not one, and the suspension period could be extended.

The amount of clenbuterol detected in Alberto Contador was so small as to be almost undetectable. Never mind the argument that such insignificant amounts do not increase performance. This argument under the WADA strict liability provision of WADA code will not be efficacious. The mere presence of a prohibited substance; by definition; implies an intent to cheat and culpability. Even in cases where athletes were caught with a prohibited substance in their systems due to a chemical reformulation: say a topical solution (example: a topical solution in Europe is clean while the "identical" American version contains a prohibited substance) warrants a one year suspension. This is the least amount of suspension that Alberto Contador could expect from the Court of Arbitration of Sport; even if he ate the tainted meat by accident! Of course, the 2010 Tour de France title and prize money will also be voided.

Floyd Landis was the first and we hoped the last person to be stripped of a Tour de France title for doping. Now this hall of shame may include other notable miscreants such as Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong!

Gentlemen: listen to reason. You may think that your cheating ways will escape detection by the laboratories; but no matter how sophisticated your methods, the gas chromatic spectrogram employed these days are very accurate. Your certainty of being caught is almost one hundred percent. Quit your nefarious ways; you are undermining our sport and making me ill in the process!

Floyd Landis; New Age Lunacy In Cycling

2010-09-25T11:23:00.023-06:00

It is curious that the amount of doping has diminished so quickly this year. There is really very few stories of interest. The Lance Armstrong doping investigation is moving at a glacial rate, Greg LeMond and his deranged wife Kathy are still making allegations; The New York Times has reported that witnesses are inconsistent in their testimony and this indicates perjury! Lance Armstrong, in his Tour de France championship period, was so intimidating that he could pressure people to lie or their careers could be terminated; or so claims Greg LeMond.

It would be great if a witness recalled the same thing; but as any good attorney will tell you this may not happen. A consistent witness does not create havoc with flip flops. If you testify to the fact that you did not hear Lance Armstrong tell doctors that he used performance enhancing drugs at Indiana University Hospital; and then confide to Greg LeMond in a telephone conversation later that Betsy Andreu was telling the truth; well what are we to make of these inconsistencies?

No matter, the Lance Armstrong probe is dealing with lunatics who are examples of what athletic prowess should not be; greedy people who cheat and then lie about it. Floyd Landis is a summa cum-laude member of the fraternity of greedy creeps who know no bounds of cunning and deceit. Tyler Hamilton also must be included as a supreme deceiver; a man who cheated his way into a Olympic gold medal and then refused to relinquish it because of a stupid laboratory error. Very credible witnesses. The cross examination of these people; under oath; should provide some very interesting information into the psychological bases of doping, the pathological bases of lying; and the motivational aspects of risk/reward behavior. Why would a person risk taking performance enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France when the possible consequences of being caught portends such awful consequences; such as suspensions and permanent ostracism?

But ask Floyd Landis; he rationalizes everything as much ado about nothing, because everybody was doing it. Floyd Landis even claims that Lance Armstrong encouraged performance drug use during the U. S. Postal Service days. Really? Floyd Landis seems challenged; maybe he suffers from mental incapacity and is not responsible for his behavior. After all, when Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso were escorted back to the team hotels from the Tour de France depart after being implicated in Operation Puerto; and when the UCI and WADA were hyper vigilant about detecting dopers; and when the cycling public was at a hysterical pitch demanding doper blood; you would think that Floyd Landis and Team Phonak would get the message to ride clean. But no, the temptation of winning! the accolades! the money! outweighed common sense; because as Floyd Landis would reason everyone else did it! Riis did it! Ullrich did it! Pantani did it! Armstrong did it! And they were never caught or punished for their crimes.

This is the sort of people that the government investigation must rely upon: obvious psychopaths and lunatics who use deranged arguments to support their bloated egoistic desire for money and fame. Then there is a certain person; Greg LeMond: who would resort to any tactic to support his legendary status; even though at this date he is nothing more than a washed up old hack!

It has occured to me recently that this whole Lance Armstrong probe would be nothing more than old lady gossip and not very interesting; except for the fact that there are so many crazies involved. Does the sport of cycling really attract this sort of people?

Former Tour de France winners do have an unnatural tendency to commit suicide, do they not?

2010 Tour of Utah: Final Notes

2010-08-31T13:25:00.035-06:00

The Tour of Utah billed as America's toughest stage race, with thirty thousand feet of climbing, was a spectacle worthy of any cycling event anywhere in the world. The sponsors, the kiosks, the displays, reminds one of old fairs where the community displayed their wares, very colorful and professional. If you were in search of anything related to cycling: clothes, bicycles, food, drink, this was the place to be.

At the prologue the organizers even had a small course for children marked off by orange cones, there were nervous parents watching their charges ride around, and there was a professional instructor teaching safety tips. New cyclists and cycling fans of the next generation.

A time trial, "the race of truth," is an all out effort where professional riders race the clock. The rider with the quickest time is declared the winner. There were two time trials at the Tour of Utah, one at the prologue and one at Miller Sport Park. There are cyclists who specialise in time trials, Fabian Cancellara, or Brent Brookwalter. Time trials have been decisive in determining who wins Grand Tour stage races. For example, Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by eight seconds in a final time trial stage during the 1989 Tour de France.

The 2010 Tour of Utah also had a criterium in Park City, Utah. A criterium is a bicycle race where riders race a course through city streets in a specified number of laps. Criterium races have a closely grouped peloton: a French word denoting "group" or "pack." On occasion there are breakaways: by individual or small groups of riders who sprint ahead of the peloton and who hope not to be "reeled in": or caught by the pack. Some breakaways are successful, some not. The "bell lap" is the last lap of the criterium and in most cases the riders accelerate, or "wind up" in an all out sprint to the finish line. The first rider across the line is declared criterium champion. In the Tour of Utah the time of each rider in the criterium is added to the total time for the race, like in any other stage. Riders who do not complete the criterium are eliminated from the race.

Stage 1, 2, and 5 of the Tour of Utah consisted of regular road stages. A road stage is a race of a specified distance in miles (or kilometers). Road stages are ridden on conventional highways. The Tour of Utah had three conventional road stages. Road stages use racing tactics similar to criterium races, breakaways, gaps: the time between the breakaway riders and the peloton measured from some benchmark and the time calculated for the peloton to reach that benchmark; drafting: where a rider drafts behind another rider to reduce air friction and energy consumption: also known as wheel sucking. In breakaways riders ride in pace lines: where a rider leads the group and takes a pull: rides into the wind while other members of the group draft; then the leader rotates out of the front of the pace line to the back of the group and sprints to get back on while the next rider takes a pull. A well organized pace line where the riders work together can escape the peloton for an entire stage: and the stage is decided among the escapees. In flat stages, breakaways are discouraged by teams who have sprinters: riders who excel in sudden bursts of acceleration on bicycles and who race other sprinters in 300 meter drag races to the finish line. Sprinter teams do everything possible to reel in breakaways. Sprinter teams are organized groups of riders who form up in trains: team riders who protect a sprinter by taking pulls on the front and winding up the peloton to sixty kilometers an hour; then at the last second a sprinter is assisted by a lead out man: a teammate of exceptional ability who can eat wind at sixty kilometers an hour and peel of the front at the critical moment allowing the sprinter to hammer to seventy kilometers an hour and win the stage!

Whew! Makes you sweat just thinking about those sprints. Mark Cavendish, Thor Hushvold, and Robbie McEwen are the world's best sprinters: and if you are racing and not a sprinter abandon the area immediately. Sprints can be very physical affairs with jostling, shoulder rubs, and other physical contact. Sprinters do not allow novices to compete in sprints; if you have no business at the front of a peloton during a sprint; stay away for your own safety.

The Tour of Utah was decided on the twenty mile climb to Mount Nebo. Levi Leipheimer gained a minute on Francisco Mancebo and won Stage 2. Levi Leipheimer also gained an additional minute Francisco Mancebo on the little Cottonwood Canyon climb. Jai Crawford won Stage 5, Levi Leipheimer second, Francisco Mancebo third. Levi Leipheimer's Tour of Utah victory was an amazing feat considering the fact that Levi Leipheimer rode without teammates! for Lance Armstrong sponsored Mellow Johnny's.

The Tour of Utah dodged several severe weather events during the week of the race. During Stage 2, Salt Lake City had a record fifteen minute precipitation event, rain, of .85." This record rain event happened at noon when the race was in progress, but fortunately, the race was south of Salt Lake, and KFNZ1320 race radio updates mentioned no weather related issues. Drenched to the bone, frozen, and standing under a Chinese pagoda in the International Gardens, I wondered what effect such a downpour would have on the peloton. But nothing happened! During Stage 5, the wind intensified with velocity during the stage from the south due to an approaching cold front, but the stage finished before the wind shift, which produced rain and in places down burst winds from the north up to seventy miles an hour, which downed power lines, caused damage to tree limbs, and scattered debris everywhere. I was riding up Wasatch Boulevard after the finish of the stage when gigantic towering cumulus began to form and drops of rain began to fall. Fortunately, I arrived home before the wind shift and the real horrors began!

Stage 1, Ogden to Research Park, the Big Mountain King of the Mountain climb, and my favorite local ride, was excellent, as always. I met a very nice couple who rode out on some Specialized carbon road bikes. We talked shop: cycling! The road conditions, the resurfacing project in Emigration Canyon, the lack of maintenance of the bike lanes that caused one rider to break his neck during a Emigration Canyon ride; the old road construction days during the widening of the Emigration Canyon road; the sprints through the traffic signals they installed during the construction: the trick was to hammer through the open lane before the signal changed and you were killed by some inattentive driver coming the other way! the bad old pothole days, and other topics. There was some guy who showed up riding a scooter, wearing a Sasquatch costume complete with long stringy hair, who handed out twenty dollar bills to passing riders in the blazing heat! And the nut who was waving Old Glory while the peloton passed. Crazy fun!

My Stage 5 ride to Little Cottonwood Canyon was not so fun. I had a late start and almost missed the race! The last KFNZ1320 race radio update that I heard was of the peloton decending the Alpine Loop, that decided the issue, continue onward! I would have not been late except I stopped to refill my water bottles at the North Little Cottonwood Road 7-11, and this delay made me just late enough to watch the Leipheimer and Mancebo groups fly around the corner and up the canyon! Heavenly Creator! I stopped my bike after passing by a man carrying a stop sign who was shouting that I couldn't go that way. "I am not going that way, I am here to watch the race, you fool!" A very nice man and his daughter, who were spectators of the race, laughed and invited me to watch the race with them. I agreed and we talked of local favorite Levi Leipheimer.

I can't wait until next year!

Tour of Utah: Prologue, Stage 5, Stage 1, Photographs

2010-08-28T12:36:00.045-06:00

Tour of Utah
Stage 5, 1, Prologue Photographs

Caravan booty, rewards for being a good fan.

Stage 5. These photographs of are groups of riders entering Little Cottonwood Canyon at Mile Zero. There was a very strong wind from the South ahead of an approaching cold front that split the race into echelons. I arrived at the race a little late and barely saw the first two groups go by while still riding my bicycle, therefore, no photographs, but the lead group was lead by Levi Leipheimer and the second group by Francisco Mancebo. Every group thereafter had large gaps, some up to five minutes or longer. The first riders are at the bottom of these photographs and the last groups are at the top due to a blogger formatting problem.

Entrance to Little Cottonwood Canyon Mile Zero, Stage 5

Mile Zero, Little Cottonwood Canyon. The climb is 13.5km at 8%.

After a fifteen mile sprint from Big Mountain I arrived in time to photograph these Stage 1 Podium pics.

Trek-Livestrong rider Alex Dowsett displays the Race Leader, Climbers, and Best Young Rider jerseys. Jeff Louder (BMC) Best Utah Rider and David Tanner Sprinter Jersey.

Big Mountain Summit. King of the Mountain. Stage 1. There was a three man sprint to the summit followed by closely spaced groups shown here. The groups arrived in reverse order of these photographs.

A panorama view from Big Mountain Summit looking East.

View from Little Mountain Summit of Mountain Dell Reservoir.

Francisco Mancebo in the start house. Prologue.

George Hincapie

A rider hammers home in the time trial.

George Hincapie in the start house. Hincapie would end his Tour of Utah at mile 39 in Stage 2 in a crash. Hincapie also suffered a damaged knee from this crash.

Prologue results:

1. Taylor Phinney Trek Livestrong (U23 Development Team)

2. Alex Dowsett Trek Livestrong (U23 Development Team)

3. Brent Brookwalter (BMC)

Stage 1 Results:

1. David Tanner (Fly V Australia)

2. Alex Dowsett (Trek-Livingstone U23 Development Team)

Stage 5 Results:

1. Jai Crawford (Fly V Australia)

2. Levi Leipheimer (Mellow Johnny's)

3. Francisco Mancebo (Canyon Sports)

Tour of Utah General Classification

1. Levi Leipheimer 12.39'40"

2. Francisco Mancebo 12.42'10" +2'30"

3. Ian Boswell 12.43'36" +3'56"

2010 Tour of Utah: Reprise

2010-08-26T13:27:00.027-06:00

The 2010 Tour of Utah was sensational with vast improvements over the 2009 version, but not perfect. There were issues that must be addressed before the 2011 race and I hope that people will take these issues seriously.

KFNZ 1320 radio, a local sports network here in Salt Lake City, Utah; and part of the official media group of the Tour of Utah, did an outstanding job of updates of the race, but astoundingly forgot to mention the time when the capitol prologue was to start! I left the University of Utah Marriott Library at six o' clock, raced down the eleventh avenue bike path to the entrance of City Creek and ran into a mounted police officer. "Has the race started yet?" "The race has started" he replied. So, I rode down to the turnaround point and watched a few riders, then left to take photographs at the Capitol building, wasting an incredible amount of time riding around Memory Grove. Come on guys! Mention the prologue start time on the radio!

I probably should mention that a man at the Prologue did give me a card that stated, "tell us what you think!" Good idea! Here goes!

The Tour of Utah Official Race Program Guide was a slick, glossy publication with incredible photographs, team lists, and adequate stage information that proved invaluable. However, there was no rider lists for any team. Even the 2009 Race Program had a rider list, without bib numbers. At the Tour of Utah Stage One kiosk at Research Park, I gave the gentleman a lecture as to the importance of the rider list. He claimed that there was no rider list because teams and riders that were scheduled to race, failed to show up! "Do you know what happened to Bahati Foundation?" I asked. "No," he replied. Finally, exasperated with my interrogation, he told me that the rider list was "on line." "What if you don't have a computer?" "Then you are out of luck." Probably, half of the people in the Great State of Utah have no computer! You guys can do better than that!

Then there is the publication Cycling Utah. Cycling Utah is a local publication that carries informative information of cycling events, races, helpful tips, safety and bicycle advocacy issues. Cycling Utah also has interesting Tour of Utah news, rider interviews, and other race tidbits not to be found elsewhere. Cycling Utah would have been an excellent resource guide if it could only been found. In the University of Utah Marriott Library, stacks of the July issue of Cycling Utah was available, but the August issue was missing. I checked the Marriott Library news kiosks every day to no avail! Cycling Utah, keep your current issues, current and available!

You would think with the fixed gear/single speed cycling craze going on with university students these days that the Tour of Utah would focus on such a promising target audience. But, alas, no. Not one 2010 Tour of Utah Official Race Program Guide was anywhere to be seen on the University of Utah campus! Do better! Create interest in the race!

I have some photographs of the race and will post them with some additional comments soon.

Bahati Foundation Exits Tour of Utah

2010-08-11T14:05:00.027-06:00

The Tour of Utah, America's hardest stage race with thirty thousand feet of climbing, scheduled to start on August 17 and end on August 22, 2010, has already provided some surprises. Bahati Foundation has vanished from the team list entirely, without explanation, but one could suppose that the Jeff Novitzky doping probe of Michael Ball and Rahsaan Bahati and is gaining ground.

Nevertheless, the rider lists have been published and 2009 Tour of Utah champion Francisco Mancebo Perez will return with Canyon Bicycles.

The overall best team of the 2010 Tour of Utah will be BMC Racing Team with former national champion George Hincapie paired with 2009 Tour of Utah Prologue time trial winner Brent Bookwalter and 2008 Tour of Utah winner and 2009 podium finisher Jeff Louder. Other potential challengers of note are Team Type 1 rider Mike Creed and KFAN Composite Team rider Burke Swindlehurst. Team Radio Shack rider Levi Leipheimer will compete as an independent rider and it will be interesting to see how he will fare unsupported on the climbs without any teammates! With simple cycling tactics one would expect Hincapie, Bookwalter, and Louder to employ simple team tactics to isolate and eliminate Leipheimer.

United Health Care rider Brad White returns to challenge for King of the Mountain. In 2009 Brad White lead the pack over Big Mountain in East Canyon by three minutes.

The Tour of Utah begins at the Utah State Capitol building on August 17, 2010 with a prologue time trial up City Creek canyon to the snow removal area and loops back to the Capitol building, the course is uphill, downhill, flat, short, and very fast.

See you there!

Lance Armstrong Doping Investigation: USADA: Witness Tampering?

2010-08-04T13:10:00.044-06:00

The New York Times has reported that the United States Anti-Doping Agency has offered shortened suspension times and other incentives to cyclists who may have information into the doping allegations of Floyd Landis: who claims that the United States Postal Service Professional Cycling Team, and unnamed associates, used US Postal Service sponsorship money to purchase and traffic performance enhancing substances. Floyd Landis also asserts that the United States Postal team had a organized program of performance enhancing substance use within the team during the six year Tour de France reign of Lance Armstrong (1999-2004). Floyd Landis also claims that he personally witnessed Lance Armstrong use performance enhancing drugs. Floyd Landis also claims that he participated in a planned team blood transfusion aboard a US Postal team bus at a rest stop in France. Floyd Landis also accuses Allen Lim of providing him with performance enhancing substances during training rides in Spain (2006). Floyd Landis also accuses George Hincapie and Levi Leipheimer of using performance enhancing drug use during the US Postal years. Floyd Landis also accuses US Postal Service sport director Johan Bruyneel of running an organized program of doping.

After Floyd Landis had tested positive for synthetic testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France: Floyd Landis informed the press that Travis T. Tygart of USADA had made Landis an offer. If Floyd Landis would "blow the whistle" on Lance Armstrong, accuse Lance Armstrong and the US Postal service team of performance enhancing substance abuse, USADA would reward Floyd Landis with the shortest suspension in history. Immediately, Travis T. Tygart issued a press release denying the deal. Tygart claimed that USADA would never make deals with dopers. Floyd Landis called the deal beneath his dignity and refused to cooperate.

The eternal question will always arise: What motivated Floyd Landis to change his mind? Why the e-mail messages to Steve Johnson of USA Cycling? Why did he admit to testosterone use during the 2006 Tour de France? Why did he offer to "blow the whistle" on Lance Armstrong and the United States Postal Professional Cycling Team?

Even stranger is who Travis T. Tygart thinks he is targeting with these shortened suspensions and incentives? What incentives? Money? What riders? Floyd Landis? No. Floyd Landis rides with a racing license issued in Canada. If further action is taken against Floyd Landis the action will originate in Canada, not the United States. USADA won't be able to protect Floyd Landis from prosecution, no matter how much information he provides. [Note: Jan Ullrich was issued a Swiss racing license and was prosecuted by Switzerland, not Germany during Operation Puerto.]

USADA must be thinking that there will be an epidemic of "non analytical findings" against Lance Armstrong and his US Postal teammates, thus the deal. A "non analytical finding" does not require a positive doping test, merely testimony of people who observed an athlete in the commission of a doping offence. Tim Montgomery was given a two year ban by the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) when his teammates testified to the fact that they witnessed Montgomery using the "clear." Under this logic if Floyd Landis claims that he saw Lance Armstrong or Levi Leipheimer using performance enhancing substances and if Landis could verify this claim then, in theory, USADA could issue a "non-analytical finding" and begin an arbitration prosecution.

Warning: To those people who are offered the USADA deal. Beware: USADA is subject to the WADA code as a signatory therefore they must abide by the WADA code. If you are offered a USADA sanction that is less than the sanction required by the WADA code; and if WADA or the UCI appeals the sanction to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) your deal with USADA could be invalidated! The best example of this is Alexandre Vinokourov who was caught blood doping during the 2007 Tour de France. The Kazakh Federation, where Vinokourov was issued his license, gave Vinokurov a one year suspension. The UCI was outraged by this leniency and appealed the short suspension to the Court of Arbitration of Sport insisting that the regulation two year ban be enforced. This could happen to you if you accept a deal from USADA! Contact your lawyer immediately!

Under the World Anti-Doping Agency Code: Article 17, there is an eight year statute of limitations. Keep this in mind. The three people most affected; Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie, and Johan Bruyneel. The years affected; 2003 and 2004. Why? Because Floyd Landis rode for Phonak in 2005 so he has no first hand knowledge of any wrongdoing. Tyler Hamilton, who has been subponeaed, left US Postal Service in 2000 so his testimony would come under the statute of limitation period, and have no bearing in a USADA prosecution. There would have to be other witness testimony to the fact that Lance Armstrong and US Postal Service used performance enhancing substances during the period when Floyd Landis was not a member of the US Postal team. Other riders claim they used performance enhancing drugs when at US Postal, who they are and what period of time are secret.

Bahati Foundation to Race at Tour of Utah

2010-07-31T13:28:00.029-06:00

Hey boys and girls, it is time once again for the Tour of Utah! Billed as America's most difficult stage race with three thousand feet of climbs: including the infamous Little Cottonwood canyon climb, thirteen kilometers at eight percent, with a mountain top finish at Snowbird ski resort!

The USA Cycling sanctioned Tour of Utah will include five stages with the time trial prologue at the State Capitol. Stage 1: Ogden to Salt Lake includes East Canyon Lake, Big Mountain, Emigration Canyon, Little Mountain, a good afternoon ride, ending at Research Park in Salt Lake City. Stage 2: Thanksgiving Point to Mount Nebo. Stage 3: Individual Time Trial at Miller Sports Park. Stage 4: Park City, Utah: Downtown Criterium. Stage 5: The Queen Stage, ending with a brutal climb up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Snowbird Ski resort.

The teams have been announced but the team rosters have not! The Tour of Utah press release mentions BMC Rider George Hincapie as a participant. Jeff Louder, winner of the 2008 Tour of Utah and who in 2009 placed third overall, will race. David Zabriskie will be in town. Bahati Foundation will field a team, for the Tour of Utah without Floyd Landis, who was recently released from the team after Landis accused seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong of doping allegations. Floyd Landis raced at the 2009 Tour of Utah with OUCH presented by Maxxis, with average results. However, the decision of Bahati Foundation to part ways with Floyd Landis after he admitted to performance enhancing substance use during the 2006 Tour de France, may have prompted OUCH to withdraw as a sponsor. Consequently, there have been conflicting reports that the Bahati Foundation Cycling Team will cease to exist for financial reasons. So will Bahati Foundation race the Tour of Utah? Stay tuned for further updates.

Also missing from the 2010 Tour of Utah; Rock and Republic Racing and 2009 Tour of Utah winner Francisco Mancebo. But, as Strbuk pointed out in the comment section, Micheal Ball is currently under subpoena in the Jeff Novitzky doping investigation.

It has been widely reported that Levi Leipheimer will race at the Tour of Utah.

To the people who write and print the Tour of Utah race program: Steve Miller, guys, please include the rider bib numbers this year when you publish the team rider lists. Last year at the prologue the fans I talked to all complained about this omission of the rider numbers; be more circumspect, please!

I will try to update information on the race as it becomes available and include some photographs.

2010 Tour de France; Alberto Contador Wins

2010-07-27T14:00:00.038-06:00

The 2010 Tour de France was an odd race with many problems and with consequences that may have lasting effect for a good number of years. The first two stages were mired by multiple crashes, rain soaked roads transitioned into ice skating rinks, when riders attempted to navigate turns in the road, the bicycles refused to respond. Unattended dogs ran onto the course causing further mayhem. By the time the race covered the seven sections of cobblestone road used in Paris-Roubaix, the Hell of the North, over half of the peloton had fallen, some with serious injuries. The Stage three cobblestone road was a hot, dusty affair with additional crashes. Frank Schleck retired with a broken collarbone. Mechanical problems were common on the cobblestone road. Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador both lost time due to flat tires.

The fact that the riders continued to race on the cobblestone roads after the bloody mayhem of the first two stages confirms the fact that pro tour riders have balls of steel. Unlike some wimp sport such as the National Football League where injured players retire to a training table for treatment and where players have a whole week to recover from injury, professional cyclists hold on to a medical car traveling down the road at thirty miles an hour, are patched up on the spot by a doctor, and then paced back to the pack by teammates. Failure to return to the pack after injury means the broom wagon. And in contrast to the NFL, riders are required to ride stages day after day with little or no recovery time. This is why the Tour de France is considered the toughest sporting event in the world and why it is beloved by cyclists. Cyclists have an astonishing ability to crash, to be injured, to shake off the dust, and to continue to ride, just like their heroes! Some dolts don't get it and never will, but morons like Colin Cowherd of ESPN Radio who don't understand the majesty and beauty of the Tour de France, do have an astonishing ability to generate vitriol against cyclists among people who are prone to be aggressive drivers. Drivers who spit on cyclists, who throw objects, who honk horns in your ear, who shout obscenities in your face, who open car doors, who give you the middle finger salute, and who try to run you off the road. Among other crimes.

Yes, I was speaking of the Tour de France and got distracted on a tangent. Mark Cavendish won five stages. Cadel Evans wore the golden fleece but had to retire after suffering a fracture to his elbow during a fall. French riders won six stages, which may or may not indicate "clean riding." The race finally boiled down to a duel between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck; a contest that should have been decided on the Col de Tormalet in the French Pyrenees mountains. But!

Chain Suck Spoils the Day

Chain suck is caused when the chain skips a cog on either the chainwheel or the freewheel ending up against the frame or wedged between the freewheel and the spokes. During Stage 15, Andy Schleck with a :31 second lead and during an uphill attack against Alberto Contador on the Port de Bales experienced freewheel chain suck, his chain was stuck behind the freewheel against the wheel spokes. Schleck's bicycle rolled to a stop and at this moment Alberto Contador attacked, contrary to the unwritten law of cycling etiquette which states that the golden fleece is never attacked during a crash. Contador gained :39 seconds, which in an interview after the stage he considered "insignificant." The significance of the :39 seconds would become apparent at the end of the race, however.

Andy Schleck was an angry man at the conclusion of the stage and he vowed revenge. Schleck declared that he would attack on the Col de Tormalet and take back the time he had lost.

In the meantime, on Stage 16, Lance Armstrong, now hopelessly behind in the general classification, attempted to win a stage with a break away. Armstrong failed to win the stage, but his effort was appreciated by the fans, being that this is his last Tour de France. Team Radio Shack claimed that Lance Armstrong lost significant amounts of time during the race in order to conserve energy for the stage win attempt. No harm, no foul. Have a good retirement Lance Armstrong!

Stage 17 was do or die, win or lose, all in. Andy Schleck had to attack to make up the lost eight seconds he lost to Alberto Contador on the Port de Bales. The attacks were fast and furious up the fog and mist shrouded Col du Tormalet. Fist Andy Schleck attacked, then Alberto Contador counter attacked in a classic mono a mono duel. The duel ended in a draw and no change occurred in the general classification, however.

Alberto Contador did gain an additional :31 during the time trial stage and all was over. Andy Schleck lost the tour by :39 the exact amount of time Alberto Contador gained when he attacked the golden fleece. If Alberto Contador would have been a gentleman and waited for Andy Schleck to repair his chain; the race would have ended in a tie!

Andy Schleck was the supreme good sport and gentleman to Alberto Contador after his anger subsided; shaking his hand and sharing a joke; a picture of pure bliss. The behavior of Alberto Contador is a different matter, however. El Pistol should be aware that as of now he is a marked man. Cycling races used to be among gentlemen who worked as a team; not about me, me, me. Now it is Viva Yo, me first, piss on you. Alberto Contador has been a lucky man, he won his first Tour de France after Micheal Rassmussen was ejected by Rabobank for lying about his whereabouts and for missing out-of-competition drug tests; during a Tour de France which Rassmussen would have won.

Beware; Alberto Contador. Instant Karma is going to get you! Next time you may be the person with a mechanical problem! Expect to be attacked!

See you all next year!

Floyd Landis Doping Allegations Warrants Grand Jury Testimony

2010-07-17T12:08:00.035-06:00

New York Times reporter Juliet Macur has reported that a grand jury will be assembled to hear testimony relating to the accusations made by Floyd Landis that Lance Armstrong used and encouraged teammates to use performance enhancing drugs during the era when Tailwind Sport was sponsored by the United States Postal Service.

The Federal probe is being lead by Food and Drug Administration investigator Jeff Novitzky. Novitzky is best known for leading the probe of Victor Conte and the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO): a company that trafficked a unique designer performance enhancing drug "the clear" to track athletes Marion Jones and Tom Montgomery.

Apparently, the Federal Government and Novitzky are most interested in determining whether Taliwind Sport or anyone associated with Tailwind Sport used U.S. Postal Service sponsorship money to fund the acquisition, purchase, or financing of performance enhancing drugs during the U.S. Postal Service Professional Cycling Team years. Associations could include rider Lance Armstrong as well as his teammate Floyd Landis.

The Federal Government also is interested in probing whether Tailwind Sport used a organized doping stratagem for profit. This would constitute, de facto, sport fraud.

Greg LeMond is Subpoenaed as a Witness

The investigators have subpoenaed Greg LeMond as a grand jury witness according to ESPN. Although it is difficult to understand what sort of evidence Greg LeMond could contribute to the investigation in the way of knowledge of performance enhancement use by the U. S. Postal Service Team; there is still the issue of the airport telephone call where Greg LeMond accuses Lance Armstrong of making threats. In response to the grand jury subpoena Kathy LeMond is reported to have said "We are overjoyed, I hope the truth comes out." Yes! There are so many questions to ask Greg and Kathy LeMond. For example: How did Kathy LeMond compile such an exacting transcript of the alleged threat; did she have pencil and paper at the ready when Greg took the call? Or was the conversation reconstructed after the fact with embellishments? Kathy LeMond should remember that this is not an arbitration hearing where the prosecution witness is allowed to testify without cross examination. There will be defense lawyers who will attempt to discredit Greg LeMond, they will question his agenda, his motives. The grand jury will ask questions. This should prove interesting.

Greg LeMond: Mr. Clean?

Greg LeMond is one of the best cycling historical revisionists. LeMond claims to be the only Tour de France champion in history to ride clean; in a clean peloton. Is this claim creditable? No. There was doping going on during this period: Dr. Francesco Conconi was dispensing performance enhancing substances to Italian athletes with the blessing of the Italian Olympic Committee as early as 1980. These substances included rEPO and human growth hormone. Dr. Francesco Conconi also provided the following cyclists with performance enhancing drugs: Gianni Bugno, Laurent Fignon, both of whom were contemporaries of Greg LeMond. Francesco Conconi also trained another doping doctor who might be of interest to the Federal Grand Jury investigation: Michele Farrari. Nevertheless, myth one of the Greg LeMond fabrication is debunked.

Oliver Starr, who was a ten year member of the U.S. National Junior and Senior Teams made this revealing statement concerning Greg LeMond:

I raced against LeMond, rEPO couldn't be detected at the time but was widely available. Who says LeMond was clean? Him? Look at his performance from the beginning of the year to the end. His improvement was beyond miraculous the year he won the Tour de France after being shot-----it was indescribable. Dropped at DuPont by the sprinters on the climbs, to winning the Tour de France a few months later, unnatural is the only word that comes to mind for that kind of improvement and I was there to see it first hand. LeMond should shut up lest someone find an old vial of his urine on ice somewhere and run a few tests on it.

Oliver Starr raises an important point that cannot be ignored. How could a man who was dropped by sprinters suddenly solo to the top of L'AlpeD'Huez with teammate Bernard Hinault in the 1986 Tour de France? This exceptional exponential increase in performance in so short a time must place Greg LeMond as one in six billion as a cyclist. Unnatural? Perhaps. But there are no conclusive tests that Greg LeMond ever used performance enhancing substances. But Greg LeMond has an unusual aptitude for beating people who had known associations with doping doctors: Gianni Bugno and Laurent Fignon for two. Impossible to beat a doped man while clean? Not according to Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong. So yes, Kathy LeMond, I hope the truth comes out and clears the air, once and for all. If you are disappointed that your man rode dirty...well that can't be helped.

Will the Grand Jury file an Indictment?

Unknown. But until then everything is speculative and not of much use. The prosecutors might also want to invite Michele Farrari (doctor blood) to testify. But if Michele Farrari blood doped Lance Armstrong, he was privately employed, so there will be denial, denial, denial, no proof, and probably not much information comming from this source.

Enough!

Lance Armstrong Is Cooked

2010-07-14T13:52:00.034-06:00

Good things don't last forever. Lance Armstrong has finally reached the point in his career where he cannot continue to win races. Armstrong had a run of bad luck with three falls during the 2010 Tour de France; he lost large chunks of time on the cols; he may have been injured more severely than he admitted to. Nevertheless, Lance Armstrong is cooked, his attacks of old and his former superior climbing abilities have waned. Lance Armstrong can't attack the young guys anymore. Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck, and Cadel Evans are too strong. Levi Leipheimer is the leader of Team Radio Shack now.

Passing of the Torch

Before the 2010 Tour de France Lance Armstrong told the world that this would be his last Tour. Armstrong told the world that it was time to spend more time with his five children. An excellent, commendable idea. But Lance Armstrong said the same thing in 2005 when wearing the golden fleece in Paris, he said, "fair well to the Tour forever."

This retirement did not last long. Lance Armstrong joined Johan Bruyneel, Alberto Contador and Team Astana in a "comeback." There was immediate team friction between Contador and Armstrong, a rivalry that turned vicious during the 2009 Tour de France. Alberto Contador won the 2009 Tour de France and amazingly Lance Armstrong finished third. Some critics claimed that the 2009 Tour de France would have been a Astana "sweep" Contador, Armstrong, Leipheimer, if only Contador would have been more of a team player and followed the orders of Johan Bruyneel. During the 2009 Tour de France, Alberto Contador launched what most cycling experts consider a foolish attack; this attack dropped teammates Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer and allowed Frank Schleck to win the stage and Andy Schleck to reach the podium in second place overall in Paris.

During the awards presentation of the 2009 Tour de France, Lance Armstrong announced the formation of a new team, Radio Shack. While Team Astana was celebrating the 2009 Tour de France victory, Lance Armstrong and his new Radio Shack lieutenants were having a banquet celebrating the formation of a new team.

Alberto Contador and team Astana may feel justified, if not smug, for the 2010 Tour de France collapse of Lance Armstrong. It is an end of an era for the man who many considered indestructible. Lance Armstrong should have never returned to professional racing, he has suffered physical injuries, broken collarbones, eye lacerations, injuries to his hips and shoulders; accidents that never seemed to occur during his seven year Tour de France reign. The goddess of cycling seems to have turned her back on her favorite son and the result has been devastating.

Age has caught up with you Lance Armstrong. For your own safety; quit now. Enough is enough. How much fame and money do you need anyway?

It's Not About The Bike

Sadly, the Lance Armstrong saga is not over. Off the bike may be a bigger challenge than colliding with the pavement at forty miles an hour. It is not "only about the bike." There is still the Floyd Landis federal investigation of allegations that Thomas Weisel Partners and Tailwind Sport committed sport fraud when Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis were teammates on the United States Postal Service Professional Cycling Team. There are accusations that Lance Armstrong encouraged Floyd Landis and other U.S. Postal teammates to use performance enhancing substances. The doping crimes seem to have been organized.

Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel, and the other people involved had better pray that this case does not drag on for the next seven years!

Cobblestone Causalities

2010-07-10T13:01:00.052-06:00

The 2010 Tour de France has been most interesting. Multiple rider crashes, blood, broken bones. General Classification favorite Frank Schleck suffered a broken collar bone and withdrew from the Tour. Stage three of the race included eight sections of cobblestone road. The greatest causality of the cobblestones, Lance Armstrong. While Lance Armstrong was getting a wheel change, Alberto Contador, Alexander Vinokourov, Cadel Evans, and Andy Schleck hammered to gain time. Indeed, the Lance Armstrong flat tire in the Arenburg Forest (the most difficult section of cobblestone road in the world) was lethal. Armstrong will never make up enough time to win the Tour de France; this is not 1999 and his incredible luck seems to have vanished.

Amaury Sport Organization has, once again, lost their collective minds. Everyone knows that early stages of the Tour de France has skittish, nervous riders, and the early race is accident prone. To include a stage three that contains eight sections of cobblestones, after the probability of bloody mayhem of the first two stages, is a feat of bad planning comparable only to sadistic acts of cruelty once enjoyed by loathsome miscreants; Henri Desgrange or the Marquis de Sade.

In the old days when riders used to carry their spare tires around their necks, begged housewives for provender, when riders shared bottles of wine while riding the road, when the stages were hundreds of kilometers long, when the mountain roads were unpaved single track, when bicycles were so heavy that they had to be pushed up hills, when saboteurs who wished to influence the outcome of the race threw nails into the road, when new inventions like the derailleur were promptly banned by L'Auto and the brake was attached to the front wheel; and when the riders had to perform their own bicycle repair; Henri Desgrange was considered a man who could teach the Marquis de Sade how to make people suffer.

Well, in 2010 the fans are more sophisticated than to throw nails into the road; but very little else has changed. Amuary Sport Organisation still loves to make riders suffer with cobblestone roads in the early part of the race; when bloodied and bruised riders are trying to recover from broken bones, road rash, and sleepless nights. In addition to the above trauma, cobblestone roads make life miserable for riders and teams in other ways; flat tires, broken bicycles, lost time in repairs. Viva le Tour!

ASO says that the fan loves a bloody spectacle, like feeding the lions warriors at a Roman coliseum. Grand, but a hundred riders on the ground from multiple falls and some eliminated from General Classification contention after three stages; what a bore.

2010 Tour de France; Will Team Radio Shack Survive?

2010-07-02T14:10:00.033-06:00

It is time for the Tour de France, which in America is the only race that matters. The rest of the year America slumbers through the bicycle racing season like a somnambulist, only an occasional newspaper story appears related to doping.

Floyd Landis is still alive and talking to the federal investigators about traffickers; past teammates and support staff who he alleges aided him with his nefarious past performance enhancement abuse.

The results of this investigation into performance enhancing drug abuse by Floyd Landis is confidential; but some comments appear to indicate that the investigation is still in the infancy stage. No new career threatening revelations seem to be forth coming; at present.

This is good news for team Radio Shack. Lance Armstrong and his team have not been banned. Johan Bruyneel is still sport director, even though Floyd Landis accused Bruyneel and the United States Postal Service Professional Cycling team of receiving midnight blood transfusions at a French mountain peak rest stop. Allen Lim is still a physiological consultant to team Radio Shack; he has not been arrested, even though Floyd Landis accused Lim of giving him performance enhancing drugs.

Allen Lim is a mystery man and suspect; because anyone associated in any way with Floyd Landis is suspicious. Allen Lim has a huge cheshire cat grin and an immense ego; he figured out that yarn pasted onto riders could be used to model air flow. Lance Armstrong, the most wind tunnel tested man in the world, has worked to maximize his time trial position with computer generated air flow models using sophisticated computer programs. But the Allen Lim yarn model works better than computers for team Radio Shack.

Allen Lim, the great innovator, has even determined that body core temperatures are critical in performance! When Jan Ullrich was warming up in a air conditioned bicycle shop while Lance Armstrong was warming up under the shade trees; and when Ullrich beat Armstrong by 1:15 in the time trial; and when Lance Armstrong was riding in squares with a dried salt saliva ring around his mouth; and when later Armstrong admitted that he wanted to quit that day; well even the thickest of cyclists learned that body core temperatures were important. Recently, Allen Lim designed ice filled jackets to lower body core temperatures. This is a very good innovation, but not space age design, because cycling clothing manufactures have been working with wicking away of moisture and improvements of air flows through clothing for years. The goal of these clothing innovations? Lower rider body core temperatures.

Allen Lim is suspect because even though he works for cycle-ops and is an expert in power by riders measured in watts; he must have known that the impossibly high watts generated by Floyd Landis during those training rides in Spain must have had an artifical source, performance enhancing drugs, if Lim is half the physiologist that he claims to be.

So, the nonsense that Allen Lim asserts as to the shock he experienced when Floyd Landis tested positive during the Tour de France is difficult to believe, even though Lim proclaims himself as a tour de force anti-doping crusader. If something sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Because no matter how you spin it riders need help to defeat doping tests and that help must come from a medical or physiological experts of some sort. The excuse that the WADA anti-doping laboratories are incompetent, though true, is not enough to explain how a rider could abuse performance enhancing drugs for years without being caught.

Team Radio Shack is alive and well today but will they survive the 2010 Tour de France? Will some revelation of wrong doing destroy the team? Will the team be expelled during the race?

WADA, the UCI, and The Dope Testing

One footnote: The dope tests will be done by the WADA laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry once again. WADA will do a report on the UCI anti-doping efforts done during the 2010 Tour de France. We only hope that this report is more than self serving drivel written by WADA.

Fabian Cancellara: A Doped Bicycle?

2010-06-05T11:00:00.028-06:00

You knew it had to happen, technological advances have introduced the new doped bicycle! Mechanical doping...the new fad in cheating...when performance enhancing drugs are not enough.

You Tube is full of films of the great Fabian Cancellara attacking the peloton with amazing speed, on the cobbles, at Roubaix. How could such a thing happen? Must be a battery powered engine, silent and deadly, ready when needed at the time of attack! The gasping competition is left in the dust at the crucial moment, on to victory!

Evolution

Gone are the days when some fool (obviously a non-cyclist) would tell you with a straight face that he connected a fifty pound lawn mower engine to a bicycle frame and "got up to sixty miles an hour." Rubbish! The most likely thing that would have happened at sixty miles an hour with a fifty pound engine mounted on plain gauge steel bicycle tubes would be, a broken down tube, plenty of road rash, death, a detached engine rolling along the ground, and the undertaker. Not necessarily in that order! Next time buy a motorcycle and spare me your fairy tales!

The old electric bicycles ran the power through the hub, the battery weighed a ton and was very bulky and not aero dynamic. Wires were strewn everywhere and prone become tangled in things and break. Ladies with cruiser bikes with attached baskets, or older gentlemen, rode old style electric bikes to help them up hills.

Now new electric motor batteries have been developed that will fit into seat tubes of road racing bicycles! The engine in the hub; as before. The cables would have internal routing; the switch could be located next to the ergo-powers. The battery in theory could last long enough to be decisive in a time trial, on a col, or in a sprint.

Mechanical Doping The New Craze?

Is there never any end to this nonsense? The Fabian Cancellara mechanical doping charge is probably unfounded. But just to be sure, the UCI should have portable scales ready at the feed zone. Pat McQuaid could point at the riders, "Halt! Your bicycle has been selected for random testing!"

Of course, this is absurd. Things would be better if weighing of the bicycles occurred before the race started. But doesn't the UCI already weigh the bicycles before the depart? Yes.

Floyd Landis; Additional Problems

2010-05-29T11:10:00.053-06:00

Floyd Landis is an interesting person. Striken by grief and remorse, Floyd Landis sent intimidating e-mails to anti-doping crusaders threatening blackmail if immediate action was not taken to investigate his allegations of doping by former teammates and the facilitation of doping by former team officials.

As a result of several interviews of Floyd Landis by United States law enforcement; president of the UCI Pat McQuaid announced, according to the New York Times via the Associated Press, that a UCI investigation of the following people will ensue; Matthew White, Johan Bruyneel, Michael Barry, and John Lelangue.

An investigation of Johan Bruyneel is understandable; rumors surfaced. There were suggestions that a culture of doping existed on Johan Bruyneel teams; that doping was tolerated under the justification that the ends justify the means. The ends were Tour de France titles, seven won by Lance Armstrong (United States Postal Service Professional Cycling Team) and one won by Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel). Roberto Heras also won the Tour of Spain while riding for US Postal Service.

US Postal Service riders present and past did some amazing things on the bike. So amazing were these feats that most cycling fans wondered if such miracles could be accomplished without some form of performance enhancement. Doubts began to escalate when former teammates of Lance Armstrong began to test positive for performance enhancement use. Eyebrows were raised when former teammates of Lance Armstrong began to admit to performance enhancement drug use.

Teammates:

Floyd Landis; former winner of the 2006 Tour de France; tested positive for synthetic testosterone use; stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title; suspended; admitted to human growth hormone use; blood manipulation.
Tyler Hamilton; winner of the Olympic time trial gold medal. During the Olympics Tyler Hamilton tested positive for a double red blood cell population due to an illegal blood transfusion: only a blunder by the Olympic testing lab saved his Olympic gold medal time trial title. Tested positive at the Tour of Spain for a double cell population; suspended. Implicated in Operation Puerto. Banned from cycling for life for a second doping violation caused by ingestion of a homeopathic depression treatment that contained a prohibited substance.
Roberto Heras; former winner of the Tour of Spain; tested positive for rEPO use during the Tour of Spain; Tour of Spain title stripped; suspended.
Frankie Andreu; super domestic; 1999 Tour de France. Admitted to rEPO use during the 1999 Tour de France.

Quite an impressive list! What adds ammunition to the Johan Bruyneel "clean" era doubters is the competition that Lance Armstrong faced during his impressive seven year Tour de France title run; competition that Lance Armstrong seemed to beat with ease.

Competitive Riders:

Ivan Basso; guilty of blood doping manipulation. Proven participant in Operation Puerto; suspended.
Iban Mayo; tested positive for rEPO use; suspended.
Jan Ullrich; admitted to involvement in Operation Puerto; suspended, retired. Jan Ullrich admitted to rEPO and other performance enhancement substance use during the 1997 Tour de France. Jan Ullrich won the 1997 Tour de France. Jan Ullrich was never stripped of his 1997 Tour de France title.
Alex Zulle; Festina Affair; admitted using rEPO. Lance Armstrong defeated Alex Zulle in the 1999 Tour de France by seven minutes.

Quite an impressive list! The list could, in theory continue forever, ever expanding in all directions like a matrix. But there is no need, the point has been made. People wonder, how could a man defeat such a list of miscreants riding clean, with such large margins, for seven straight years?

Conclusion:

Fact is nobody can figure out Lance Armstrong and his incredible run. The information that Floyd Landis provided the anti-doping establishment may provide some answers about Johan Bruyneel. Maybe. It is difficult not to be skeptical though. Because except for former Phonak sport director John Lelangue who may have aided Floyd Landis in his 2006 Tour de France "victory" and who is included in the UCI investigation, very few people are being investigated by the UCI, in spite of the voluminous amount of detailed incriminating "evidence" provided in the Floyd Landis testimony.

Don't laugh! This is serious business. Floyd Landis may want to mislead the "fools" with false information in an attempt to force the anti-doping crusade into conducting mountains of re-tests for past races where he makes allegations of doping by other people. Expensive tests; the UCI and WADA will scramble to find something on Lance Armstrong et al., while Floyd Landis is snickering at Pat McQuaid, Travis Tygart, and all of the other people who "wronged" him.

In this instance, even though Floyd Landis claimed that he confessed his drug use so as to not be part of the problem, he continues to be a problem. Floyd Landis you are an additional problem and maybe the anti-doping establishment will figure you out before a disaster and major lawsuit occurs. If only the anti-doping establishment could prove that they had some sense for once and dismiss Floyd Landis as the vindictive liar that he is and move on to more constructive tasks that don't require so much expense. Pat McQuaid; end the folly! Don't be a dupe!

Floyd Landis Is A Creative Enabler

2010-05-24T14:14:00.035-06:00

The New York Times did a first rate job of investigative reporting on the new revelations of Floyd Landis; who now demands of USA Cycling CEO Steve Johnson an immediate investigation into his numerous allegations of prohibited substance use by his old teammates at US Postal Service. Floyd Landis basically told Steve Johnson to make a choice; investigate his allegations or claim loyalty to the doper establishment. Steve Johnson has no choice but to comply with Floyd Landis because such an important witness can not be ignored. John Fahey is in the same position as WADA president; he must order re-testing of old samples for possible prohibited substance use by old teammates of Floyd Landis; even though these samples will provide very little evidence of blood tampering; frozen blood samples render red blood cells useless; ask Tyler Hamilton who still has a Olympic time trial gold medal because the laboratory froze his confirmation 'B' sample.

Exactly, so many tests from so many riders will probably prove expensive, though worthless; and my even generate false positive results. As everyone knows with the current draconian WADA laws concerning prohibited substance use; mere existence of a substance constitutes a crime for which there is no defense!

Stored Samples Create Problems

rEPO samples stored in vaults that have a tendency to degrade over time; six year old samples that generate 100% pure rEPO isoforms are suspect in a scientific sense; hint: the 1999 Tour de France prologue results of one Lance Armstrong.

Christiane Ayotte warned that 100% rEPO isoforms are very unlikely in urine samples tested six years later; the scientific basis of her argument that rEPO is a biological agent and therefore prone to degrade with time; was never addressed by David Walsh, Micheal Ashenden, Jacques DeCeaurriz, the French Sports Ministry, or WADA. The UCI did ask questions though and the Vrijman report was the result. In the Vrijman report LNDD was accused of poor laboratory practice, lack of acceptable chain-of-custody, and poor security measures that would prevent sabotage of rider samples.

Damien Ressiot; obtained the 1999 Tour de France doping control form numbers of Lance Armstrong from the UCI. These numbers were assigned to the 1999 Tour de France rider samples that were being tested for "scientific" reasons by LNDD. LNDD did have the sample numbers included on the sample bottles and the date the samples were given...so no great deductive logic would have been needed to solve the puzzle of whom the samples belonged to. If Ressiot had some contact at LNDD.

Bingo! Damien Ressiot published the results of the LNDD research test results in L'Equipe before the results were known to WADA, the UCI, or the French Sports Ministry! The results were provided by someone at LNDD.

What are we to make of all this nonsense? Were the Lance Armstrong samples "sabotaged" after Ressiot received the doping control numbers from the UCI? Is Lance Armstrong a doper and do these prologue results of 100% synthetic isoforms prove it? There are no confirmation tests that are required by WADA; the sample must be collected and divided in half; one half of the sample will be designated 'a' and one 'b'; if the 'a' sample is deemed positive then the athlete has the right to test the 'b' saple in the presence of a representative selected by the rider.

Will WADA abandon the confirmation tests? Will USADA file an adverse analytical finding (AAF) based on an old sample result that has no confirmation test? Will the athlete be able to defend him or herself from these "new" rules?

Because even though 'Roid Floyd' did dope, he was still correct when he stated in Positively False; the anti-doping agencies will take liberties with the rules; if the rules are not written in stone in WADA code. And that is a very scary proposition.

To think after fighting WADA for two years, Floyd Landis may be the clown that enables the anti-doping agencies to hang an innocent person. That is a damn shame.

Floyd Landis is a Compulsive Liar

2010-05-20T12:06:00.068-06:00

Floyd Landis is cooked, after four years of denial of performance substance use, Floyd Landis admitted in a surprise interview with ESPN writer Bonnie Ford, that he used human growth hormone (HgH), and testosterone, throughout his cycling career. Even worse, Floyd Landis admitted that he used human growth hormone and testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France!

Unbelievable! Landis claims that he tossed and turned all night wrestling with the deception that he perpetrated on the cycling community. Overwhelmed with the pangs of consciousness, poor Floyd finally decided it was time to come clean and confess.

Bother! Floyd, you could have saved me and other people who supported you through thick and thin the pain we suffered from insidious attacks from the doubters; if you would have admitted to your crime, at once, without reservations. Floyd, you were supposedly offered a deal by USADA CEO Travis Tygart with the shortest suspension in history if you would have implicated Lance Armstrong in a doping allegation, why did not you accept this offer? Or was this deal that Travis Tygart offered you another fabrication of your demented mind?

What are we to make of your nonsense Floyd? You state that you took performance enhancing drugs without remorse because you reason that since others may have doped, why not you as well? That reasoning is similar to the logic you used on people whom you exploited by the Floyd Fairness Fund; a slick presentation, solicitation of money, accusations of wrong doing by the anti-doping-crusade. You were the innocent victim, you presented your case so convincingly that fools supported you based upon your word of honor.

Velo Vortmax respected your honor and maintained the position that you were speaking truthfully. This position is now forfeit. Floyd, from this moment, this blog will regard you as nothing more than a psychopath, a narcissist, a compulsive liar, and a skillful manipulator. You should retire from cycling immediately!

Because Floyd, if you have the audacity to think of yourself as the new whistle blower of the peloton, if you think that you are destined to assume the role of the man who will convict Lance Armstrong of a doping allegation based upon unsubstantiated witness testimony, then quit riding and start writing. Use David Walsh, the author of From Lance to Landis as you ghost writer. But! Don't expect me to buy a copy of your book, I expect you to spin yarns, and I have better fiction to read.

Note to ESPN Radio

Collin Cowherd is a complete moron and his evaluation of cycling fans was one of the most despicable accounts I have ever heard on radio. According to Cowherd, cyclists are nothing more than rich tri-athlete snobs, who shave and wax their backs, ride four thousand dollar bicycles, have six figure incomes, and who are Francophile fairy fags. Cowherd thinks cycling fans are nothing more than drunken idiots who wear outrageous costumes during the Tour de France. Listen to this you xenophobic clown, American people do care about cycling races; and these people are not the typical obese American slobs who endanger the lives of cyclists, slobs who text while driving four thousand pound vehicles, slobs who are lost in space while listening to morons like Collin Cowherd on the radio! Non cyclists eat sausages and drink beer on the couch in front of a television while watching football games! These football fans are fat, lazy people who could not ride to the nearest corner! Obesity is at epidemic levels in America, these fools should be encouraged to get some exercise! Get out and ride! You might become a true red, white, and blue American cycling fan, patriots with body fat contents of less than five percent! Get off the couch and get a life!

The Tour of California is an important race, we want more coverage! Enough of Tiger Woods and his alleged actovegin, human growth hormone, and platelet therapy already. Doping is not confined only to cyclists, by the way. Every sport is rife with drug use, the people being caught doping is growing at an exponential rate. Awake! Collin Cowherd, you moron. Does Tiger Woods need a doping doctor to hit a drive five hundred yards and do we need to be reminded of this fact on your crap radio show every five minutes?

To the Anti-Doping Agencies

Your labs suck as bad as ever. You have no harmony. Your behavior in the Landis case was beyond belief. Your draconian laws are as unfair as ever. You need to reform. You are not above the law.

Conclusion

Floyd, you have nothing left to prove. Quit. Your e-mails to the anti-doping agencies won't make you a pro-tour rider again. You have an outstanding warrant pending in France, do you not? Did you hack the computers at Chatenay-Malabry? Did you tell Martin Dugard that Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs? Did you orchestrate the drunken phone call to Greg LeMond? Liar! Why should we believe anything that you say ever again?

From Lance to Landis; A Review

2010-04-23T14:01:00.088-06:00

Lance Armstrong accomplished one of the most remarkable sport comebacks in history after being diagnosed with cancer. There have been a number of people who have questioned this comeback as an impossible feat; some have even accused Mr. Armstrong of using a systematic doping regimen for success; although no laboratory test has detected a prohibited substance during the Armstrong seven consecutive Tour de France victory era. However, in spite of an absence of any substantial evidence of doping, people exist, who insist that the performance increases of Lance Armstrong pre and post cancer are impossible; they have formulated an agenda based on circumstantial evidence or an agenda based on past witness testimony of people who had intimate contact with Lance Armstrong or of people who worked for or had contact with the professional cycling teams where Armstrong worked.

David Walsh author of From Lance to Landis is a person who is convinced that Lance Armstrong used prohibited substances during his remarkable Tour de France seven year reign. David Walsh wishes to convince the reader that his circumstantial evidence is enough to convince, beyond a reasonable doubt (not to a comfortable satisfaction) the veracity of his claims. Statements made by Betsy Andreu, for example, that she recalls Lance Armstrong admitting to an Indiana University examining doctor, in her presence, that he used performance enhancing drugs while riding for Team Motorola. This testimony by Betsy Andreu although interesting (Lance Armstrong would insist that her testimony is delusional at best or pernicious at worst) the so called "smoking gun" is not verified by any hospital medical records or physician citations; although such references to past use of performance enhancing drug use would have most certainly been included in Lance Armstrong's medical history. Betsy Andreu may have simply been mistaken in her testimony (Frankie Andreu as well)and not the hateful person with a grudge to settle with Lance Armstrong. After all, Frankie Andreu was a domestic for Armstrong in the 1999 Tour de France. Andreu bought vials of rEPO and used them during the 1999 Tour de France and Betsy may have blamed Lance Armstrong for the whole thing (after she found a vial of unused rEPO in the ice box and demanded to know from Frankie how he could climb the cols so quickly) and wanted revenge. Also, the Betsy Andreu testimony complicates the effort to pin down what exactly Lance Armstrong did to increase his performance post-cancer. If we discard the performance enhancing drugs Andreu claims that Lance Armstrong admitted to using during the Motorola years (a 20% increase in performance due to rEPO use, for example) finding the reason for the performance increase is extremely complicated.

One in a Million? Lance Armstrong

In the most pertinent and best researched chapters of the book where the SCA Promotions vs. Lance Armstrong testimony is evaluated, where the Ed Coyle weight loss/performance increase theory is so eloquently refuted, where possible physiological factors that could account for the miracle increases in the post-cancer Lance Armstrong performance are disputed; capillary density, lactic acid production, heart stoke, etc., David Walsh states in conclusion that Michele Ferrari was the doping doctor of evil who increased Lance Armstrong's performance with a program of blood manipulation that was never detected by WADA. Micheal Ashenden concludes in his SCA Promotions vs. Lance Armstrong testimony, after a lengthy physiological parameter evaluation of Lance Armstrong; a conviction, that Lance Armstrong improved his performance using blood manipulations. Micheal Ashenden never offers any direct evidence in support of his blood manipulation testimony; so his conclusions are speculative; his motive perhaps financial (he was an expert paid witness for SCA Promotions.) However, it must be conceded that autologus blood transfusions had no test at the time (1999-2005) so the conclusion that Michele Ferrari did not blood dope to increase Lance Armstong performance increase during the several Tour de France is impossible to refute, or confirm.

In defense of Ed Coyle, even though his sample showed a slight increase in weight of Lance Armstrong between 1992 and 1999, the July, Tour de France weights are missing. Perhaps ASO has his race weights locked away in some vault. Sampling after or before the race and using an average to make a point is very unscientific, although some might argue that this is the critical point of the chronology. Walsh and Ashenden insist that this proves that the increase in performance is not due to a weight loss/increase in power theory that has been advocated by Ed Coyle. But, even though you can select a random climb up some col, or a time trial, or some other random event and expect to establish a baseline in power from these cherry picked events, this method is as stupid as selecting weight at random periods over a span of several years and calculating an average that applies during stage 12 of a Tour de France. Or in Lance Armstrong's case every stage 12 of seven straight title runs.....inept madness, and totally unacceptable.

Was I convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Lance Armstrong doped after reading From Lance to Landis? No! Nice try but no cigar, there is no proof of anything...a midnight meeting between Lance Armstrong and Michele Ferrari in some camper van in the middle of the night just before a race...or a telephone call at the airport to Greg LeMond where Kathy LeMond states that Greg was threatened by Lance Armstrong, where Lance allegedly told Greg, 'I will find a thousand people who will state that you used rEPO during the Tour de France.' These events sound more mythical, as did the Betsy Andreu hospital recollection, than factual. Very good circumstantial evidence, taken in context they collectively could amount to something, but only in that context and in no other. Reasonable people, those without an agenda, will read the book with an open eye, and think for themselves. Those with an agenda will be lead like sheep. The information is all there, read and think.

France Issues an Arrest Warrant for Floyd Landis and Arnie Baker

2010-03-17T19:01:00.011-06:00

ESPN Radio reported that the French government has issued an arrest warrant for Floyd Landis and Arnie Baker. The issue is related to the hacking incident of the WADA accredited laboratory LNDD and the purloin of sensitive documents that relate to a conspiracy of incompetence by the laboratory and a subsequent cover up. The authenticity of the documents has been questioned and they may be fabrications. The documents may be found in the What is Fair is Clear slide show, with a disclaimer by Arnie Baker in the wiki defense.

ESPN Radio mentions that the warrant is confined to France, it is not an international warrant. ESPN Radio also reported that the hacking was discovered in response to a claim made by Floyd Landis that certain files pertaining to the Carbon Isotope Ratio Test were missing. The validity of these claims will be, perhaps, ascertained in a court proceeding of some kind. Floyd Landis calls the hacking accusations, fabrications. One other item of note pertaining to ESPN Radio and this is an unpardonable error, the report claimed that Floyd Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France. For accuracy sake, Floyd Landis did not test positive for high levels of testosterone at any time during the 2006 Tour de France. The test used to screen for high levels of testosterone, was artificially created by the French accredited laboratory LNDD. These testosterone/epitestosterone tests were rejected by the AAA arbitration panel as invalid. Floyd Landis was banned from competition for two years for the presence of a single metabolite that indicated synthetic testosterone use. But as Christiane Ayotte stated in David Walsh's book From Lance to Landis the WADA rule pertaining to metabolite(s) of testosterone above threshold indicating testosterone use, never meant anything other than a single metabolite above threshold, except at Don Catlin's UCLA accredited laboratory...that is. Nevertheless, simple research into the case before spouting off would be helpful, even by a prestigious news organization like ESPN Radio. The myth of the Floyd Landis high testosterone test has become reality, simply due to sloppy journalistic practice, and this is a direct consequence of sloppy laboratory practice by LNDD, and a very skillful smear campaign by the likes of former WADA director Dick Pound. ESPN Radio should strive to improve the content of their news stories to reflect fact, not fantasy...more of the fabrications that Floyd Landis was speaking of?

Positively False an Aside

One brief issue on Floyd Landis' book Positively False.

Allen Lim seems to have been nothing more than a physiologist who had a fresh PHD and nothing to do, (apologies to strbuk), but record SRM power meter data from training rides Floyd Landis did in Spain. These power meter readings are supposed to be available on the Internet. This is important news because it supports the assertion made by Floyd Landis that the Stage 17 ride was no more difficult than a hard training ride. In fact, Floyd Landis asserts, and this assertion may be verified by checking the SRM power data, that he produced more power in training than during Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France. The notion that the Stage 17, 2006 Tour de France ride was nothing more than a rocket fueled marvel is not supported by the SRM power data. This is another popular myth, created by a popular misconception that a rider could not possibly recover from a previous stage bonk without some form of performance enhancing substance (testosterone.) As Floyd Landis would insist, another fabrication?

Nevertheless, Positively False is a good introductory read into the background of some the characters that would later play such a prominent part in one of the most unjust doping cases ever conceived. Better and more comprehensive information for the serious student can be found on the websites listed under best blogs, trust but verify, rant your head off, WADAwatch, racejunkie, all of which link to velo vortmax. Read, learn, then make an informed decision.

After all, we don't need any more fabrications.

2010; A Year of Hope For Clean Cycling?

2009-12-12T17:01:00.021-07:00

It is a sad state of affairs this doping in cycling business. Everyone was enamored with the prospect of an Italian rider winning the Giro d' Italia, for national pride and to support the unfortunate victims of the earthquake that devastated so much of Italy. Bah! EPO-CERA was detected, the dream vaporized into thin air.

This will continue. Every time we hope for improvement, every time we dream of a clean season, people screw up. Greed is always a factor for risk taking behavior. People are so clever in applications of prohibited substance use, newly designed drugs, genetic manipulations, synthetic haemoglobin. There still is no perfect way to detect artificial growth hormone use in athletes. Test samples are stored on ice and the laboratories hope that science will catch up in time to right a wrong. Athletes who cheat roll the dice and take chances of beating the statute of limitations, hope that they will not have to forfeit prizes and money. Gamblers.

Hope that you will not be detected, perfect the methods, beat the tests. In the old days that Pat McQuaid seems to dream of, cyclists used artificial bladders to pass clean urine samples. This method was finally rectified after several cyclists were caught red handed by dutiful examining doctors. The examination process was changed to prevent these events from occurring again. But no matter how clever the examiners are, the cheaters will adapt and succeed, for a fashion.

The treat is always there. Victor Conte and Balco designed the "clear" a designer performance enhancing substance that was undetectable until an honest coach sent a sample to the United States Anti Doping Agency for laboratory examination. Next athletes thought they could use EPO-CERA because EPO-CERA stimulates red blood cell production for several weeks. Clever, trying to alter the isoform profile and metabolite syntheses by masking agents or flushing the system with water, or by other means. Fortunately for the anti-drug crusade, ROCHE developed and supplied testing data to WADA and other agencies that provided the exact molecular model to look for. Otherwise, with the lack of commitment that WADA shows toward funding of scientific studies to detect newly formulated substance enhancement use, the use of EPO-CERA and other newly synthesized performance enhancing substances would have and will continue unabated, perhaps forever.

We can only hope that 2010 will be the year when everyone will come to their senses and compete in a fair and equitable manner. This is a very desirable outcome and it could be achieved very simply. Ride clean. Resist temptation. Respect yourself and others. Give the sport of cycling some dignity.

Remove Race Radio?

2009-11-11T20:18:00.014-07:00

Pat McQuaid has once again bested himself by suggesting that professional cycling would be better off with out race radio. This is an extremely strange idea and almost no one likes it. The riders don't like it. The teams don't like it. The fans don't like it. But even though there is a consensus of disapproval, Pat McQuaid and the UCI fancy that everyone should endorse the no race radio paradigm because everyone is hankering for the days of yore, before Motorola introduced radios into professional cycling.

What, was Lance Armstrong World Champion then? Did radios convey an unfair advantage to Team Motorola who could discuss tactics from afar while other teams has to convey instructions by word of mouth? Yes indeed, the good old days. A specious argument might exist if only one team used radios during races while others were deprived. Sort of like one team using performance enhancing drugs while everyone else rides clean. But this is not happening, no one is deprived, all team cars have sophisticated electronics to aid riders, the gaps shown on the motorcycle board is known to everyone, in high definition television. So Pat McQuaid what is the problem? With radio communication the problems sport directors encounter become almost academic, grab a microphone and issue instructions. Reel them in. You have a mechanical? Order the team to block, organize the domestics, come to the car for repairs. What could be simpler?

Yes, the radio less stage was tried in the Tour de France, the riders were furious for good reason. The issue is safety. Under the new Pat McQuaid radio less future of professional cycling, team cars will weave in and out of the peloton to issue instructions, this will interrupt the flow of the peloton, hazards will be created. Some one may die. Someone may be injured. There will be unnecessary accidents. No thank you.

Most cycling fans to not wish to return to the days of yore. The Grand Tours are a wonderful, beautiful exhibitions of rider skill and tactics. Pat McQuaid, leave things alone.

Tour of Utah: Some Reflections

2009-09-10T20:31:00.013-06:00

The Tour of Utah was a very successful stage race. The race was won by Rock and Republic racer Franciso Mancebo. I did not want to appear negative about the event, however some comments are in order.

This is the post information age, I understand that. Everyone is tethered on an Internet link, blogger, twitter, a social network site. Problems emerge when people are deprived of a computer, say during a race, and they have only conventional news outlets to rely upon for information. This happened to me during the Tour of Utah and the results were less than satisfying.

The main and only media outlet was KFANZ radio in Salt Lake City, Utah. Although the Tour of Utah repeated advertisements for the Tour of Utah thousands of times a day, the race summaries were perfunctory five minute news releases. The prologue was won by Jeff Louder who beat David Zabriskie by four seconds. Finis. Even the so called queen stage with a mountain top finish at Snowbird Ski Resort, which was advertised to have regular race radio updates...well the updates never materialized...the station ran a syndicated ESPN radio program discussing Brent Farve and Micheal Vick ad nausea. The Tour of Utah should work to improve the race coverage in 2010 beyond a mere two minute summary of the stages, realizing that some race fanatics do not have access to the Internet.

KSL radio did not even mention the downtown Salt Lake City criterium race in their sport report the following day even though there were several thousand people downtown. Bizarre.

One other thing. Take my advice and never decide to ride your bike up Little Cottonwood Canyon, in the afternoon, on race day, in one hundred degree plus heat. Duh! Being a fool and ignoring advice, I set out from Salt Lake City at 11:00 a.m. rode thirty miles to the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon and started to climb. I felt great for the first five miles. But the traffic was bumper to bumper and Little Cottonwood Canyon has no shoulders, a very dangerous situation. Of course, there is no need to mention the exhaust fumes, the ozone, the smell of burnt rubber, the heat, the 8% grade, and the fact that at mile marker seven I ran out of water. There is also no need to mention the fact that spectators who lined the road waiting for the professional riders to appear cheered me on with shouts of appreciation and applause.

Darn. I bonked with less than one mile to go, sick of the exhaust fumes, the traffic, the heat, and the ozone. There was not one breath of wind in the canyon that day. Only thirty eight miles back to Salt Lake City to ride! Panic and a fateful decision. Turn around and leave before they close the canyon road for the professional race. Bad idea, which I regret to this day.

But as you can see from some of the photographs I took maybe it did not matter. The camera may be great for portraits but not so good for high speed bicycling racing. The queen stage did not have any race changing attacks or unexpected bonks as many people had expected. The only bonk was from the idiot riding the orange and red thirty pound mountain bike up Little Cottonwood Canyon that day...me.

Lastly, I wish Floyd Landis would have been a little more interactive with the fans. Floyd you don't have to be paranoid, come out and play. I still love the way you ride man. I was there and you were there and that beats an unfair suspension every time.

Tour of Utah Downtown Salt Lake City Criterium Photographs

2009-08-28T16:38:00.018-06:00

Rock racing riders on the front to protect race leader Franciso Mancebo.

The peloton rounds a turn, three wide.

Escape! A four man pace line distances the peloton. Fido the dog responds to the escape in typical canine fashion.

Team Ouch presented by Maxxis takes a turn at the front to reel in the break. The peloton is strung out in single file.

Hammer. The Salt Lake City Municipal Library and Utah Transit Authority Trax train are in the background.

Only a few laps to go. The Tour of Utah was a very successful occasion with thousands of race hungry fans.

Special thanks to Nicole Anderson for her help in editing and posting these photographs.

East Canyon KOM Big Mountain Tour Of Utah Photographs

2009-08-28T15:59:00.021-06:00

These photographs are of the King of the Mountain sprint located at Big Mountain, East Canyon, Utah. This is stage one of the Tour of Utah. The stage was won by Rock Racing rider Franciso Mancebo, who arm and arm with his teammate Oscar Sevilla crossed the line 26 seconds in front of the main group to win the stage.

Tour of Utah volunteer "Rick" at the Little Mountain KOM summit.

Ouch presented by Maxxis rider Brad White collects the Big Mountain King of the Mountain Points

The main group arrived three minutes later.

Off the back.

Riders continue to trickle in.

Thanks to Nicole Anderson for her help in editing and posting these photographs.

Tour of Utah Prologue Photographs

2009-08-28T14:58:00.020-06:00

As promised here are photographs of the Tour of Utah. The original intention of these photographs were to focus on Floyd Landis as part of his come back to professional cycling. Unfortunately, during the prologue Mr. Landis hid in the Ouch presented by Maxxis team trailer surrounded by a group of gorillas. Landis did not even condescend to sign autographs for the fans. Therefore, what you see is what you get, with no apologies from me.

Tour of Utah volunteer Scott Sowle.

Professional wrenches are overworked and under appreciated!

This is the place for racing! The Utah State Capitol Building is in the background.

The dark side of cycling, but USA Cycling has nothing to hide. This has been and will continue to be a point of contention, the public nature of bib information that could be used by miscreants for subversive reasons.

A Ouch presented by Maxxis rider on the rollers.

Floyd Landis hammers home fifty meters from the finish line.

Cole Sport rider David Clinger warms down on the rollers after a hard time trial. The White Chapel is in the background.

The Ouch presented by Maxxis team car and bikes.

Specialized fans eat your hearts out!

Special thanks to Nichole Anderson for her help in posting and editing these photographs.

Tour of Utah Preview

2009-08-08T14:36:00.040-06:00

The Tour of Utah like so many other United States domestic races could have gone the way of the dinosaur. Larry H. Miller who originated the Tour of Utah died last year. It would have been so easy to quit, but thanks to the Miller family and Zions Bank the Tour of Utah lives on.

The 2009 edition of the Tour of Utah is the strongest ever featuring 22 teams.

Defending champion Jeff Louder and the BMC Racing Team will have their hands full this year. The biggest general classification threat is Floyd Landis of Ouch Pro Cycling Team presented by Maxxis, who is rumored to be training hard in Park City. Ouch Pro Cycling Team presented by Maxxis also has points jersey perpetual threat Rory Sutherland on the squad.

Rock Racing has proven climbers Victor Hugo Pena and Oscar Sevilla as contenders for general classification and sprint sensation Fast Freddie Rodriquez who is a proven points warrior. Fast Freddie Rodriquez won a Giro d' Italia stage beating 'Ale- Jet' Alessandro Petacchi. Rock Racing may on paper be the strongest and best overall team in the Tour of Utah this year.

Cole Sport Racing has David Clinger as best possible contender for general classification. Former rider for the United States Postal Professional Cycling Team, David Clinger has had a roller coaster of a career since. Now that problems have been sorted out in his life, David Clinger could be poised to pull an outstanding upset.

Other worthy riders of note:

Bissel Pro Cycling Team rider Burke Swindlehurst
Trek/Livestrong U23 Development Team rider Taylor Phinney

The 2009 Tour of Utah is billed as America's toughest stage race with over 20,000 feet of leg breaking climbs. Stage 4, the "Queen Stage" includes a climb of Little Cottonwood Canyon to Snowbird ski resort, 13km at 7.5%. The Little Cottonwood Canyon climb should decide the general classification once and for all.

The Tour of Utah ends with a downtown Salt Lake City criterium race where local cycling fanatics will amass to enjoy the racing exploits of their heroes.

Velo Vortmax intends to share as much of the Tour of Utah as possible on this blog during the race with reports and (hopefully) photographs.

Alberto Contador Wins the 2009 Tour de France

2009-07-26T13:35:00.043-06:00

The 2009 Tour de France is over. Alberto Contador has won. Andy Schleck was second. Lance Armstrong was third. Nothing else matters.

No matter what you think, two Tour de France champions on the same team leads to disaster. Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault were teammates. Hinault won a Tour and LeMond won a Tour. Greg LeMond claims that he could have won both Tours. The amimosity between Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault are the stuff of legend. Those who refuse to learn from historical precedent are doomed to folly. Thus Team Astana during the 2009 Tour de France.

Nevertheless, could Lance Armstrong ever beat Alberto Contador in a Tour de France on the same team? Probably not, given the age disparities. Lance Armstrong is thirty eight, Alberto Contador is twenty six. Nevertheless, the Team Astana experiment with two Tour de France winners is over. Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel are off to Team Nabisco for the 2010 Tour de France. Alberto Contador is expected to stay with a newly reformulated Team Astana, consisting of mainly Spanish support riders.

Then shall we see who is the best rider, Alberto Contador or Lance Armstrong? Shall we see if the rider is more important or if total team strategy, effort, and strength is more important? What is most important the strongest rider or the strongest team?

Good questions that will be pondered next year perhaps. But for now Alberto Contador can bask in his glory as Tour winner. Lance Armstrong made the podium, in third place, at thirty eight years of age. 2009 was a vintage year for the Tour de France.

Sour Grapes

There are those who think that Lance Armstrong is the sort of man who demands total obeisance from his teammates. They cite Roberto Heras, Floyd Landis, George Hincapie, loyal lieutenants who sacrificed their legs so that Lance Armstrong could chalk up seven successive Tour de France wins. Some people think that Lance Armstrong expected Alberto Contador to work as a team domestic to ensure that Lance Armstrong would win an eighth Tour de France.

At the start of the 2009 Tour de France a pissing contest emerged over who would be alpha dog of Team Astana. Lance Armstrong had the best time at 0:00 behind Fabian Cancallara after the Team Time Trial. But, Alberto Contador was not far behind Lance Armstrong and the mountain stages were to come where the true classification would be sorted out.

Stage 17 decided the 2009 Tour de France when Alberto Contador attacked Andy and Frank Schleck. Unfortunately, for Team Astana, both Andreaus Kloden and Lance Armstrong were dropped. This attack by Alberto Contador was a questionable tactic if the goal of Team Astana was to place three riders on the final podium. If Alberto Contador would have shown more restraint, it is arguable that both Lance Armstrong and Andreaus Kloden could have made the final podium.

Nevertheless, the Stage 17 attack did establish Alberto Contador as the alpha dog of Team Astana, and Lance Armstrong did recognize this fact. Lance Armstrong did work for Alberto Contador by forcing Bradely Wiggins to eat wind and pull. The main goal of Stage 17 was to drop Bradely Wiggins from contention, even Andy and Frank Schleck admitted this fact.

But Alberto Contador barely acknowledged the role of Lance Armstrong in helping him win the 2009 Tour de France. In fact, Alberto Contador stated several times that he could have won the Tour without any help from Lance Armstrong.

Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong was saying he did not mind being a team player. "I have seven Tour de France wins, I am proud of Alberto Contador."

But some people will always question the sincerity of Lance Armstrong, no matter what.

After the Stage 17 attack Alberto Contador established himself as the unquestioned 2009 Tour de France champion. The time gaps on General Classification between Alberto Contador and his main rivals continued to widen. Alberto Contador should be very proud of his achievement.

Until the doping tests result in a positive for PEDs?

Garmin Slipstream is a Disgrace

2009-07-22T20:34:00.015-06:00

Garmin Slipstream is a disgraceful team. After doing no work at all for the entire race, Garmin Slipstream came to the front of the peloton on Stage 14 to reel in American rider Geroge Hincapie. This treachery deprived Hincapie of assuming the race lead and wearing the yellow jersey.

Pathetic. At the conclusion of the stage a visibly angry Hincapie blamed Team Astana for coming to the front of the stage to work when the responsibility of reeling in the break should have been Nocentini's AG2R team. This is true, but as Phil Liggit mentioned on Versus, Astana probably tried to slow down the pace to allow George Hincapie to take the race lead, but things did not work out. There was a danger in allowing Hincapie to gain a large amount of time on a break, he can climb. Astana probably wanted to keep the break manageable. The motives of Garmin Slipstream does not seem so mundane though. Garmin Slipstream could argue that they worked to protect Bradely Wiggins. Nothing more. This argument seems to hold no weight among professional cycling fans, however. Sinister rumors are circulating; Jonathan Vaughters and Bob Stapleton have bad blood. Jonathan Vaughters and George Hincapie have unsettled scores from the United States Postal Professional Cycling Team days when both were domestics for Lance Armstrong during the 1999 Tour de France. In any case George Hincapie is correct when he stated that the race tactics of Garmin Slipstream were beyond belief.

Versus has spent a great deal of time promoting Garmin Slipstream during this Tour, interviewing Jonathan Vaughters on a great number of topics. This must stop, now.

Jonathan Vaughters and Matt White should learn how to organize a team. Men work, idiots ride just inside of the time limit. On the Category 1 Col Villette-Le-Chable, Saxo Bank rider Fabian Cancellara set such a quick pace on the front for his general classification rider Andy Schleck, hammering uphill out of the saddle until he blew up. That is how you work for your team. Bradely Wiggens sat protected behind Cancellara doing nothing. Wiggens' Garmin Slipstream teammates were no where in sight. Jonathan Vaughters should show his team the tape of Fabian Cancellara working for his team as a training guide on how to do things right.

Astana knows how to run a team. Astana runs a train on the front of the group working when the Saxo Bank riders go out the back. Alberto Contador is a protected rider in the pure sense of the word, not an isolated pathetic figure like Wiggins. Where is former reformed Saint David Millar, why is not David Millar setting a leg breaking tempo up the Col like Fabian Cancellara?

If anything, the pure narcissist of Astana is Ablerto Contador who refuses to follow orders and who is so intent on proving to the world that he is so much better than Lance Armstrong that he takes unnecessary risks. Today, on Stage 17, we have a perfect example of this. On the last Cat 1 Col Alberto Contador decided to sprint out of the saddle to attack Frank and Andy Schleck. This move created problems for his own Astana teammates Lance Armstrong and A. Kloden who were both dropped. A blunder as both Armstrong and Kloden were high on the general classification and this created an opportunity for Andy Schleck and his brother Frank to move up on general classification.

However, Lance Armstrong worked to protect Alberto Contador from Bradely Wiggins who could not match the Contador attack, like a loyal teammate is supposed to do. Armstrong was glued to Wiggins wheel waiting for an opportunity to attack. At a severe grade Armstrong sprinted around Wiggins and dropped him like a rock after forcing Wiggins to ride into the wind and pull Armstrong.

Not only did Lance Armstrong drop Bradely Wiggins but on the decent he caught his teammate Kloden. Lance Armstrong tried to pace Kloden to the line. Perfect racing tactics from a team oriented man who is working for the interests of the team, not of the rider, himself. Something Alberto Contador and Garmin Slipstream should use as a training guide.

Enjoy the Tour everyone!

Pat McQuaid; Assume Some Responsibility

2009-07-09T21:17:00.048-06:00

The 2009 Tour de France has had some unexpected turns but nothing seemed more fitting than watching Tom Boonen hit the deck after touching wheels on wet pavement during Stage 6. Boonen was probably thinking of free basing another huge rock of crack cocaine and firing up the pipe, not about racing his bike. Indeed. Tom Boonen, got an unexpected reprieve from the Court of Arbitration of Sport after testing positive for recreational cocaine use. Apparently there is no prohibition of cocaine use by riders out-of-competition. Therefore neither the ASO or the UCI has any legal basis to exclude this miscreant from the Tour de France. This is very good news for people who make a profession out of stealing bicycles to sell to a Mexican drug cartels for crack cocaine. Once your bicycle is traded for cocaine, the group sets are stripped and sold on Craigs' list or E-Bay and the frames are chopped into bits and sold as scrap metal. Tom Boonen is probably the cycling hero of these thieves. Some fans of Tom Boonen probably think there is nothing better in life than depriving people who rely upon cycling as their primary form of transportation and recreation, people who don't own cars, of their bicycles, for drugs.

The UCI and Results Management

This raises issues that should have been resolved long ago about the results management of rider behavior and who should be responsible for punishment of offenses. In my opinion the UCI has abdicated this responsibility in favor of WADA and the Court of Arbitration of Sport.

When a rider submits a sample for testing, once the urine or blood is collected it becomes the property of the UCI. Therefore, the management of the sample becomes the responsibility of the UCI, not WADA or the AFLD. In theory, the UCI could refuse to allow any WADA accredited lab to do any testing on a UCI licensed rider.

The UCI could refuse to accept any extra legal judgements of UCI licensed riders as was done to Floyd Landis. Floyd Landis was licensed in the United States and was suspended by USA cycling upon the decision of the Court of Arbitration of Sport. The AFLD also forced Floyd Landis to sign an agreement to suspend racing in France for two years. The AFLD action probably had no legal basis for this suspension.

In theory, the UCI could exclude the Court of Arbitration of Sport and any or all related International Olympic Committee entities from participating in UCI licensed rider results management. The basis for this exclusion would be related to the property issue. The UCI could argue that since they are the legal owners of the samples that arbitration of rider results could occur outside of IOC jurisdiction.

Pierre Bordry Shoots His Mouth

The USA Today reported that Pierre Bordry has accused the UCI of lax testing for the 2009 Tour de France. Apparently Pierre Bordry thinks that when the AFLD was responsible for the testing during the 2008 Tour de France that rider testing was more thorough. Pat McQuaid denied Bordry's accusations as unfounded.

Quaint. In my opinion Pat Mcquaid should have been more forceful in his statement. First, the UCI has responsibility for the results management of the 2009 Tour de France. Second, the laboratory samples of Lance Armstrong are being tested 24/7 for all known substances and deviations in biological parameters. Lance Armstrong has provided the largest quantity of longitudinal biological passport data ever collected on one man in the history of the world. So, it is logical to conclude that if some variation exists that suggests performance enhancing drug use we will find it. Third, we are relying upon a WADA accredited laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry, known as one of the most unreliable and lax testing intuitions in the world. Perhaps it would be more prudent if Mr. Pierre Bordry would spend his time and money on monitoring the accreditation audits and reviewing the training and competence of the laboratory personnel of LNDD rather than accusing the UCI of lax testing schedules for UCI licensed riders. Fourth, providing that there is any urine and blood left after the rigorous testing of Lance Armstrong during and presumably after the Tour de France, there is still a matter of retroactive testing to be done after developing future tests to detect experimental drug combinations or to refine testing procedures of performance enhancing compounds that currently have no tests; before the statute of limitations run out. Eight years is plenty of time.

Watch the Tour

Pat McQuaid should give this advice to Pierre Bordry. Shut up and watch the Tour de France! Mark Cavendish and Thor Hushvold are in a battle royal for the sprint jersey. Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong are fighting each other for the race lead. This race may not be decided until Mont Ventoux! Wonderful!

Like the Giro d' Italia there may be no Tour de France PED positive tests, perish the thought.

Enjoy the Tour everyone!

Somebody Stole My Bike

2009-06-30T20:07:00.020-06:00

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.