July 24, 2009
When I came back to the United States to race bicycles I was all-too-often the guest of the fine folks at the doping control. It seems that since I spent more years than most racing bikes in Europe, I was an easy target, since I clearly must have been a cheater. So for the 3 years that I made my living racing road bikes Stateside, I made an art of peeing in a plastic cup and taunting doping control officials.
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July 21, 2009
It's been pointed out that perhaps along with a listing of the 10 things you need to know about being a bike racer, 10 things you should know about watching a race could be helpful too. Well, I am not sure I can provide a list of things
you should watch, but here are the things that I am watching, looking for and thinking about as I watch the Tour de France.
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July 20, 2009
First of all, I’d like to say that I really like what the people at
Bike Pure are doing. Doping exists in cycling,
and all sports for that
matter, but it seems to me that a good number of top riders have jumped
into the Bike Pure program without hesitation. I view that as a very
good sign. The problem with drug testing has historically been that the
tests were a step or two behind the doping technology. While new
testing procedures and the whole biological passport program seem to be
closing that gap, I think we can safely assume that somewhere, somehow,
there are still holes in the system that a motivated rider and doctor
could sneak through. Bike Pure simply asks the riders to pledge that
they will race clean. In the end, the riders are the only ones who can
make the sport completely clean.
I asked the Bike Pure folks a few questions ...
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July 18, 2009
This year marks the 20 year anniversary of Greg LeMond’s 1989 amazing comeback Tour de France victory. His ADR team has long been disparaged for being too weak to help the 3-time champ. I respectfully beg to differ. The ADR team, while no great shakes in the mountains, could get the job done on the flat, rolling and windy roads.
Greg LeMond’s 1989 Tour de France squad has won the Tour of Flanders a bunch of times – before 1989 and after. Let me know how many times the 9 rider collective won the Ronde van Vlaanderen, who they were, and in what year they won their respective Rondes. The first person to “comment” the correct answer wins all 3 of the Competitive Cyclist 20-dollar gift cards that I harvested from Downieville.
July 16, 2009
Last week I posted a wee update that hinted at a top-secret, magazine-sponsored mission that had me in the deep, dark and beautiful Oregon woods dodging poison oak. It was an attempt to cram a little more fitness into my body so that I could successfully pilot the Sh*t Bike to the finish line of the All-Mountain World Championships in Downieville, CA.
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July 15, 2009
As I sit here in the war room watching Tour de France coverage on TV and reading it on Velo News dot com, I am thinking about how many people out there in TdF viewer land think that what they are seeing in the first week(s) of this great race is boring. I am reminded of the times when the whole peloton was booed in various Belgian races because the fans didn’t think we were going fast enough. Dames en Heren, the flat stages are not boring – you just need to adjust your perspective.
First of all, without the flat stages you would see no good racing in the mountains. No, if the Tour de France did nothing but race in the big mountains, cycling would be like marathon running and TdF contenders would weigh less than 120lbs. Attacks would be anemic and the heroes of the sport would have all the charisma and charm of a rest stop bathroom.
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