Tour de France: Cycling pro Contador banned for two years. Good that this silly fuss (caused only by the Spanish cycling federation acting in a rather absurd manner) is finally over. Even if the revocation of Tour victories only elicits yawns these days (and Armstrong was unfortunately allowed to keep his wins).
sport
Contador can get back in the saddle - and Spain is systematically making cycling even worse than it already is. The whole thing is just a joke and an insult to every cycling fan, what the Spanish cycling federation is pulling off.
what a superb owl
Probably from here (I only heard about it indirectly via Twitter).
Landis admits doping - when I read such confessions, I automatically wonder if the athlete wants to write a book. But the reaction from the UCI chief is quite amusing - the reputation of his sports association is completely ruined, and this is partly due to the very strange approach of the UCI against doping. And of course also because it seems that the entire cycling sport is just a rolling pharmacy. The fact that he now complains that an athlete has come clean is a clear sign of how seriously the UCI takes the fight against doping.
The Utopia Timor (Folding Bike) - and this is also an option, albeit significantly more expensive - but the fully enclosed chain is of course a nice argument. Moreover, you can pull it along behind you like a rolling suitcase.
The Dahon Mµ Folding Bikes 20 Inch - Dahon Mµ XL Light, Mµ P8 Sport, Mµ P24 TR Light, Mµ Uno, Mµ EX - wow, especially the Mµ Ex looks incredibly good and the folding process is convincing. Something like this could be pretty great for my favorite activity - traveling by train to cities and exploring them.
Foldy - bicycling.com - simply great. Should I get a folding bike?
Human Powered Monorail Racetrack - crazy
Armstrong faces Tour exit - as little as I can stand Armstrong (and as little as I would want to see him at the Tour), the procedure here is simply ridiculous. Would the French proceed in the same way if the rider in question were French? What if, for example, Virenque were planning a comeback and a 20-minute delay occurred during a training control because he quickly went to shower?
Also Kohl tested positive - Holy Cow! I'm starting to feel sorry for Holczer. How cycling can become a sporting event again after the recent pharmacy parade is becoming increasingly unclear to me. If even sympathizers like Holczer, who is not from the "old stable" but rather a newcomer, is being completely taken advantage of by his riders, what is left? And how can cycling motivate sponsors like Gerolsteiner - who have always worked with the rather "nice" image of the Holczer team and have not built up a performance pressure like Festina - to stay involved? Ultimately, cyclists are destroying their own livelihood.
Schumacher under doping suspicion - Holy Cow.
Zabel steps down from cycling - but still rides in the Münsterland-Giro on October 3rd - should I go to the city to watch the final laps?
Armstrong returns - even if no one wants him. Why send a doping zombie back into the race? He's certainly not credible anymore.
Aus für Gerolsteiner - too bad, it was one of the more interesting teams and the way Holczer ran the show made this racing stable very likable.
Drivers in the EPO trap - "After an agreement between the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA and the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, this molecule was incorporated into the third generation of the blood doping agent Erythropoietin (EPO), which can be detected in doping controls." - smart!
Cyclists face infertility and impotence - I knew it all along, it's a good idea to ride a recumbent bike!
Radius Hornet
Radius Hornet
Recently acquired and purchased - my new bike. At the moment I'm still quite wobbly and unsure on it - it definitely handles differently than my old long recumbent (which was a replica of a Radius Peer Gynt). Let's see when I feel safe enough to commute to work with it. Anyway, today on a test ride I still had several mishaps, which wouldn't be such a great idea on narrow bike paths during rush hour among all the other cyclists ...
Astana not to Tour 2008 - maybe something could actually change, and if only by making a few other teams more well-known, because they have come into the races through wildcards, which the "usual suspects" are denied in 2008.
Telekom exits cycling - quite hypocritical, first profiting from doping-related victories and press for years and then wanting to distance themselves by ending sponsorship. Sorry, Telekom, but you were part of the problem for years (yes, I know, Telekom never pushed for doping, just as they certainly never sought positive press by paying reporters, we naturally believe them on that), you won't get out of it that easily. But well, in a potentially cleaner cycling sport, Telekom as a sponsor then no longer plays a role ... maybe the sport has a chance again with less gigantomania.
Tour: Rasmussen had artificial EPO in his urine - new techniques, already hard at work. Well, we can probably bury cycling for good now, because by the time the associations and anti-doping agencies catch up, the topic will have spread far and wide again. What really gets to me: this silly whining of the caught and suspected, their pathetic media fuss.
Rasmussen fired and removed from the Tour - but is the replacement in the overall standings any better? Contador was a customer of Fuentes ... will Discovery be ready to draw similarly painful consequences? It is clear that only if the teams take a hard line can they retain any credibility. Rabobank's reaction may seem exaggerated - but the sponsor will certainly see it differently. A bank does not like it when its name is booed and hissed.
Tour continues, despite all problems - "Is there more doping in the 100m race or in the marathon? For ten years we have been shortening the stages, with known success. People don't cheat because the race is hard, but because they want to win, for fame and money. If there were Olympic sack races, people would cheat there too to win."
Schenk? - wasn't she the BDR president at the time when the BDR deliberately ignored all the allegations against Team Telekom because there was an Olympic champion and Tour winner and generally only great cyclists? Funny how the coat turns with the wind ...
Absurdities of the Media
In the doping circus, there's once again a real howler that I saw today in the Tour ticker:
Dear cycling friends! For good reason (the case of Patrik Sinkewitz), coverage of the 2007 Tour de France will initially be suspended until the allegations against Sinkewitz are clarified. We thank you for your interest! À bientôt, your tour.ARD.de team
Ok. So another rider under doping suspicion. Just like it's been all the time. Nothing really new - Team T-Mobile probably has a lot more to work through. Uh - and what is the point of stopping the coverage now? I mean, it was already pathetic enough - stopping it now changes what exactly?
The media could of course, instead of the great outrage, think about how much they themselves are involved in the whole mess. Wasn't there something about direct cooperation between ARD reporters and Deutsche Telekom? Wasn't there the years-long hype of the media around Jan Ullrich and the free mega-advertising for Deutsche Telekom? Wasn't it the case that for the German media, hardly anything else existed except Telekom and their team?
And all of this is completely innocent in the pressure that was built up? The Tour commentators this time had sayings ready that one should also talk about the non-winners - and yet again, as every year, they have fueled the winner speculation and stirred up the hype. But certainly, stopping the coverage will help the non-doping riders (if there are any, I don't know if that's the case) tremendously. And ARD is setting a real sign - of their own stupidity and arrogance, because the media, the sports associations, and organizations have diligently built up all this nonsense.
Cycling is left in the lurch - but the hypocritical directors and functionaries couldn't care less about that. Doping once brought in ratings, so it was ignored. Now they're just playing the big critic - and make just as ridiculous a picture as back then.
"Heavy doping allegations against BDR" - looks like Scharping has messed this job up too. Well, one thing is clear: no one will accuse Scharping of doping, as sleepy as he comes across ...
CSC possibly stops cycling sponsorship - «It would be a natural decision to withdraw, send Bjarne Riis a check and ask him to remove the company logo from the bikes. This would do more for CSC's image than they could pay in Danish kroner»
ARD/ZDF want to not extend Tour contract for now - will the media ever face their part of the responsibility for all this mess? I mean, if coverage is only about hype and normal performances are more or less completely ignored, if only the ultimate victory counts - then one should not be surprised if athletes adapt to this ideal image. The athlete takes performance-enhancing drugs, of course. But somewhere the reason for this is laid - and the image of the athlete in the public is certainly an important factor.
Dietz, Henn, Böltz, Aldag, Ullrich - and the team doctors and Godefroot didn't know anything about it? And the sponsor wasn't aware of any of this? When will Riis speak? Somehow, the entire cycling world is falling apart. Give the young riders a chance, those who haven't done all this nonsense yet.
Wiesenhof quits - too bad, because Wiesenhof has developed many young riders.
Ex-Telekom-Profi beichtet Doping - well, that's probably the end of the clean record of Team Telekom.
Doping-Szene Deutschland: Heile Welt in Magenta - it fits so well, here's the link to an article from 2005 with a good summary about Team Telekom and doping. The doctors are not in the spotlight for the first time.
Basso admits doping - clear, ok, finally taken the right path. Come clean. But why is he being cheered now? It doesn't change the fact that he doped and lied for a damn long time because he thought he would get away with it. Only when the water is up to his neck, and he is offered a reduced sentence, is he suddenly remorseful. The right way? Yes. Cheering for courage? Ridiculous.
Caution is the mother of the porcelain box - "For not many, but for him, I put my hand close to the fire. His attitude is impeccable, since he has been with us," said Holczer.
"Peinliche Pleite von Axel Schulz" - not everyone is a George Foreman.
Basso to Discovery - well, Discovery has experience with captains under doping suspicion. After all, they have won 7 Tours this way. The self-commitment of the Pro-Tour teams is worth nothing.
"Push! push! push!" - Ironman in a wheelchair. Wow.
Synthetic testosterone - in Landis' blood samples. Well, that's that then. It will certainly drag on for a long time, but the career is probably suspended for now.
Voigt in Yellow - class. First he wins a stage victory and now he at least has the yellow jersey for one day (by the way, taken over from Zabel!).
Landis positiv - if the B sample also tests positive and he doesn't have a good explanation (but sorry, even the best explanation would brand him as "stupid," because he could have registered the medication beforehand), then it's probably over for him.
As T-Mobile Sports Director - well, I would have preferred to keep him as a commentator, his memories are still fresh enough to be interesting for commentaries. This makes the unbearable babble of the public broadcasters' sleeping pills a bit more bearable.
Landis is back - and he's gaining time on his competitors again. The top three now within 30 seconds, and Klöden is also in a good position. That's weird. Absolutely weird.
Rasmussen wins, Landis collapses - and the entire ranking is thrown into disarray. And I'm sitting (sweating) at the office and can't watch live.
The world champion in green and yellow - already crazy. World champion jersey, green jersey and then also the yellow jersey. Boonen's year.
Well, that's how it's done! - Kessler wins the stage and Voigt does what he does best: break away, lead the race and get caught just before the finish line.
Basso also involved in doping scandal? - ouch. That would be a real shock if Basso is suspended as well. Then the Tour would become really exciting, as none of the favorites (Ullrich, Vinokurov, Basso) would take part.
Ullrich, Sevilla and Pevenage temporarily suspended - consistent with the self-commitment of the Pro-Tour teams, only logical if the Spanish police have sufficient initial suspicion for an investigation. But somehow I have the feeling that, regardless of the outcome of the investigation, Jan Ullrich will hang up his cycling shoes.
58 professionals involved in Spanish affair - the Spaniards are probably running out of cyclists this year ...
Jan Ullrich calls it quits - and wins the Tour de Suisse. Maybe the Tour de France will still be a chance for him this year.
Basso outclasses the competition - one could certainly say that at the Giro. Ok, the competition for the Tour was of course not completely present (Ullrich only as a teammate and Vinokourov was missing), but still a strong performance.