The Cycling Thread

[otiscleotus]

Originally Posted by Rick Danger

Going 15-20 mph on a fifteen year old Trek MTB ? You sound pretty serious to me !

I think the sustained speed along the towpath is a lot closer to 15 mph, maybe even 13, I can't remember. I've gone a lot faster going down hill but with my back trashed as it is wiping out at that speed would likely put in permanently in a wheelchair (it's not crashing into a brick wall at 50 mph that killed but the sudden stop). Back at that time I was putting some serious kilometers on the nordic track so I had some good meat on my legs and pretty decent stamina to boot. I haven't been able to get back up there since I've come back to the area and now with the cold weather coming in it'll have to wait until next spring or summer.

[Rick Danger]

I understand. I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers that you regain your health and strength a hundredfold..........................

[Rick Danger]

BikeRadar.com
News
Tue 9 Nov 2010, 9:44 am UTC
Bjarne Riis lifts lid on doping practices
By AFP

Denmark's disgraced former Tour de France cycling champion Bjarne Riis has further lifted the lid on his doping practices during his cycling career.

In a book of confessions, Riis revealed how during the 1998 Tour de France he threw phials of EPO (erythropoietin) down the toilet after hearing that his Deutsche Telekom team would also be searched as part of the probe into the Festina doping scandal.

"In my room I didn't have a choice. My phials of doping products had to disappear quickly. In just a few minutes I gathered all my doses of EPO and threw them down the toilet," explained Riis.

Tour de France organisers in 2007 striped Riis of his 1996 title after he admitted to doping when he won the race.

Saxo Bank team director Riis also admitted spending up to one million Danish Kroner (€134,000 or $184,000 US) on doping products.

"Doping products must have cost me between half a million and a million Kroner (€67,000-€134,000 or $92,000-$184,000 US today)," Riis told the daily Politiken.

Riis and his wife Anne Dorte told the weekly Soendagsavisen how doping became natural in their household with EPO being stored in the fridge in their kitchen.

[Rick Danger]

["Fallen flag" is a term used in the railroad industry when describing a line that has gone out of business - Rick]

BikeRadar.com
News
Wed 10 Nov 2010, 6:30 pm UTC

Titus close their doors
By Matt Pacocha, US editor in Boulder, CO

Titus Cycles have stopped trading. The company's major lenders, Factors Southwest operating as FSW, took over Tuesday, 9 November.

Titus were founded by Chris Cocalis in 1991. He remained at the head of the company until selling his final stakes in 2006 to Vyatek Sports. Since Cocalis's departure, Titus had trouble finding stable footing.

In 2008, Vyatek sold the brand to GAI Cycles of Phoenix. From there it went through two CEOs before the FSW foreclosure this week.

“We were trying to get some investment in [last week] and when we couldn’t get the investment closed, the bank foreclosed,” Mike Gaumond, Titus’s former CEO, told BikeRadar regarding the brand's final days. Gaumond resigned last week after the brand’s last effort at investment fell through. “We'd run out of money,” he said. “And they laid everyone off at that point anyway.”

Gaumond confirmed that there is currently inventory at Titus’s now closed headquarters.

The lender plans to auction the brand and their assets whole, if such prospect can be achieved in a timely manner.

"Factors Southwest is currently taking sealed bids until November 19," said Juliet Straker, a spokesperson for Factors Southwest told BikeRadar. " At that time they will notify all interested parties of the highest bidder and then, if anyone would like to, they can increase their bid. A final decision will be made by November 23rd. If nothing comes together by November 23, only then would they [Titus] go to a public auction."

Straker said that there are currently multiple parties interested in the brand and involved in the initial bidding process.

"Things are in process right now," said Straker. "The intent is to get it done as quickly as possible and as intact as possible."

Factors Southwest retained Pat Hus — who was Titus' CEO before Gaumond took over — on an 'as needed basis' because of his knowledge and understanding of the industry. Hus is said to be helping evaluate the value of the inventory and determine the best course of action for the company to survive. BikeRadar could not reach Hus for comment as of Thursday.

"The expectation is that the new owners of the company will honor warranty issues and handle the need for parts," said Straker.

[Rick Danger]

Updated: November 16, 2010, 12:23 PM ET

Report: U.S. doping probe in France
Associated Press

PARIS -- A U.S. investigation into allegations of doping in professional cycling has shifted its focus to France, and talks are scheduled with police officials and the French agency that has stored some of Lance Armstrong's urine samples.

The French anti-doping agency plans to share everything it knows with the Americans, a French official said. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the meeting, which he said is scheduled for this week.

The official said the American delegation is in France and he believes it includes U.S. Food and Drug Administration Agent Jeff Novitzky, as well as U.S. federal prosecutor Doug Miller and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart.

French police officials whose job it is to investigate doping in sports in France also are meeting later this week with the Americans, a senior police official said Tuesday. That official spoke on condition that he not be named because he was not authorized to discuss the meeting publicly.

The meeting will be in Lyon, the south-central city where Interpol is located, and was set up through the international police agency, the official said. He said he expects the meeting would cover, among other matters, disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis' allegations that Armstrong and members of his former U.S. Postal team engaged in systematic doping.

The police officials work for a French agency that, separately, also has been investigating syringes and transfusion equipment found in a trash container after the 2009 Tour de France. French officials say the container belonged to the Astana cycling team that included Armstrong and Tour winner Alberto Contador.

Novitzky was booked Tuesday into a hotel in Lyon. Miller had also been booked in at the same hotel but then canceled the reservation.

An Interpol spokeswoman, speaking on condition that she not be named according to the agency's rules, said that she could not confirm whether Novitzky was meeting with Interpol officials.

Reached via e-mail, Tygart declined to comment. In a recorded phone message at USADA headquarters, Tygart said he was out of the office on business.

The French official told the AP that the nation's anti-doping agency would share "everything we know, everything we have, in the fridges, in the freezers, everything, everywhere" with the U.S. officials, and is prepared to answer "everything that they ask."

The former head of the French agency, Pierre Bordry, previously promised to hand over Armstrong's samples from the 1999 Tour de France to Novitzky if the agent made an official request. Bordry announced his resignation this September after battling with French authorities over the budget for the doping agency, known by its French initials AFLD.

"The samples were clean when originally provided and tested. So we have nothing to be concerned about. Period," Mark Fabiani, an attorney for Armstrong, said in a statement sent to the AP on Tuesday.

The French sports daily L'Equipe reported in 2005 that Armstrong's samples from 1999 contained traces of the banned performance-enhancer EPO after being retested in 2004.

An investigator mandated by cycling's international governing body, the UCI, later cleared Armstrong. The seven-time Tour de France winner, who retired in '05 before coming back for the '09 and '10 Tours, has repeatedly denied allegations that he took performance-enhancing drugs. He's also passed scores of unscheduled drug tests.

Armstrong became a more important figure in the probe this spring after Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title after failing a doping test, dropped long-standing denials and acknowledged he used performance-enhancing drugs. In doing so, he also accused Armstrong and others of systematic drug use.


Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

[Rick Danger]

Updated: November 14, 2010, 10:29 AM ET
Police raid house of RadioShack rider
Associated Press

MILAN -- Lance Armstrong's RadioShack teammate Yaroslav Popovych has had his house in Italy raided by police as part of a doping investigation.

Italian media reported that police and custom officials raided the house in Tuscany on Thursday and that computers and mobile phones were confiscated, along with unspecified substances.

Gazzetta dello Sport reported that the search warrant was issued by public prosecutor Bendetto Roberti, who is leading several doping investigations in Italy.

Popovych recently testified in front of a grand jury in Los Angeles as part of an ongoing American investigation into doping in cycling.

Popovych rode with Armstrong for the Discovery Channel team in 2005, Astana in 2009 and RadioShack this year.


Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

[Mister Emporia]

The house of cards is getting ever closer to tumbling down around Mr. Armstrong...but in the end - will it matter? Those that love him, will still love him regardless of whether or not he has lied...and those that don't like him will just have more grounds.

In my humble opinion, if you look at who finished 2nd, 3rd and even 4th place behind him in each Tour he won, you will find a string of convicted, admitted or heavily alleged dopers.....thus demonstrating two things (to my mind)...

1) He did not race cleanly in any Tour de France which he won.

2) In those years, one needed to dope to be competitive for the maillot jaune.

[Rick Danger]

What do I think ?

I don't like hypocrisy on any level. If Lance Armstrong is guilty of doping, I will make no excuses for him. Certainly many people around the world have been cheered by the vision of a recovering cancer patient's fight to recover and get along with the business of life. Will this inspirational message be tarnished if it turns out that struggle in not 100% genuine ? Probably so.

But I'm not a child. Allegations of doping have plagued the Tour ever since it's earliest years. Early riders consumed alcohol and used ether, to dull the pain. I have seen numerous colorful pictures of cyclists consuming wine and cigarettes during the Tour. In 1924, Henri Pélissier and his brother Charles told the journalist Albert Londres they used strychnine, cocaine, chloroform, aspirin, "horse ointment" and other drugs. The story was published in Le Petit Parisien under the title "Les Forçats de la Route" ("The Slaves of the Road").

Despite this history, it took the tragic death of Tom Simpson on the climb of Mont Ventoux in 1967 for cycling to "get serious" about doping.

But I have long felt that the measures being taken against Lance Armstrong, guilty or not, are more of a witch hunt by French sporting interests. My support of this can be summed up simply by saying the name "Richard Virenque".

Virenque, a Frenchman who lived in Switzerland was indited as a major figure in the infamous "Festina Affair" in 1998. On July 8, 1998 Willy Voet, a Belgian soigneur of the Festina team and personal carer of Richard Virenque was stopped by customs officers at the Belgian-French border close to Neuville-en-Ferrain near Lille in Northern France. Officers discovered several hundred grams and capsules of anabolic steroids, Erythropoietin (EPO), syringes and other doping products. Voet was taken into police custody. Festina offices were searched in the evening in Lyon and other suspect products were seized. Bruno Roussel, Virenque's directeur sportif, told L'Équipe that Virenque responded to the news by saying: "Mes produits, comment je vais faire maintenant?" ("My products/stuff - what am I going to do now?")

One of the substances that was found that would later be discussed was perfluorocarbon which was said to be an artificial carrier of oxygen. The substance was very dangerous to take and is suspected to have caused the near fatal collapse of Swiss rider Mauro Gianetti during the 1997 Tour de Romandie. Due to the investigation the Tour disqualified Festina.

Virenque's teammates, Christophe Moreau, Laurent Brochard and Armin Meier, admitted taking EPO after being arrested during the Tour. While his former teammates were serving six-month suspensions Virenque returned to racing in 1999. Virenque changed teams to Polti in January and prepared for the 1999 Tour by riding the Giro d'Italia, in which he won a stage.

A few weeks later Virenque's name emerged in an inquiry into Bernard Sainz, the so-called "Dr Mabuse" of cycling who was later jailed for practicing as an unqualified doctor. Franco Polti, the head of Virenque's team, fined him 30 million lire.

Race director Jean-Marie Leblanc banned Virenque from the 1999 Tour de France but was obliged to accept him after a ruling by the Union Cycliste Internationale.

The Festina affair led to a trial in Lille, northern France, in October 2000. Virenque was charged with inciting the administration of doping and masking products to others and complicity in the importation of drugs. Virenque faced a two year jail sentence and a fine of 100,000 francs. There were nine other defendants from the former Festina team. Virenque first denied he had doped himself but then confessed. On October 24th he told the court's president "Oui, je me suis dopé". But he denied doping himself intentionally. In December he was acquitted, though the Swiss cycling federation gave him a nine month ban and a 4,000 Swiss franc fine.

But Virenque ran into trouble again in 2002 when he appeared on a television program, Tout le Monde en Parle, in June. The presenter, Thierry Ardisson, asked him: "If you were sure of winning the Tour by being doped but knew you would not get caught, would you do it?" Virenque replied: "Win the Tour doped, but without getting caught? Yes."

The program was recorded to be broadcast as-live. Ardisson said that Virenque asked after the recording finished that his answer be cut out. Ardisson said: "It was very naive, very Virenque. But it's a shame that, once again, he didn't want to tell the truth."

Despite the obviously well-earned clouds over his head Virenque was allowed to return to the TDF in 2002, 2003, and 2004, earning the polka-dot jersey as Best Climber in '03 and '04. His record as the best climber in the history of the Tour de France still stands.

I ask you: if the French or WADA had half the evidence on Lance Armstrong that they had on Richard Virenque, would Armstrong been allowed to continue riding the Tour ? Would his wins and his records still stand ? I think the obvious answer is a flat "No".

Hypocrisy in any language still stinks !

sourced from wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festina_affair
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Virenque

[qwerty007]

Great article, Rick.

I dunno what the answer is, but I think the situation is very similar to the drug problem in North America....the more you squeeze, the more slips through your hands, and for every one they catch, there are 10 more that come out of the woodwork.

KNOWING ALL THIS

What percentage (in your opinion) of riders on the Tour, are clean? Can anyone be near the top and not be juicing? (Please tell me you think Canadian Ryder Hesjedal was clean!!!! )

[Rick Danger]

Originally Posted by qwerty007

What percentage (in your opinion) of riders on the Tour, are clean? Can anyone be near the top and not be juicing?

Wow, this is an extremely tough question. I would think in the upper echelons doping is probably more prevalent. I don't think anyone is going to waste the time and the money doping a domestique. Also, as riders age and have more trouble recovering it is likely more common. I can tell you at my age while my output might be as high as it was twenty years ago, it takes me longer to recover. No, I'm not talking about that............"..... it takes me all night to remember what I used to do all night".

In the "old days", it was not uncommon for top riders to ride in the spring classics, the Giro d' Italia, the Vuelta a España, and the Tour de France. Some would ride the Tour de Suisse and perhaps skip the Giro. But the bottomline was the top riders rode themselves into shape in the spring, tested their fitness in the Giro, and then rode Le Tour. And it was not unusual for these men to finish well in more than one race. One obvious knock on Lance Armstrong is that he never seriously raced the entire season as did the great winners of past Tours. He specialized and put his entire focus on winning in July.

Also it was not unusual to see a top man in the TDF GC have a bad day, especially in the mountains. Even the immortal Eddy Merckx was not immune, as was seen in 1971:

"The only rider of the period to shake Merckx was the Spaniard, Luis Ocaña, who lived near Mont-de-Marsan in south-west France. Ocaña cared little for Merckx's reputation and attacked him on the Puy-de-Dôme, dropping him but not taking the yellow jersey. Three days later, Ocaña attacked when the race reached the Alps. By Orcières-Merlette he had taken 8m 41s out of the Belgian."

But Merckx was also caught in doping controversies of the time. Researching for this response, I found this information, which frankly surprised me:

Originally Posted by wikipedia.org

Merckx has condemned doping but he tested positive three times. The first time was in the 1969 Giro d'Italia where he tested positive for the stimulant Reactivan at Savona, after leading the race through 16 stages. He was expelled from the Giro. The controversy began to swirl when his test results were not handled in the correct manner, they were released to the press before all parties (Merckx and team officials) involved were notified. Merckx was very upset, and to this day, protests his innocence. He argued there were no counter-experts nor counter-analysis. He said the stage during which he was allegedly using drugs was easy so there was no need. He said:

"At the time, the controls weren't reliable and I wasn't able to defend myself. They had started on the analysis and the counter-analysis during the night, without anyone from my team's being present. They had, they said, tried to get my manager, Vincenzo Giacotto, by phone, but he hadn't left his room all evening. The following morning, I was in my racing clothes, ready to leave, when they came to tell me I was positive and therefore excluded from the Giro."

Merckx was also found positive after winning the Giro di Lombardia in 1973. He had taken Mucantil (Iodinated glycerol). He said in 2007 that he wanted the Union Cycliste Internationale to give him back his victory. He said:

"I was disqualified for taking a syrup which had been taken off the list of forbidden products.”

“ It was Dr Cavalli, of Molteni, who prescribed it to me a bit lightly [un peu légèrement]. And he admitted his error publicly. Looking back, I can't see why they could disqualify me for such a ridiculous and inoffensive product as norephedrine."

The World Anti-Doping Agency removed norephedrine, phenylpropanolamine, from the list of banned drugs in 2004.

Then he was caught after taking Stimul in the 1975 Flèche Wallonne. Merckx said:

"That, I can't deny. I was positive along with around 15 others. I was wrong to trust a doctor."

In 1977 the Belgian doctor, Professor Michel Debackere, perfected a test for pémoline, an amphetamine-like drug, and caught three of the biggest names in Belgium: Merckx, Freddy Maertens and Michel Pollentier.

It seems that riders in the past took stimulants, esp. amphetamines, to either keep going in the saddle or to recover. Is this considered a performance enhancer ? Yes, I guess, but I would think the practice was probably widespread. The most tragic example of course was the death of Tom Simpson, who had amphetamines in his jersey when he died on Mont Ventoux.

Of course, the technology exists today for much more advanced PEDs. Blood boosting using EPO or self-transfusions to increase oxygen capacity are often cited abuses. When EPO started to hit the news in the early '80s riders who used it were literally dropping (dead) like flies. Obviously progress (???) has been made in the formulation and handling of that drug. Synthetic hormones to boost strength, heal injuries and aid recovery also seem popular. I hate to say it, but back in 2006 Floyd Landis appeared to be at death's door one day, and the next he was flying up the mountains like an eagle. I was suspicious of that performance from the start.

To summarize, I think 20%-25% of the peloton in any given race is probably doping. This will vary from race to race, taking into account that each team would want to boost the chances of their top man in a given race; if Rider A won the Giro than Rider B would probably be the 'danger man' for the Tour. Plus by keeping the number of riders low it would make it a little harder for the anti-doping officials to zone in on an entire team.

As I said, the history of the Tour in any era has included doping and doping allegations. Right or wrong, it seems to be a fact of life in the peloton.