2012 Tour de France champion and olympic time trial winner: Bradley Wiggins, illustrated by Stanley Chow.
Available in different sizes as graphic art print here. “Go Wiggo”
Month: August 2012
I suddenly fancy a fat bike – Salsa Beargrease
The Beargrease is the new “racing” fatbike. At a very svelte 28lbs or so, this is one (if not the lightest) light fatbike (in fact only 2 pounds more than my titanium carver rohloff beastie ….. Salsa Based this model off of their successful Mukluk, they cut all of the fancy braze-ons to save weight, and added quite the impressive parts list to achieve such a light fatty. It screams out for a frame bag and a sleeping bag and a real adventure ….
Beargrease
The Beargrease is our ultimate snow and soft conditions racing machine. Designed as our lightest and fastest fatbike, it is ready for the races.
Featuring our ultralight Beargrease aluminum fork and traditional vertical dropouts, Beargrease takes a minimalist approach to keep bike weight down, and speed up, while still delivering the necessary floatation to keep you riding in the soft stuff.
Floatation, floatation, floatation…a fatbike is nothing without floatation. Wide rims, and wide tires run at proper pressure for the conditions, make the difference between riding and pushing.
Effective frame geometry is equally important. Beargrease is stable and rides comfortably at slow speed, allowing riders to avoid dabbing in tough conditions. If conditions do force you to put a foot down, excellent standover clearance helps you stop and restart on narrow slow laden trails.
Beargrease features an anodized aluminum frame and fork. Anodizing doesn’t just look nice; It’s also lighter than a painted finish and much more scratch resistant and durable. The aluminum frame is lightweight and extremely corrosion resistant. Melting snow and adventures beneath the high tide line won’t cause the frameset to rust.
Whether it is a 40-mile weekend race, or the 1000-mile Iditarod Invitational in Alaska, Beargrease won’t hold you back.
Beargrease. Leave a fresh track.
What are you doing Saturday
On the pretence of my half marathon the next day I am excused from doing this sportive – look at that elevation climb half way though – all together ‘easy as ….ouch’
90 miles – 9,600 ft of ascent
The route will take you east from Kinlochewe near beautiful Loch Maree to the wide canvass of Achnasheen and its surrounding hills. From there you head south on a fine new road down through Glen Carron to the sea at picturesque Lochcarron. Things get tough now as the road swings sharply upward for the main climb to Bealach-na-Ba.
The reward is great as a massive vista over the west coast and the Isle of Skye opens before you as you plunge down to sea level again at Applecross. The hard work is not over as the next section around the north of the peninsula has hardly any flat as it clings to the coast, past rocky cliffs and sandy coves. This is country rarely visited by the tour buses. Finally you pass the charming village of Sheildaig nestling in the shelter of its loch and the final section begins. Weary legs will be revived through rugged Glen Torridon overshadowed by the massive craggy bulk of Liatach and its sisters on the famous ridge. Finally, relief is at hand with a gentle descent back to the finish at Kinlochewe.
Sustrans boss calls for safer streets as survey reveals “truly shocking” extent of short-hop school runs | road.cc | Road cycling news, Bike reviews, Commuting, Leisure riding, Sportives and more
No wonder so many kids (and their parents) are obese …
The chief executive of sustainable transport charity Sustrans has described the findings of a survey that revealed that one in ten children living within 500 yards of their school are driven there each day by their parents as “truly shocking.”
The survey, carried out by AOL-owned website Parentdish.co.uk among 2,000 parents of school-age children, also found that fewer of half of pupils walk to school and that one in three who are taken there in a car live less than a mile away, and that time pressures caused two thirds of parents who would prefer that their children walk to school take them there in the car instead.
Sustrans chief executive Malcoolm Shepherd called for a 20mph speed limit to be put in place nationally to make streets safer for children and said: “The number of children travelling such short distances to school by car remains truly shocking.
“Just walking or cycling for brief periods each day can be massively beneficial to children’s health, particularly with the obesity crisis continuing to grow.
“Parents must feel that roads are safe enough for their children to walk or cycle along, and the introduction of a 20mph national default speed limit in built up areas would make our roads safer, increase physical activity and improve children’s health.”
Sustrans says that its Bike It programme has led to the number of children riding a bike to school each day trebling at those schools where it has been put in place.
Tamsin Kelly, editor of Parentdish.co.uk, said: “Jumping in the car for the school run may be the easy option, especially when we’re all so time pressed, but leaving a little more time to walk to school really does reap rewards for everyone.
“It’s a time to give your children some undivided attention without the demands of home and work, and a brisk walk really does set them up for the start of the day.”
The Campaign for Better Trasport’s Car Depedency Scorecard 2012, which we reported on yesterday, showed big fluctuations in the level of cycling and walking to school in the 27 English towns and cities analysed.
The organisation’s research found that in Cambridge, three in four children walk or cycle to school, but only around half did so in Gateshead, the lowest-ranked location analysed.
The research also found that London had a low ranking when it came to children walking or cycling to school, but said that a possible explanation was that under-18s in the capital who are in full-time education are eligible for free bus travel.
Danish Cargo Bike Champs ….
from copenhagenize.com
Svajerløb 2012 – Danish Cargo Bike Championships
Last Saturday was this year’s Svajerløb – Danish Cargo Bike Championships here in Copenhagen. The races were run at Carlsberg, like last year and it was fantastic day. Above are all the participants at the end of the day.
Hans, from Larry vs Harry, started the proceedings by welcoming everyone and then yours truly took over the mic as announcer.
One of the best things about this year’s races was that we had so many people from abroad who made the trip to participate. Above is Francesco, who brought two of his Bicicapace bikes and his his family and he took part in the Individual Two-Wheeler race and the Team Relay.There was also a wider selection of bike brands participating. Batak was there again this year and there were Omniums, Longjohns, Shortjohns, you name it.
Our kids were the best spectators, of course. Don’t let these quiet moments fool you.
Here are the medallists of the Team Relay. Team Bullitt confidently defended their gold medal from 2011.
There was drama in the Individual Two-Wheeled discipline this year. The race went right to the wire. Jumbo from By-Expressen – a Copenhagen messenger company – took the honours on the top podium this year, dethroning the otherwise untouchable Claus Bullit (behind the beer bottle at left)
Here is the line-up for the final. 12 bikes. Bullitts but also a short-john and an Omnium.
Claus Bullitt was first into the loading zone after the first lap.
It was Jumbo, however, who squeezed past him on the last stretch on his Omnium cargo bike.
In the Ladies Individual Two-Wheeler final, Charlotte bettered her second-place from last year and took gold. Fanny from Klara Geist in Berlin took second and Hans’ wife, Signe, took third, but wasn’t present for the ceremony.
Here are the winners of the Vintage bike discipline – only old school cargo bikes allowed. The silver medallist, Trevor at left, is from Australia. Which makes him the Australian Champion, of course. Good onya.
Fanny and Willi, from Berlin, provided the music and speaker system on their Bullitt, with one of their great Klara Geist speaker systems.
Medal ceremony for the Three-Wheeler discipline. Leif dominated the field and walked away as Danish champion for the fourth year in a row on his Kangaroo. Somebody, please… give him some competition! Second and third place went to two Berliners on Christiania Bikes.
Here they are at left – Hans and Arne – going for a practice spin. And here are the winners (at right). Leif got a medal, but we’re sure he’ll remember the Cyclelogistics cargo bike pencil holder even more.
Steven from Grid Chicago – going for a ride with Lasse from Bicycle Innovation Lab – was in town for the event, together with Brandon, at right, dressed in true Svajere style for the day.
The audience darling, however, was Birthe. She was on a bachelorette outing with a group of girlfriends, being ridden around in a Christiania bike. They came past and entered the Team Relay with a team called Team Love. That’s the spirit! We enlisted the services of the bride-to-be during the medal ceremony, handing out the medals and cheek kisses to the winners.
This guy popped wheelies on his Bullitt like it was nothing. Riding back and forth on the back wheel. Only a handful of people on the planet can pull this off. God knows I’ve tried. Impressive.See you all next year!
more Lance Pharmstrong analysis
this chap doesn’t mince his words and boy is he putting any lance fanboys through the ringer ….
There’s a lot of misinformation out there following Lance Armstrong’s decision to accept a life ban rather than contest charges of doping. Let’s correct some of it, and show you the man behind all of the myths. As we go along, you’ll see that allegations against Armstrong have been there not just since he began winning the Tour de France, but that he’s been associated with people around doping almost since he began competing in organised sport. Be warned: This is a very long read. I intended it to be as concise as possible, and for that reason I’ve been unable to shorten it.
Lance Armstrong was 18 when he first met Chris Carmichael, in 1990. Carmichael was the new head of the US cycling team, and was an ex-professional with experience on the American 7-11 team, competing in one Tour de France which he failed to finish. Carmichael was named and sued by two other cyclists also training with him at this time, Greg Strock and Erich Keiter, for doping them with cortisone, steroids, and other various products during the 1990 season. Carmichael settled this case out of court, in 2001, but the evidence was damning – there was systemic doping and corruption in the US coaching system during Carmichael’s time there.
The doping undertaken by Carmichael and others on these junior riders posed significant health risks to both of the men, a core concern about the risks of doping in sport. Of course, Lance Armstrong was a team-mate back then. Armstrong would go on to work with Carmichael for the rest of his sporting career.
Yet this week, Carmichael’s response to Lance Armstrong’s acceptance of is ban is simple: He believes that Lance was the best athlete, but at no point does he say that Armstrong never doped – he only made a statement that he’d never seen him do so. The lack of a specific denial there is key and follows a very clear theme – Armstrong would never say that he’d never doped. Instead, he would say one of two themes, that he’d either never tested positive (note here: this isn’t correct, and we’ll go over that later), or that he’d never been caught.
Armstrong went on to race in Europe after that period with Carmichael and the US team. In 1992 he raced with Motorola, and in 1993 he won both the US national title and the World Championship in a race in horrible weather, including roads covered in a torrential downpour, rendering the road surface slippery like ice due to the diesel and oil on them. The inclement conditions resulted in one of the smallest finishing fields in history, and the withdrawal of the majority of race favourites citing the danger the weather presented.
Allegations about Armstrong’s involvement with drugs come from at least this far back. Steve Swart, team-mate of Armstrong’s on Motorola, said that Armstrong was the central figure in encouraging riders to dope. His claims were published in two books, and Armstrong sued after their publication: He dropped one lawsuit in France, and had another dismissed, being slightly more successful when obtaining a judgement in England after a newspaper there printed an excerpt about it. But where the books were published, in France, Armstrong never had a case – it was not proven the books were lying.
Armstrong enjoyed mixed success from that point onward – winning the occasional one day race or stage and podium places on a few others. There was nothing in his ability level which suggested he had the ability to win a Grand Tour – in fact it was the very opposite. In 1995 he managed to finish the Tour at the third time of asking, in 36th place.
Armstrong’s career continued along these lines, with sporadic wins, until he met (and began working with) Italian doctor, Michele Ferrari in 1996. Michele Ferrari is a doctor who has been implicated in evidence from a number of athletes, and banned for life by the Italian Olympic Committee. No Italian athlete is permitted to work with him, and breaches are punishable with bans. More on him a little later.
Armstrong famously got very ill in 1996, contracting cancer. The signs of this showed up very early in the year, but weren’t recognised. This is important: Armstrong, despite having cancer, put in some of his best ever performances. A debilitating disease (at least, Armstrong’s own foundation lists it as such) was having a chronic effect on his body and yet he was performing better than ever before, despite Armstrong’s own admission that he’d noticed abnormalities related to the cancer three years before his diagnosis.
But there’s a subscript to his cancer that hasn’t really been explored: Armstrong by his own claim is the most tested athlete on the planet, and given he enjoyed considerable success in 1996 and beforehand, would certainly have been subject to numerous doping controls. Some cancers – including the type Lance Armstrong had – cause enormously elevated levels of human chorionic gonadotropin hormone (hCG), a naturally occuring hormone in the body, but at low levels in males. Now, there are rules for the amount of hCG permitted in an athlete, because it offers a competitive advantage – not enough to overcome the deficiencies cancers cause, but a good advantage in a healthy human being, because it produces testosterone. An athlete is often considered to have failed a drug test if the urinary T/E (Testosterone:Epitestosterone) ratio is greater than 6. So the UCI would have been testing for it, and Armstrong’s cancer would have resulted in an enormously elevated T/E ratio.
But Armstrong never produced a positive sample. Compare that with Jake Gibb whose life, it could be argued, was saved by USADA’s testing, when it detected those hugely elevated levels in an anti-doping test, and advised him to see a doctor. That ultimately led to the discovery of testicular cancer, and Gibb recovered. Lance Armstrong wasn’t so lucky – so we can assume one of two things. Either the UCI’s anti-doping measures were woefully below standard, and didn’t detect Armstrong’s elevated levels of hCG, allowing his cancer to worsen while competing, or the UCI’s anti-doping discovered Armstrong’s elevated levels and didn’t report them. Either way, it’s a massive condemnation in the UCI’s ability to validate itself as a serious entity in drug testing. At best it’s woefully ineffective, at worst it’s simply corrupt.
Ultimately nobody can fight off cancer without medicine, and Armstrong’s condition worsened, until he finally went to a doctor where the diagnosis was confirmed, and Armstrong began urgent treatment.
As part of that treatment, Armstrong, scared and with nobody with knowledge to consult about his condition, was asked in hospital whether he’d ever used any performance-enhancing drugs(PEDs). His response, as detailed by npr, and in evidence given by Betsy Andreu, was to list off a reel of drugs which he’d taken.
Betsy Andreu’s deposition was given and submitted as evidence years later, when SCA promotions was taken to court by Armstrong for non-payment of a bonus. SCA’s defence was that Armstrong had used PEDs, and they obtained Andreu’s evidence to defend that claim. Armstrong, by now estranged from the Andreus , had not spoken to them for years. But when he learned that the Andreus were to be subpoenaed, he made the extraordinary step of contacting Frankie Andreu in an attempt to influence his testimony, and that of his wife, Betsy, who declined to give a statement along Armstrong’s version of events. Frankie was rattled – he said in his evidence that he hadn’t wanted to testify but had been forced to by the subpoena – but he corroborated his wife’s version of events; that Armstrong had confessed to PED use. Armstrong, in a further attempt to intimidate Betsy Andreu when giving evidence, flew to witness her doing exactly that, sitting in the back of the room during her deposition, saying nothing, and then immediately flying back home. In the process that followed he attempted to characterise Betsy as fat, ugly, obsessed and jealous. Hard to characterise any of those as true if you saw her or listened to watch she had to say.
Ultimately, modern medicine saved Armstrong. That fact has been distorted as years have gone by with Armstrong’s claim to be riding to ‘fight’ the disease – when the only time it’s been beaten is with the help of medicine and drugs. The ironic thing here is that steroid usage has been proven to cause cancer, and wassuggested by a former WADA spokesman to have possible been complicit in Armstrong contracting the disease.
Ultimately, Armstrong found it difficult to find a team after recovering, and ended up on the US Postal team, which from 1999 onward would have it’s management under the direction of former ONCE rider, Johan Bruyneel. ONCE were a Spanish cycling team heavily implicated in EPO usage in investigations following the1998 Tour de France.
In 1997, Armstrong’s agent, Bill Stapleton, became an official of the US Olympic Committee. Sports Illustrated would report years down the track that Armstrong, in three tests the 90s, produced samples that indicated doping with testosterone. The anti-doping scientist who allegedly tested these samples was Don Catlin. He was unable to confirm two of the tests – a highly irregular occurrence – and refused to comment on the third. Don Catlin would later be called to oversee Armstrong’s “transparent” testing during his comeback – a process which covered only a single test before it was aborted. Having an atmosphere where two men so closely tied in business relationships with Armstrong wouldn’t be conducive to finding a positive test against him.
With Armstrong’s return to the bike in 1998 came the return to working with Michele Ferrari. Armstrong would later state to Floyd Landis, a team-mate on the USPS team, that Michele Ferrari was paranoid that he’d helped cause the cancer through his providing the drugs Armstrong was using in 1996. Ferrari, the team doctor on Gewiss-Ballan, had been famous for his statement that ‘EPO was no more dangerous than drinking orange juice’, when suspicions began to arise about drug use due to Gewiss’ sudden exceptional performances. Ferrari immediately got Armstrong back into an intensive program of drug use. The net result was Armstrong, cancer-free and drug-boosted, beginning to suddenly make the cycling world sit up and take notice with increased endurance, producing performances in stage races. Make no bones about it: Cancer does not cause this. It doesn’t transform an athlete into a super-athlete. This has never happened before, or since. That’s because it doesn’t happen. Armstrong’s 4th placed finish at the Tour of Spain confirmed the work Ferrari had been doing. The next thing to do was to take it to the next level.
1998’s Festina scandal did produce a diamond from the rough: Riders implicated in Festina’s team-wide doping scandal all said that Christophe Bassons had been the only rider on his team to refuse to take drugs. Bassons, cleared of any wrongdoing, was invited to write newspaper articles the following year when he was to ride, for a new team (FDJ), in the Tour de France. Bassons wrote largely innocuous columns, but one in particular came to the attention of Armstrong. Bassons had written that Armstrong’s return, suddenly to the head of the pack, had ‘shocked’ the peloton.
Armstrong’s response was to question the rider during a subsequent stage, inform Bassons that “it was a mistake to speak out” about doping, asking why he’d done it. Bassons responded by telling Armstrong that he was ‘thinking of the next generation of riders’. Armstrong’s response to Bassons was to tell him “Why don’t you leave then?”. Armstrong confirmed this version of events, and stated to the press that evening “His accusations aren’t good for cycling, for his team, for me, for anybody. If he thinks cycling works like that, he’s wrong and he would be better off going home.”
The problem was, of course, that Bassons had seen his entire team found guilty of it – cycling did work like that, and he was the lone voice at that point to speak up about it. Armstrong’s suggestion that he leave the sport was, therefore, an admission that Bassons was, at least in Armstrong’s eyes, unwelcome. Bassons was ostracised, and forced to leave the race. Armstrong had effectively bullied him out of the sport Bassons was trying to clean up. Bassons attempted to ride on for two more years, but it wasn’t a hospitable place. He now works in anti-doping.
This wasn’t the last time Armstrong would, mid-race, seek to influence another cyclist’s view on doping. But nor was it the only relevant point in that race.
In 1999, Lance Armstrong tested positive for a prohibited substance in a urine test: corticosteroids. Armstrong produced a prescription for a cream, claiming it was being used to treat saddle sores, a common ailment amongst cyclists. The problem with this was that riders are required to produce these prescriptions prior to use, and prior to testing. Armstrong had not done so, and consequently had indeed tested positive. Not only that, but Armstrong, as corroborated by a staff member at the time, obtained and then back-dated that prescription after the positive test had taken place.
That staff member was Emma O’Reilly, a soigneur (basically a jack-of-all-trades within a team, but commonly a masseuse). She also stated that Armstrong had made her dispose of syringes, traffic drugs for him and use make-up to cover up needle marks on his arms. Armstrong, in an attempt to discredit O’Reilly, would stoop as low as he could go: He alleged she was having multiple sexual relationships with riders on the team, called her a liar, and her employment was disposed of, for telling the truth.
Perhaps out of complicity, or perhaps out of guilt for not detecting Lance Armstrong’s cancer, the UCI then decided to take no more action. Armstrong’s positive was seemingly buried into history with his repeated claims that he ‘never tested positive’.
Armstrong, fresh from that success in the 1999 tour, went on to win in 2000 and 2001, where the most serious and damning issue in his whole career took place.
The Tour of Switzerland is one of two races normally ridden as preparation for the Tour de France, the other being the Dauphine Libere, and Armstrong headed to Switzerland as part of his preparation for the defence of his Tour de France.Armstrong, fresh with a warning from Michele Ferrari not to use EPO, as a test had been formulated and ratified, tested positive for exactly that in Switzerland in 2001. This has been corroborated by multiple people, including ex-Armstrong team-mates, and the lab director (Martial Saugy) who, although initially stating through the media that this hadn’t occurred, later corrected his stance, and told the only anti-doping agency to ask him, that it was a positive. Saugy has also stated that he was told by a prominent person at the UCI that it wasn’t going any further. The directive to make it disappear was delivered by none other than the head of the UCI at the time, Hein Verbrugghen.
This is worth emphasising: A number of people testified that Lance Armstrong testified positive for EPO, and that Armstrong’s influence with the governing body of the sport made that positive test simply disappear. That’s another nail in the coffin of Lance’s “never tested positive” diatribe. Two positive tests, two years apart. But that wasn’t to be the end.
What came out of that was the most damning evidence of corruption possible. Armstrong made two payments to the UCI, totalling $125,000. The UCI has said these were to purchase anti-doping equipment. They have never produced the receipts to corroborate this. Regardless of where that money went, it is unprecedented that an active athlete would voluntarily pay a sum of money to a governing body. If it’s happened before, or since, I’d be amazed.
In 2002, Armstrong was exposed as working with Michele Ferrari. This caused considerable consternation due to Ferrari’s history and comments about drugs in sport. Floyd Landis, a team-mate of Lance Armstrong’s, would later disclose that Michele Ferrari would withdraw blood from him, to be transfused back into his blood stream at the Tour de France – as serious a doping breach as has ever taken place.
Fast-forward to 2003, and an Italian cyclist named Fillipo Simeoni becomes enemy number one for Lance Armstrong. Simeoni had admitted in evidence that he’d (Simeoni) begun doping in 1993 and Armstrong’s doctor, Michele Ferrari, had prescribed and showed him how to use products like EPO and HGH in 1996 and 1997. Simeoni subsequently served a suspension in 2001/2002. Armstrong’s response in 2003 was to call Simeoni a liar in a newspaper interview – as though Simeoni would, for no reason, gain himself a suspension and make it up. Simeoni’s response was to then sue Armstrong for defamation, announcing any winnings would be donated to charity. Things reached a head in the 2004 Tour de France.
On the 18th stage, Simeoni put in an attack, and joined a breakaway of 6 other riders. That breakaway posed no threat to the leaders of the tour, and normally would have been let go, to be chased down later in the stage, or to win it. But Armstrong had other ideas. Vengeance was the plan, and it was exacted. Armstrong himself attacked, and immediately closed the gap to the breakaway. The riders, in the knowledge the peloton would not let Armstrong get away, knew they would be caught. The other six in the break implored Armstrong to return to the group, but Armstrong would not leave unless Simeoni did also. Simeoni sacrificed his own race, rejoined the group and Armstrong did the same. When Simeoni dropped back, he was abused, and Armstrong made a famous gesture of zipping his lips. The implication was clear: shut your mouth, or you will never get any success. Armstrong subsequently was indicted by Italian authorities and was lucky to escape charges of witness intimidation. Simeoni, due to Lance’s actions, was ostracised, spat at, abused, and finished his career as a journeyman of sorts, mostly untouched by cycling teams at the highest level. He was persona non grata, for speaking out against the man who’d helped him dope, and who just happened to be Armstrong’s doctor.
2005 brought more things to light. Armstrong’s former personal assistant, Mike Anderson saw a box of androstenone – a steroid – when cleaning Armstrong’s apartment. Anderson’s deposition in a lawsuit against Armstrong detailed systemic bullying and harassment against both Anderson and his wife, both in the period of Anderson’s employment and afterward. Armstrong settled the case out of court.
The most explosive issue though, was the discovery of Armstrong’s 1999 Tour de France samples. A test for EPO wasn’t available back in 1999, and so samples couldn’t be tested for it at the time. As was practice though, samples were stored in the event they could be retested later. After an EPO test became available, Armstrong’s samples were amongst a batch to be retested. Six of Armstrong’s samples tested positive for EPO, a result one of the world’s leading anti-doping scientists verified as being almost impossible to have occurred any other way than through drug usage. Chalk that up as another nail in the “never tested positive” coffin. Unfortunately, Armstrong wasn’t prosecuted (again!) on these EPO positives – the retests were for research purposes, not anti-doping ones, and so the UCI declined to pursue the matter further.
Armstrong retired, confident in the knowledge his cheating hadn’t been punished.
Except that, in 2008, he announced a comeback. This is important today for two reasons:
1) Without this comeback, he wouldn’t have finally been caught and banned.
2) It provided the evidence that finally caught Lance Armstrong.As mentioned earlier, Lance announced, to much fanfare, that he was going to be tested by Don Catlin, once and for all, to prove his innocence, and publish the results on his website.
Armstrong stopped the arrangement after a single test, presumably fearful of it actually turning up a positive result. He did continue to post his bio-passport figures though, including changing some of themafter their publication in an attempt to make them less suspicious.Armstrong was permitted to ride despite not having fulfilled a mandatory period of testing for the new bio-passport prior to competing – yes, that’s the UCI being complicit in shifting the goalposts again.
Regardless, science and the sport had moved on somewhat, and Lance’s blood values ultimately assisted in bringing him down – his values in the Tour of Italy in May were largely what should be expected of an athlete competing in endurance sport. But in the Tour de France, they were the opposite, and displayed evidence that he had been receiving blood transfusions during the race. This was to form part of USADA’s case against Armstrong – and he knew it.
In 2010, more bad news: Armstrong’s former team-mates began to admit their own doping histories, and when asked, admitted that Armstrong had both used doping products and facilitated the supply of them to his team, along with doctors and management. Armstrong’s response was to smear the character of the individuals – a tactic which I’ve shown was a standard response for every allegation dating back to the mid 90s.
Finally, in 2012, an anti-doping agency would finally collate all the evidence to bring charges against Lance Armstrong. Armstrong would identify the extent of his guilt, and accept the charges without contest. But he’d intentionally obfuscate, lie, and make false allegations about the entire proceeding to prevent the evidence from becoming public, and to smear those presenting them. He’d enlist the help of organisations who helped cover up positive test results, who he sent money to, and who fought themselves to try and keep it quiet.
Yellow wristbands are too important you see. Lance was never doing it for cancer. His actions prove – Lance was always doing it for himself, and by extension, he became worth a lot to other people.
If you’ve read this far, congratulations. You’re probably in one of three mindsets:
- Stunned at the extent of what has gone on and amazed. This isn’t uncommon amongst people who discover the truth. My only request to you is that you don’t allow lies and misinformation to distort the wonderful work of the people in anti-doping. They aren’t conducting witch-hunts. They’re after clean sport, and to protect the lives of athletes. They’re trying to stop cyclists dying in their sleep from EPO thickening their bloodstream.
- Completely disagreeing with everything I’ve shown you here, and labelling me a hater. If so, you’re looking for something you’ll never find. Enjoy your yellow wristbands, post on Lance’s facebook about how he’s an idol and role model. People who saw his behaviour will disagree, and they’ve a little more experience than you.
- Thinking ‘I knew this already’. Yes, but for every one of you, there’s a thousand people who don’t know it. Send them here. Show them the truth, so that we can stop this behaviour happening again.
Me? Even while writing this I was still stunned by how much there was, and I’ve known about much of it for years. I never thought I’d fill almost 4,000 words detailing bullying, harassment, and efforts to keep drug-taking in sport quiet. I pray nobody has to again. Even now, I know I missed a lot of it. I may have to do some edits to give even more detail and context.
Am I a hater? You bet. I’m a hater of drug-taking athletes the world over. Most of all, I detest behaviour that ostracises, punishes, and abuses people simply because they dared to tell the truth, to rid themselves of guilt, and seeks to ruin their lives. I hate corrupt organisations that run sports, and I hate the people who foster that corruption.
my pal Keith gets in a century (something I have yet to do in imperial terms being a metric boy ….
After a very disappointing false start, I finally made my way out along the Ayrshire coastline through Bishopton, Port Glasgow, Greenock, and Largs to finish and have a well deserved sandwich in the quiet town of Irvine. This was a charity cycle for Action Medical Research (A subject I have became more passionate about since the birth of my daughter in January 2012) that I had planned to take part in, and in fact started, only to discover that 12 miles into the ride that my pedal had decided to come loose and wear away the inside of the crank arm that it was once attached to. So, the week after the disappointment of having to withdraw from the event (of which my generous family, friends & work colleagues had sponsored over £300.00) I decided to get back in the saddle and tackle this trip and accomplish the…
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Lazy Rando puts it all together on his blog …. Pharmstrong debate as strong as ever ….
Lance Armstrong decided not to fight the charges the USADA brought against him and was found guilty of doping and banned from the sport for life. His Tour de France wins may be stripped from him as well as his other wins from that era. You can click on the image above to read an article over at Velonews on the subject. By not fighting the charges he avoided having all the testimony against him end up in the news and managed to save his image to some degree. He knows what the folks who were going to testify would say and his lawyers would have advised him what his chances were at coming out of that process without being found guilty. One thing you gotta agree on about LA is that he surrounds himself with experts and uses their advice to make smart choices.As for the issue of his doping past it’s not a surprise to anyone who watched the pro racing of that era. Almost every other contemporary with a shot at the podium at the Tour has been found guilty of doping. In the current peleton Contador has been stripped of his last Tour win and a Shleck has been charged with doping. To believe LA was one of the only top pros not doping despite all of this and a retinue of witnesses ready to testify for the USADA is ridiculous. On the other hand it does change the landscape within which we judge LA’s actions. Everybody was doing it. It’s still going on today.
Kudos to the USADA for having the courage to go after Lance. With the UCI, the US Government and the US public behind LA that was a brave choice. Building a case by collecting evidence through witness statements and uncovering documents is far harder than getting a doping positive, but as we’ve seen the professional cycling peleton can take a load of doping products and pass all sorts of laboratory controls without getting caught. The guys that do get caught didn’t start doping that morning just before the race. They were doping for a while and finally didn’t follow the right protocols of dosage and timings or got surprised by a test they weren’t expecting. So when LA gives his “I was the most tested athlete in the peleton.” speech I just roll my eyes and my inside voice says “With the best doping doctors in the world on your staff.” USADA charged that LA’s team had managed to get a TdeF doping positive suppressed back in 1999. I hope we hear what happened in that case. It might shed more light on how LA kept things rolling for so long without getting caught. It might also explain why the UCI was so unhappy with USADA’s pursuit of LA; they may well be implicated in the cover up.
It’s funny when you read folks criticizing the USADA for taking up the LA case as if they are doing it to an innocent man for some evil reason. On one hand you have a pro athlete in a sport rife with doping who can help himself and his team generate millions of dollars of profit as well as build himself up as a huge celebrity on the other you have some guys at the USADA paid modest salaries who are responsible for enforcing the WADA code. They will never be famous, they won’t make millions and they’ll make a lot of enemies in the process of pursuing LA. Not to mention they have to face two panels of independent arbitrators with their evidence including the at the well respected CAS if the athlete challenges the charges. Note that LA didn’t want to face these arbitrators and have them hear the evidence which is why he gave up the fight.
Will this change anything? One benefit of Lance getting banned is that the doping fairy tale of LA’s career won’t be there to let young racers fool themselves into thinking they’ll get away with doping if they are smart about it. On the other hand people are greedy and they want fame and fortune. In a challenging sport like cycling there will always be the temptation to cheat by doping. We continue to charge and convict murderers even though we know it won’t stop folks killing other folks. Doping won’t stop in cycling, but the more energy we spend fighting it the less successful doping will occur.
Lance Armstrong decided not to fight the charges the USADA brought against him and was found guilty of doping and banned from the sport for life. His Tour de France wins may be stripped from him as well as his other wins from that era. You can click on the image above to read an article over at Velonews on the subject. By not fighting the charges he avoided having all the testimony against him end up in the news and managed to save his image to some degree. He knows what the folks who were going to testify would say and his lawyers would have advised him what his chances were at coming out of that process without being found guilty. One thing you gotta agree on about LA is that he surrounds himself with experts and uses their advice to make smart choices.
As for the issue of…
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monday bike Style: country looker
The Bonk ride – today i suffered
Went for the ride i mentioned yesterday and loved it – apart from the last 10km where i felt cold had no energy and felt a wee bit dizzy THE BONK
Carbohydrates are the primary energy source for all cyclists who push themselves, while fats are more important in slower, endurance events. Protein is not an energy source, but maintains and repairs cells and tissue.
The “bonk” occurs when the body’s stores of carbohydrate (glycogen in the liver and muscles) is depleted and the exercising muscle shifts to fat metabolism as its primary source of energy. Occasionally overtraining may be the result of failing to adequately replace the muscle glycogen depleted as a result of daily training with the onset of what might be considered a chronic bonk type situation – or at least bonking much earlier in a ride than usual. this is particularly a risk at the elite athlete level where there may be multiple training sessions (or competitions) per day, and limited time to eat.
To minimize the risk of early bonking and chronic glycogen depletion as a possible cause of overtraining, it is important to maximize your body glycogen stores by using dietary carbohydrates to your advantage before, during, and after a ride:
- eating a high carbohydrate diet in the days and hours before your ride
- using carbohydrate supplements while riding
- using the immediate post ride recovery interval to begin rebuilding carbohydrate stores.
I thought I had enough for the 100km – a banana, muesli bar an energy gel …
my HR was a low 124bpm average and max was 160bpm. there was nothing great about it and average speed just 25km/h. Luckily neil was on the ride saw me flagging and gave me a spare gel and just before the end i felt fine …. Still it is a horrible feeling ….
What was great was coming into the house still a bit whacked and there was lovely Jolene saying ‘I made you some lunch … salad, prosciutto and homemade bread’
YUMMY
Sunday worship
A bit last minute, I know, but a change of plans have forced my hand so I’m gonna go round the Lake of Menteith tomorrow.
This might not be to everyone’s taste as I don’t plan to stop at all. It’s 60 miles but with a big breakfast and some food in your back pocket it’s definitely do-able. Up through Milngavie, up over the Queens View, Pipe Track, Gartmore, the Lake, Arnprior and home via Balfron and Killearn. If we don’t mess about too much we can be back home by 2pm ish
Coutts committee crash cockup
Fleet Race 3 ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS crash into the Race Committee boat in the start. Russell and the boys were not able to race as their AC45 full sustained damage. Stay tune for full replays and story post racing.
Cycling should be banned …
the daily mash – always a laugh has picked up on the pharmstrong saga ……
THE Lance Armstrong drug scandal has raised hopes that cycling can now be stopped altogether.
Future generations will thank him
Armstrong has been stripped of the seven Tour de France titles that bored people so comprehensively between 1999 and 2005.
Now campaigners want to seize the latest chance to end cycling in all its monstrous varieties and have all bicycles confiscated, melted down and turned into cars.
Tom Logan, chairman of Please Shut Up About Cycling, said: “Everyone knows that the best way to make something more interesting is to throw a load of drugs at it.
“But with cycling it simply didn’t work. Instead – and this may seem outlandish – it actually made it even more tedious.
“It’s a large group of obsessives travelling at 25 miles per hour. If you came across them on a country road you would hate their fucking guts.”
Logan also stressed that nothing was more symbolic of Britain’s decline than its hysterical pride ‘in a bunch of shaved robots’.
“Sideburns and bowling shoes do not a personality make. If he had a four foot-wide handlebar moustache and wore a shocking pink mini-kilt then that would be a start. But it doesn’t really matter because ultimately he’s still just a dreary knee-pumper.”
Logan praised Armstrong adding: “For every Wiggins, Hoy and Pendleton who inspires a child to get on a bike, we need a Lance Armstrong to shame them into getting straight back off again.
“And to all those who say that cycling is the ‘answer’, I say ‘shut your face’.
“Electric cars, GM crops and stem cell research – there’s your answer.”
A cage for your Birdy … or brompton
With climate change being the hot button topic of the day, word is that alternative methods of transportation are one of the key factors to stabilizing the environment, as well as the next financial ‘big thing’. Industries are quickly trying to be the first to break through in to this profitably promising sector with innovative and interesting new concepts and designs like Dani Miras’s Bike Locker idea. The folding bike Modular Locker is for interior public spaces and creates a light and elegant appearance and also has a fixed wall option.
Pharmstrong …. as inevitable as tainted beef – Guardian Article
Lance Armstrong’s decision allows him to avoid the formal process of prosecution and conviction for doping. Photograph: Tim De Waele/TDW
So no judge in a court of arbitration will ever be called to read sentence in the case of Lance Armstrong. But for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear, the jury was never out.
By refusing to mount a defence in the US Anti-Doping Agency’s case against him, Lance Armstrong has – whatever equivocation and claims of persecution he persists in – all but conceded that he won his sevenTour de France titles by doping. And by walking away from a defence he has ceded those yellow jerseys and lost his status as the most remarkable serial winner in the history of the sport.
There may be some small fraternity of true believers who still need the master-narrative of the heroic cancer survivor-turned-sports superstar and still cling to a conviction that he could have beaten the rap if the world had not conspired against him.
Armstrong’s statement repeats a familiar litany of disingenuous indignation – his record of wins, a lack of physical evidence, the “nonsense” of this “witch-hunt” and so on – but by this decision, Armstrong has excommunicated himself from the Church of Lance: he no longer believes in the plausibility of his own denials. The aggression that kept accusers in check and witnesses silent for so long has been replaced by weariness and resignation.
“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ For me, that time is now,” his statement reads.
Yet even a dope cheat still needs to be a master tactician to win the Tour de France: if Armstrong decided to quit the fight it was because this was the least worst option remaining to him. This pre-emptive retreat allows him to avoid the formal process of prosecution and conviction, and the humiliation that would have gone along with that. Perhaps his Livestrong foundation, and what remains of his tarnished brand, can thus survive in some netherworld of unreason.
Where does that leave cycling? With many unresolved questions. We may never know who were all the former team-mates of Armstrong that USADA had ready to testify against him about the years of EPO use, steroids, blood-doping techniques and whatever else that delivered that unbroken string of Tour victories, though we can guess at their identities. And we will have to wait and see whether Armstrong’s longtime team manager, Johan Bruyneel, will attempt a defence, though the percentage must be in his folding quietly and taking a ban.
We may never finally know what deals were done to hush up the alleged positive tests Armstrong gave, though we have our suspicions.
And we can only wonder who might now be deemed to have won the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005, though we must assume that the Tour authorities would rather award no result than attempt the fool’s errand of seeking retrospectively a clean cyclist in the top 10 of any of those years.
Better to look forward and learn. There is no doubt that the anti-doping agencies have won the upper hand since Lance Armstrong’s heyday in the fight to rid the sport of performance-enhancing drugs. Many do still cheat, though they are fewer and more are caught. Teams keep sponsors by staying clean; they lose them when riders are discovered doping. The governing body, the UCI, has abandoned its shameful connivance of the EPO era.
But there’s no reason for complacency. It will only take a tangential advance in medical science for some new substance to become available for which there is no test; then the cheats will be ahead in the pharmacological arms race once more.
The most important lesson of the Lance Armstrong story, though, is the hardest to prepare for and guard against: our own gullibility and willing complicity. What is astounding and disturbing is that one man – a dominant personality as well as a dominant athlete – was able to enforce his will, isolate, bully and silence his doubters and critics, and win the world’s top cycling event year after year and make people believe in him, despite there being, apparently, dozens of witnesses to its utter phoniness. Too many people had too much invested in the Lance Armstrong story, and the power of persuasion followed the money.
The moral of the story is that if a cyclist looks too good to be true, then he probably is. But if a cyclist looks too good to be true and has an entourage of lawyers, press flaks, doctors and bodyguards, then he definitely is.
———-
Matt Seaton’s article above really nails it and justifies the rant that wiggins had – you only have to look at the climbs in the TdF to see the winners are slowing down and that can only mean one thing …. it is cleaning up.
Friday Bike poster: Solex
After Monday’s post on a solex I found this poster to go with it to round out the week.
but then i also found a sex sells version – road rash in a fall would not be great …..
Hello darling – come here often?
Am I seeing double? I will soon
just popped down to the sorting office to pick up a parcel – the brompton is just so great and the front bag can easily carry a 8kg box of goodies …. Throw that in your messenger bag.
So in light of our future move just bought a SH brompton S2L-X (lightweight titanium version) so we can all get around easily and have 2 small foldies stored in a cupboard. Will unveil here once it arrives.
the invisible bike helmet
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/43038579 w=600&h=338]
“If people say it’s impossible we have to prove them wrong.”
Design students Anna and Terese took on a giant challenge as an exam project. Something no one had done before. If they could swing it, it would for sure be revolutionary. The bicycle is a tool to change the world. If we use bikes AND travel safe: Life will be better for all.
Interval training on the indoor trainer: Sufferfest Revolver
Last night went out to the garage for Sufferfest Revolver.
THE DETAILS:
- How long: 45minutes
- What it’s about: Repeats of 1:00 maximum intensity intervals
- Best for: Increasing your maximum power and ability to recover
Simple. Brutal. Uncomplicated. This is a workout you don’t have to think about. You just get on, drive yourself into the ground, and get off. It’s the perfect video for anyone who needs to fit a killer, high-intensity workout into their lunch hour to tune-up for racing or weekend ass-kicking.
WORKOUT DETAILS:
- 4:00 warm-up
- 1:30 of tempo riding
- 2:00 of higher-speed tempo, with video from the Madison at the UCI Track World Cup
- Then the main event – 15x 1:00 intervals, with 1 minute rest in-between each interval, for a total of 30 minutes of intervals.
- The ‘on’ intervals are not for the faint of heart. They should be done at 9/10 or 10/10 on the RPE (recommended perceived exertion scale). They feature footage from the UCI Track World Cup (Madison, Keirin, Kilometer), the UCI Cyclocross World Cup and the UCI World Road Championships (both U23 and Elite Women).
- The ‘off’ intervals features some beautiful footage descending the Col du Soler
- 4:00 warm-down featuring the final Ks of the Col du Soler descent.
It was my first go on the video so i was more likely at 9 instead of 10 on perceived edit – I did feel sick twice so that may have been 10’s …..
it was brutal – for the garage floor as well judging by the sweat ……
Kite*Surf*Bike*Rambling 