Uh Oh Floyd!

Not looking good for Floyd. Despite the fact that there does appear to be a good bit of information out there that lots of factors other than exogenous testosterone use can screw up your testosterone/epitestosterone ratio, L'equipe is apparently reporting that a more sophisticated type of carbon isotope testing was used. This testing allows for detection of exogenous testosterone to account for the elevated T/E ratio. Guess what it showed for Floyd?
Probably won't be seeing Floyd on the podium again any time soon, which is a shame. I dug those retro shades. And let's face it, doped or not, stage 17 was pure panache.

Not looking good for us either. The body shop pulled the CRV apart and the damage is worse than they thought at first. The rails are bent (whatever that means). Insurance adjuster has to go look over it again and will probably declare it totaled.

Say it ain't so Floyd

Speculation is that the Mennonite Madman might be the unlucky fellow who's turned up one of those "adverse analytic findings" in an A sample (steroid or stimulant variously reported). Reports are that it is from stage 17 on which Floyd would have been one of the guys tested as the stage winner. Then he suddenly skipped out on his Dutch hosts (and a big pay day) at a post-Tour criterium without so much as a good-bye. I was thinking it was Pereiro before this stuff came out. We'll see. Maybe it's coincidence or what's reported isn't accurate.

Not a great trip up north. Ended up working and running around so that it didn't feel like much a vacation, our car got wrecked by some 19-year old who ran a red light, and I got my ass handed to me at Mt. Nebo. Nice to get back home and step on the scale to see that I gained 5+ pounds on our trip. The Green Mountain Stage Race is right around the corner and yet again this year I'm at least 10lb heavier than I should be. That's enough whining for now.

Le Tour and Training

Finally the Tour is shaping up to be an interesting race. First time trial in the books and there's still 10 or 15 guys who can win the thing. Maybe Landis has a slight advantage at the moment, but his climbing sucked at the Dauphine so it's wait and see time. This one should come down to the final time trial. Also with a lack of dominant teams with clear favorites for the GC the mountain stages could be free-for-alls for the first time in years. Kinda unfortunate Simoni, Mayo, Cunego and Rujano aren't closer in the GC battle as we could surely see some real fireworks but they will probably be thinking of polka dots or stage wins at this point. Anyone of them would have to make up about 10 minutes on the other guys at the top of the GC to erase their current deficit and have a shot at hanging onto the podium in the final time trial. Simoni has always been one to attack and Rujano is supposed to be one short of a 6-pack so these guys might still throw a monkey wrench into things. I'm throwing my weight behind Gonchar, I've been pulling for that guy at the Giro for years. With another time trial and relatively easy mountain stages this year he could very well take out the GC, he's probably a solid bet for the podium. It's a two-up battle for most disappointing performance this year. Boonen can't get out of his own way to take a stage win and Levi, what the fuck? Getting beat in a time trial by Rujano, Simoni and Mayo; losing over 5 minutes to Gonchar? Reports are that he was looking distressed before the stage? What, did a certain "package" not arrive on time? Is Oddessa sitting in a Spanish jail right now and we haven't heard about it yet? Boonen's got yellow at least to show for his efforts, so you do the math for who's been the biggest bust so far.

I did 5 hours on Saturday in unseasonably cool weather, mid-60s when I went out at 6am, probably not even out of the 70s when I was getting home around 11. The slight chill in the air turned my mind toward cross. Although all this riding I'm doing is for cross so it's never that far from mind. Eighteen hours on the bike last week, plan is for 20 this week. It better pay dividends come October. Good audio interview over at http://www.missingsaddle.com/ with Vervecken. Seems likes there are plans for a couple of world cup races in September of 2007 or 08 on this side of the pond. One in the US and one in Canada. World's are in Belgium this year, anyone up for a long weekend trip to the motherland of cross in late January?

Dropping Like Flies

Di Luca out and now one of the bigger favorites remaining, Valverde is out with a broken collarbone. At this rate Julich might just end up on the podium again.

Never was there a bigger contrast then occurred in the drama at the end of stage 1. Hushvold crossing the line with a gash in his right arm that splattered viking blood all over Freire and then collapsed like a blood-stained warrior of old.

In the chaos some of you may have missed Casper's finish line celebration. He finally wins a stage after years of being one of France's better hopes of stealing a stage in the Tour but his celebration looked like a 10 year old girl who just opened a fabulous birthday gift. Just sad:

This is how a Frenchman celebrates a stage win in the Tour with panache:

Had a closer call than I care for on Saturday. I was out on some country road in bumfuck eastern NC with a couple of cars coming at me when I heard a vehicle coming up behind me. All no doubt doing 60+ mph. I moved as far right as possible because it was pretty clear this jack-ass coming up behind intended to squeeze thru. I guess at the last instant he decided better of it. So just as I'm bracing for the buzz by, I hear screeching tires behind me for a second. It happened so fast I didn't even have time to dive off the road. Suddenly there was a bumper 6 inches from my left leg just as the first oncoming car passed us. The guy hovers right next to me as the second oncoming car goes by and then overtakes me. He gives me one of those "sorry about that waves". I wasn't in the forgiving move, so I gave him the finger. I'm pretty good these days and usually just ignore stuff like this, but this got my blood boiling, I'll blame it on the adrenaline flowing thru my veins.