I BELIEVE, Part Deux

A different take on the "I Believe" theme:

Enough said.

The weather that I've been anticipating with disgust every since we moved down here is setting in. High temps in the 90's and enough humidity to make it sticky and nasty. Everyone says that those awful few days we would get like that every once in a while in a mid-atlantic summer will be the only thing you get down here in Greenville all of July and August. A couple of other observations about Greenville (proper pronunciation is Greenvul). People call it G-vegas but I've yet to ask anyone who can tell me why they call it G-vegas. People drive fast down here, they all must have hard-ons for Dale Earnhardt or something. The city of Greenville and Pitt county have apparently never heard of shouldered roads. There's a couple of roads with what I think of as "Pennsylvania" shoulders. That is they've come along as an afterthought and added about a foot of tar/stone on the side of the road, which immediately separates from the proper asphalt of the road and starts to break up, making it almost impossible to actually ride on the shoulder. Once you're a few miles from Greenville the riding is OK as long as you don't get on one of the "major" roads connecting the surrounding towns. "Major" is only defined by the amount of traffic, as all the roads are just two laners regardless. Once you get around and into Greenville these two-laners become treacherous as the traffic buzzes by you at 55+ mph. Lots of guys down here actually ride out in the road rather than as far right as possible so that overtaking traffic has to slow for them if there is oncoming traffic. That's enough whining about how shitty the riding is here.

I'm picking der Kaiser for the Tour. Seems to me it's a two-man race between Ullrich and Basso. Ullrich has always seemed like a regular guy. Case in point:

That is if he doesn't get the axe in the Spanish Puerto affair. The official report is suppose to be released today. Just in time for riders to get yanked from the Tour. I guess that's better than doing it after the race starts.

I started composing this message this morning but I'm just getting around to finishing it. Doesn't look good. Probably no Ullrich, Basso, Mancebo and about 20 other riders scheduled to start the Tour. Damnit to hell! This sucks. I could care less about the doping. I've been pulling for Ullrich for the better part of decade to beat LANCE and while that's no longer a possibility I think he had probably the best shot of anybody of getting to Paris this year in yellow. No mention of Landis yet, maybe I'll pull for him despite that dorky looking time trial position.

I BELIEVE

That was Tyler Hamilton's fans rallying cry when they circled the wagons around their embattled hero following his doping positive at the Vuelta. As if his incredibly weak defense and even a cursory reading of the arbitration panel's final decision on the case left any doubt that he was doping, we now have this:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/jun06/jun26news2















Not only financial transactions between Fuentes' group and Tyler/Haven, but they've got his doping calendar for the 2003 season. Looks like a double transfusion 6 days beforehand is what is needed to take out one of cycling's monuments. Less you think these guys are resting on their laurels in the offseason, this is apparently when you ramp up your red blood cell count with EPO, so that the rich blood can be extracted for later use. Looks like you can go from a zero to a hero in the pro peloton in short order, like as long as it takes to get a transfusion or two. Let's see, two guys who couldn't even follow the pace on the Dauphine Libere were Landis and Vinokourov, both from teams with a wealth of links to doping, I wonder how they'll ride at the Tour? I wonder if Fuente was their prepatore or someone else?

I BELIEVE Tyler doped just like Lance, Heras, Museeuw, Millar, Pantani, Virenque and in all probability every other top cyclist in the pro peloton. Big deal. That is apparently how the cyclists want it. When was the last time you read about one rider complaining that he was robbed by a doped rider who beat him? Menchov took it is stride when Heras turned up postive at last year's Vuelta. Julich and Ekimov didn't seem all that worked up that Hamilton robbed them of better medals at the Olympics. Look at how Lance treated Bassons or Simeoni when they broke the omerta. The Spanish riders didn't even ride their national championships on Sunday in protest of the El Pais doping revelations. I wish Tyler would grow a set, fess up to doping and write a tell all book that gives real insight the doping practices of an elite professional cyclist. Professional cycling, the sport where you get to be your own little human chemistry experiment.

Ball is starting to Roll

I know who just moved to the top of Armstrong's long and formidable shit list today. Apparently the news is breaking in Europe today about Frankie's (and his wife's) testimony in the court case regarding Armstrong doping and the insurance company not wanting to pay up. This is a TdF payoff, not the triple crown payoff like I thought. Probably hit stateside later today or this weekend.

The World Cup gets down to business this weekend after the shadow boxing of the group qualifying concludes today. USA won't be there. They just lacked the scoring talent to make it out of their group. You know what? I'm not the least bit disappointed. Soccer is a red headed stepchild to the sports the majority of Americans care about. In the rest of the world soccer achieves the status of religion in many countries. There is a passion in the stands that you just don't see in American sports, or in any other sport for that matter. Now that it's lose and go home, the emotions of the fans and players will be riding sky high.

Along with the soccer matches, F1 returns this weekend with the Montreal GP. Alonso is turning this season into a snoozefest. Unless Renault's performance or reliability suddenly take a down turn Schumacher isn't going to get close enough to even make it interesting. Bernie Ecclestone is posturing ahead of negociating an extension of the USGP at Indianapolis. Their contract is up this year. He says F1 doesn't need the US market. We're small potatoes, only about 10 million viewers out of a worldwide audience of 300 to 400 million! You think Nascar is big? More people watch F1 in Italy alone than watch a Nascar race in the US. One thing I've got to do before I die is go see an F1 race. I'm of the mind that Montreal would be a better place to go than Indianapolis, so do your worse Bernie, you mop headed freak.















In case you don't follow F1, that is Flavio Briatore on the right, Italian boss of Renault. Other than such small accomplishments like building Benetton into the clothing giant it is today before turning his attention to F1 and running the team that dethroned Schumacher and Ferrari, what makes Flavio is his women. He's dated Naomi Campbell, he's got a kid with Heidi Klum. This is his current main squeeze. Not bad for an old fat Italian guy.

Did Frankie drop the dime on LANCE?

The word on the street is that Andreau has testified under oath in Armstrong's lawsuit against the insurance company that is withholding his million bucks from winning those 3 triple crown races that he was in the hospital room when Armstrong fessed up to his docs that he had used the typical laundry list of pro peloton drugs (EPO, cortico and anabolic steroids, Human Growth Hormone). Damn, just after he dodged a bullet with the '99 retroactive "positive" EPO tests thru a combination of masterful spin and a report that "completely exonerated" him because they didn't follow the protocol for declaring someone positive. Well, no shit, they were just testing the samples for research purposes not to catch Armstrong. Without the deceitful L'equipe reporter no one would have been able to link the lab results to Armstrong's samples. But they did, so why were Armstrong's anonymously tested samples the ones that seemed to selectively show evidence of EPO use?

I could have used some EPO for the Blood, Sweat, and Gears century I was going to do this Saturday. One hundred miles and 13000 feet of climbing out around Boone, NC. I contacted them last week to make sure I could wait to sign up after I made it thru the weekend's racing. I didn't need a wasted $48 on top of a broken collarbone or serious road rash. They said they would probably close the on-line registration on Wednesday. I got on-line to sign up Sunday afternoon after the crit and sure enough it was already closed. Thanks douchebags.

I'll be parked in front of my friends HD 56 inch TV tomorrow morning at 10 to see which US soccer team shows up to play Ghana. The DOA team that played the Czech Republic or the team that had a respectable showing against Italy.

Racing with the over-the-hill guys in NC

Last year at 35 I did some masters races up in the mid-Atlantic and discovered how much better the racing was than the crap that is cat. 3/4 racing. Riders are smooth, there are team tactics, it's faster, etc.

I may be over the hill now, but when I was on top of my hill it wasn't very high as evidenced by the fact that in all likelihood I will be a suck-ass cat.4 for life. So given that I'm not fast to begin with, and that I'd done one really hard ride this year, and that Masters fields are usually filled by guys who although over-the-hill, were and are still fast, I had one goal: race smart and hang on. In other words, don't waste energy and hope to still be there at the end. If I had a sprint this would be a great strategy, but I don't, which makes me lame-ass pack fill.

We did 4 13 mile loops, maybe 50 starters. It was in eastern NC so it was flat. Unlike cat. 4 racing, it was pretty much continuous attacks with small groups constantly off the front, at times really hard single-file chases, I saw riders popping and pulling out of line, I never did. That might not be much but it's all I've got to hang my hat on. Last lap started with a group of 4 guys about 30 seconds up the road, another small group in between and then the bunch. It got strung out for the first half of the lap as the chase and bridging attempts began in ernest. I was definitely on the rivet. It eventually came back together and the pace went way down for the last several miles as everyone waited for the sprint. This gave all the chumps, like me, a chance to recover and believe something might be possible for the finish. Then I did the bonehead move of the race, and got stuck on the far right of the road (last turn was a right about 500 meters from the line). I think we had one official with us somewhere, no motorcycles, so all day riders had been violating the yellow line rule to move up. Last couple of kilometers and the same shit goes down. Next race I'll be smart about this and cheat like the rest if possible. I'm sure this is the same rationale that leads to doping, oh well. I went thru the last corner well back and punched it, only to cramp, but I sat down and stayed on it pretty good. Lots of guys were blowing, and I actually passed a fair number, maybe ended up inside the top 20. If there had been any wind, this race would have probably split up, and I'm not sure I would have been anywhere near the front.

Sunday was a crit in downtown Greenville next to the city park on the Tar river (this has cross race written all over it!). There was actually a slight hill climbing away from the river and the second half of the lap was slighly downhill thru some turns back to the road along the river with the finish line and a good headwind. With only 22 starters and dead legs from Saturday this promised to be hard. I paid for my lack of racing as it took me about half the race to get my cornering confidence back. I spent alot of energy I couldn't afford spending closing gaps that I let open because I didn't pedal enough thru the corners. At least I never punked out and didn't close the gaps. Anyway it was hard, I suffered. I turned to check where I was in the bunch at one point and was last wheel. Finally about 2/3 of the way thru, there was a group or two off the front and what was left of the bunch split. I was in the 2nd group of 7 or 8 riders and saw the gap growing wider to the group of 7 or 8 in front. Dropping to the road along the river I knew it was now or never to cross the growing gap of 75 meters or so. I buried myself and struck out into the head wind, turned off the river road and went up the hill for all I was worth. I made contact at the top. I think one guy came with me and got a free ride across the rest never made it back. I thought I would puke for the next two laps. This group stayed together to the end, I don't know how many riders were up the road. We caught riders (lapped or coming back I don't know). Coming to the last lap, I thought "punch it up the hill" because where you are at the top will pretty much decide it at the finish. Well no one really went, and neither did I. Just good old fashion stupid as I had the legs to at least move up. So I started the hill in six wheel and I went thru the corner at the top in 6th wheel, and then it happened; a gap to the first duo opened, then the guy in front of me let a gap open thru the turns. I don't know if our group was sprinting for some money or not (it went 10 deep). I at least came around the guy in front of me at the line. I didn't finish in the top 10. I'm kinda of pissed because I didn't race more aggressively. Oh well, it's just training for cross. Maybe if I don't let myself get totally out of shape this winter, and do some good training next spring, I can play my part in these Masters races down here and not be just pack fill.

Representing the SHT

This weekend will be my first races of the year. A 50 mile road race tomorrow in New Bern and then a 45 minute crit on Sunday right in downtown Greenville. I'm doing the 35+ races. Less you be fooled into thinking you can race on a regular basis down here without driving 3 or 4 or more hours, this will probably be the only chance I get to race in June or July. There might be a race or two over near Raleigh in August. The only saving grace is that there does appear to be a pretty extensive cross season. It's all about cross this year for me.

For the first time in a couple of years I've actually been training, as opposed to riding a couple times a week when I got the chance and trying to race into shape on the weekends. Training right now has just been building up a good bit of volume. I've not done any specific work; one hardish century, a couple of long rides with others at a good clip, and one full on weekly world championship (WWC) ride about 3 weeks ago, other than that it's just been a steady diet of easy to moderate aerobic miles. I was able to finish with the front group of 6 or 7 guys on the local WWC ride, one of whom was doing the NRC race in Raleigh the following night, so that was at least encouraging. I'd like to race smart this weekend for once. I'm telling myself to sit in and wait, don't do anything until the near the end if I'm still around. My quite mediocre sprint might even have improved from the steady diet of dog chases that I get down here. It's a given down here, you will be chased by dogs, probably multiple times.

Atticus & Der Kaiser On Form

The perennial off-season fat ass Ullrich showed yet again that just in time for the Tour his FORM is just fine. Der Kaiser was climbing well today in stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse. How do I know? I watched it. If you're a pro cycling junkie like I am, you've got to subscribe to cycling.tv, this service has come a long way in the short time it's been available. If they can get their shit together and start broadcasting the cross races from Belgium and Holland it will be like I've died and gone to heaven. Speaking of being ON FORM check out Atticus:





















As the remnants of hurricane Alberto passed over eastern NC on wednesday dumping a bunch of rain, Atticus decided that was a good time to go out back and chase Josie. The attire; flip-flops, Thomas the Tank Engine underwear, and the piece d'resistance of the ensemble, a pair of safety googles (to keep the rain out of his eyes) . Unfortunately he lost a flip-flop in the mud bringing the chase to the end.

See that fence in the background, that's my power tap and new crossbike. Well that's where the money went for them anyway. Got to start saving my pennies if I want a new toy and a new bike for cross season.

The World Cup

I got into soccer a few years ago by following the English Premier League when we had Fox Sports World but our cable company in MD discontinued it not too long after I discovered the world's most popular sport. Now that we're down here in NC, I can follow it again. In fact, our cable company down here (Cox) is the shit. Tons of channels, including Boom which shows the old cartoons (Tom & Jerry, Pink Panther, Bugs Bunny). I was afraid Atticus would grow up thinking Spongebob was as good as it gets. Anyway, got down here just in time to catch the end of the Premiership season and get primed for the World Cup.

Speaking of which, the end of the first round of the group matches was today and the US of A sucked ass, badly. I didn't see the Ukraine get the beatdown at the hands of Spain today (4 - 0) but from the matches I did see the US was by far the worst team. They looked dead it the water for all 90 minutes. Hard to see them recovering to at least tie Italy this Saturday and get out of their group. I think I'm adopting Brazil as my favorite team. Not because of their play but because of their fans.





















I aim to not only inform but to entertain.