Still Not Pissy..

I suppose I should be all over the Flandis story like an apple pie at dinner but... well I guess I just am not that surprised. I said way back when Floyd fought his suspension that his best route to "vindication" was through the civil court system. The problem was that he would likely be vindicated of the '96 Tour conviction but would have to fess up to all the dope he took prior to that and that everyone in cycling would be implicated.

Flash forward and here we are except that it's going to run through the criminal courts instead of civil.

And I don't think it's all that mysterious what's going on and what is going to happen. More or less:

- At some point Floyd approached the Feds or they approached him about organized doping on USPostal
- Floyd cooperated and the Feds locked down on Bruyneel and Armstrong as the organizers while viewing others like David Z and Michael Barry as witnesses / victims
- Recognizing this was going to come out Floyd started working with USADA to premptively get amnesty for those whose involvement may not be criminal but would result in suspensions.
- The Feds have already gathered enough evidence to convince them that Armstrong and Bruyneel are guilty
- At some point soon they will announce an official investigation.
- Armstrong will deny deny deny
- Between two to four years from now Armstrong & Bruyneel will be convicted.

The wild card is whether the preliminary investigation is already over; my understanding is that wisttleblowers are supposed to keep their mouths shut until after a case is brought.

In the end I just don't think this will impact cycling too much. Armstrong is so omnipresent that it's easy to tie his success to cycling. But I think cycling will be fine; it's not like baseball or football are exactly clean and they are doing fine.

Not Pissy

I am supposed to complain bitterly today about the point-a-lap format at Pacific Raceways last night since we went down the escape route. But you know what? I actually didn't mind it at all. It kept the pace high and unlike the point-a-lap format on the flats it didn't make attacks futile. I am not recommending it. But not hating it either.

Scrum-tastic

For those who are into it the local Seattle Scrum group has rebooted and will be meeting at Boca Lounge every other Monday (next up June 7th!)at 6pm.

Why does outlook hate me?

Working from home is hard when outlook keeps crashing.

Cats out of the bag

I doubt Flandis' doping admissions will really stick to anyone. As Randy Boetcher might say, facts and religion don't really mix well. We might hear a bunch of people claim cycling is super dirty and that they are abondoning the sport but for the most part those people aren't really cycling fans. They certainly don't hold their own preferred sports to the same standard.

And we'll certainly hear people who already thought Lance was dirtier than Ricks claim vinidication and those who worship him defend him but... just noise.

Sadly, the real allegation that will fade but deserves some press and action is that the UCI covered up doping positives.

Landis also claims in the e-mail that Armstrong had told him Bruyneel met with the International Cycling Union to ensure details of a positive test remained confidential due to a “financial agreement”.

Regardless of why (cash, political favor, etc) it is evidence of the problem I have consistently gotten on my high horse about. Riders will cheat. You shouldn't really expect differently; their are all sorts of systemic incentives to do so. But the cops (UCI, Labs, WADA) need to be squecky clean. And in sports they are not.

Landis may have been guilty, but what will now be lost is that lab did in fact mishandle the samples and the positive should not have been upheld.

At the end of the day he wasn't caught legitimately. They knew he was guilty (and were right!) and made up evidence to convict him. The problem with this should be obvious: not everyone they "know" is guilty really will be. And innocent people will get caught as a result.

And to make it more seedy, it's not even that "they" know you are guilty. They have to know you are guilty and decide there is some reason you should be singled out.

Landis' confession is really an indictment of the UCI, WADA and the Labs.

Road Racing in September

What ever happened to road racing in September. Now all we get is Blackberry Crit on the 5th. Back in the day (tm) we not only raced into the Fall but we drove to Eastern Washington to do it!

My recollection is that Fall Road Racing died out and then Cross picked up the slack so it wasn't a leg drain to the dirt.

While is can occasionally be wet the weather is usually better through Mid-October than it is in March & April when we pound out 3 hour slugfests to see who has likes hypothermea better.

Nine Tickets to Paradise

Courtesy of Evan Schmitt here is yesterdays ride. You'll notice a little extra nub at the end. That's cause Galen & Evan decided to attack us and ended up missing the last turn. Karma, yo!

As 90 milers go this one is pretty gentle; the return is hard but it doesn't beat you upside the head like the Hurricane Ridge ride.

There is no crying in cycling

But there certainly are a lot of flats. I believe we had three. Andrew Martin (Bikesale.com) was the most spectacular and expensive of the day. Nice save Andrew.

I might have been wrong..

The Mariner's do appear to suck.

Paging Mr. Boots

Because I am a trouble maker (and also petty from what I've been told) I thought it would be in character to ask Mr. Boots whether Ms. Rhae will be giving him pointers on how to dominate a race anytime soon.

Michelob Ultra Grand Prix win

I want to thank each and everyone of our volunteers for the outstanding work we got at the race. Our number one goal was safety and I think everyone felt the race was under control and safe. You guys made my work very very easy. That is awesome. I won't list everyone off because I don't want to forget anyone but really really thank you.

And major thanks to the Local residents who came out and pitched in! Outstanding!