Yes, this means that I have risked having my soul sucked out, just for your delight and education.
I'm so noble (*gazes heavenwards and sighs deeply in melodramatic manner*)
I wish I could find a visual representation of having your soul sucked out, so I wouldn't have to use the UCI's unlovely logo, but the internet has let me down on this one, presenting me with just this:
(*shakes self*)
Where was I? Oh yes, the UCI.
They've introduced a devious little clause into the Race Rules: it's cunningly hidden under what they call "article 364bis" which, and I quote, " from now on makes the teams responsible for the total costs generated by each doping affair"
Interesting... do they mean that all the teams have to pay a bit towards the costs - or do they mean that if a rider is investigated, then the team or teams involved have to pay???? This could make Bjarne Riis have second/third/fourth thoughts about Contador, couldn't it? At present the UCI bears all the costs of investigating, and I can barely imagine how much the Contador case must have cost so far, and is likely to cost them.
Bad new for Vinokorouv as well (*pokes big stick at Unrepentant Drug User*) as they have also introduced a whole new article (1.1.006.2 if you are interested) , the purpose of which is, and I quote, "aiming to prevent anyone found guilty of infringing the Anti-Doping Regulation during his cycling career from obtaining a licence authorising him to take on a role in cycling as a member of a team’s staff." Ha, so there Vino, you won't be running Astana next year when you retire, then!
They do state that it won't be backdated, so the current management teams won't be affected: narrow escape for you, then, Bjarne, huh? Oh, no it isn't, he was never "done" for drugs, was he, he just admitted afterwards that he used them.
Interesting, huh?
Isn't this also convenient for Kim Anderson?
ReplyDeleteIt's convenient for a lot of people: I suppose they couldn't backdate it without decimating some of the teams.
ReplyDeleteBut it's interesting that it comes in just as Vino says he's going to manage Astana...
...who are looking to merge with SaxoBlank anyway... (more of that later, if I get time).
Coug
"andy schleck poo poo pops on eisen andy"
ReplyDeleteCome on, what sort of person puts that into Google?
(*slightly humiliatingly, we are 3rd and 4th on the search page for those terms.*)
Coug (*shaking head in disbelief*)
Coug, I'm may need to borrow that big stick to counter-whack people who try to whack Leopard Trek at the Tour (re: Mollema incident).
ReplyDeleteGood Lord, you'd think Andy ran over a corpse, the way some of these Rabobank / Dutch fans are baying for blood, and threatening to push the team off the Alpe d'Huez. *packs a flame thrower in her portmanteau*
Good point about how the UCI can't retroactively apply these new rules--it would decimate a lot of teams. I didn't even know Kim Andersen was busted for doping in 1987, and 1992. I've mentioned on Fede's blog before that I just don't get the culture of doping, or understand the mentality behind it. Where's the sense of accomplishment in knowing that you've cheated? You have to be VERY thick-skinned to smile on that podium, knowing that your lack of integrity got you there.
Oh, and for soul-sucking conveyance purposes, may I suggest a scene from Exorcist II: The Heretic? A terrible movie, with scenes of demons tugging at people's hearts (and not in a heartwarming way), through a hypnosis machine:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_McI_KJIXOq0/SFnuGL537sI/AAAAAAAACMs/bV006w7rwDI/s1600-h/ExorcistHeretic3.jpg
Poo poo pops? Sounds like a badly named Japanese snack food or beverage, like "calpis" water:
http://www.engrish.com/2004/05/calpis-water/
Back to Wimbledon.
Hey Figgy, I am just writing to you!
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I utterly agree about the doping. I can understand that in the past, it may have been, well, the "done thing" in certain teams, and it would have been very hard to say "non" when all your team-mates we doing it.
So I can just about forgive past dopers, as long as they clearly state that they are sorry for doing it, they regret it, and they won't do it again.
I have no time for dopers who express no remorse, Vino: and who, worst of all, do it again. Ricco. And that idiot who nearly killed himself with his dodgy blood bag in the fridge.
Finally, good lord, poo poo pops does indeed sound like a Japanese snack! Something long and thin, I think: possibly a frozen slushy drink?
Pock-pock! Pock-pock!
Coug
Dementors take your soul.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you ladies think about Thomas Dekker? My heart is with OGL, but my pupils grow big when I see this gorgeous boy.
He's in the news here in the Netherlands almost every hour, because he wrote a book and a documentary has been made around him. Btw he is still 26...
There are at the moment more very interesting programs on cycling on Dutch tv, but no subtitles in English. I think next week there is one about the start of TdF 2010 at Rotterdam, if it's interesting (you know) enough I'll try to post the link.
Coug, are you thinking of Pocky? They're an inescapable staple of the Asian kid diet, like soy sauce, and rice :P As Japanese snacks go, I prefer the original chocolate Meiji Fran. It's like Pocky for grown-ups.
ReplyDeleteRicco... the guy who tried to perform a blood-transfusion on himself? I read an article about him a few months ago. He does seem to be a bit thick, doesn't he? I mean, what possesses a man to think that injecting blood into himself, is ever NOT a stupid idea?
http://www.atwistedspoke.com/riccardo-ricco-the-final-loss/
Barbara, I love your suggestion of Dementors, and can't believe I didn't think of them, particularly as I still try the accio spell at home! I'm genuinely disappointed every time I say "accio remote control" or "accio book", and the objects don't magically fly in my direction.
Thomas Dekker, eh? I must admit, my eye has been roving to a guy named Reeve Carney these days. He's the actor who plays Spider-Man / Peter Parker in the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXZOBKPQBPE
Cycling programs on TV? We're lucky to get Grand Tour coverage in Canada. Classics, Monuments, and stage races like the Amgen don't even get mentioned. Honestly, darts and poker get better coverage here than cycling! :p
Figgy, I started to respond and the comment got so long I'm having to make it into a new post!
ReplyDeleteI thought Dementors was too obvious for soul-sucking... actually I quite like the little Kitteh!
Coug
@Coug Dementors are indeed very obvious, but they come to my mind almost immediately if I get somewhere a suggestion about Mr. R. I can't help it, it has something to do with the eyes....
ReplyDelete@Fig, sometimes I think we are twins. How strange/funny/alienating/loving the World Wide Web is. How would we relate in the real world?
Once in a while (not every day I mean) I imagine the situation that we all are sitting in a room (bar/cafe) and we don't know that we all are inside and there are also a lot of not-involved people inside. I wonder if anyone of us would recognize each other when we're not wearing Lux-socks or something like that. (This doesn't count for Lee, Eva, Nim and some others because we know how they look like, don't we?)
Barbara, the dream of my life is to be recognised - or should that be "spotted", a-ha-ha neighing - from my Lux socks!
ReplyDeleteI'm still looking out for someone else wearing the Stomach of Anger tee: no sightings so far.
And I've made a special tee for the Tour of Britain, with the Leopard-Trek logo on the back, so you'll all be able to spot me from the camera footage.
Although knowing the British weather, perhaps I would do better to put the logo on an umbrella....
Coug
Have Felt Pen, Will Make Logos.
Barbara, I’m unremarkable-looking, and like to fade into the background, so I think it would be hard to notice me at a café. That said, I would be the one wearing a funeral black dress (think of Wednesday from the Addams Family). Also, my pug sheds A LOT, so his hair is always to be found somewhere on my clothes. Strangers with a similar wardrobe problem, have come up to me and asked, “So, what kind of dog do you have?” :p
ReplyDeleteConfession: I don’t have Luxembourg socks! *ducks before she gets pelted by tomatoes*
Whenever I think of twins, I think of those creepy girls in the pale sea green dresses from Stephen King’s The Shining , or those even creepier “Eve” dopplengangers from the X-Files. I’ve always thought that twins could sort of read each others minds, so with my thoughts of tomatoes, time-travel, houses with legs, and cloning, I would probably drive my twin utterly insane!
Coug, I am going to keep my eyes peeled at the Tour of Britain. If the stage route in London passes by an obvious monument like the Clock Tower / Big Ben, you should hang out there. Or failing that, you could just wave a massive drapeau Frank and Andy! I promise not to laugh… for very long :p
Ooh, the drapeau, I nearly forgot. (*makes note to order one.*)
ReplyDeleteLLB, by the way, has suggested that the only time a bunch of us Schlecklanders are likely to be in the same room is if the room has bars on the window, ie we have all been arrested for trying to sneak onto the Leopard Trek bus, or for trying to grab the backsides of various cyclists.
Hmmmmm.
Coug
Coug, tell your LLB that that could be a very dangerous situation because we, peaceminded Schlecklanders, wouldn't be there only among ourselves.(I did not give any suggestions about other persons....)
ReplyDeleteFig, I said "sometimes", but on the other hand if you would drive your twin crazy with your imaginations what would happen if the other twin would drive you crazy with her imaginations (e.g being a hopping frog or brewing soups with certain goals)?
Whatever, you can almost always spot me in black. Sometimes in summer I go for white. Maybe this year I will put on a nice, small yellow accent...