Dated September 2009!
Good old UCI, never one to rush into things.
This reminds us that the UCI decided, pretty much out of the blue, to ban race radios on Stage 10 of the Tour, so the riders had a go-slow as a protest.
What annoys me, and continues to annoy the riders, is the way the UCI make statements such as:
"[The panel] took into account the desire expressed by the majority of those involved in cycling to prohibit the equipment."
Those "involved in cycling" apparently, to their minds, does not include the riders!
Riders were not consulted, not even asked their opinion, they were just told "no radios today".
How can an organisation, set up to protect the interests of cyclists and to promote their sport, be so thick-skinned when it comes to the opinions of their golden geese?
Even recently, Jakob was cursing the lack of Race Radios: Check out Just Fuglen for a screencap of his tweet from the Tour of Denmark, he said "S*%# day... punctured in the worst moment. no radios didn't make it better (thx@UCI)..."
But there doesn't seem to have been any more discussion, any more protests - other than individual complaints like Jakob's - and I really think that the UCI are just going to bring it in as a rule, and that will be that. Poor Jensi will be very cross.
On the subject of "Whatever Happened To...?" what about SaxoBank and their sponsorship? It's all gone very quiet on that front, but for those of us who are still interested in SaxoBank out of habit, and those of us who are eager for any news related to Contador on the grounds that what happens to him might well affect Our Andy, I've done some digging and it seems that SaxoBank announced very quietly back in June that they would be sponsoring the team through 2012.
This must be a HUGE relief to Bjarne Riis.
Interestingly, SaxoBank also said that they would continue the sponsorship into 2012 regardless of what happened to Conti, and that in the event of him being banned, they had put aside some extra money for Bjarne to "buy in" another star - either a "high profile rider" or "someone to strengthen the team".
Blimey, Stuey was lucky that he signed with GreenEdge, he might have been dragged back to save SaxoBank!
And finally for today,Can Biking In A Skirt Be Considered A Crime? Or Just A Chafing Risk?
Yes, that headline caught my eye, too. According to this article in something called iVillage, last year a girl was stopped by the police in New York City for riding her bike in a short skirt, which was "distracting the cars"
We shall assume that she was wearing the normal amount of underwear.
The woman concerned "didn't take the officer seriously until he threatened her with a citation at which point she returned to her hotel and put on pants." Again, we are assuming that, being in America, by "pants" they meant "trousers", not "knickers".
I have no comments to make on that at all, I'll leave that up to you!
I wonder if there is a shortage of full length mirrors in the world? Saw a woman (40ish) yesterday with a very short skirt and rather big bum - apparently totally unable to feel the draft on her backside, which only had coverage of about 3/4 of what was needed.
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