I've been getting some questions on this subject from people who are a bit new to cycling, so I thought I'd put all the answers in one place, rather than reply individually.
Those of you who already know all about it, sorry! Come back tomorrow! Mind you, you could read on anyway, you might learn something new.. or I might make a mistake and have to be corrected? You know you all love telling me when I am wrong!
OK, Drugs In Cycling. Contador. What's the score?
Contador's hearing has now taken place, it took most of last week, and we can expect to hear the results by the end of December, or possibly not until the new year. So don't hold your breath. There has been so much written about it that I can hardly bear to go over it again - so in a nutshell, Conti tested positive for a banned substance, Clenbuterol, partway through the Tour last year. He said he has never taken drugs, and that it can only have come from him eating contaminated meat. Unfortunately, he was the only member of the team that ate the meat and was tested, so he can't prove it.
There have been other instances of athletes, in cycling and in other sports, showing positive for this drug and claiming it was from eating contaminated meat. All of those athletes had their appeals rejected, and had to accept their bans. Contador has the money and the political support to fight his case, and although legally this is the right thing to do, it hasn't won him any friends.
There is a school of thought that says he should have accepted the ban: his view was very much " I didn't do it, and I'm not going to be labelled as a drug cheat for the rest of my life"
Firstly, I would reassure you all that cycling is one of the least drug-tainted sports there is. No other sport has the level of testing that cycling does. It always makes the headlines when someone is caught for drugs, but that's not the true picture.
So, lots of info, so I'll divide it up into headings.
1)Why does everyone hate Contador?
2) What drugs are we talking about?
3) Is Doping not the same as doing drugs?
Errr, not easy to answer that lot neatly. But I will try.
Firstly, the abbreviations.
UCI = Union Cycliste Internationale. International Cycling Union, the blokes that run cycling. Based in Switzerland, therefore assumed to be neutral.
WADA World Anti Doping Agency. Nothing to do with the Wombat Anti-Defamatory Association, as was suggested a while ago when I was having trouble with the internet and it looked as though it were due to Wombats in the Wiring. It turned out to be Wallabies disguised as Wombats, hence the involvement of the second WADA.
PED = Performance Enhancing Drug.
Right, you are now ready to Read On:
1) Contador.
At last year's Tour, his doping control tests showed that his system contained Clenbuterol on four of the days after a rest day. Tiny, tiny amounts of it; but it's on the banned list. He said "not guilty, must have been in that contaminated meat wot I ate." This defence has been tried before, and has failed. WADA and the UCI say "athletes are responsible for what they ingest." Not knowing that you were accidentally eating something on the banned list is not a defence. Athletes have been banned for this, many times.
So, other athletes have tested positive for this same chemical, and have been banned, but Contador wasn't. He was initially given a one-year ban - half the normal length - but a few weeks later the Spanish authorities overturned it, and told him to race again. UCI and WADA appealed.
This does just seem a bit unfair. Other athletes have had to swallow their pride, accept their bans, and get on with it. Of course it's immensely hurtful to be accused of taking drugs, of course it's going to be "on your record" for the rest of your career, but it happens. Contador, however, had a lot of money and the support of the Spanish president, and his legal team found a loophole, claiming that he did not have to be banned if he could prove it was the result of accidental ingestion.
I leave you to imagine how crushingly hurtful this must have been to all the other athletes who had innocently taken medicine or had indeed accidentally ingested a banned substance.... there is a lot of feeling that he was only let off because he had important backing.
There is also the lingering possibility that he could have been doping......
....we'll come on to doping in a minute.
2) Drugs. Cycling as a sport says "you can train as hard as you like, but no PEDs."
This ruling is enforced by the UCI, who are the blokes who run cycling, and WADA which is the World Anti-Drug Association. As you already know.
Anyway - drugs. The list, which is ever-increasing, includes all the stuff you would expect, but it also includes a huge range of other drugs/chemicals that might not help the athlete in themselves, but would cover up their use of PEDs. I'm not a chemist, so you'll have to accept that somewhat simplified explanation.
Some drugs are completely banned - zero tolerance - and some are allowed in certain, specified quantities.
At one point, caffeine was on the banned list, but as it appears in tea, coffee, cola drinks and a ton of other stuff, they had to agree to allow a certain amount of it!
This is why athletes can't just grab some cough medicine when they feel a bit poorly, or take a few tablets if they have a headache, as we do: they have to be extremely careful about everything they eat/drink/swallow, in case it contains any banned substances.
Every cycling team has a team doctor, and they would probably do most of the work in training their cyclists not to take any over-the-counter medicines, or to take any herbal supplements or health foods without checking with the doctor first. Because you never know what they might contain.
This leads to a rather specialised research war: the cyclists try to find new additives or supplements that can help them perform better, but are not on the banned list. WADA investigate every new item, to assess how harmful it is and then, if appropriate, to ban it.
Quite often there is a "craze" for a new product, everyone takes it for a while, then the UCI or WADA decide it's not a good thing, and it goes on the banned list.
This is for the benefit of the cyclists, actually: it's well documented that some athletes will kill themselves with drugs if they think it will give them just one more season, just one more win.....
3) Doping. Blood Doping.
No, this is not quite the same as taking drugs. It works like this:
During a long stage race, your blood has to work hard to deliver oxygen, and remove wastes. (This is the simplified version, ok? I did Biology to A level but I don't want to bore anyone...) The longer you force your blood to work hard without taking a rest, the less well it performs. In the normal world, we call this "getting tired" and we stop for a while. But when you are pedalling every day for 2 weeks or more, you can't just stop.
So, a few weeks earlier, when you were fully rested, fully fit, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, you take out some of your own blood and store it carefully. Your body makes up the loss with no problem.
Later, at the race, you are feeling exhausted, so you inject the "bouncy" blood back into yourself.
Now, you might well be thinking that this sounds like an insanely dangerous thing to do. Well, yes, it is.
The trouble is, regarding injecting blood into yourself, that when you are an exhausted cyclist, it IS a good idea, because suddenly your blood is fresh and oxygenated, and you can whizz away the next day with a spring in your pedals. (The name "Landis" comes to mind...)
And it's a particularly "good" idea for cyclists, who have to undergo doping control, as there are no drugs: it's your own blood, so it doesn't show up on any tests.
(side issue: they never say whether you have to take out the same amount as you are about to put in... images of Ricco with bulging eyes and balloon-taut skin due to the amount of extra blood....)
As I understand it, the only chance WADA has to spot this sort of thing is the Biological Passport which records haemocrit levels in the blood: if they suddenly spike, that would indicate that someone has been fiddling with their blood. But it's not a foolproof system, yet.
And of course that leads us back to Contador: the suggestion was that, as his clenbuterol levels were so ridiculously low, he could not have been taking the drug at that time: but he could have been taking it earlier, during training, and he could have withdrawn some of his blood at that point, injecting it during the TdF for that "super boost" during the race.
The fact that the first reading occurred during/immediately after a rest day was considered to be a bit of a pointer as well.
The supposition is that the injected blood still had traces of clenbuterol in it.
As a general point, yes, who would be so stupid as to do something with so many risks: not just "being caught" but infection etc: and you can't remove, store, and inject blood without at least a couple of sidekicks. It's not like taking a tablet, that you can just slip into your mouth when no-one is looking. (*throws hands up in despair*) Other people MUST know about it - even if you could hide it from roommates and team members, you can't just disappear for an hour or so during a Tour, without someone noticing.
I suppose you could have a convenient "girlfriend".... that you slip off to see every day or two... (*shakes head*)
As Figgy said in a comment during an earlier discussion of this topic, this whole culture of "winning by cheating" is beyond us, but I guess we have to assume that if you are not quite a top-class athlete, and you have trained and trained but still can't quite win races, you feel so desperate to win that you WILL do what it takes, and you WILL stand there on that podium, smiling and accepting the accolades, not caring that you cheated to get them.
It's possible that such a second-rate person (both in athletic terms and morally, ha ha) might reason that other competitors have better kit, better team support, better nutritionists, access to wind tunnels, individual coaching etc whereas they just pound around the roads to get fit... so if their competitors can take benefit from their advantages, then they (the bad guy) can take advantage of a simple blood exchange. After all, it IS his own blood, it's not like he was taking drugs or anything..... I am sure they find ways to justify it to themselves.
And there's the contractual problems as well: if you are good cyclist but not a brilliant one, your team might be saying to you that if you don't win something, you'll be fired. Or you won't be allowed to ride the big races. And if all you can do is cycle, then the thought of being sacked - well, people do do desperate things when they see a black future ahead of them.
So, the answers are: Everyone "hates" Contador because he either cheated, or he used money and influence to get himself declared innocent where other athletes, similarly innocent, have had to take the punishment.
Drugs are bad.
Doping is particularly bad.
There, I hope that cleared up a few points.
Tuesday 29 November 2011
Sports Personality of the Year
Great news for cycling in the UK - Mark Cavendish, ex-HTC, now going to Sky, has been nominated for the UK Sports Personality of the Year award!
This is a massive step forward for cycling, and shows how the popularity of the sport is increasing in leaps and bounds.
I don't think there has ever been a cyclist in the nominations before, so this is quite a thrill for all of us UK cycling fans, whether we are supporters of Mark or not.
Of course, he might not win, but even to be in the Top 10 is a tremendous boost to the sport.
He's up against Andy Murray (Leelu, I can hear you from here!) and some others that I don't know. For the full list, follow the link I gave above.
Best news, voting occurs on the night of the award, which is the 22nd December, and is a phone vote. Normally, in a phone vote, footballers win: but this year, not a single footballer made the top 10, yay! Sadly, not a single woman made the top 10 either, which is a bit odd.
So, yay for Sky, and go, Marky, go!
This is a massive step forward for cycling, and shows how the popularity of the sport is increasing in leaps and bounds.
I don't think there has ever been a cyclist in the nominations before, so this is quite a thrill for all of us UK cycling fans, whether we are supporters of Mark or not.
Of course, he might not win, but even to be in the Top 10 is a tremendous boost to the sport.
He's up against Andy Murray (Leelu, I can hear you from here!) and some others that I don't know. For the full list, follow the link I gave above.
Best news, voting occurs on the night of the award, which is the 22nd December, and is a phone vote. Normally, in a phone vote, footballers win: but this year, not a single footballer made the top 10, yay! Sadly, not a single woman made the top 10 either, which is a bit odd.
So, yay for Sky, and go, Marky, go!
Thursday 24 November 2011
New Kit time!
Ok cats and kittens, it's "That" time of year again - yes, we have to brace ourselves for the new team kits.
Sadly, hardly any teams seem to be able to leave the kit alone for more than five minutes, and the end-of-season break seems to be viewed as the ideal time to change it all again.
Of course, if the team is newly formed, or newly merged, or newly pruned of a sponsor, then there is a legitimate case to be made for a new kit: an expression about "new brooms" comes to mind.
[note for non-UK readers - the expression is "the new broom sweeps cleanest" meaning that a new management or government or leader is often inclined to sort out problems that an old one may have been overlooking for years. On the other hand, there is another phrase, "but the old broom knows the corners" which implies that the new broom might miss some of the important areas, being so caught up in the excitement of being new. End of digression, please read on.]
Of course, being Andy fans, we are all agog to see what sort of mess the new RadioTrek Nissan kit is going to be.
Remember how disappointed we were, when we first saw the classic, elegant, clean lines of the Leopard kit? "Boring!" we all shouted, "Too close to Sky - and Garmin - and, er, anyone else with a plain black kit!"
But we eventually came to love it, spot it in the peloton, and some of us (er hem) even made flags of it, to wave at the Tour of Britain, or emblazoned their logo on the back of all their work t-shirts....
[Another digression: for me, the only disappointment of the final day of the Tour of Britain - apart from Jensi not being there, of course - was that I was the only person in the whole of London with a Leopard flag, and the Leopard car didn't even wave back at me - not once! It went past 16 times, but I didn't get even a tiny wave from a back seat passenger. Oh well *sigh* maybe I'll have to make a bigger one for next year...]
So, onto new kits. Here's the first one to be announced - Lotto Belisol.
This is half of the former Omega-Pharma Lotto team, now split into Omega-Pharma-Quickstep (catchy!) and Lotto-Belisol (oh dear, Belisol? Sounds like an ointment.)
Here's the old OLO kit, which always makes me think of chewing gum, for some reason. Must be the colour combinations. It was a bit jazzy with logos, but nice distinctive colour bands, easy to spot in the peloton although personally, I am not in favour of having different-coloured shoulders or sides, as it means that the riders look different depending on which side the camera goes. I don't like this, as it means having to learn two kits for one team! (oh dear, so lazy.)
And the new Lotto kit? Well, here it is: the press release calls it "sober and coherent" and some rubbish about "which reflects the dynamism of our riders, their class, and their savoir-faire.” Yes, fine.
Personally I think it looks as though someone has taken a sheet of navy-blue paper, some of which has been printed with the word Lotto, chopped it up into pieces, dropped them from a height onto a board, then cut out an outline of a jersey and shorts, with no regard to how the blocks of colour match up .
I mean, look at that little shark's fin at the front hem: what's that for? It fails to line up with the panel in the shorts, which it could so easily do - and it has half a logo of some sort on it.
And the weird curvy "Lotto" word on the right leg? Can you imagine how distorted that is going to look, on the legs of their sprinters, with their big thigh muscles? I'm not keen on the leg bands, either - one red, one white, it's just jumbled, incoherent, and not particularly pretty.
And why is the word Belisol in a different shade of blue from every other blue used on the kit? By the way, in case you're wondering who Belisol are, they make PVC doors and Windows. So if Omega-Pharma-Lotto ever get back together, the two left-out sponsors can combine wooden floors with PVC doors and windows, and can "construct" a team of their own. (That was a joke.)
So, I'm not that impressed with the first of the new kits, but well done to Lotto for getting it out nice and early, and good luck for the coming season.
So now we turn to RadioTrekNissanShack. Well, we don't even know their name yet, let alone their kit - hey, have we not been here before? How many Leopards ended up in the new squad? 12 or so? My, that sounds so familiar....
Leaving that aside, we turn to The Kit.
RadioShack used to be grey with a big red panel, (right) and the fetching little yellow armbands, which were the symbol of the Livestrong cancer foundation. The shorts were more-or-less red, with grey panels.
Then they went to the red, white and black kit of last year - left - which was much nicer, we all approve of black shorts, and they added a very useful white back panel - like the Sky kit, designed to be cooler for the riders on hot days - but with a striking thick red stripe up the middle, making them very easy to spot in the peloton.
Now they are going to be starting again: so what can we deduce? Well, the RadioShack stores have the "R" logo, so we can guess that will appear somewhere, and it seems to be either white circle and R filled in with red, or red circle and R with a white background. I can't immediately see any logic as to which way they do it, but I haven't really researched it thoroughly. (the hateful phrase "can't be arsed" comes to mind, sorry.)
Nissan dealerships have as their house colours silver or grey, with vertical red stripes around the doors, and the logo is of course the big chrome "hamburger", a circle with a bar across it horizontally.
Overall, we are therefore likely to get grey and red as our main colours, with at least one circular logo, probably the RadioShack "R". I have a horrible feeling that we will be keeping the yellow hoop somewhere in the kit.
Why "horrible"? I've nothing against Lance Armstrong, I have cheered for him in the past, I've read a couple of his books (oh, by the way, I've now read Mark Cavendish's book Boy Racer - it was jolly good, surprisingly, and quite insightful. And you should HEAR what he says about the independent drugs testing company, ACE, which HTC used to use, but ditched as they were not particularly any good, and did not seem to have any anti-contamination protocols in place. And WADA are going to be calling them to give evidence in the Conti case. Oh dear, oh dear...) but I'm just a little worried about all that bad publicity and doping speculation, and I'd rather start "our" new team off without past links. In fact, the whole charity thing is a marvellously worthwhile cause, but really, honestly, I'd rather be able to choose my charities privately, than be in effect "forced" to support them if I choose to support the new RaNT team.
Anyway, back to the kit: it's probably a bit late, but RaNT, may I just politely remind you of some important points about kit design.
1) Black shorts. Don't discuss it, just do it.
2) Same colours visible front and back. Lampre......were they pink? Or blue?
3) Something very distinctive on the back, for helicopter peloton shots.
4) Same colours left and right!
5) Don't waste anything good on the lower chest area: last year, Garmin suddenly popped up in a glaring white kit, total contrast to the normal black one, for the Tour, and it wasn't until days after the race had ended, when I saw a photo of them en masse, that I even realised that there was a big band of blue argyle on the front! Make the designers watch a race before they start designing... cyclist hunch over their handlebars, crumpling up that lower chest area, so we can't see it at all.
Don't believe me? Here's the Garmin squad in action. Let's look at those jerseys: black band across the chest, letter E on the shoulder, blue arm bands for Johan Van Summeren to roll up..... and that's all, isn't it?
Nope! This is the whole thing.
What a waste, eh? We couldn't see that extensive blue argyling at all.
AND - added at a later date because LLB reminded me of it, and I can't believe I forgot to mention this - the white Garmin kit had the ultimate level of stupidity and bad design: the blue argyle-ing went round the back as well. Sorry? You didn't see it? That's because they printed the blue argyle right up to the top of the pockets. The pockets? Yes, the pockets. You know, the handy receptacles for bottle, gels, bananas: those handy panels that the numbers are pinned on to....
Yes, they chose to put the one bit of distinctive colour on the back, in the one place where it would be competely invisible.
And you are seriously telling me that they paid a professional company to design the kit?
Well, those are my Top Tips for kit design, it will be interesting to see what we get. I do hope that we aren't going to be kept on the hook right into the new year....
Come on Mr Bruyneel, I bet you've been doodling kit designs on your scratch pad all year long, please don't keep us waiting too long.
Sadly, hardly any teams seem to be able to leave the kit alone for more than five minutes, and the end-of-season break seems to be viewed as the ideal time to change it all again.
Of course, if the team is newly formed, or newly merged, or newly pruned of a sponsor, then there is a legitimate case to be made for a new kit: an expression about "new brooms" comes to mind.
[note for non-UK readers - the expression is "the new broom sweeps cleanest" meaning that a new management or government or leader is often inclined to sort out problems that an old one may have been overlooking for years. On the other hand, there is another phrase, "but the old broom knows the corners" which implies that the new broom might miss some of the important areas, being so caught up in the excitement of being new. End of digression, please read on.]
Of course, being Andy fans, we are all agog to see what sort of mess the new RadioTrek Nissan kit is going to be.
Remember how disappointed we were, when we first saw the classic, elegant, clean lines of the Leopard kit? "Boring!" we all shouted, "Too close to Sky - and Garmin - and, er, anyone else with a plain black kit!"
But we eventually came to love it, spot it in the peloton, and some of us (er hem) even made flags of it, to wave at the Tour of Britain, or emblazoned their logo on the back of all their work t-shirts....
[Another digression: for me, the only disappointment of the final day of the Tour of Britain - apart from Jensi not being there, of course - was that I was the only person in the whole of London with a Leopard flag, and the Leopard car didn't even wave back at me - not once! It went past 16 times, but I didn't get even a tiny wave from a back seat passenger. Oh well *sigh* maybe I'll have to make a bigger one for next year...]
So, onto new kits. Here's the first one to be announced - Lotto Belisol.
This is half of the former Omega-Pharma Lotto team, now split into Omega-Pharma-Quickstep (catchy!) and Lotto-Belisol (oh dear, Belisol? Sounds like an ointment.)
Here's the old OLO kit, which always makes me think of chewing gum, for some reason. Must be the colour combinations. It was a bit jazzy with logos, but nice distinctive colour bands, easy to spot in the peloton although personally, I am not in favour of having different-coloured shoulders or sides, as it means that the riders look different depending on which side the camera goes. I don't like this, as it means having to learn two kits for one team! (oh dear, so lazy.)
And the new Lotto kit? Well, here it is: the press release calls it "sober and coherent" and some rubbish about "which reflects the dynamism of our riders, their class, and their savoir-faire.” Yes, fine.
Personally I think it looks as though someone has taken a sheet of navy-blue paper, some of which has been printed with the word Lotto, chopped it up into pieces, dropped them from a height onto a board, then cut out an outline of a jersey and shorts, with no regard to how the blocks of colour match up .
I mean, look at that little shark's fin at the front hem: what's that for? It fails to line up with the panel in the shorts, which it could so easily do - and it has half a logo of some sort on it.
And the weird curvy "Lotto" word on the right leg? Can you imagine how distorted that is going to look, on the legs of their sprinters, with their big thigh muscles? I'm not keen on the leg bands, either - one red, one white, it's just jumbled, incoherent, and not particularly pretty.
And why is the word Belisol in a different shade of blue from every other blue used on the kit? By the way, in case you're wondering who Belisol are, they make PVC doors and Windows. So if Omega-Pharma-Lotto ever get back together, the two left-out sponsors can combine wooden floors with PVC doors and windows, and can "construct" a team of their own. (That was a joke.)
So, I'm not that impressed with the first of the new kits, but well done to Lotto for getting it out nice and early, and good luck for the coming season.
So now we turn to RadioTrekNissanShack. Well, we don't even know their name yet, let alone their kit - hey, have we not been here before? How many Leopards ended up in the new squad? 12 or so? My, that sounds so familiar....
Leaving that aside, we turn to The Kit.
RadioShack used to be grey with a big red panel, (right) and the fetching little yellow armbands, which were the symbol of the Livestrong cancer foundation. The shorts were more-or-less red, with grey panels.
Then they went to the red, white and black kit of last year - left - which was much nicer, we all approve of black shorts, and they added a very useful white back panel - like the Sky kit, designed to be cooler for the riders on hot days - but with a striking thick red stripe up the middle, making them very easy to spot in the peloton.
Now they are going to be starting again: so what can we deduce? Well, the RadioShack stores have the "R" logo, so we can guess that will appear somewhere, and it seems to be either white circle and R filled in with red, or red circle and R with a white background. I can't immediately see any logic as to which way they do it, but I haven't really researched it thoroughly. (the hateful phrase "can't be arsed" comes to mind, sorry.)
Nissan dealerships have as their house colours silver or grey, with vertical red stripes around the doors, and the logo is of course the big chrome "hamburger", a circle with a bar across it horizontally.
Overall, we are therefore likely to get grey and red as our main colours, with at least one circular logo, probably the RadioShack "R". I have a horrible feeling that we will be keeping the yellow hoop somewhere in the kit.
Why "horrible"? I've nothing against Lance Armstrong, I have cheered for him in the past, I've read a couple of his books (oh, by the way, I've now read Mark Cavendish's book Boy Racer - it was jolly good, surprisingly, and quite insightful. And you should HEAR what he says about the independent drugs testing company, ACE, which HTC used to use, but ditched as they were not particularly any good, and did not seem to have any anti-contamination protocols in place. And WADA are going to be calling them to give evidence in the Conti case. Oh dear, oh dear...) but I'm just a little worried about all that bad publicity and doping speculation, and I'd rather start "our" new team off without past links. In fact, the whole charity thing is a marvellously worthwhile cause, but really, honestly, I'd rather be able to choose my charities privately, than be in effect "forced" to support them if I choose to support the new RaNT team.
Anyway, back to the kit: it's probably a bit late, but RaNT, may I just politely remind you of some important points about kit design.
1) Black shorts. Don't discuss it, just do it.
2) Same colours visible front and back. Lampre......were they pink? Or blue?
3) Something very distinctive on the back, for helicopter peloton shots.
4) Same colours left and right!
5) Don't waste anything good on the lower chest area: last year, Garmin suddenly popped up in a glaring white kit, total contrast to the normal black one, for the Tour, and it wasn't until days after the race had ended, when I saw a photo of them en masse, that I even realised that there was a big band of blue argyle on the front! Make the designers watch a race before they start designing... cyclist hunch over their handlebars, crumpling up that lower chest area, so we can't see it at all.
Don't believe me? Here's the Garmin squad in action. Let's look at those jerseys: black band across the chest, letter E on the shoulder, blue arm bands for Johan Van Summeren to roll up..... and that's all, isn't it?
Nope! This is the whole thing.
What a waste, eh? We couldn't see that extensive blue argyling at all.
AND - added at a later date because LLB reminded me of it, and I can't believe I forgot to mention this - the white Garmin kit had the ultimate level of stupidity and bad design: the blue argyle-ing went round the back as well. Sorry? You didn't see it? That's because they printed the blue argyle right up to the top of the pockets. The pockets? Yes, the pockets. You know, the handy receptacles for bottle, gels, bananas: those handy panels that the numbers are pinned on to....
Yes, they chose to put the one bit of distinctive colour on the back, in the one place where it would be competely invisible.
And you are seriously telling me that they paid a professional company to design the kit?
Well, those are my Top Tips for kit design, it will be interesting to see what we get. I do hope that we aren't going to be kept on the hook right into the new year....
Come on Mr Bruyneel, I bet you've been doodling kit designs on your scratch pad all year long, please don't keep us waiting too long.
Friday 18 November 2011
Andy Goes Speeding!
Shock Horror - Our Glorious Leader has been "done" for speeding!
Yes, read all about it: he was caught doing 101kph (63mph) somewhere in the south of Luxembourg, and is now quivering with fear under the threat of a fine of 350 euros (£300, USD 472, CAD 485, AUD 472, for the convenience of the top four Schlecklander-occupied countries, according to my Flag Counter, of which I am still ridiculously proud) and possibly - even - a month's ban!
Oh no!
In a country that's, what did Barbara say, less than 40km across: and living in the same road as his family, and his brother and with his best mate Jakob, with whom he works, living in the same building: yes, a ban of a month is really going to put a crimp in his style. Not to mention TinkerJil, who we assume is a fully grown adult and therefore has her own car.
So it probably won't be a truly terrible experience for him....
So what was OGL doing, breaking the law in this disgraceful way? (Tongue in cheek - I hardly think that doing 63mph is that bad a crime. Unless it was in a 30mph zone, over the school crossing, in the fog, with no lights on, with Jakob sticking his bare backside out of one window, and with terrible music blaring from the speakers.)
Well, we don't know. We don't even know what speed he was supposed to be doing!
I've had a quick look at good old News 352, and the headlines in Lux today are:
"Punched in the face for a smoke" Nothing to do with us.
"Traffic chaos after accident on the A1" Horrors! I do hope the Howald Tunnel wasn't affected. I've had a quick look at the traffic cameras, and the A3 does look a bit sticky - well, there are more than 2 lonely cars in sight, which makes a change - but it is early morning rush hour, and it does appear to be foggy over most of the country, so it's not really surprising.
"Wickrange repeat offender is a big fella" Some tall bloke is nicking stuff from a shop. Not OGL.
"Police violence no longer tolerated" You mean it was, before?
"Child fatally injured in horrific accident" This one is bad, a small child fell out of his mother's car and died from head injuries. Always strap 'em in, and activate the child-proof locks.
"Toilet heist" I'm not even going to look at the details of that one.
"Burst boiler causes basement fire". Probably horrible for those involved, luckily, not us.
"Luxair: fog will hinder flights" There! Told you it was foggy!
"Friday night's alright for fightin'..." A nightclub wouldn't let some people in, and a scuffle broke out.
and finally:
"Drunken Frenchman almost runs over cop" I'm saying nothing about the standard of French drivers, but you know what I'm thinking... Fletcha, Hoogerland.....
So, no details I'm afraid. Maybe later, some more info will emerge. Or we might have to Schpleculate about it... *maniacal laughter in the background* I'm sure that someone will be suggesting that it's some way linked with improving his TT speeds.......
Yes, read all about it: he was caught doing 101kph (63mph) somewhere in the south of Luxembourg, and is now quivering with fear under the threat of a fine of 350 euros (£300, USD 472, CAD 485, AUD 472, for the convenience of the top four Schlecklander-occupied countries, according to my Flag Counter, of which I am still ridiculously proud) and possibly - even - a month's ban!
Oh no!
In a country that's, what did Barbara say, less than 40km across: and living in the same road as his family, and his brother and with his best mate Jakob, with whom he works, living in the same building: yes, a ban of a month is really going to put a crimp in his style. Not to mention TinkerJil, who we assume is a fully grown adult and therefore has her own car.
So it probably won't be a truly terrible experience for him....
So what was OGL doing, breaking the law in this disgraceful way? (Tongue in cheek - I hardly think that doing 63mph is that bad a crime. Unless it was in a 30mph zone, over the school crossing, in the fog, with no lights on, with Jakob sticking his bare backside out of one window, and with terrible music blaring from the speakers.)
Well, we don't know. We don't even know what speed he was supposed to be doing!
I've had a quick look at good old News 352, and the headlines in Lux today are:
"Punched in the face for a smoke" Nothing to do with us.
"Traffic chaos after accident on the A1" Horrors! I do hope the Howald Tunnel wasn't affected. I've had a quick look at the traffic cameras, and the A3 does look a bit sticky - well, there are more than 2 lonely cars in sight, which makes a change - but it is early morning rush hour, and it does appear to be foggy over most of the country, so it's not really surprising.
"Wickrange repeat offender is a big fella" Some tall bloke is nicking stuff from a shop. Not OGL.
"Police violence no longer tolerated" You mean it was, before?
"Child fatally injured in horrific accident" This one is bad, a small child fell out of his mother's car and died from head injuries. Always strap 'em in, and activate the child-proof locks.
"Toilet heist" I'm not even going to look at the details of that one.
"Burst boiler causes basement fire". Probably horrible for those involved, luckily, not us.
"Luxair: fog will hinder flights" There! Told you it was foggy!
"Friday night's alright for fightin'..." A nightclub wouldn't let some people in, and a scuffle broke out.
and finally:
"Drunken Frenchman almost runs over cop" I'm saying nothing about the standard of French drivers, but you know what I'm thinking... Fletcha, Hoogerland.....
So, no details I'm afraid. Maybe later, some more info will emerge. Or we might have to Schpleculate about it... *maniacal laughter in the background* I'm sure that someone will be suggesting that it's some way linked with improving his TT speeds.......
Tuesday 15 November 2011
You know you're a diehard cycling fan when...
Earlier this year, LLB and I were proud to award ourselves Diehard ProCycling Fan badges (virtual, of course) because we:
1) Have been to a stage race, a TT, and a crit.
2) Have stayed watching a TT right to the end.
3) In the rain.
4) Have sat indoors and missed the few sunny days of summer, just to watch TdF on TV.
We thought that covered the more important points of fandom, but there are some more signs.
Fairly basic criteria are of course being able to name every team in the Pro-Team peloton, and you get extra points for being able to recognise most of the Continental teams, by their kit.
I get further points, as I have a team musette and bidon, left.
(Oh, yes, I'm still proud of that!)
And I get an extra point as I could have had another bidon that was thrown towards me during a race. (I gave it away - I'm good like that.)
More points are awarded for naming pets after cyclists: I have a fish called Bram Tankink.
Yes, I know he's Rabobank and has nothing to do with Leopard Trek or Andy Schleck, I just thought it was a good name. Overtones of Dracula, combined with tanking up and down, and living in a tank. It just felt right.
I have a small bear from New Zealand called Henderson, after Greg Henderson, (actually he's not even my bear, I'm looking after him for a friend. Do you know, [by the way, I'm looking after 20 or so of her second-league bears while she moved house] she hadn't even removed his tags? Or given him a name??!! So I named him Henderson. Heh heh heh...) and of course you all remember Johan Van Lobsteren - right - who is also only visiting, but who has already found out about the remote control....
Recently, Eva and I were tweeting, and it came to pass that she defined Easter this year as being during LBL, whereas next year it will be during PT.
So I suggested to her than another sign of being a diehard cycling fan was in describing events by the race which they interrupt....
...and by being prepared to watch Track events, strange as they are, in desperation, when there is no other cycling on......
...and she suggested that, as a Dutch person, knowing the English phrase "Polka Dot" was a pretty good sign, too!
I suppose that the most obvious sign of being a Diehard Cycling Fan is when you plan your holidays around big Tours, (actually, we all do that, don't we?) but a real give-away is when you plan your family by using the Tour de France Testosterone Method: ie babies conceived during the season are going to be girls, as all the testosterone is being used up.
Honestly, it's a theory! Mark Cavendish says that he and Peta's baby is going to be a girl, for that reason.
[Thinks: perhaps we could ask Jensi if he'd be prepared to be used for market research of this hypothesis, as he has 6 children and if he would be kind enough to confirm which ones were conceived during the season.... surely that's enough for a good sample? Go on, you ask him.]
So, if you can think of any other give-aways, do tell!
1) Have been to a stage race, a TT, and a crit.
2) Have stayed watching a TT right to the end.
3) In the rain.
4) Have sat indoors and missed the few sunny days of summer, just to watch TdF on TV.
We thought that covered the more important points of fandom, but there are some more signs.
Fairly basic criteria are of course being able to name every team in the Pro-Team peloton, and you get extra points for being able to recognise most of the Continental teams, by their kit.
(Oh, yes, I'm still proud of that!)
And I get an extra point as I could have had another bidon that was thrown towards me during a race. (I gave it away - I'm good like that.)
More points are awarded for naming pets after cyclists: I have a fish called Bram Tankink.
Yes, I know he's Rabobank and has nothing to do with Leopard Trek or Andy Schleck, I just thought it was a good name. Overtones of Dracula, combined with tanking up and down, and living in a tank. It just felt right.
Recently, Eva and I were tweeting, and it came to pass that she defined Easter this year as being during LBL, whereas next year it will be during PT.
So I suggested to her than another sign of being a diehard cycling fan was in describing events by the race which they interrupt....
...and by being prepared to watch Track events, strange as they are, in desperation, when there is no other cycling on......
...and she suggested that, as a Dutch person, knowing the English phrase "Polka Dot" was a pretty good sign, too!
I suppose that the most obvious sign of being a Diehard Cycling Fan is when you plan your holidays around big Tours, (actually, we all do that, don't we?) but a real give-away is when you plan your family by using the Tour de France Testosterone Method: ie babies conceived during the season are going to be girls, as all the testosterone is being used up.
Honestly, it's a theory! Mark Cavendish says that he and Peta's baby is going to be a girl, for that reason.
[Thinks: perhaps we could ask Jensi if he'd be prepared to be used for market research of this hypothesis, as he has 6 children and if he would be kind enough to confirm which ones were conceived during the season.... surely that's enough for a good sample? Go on, you ask him.]
So, if you can think of any other give-aways, do tell!
Sunday 13 November 2011
Sat Nav will never be the same again
Everyone remember Mad Bad Dave Zabriskie?
OK, he's not a Leopard Trek rider, he rides for Garmin, but he's a real character, and quite bonkers. Who can forget his memorable singing-while-applying-groin-cream video?
If you really can't remember it, I've kindly embedded it (below) so that you can relive the moment.
He has his own brand of cyclist-sore-patch-reduction cream, called DZ-nuts (for some reason I have just mis-typed that as DZ-buts, not once but three times) and he was rumoured to be producing a version for female cyclists - who apparently also suffer from chafing in the billowy portions - which, it was suggested, would be called DZ-lips. Thankfully, it was named "Bliss" instead. Less catchy, but considerably less tacky!
Here you go: and if you watch it right to the end - it's ok, it's not very long, and it doesn't get any "worse" than when it starts - you can see Tyler Farrar giving him a very strange look. Which could be due to DZ merely wiping his application hand on a tissue, rather than washing it....
So, what's he up to in the off-season?
Apparently he has just spent some time recording voice-overs for Garmin's SatNav system, as an optional extra for users to purchase - or possibly even to download for free. Here's a small sample:
Can you imagine that? My phone has sat-nav, and there is a nice calm lady who issues instructions, and who never, ever gets cross if I go the wrong way. (Well, would you take a left into a dead-end street at the start of a journey? No, and nor would I. SatNavs should always have intelligence applied to them.)
I can't quite imagine navigating with Dave Z yelling at me in American!
There is an option for a "Surfer Dude" voice, which was very funny for about ten minutes.....
....oh but wait, I'm having an idea......
(somewhere in Lux, a phone rings)
CG: "Andy, my pet, what are you doing this afternoon?"
Andy: "Errr, training, of course."
CG: "No you're not, it's raining and it's November, you've just returned from holiday, there is no way you are going out on the bike." (accusing tone of voice)
Andy: (hangs his head) "Well, maybe not, sorry."
CG: "OK, so what are you doing, really?"
Andy: "Oh, not much - Frankie and Martine have come round, we might head up to the folks' for dinner later on...."
CG: "Great! Can you get yourself down to the recording studio?"
Andy: (puzzled) "Errr, yes... but why?"
CG: "Oh, haven't you heard, Dave Zabriskie has done a set of guidance voice for Garmin."
Andy: "For sure, I read it this morning. "
CG: "So..... we thought it would be nice if you did one for us!"
Andy: "Really? You think that I should?"
CG: (breathes enthusiastically) "Oh yes, it would be nice, go on, please?"
Andy: "OK! For sure! "
There you go, definitely a best-seller. Wouldn't you want those dulcet tones telling you which way to go?
If you really can't remember it, I've kindly embedded it (below) so that you can relive the moment.
He has his own brand of cyclist-sore-patch-reduction cream, called DZ-nuts (for some reason I have just mis-typed that as DZ-buts, not once but three times) and he was rumoured to be producing a version for female cyclists - who apparently also suffer from chafing in the billowy portions - which, it was suggested, would be called DZ-lips. Thankfully, it was named "Bliss" instead. Less catchy, but considerably less tacky!
Here you go: and if you watch it right to the end - it's ok, it's not very long, and it doesn't get any "worse" than when it starts - you can see Tyler Farrar giving him a very strange look. Which could be due to DZ merely wiping his application hand on a tissue, rather than washing it....
So, what's he up to in the off-season?
Apparently he has just spent some time recording voice-overs for Garmin's SatNav system, as an optional extra for users to purchase - or possibly even to download for free. Here's a small sample:
Can you imagine that? My phone has sat-nav, and there is a nice calm lady who issues instructions, and who never, ever gets cross if I go the wrong way. (Well, would you take a left into a dead-end street at the start of a journey? No, and nor would I. SatNavs should always have intelligence applied to them.)
I can't quite imagine navigating with Dave Z yelling at me in American!
There is an option for a "Surfer Dude" voice, which was very funny for about ten minutes.....
....oh but wait, I'm having an idea......
(somewhere in Lux, a phone rings)
CG: "Andy, my pet, what are you doing this afternoon?"
Andy: "Errr, training, of course."
CG: "No you're not, it's raining and it's November, you've just returned from holiday, there is no way you are going out on the bike." (accusing tone of voice)
Andy: (hangs his head) "Well, maybe not, sorry."
CG: "OK, so what are you doing, really?"
Andy: "Oh, not much - Frankie and Martine have come round, we might head up to the folks' for dinner later on...."
CG: "Great! Can you get yourself down to the recording studio?"
Andy: (puzzled) "Errr, yes... but why?"
CG: "Oh, haven't you heard, Dave Zabriskie has done a set of guidance voice for Garmin."
Andy: "For sure, I read it this morning. "
CG: "So..... we thought it would be nice if you did one for us!"
Andy: "Really? You think that I should?"
CG: (breathes enthusiastically) "Oh yes, it would be nice, go on, please?"
Andy: "OK! For sure! "
There you go, definitely a best-seller. Wouldn't you want those dulcet tones telling you which way to go?
Saturday 5 November 2011
Sponsors get shafted, too!
As you all know, I have felt free to express my opinion on the poor performance of Mr Becca, and the way he broke the terms of his contract to support Leopard Trek for four years, without even explaining why.
I then did some research into sponsorship, and I read a book all about the Linda McCartney team and their problems, and I came to the inescapable conclusion that sponsors are fickle and elusive, and we just have to be grateful for what we get from them, and cannot really expect them to behave like professionals, disgraceful and annoying though that is.
Now I have realised that it goes both ways.
Eddie Merckx Cycles had a three year deal with Quickstep, and 2011 was the second year of that deal. Now Quickstep are merging with Omega-Pharma, and the new combined team have brought in a whole bunch of the HTC Highroad riders, along with their Specialized bikes.
So Specialized are taking over as bike supplier/sponsor for the team, and Eddie Merckx Cycles have been shoved out.
The news report contains lots of lovely positive phrases and quotes from Eddie Merckx Cycles, as you would expect, but I can almost feel the gritting of teeth going on underneath, can't you?
Does this make me feel better, knowing that sponsors can find their contracts to be worthless, and can find themselves thrown out at a moments' notice, just like the riders?
Well, no, actually: I would much prefer to live in a world where a contract is binding, and cannot be broken at a whim.
I then did some research into sponsorship, and I read a book all about the Linda McCartney team and their problems, and I came to the inescapable conclusion that sponsors are fickle and elusive, and we just have to be grateful for what we get from them, and cannot really expect them to behave like professionals, disgraceful and annoying though that is.
Now I have realised that it goes both ways.
Eddie Merckx Cycles had a three year deal with Quickstep, and 2011 was the second year of that deal. Now Quickstep are merging with Omega-Pharma, and the new combined team have brought in a whole bunch of the HTC Highroad riders, along with their Specialized bikes.
So Specialized are taking over as bike supplier/sponsor for the team, and Eddie Merckx Cycles have been shoved out.
The news report contains lots of lovely positive phrases and quotes from Eddie Merckx Cycles, as you would expect, but I can almost feel the gritting of teeth going on underneath, can't you?
Does this make me feel better, knowing that sponsors can find their contracts to be worthless, and can find themselves thrown out at a moments' notice, just like the riders?
Well, no, actually: I would much prefer to live in a world where a contract is binding, and cannot be broken at a whim.
Friday 4 November 2011
Teamwork: does it work?
Yes, of course it does, pro cycling is all about teamwork, we already know that. As they say, it's the only sport where an individual wins, but can't win without their team.
Some time ago, I speculated in a post about the difference which the new UCI rules would make to the life of a domestique. (Ah, "The Life of A Domestique", great title for a book, huh? Probably involving slavery, pot-scrubbing and general down-trodden-ness. But I digress. No surprise for any of you who read this blog regularly.)
You remember, as from this year, Points Mean Pro-Teams, and teams will need to acquire points in order to be eligible for the top rank of cycling.
Previously, domestiques used to be allowed to "have their day" and compete for a stage win, as a reward for their hard work. My thought was that this would no longer be allowed, as teams would need to concentrate all the points in as few riders as possible, as only the top 5 riders' points count towards the team score, and only the top 15 riders' scores count at the end of the year towards Pro-Team status.
So it would be a waste to have 20 riders with 10 points each: it would be much better to have the same 200 points spread over fewer riders.
Now, I thought that this was going to be bad for domestiques purely because they would no longer have their chance of glory, and that they would find this disappointing.
However, it's worse than that: teams are now scrabbling around to buy domestiques with points in order to make up their Pro-Team UCI point deficiencies, so a domestique with 20 points or so is suddenly worth a lot of money - and a domestique with no points is suddenly not worth anything, even though he has worked loyally and thoroughly throughout the season.
This can't be right! The life of a domestique was always a bit of a bugger - that's a technical term - as they quite literally did all the work, but received none of the glory. All their work was done in the first 100kms of the day, before the TV coverage, so they rarely had the joy of being "seen", and instead were always filmed limping across the finish lane as the podium presentations were taking place.
And now it's even worse than I'd thought: as LLB pointed out when we were discussing this point over dinner the other night - ah, how we live - the teams are going to actively prevent their domestiques from gaining any points, precisely to prevent them from being poached at the end of the season. So not only will they no longer be given their day, they will now be instructed to exhaust themselves, even if it's not strictly necessary, in order to ensure that they don't accidentally pick up any UCI points.
How mean!
AT long last, nearly a year after me starting to say this, the riders themselves are beginning to realise that this is going to be a problem, and I was interested to read one of the departing Shack riders having a rant on this exact subject. Of course, he's miffed at his team merging without warning, but his points are all valid.
The rider in question is Geoffroy Lequatre, and he suggests that next season, "People will ride for themselves instead of for their leaders" which is going to require what he calls a different mentality, which might well change the whole spirit of the sport.
I agree with him that this is entirely possible, and I am adamant that this is not a good thing!
His suggestion is that riders should share in the points awarded to the stage and race winners, in the same way that they share in the prize money.
This could be an excellent way out of the problem: my immediate thought is to say that within each race, the rider who actually wins the stage/sprint/kom etc gets the points and the glory. But afterwards, all the team members receive "ghost points" equalling that of the winner. These points remain with the individual rider, are added into the UCI rankings, and are carried forward by the individual rider into the next season.
Sprint points and KOM points are different, they should stay just with the rider who won them. I think it is absurd for non-climbers to win KOM points, unless they really are the first person over the top, in which case they damned well deserve it! I also think there should be TT points.
This will have the effect of increasing the total number of points in the rankings, but I can't see that being a problem.
Now, I haven't really sat down with a spreadsheet to work through the details, so I would be very happy to see any suggestions for making this work more smoothly.
Then we can send it off to the UCI, ha ha!
Some time ago, I speculated in a post about the difference which the new UCI rules would make to the life of a domestique. (Ah, "The Life of A Domestique", great title for a book, huh? Probably involving slavery, pot-scrubbing and general down-trodden-ness. But I digress. No surprise for any of you who read this blog regularly.)
You remember, as from this year, Points Mean Pro-Teams, and teams will need to acquire points in order to be eligible for the top rank of cycling.
Previously, domestiques used to be allowed to "have their day" and compete for a stage win, as a reward for their hard work. My thought was that this would no longer be allowed, as teams would need to concentrate all the points in as few riders as possible, as only the top 5 riders' points count towards the team score, and only the top 15 riders' scores count at the end of the year towards Pro-Team status.
So it would be a waste to have 20 riders with 10 points each: it would be much better to have the same 200 points spread over fewer riders.
Now, I thought that this was going to be bad for domestiques purely because they would no longer have their chance of glory, and that they would find this disappointing.
However, it's worse than that: teams are now scrabbling around to buy domestiques with points in order to make up their Pro-Team UCI point deficiencies, so a domestique with 20 points or so is suddenly worth a lot of money - and a domestique with no points is suddenly not worth anything, even though he has worked loyally and thoroughly throughout the season.
This can't be right! The life of a domestique was always a bit of a bugger - that's a technical term - as they quite literally did all the work, but received none of the glory. All their work was done in the first 100kms of the day, before the TV coverage, so they rarely had the joy of being "seen", and instead were always filmed limping across the finish lane as the podium presentations were taking place.
And now it's even worse than I'd thought: as LLB pointed out when we were discussing this point over dinner the other night - ah, how we live - the teams are going to actively prevent their domestiques from gaining any points, precisely to prevent them from being poached at the end of the season. So not only will they no longer be given their day, they will now be instructed to exhaust themselves, even if it's not strictly necessary, in order to ensure that they don't accidentally pick up any UCI points.
How mean!
AT long last, nearly a year after me starting to say this, the riders themselves are beginning to realise that this is going to be a problem, and I was interested to read one of the departing Shack riders having a rant on this exact subject. Of course, he's miffed at his team merging without warning, but his points are all valid.
The rider in question is Geoffroy Lequatre, and he suggests that next season, "People will ride for themselves instead of for their leaders" which is going to require what he calls a different mentality, which might well change the whole spirit of the sport.
I agree with him that this is entirely possible, and I am adamant that this is not a good thing!
His suggestion is that riders should share in the points awarded to the stage and race winners, in the same way that they share in the prize money.
This could be an excellent way out of the problem: my immediate thought is to say that within each race, the rider who actually wins the stage/sprint/kom etc gets the points and the glory. But afterwards, all the team members receive "ghost points" equalling that of the winner. These points remain with the individual rider, are added into the UCI rankings, and are carried forward by the individual rider into the next season.
Sprint points and KOM points are different, they should stay just with the rider who won them. I think it is absurd for non-climbers to win KOM points, unless they really are the first person over the top, in which case they damned well deserve it! I also think there should be TT points.
This will have the effect of increasing the total number of points in the rankings, but I can't see that being a problem.
Now, I haven't really sat down with a spreadsheet to work through the details, so I would be very happy to see any suggestions for making this work more smoothly.
Then we can send it off to the UCI, ha ha!
Thursday 3 November 2011
Andy in Ice Bath Shocker!
What a terrible thought, OGL shivering in an ice bath.
But yes, it's true: well, I read it on the internet, so it might be true, it might not be true... who can tell.
And it's all in search of that Maillot Jaune again. As we all know, Andy and Frank are both Top 20 In The World time triallists, but that's not quite good enough, apparently, so they are continuing in their quest to improve, aided (?) by the stern face and strong right arm of Mr Bruyneel.
The weight of this responsibility falls on Josué Arán, their chiropractor. He's been working with them for a year and a half, mind you - it's not as though he's some Bruyneel Wonder-Wind-Tunnel expert, brought in to whip them into shape. No, he's been doing his best for some time, but now things are shifting up a gear.
In an interview reported by good old Velonation, he said "They were so good from birth, they have so much class, that they believed they didn’t have to do anything.” Oops, that doesn't sound very good.
“One day I told them was wrong and yes, they are very good, but they can progress." Oh dear, has OGL been refusing to listen to his advisors?
So now they are having to be good boys, and do special exercises three times a week Three times a week? If I were them, striving to be a Tour winner and sick and tired of people making stupid remarks about my TT ability, I'd be doing those exercises three times a day!
Oh, and they get a change of diet as well - not so much of the "duuuurty meat" that they love, and a bit more of the "protein shakes" (ugh, shudder, sounds terrible).
And lastly, they get the ice baths. I kid you not, the article ended by saying "and also employing ice baths to recover from tough training sessions."
Ugh, shudder, once again. Pass the fluffy towelling robe, someone.
Other news for today: I was getting a bit tired of my Twitter logo, the crying one - right.
There is a time to cry, and then there is a time to stop crying and just get on with it.
So, in the absence of any word about the team kit, or team logo, let alone what the name of the team is going to be, I had to extrapolate. Or, if you prefer, make something up.
I started with the Radioshack logo, as they are the main sponsor.
Not terribly nice, but it sort of worked - I put it up on Twitter, and send a tweet to Ken Sommer asking him what he thought about it.
Received an instant response, ha ha! Don't forget that you have to read from the bottom up.
"I would rather put a rusty needle through my eye than look at that again...." said Ken.
LOL! As they say. That's quite a reaction! Is Ken not fully on board with the new sponsor? Or was it because I'd changed his lovely neat logo for something a bit out-of-shape and unbalanced, do we think? In my own defence, I would say that I did it really quickly.....
Anyway, as I don't want to upset him, I immediately changed it for a pic of my work shirts with the normal Leopard logo on them, but after a while I thought that no-one else is going to be interested in what I wear for work... so I changed it for the Dominic Orange-Head/Beaker one. I'm sure you all remember that one.. then I thought that Leelu would probably kill me, so I quickly swapped it for the Stefan Denifl one.
I've left it at that for the time being, as some of my Tweeps - VirtKitty, that means you - were complaining about the confusion that my constant changes were creating.
But it can't stay for long, as Stefan isdeserting us being given the shove going to another team, Vacansoleil. Oh, and yes, I have updated the New Team page, above. Although I think the Shack riders section is not quite accurate!
Anyway, I'm not quite sure what logo to go with now, so any suggestions would be welcome.
Another of my Tweeps, Deborah, was asking if I had a Cancellara Leo Logo (hey, Leo-go, that's a good name for them: such a pity I didn't think of it about a year ago) and I had to say that I didn't. She said that was a shame, she would have liked to have seen it.
Oh all right then, here it is:
And no, not spots, that's supposed to be his designer stubble....
...oh well, it will have to do until I think of something better, or until Ken releases some details about next year's kit.
Mind you, terrible news, it might all be going pear-shaped as the UCI have not granted RadioShack-Nissan-Trek-Leopard-Whatever a Pro Team licence for next year. Not yet, anyway.
Yes, truthfully, big scandal: after announcing recently the 15 teams - including Shack/Leo - that were pretty much okayed to be Pro-Teams, they have now announced that only the following 8 teams have been granted licences:
Astana Pro Team KAZ
BMC Racing Team USA
Garmin-Cervélo USA
Lampre - ISD ITA
Liquigas - Cannondale ITA
Movistar Team ESP
Rabobank NED
Sky Procycling GBR
Ten more teams - to make up the total of 18 Pro-Teams that we are expecting - are having to appear before the UCI Licence Commission, which is normal procedure:-
Two of them are new teams: GreenEdge and Lotto.
Three of them were due to have licences renewed anyway, they are SaxoBank, Omega-Pharma/Quickstep, and Katusha.
Three are seeking to move up from Pro-Continental (2nd league), they are Geox (although that might come to nothing as they still don't have a sponsor), Frances de Jour and Europcar, home of Tommy Voeckler.
Two are the ones lower down the first league, clinging on in the face of relegation - Euskaltel, and AG2R.
And in addition to those 10 + 8, RadioShack-Nissan and Vacansoleil DCM are also going to have to appear - the only squads who currently hold ProTeam licences to be declined at this point.
Worrying!
No-one seems to know why: the UCI are, as always, hiding behind their soul-sucking rules and regulations, and the two teams concerned don't know exactly why they have been declined. The general impression seems to be that it's only paperwork issues, but then that's how the Geox problem first hit the light of day: "where's our bond, then?"
So fingers, toes, eyes and everything else crossed that it really is ONLY paperwork, and that it all gets done on time.. we won't know until the 18th November. And on the 21st November, Contador's final (?) hearing starts....
Who said the off-season was going to be dull?
But yes, it's true: well, I read it on the internet, so it might be true, it might not be true... who can tell.
And it's all in search of that Maillot Jaune again. As we all know, Andy and Frank are both Top 20 In The World time triallists, but that's not quite good enough, apparently, so they are continuing in their quest to improve, aided (?) by the stern face and strong right arm of Mr Bruyneel.
The weight of this responsibility falls on Josué Arán, their chiropractor. He's been working with them for a year and a half, mind you - it's not as though he's some Bruyneel Wonder-Wind-Tunnel expert, brought in to whip them into shape. No, he's been doing his best for some time, but now things are shifting up a gear.
In an interview reported by good old Velonation, he said "They were so good from birth, they have so much class, that they believed they didn’t have to do anything.” Oops, that doesn't sound very good.
“One day I told them was wrong and yes, they are very good, but they can progress." Oh dear, has OGL been refusing to listen to his advisors?
So now they are having to be good boys, and do special exercises three times a week Three times a week? If I were them, striving to be a Tour winner and sick and tired of people making stupid remarks about my TT ability, I'd be doing those exercises three times a day!
Oh, and they get a change of diet as well - not so much of the "duuuurty meat" that they love, and a bit more of the "protein shakes" (ugh, shudder, sounds terrible).
And lastly, they get the ice baths. I kid you not, the article ended by saying "and also employing ice baths to recover from tough training sessions."
Ugh, shudder, once again. Pass the fluffy towelling robe, someone.
There is a time to cry, and then there is a time to stop crying and just get on with it.
So, in the absence of any word about the team kit, or team logo, let alone what the name of the team is going to be, I had to extrapolate. Or, if you prefer, make something up.
I started with the Radioshack logo, as they are the main sponsor.
Not terribly nice, but it sort of worked - I put it up on Twitter, and send a tweet to Ken Sommer asking him what he thought about it.
Received an instant response, ha ha! Don't forget that you have to read from the bottom up.
"I would rather put a rusty needle through my eye than look at that again...." said Ken.
LOL! As they say. That's quite a reaction! Is Ken not fully on board with the new sponsor? Or was it because I'd changed his lovely neat logo for something a bit out-of-shape and unbalanced, do we think? In my own defence, I would say that I did it really quickly.....
Anyway, as I don't want to upset him, I immediately changed it for a pic of my work shirts with the normal Leopard logo on them, but after a while I thought that no-one else is going to be interested in what I wear for work... so I changed it for the Dominic Orange-Head/Beaker one. I'm sure you all remember that one.. then I thought that Leelu would probably kill me, so I quickly swapped it for the Stefan Denifl one.
But it can't stay for long, as Stefan is
Anyway, I'm not quite sure what logo to go with now, so any suggestions would be welcome.
Another of my Tweeps, Deborah, was asking if I had a Cancellara Leo Logo (hey, Leo-go, that's a good name for them: such a pity I didn't think of it about a year ago) and I had to say that I didn't. She said that was a shame, she would have liked to have seen it.
Oh all right then, here it is:
And no, not spots, that's supposed to be his designer stubble....
...oh well, it will have to do until I think of something better, or until Ken releases some details about next year's kit.
Mind you, terrible news, it might all be going pear-shaped as the UCI have not granted RadioShack-Nissan-Trek-Leopard-Whatever a Pro Team licence for next year. Not yet, anyway.
Yes, truthfully, big scandal: after announcing recently the 15 teams - including Shack/Leo - that were pretty much okayed to be Pro-Teams, they have now announced that only the following 8 teams have been granted licences:
Astana Pro Team KAZ
BMC Racing Team USA
Garmin-Cervélo USA
Lampre - ISD ITA
Liquigas - Cannondale ITA
Movistar Team ESP
Rabobank NED
Sky Procycling GBR
Ten more teams - to make up the total of 18 Pro-Teams that we are expecting - are having to appear before the UCI Licence Commission, which is normal procedure:-
Two of them are new teams: GreenEdge and Lotto.
Three of them were due to have licences renewed anyway, they are SaxoBank, Omega-Pharma/Quickstep, and Katusha.
Three are seeking to move up from Pro-Continental (2nd league), they are Geox (although that might come to nothing as they still don't have a sponsor), Frances de Jour and Europcar, home of Tommy Voeckler.
Two are the ones lower down the first league, clinging on in the face of relegation - Euskaltel, and AG2R.
And in addition to those 10 + 8, RadioShack-Nissan and Vacansoleil DCM are also going to have to appear - the only squads who currently hold ProTeam licences to be declined at this point.
Worrying!
No-one seems to know why: the UCI are, as always, hiding behind their soul-sucking rules and regulations, and the two teams concerned don't know exactly why they have been declined. The general impression seems to be that it's only paperwork issues, but then that's how the Geox problem first hit the light of day: "where's our bond, then?"
So fingers, toes, eyes and everything else crossed that it really is ONLY paperwork, and that it all gets done on time.. we won't know until the 18th November. And on the 21st November, Contador's final (?) hearing starts....
Who said the off-season was going to be dull?
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