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.

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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 is deserting 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?