I think every rider goes through the same thing every fall transitioning from road to cross.  It is on different levels, but it is nearly the same. Either disassembling your road bike to put the parts on your cross bike or starting from scratch.   I’ve been “building” up 4 cyclocross bikes for the past 2 weeks.  Even though most of the parts are on the floor of my garage, it never seems to go as it should.  Intergrated headsets, wrong/no front derailluer clamps, cable hangers, etc.  Not to mention cantilever brakes.  And pads.  Pads to use on carbon wheels.  Aluminum wheels.  Whatever.  But, it is super important   A few seconds you give up here and there can be the difference between a great result and no result at all.  The first few races are over and now I’m back at square one with equipment.  It is a bit draining.  But there are a couple months to get the bugs out.  And just to think, I haven’t even gotten to glueing tires yet.  Fun, fun.

Listen to some interviews from Todd Wells, myself, etc. at The MadCross in Madison at Bikethrow.com.

I was just reading Velonews.com.  The guy from the French anti-doping agency had a bunch to say.  I’ve always known that the situation was dire, but it never ceases to amaze me. Here’s the most interesting parts.

Bodry added that anti-doping officials were concentrating on looking for traces of banned blood booster EPO, “but we will soon be able to test the transfusions thanks to a new procedure, and we are going to do these tests.

“Some suspected cyclists returned to normal levels, but it was astonishing to see at what point their performances had then slowed,” said Bordry.

Bordry added he had already been in contact with around 30 cyclists who are thought to be embroiled in the latest scandal to hit the Tour de France.

Can you believe that they are looking at 30 riders.  How many did they actually take blood from?  Even if it was all the starters, it would be over 15%.  And it doesn’t astonish me at all to see that the performances “slowed” when their levels are closer to normal.  I’m just hoping my Red Blood Count goes back up to the normal range.  I feel great then.

This whole drug thing is old news, but it’s not getting better fast enough for my liking.  When guys like Basso, Vino, etc. seem to be back almost the same year they left, something is wrong with the system.   Racing bicycles isn’t a right.  Again.  Racing bicyles is not a right.  It is a priviledge.  Truely.  And when you abuse that priviledge by cheating your fellow competitors in such a way, you should loose that priviledge forever.  Enough said.