This past week has been full of a ton of strange cycling news.
1st and foremost, at least here in the US, is that the ACA is now coming back to the USAC. Welcome back Colorado, Oregon, Illinois, etc. I do understand some of the reasons for not being part of the USAC, but in reality, one unified organization governing the sport is most likely the best thing for the us all.
Mark Cavendish is pissing off some people. At least he’s bending, if not breaking, the rules concerning the World Championship Jersey. I saw the picture below of him racing the track with his Pro World Road Jersey on. That is a no, no according to the UCI. You can only wear the jersey in the discipline you won it in. I think the rule is bullshit. Especially if he was the only guy at the event that is a World Champion in any discipline. Here is an article explaining the rules.
Lots of news on the drug front-
How about this 63 year old master guy from Flordia refusing a doping test after finishing 5th place in the state TT earlier in the day, and now has to sit out 2 years. Social security, here he comes.
Then there is CAS still trying to pin down Jan Ulrich on something. I’m not sure what that is all about, but it kind of seems a little silly at this point. Jan is eventually going to come clean on everything, probably in a book. Let’s just wait for him to be comfortable with himself so he can be candid with us all.
And Tour de France former winner, Oscar Pereiro, had his way blasting every sport publicly. I’m not sure that the best way to defend cycling by saying everyone in every other sport uses drugs.
And then we have Yannick Noah, Pro tennis player from the past, saying that all sports should just legalize doping. And Yannick has a son playing basketball professionally here in the US. Maybe he is more into the competition of sports than the actually natural abilities of the human athlete. Or the health of the participates for that matter. Idiot.
And today, Alberto has already had his hearing in front of CAS concerning his “problem” with clebuterol. This sure hasn’t taken a very long time, remember this is from the 2010 Tour.
And with all this happening, the head guy from Coni saying that the sport is cleaner now than any time in resent history. Maybe true, but it’s still silly.
How about Chris Jones and Julie Krasniak, both of Rapha Focus, winning the World Single Speed Cross Championships in S.F. last weekend. The prize, a tattoo. I’ve been invited to a few of these single speed World Championships through the years. I never have gone, mainly because of the mandatory prize list, ie. tat.
You can read about most of this weird stuff, condensed, everyday at The Doug Report.
The winners presentation for the SSCXWC 2011.
Cavendish breaking all the UCI protocol, wearing the road jersey on the track and bastardizing the World Jersey with short stripes.
I think this was the image of the tattoo from 2008. How about having the cyclo-x bear tattooed on your body for the rest of your life?
And here is a photo of Wendy Williams getting her polar bear tat applied.
re: 63 Year Old Master – It was an out-of-competition test. We were wondering he’d get selected for one of those. Best guess was he might have been on someone’s customer list.
Hey Steve, to my knowledge its just the ACA of only Colorado that has reintegrated to USAC. Oregon and all other states with stand alone governing bodies are still seperate from USAC.
“USADA was tipped off about this guy from a friend of mine. He bragged about doping to other cyclists including juniors. I’m not sure why they called it out of competition because USADA showed up at our Florida State Time Trial and requested a sample from him there when he refused. The guy that tipped USADA was mostly pissed because his son is a junior racer and didn’t want him hearing this guy’s shit.”
I agree we should be one unified body. It seems strange to have separate entities. As for the old guy–are you kidding me?!!!! He’s taking things way to seriously! As for the World Champion jersey, I feel the jersey shouldn’t be worn out of respect if the world champion is present and competing in the discipline in which it was won. However, if he’s not , a World Champion is a World Champion and should be able to wear it proudly! As for the tattoo, I too would never enter an event which required me to get a tattoo. Oh–and I was just wondering–do you ever read anyone’s responses Steve?
Julia-I read the comments. Sometimes not in a timely matter, within a couple hours, but I nearly always read them sometime during the day. And respond usually if someone has a ???.
The threat of over-trained Social Security recipients is very real to the WADA, UCI and USAC officials. After all, they have the experience, the power (meters) and political clout to win the major pro tours. Why, how would it look with a podium full of white hair at the Giro or TDF? Geritol is like Viagra for your legs! I hope you are old enough for know what Geritol is! Ifthis all makes sense, you are definitely ready for USAC management!
Just as Zack said. We have not made a return and have no plans to.
I admit that I am intrigued by the psychology of why this mature rider from Florida would elect to engage in these (alleged) activities. It may be these types of riders have no illusion of being a champion. It is not always obvious what drives a person (…well, okay, maybe sometimes it is).
Regarding a different topic, got a USAC email today which might prove interesting:
SUBJECT- “Seeking Qualified Candidates to serve as At-large Directors on the USA Cycling Board of Directors”
If there is anyone who could make things interesting, it would be Steve Tilford.
Yeah-I was misinformed that the ABA was also Illinois AND Oregon. I thought that was going to be nearly impossible for that to happen. That is why it was so surprising to me. I was wrong.
forget the tattoo, they lost my world championship reign with the gold hot pants
After reading Les Ernest’s exploits with the board, and then knowing of other locals that have (self) served to be there, I wouldn’t volunteer for that USAC nonsense. What a way to beat your head against the wall.
That tattoo is the Ham’s Beer Bear. Took me a minute to place it but I saw it on tv as a kid all the time (sad sell for kids).
I am glad OBRA is still on it’s own. I live in Oregon and race OBRA events. Well managed, very safe and the most friendly officials. Much better experiance than USAC. Plus an OBRA license is only $20.
Illinois doesn’t have it’s own federation, and in fact a lot of the races there are USAC sanctioned. However, American Bicycle Racing (ABR), headquartered in Kenosha, WI, has a strong presence in IL. ABR will sanction races in any state, and although most are in the midwest), the last I checked there were ABR races as far away as California and Georgia. In some areas it tends to be favored by shady promoters or those who have been suspended by USAC.
I saw the pictures from the SSWC and thought why is everybody dressed up like it’s decadent “Let’s Make a Deal? As far as that goes that applies to some of the grand tours TV coverage I saw. My mother asked me, why do cycling fan dress up like idiots? She remembers the media coverage from the 80’s and early 90’s. It wasn’t the clown show it seems to have become today. I guess people are free to do what they want, but I’m not sure this is the kind of attention I want my sport to have, Maybe I’m just getting old. I know it’s the SSWC and it’s always been about being outragious, but this year I’ve noticed it in the Pro events both here, and over seas. Just a thought.
Just to follow up so you know where I’m coming from. It’s coming from someone who took road cycling serious in the Midwest during 80’s. You would go into a Gas Station and people would make fun of you for wearing your “Spandex”, “Leotards”, and just look at you as if you were wearing a clown suit, now 30 years later, people are actually wearing clown suits.
Gold hot pants and a tattoo… yeah, Steve, you should totally do the fixie races, skinny jeans have elastic in them, they’re just like tights and you can get them in all black, then you’ll look like a real punk rocker especially if you win lots of races and get lots of tats – you could wear your fixie resume for life. Leather jacket, hoody, appropriate band tshirt… and band patches on the jeans where you slide on the ground. Plus with skinny jeans you’ll have less chance of getting road rash. You can omit the cigarettes if you want. pic of punk rockers: http://www.flickr.com/photos/streamfortyseven/5019876174/in/set-72157624897690687
I know I’m a little late to this party, but want to add my two cents on Rainbow Jerseygate.
I wouldn’t be so hasty to disparage Cav. Chances are that he was pestered into wearing it by the event organizer. Yes, Cav surely made the decision to put it on, but the race officials could have not refused to let him race in it, just as the race officials at the 2010 Tour final stage made the whole Radio Shack team put their regular RS jerseys on and did not permit the team to wear the 28 million all black jerseys (referring to the 28 million people with cancer).
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-de-france-2010/stage-20/results
“At 14:30 p.m., the final stage of the Tour de France began – slowly.
“But what normally begins with frolicking and frivolities turned ugly when the RadioShack nine donned some custom-made jerseys, all bearing the number 28 – referring to the 28 million people around the world suffering from cancer – after they had signed in with their standard-issue ‘Shack garb. Unsurprisingly, the commissaires wouldn’t have a bar of it – which, embarrassingly for Lance Armstrong et al., led to the team changing back to their real kit on the roadside.”
Oops. That should read: …race officials could have refused to let him race in it…