There were two interesting rulings this past weekend by the UCI. The first was that Niki Terpstra, Omega Pharma-Quickstep, was disqualified from the Eneco Tour, because of using elbows to fight for position during the race. This wasn’t in the last 200 meters, but during the race itself.

This is the first time I can remember, nearly forever, maybe since Mark Renshaw was kicked out of the Tour a few years back, that the officials has addressed this elbowing and head butting thing. They finally kicked someone out for it. I have to applaud that. They said that his elbowing was “deemed excessive and dangerous”. Isn’t all elbowing excessive and dangerous, and if that is the case, then anyone doing it intentionally should be DQ’d.

I wrote a post after Cavendish crashed out of this years Tour about how stupid this contact was getting. It eventually made its way to Steve Johnson, CEO of USA Cycling. I sent him back a long email about my experiences in NRC races, where it is so common that it is nearly an accepted practice. He thought that maybe they could put cameras facing down the start/finish line stretch, to record the incidences. I told him that it happens everywhere, not just in the last 200 meters.

Eventually, the UCI is going to have to address the contact issue. The sport got along fine when contact was frowned upon. Now it is just the opposite. There is even a phrase, argy bargy, that describes, and sort of, makes light of these actions. It needs to stop.

And how about Johathan Tiernan-Locke’s excuse for having screwed up blood during a biological passport check. He said that he went on a drinking binge, with his girlfriend, celebrating his new contract with Sky, or maybe being selected for the British World Championship team, and consummed “33 units” of alcohol.

For one, I wonder how he kept count of the 33 units? Seems like after 10-15 “units, the count would just get lost. 2nd, why would the guy expect anyone rational to believe that he would binge drink and not eat anything but painkillers, 2 days before the World Road Championships. If he really did that, maybe he deserved a two year suspension.

But, the UCI didn’t believe him. They stated – “There was no dispute that the abnormalities in the sample were consistent with the use of an erythropoietic stimulant which had been discontinued approximately 10 to 14 days before the sample was taken.” So, they kicked him out for two years.

I woke up yesterday with a super bad neck kink? I’ve sort of have had a neck issue for a long time now. Cycling forever makes for poor posture and most long time cyclist have on and off issues, but, this is different.

My neck issue started back in the late 90’s when I ran into a low hanging branch on a descent in a mountain bike race in Hawaii. It was the World Cup Finals and I was just cresting the top of a steep hill, which then descended into the “jungle”. Right then, a freak, isolated rain storm started and it was a deluge. I stayed on my bike, the two guys in front of me fell and slid down, something like out of the movie Romancing the Stone, where Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner slid down a muddy trail through the jungle. Anyway, I stayed upright, but about 30 meters down there was a tree branch, wrapped in ribbon. I didn’t see it, even though I’d already done a few laps of the race, I guess I was more intent on staying upright. I hit the branch head-on, helmet first, and just stopped, wedged upright. I felt my neck compress and crunch, I swore I broke it.

When I finished, I couldn’t move it. It got better after a few days, but has never been the same. I went to a Neurologist after a few months and he did a MRI and said it was good, no structural damage, but it didn’t, and still doesn’t, feel right.

Anyway, now the symptoms are that after riding for a long time, 4 hours plus, I get a shooting pain up the left side of my neck. I can reach back there and there is a tendon or something, that moves under my finger like a guitar string. It is attached to a vertebrae. I can usually alleviate the sharp pain by just digging my finger in there real deep and pushing on it. But, it comes back after a few minutes.

But, yesterday was different. I’m not sure if I slept on it wrong or what. It didn’t feel bad at all when I woke up, but mid morning, I couldn’t move my neck. It is so sore I can’t look at all to the left. I’m scared to even try, the pain is so sharp and severe.

I’m thinking it has something to do with my shoulders. Before I broke my hip a couple months ago, I had the neck thing pretty much under control. I was doing a lot of shoulder stretching and chest stretching, trying to not be so hunched over. It was working. I was riding 6 hour rides with no pain what so ever. But, that was then.

I rode to Vail yesterday and it pretty much hurt the whole time. I took a bunch of ibuprofen last night and this morning, but it doesn’t seem to help. Plus, my stomach hates that stuff. I guess I’ll just wait and see if it gets better. It makes riding pretty not enjoyable.

It’s supposed to rain here in the next two hours, and there is nothing like getting stuck in a cold, mountain storm to stiffen it up even more, so I’d better get going. If anyone out there has any do-it-yourself, fix-it solutions for this, let me know.