People ask me all the time how I could possible be still interested in racing bikes after all this time.  They truly don’t understand how  I could not be bored and it could still be interesting after all these years.

Before needing to focus on Bromont now, I was in a quandary of what to do this week. If I didn’t have this chest cold thing going on, I would most likely have driven down to Austin and done the La Primavera Lago Vista.   The weekend consists of a very hard circuit race that sometimes changes my fitness a whole level.

Feeling iffy, I would have just stayed here and done a local criterium and road race here in Lawrence and Perry Kansas.  I can ride to both these races and end up with close to 100 miles each day, which is always welcome in March.

And last, the Handmade Bike Show is going on in Louisville, starting tomorrow.  Kent Eriksen, and Katie, are showing there, of course, plus, the show is a candy store for anyone interested in bicycles.  My friend Stacie lives there, so it would be such an no-brainer.

But, I’m driving up into the snow of the Northwoods.  The Fat BIke Birkie is being held on Saturday.  They closed the field a couple weeks ago at 750 riders. Compare that to the 18 starters in the Elite Men’s Nationals a couple weeks ago in Ogden, or the 4 women starters and it makes you wonder how USAC decided to promote its own Nationals and not just award the National Championships to this event?   It is 47 km,  going from Telemark to OO on the Birkie Trail and back North on The Classic Trail.  Ned is heading up there today, so it will be nice seeing him.

Anyway, I could list a dozen other options of things I could do this weekend related to cycling.  From just sitting on my ass to watch Strade Bianche on the internet, Saturday morning, to meeting up with a bunch of friends to ride trails off-road.

And this is only March.  As the season gets rolling, the choices multiply .  And this is just the physical stuff.  Mentally, cycling is even more vast.  If you’re bored with the sport mentally, then you have closed off your ability to absorb knowledge.

Losing interest is another story.  I can understand losing interest or changing focus, but being bored with the sport, if you are a true cyclist, couldn’t possibly occur.

Anyway, cycling is going to be on the back burner for a while.  I plan to spend as much time as I possibly can with Bromont.

I saw an article that said that Chris Froome testified to the UCI doping investigation and said, to sum it up, that you didn’t have to choose to dope to excel at the sport now.   I don’t quite understand anything about this.

I don’t understand, if he doesn’t or doesn’t currently know anything about doping in the sport of cycling, why he would go and testify.  And two, if one is the case, why he should have any input or comments about it at all.  I was thinking that maybe I didn’t understand what the commission was all about.

From the UCI’s webpage-  Essentially, the CIRC’s mission is to investigate the problems that our sport has faced in recent years, notably the allegations – particularly damaging to our image – that the UCI was implicated in wrongdoing in the past. On this basis, the CIRC will make recommendations for change so that as far as possible those mistakes are not repeated. 

I sort of didn’t.  I thought the commission was mainly set up for doping eradication ideals.  But, whatever the reason, I hope Chris Froome has no knowledge of anything information the commission is looking for.

Since he has never participated in doping and never observed doping, I don’t think he has the credentials to testify.  Just because Chris is one of the best stage racers in the world isn’t enough to qualify him.

That being said, I wonder if he paid much attention to the all the doping positives recently or the whole Astana situation.  17 guys on that team visiting Dr. Ferrari.  I wonder if he read the interview with Smartstops new rider, Juan Pablo Villegas.  Here is a great interview with him.  In it, the question is –

…..what percentage of the peloton would you say was doping at those races?
I can’t give you an exact number, but it would have to be very, very high.

And then he goes and names all the Colombian riders that he raced with that have “graduated” to the Pro Tour level by winnning races in Colombia.  He doesn’t name anyone specifically, but if he says that it is very common to dope in Columbia and the best Colombians are now racing, and winning Grand Tours, then you make the connection.

Even the current Tour de France champion, Vincenso Nibali said that Astana is no worse than anyone else in the regards to doping.  I wonder if Chris Froome pays any attention to what Vincenzo says?

Okay, let’s just say that Chris Froome is a genetic freak.  And he doesn’t have to dope to win the races he does.  Does that mean that his opinion that the peloton is relatively clean, or more accurately, riders don’t have to choose to dope to win races, means anything more than any other observer.

There are way too many things going on right now in the sport to say that the sport is clean.  Greg Van Avermaet ozone usage is just the tip of the iceberg.  Do you think if he was breaking the rules by using ozone to treat his blood that it would stop him from manipulating it in other ways.  When Bart Wellens just decided to quit cyclocross at the old age of 34, it shows that all the guys involved when Dr. Chris Mertens are going to have problems explaining themselves to the Belgian Federation.  I’m thinking most of these guys are going to have to “sit out” 2 years.

For Chris Froome to declare that the sport is fine and dandy, that all the drug cheats are being caught,  just rubs me the wrong way.  I don’t think that it does any good when someone of Chris Froomes stature, in the sport, says ignorate things like this.   He needs to check out the history of the guys he’s currently racing with.  And pay more attention to how many guys are turning up positive.  Guys that don’t even win consistently.

We still have a big problem.  In theory, CIRC is releasing their report today.  Or at least that is what was reported.  I guess they are going to redact the names of some riders in the report, or people in the report, for legal reasons.  I’m not sure why they do that, but they do.

We’ll see how ugly of a state the sport is according to the UCI.  I’d be very surprised if it is as hunky dory are Chris implies it is.

Maybe he can come over here more often to train with Levi.  At least Levi thinks he might.