There are going to be reviews of the CIRC report all over the internet today.  You can go to Cyclingnews, Velonews, and all the other sites to see their take on the report.

My take was that it was a total waste of time and money.  When Brian Cookson said something about it “opening a can of worms”, I think he meant dead worms that can’t be used for anything.  Not one current rider testified?  Is that true?  I think Chris Froome is current, but obviously isn’t up to speed with the current state of the sport.  All CIRC did, was to tell up and coming guys, what they need to do so they can avoid detection in dope tests.

We’ve all heard pretty much everything said in the CIRC report before.  At least it says that doping is prevalent in the sport still, even though “they say” that the benefits from the doping are less.  I question that, but that seems to be the general consensus.

I don’t see how this report did anything at all.  Since there is nothing in the pipeline now, I feel it was actually a step backwards in “the fight against doping”.  I’m not really sure there really is a fight against doping.  I think it is all smoke and mirrors still.

I’ve already moved on.  I have better things to do than mulling over 200 pages of nothing.

Bromont isn’t feeling any better after taking antibiotics for 4 days.  He really isn’t eating anything and I’m starting to worry instead of being optimistic.   He does have pneumonia.  And he does have cancer.  I hope that the two aren’t connected, but I don’t know.

Catherine came back for the weekend.  Bill and Kris raced the local race at Lake Perry yesterday.  We all rode over to the race, then Catherine and I rode back.

I’m still feeling pretty crummy so it was nice getting in a ride on a warm day.

The problem is that “they” started burning the fields here.  I’ve posted a ton on my hatred of this.  Yesterday, once again, they only seemed to be burning the ditches and fence lines.  That isn’t what the burning is for.  It is just a lazy way to not mow.  It needs to stop.  But, obviously, it isn’t going to stop this year.  It’s not a good time to have a lung issue.

Okay, the weather is supposed to be good here the next week.  Maybe the cold weather is done?  I can only hope.  Since daylight saving time has happened, our evening rides are starting today.  5:30 at our house.  We’ll have a couple hours to ride, so that is enough for the basement, trainer folks.  And for me, the sickie.

I plan to spend most of the day at K-State.  I’m pretty sure Bromont needs to get another chest x-ray  and some more treatment.  He hates it, but I think it is best for now.

My mind is bouncing all over the place this morning.  It seems to be more that way ever since Bromont was diagnosed with cancer.   It seems to be hard to focus on any one thing, when, always in the back of my mind, Bromont is there.

This CIRC report thing is the “big” news in the media.   I’ve been getting a lot of emails from friends with their take on the report.  I can’t believe how much of the report focused on Lance.  I think that is probably the case because there was a lot of “provable” evidence out there on his issue.

I was interested in how polluted the Pro peloton still is?  The report says somewhere between 20-90% of the Pro riders are doping.  That’s a pretty huge spread.  I emailed Wayne Stetina about this spread.  Here’s what I sent to Wayne-

I wasn’t too big on the optimistic Velonews articles.  How about the paragraph –

A “respected” rider said 90 percent of the peloton is still doping. Another said 20 percent. Whom do we believe? We don’t know the name of either rider. We can make no character judgment. In one story lies a travesty, in another, a reason to get up early and watch races on choppy Internet feeds.

Okay, we’re giving this huge gap 20-90% some credence.  Say it’s only 20 percent.  A Pro Tour team has 28 riders, so that is 5.6 riders per team.  That is the low guess. So, at any given race, 5-6 riders from any team could be the ones doping.  In a race of 200 guys, this is “only” 40 riders.  And that is the low number.  If the 90% number is close, which I’d guess is closer, but who am I, then 180 guys out of 200 are juiced.  Either way, it is depressing.

And Caley is okay watching a race, covering a race for a publication, when 20% of the field is doping?  One or two guys doping can really fuck up a race I’m doing.  He doesn’t mind watching a race that, a said minimum, of 40 guys are.  How screwed up are those results?  That seems like a stupid thing for him to write.

Whatever.  this shit has been going on for 20 years now, no longer, and it isn’t changing much now.

I missed the Handmade Bike show in Louisville.  Kent Eriksen won the best tig-welded frame award.  He and Brad make works of art.  It is an honor riding their bikes.  Here is a link to some photos of the show.  My friend, Tom Moran, took the photos.

We had our first evening ride here in Topeka yesterday.  First day after daylight saving time starts.  There were 15 guys, and surprisingly, everyone seemed to be in pretty good shape.  February was ugly here, weather-wise, so I was thinking that there would be a bigger diversity.  It helped that is was nearly calm.  I can’t think of a March day in Kansas when it was close to 60 and calm recently.  It is supposed to be nice for the next week.

My lungs are bad still.  I’m riding, but they hurt.  Ramping it up at the end of the ride yesterday, everyone was anxious, I was coughing pretty good after the sprint.  It doesn’t help that they are in full on burning now.

We drove Bromont over to K-State again yesterday and the Flint Hills were on fire.  And the area is so, so big.  I hate it.

Bromont’s lungs were much better, the pneumonia is clearing up, I guess.  He is still coughing seriously.  He did eat a cheeseburger and some wet food yesterday.  Maybe he is starting to feel better.  He seems more alert.

Okay, I have to drive Catherine to the airport soon.  She was here for the weekend, visiting her mom and is heading down to Phoenix for a meeting the rest of the week.  Okay, I need to get going.