November | 2015 | Steve Tilford

I just read an interview with Alberto Contador over at Cyclingnews.com. The title of the interview was Contador: Without a doubt I have won nine Gran Tours. He says that the 2010 Tour and 2011 Giro titles are his, even thou officially he was kicked out of those races for doping infractions.

Then he goes on and says –“With the system of anti-doping control we now have and the quantity of those tests for the top riders it is impossible to cheat. If you do it’s like a suicide. I’ve no doubt this is why it’s clean at the very highest level.”

Here’s the deal with his views. If Alberto is so clean, never raced doped, was robbed of his Gran Tour titles by WADA and the UCI, why is he so knowledgable of doping? Knowledgable enough to publicly make this statement.

If he has never taken or participated in doping in cycling, then why would he have any knowledge of if it is possible or impossible to cheat in cycling. Since he is at the top level at the sport result-wise, does he think that he has a better knowledge of how to dope in sports than say, me or you? Why would he? He has never doped and really is uninterested in it, since in cycling, “it’s clean at the very highest level”.

I wonder if he’s read anything about Russian track and field last week? I wonder if he thinks those guys thought it was impossible to cheat. The track and field world governing body voted 22-1 to suspend all Russian athletes from competition. This is how polluted that sport was.

But, in cycling, it is impossible to cheat and it would be “like a suicide” to do so. Personally, I think it takes some pretty bad luck to get caught. Like in , Luca Paolini‘s case at the Tour this year, where he had to snort a nose full of cocaine to offset his Ambient haze, only to get caught in a random drug test when he finished. I wonder if Alberto thinks this was unfair. I wonder, like I do, if Alberto thinks about where Luca got cocaine to snort that day? Was he carrying it around with him, just in cause something like this happened? Luca did win the 2015 Gent–Wevelgem this year. I wonder if Alberto thinks that race was won clean?

If Alberto know nothing about doping in cycling, he should hold his tongue because he is a bike racer and isn’t knowledgable enough to make a comment. If he knows a ton about doping in cycling, then he would realize that it is possible to dope in sports and that he is just lying. Either way, he should keep his mouth shut and not claim Gran Tour titles that are officially not his.

2009 Tour podium. Enough said.

Yesterday I spent pretty much all day in the drizzle cutting hedge. And by hedge, I mean hedge row, which is much different than bushes. Hedge row is mainly made up of Osage Orange, which a really hard wood. And it can be pretty thorny, like almost impossible to touch thorny. The is a saying about an Indian would trade two horses for a hedge bow. Shows how much they valued that. Anyway, it is really hard, like sparks fly sometimes when you cut it.

This project really started Monday when I drove out to Tonganoxie Kansas, which is an hour Northwest, to deliver a table to Vincent’s mom’s which I’ve had for the past couple years. The table is giant and is 100 inches long, which barely fit in the van with both rows of seats. Vincent’s mom is from Holland and, of course we had to stay and have lunch.

Then we went to Lawrence I and borrowed my team leader’s, Matt, dump trailer. It is awesome and holds a ton. Plus it hydraulically dumps, which is key.

Then to cutting. I left my good Stihl MS200t chainsaw in Ames a couple weeks ago, so borrowed Matt’s, self admitted, junky Echo saw. And it is junky. Buying a chainsaw, if you’re going to use it for a lifetime, then buy a good one, like a Stihl. Home fix-it store saws don’t stack up. I actually have all the parts to assembly another Stihl arborist’s saw, I just haven’t put them together. I’m not sure if it is going to take an hour or a day, so I’ve sort of avoided the project.

Anyway, the hedges were an effort. Lots of vines growing between them, which made it cumbersome to remove. And then the thorns, ouch. I had to partially mulch the trees in the trailer to get them all in. And they aren’t all in. I ran out of light, having cut for over 6 hours.

I probably only cut for 5 hours, since I spent an hour screwing with the Echo saw and then the downtime waiting for Trudi as she borrowed Bill’s Makita chainsaw. I had never heard much about Makita saws, but Bills seems pretty good.

I was wearing work boots, with steel toes all day and my Achilles tendon had been aching since the cross race on Sunday. Since I haven’t planted my right foot onto the ground at 20 mph, it probably shocked my whole leg. At least my tendon and knee a bit. The work boots weren’t optimal for this issue. It isn’t like my tendon hurts, it feels more like my sock is bunched up and rubbing on it, even when I am barefoot. And not all the time, just every once in a while. Pretty weird symptoms.

I talked to Stacie and she seems stumped. I’ve been icing it, ibuprofen and Flector patches. This small things scare me nowadays. I guess it is better to be cautious than not.

We’ve been riding on Mondays and Wednesdays at dark, on the rail trail, which is primitive, with lights. It is pretty dead flat, but is actually turning out to be a pretty good workout. Riding at night, on a tree lined trail, seems so fast. As soon as we are going over 20, it seems like 30. Plus it has been pretty windy each time we’ve ventured out. The trees provide protection, but it is still hard. Guess this is my cyclocross training for the week.

The wind is blowing right now already. I got a text from Vincent and he said that it is the windiest that he has ever felt in Arvada this morning. Like he can’t stand up in it. Street lights down, trucks overturned in Golden, the whole deal. I have to admit, the wind on the front range near Denver is out of control sometimes.

Anyway, I’m back to tree and bush removal this morning. It is chilly, in the 40’s, plus the wind. Not the best day for it, but I don’t get to pick that. I have a couple more days of this scheduled, so I’m going to say it is cross training for cross.