Yesterday I was eating at the Angry Minnow, down in Hayward. It is a micro brewery on the south edge of town.
We were sitting outside, in the back, and a guy with a cycling t-shirt comes walking out to leave. He is maybe in his early 50’s, fit looking, longish hair pulled back into a ponytail.
He says hi and I ask him if he’s up to ride. He says to ride and kayak. He asks me if I ride and I say yes, I race. He says he doesn’t race, sort of acts like racing is something to avoid, but he love to ride.
I think our conversation is over, but he then says that he met up with Jens Voigt recently at a bike shop. I think Jens is leading a big ride sometime soon up here somewhere.
I was surprised by this since he seemed so against racing just 30 seconds earlier. I told him that Jens is a character for sure, but I’m not all that big on him. I wasn’t trying to be confrontational, I was just being honest.
The guy goes agro. He gets red in the face and says something like Jens rode 17 Tours and asks me if I had ever even the Tour once. I wish I would have said yes and would have loved to see his reaction. I did ride the MTB Tour de France VTT, so technically, I wouldn’t be completely fibbing.
Anyway, the guy is super loud and pretty mad. I say that in all those Tours, Jens says he never personally saw any doping in the sport. That is what my issue with him is. Everyone is staring now.
Jens isn’t a dumb guy. Racing 17 Tours, he had to have personally witnessed a ton of doping. Just watching the races from inside out or more probable, seeing it firsthand off the bike. I wrote a post about this a while ago.
Jens said he was going to retire after cycling and let his bike have cobwebs grow on it and be a typical family man. He has done the exact opposite. He is travelling the world globally, being a spokesman for the sport. From Australia to the Tour of California, Jens is the color guy for the sport. He has his own line of cycling apparel, branded “Shutup legs”.
Like I said in the other post, I know Jens has to do a ton of interviews and is expected to say pertinent things, but no one forced him to saying he never witnessed any doping in cycling. That is ridiculous and makes him not credible. And cycling needs a credible spokesperson right now. Here’s a link to a Jens interview that Tyler Hamilton calls “a joke”. It shows some of Jens’ less funny side.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/q-and-a-jens-voigt-on-his-career-a-final-season-anti-doping-and-the-98-tour-samples/Anyway, I didn’t mean to piss the dude off. He was pissed, in more ways than one, so that maybe explains his reaction. Sportsfans surely like their idols. Add a little beer to the mix and nearly all words are fightin’ words.
Tucker lost all his baby teeth, but still seems to chew some when left alone, thus the kennel in the van.
many times you and I don’t agree but this is one time where we do.
Jens might be a really nice guy but, IMO, he is a liar and a fraud.
I understand why things were done the way they were but all he is doing is insulting our intelligence.
Here,here. completely agree. The guy loves hearing himself talk (imo). Consider it an insult to our, or whoever is listening, intelligence, when he makes such stupid statements as that. Thinks he’s protecting his “marketable image”. SHUT-UP Jens…
Where’s the link to the Hamilton interview?
Silly rabbit. It’s not like East Germany had a history of doping or anything.
Remember that Tyler Hamilton’s book came out sometime before the wall really crumbled on Lance & Co. At the time, many were still skeptical of his account, but it all of course was shown to be true later. He recounts specifically when he comes back after being suspended and sees Jens at a race. Jens apparently made a point of shunning him as a ‘breaker of the Omerta.’ He can be funny, but I’ve always considered him complicit from that point on. There are guys in the euro peloton from that past 20 years or so, who, while they most likely at one point cheated, did still at some time take a stance against it. It seems Jens would rather play along and reap the rewards in exchange for carrying that inside himself.
Yes, Jens had to know what was going on in the Pro ranks. Even if he managed to stay “mostly” clean, he had to know all the dirt that was going on. Your little friend at the brewery was way out of line, but you handled it pretty good.
That said, I wouldn’t turn down a chance to ride with Voigt, or even Armstrong, if invited.
300 watts for 6 hours on that tour stage when he paced Andy Schleck and Contador at the end.
Rode for Riis. Possible that Voigt rode clean for his entire career? Sure. But riding on a CSC team with Jaksche, Julich, and Basso and he never sniffed a whiff of doping talk?
That’s Sgt. Schulz territory there.
Tell me you were clean and maybe I would listen. Tell me you have never seen anything and you are a joke. Rode for East Germany, Pro through the worst doping era, rode with and for proven dopers, but is a good Catholic with a million kids. He can sit around with Bobke and Phil, “I know, I was so surprised what those guys were doing. Can you believe how well they hid it?” At least admit that someone offered it to you or mentioned it to you. Local news; found out today that Tommy D. is doing a local shop ride tomorrow. What a joke.
I was eating in a local restaurant the other night, and some guy said he was a huge Steve Tilford fan. “The guy’s incredible! What he does and continues to do for the sport, at his age!” I asked if he knew how huge your carbon footprint is. I mean we’re talking about the entire planet here, not just some piddly doping scandal.
Did Trudy ever see anything related to doping at BMC?
Hello pot, kettle here……
WHO CARES
The Jens Voigt (how many of his fans can even correctly pronounce his name?) fanboy thing is one of those “white, working-class” oddities. They don’t care if he doped as they assume everyone else did too, so you just bring up issues that go against their “people believe what makes them feel good” mindset. The biggest example of this at present is the support for Donald Trump to be President of the United States. Facts and reality are (excuse the pun) trumped by emotions. Same as it ever was…
“sorta acts like racing is something to avoid.”. “and so against racing 30 seconds earlier ” ARE TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT…..knowing the guy liked jens, you should have shown a little class to a stranger and kept quiet.. you know, if you cant say something good about someone, dont say anything at all…. you ever hear of that? another thing, tell trudi to be the credible spokesperson that cycling needs so badly now.. tell her to go into her boss’ office and say shes not working with a bunch of dopers anymore.. let her get the ball rolling.. yare so agaist doping, get behind her and tell her to get up and stand up for making this spot credible . have her tell her boss shes quitting if the riders continue to dope…
Shut up Jens! I don’t understand a word he’s sayin anyway…
Thanks for calling out this bullshit one on one with these fan boy clowns. What the hell am I supposed to tell my 9 year old daughter if she gets into cycling as a sport and then possibly a career? Money can fuck up a lot of shit. Thank you thank you thank you.