SInce I posted about the possible good uses for an electric bike yesterday, I was surprised to see an article at Cyclingnews saying that the guy that is credited with “inventing” mechanical doping for racing did a TV program, that is going to be aired in France in January, says it has been widespread in the Pro ranks and is going to have potentially, a “bigger impact” than the Festina doping affair from the 90’s.

It really doesn’t surprise me that much.  When guys want to cheat, it doesn’t really matter how they do it.  I’d assume that athletes would rather just put mechanical assistance on their bikes than take drugs, but they are probably doing both.

There is also an article at Cyclingnews interviewing Floyd Landis.  Floyd says that the dopers will always be one step ahead of the authorities, so the whole process is flawed.  I couldn’t argue with that either.  That is how doping in sports work.  The current system isn’t going to cure the problems.

Anyway, I’m sort of  looking forward to the show next month, in a weird sort of way.  It is funny, but when I talk to people a little about motors for racing, they seem more upset with that prospect than of actually doping to win.  I’m not sure what that is all about.  Maybe they believe the Lance story of everyone is doing it, so they are just trying to level the playing field.  That wouldn’t be the case with a power assisted bikes I guess.

I don’t really see the difference much.

Anyway, last weekend before Christmas.  Much of the country is cold, like really cold.  Guess it is time to ride inside again?

I don’t eat much red meat.  It isn’t that I’m all that against it, it is just that I’m not that into it usually.  I was a vegetarian when I first started racing.

There was a guy in Kansas City that was really good, Bill Nickelson.  He pretty much beat up on all the guys when I was 14.  He was a vegetarian, so my brother Kris and I decided to emulate him.  We asked him exactly how he ate and he told us.  He also suggested a ton of vitamins to take.  Calcium, Magnesium Zinc, Vitamin E, Pantothenic Acid, Niacin etc.  I can’t even remember them all.

I did this for a long time, pretty much until the first time I got to go to Europe to race.  Salad bars and options were always available here in the states, so I didn’t really think much about eating before I fly to Europe.

The first race we did was the Tour of Vaucluse in Southern France.  I wrote a post sort of about it.  It was a Pro-AM race with lot of great professionals, plus the Russian and Eastern European amatuer teams.

The race fed us and I realized pretty much the first day that it was going to be nearly impossible to not eat meat.  That was nearly all they served for meals after breakfast.

So maybe the 2nd day, I decided to quit being a vegetarian and eat a steak.  I figured it was the only way to survive the trip.

So I walked over the food line and got a steak.  I really had no desire to switch up my diet, but there was no other way.

I was sitting there and started eating and it wasn’t good.  It was super chewy and hard to swallow.  I was thinking that I really hadn’t been missing out on anything all those years, but knew I needed to finish the meat to get through the stage that day.

While this was all going on, a French rider, maybe even Laurent Fignon, I’m not sure who it exactly was, came over, kind of started laughing and pointed at the steak.  He then did a couple neighs.

I didn’t know what he was doing, then thought a second and realized that he was mimicking a horse and implying that it was horse meat.  I pretty much dropped my fork and stopped chewing.  I was nearly sick.  I couldn’t believe I was eating horse.

That was it for the meat that race.  I wasn’t going to “risk” consuming horse again.  When that stage race finished, we raced the next few weeks in Italy and didn’t have that problem.

Anyway, I’m not proud of consuming horse meat. I never it attend to do it consciously again.  They still eat it over in France.  I’m not sure what that is all about.   Maybe it is one of the reasons I’m not that into red meat in general, I don’t really know.

I have no idea how people eat these guys. It doesn’t sit well with me.