I never really liked Vino as a rider. I’m not sure why not. I think it was his riding style. It didn’t seem to fit his body type. Which convinced me he took drugs. Then, when he was declared positive at the Tour a few years back, I wrote him off completely.

I don’t have any sympathy or forgiveness for the guys that are caught positive. The drugs that are being used nowadays are “too good” and drastically change the results. My stance is a life time ban. This two year thing is just like a timeout for these guys. It is obviously still condoned or none of these guys would have jobs once their suspensions are over.

The podium on stage 2 of Giro del Trentino was nearly comical. It was Ricco winning, Vino 2nd and Basso 3rd. Using my criteria, none of these guys should of even been in the race.

So now, Alexandre Vinokourov feels like he wasn’t treated fairly after he won in Liege. So he decides to have someone write his views and publish them. Let me tell you, that isn’t a good way to get back into the good graces of cycling media and fans. You can’t talk someone into liking you. They either do or don’t. For a million reasons. But, his letter didn’t do much for me.

What I don’t get about the whole thing is that some riders are accepted back into the sport by the media and fans while others will never be. I think that is the case with Vino. When the Festina affair occurred, Laurent Dufaux and Alex Zülle went into the police station, said “yeh, we take EPO” and left a couple hours later. In the meantime, Richard Virenque swears that he didn’t for the next year. That is until they come up with recorded conversations implicating him. And then under oath he said something like he took 1000 injections that year.

Dufaux and Zülle both got contracts the next season after they sat out 6 months, or whatever the penalty was then. I don’t quite remember if Virenque ever had a timeout, but I suppose he did. But, for some reason Dufaux and Zülle’s admissions seemed to make them more likable.

David Millar. Everyone seems to like him now. He had so, so many excuses why he took EPO to win the World Championships in 2003. They had to keep in a police station for two days before he admitted that he took the drug. Then, he became remorseful. Where were those thoughts before he cheated the rest of the cycling community? Anyway, he became the spokesman for not using drugs and the fans applaud him.

Then you have Ivan Basso. He was implicated in Operation Puerto. He said that he didn’t dope, but had planned to. He spent his timeout. He’s quite now and just goes about his business of riding bikes. I guess the cycling public likes him alright. But, then Ivan’s sister, Elisa Basso, was charged in Italy last week with drug distribution along with a few other professional cyclists. Maybe she was only selling/distributing EPO for recreational use and not for sporting fraud, I don’t know. Do you think this will make the cycling public turn against Ivan?

Two riders this past week, one from BMC and the other from Lance’s Radio Shack Team were positive. Two US teams. Thomas Frei was positive for EPO. He confessed today. Li Fuyu was positive for Clenbuterol. I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time that a current rider on a team with Lance has ever shown a positive drug test. And these guys weren’t smearing everyone. They were just getting by. It doesn’t seem to be getting better quick enough for me.

So my question is, all the guys listed above pretty much broke the same rule. Probably for mostly the same reasons. But the public and media condemns some and welcomes others return. Everyone says that they don’t like Vino because he didn’t admit his usage. But, Virenque denied his guilt thousands of times and the public seemed to accept it. I think there might be some prejudice involved with Vino. Because Alexandre Vinokourov is from Kazakhstan, I think some people might not give him the same break. Plus, he looks a lot like Ivan Drago, the evil Russian guy that Rocky had to fight in Rocky IV.

Whatever the reasons are, I think it is interesting. I guess the explanation is that each of us have our own criteria for who we like and who our favorites in the sport are. And those reasons differ a lot. Maybe Vino should just ride his bike and not talk so much. He probably would have more fans.

Here’s a good spin on it from BikeSnobNYC.

Same person? You decide.

The sprint that never should of happened. Ricco, Vino, & Basso.

It has come to my attention that there is an on going discussion on Velonews.com about the recent decision to ban TT bikes at the Nature Valley Gran Prix next month. Click here to check it out.

My poor time trialing in 2008 was used as a reason that TT bikes shouldn’t be allowed. I missed the time cut by a few seconds. (I had/have never missed a time cut in my life in any other race, TT or road.)

I missed the time cut because I miscalculated how fast I had to ride to stay in the race. I didn’t have a TT bike (or wanted one) and it was obvious, that I wasn’t going to finish good in the time trial, so why ride hard. I had no idea that someone would average nearly 30 mph in those windy conditions with a 1 km headwind climb to the finish. It was my mistake.

From my perspective, I’m not going with the rational that it is a PRO level event and that if one is entered in this event, then they should be prepared to compete on a PRO level no matter what the cost.

Nature Valley is a great race. It is on the NRC calender. But, the NRC is a 2nd tier series now. I’m sorry to say it, but it’s true. USAC have created this PRO Tour series that is the premier series in the country. Look at the number of teams that race in Nature Valley, Joe Martin or any other NRC race that has the full 8 rider team full. Usually less than half of the teams in the race field a full team. And sometimes much less than that. It is not on the UCI calender. It is just a big regional/national event.

That aside, I totally support this new rule. I’m not going with the level the playing field rational. I’m going with it is stupid to make everyone bring 2 bikes to a race when one of the bikes is going to be used for less than 13 minutes. I stayed with a couple women two years ago that both flew with TT bikes to the race. $175 each way. That is $350 extra. Multiply that by the 100+ riders that fly to the event and you get to a pretty stupid number. It is the same reason that in Qatar at the start of the PRO season, riders have to do the TTT on their road bikes. The upside doesn’t justify the expense.

Dave LaPorte, race director of Nature Valley, is a great guy. And a smart guy. The sport needs more people like him involved. He doesn’t come from a cycling background. He is all about what makes the race better. For the sponsors, for the riders, and for the spectators. He listens to what people have to say and takes input seriously. He understands the importance of regional teams to the sport. And he and the race go out of their way to accommodate them. Enough said.

I say, let’s have a maximum of 6 riders on a team at any NRC race. Or any race that isn’t on the PRO Tour calender. This isn’t the Tour de France or Giro. It is weekend stage racing. At Joe Martin the past 5 years, every race has been a field sprint. That is 2 hard road races and 1 hard criterium times 5 years. That is 15 field sprints. The winner of the race is the winner of a 2 mile uphill time trial. Is that what our sport has come down to? 6 riders would have a much harder time controlling a field than 8. And it would make bike racing more interesting, once again.

One of the last times I rode a TT bike was for the Levi's Team. I really look comfortable, huh? I can count on both hands how many times I've ridden them in my life.