Okay, it’s a little hard to write about a puny little road race in the mountains outside San Diego when the Contador ruling comes out. So, here’s a little of my thoughts on Contador and I’ll post the Boulevard road race later.

Contador’s 2 year ban was really surprising to me. There were tons of things wrong with the whole thing. The main thing wrong was the duration it took to get to this point. I’ve written it before here, the time involves almost is enough to give him a get-out-of-jail-free card. Andy Schleck said it took 566 days. I don’t know if that is actually correct, but whatever it was it is stupid. I don’t know if it was the process or Contador’s lawyers or what that made the process so drawn out, but ultimately the process was flawed.

I remember talking to Chris Horner about Contador’s case at a cross race here in San Diego in November. Chris told him in would nearly guarantee that Contador would get off. He said for sure. And he had some pretty good points backing up his belief. He said something about a whole soccer team in Mexico turning up positive for Clenbuterol. Then he said the the UCI had told the riders that were doing the Pro Tour event, Tour of China, that they shouldn’t ingest the meat at the race because of the risk of a Clenbuterol positive. Chris, in my opinion, is one super smart bike racer. He nearly had me convinced. But, obviously, that wasn’t the case.

Everyone that is speaking out, mainly the other Spanish riders, Andy Schleck and such, seem to still be in Alberto’s camp. It goes to show you that he must be pretty much liked in the inner cycling circles, which is nice, but not really pertinent. What was pertinent was that he had a trace of Clenbuterol in his body during the Tour de France. I have a line draw in the sand with in comes to doping. Sorry, he crossed it, so he needs to serve his time out.

But what kind of time out is it? I don’t understand how his 2 year ban is done on August 5th, before the start of the Vuelta this year. He’s been racing the whole time. Isn’t a two year ban actually 2 years of not racing? Seems like this one is 6 months of actually not racing. Seems weird and wrong.

Whatever the fallout of this whole thing, I can only hope that the process somehow is addressed and is made to seem more believable. This whole procedure was flawed on many levels. So many levels that it seems like they need to maybe start all over again and try to make one that legitimatizes final ruling. This ruling is going to leave a bad taste in a lot of folks mouths, no matter which side you were on originally.

Alberto will have most of the summer to listen to tunes this season, but can get back to racing in the fall.

Okay, early season is always hard. I’m not sure what time that is for me anymore since cross season just finished and road season seems to be upon us in a lot of places. It doesn’t feel like early season, but my mind still thinks it is. The first race of the season is always hard. There is always a big question mark hanging over nearly every aspect of your game. That is still the case with me, but not to such extremes. I was racing cross three weeks ago, so I know that I have some type of form hidden away somewhere.

The Boulevard Road Race last Saturday, 60 miles East of San Diego was great. The guys there have an awesome course and everything was run super professionally. The course is 22 miles with nearly half of the course climbing and the other half descending. It is a pretty challenging course. The wind was fairly strong, but from the wrong direction in my opinion, straight headwind climbing and tailwind descending. It was a 4 lap race, putting the distance close to 90 miles.

The race went pretty much like I had predicted, but what I had dreaded. 4 guys went up the road pretty early, then a couple more a few miles later and then again some more after that. Eventually when it all settled, there were 9 riders up the road. And the time gap was over 4 minutes. There were probably 80 riders at the start, but there weren’t really any teams with strong enough guys to ride the break down.

By the 3rd time up the climb, with one lap to go, there were maybe 30 guys left in the field out of around 80 starters. I decided that I needed to get into a small group that would work together if I had any chance to race for first. I took off towards the end of the climb, but no one came. I rode a few miles off the front, but never really got anywhere. I finally sat up because the descent was way too long for me to try to ride away from a big group.

So, the last time up the climb, the speed started increasing. We still couldn’t see the break and weren’t getting any time splits. I jumped a couple times, still hoping to establish a group that would work. Then all of a sudden I could see the follow car ahead with around 6 miles to go. I tried to get away again, but the headwind was really headwind. The official on the motorcycle told me once that we were 40 seconds back. I felt pretty good, but not good enough to shake the remaining 20 guys or so. And everyone seemed content to be racing for 7th, since there were 6 guys left from the original break. With 5 km to go, we were at 50 seconds and I knew it was done.

Eric Marcotte, a new rider for the Elbowz/Yamaha team, had been trying to get a good workout most of the day and had been riding at the front. He put in a couple good digs towards the end, but never really went anywhere, probably because, once again the wind direction. The sprint was from way out and a lot of guys exploded because the last km was pretty much uphill. I guess I ended up 6th in the field, because I finished 12th in the end. I felt a lot better than 12th, but when you’re at a race on your own, it is nearly impossible to cover all the moves. I wasn’t riding well enough the first lap to make one of the groups that eventually formed the break, so I was always going to be counting on other riders to ride to be racing for 1st again. And that didn’t really happen. The results are a couple posts below.

It was a beautiful course out in the high desert. And super challenging. I am pretty happy how I’m riding so far. I’m flying back to Minneapolis on Thursday to ski for a while before heading down to Texas at the end of the month. I still need to eventually get into a gym and try to alleviate a few nagging problems. That probably won’t happen until March. I am on a weird schedule so far this season.

I know this would be way more interesting with power data.