Yesterday, like I posted yesterday, I woke up to the announcer for the Junior Men’s TT.  And it kept up until nearly 5 pm, when the last women finished.  So it was going to be tough trying to organize the best use of my time.

There is “hardly anyone here” and I probably saw 100 people that I personally know.  I was talking to the police, which there are a million of.  I asked the officer how many cops were working and he said all of them, plus a ton more.  That a year ago their redbooks, which I guess is vacation time, was locked out this week.  It is amazing how much of this city they have shut down to race bikes.  A 10 mile loop yesterday, that went over the river on a major bridge, pretty much cripples everyone else’s ability to move around much.  It is really impressive.

Most the people walking around the start/finish area are speaking foreign languages.  Lots of people wearing their crazy home country costumes.  It has a real European feel.  Even the breakfast buffet in the Marriott seems more like something from Europe.  There is a ton of fresh fruit, raw fish, cheeses etc.  Plus eggs and potatoes.  Europeans don’t understand why we eat potatoes for breakfast.  I don’t get what they don’t get, potatoes sometimes taste good in the morning.

I did a couple rides yesterday.  Downtown Richmond, for cycling, might be challenging.  Especially with the course blocking off so many ways to get around.  I might meet up with some locals one morning and do their ride.  That is usually the best way to get the lay of the land.

The women’s time trial was crazy close.  I thought Kristin Armstrong had one the event, but she might have gotten cheated by the wind.  She started 2nd rider off and her time held up for hours.  But the 2nd grouping went off a couple hours later and the wind died down a bunch.  She ended up getting pushed all the way back to 5th, 21 seconds back.  1st through 4th were only separated by a mere 9 seconds.  She needed to finish on the podium to automatically qualify for the Olympic Games next year in Rio.  That was a drag for her.  I saw her late last night in the hotel lobby and she was bummed.  She said she is going camping next week and is going to try to forget about it.  I don’t understand the seating process for the race, but it hurt Kristin badly.

I had an interesting dinner/wine meeting last night. It wasn’t really an interview, more like a catching up with a friend.  We’ll see how the story turns out.  Trudi walked over and ended up having wine with Eddy Merckx last night.  Seems surreal, but normal at the same time.  Funny how that is.

Today is the Elite men’s TT.  I have to pick Rohan Dennis.  He’s had a great season and I guess he was ripping the legs off the BMC team during their TTT victory, so he obviously has great form.  Plus he hung at altitude, in Colorado, since the Pro Challenge, and thus, can’t really have any jet-lag from flying over here from Europe.  I’m hoping Taylor Phinney, US, finishes in the top ten.  That is an automatic qualification from the Olympics next year for men.  That would be a great result for him considering he is just back from injury.

The men’s start isn’t downtown, it’s a ways out and they ride into downtown and to the finish, not laps like the other categories.  I’m going to ride some, and then head out to spectate.

Kristin Armstrong heading off early. It wasn’t a good start time.

Trudi giving Kristin a hug after the race. She needed it.

The City of Richmond is very old and has some interesting architecture.

David Hiatt and Hans Selvog, juniors from back in the LeMond days, meeting up here to spectate. It was super seeing them.

I thought this was a great moment. I think this is Brandon Mcnulty, a junior that finished third in the time trial, after the awards ceremony.

Davis Phinney, who is here supporting his son Taylor, with Suzette and Trudi at the finish.

Trudi and my friend, Jeff Unruh from Topeka. Jeff was volunteering as a course marshall and we rode him partially back to his hotel.

Trudi just got a new BMC Di2 bike and yesterday was it’s maiden voyage. Nothing like the first ride of a bike being on the World Championship course.

I received an email a couple days ago telling me about Ivan Stevic and how he is on the roster to race the Elite men’s road race here in Richmond.  I thought to myself, “How is this possible?” I knew that Stevic was still racing, but though that he was sort of flying under the radar.  I assumed the lifetime ban he received from C.O.N.I., (the Italian doping agency) would apply worldwide.  I even had a PDF file showing his lifetime ban.

But, that isn’t the case.  I guess he appealed his ban and received a two year suspension that was applied from 2008 to 2010 I guess.  That is according to an article I just read.  This is a link and it goes over Stevic’s exploits way better than I have any time doing.  You should read it.

I don’t like the guy.  I’ve written about him before.  Here is a post from over 4 years ago.  He was arrogant when he raced here in the US.  When he was winning the Nature Valley Grand Prix, he was so supercharged he was sweating EPO.  When we were racing the Stillwater Criterium, he was riding up the hill, which is over 20% grade, spinning like 120 rpms beside me.  He casually pulls a Powerbar out of his pocket and rides no handed opening it and proceeds to eat it.  This is when the other 40 guys, out of 120 starters, were redlined in 39 X 25’s.  I should have just kicked him over.  I wish I would have.

I have lots of other stories like this.  It was so apparent that he was doping that it was no surprise to find out that he was in the US because his apartment had been raided in Italy and he had enough HGH and testosterone to supply an army.

Anyway, I hate the fact that he is racing here on US soil.  I was wondering about why that is still possible.  I guess it is because he appealed his lifetime sentence this year, even though he’d been racing continuously since it was imposed.

I saw that his sentence was retroactively enforced from 2008 to 2010.  I was wondering, since he was racing in the United States during that time, and he won a ton of money here, if USADA could force him to pay his forfeited winnings back or face suspension.  And this could be done before Sunday.

He would have to come up with a big chunk of money.  I was racing in Tulsa when the whole Toyota-United team were beyond ball hogs and won 80% of the total prize list, which was, I believe close to 6 figures.  Then he won Nature Valley and other events.  He is supposed to pay his winning back I believe.  I very much doubt he did.

If anyone has any information on this or how to apply a rule, if there is such a rule, maybe it could prevent this from happening.   The ball needs to get rolling or the guy is going to start another race on US soil, The World Road Championships.   It is pretty much a joke and makes our sport look silly.

Two of my favorite pictures of Ivan.

From the C.O.N.I. decision –