I am going to try to not make this a post on doping in the cycling. I want it to address the question of the human thought process and mentality towards things that seem very similar, but the reactions to them are vastly different.

I got an email with the picture below of a training camp that Christian Vande Velde is doing in Rancho Santa Fe next January. He and George Hincapie are doing a 5 day, ride camp from some spa in Rancho and asking people to pay $10000 to do it with them. The flyer says, Train Alongside The Best Cyclists In The World. I personally think that is false advertising, but whatever.

Then a little while ago, Velopress released a new book about core strength by Tom Danielson. The book is really by Allison Westfahl, with a forword by the actor Patrick Dempsey. So, I guess they were just using Tom as a figurehead, I don’t know.

Anyway, it sort of amazing to me how public these guys are, doing the same old stuff, hardly a stub on their toe, freshly off a 6 month, wrist slapping, suspensions for doping, thus cheating.

And everyone seems to just go along with it. Obviously, Velonews is condoning the whole thing, publishing “Tom’s book” less than two months from his time out. The other sponsors of the VDV camp, Skratch Labs and Giro must think all is great.

What I don’t understand is how forgiving the fans and sponsors are for doping when I can give you examples of other things, that seem nearly exactly the same, and the public and sponsors disappear immediately.

Let’s use music as an example. I believe that people have the same sort of fascination and loyalty towards musicians as they do sport figures. Maybe even more. I don’t seem many people waking around with Lance Armstrong tatted on their forearms, but I’ve seen maybe people with Grateful Dead written in block letters across their whole backs.

But, when a musician or group is found out to be frauds, they are outcasts forever. Use Milli Vanilli as an example. Number one hit after number one hit. Then, they were found to have been lip-synching and boom, done. Nothing left. Fab and Rob could sing and had talent. They even recorded music after they were shamed, but the fans had vanished. Rob was so despondent that he turned to burglary and drugs, eventually dying from an accidental overdose.

It’s the same in the art world. Art sometimes goes for millions upon millions of dollars. Art fans and critics spend nearly their whole lives involved in the appreciation and collecting. But sometimes it is very hard to tell the difference between the work of a true master and a forger, nearly impossible. The real art is worth millions and the fake, nothing. If it is so close to being the real thing, then shouldn’t they be worth the same? No, I guess not, because one is real and the other isn’t.

But in cycling, the lip-synchers, and forgers don’t seem to miss a beat. Cycling fans seem to assume that their heros naturally had/have talent and that the drugs were just a small blip, something that was nearly forced upon them, and they are forgiven. I really don’t understand the difference in mentality.

All the examples don’t seem that dissimilar, yet the reaction to them are vastly different. Are sport fans and sponsors just that much more forgiving, understanding? Is it a different area of the brain that deals with betrayal and loyalty concerning athletics compared to music or art? I’m just throwing this out there, I don’t have an answer. It is so perplexing to me.

Shimano and Sram are both 11 speed now. Shimano had 11 speed in Dura-Ace last year and now the electronic Ultegra group is going to 11 speed. This tread is a little disturbing, adding more cogs every few years. I have to admit that going from 5 to 6 was amazing, the 6 to 7 was great too. But, somewhere between 8-11, it lost it appeal. I didn’t really get that much more performance out of 10 gears in the back than 9. Yeah, it is nice having a 16 on a 23 casette, but in reality, it isn’t that important.

Sure, the more cogs we get in the back, the less we have to change the cassettes during races. But, what does that take, 5 minutes. It’s not a big part of the race prep and it’s easy.

When the change was 8 to 9, Frank and Mark McCormack left their cross bikes all set up with 8 speed for a couple years after. They said, and I agreed, that the 8 speed cassette shifted better when it was full of mud than the 9 speed. It was the same with MTB cassettes. I wonder if we went back and put 8 cogs back on, would the shifting still feel better with less cogs?

I ran into a guy over at Meniningers in Topeka last week. He was from the country, outside of Topeka, and had a MTB bike strapped into the back of his pickup. He was looking for some trails to ride on. I thought it was sort of weird that he drove up and asked me, since he did have a bunch of questions that were pretty specific and I was one of a hand full of people in Topeka that could answer them. Anyway, he’d went to Dick”s Sporting Goods and bought the most expensive bike there. He ended up with a Diamondback something. I can’t say it was a total waste of money, but it was a gip at 600 bucks. Shitty derailleurs, mechanical disc brakes and 7 speed in the back. He asked me if there were bikes with more 21 speeds. He was using the old “10 speed” lingo. He was shocked that there were 33 speed bikes and I was shocked that they still sold bikes with 7 cogs in the back.

I had planned on using the new 11 speed last year in cross. But I only had one new Dura-Ace rear wheel that works with the 11 speed cogs and didn’t feel it was worth it mixing and matching between 10 and 11 speed wheels and bikes. It has been nice using the same wheels for 8-9-10 speed cassettes. Changing wheels for 11 speed is a real hassle. At least for me. I have a garage full of a pretty great race wheel selection and am not looking forward to all those wheels becoming obsolete.

You know, I’m writing all this and just realized that I’ve been riding the new Shimano 11 speed chain for the past few months and it is a vast improvement over the 10 speed chain. Maybe the cassette will be that much better too?

I do understand that equipment manufactures have to keep upgrading and improving their products. But in this case, it isn’t that big an upgrade in my book. Maybe I’ll be surprised here, you never know.

This used to be the state of art, a Regina 5 speed freewheel.

The new Shimano Ultegra 11 speed groupo.