I’ve been receiving a ton of encouraging emails the last week. It’s been nice. I received the following email from a new acquaintance, now a friend, that raced in Madison with me.

Dude! What is going on!? Just read your blog, so sorry to hear about illness on top of your shoulder injury. Hope you’re starting to feel better on both fronts and recovering quickly.

I’m sure you’re still going to put the screws to us next Thursday but don’t be to hard on yourself. You’ve got way more depth than two of us put together. It’s good to see Tom Price is also back on the bike and coming to race. We’ll all have a good time beating up on each other.

That is one of the coolest things about our sport, especially cyclocross. The community is so close knit and very encouraging to each other.

Anyway, I do appreciate all the encouragement.

One thing I have used the past week to keep me from getting too down is exactly what is written above. I do have a bunch of “depth”. I have experienced a lot of different situations before and during races. I’ve never ridden the majority of a cyclocross race with a completely torn up shoulder, but that is now a experience I have too. Hopefully, I’ll never have to rely on that recollection.

Anyway, this isn’t the first time I’ve had a “stomach issue” before an important cyclocross race. Back in 1982, I had a much worse (I hope) experience.

I’d traveled to the Dominican Republic, to do a week long stage race that finished the week before the National Cyclocross Championships, that were held in Nutley, New Jersey that year. The Dominican experience deserves a post of its own, but the short of it was I won the race overall, only to be relegated because I took support from my team mate, Paul Biskup, when I flatted on the last stage. Local officials or something. But, I did have pretty unbelievable form, which was what I was there for.

We flew back Miami from Santo Domingo on a Dominican Airline. Waiting for my bike at the Miami airport, my stomach started feeling weird. Within an hour I was purging everything out of my body. We had planned to stay in Florida for 3 days before flying up to New Jersey for the Cross Natz.

I was staying with a team mate, a guy named John Gilpatrick. He lived in Homestead with his family. It was a really small house, but clean and they were very friendly. The only problem was that I pretty much needed my own bathroom and they only had one. Within 24 hours I had gone through all the toilet paper in the house. On the 2nd day, Paul and John had gone out for a long training ride and I wasn’t getting better. I needed more toilet paper seriously. John’s mom was there and I asked here if she could get me some toilet paper at the store. She said she was going to the grocery that afternoon and she would put it on the “list”.

I think I stressed I needed it sooner than that, but it didn’t get through. Probably my fault. By the time she had left to go to the store, I’d went through all the paper towels and napkins in the house too. I finally had to resort to cutting up a t-shirt into strips. It was unbelievable.

So, I didn’t ride all week and we flew up to New Jersey and stayed at Paul’s house. I wasn’t even going to start the race, but the night before my spigot seemed to all of a sudden turn off. I decided to start the race, knowing I was going to get smeared.

I don’t remember the specifics of the race other than I was so weak and couldn’t believe how much form I had lost in just a week. But, I did manage to ride around and finish the race in a very respectable 3rd place. Roy Knickman, who was a junior at the time, outsprinted Clark Natwick for the win, and I out sprinted Joe Ryan, past National Champion, for 3rd.

So, it wasn’t one of my best experiences, but it is something I’ve already done, which is something that I can draw upon to deal with my current situation. Cycling is so great in that respect. More so than many other sports, knowledge, experiences, and history all add to your ability to be better at it. I guess those three words define the word depth.

Click on any photo to enlarge.

Here’s the podium shot with Clark and Roy.
If you notice at the very bottom right in the results, you’ll see that Trudi was the only woman, finishing 47th, so I suppose she is National Champion that year by default.

The top 10 results.

Riding here with Paul Curley. Looks like I am holding on for dear life.

If I read some Pro say this is a different era of the sport and that doping isn’t prevalent still, I’m going to puke. Or maybe I should say puke more.

Andy Schleck is the guy that, nearly robotically, says this each and every time he opens his mouth. This makes me respect the guy even less, if that is possible.

Today at Cyclingnews.com, this article states that the Spanish police arrested former pro rider José Luis Martínez, along with a few of his associates. It says that José had been producing and distributing products including plasma, clenbuterol, testosterone and anabolic steroids.

The guy had machines that could manipulate blood and produce the drugs. That seems pretty complicated to me.

But, maybe more disturbing that this, the guy has been working the last two years are a UCI chaperone for the Vuelta a España, watching over the riders between when they finished and the actually doping control. Talk about the fox watching the chicken coop.

Anyway, I have to assume that José wasn’t producing these products for his own consumption. Hopefully, since the authorities have been on him for nearly a year, there will be more to follow.

Talk about screwed up people, how about Levi Leipheimer? I’ve posted before about my disdain with the guy for coming back from Europe and cherry picking Leadville and such. But, when he decides he’s going to mosey over to a “local” MTB race and not register, just tag along, while serving his slap-on-the-wrist suspension, it just goes to show you that he isn’t close to the smartest tool in the shed.

Yeah, Levi couldn’t help himself, so he decided to “not participate” in a bike race by just riding it, not registering, and then turning off before he cross the line. The race was so local, that Peter Stetina, Garmin Professional, won the event.

Levi’s answer about competing was, “My sanction doesn’t prohibit me from training and staying fit. This is a local adventure series, as they call it, that’s been going for years. I’ve always done it and supported the local cycling community.”

Okay, where do I start. Your bullshit sanction doesn’t prohibit you from training Levi, but it does prohibit you from racing bikes. And I’m virtually positive that this constitutes a bicycle race. And addressing the 2nd point, I’m so happy that you always have done it to support the local cycling community, but I’m pretty sure you weren’t suspended from racing bicycles at that time.

I can’t understand why Levis isn’t just sitting in basement, riding his Computrainer, ecstatic about how fortunate he has been in this whole process. But, no he can’t help himself, so he has to go “not race” a race, just to stay fit.

He also stated, “First of all, I’m sanctioned and I take that very seriously. I would never jeopardize or do anything to prolong that.”

Levi, you just did jeopardize that, you raced a bicycle race. If I had anything to do with it, maybe someone at the USAC does, I’d politely ask Levi to sit out bicycle racing from, now, January 19th, for the next 6 months. And if he decided against that, I’d go through the motions to try to make him not race until July 19th. As a licensed Professional, he could have been suspended for participating in this event. As a suspended Pro, he shouldn’t be treated any differently.

Man, what a tool.

There was nothing stopping Levi from just going out and riding with a bunch of his buddies. Back in 2010, I guess that was enough from him to stay fit, but not this year.