I was skimming through the cycling media today and saw that there is a petition making the rounds in Spain asking for the blood bags from Operation Puerto to not be destroyed as ordered by the Spanish Court. If you’d like to sign the petition, click here. I was surprised when the judge ordered the “evidence” destroyed.

Anyway, the article went on to give an example of Francisco Mancebo, who had 20 bags of blood and plasma stored there. I was aware, obviously, that Mancebo was involved in Operation Puerto, I just had no idea that he had 20 bags of blood products available for his use. That number is incredible and obviously he had spent a lot of time getting it removed from his body, hoping to use it later.

I knew that Operation Puerto was real the first day it was announced, back in 2006, and there was a mass exodus of “guilty” riders from the Tour. I knew it was real because when asked, Mancebo just said he was retiring. I thought, why would a guy just up and announce his retirement at the start of the Tour de France, if he didn’t know that he was busted? Later, he went back and denied he said that. But, lots of riders have admitted that their blood was indeed being stored, many have served their “time outs”, plus the Spanish courts have convicted the doctors now. Seems like Valverde got gipped, having been suspended for 2 years for only 1 bag while Francisco had 20 and has gotten off scot-free so far. How do you even remove 20 bags of blood/liquid from a human? Crazy.

Anyway, I ask again, why is this guy racing domestically in the US. I know that technically he can race because he isn’t currently suspended, but why is there a team in the US that pays for him to race? I ripped on Gord Frazer a few years ago when Competitive Cyclist hired him. Now I have to ask while Kenda is taking over the check writing to this guy?

Kenda puts a lot of their money into good sponsorship here domestically. I have to applaud them that they sponsor the top end of the sport both on the road and MTB. But sponsoring Fransico Mancebo does nothing but screw up the Professional domestic profession scene. One guy like him can and does change each and every race he attends.

I think Frankie Andreu is a great guy. He came out on his own, for no reason other than he was sick of lying. He did it personally and suffered the consequences. He inherited Manceno, didn’t hire him. A uncomfortable situation for sure. But, back in January, when he was asked about directing Mancebo, he said this –

“I know what Mancebo’s done in the US in terms of racing results but that’s because that’s where I’ve been directing. He’s been strong here, sometimes riding liking Superman, but other times he’s been vulnerable. He’s been up and down. The other thing I know was that he was fourth in the Tour de France [2004]. I don’t remember him from when I was racing and the first I really became aware of him was when he got fourth in the Tour. I paid more attention though since he’s been in the US.

“I know that there’s the association of his name with the Puerto documents but I don’t know enough about how direct that link is or when his name was mentioned in the documents. I don’t know. It’s not like I’ve researched the guy. He’s been with On The Rivet for three years and now he’s part of the one squad that we’re bringing together.”

Well Frankie, the graph below shows you how direct that link is, so maybe you should reconsider not being concerned about directing him?

Mancebo has won the NRC series and tons of single and stage races the last few years here in the states. Why would we, as a cycling community, want a guy like this screwing up our events. He just won the final stage of Tour of Gila last Sunday.

Obviously, Rock Racing was a joke, hiring nearly every rider they could find that used drugs to race bikes. This is where Franceso got his foot in the door to US racing. Mancebo even brought his brother-in-arms, Oscar Sevilla over to play with him for a bit, but Oscar got popped again and had to sit out for 6 months.

If our cycling community, the United States, want a clean and level playing field, then we can’t allow our sponsors to be paying riders such as Francisco to race here. Even Blanco, a Pro Tour team, isn’t racing Luis León Sánchez until he clears up his ties with the Puerto ordeal. But, we have sponsors here in the US that readily hire Mancebo, because of what? He admits, he would like to be racing in Europe, but can’t get a job. He finished 2nd last month at at UCI race in Spain. I wish he would just stay there. And he would if our teams here refused to allow him to race.

Here’s a graph from Operation Puerto and the number of blood bags attached to each athlete.

Here’s a picture of Francisco and Oscar making a joke of the Tour of Utah back in 2009.

I was watching the Giro on the internet yesterday and couldn’t believe that 3 or 4 teams put all their riders on the front with 20 km to go, riding in the wind in “team formation”. I suppose this was supposed to make it easier for their team GC leaders ride safely to the 3 km point, but in reality, the whole process just makes it more dangerous for the whole peloton. But, that isn’t the point here. I was mildly perplexed, to say the least, when David Harmon, I believe, the commentator along with Sean Kelly, said something like, “The way these guys recover nowadays, this is a walk in the park for them and they won’t even feel it tomorrow.” That wasn’t exactly it, but close.

I know these guys have to say something to keep the audience entertained, but this was a statement that might be accurate or not, I don’t know, but there is no reason that the current generation of cyclists should be able to recover any quicker than riders 10 or 20 years ago. If anything, they should be recovering worse since the implementation of the no needles policy, making IV’s illegal. It seemed weird having experienced bike race observers saying what seemed to be stupid statements, but statement made because of watching the sport the last 20 years.

Let me give you a history of comparing the racing in the US to Europe. Back in the 80’s, when I was getting me feet wet internationally, cycling was a very small sport in the United States. It was small, but growing in leaps and bounds. And it was a very immature sport too, with the sport being established and competed in Europe for the better part of the century. When I turned senior and rode on the National team, I was nothing special. I was a good bike racer, kind of skinny, but could climb and sprint okay. When I first went to Europe on the national team, I went to Southern France and Italy with what was considered the “B” team. The “A” guys went with Eddie B. to race in France mainly. Anyway, the first race I went to was the Tour of Vaucluse. It was in Southern France and one stage climbed Mt Ventoux.

Most of the riders on the team were my age, 20 or 21 and very green. Bernard Thévenet and Robert Millar were there on the Peugeot Professional Team. Bernard Thévenet had won two Tour de Frances. Laurent Fignon and many other Tour stage winners were riding on their respective National Teams. The field was good. But, we were good too. We didn’t win any races, but I finished in the top 10 a couple days.

We all did. The up and coming Americans could and did hold their own with the best European racers and the sport had just started. My team mate Andy Hampsten, won a stage in the Giro, the first time he rode in a Grand Tour. He finished 4th in the Tour de France, the first time he competed in it, with Greg Lemond winning. Americans on the National team through the 80’s won many prestigious amateur races. I was on the American team with Roy Knickman and Jeff Pierce who won the Tour of Berlin. I was on the US Team with Alexi Grewal, Andy, Chris Carmichael, when Matt Eaton won the British Milk Race, which was arguably the most prestigious amateur stage race in the world at the time. Later on when the best Europeans came to the US to race in the Coor’s Classic, the Americans had no problems winning stages and competing on the highest level. I finished 2nd overall in the Tour of the Americas, when many of the best European in the world came. We were a very small cycling country and were having stellar results.

And the sport was very small, barely crawling in infant terms. Then, all of a sudden, somewhere in the early to mid 90’s that all changed. All of a sudden the speeds in Europe got stupid fast. It was like I was a junior and racing completely over my head. Andy went from winning The Tour of Switzerland, Romandie, the Giro, to hardly being able to be pack filler anymore. I witnessed it first hand. It was a joke. So, I switched to MTB racing.

And the same thing happened in MTB racing, but it was delayed by a couple years. When the Americans first went to Europe, we ruled MTB racing. John Tomac and Ned would duke it out for 1st place and sometimes the majority of riders in the top 10 would be from the United States. Then it got stupid. Abunch of whole teams, like the Giant Team, Sun Chippie from France, and others, all of a sudden, every rider on these team could crush the best Americans. Plus, many Canadians were doing the same thing. Very quickly we became non-competitive internationally.

So, flash forward through the years. Obviously, after the admissions of doping of nearly ever American road rider that has had a result in the past 10 years, we as a country, haven’t been able to compete on any level on the road. And our sport is way more mature. There are 3 times as many licensed bicycle racers in the United States now than there were in the late 80’s. 5 times more than the early 80’s. We should have more riders that are good on the international scene than we did in the 80’s, because we have a much bigger pool of athletes to choose from, and, if anything, the sport is smaller in most of Europe.

But, no. The US is a farm team training facility for the “real” races over in Europe. There is no reason that we shouldn’t have the best criterium riders in the world. We race more criteriums than every other country on the planet combined. But, these guys show up from Australia, South American, just about anywhere and make us, once again, look like children.

Let me tell you, there is no reason that the races over here should be any different than the races in Europe. If anything, we should be faster. I’m sick of people saying that the reason the racing in Europe is so much more “advanced” than here is because they are all that much better. It wasn’t the case in the 80’s and early 90’s, but as our sport got more developed, we fell further and further behind. All of a sudden, we’re barely AAA compared to European bike racing.

We have more bike races than ever before. And more professional teams traveling extensively. USAC has a much more developed program that sends our best riders over to Europe for extended periods. And we suck. Any explanations for this?

Doping in the sport is the only explanation. When the racing here is on par, once again, with the racing in Europe, then I’ll be satisfied that the problem has cleared, but until then, let’s not all be making all these excuses and reasons for the Americans not to be riding on par with their European counterparts. Nearly all of them are just not true.

Teams can ride at the front for day after day, for nearly three weeks, because they recover so quickly nowadays? Bullshit.