WorldTour and Pro Cycling Nonsense 2012

question for euro/brits:

what is that cool sounding melancholic, electronic (sounds like a tightly phased Fender Rhodes) incidental music snip they play at stage endings shortly before they switch to Tennis, etc.?

peter g.

think it's in a minor key, drums come in after about 10 seconds...

had insomnia over the weeekend and discovered the videos at Cyclocosm, fun stuff

furiously googling:
http://uk.messages.eurosport.yahoo.com/Cycling/threadview?m=tm&bn=UKS-CY-general&tid=9525&mid=9525&tof=32&frt=1

via bikehugger

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/339680_10151059560146185_1116823219_o.jpg

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/627260_10151063868066185_836207042_o.jpg

who is robert millar's doppelganger?

Bon Scott from AC/DC

Vuelta is awesome btw. All the mountain stages have been attack after attack after attack. So much so I'm actually warming to Contador (Valverde can still fuck off though). Best GT of the season.

Yeah, I missed the first half of the race but the last two days have been great, more GC attacks on the last climb yesterday than in the whole of the Tour.

That was insane, almost made the Angliru look tame.

I think that was the most brutal finish I've ever seen

Bola del Mundo on saturday is another leg breaker, I can't see Contador giving up even if resistance does seem to be futile.

It's an epic battle deserving of the cliche. I know they need the rest day tomorrow, but I'll be jonesin'.

Holy crap I can't wait to get home and watch the highlights.

Read 2/3rds of the Tyler Hamilton book last night. I'm not really shocked by any of it but it is very very detailed.

I want to get it, but apparently the British version has been edited (because of stricter libel laws) so I want to get it from America.

you guys see the cn forum where vaughters talks about jaksche vdv danielson and dz. crazy times.

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=18436

Thanks Hunter - an interesting thread (though there are a few nutjobs on there by the look of it)

I'm going to be so gutted if sky turn out to be doping. Not surprised, much, but gutted.

Why wouldn't you be surprised, Surfing? General cynicism as to professional cycling? Suspicion of Sky? Suspicion of cyclists within Sky able to avoid Sky testing? I would be surprised, I think. I was speaking to a friend (and fellow ilxor) earlier this year and said as much when he asked what I thought.

Just with regard to some of what is being said on that forum - there are some parts of Millar's book that make me feel uneasy. something like... hmm, how to put it? an impression of intense, pathological self-justification perhaps warping things into a narrative that suits where he is now? Is that too runic? I'm not sure it's even relevant or useful (i've written this bit and deleted it several times).

After winning my heart for the last three weeks, Bert goes and ruins it all with this:

http://cdn3.media.cyclingnews.futurecdn.net//2012/09/09/2/pic307648864_600.jpg

Betsy Andreu live on tourchats.com in 5 minutes

All of the above, Fizzles. 30 years of following the sport. Sky not sticking to their manifesto, hiring Leinders. Sky's results bordering on unbelievable. Kimmage's stint with them cancelled. Wiggo changing his tune.

Even so, I'm taking my sister and one of my nephews to Knowsley today to watch the guys ride in, and I'm thrilled to be going. Still a fan!

remember how all the breaks stayed away in the high mountain stages this year? they would've been caught and blown away on the last climb back in the old days. even at the dauphine, that one stage to morzine which had everyone start up with the 'UK postal' stuff, quintana from movistar rode away from them. i think sky's results are about as beliveable as they can be in the current climate. at least they actually take responsibility for training their riders, rather than leaving it to the riders themselves to organise a program (or 'program'). look at how rabo are reconfiguring themselves along these lines:http://inrng.com/2012/09/rabobank-revolution/

the TTT world championship is tomorrow!

tony martin just caught his two-minute man in the TT ...contador

chriiiiiist

I wish I wasn't in this all day meeting

Looks like it was an exciting race. I like all the riders who made the podium... and I've never been able to warm to Contador for some reason. Shame about Pinotti's collarbone.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02348/Philippe_Gilbert_2348418b.jpg

Momentum still building behind the Paul Kimmage Defense campaign http://nyvelocity.com/content/features/2012/paul-kimmage-defense-fund

Kimmage may not be the most likeable, but what McQuaid and Verbruggen are doing is out of order.

I'm assuming anyone interested in the case already knows about it, btw. I wouldn't know where to start trying to unravel the cover-ups / conspiracy theories at this point. The most interesting stuff is about to happen.

I donated yesterday. I'm not Kimmage's greatest fan, but Kimmage >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> McQuaid/Verbruggen.

I donated on Saturday, when the chipin wasn't working very reliably. I think it went through, though. I think a lot of people appreciate the chance to spit in Verbruggen's soup.

I feel the same as NBS, happy to spit in the UCI soup

I haven' got the book yet, but this Hamilton interview already makes for uncomfortable reading.

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/interview-tyler-hamilton-cyclist-1-2555924

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/swiss-court-finds-in-ucis-favour-in-landis-defamation-case

Article two of the verdict goes into quite specific detail as to what Landis is not allowed to say about the UCI in the future, noting that it is forbidden for him to say that the UCI, McQuaid and Verbruggen “have concealed cases of doping, received money for doing so, have accepted money from Lance Armstrong to conceal a doping case, have protected certain racing cyclists, concealed cases of doping, have engaged in manipulation, particularly of tests and races, have hesitated and delayed publishing the results of a positive test on Alberto Contador, have accepted bribes, are corrupt, are terrorists, have no regard for the rules, load the dice, are fools, do not have a genuine desire to restore discipline to cycling, are full of shit, are clowns, their words are worthless, are liars, are no different to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, or to make any similar other allegations of that kind.”

I haven't been paying close attention - has Armstrong said anything dumber than this yet?

Armstrong said that people need to “move on.”

“Some people don’t do that. They sit around and talk about the past,” said Armstrong. “You always get high-school friends who sit around and talk about ‘hey remember that time…’ and I’m like ‘Why are you asking me about that?’"

http://www.cyclingtips.com.au/2012/10/humpday-news-shorts-5/

For someone who no longer cares and thinks it's time to move on, he spends an incredible amount of time and money trying to discredit USADA
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/09/4895768/armstrong-renews-criticism-of.html

Because he knew this was coming:

David Walsh ‏@DavidWalshST
USADA statement: Armstrong's team "ran the most sophisticaed, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen."

contains "direct documentary evidence including financial payments, emails, scientific data and laboratory test results that further prove the use, possession and distribution of performance enhancing drugs by Lance Armstrong and confirm the disappointing truth about the deceptive activities of the USPS Team, a team that received tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars in funding".
the team's doping conspiracy "was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dangerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage through superior doping practices".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/19903716

I guess I can see Lance's point now. You've got David Walsh sitting on your couch, drinking beer, when suddenly he's all like: "hey Lance, remember that time in high school when you were at the center of the most sophisticaed, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen?" So annoying.

202 page Reasoned Decision case file :

http://www.scribd.com/doc/109619079/Reasoned-Decision

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/danielson-vande-velde-and-zabriskie-accept-usada-bans

This is a pretty sobering take on all the back-patting going on:

http://stevetilford.com/?p=22105

Rabobank are no more :(
"We are no longer convinced that the international professional world of cycling can make this a clean and fair sport"

Very Sad news

team will go on next year highroad-style, at least

finally dl'ed the hamilton book. lols all around. armstrong even slightly more assholey than expected, doping about where i expected, maybe slightly more egregious. disliked the "up close and personal" style intro a bit (over the corny limit), but it's a fun superfast read from there.

http://inrng.com/2012/10/lemond-letter-uci/

Bobby julich confessed today and was given the boot by sky (rider 4 for those keeping score)

Can't believe that Sky hasn't sacked Mick Rogers yet...