It’s no secret that I have taken up running this off season. Since September I have been running once a week for 6 miles. Usually it would be a one hour run during lunch time or on the weekend. I kept up this program until Christmas where the nice weather allowed me to ride my bike much more.
Now that the weather in the Northeast is back to the usual winter cold and snow, I am back to focusing on running. My program now consists of an occasional run outside when it is around 30 degrees or more and a weekly running league. Last week I was able to beat my previous 400 meter time of 97 seconds by 12 seconds to turn in a time of 85 seconds. That was during a relay race where I had to run with a baton where I was worried about accidentally launching it into the air or not passing it off to the next runner cleanly. Luckily I did not launch the baton and I was able to get it to the next runner without too much trouble. Amazing how you can simply over-think things.
Floyd Landis is not very optimistic about riding professionally again in 2007. The long process of trying to clear his name from the positive drug test in the Tour de France is making the possibility of getting on a Pro team this year look very bleak. Even if he is cleared of the drug charges from the Tour then he would face the process of getting on another team. The only prospect so far has been the Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle (cyclingnews story) who sport some funky argyle color patterns.
Team Slipstream is a US Based Continental team. They have plans to ride in Europe, but they are not a Top 20 Pro Tour team meaning that a ride with the Chipotle powered squad means no invite to the Tour.
In this latest interview at ESPN Landis discusses the case that seems to be dragging so long that even Christian Prudomme (Tour de France Director) has been saying it is time to get on with it.
“Right now,” he said, “I want to believe that the right thing will happen and we’ll get a fair hearing, as long as it takes.” — Floyd Landis
I have not tried cyclocross yet, but after the fall series in New York State I did get the bug. Luckily it was dry for most of the races here in the Northeast. In the Netherlands however, the weather can get wet. When it gets wet, it is slippery. Check out this footage. The crashes get worse as more riders pile on.
The sprinters battle is leaning heavily to Tom Boonen as he took his second consecutive stage win ahead of arch-rival super sprinter Alessandro Petacchi. The sprint was almost an exact repeat of yesterday’s stage win minus the brutal crash by Tom Steels which resulted in a broken collarbone.
The two wins so early in the season don’t count for much except to help size up the competition as Boonen explains:
The “battle of sprinters” is taking shape as Tom Boonen took the first round in the Tour of Qatar. Boonen took the overall lead after winning the stage beating Alessandro Petacchi in a mass gallup to the line.
The Tour of Qatar is the first showdown between Alessandro Petacchi and Tom Boonen. Last year the two had some head to head battles leading up to the first big classic of the year. Milan San-Remo was supposed to be a showdown of the two sprinters, but Boonen’s Quick-Step teammate spoiled the battle with a brilliant late attack to win the Italian Classic.
This year there is not as much fanfare between the two super sprinters. AleJet is coming back from injuries sustained in the Giro and then a broken finger that derailed his fall campaign. Tom Boonen is shaken up by the recent doping allegations against his team director Patrick Lefevre and the doping confession of Johan Museeuw. Tough times for Boonen and he does not even feel like racing as he starts the new season.
The Giro D’Italia will feature only 18 of the 20 ProTour Teams and will make the final announcement on February 12. This is a move that signals a large fissure in the battle between the UCI’s and the three Grand Tours. This situation was not helped much when Pat McQuaid made some very odd comments about Continental European culture.
The rift between grand tour organizers and the ProTour should help Tinkoff’s chances in the Giro. Zomegnan noted his differences with UCI president Pat McQuaid and said the two were definitely not talking after recent “Mafia” comments by the Irishman. “You could really see his soul with those remarks.”
– cyclingnews.com
This split with the UCI by not including all of the ProTour teams is a natural adjustment for the Giro D’Italia which as had its little brother status to the Tour exacerbated by the ProTour.
(Me with Johan Museeuw in Hamilton, Ontario during the Worlds 2003)
Johan Museeuw the Barry Bonds of cycling has admitted to not being 100% honest in racing late in his career.
Johan Museeuw has confessed to not being “100 per cent honest” during the final year of his cycling career, in what is generally being interpreted as an admission to doping. –cyclingnews.com
Johan Museeuw was a top performer during the free flowing 90s when EPO was at its most popular. Many cyclist have been suspected of using performance enhancing drugs but few have admitted to their use. Museeuw’s admission is also part of a closing circle on the former Quick-Step rider as he is facing trials for use of Aranesp and his association with a Veterinarian who provided many Belgian cyclist with drugs.
“At the end of my career, to prepare a number of races, I made a mistake. I wanted to end my career in beauty and did things that I couldn’t,” Museeuw told a news conference on Tuesday.
– Eurosport
This news is as much of a surprise as finding out that Johan Museeuw had plugs. If you look closely you can pretty much figure it out. The admission to “not being 100 percent honest” comes on the back of an investigation by Belgian Het Laatste Nieuws that incriminates Quick-Step director sportif Patrick Lefevre of promoting doping in his team for 30 years.
Little by little Sam and I are getting things done to make the 2007 Syracuse Race Weekend a reality. Today we met with folks from the Syracuse Parks and Recreation department. These folks were great to talk to as they seem ready and willing to help make dreams into reality. Sam and I suggested a few ideas about bringing the Syracuse Criterium Downtown and changing the Street Sprints race that is held on Saturday night to a prologue held on Friday night. They were able to come up with some excellent ideas with some interesting courses. I will release details of these ideas after I pass them through the proper channels, but there are some very exciting possibilities for the race in the future.
Oscar Pereiro the runner-up/winner in waiting of the 2006 Tour de France is in the headlines after French paper Le Monde publish a story detailing a positive drug test result for the Caisse D’Epargne rider. The drug test result was salbutamol a drug for which Pereiro has a medical waiver registered with the UCI. The French lab does not have the correct paper work and has been making requests since September.
“The cyclist’s own record and a study made in March last year demonstrate that Oscar has a sensitivity in his bronchioles which is greater than that of the average of the population, and that causes him to have to take medication if he presents symptoms that might justify it.”
The Spanish cyclist said Thursday — after Le Monde reported that he twice tested positive for salbutamol — that he would quickly send the French agency paperwork to show that he had a justified medical reason and waiver to take the medication, which is normally banned.
