Photo by Andrew Kozak of Champion Systems
Why is the racer above running in the middle of the pack with his arms up in the air? The series of photos that leads up to that moment on Velocity Nation is impressive. In the Pro 1/2/3 race at Prospect Park(?) in NYC on July 29th. As the racers are lining up for the sprint one man is about to crash. He avoids the crash by giving what looks like the heimlich maneuver to a fellow sprinter. This move was enough to avoid getting some serious road rash and possibly avoid a larger crash. So, is “Alder” (the man how gave the heimlich justified in his maneuver? Check out the comments to and decide for yourself.
http://www.velocitynation.com/ thanks to Steve Reiter, via Roadbikerider Newsletter.
Chris Thater Memorial Criterium happened Saturday and Sunday down in Binghamton, NY. This is one of the oldest races on the Calendar and one of the most prestigious. Top pro men and women come out and this year the event was even on TV.
My event was the Category 4/5 race which goes under the classic name of the Senior Men’s Category 4/5 event. The race was run at 8 am on Sunday, a brutally early start to racing in a Criterium. The Crit is followed by a 5K running race and then the Cat 3 men followed by the Pro Men and Women. It is a big weekend of racing. The early start for the Cat 4/5 field stinks since it gives zero time for warming up and makes you get out of bed at extremely early hours. I was up before the newspaper was even delivered. Ouch.
I scrambled to get to Binghamton which is not too far from Syracuse. Once I arrived I could see plenty of cyclist already on course warming up. After signing up and getting my number I was ready to race. There are some little hills around the course and did some sprints to get the blood flowing. The weather was good, it was cloudy annd temps were in the 60s to 70s which was a huge improvement from the previous day of 90 degrees and humid.
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It took twice as long to finish the Tour, but the first non-doping cyclist rode into Paris.
Finland’s Piet Kvistik, a domestique with the Crédit Mondial team, was this year’s highest-finishing non-doping rider (142nd overall). Kvistik claimed the maillot propre, the blue jersey worn by the highest-placed “clean” rider, on the ninth stage of the race when the six riders who had previously worn it tested positive for EPO, elevated levels of testosterone, and blood-packing.
“It became most difficult for us on the 7th stage, which was almost 200 kilometers and the first stage through the mountains,” Kvistik said while accepting the non-doping victor’s 100-franc check from his stretcher. “Not only did the excruciating pain and weakness in my legs make it difficult to walk my bike on the steeper stretches, it was mentally very hard to know that half the other clean riders were dead or dying. Also, the other 141 riders finished the Tour in Paris that morning, which made it all that much harder.”
read more at The Onion Thanks to Tim Bingham.
The Washington Post has a little story about the rise of bike thefts. The rise is thanks to more and expensive bikes out on the streets and easy ways to sell them such as eBay and Craigslist. Some sad victims have stumbled onto their own bikes being sold and decide to go vigilante on the sellers.
I remember seeing posters around the SU Campus recently of a lost/stolen MTB. I thought it was pretty much a lost cause and could relate to the emotional attachment that you get with your bike.
However, after my recent race (Chris Thater report coming), I am very much inclined for a new rig.
Washington Post
Who needs Versus, when Time Warner Sports is getting into the game too. The WCSN-TV coverage of the Chris Thater Criterium will be shown on Time Warner Sports channel. Good news for the sport in getting coverage locally. Time Warner Sports covers lots of local sporting events such as High School Football, Basketball and Lacrosse. (Disclaimer: I used to work for the local Time Warner Cable Division)
I’ll be racing at Thater on Sunday morning, but probably won’t be on TV since my race is at 8am. Weather looks to be better than last year which was cold and rainy.
SYRACUSE, N.Y.—Time Warner Sports is partnering with WCSN-TV, an online sports programmer, to carry the 24th annual Chris Thater Memorial cycling competitions (men’s and women’s professionals) live on Sunday, August 26 from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m. Those races take place at Recreation Park in Binghamton.
Time Warner Sports will offer WCSN’s live feed of this event on its Syracuse station (channel 26) and its Binghamton station (channel 23).
The Chris Thater Memorial, a weekend-long event with numerous running and cycling competitions, is named in honor of a young man whose life was taken by a drunk driver. This world-class event attracts more than 1,500 participants from all over the U.S. and from around the world, who are cheered on by 12,000 spectators and visitors to the Binghamton area. Weekend activities include pro, novice and elite cycling, with a 5K run and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The Broome County Stop-DWI program promotes and benefits from this event, recognizing the need for continued awareness regarding this widespread issue.
Doug Logan, Director of Time Warner Sports, said, “We’re pleased to offer this coverage of a major cycling event happening right here in our own backyard, and we thank WCSN for allowing us to pick up their feed so we can let all of our customers in on the action.”
About WCSN
World Championship Sports Network (WCSN) is the popular destination for fans of Olympic and lifestyle sports, delivering an immersive experience via exclusive live and on demand coverage of world class competitions, interaction with top athletes and in-depth access to sports news and information year round. Its website is wcsn.com .
About Time Warner Sports
Time Warner Sports, a network found exclusively on Time Warner Cable, features a wide array of high school, college, amateur and professional sporting events – most of these, carried live — as well as coaches’ shows and other sports content.
Mixing things up in a Criterium is probably the diciest form of bike racing there is. Except of course if you are Lucas Brunelle, but that is a whole ‘nother category of craziness. For the Weekend Warrior such as myself a Crit is as close as you will get to total chaos. The speeds are usually very high, corners make for some interesting changeups and the pack usually stays together for most of the race. Sometimes the pack is in a bunch or strung out depending on the speed. Most of the time spent racing a Crit you are thinking about various things such as how long you can hang on to the speed, or when to attack. You are always watching for a shift in speed or potential crash.
I’ve been racing Crits here and there for the past couple of seasons. While I theoretically know what to do and can stick in the pack technically, my legs/weight/fitness would not allow me to stay in the group for long. Other situations could cause me to lose touch with the pack and eventually get lapped or pulled. All of this Crit stuff started well back in 2004 when I tried out the Syracuse Race Weekend Crit and placed third. First time luck did not translate well. I’ve been trying to get things right ever since.
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AFP/File/Joe Klamar
2007 Tour de France champ Alberto Contador met with the press accompanied by Discovery Channel Team Director Johan Bruyneel and his family and Spanish sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky. Contador basically announced they he never doped and he is not involved in Operation Puerto (OP). He will not stop racing and will in fact give DNA samples and help with the investigation. The growing controversy surrounding the Tour champ resulted in Contador not being invited to several races especially in Germany where investigator Werner Franke is said to have evidence linking Contador to OP.
The announcement by Contador must surely be a way to help clear the air of suspicion surrounding Contador especially as he is now looking for a new team to race for in 2008. Tailwind Sports the company behind the Discovery Channel team has announced that they are stopping the team at the end of the 2007 season. Tailwind sports was unable to find a suitable sponsor since the announcement earlier this year that Discovery Channel would cease sponsorship. The never ending flow of doping news most likely scared away potential sponsors, especially with the admission by Ivan Basso of being “Birillo” of Operation Puerto fame. The involvement with Basso and other doping controversies which only intensified during the Tour de France may make any potential sponsor shy away.
Now, the remaining team and associated staff will be looking for a job for 2008. George Hincapie is said to have already signed for T-Mobile which will stay in the sport until 2010. Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych and Alberto Contador to name a few will be looking for work.
The end of Tailwind sports marks the end of a formidable team that started way back in the 90s as Subaru Montgomery. The team eventually landed a large sponsor in the United States Postal Service who was keen to advertise overseas. In 1998 they signed recovering cancer victim Lance Armstrong. In 1999 Johan Bruyneel came on board. The rest is history. Discovery Channel finally seemed to get past the Armstrong Era with Contador. The team performed better overall placing three racers in the top ten overall at the Tour.
Just like US Postal “took over” after the demise of Motorola in the early 90s a similar pattern is emerging at Team Slipstream is gaining momentum to be the next top American team. Slipstream may not take the ProTour opening left by Discovery Channel for 2008 as their main goal is entry to the Tour de France only and not the various Pro Tour events.
Another interesting note is a developing trend. The 2007 and 2006 Tour winning team have ceased sponsorship at the end of each season. Last year’s Phonak squad ended after Floyd Landis’ Testosterone case caused replacement sponsor iShares to cancel its sponsorship of the team. Now Discovery Channel is ending its sponsorship after having a Tour winner in its ranks. Sponsors are shying away from the sport and the doping headlines causing racers and support staff to actually lose their jobs. With lots of racers around and not as many teams, they pay for racers goes down due to supply vs. demand. Therefore each racer gets less money than they would have otherwise. So, the incentive to dope should now disappear.
Andriy Kashechkin tested positive for homologous blood doping in an out of competition test while training in Turkey. The Kazak racer’s positive test is the latest in a series of devastating blows to the Astana team that comes after doping related issues with Mattaus Kessler, Eddie Mazzoleni and Vonkourov. The double positive for blood doping surely shows that there was a mix up of blood bags. Most doping tests cannot detect when a racer re-injects his own blood, but can easily spot if there is a presence of another person’s blood.
The same situation happened with Tyler Hamilton and Santiago Perez of the Phonak squad. Both tested positive which signaled a mix up of blood bags. Hamilton tried his best to find an excuse for the positive doping test, going so far as to say he had a vanishing twin which caused the abnormal test result.
Ugh, the sinking feeling is starting again. Velonews announced that Tour de France winner Alberto Contador is scheduling a press conference where he will release a statement and not take questions from the press. Discovery Team Manager Johan Bruyneel will be by his side.
Contador issued a release Wednesday notifying media of his plans to read a statement at the offices of Spain’s national sports council – the Consejo Superior de Deportes – in Madrid.
Contador will be accompanied by Discovery Channel team director Johann Bruyneel.
Via Podium Cafe: http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/13062.0.html
This conference could also be setup to announce that Contador will not be racing while the WADA investigation to Contador’s Operation Puerto case is finalized. WADA decided to re-investigate Contador’s involvement in Operation Puerto which was previosuly dismissed by the UCI.
The World Anti Doping Agency has opened an investigation on Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel), winner of this years Tour de France, and his alleged involvement in Operation Peurto. WADA is working with ex-Liberty Seguros rider Jörg Jaksche, who admitted that he worked with the Spanish doctor while he was a team-mate of Contador at Liberty Seguros, after it received documents from German Professor Werner Franke that supposedly links the Spaniard to Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes.
Documents seized in the case are said to contain the letters A.C., which is allegedly the initials of Alberto Contador. Jaksche’s initials are also present on the document along side the doping products that he has admitted to using. “I don’t know if Contador was a client of Fuentes,” said Jaksche. “I only know that I used those doping products that are shown on that document.”
With this action, WADA is overturning the UCI’s earlier decision to acquit Contador of any involvement in the case.
Johan Bruyneel, Contador’s team manager, has serious doubts of the integrity of Professor Franke. “‘He defended Danilo Hondo, when he was caught in the Tour of Murcia for using the banned substance Carphedon, if you ask me he only speaks the language of the person paying him,” said Bruyneel.
Cyclingnews.com
Hopefully the press conference is a simple announcement that Contador is simply not going to race and will participate with the WADA investigation. He could also reclaim his innocence and vow to fight. The other possibility would be that he could admit to being involved in Puerto which would not be a good thing for cycling or the Discovery Channel Team.
AP Photo/Daniel Maurer
T-Mobile decided to stay in the sport of cycling and keep sponsoring its top German team. The decision was made after several high profile admissions to past doping by 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis, Ralf Aldag and house sprinter Erik Zabel. After these revelations came the bombshell of Patrik Sinkewitz’s non-negative for elevated Testosterone levels. Sinkewitz admitted to using to making a boneheaded move of self administering a testosterone gel without realizing it would trip cause some doping issues.
“We want to prove a point through consistency and reliability which this sport is in great need of,” said Hamid Akhavan, chairman of T-Mobile International and board member of Deutsche Telekom AG. “We want to continue to accompany cycling and support it in its effort to become a cleaner sport.”
“After intensive internal talks, but also after contacting important representatives from politics, media and sport, we decided to face the challenges and not to give in to the current problems. We know that the chosen route would be difficult,” Akhavan said in a company statement.
The T-Mobile management has the right to end sponsorship if more doping cases popup. After the Sinkewitz fiasco it was thought that T-Mobile just might pull out of cycling altogether. This would have been troubling especially since the team have committed to an extensive internal anti doping testing system.
Hopefully all future T-Mobile racers will be extra careful with the gels, lotions and rubs they administer so as to not trip up a positive/non-negative doping result. If any T-Mobile racer dopes after this close call then they should probably take an IQ test because it would surely be a boneheaded move.
Yahoo ! News
