It looks like it might be a bad week for cycling. Tyler Hamilton’s dope case got pushed back to Jan. 10. That’s not the date for a decision, mind you, but for closing arguements. The actual decision? I’ll guess probably sometime around the ’06 Vuelta, just to make sure Tyler can’t ride for two years, even if he’s ruled innocent. That’ll teach him to try and fight the system; look, now everybody’s doing it. T-Ham, for his own part, has been has been getting huge felling trees and restoring cabins in the Colorado backwoods. An excerpt: “There’s nothing like tearing down a wall when you need to.” Members of the UCI arbitration panel, take notice.

Tomorrow, Roberto Heras will find out whether that Sword of Damocles that’s been hanging over his head for the past half a month will come slamming down through the proverbial skull of his cycling career, or clatter harmlessly to the ground beside him, it’s apparent danger merely parallax distortion. Discounting the Lance allegations from earlier this year, this test marks this first instance I can think of where the winner of a Grand Tour stands to lose his title on a doping violation. What I’m really curious about is, if the B-sample clears him, will Dick Pound then insist that Heras’ record-setting 4th Vuelta win is “tainted,” as he did after Tyler Hamilton’s B-sample came back inconclusive from Athens.

A slow day indeed. The big news is Jan Ullrich is going for the TdF/Deutchland Tour double next season. Big Jan, who lost the ’05 edition of the Deutschlandtour to Levi Leiphiemer, possibly because of a misaligned front wheel, feels the ’06 parcours is better suited to his riding style, and would rate a victory at the event nearly as important as one at the Tour de France. Interesting as that may be, it’s not very funny, so up next is this story about a new American sponsor for team Saunier Duval – Squirt Lube! With product names like the “Squirter” and the “Sweatsucker,” the possibilities for outrageous humor are virtually endless. Have fun!

So, on my update from this past Wednesday, I made a fairly serious accusation of plagiarism against VeloNews. Now, because I tend to assail that publication with all manner of polemic, and because I dealt with it only in passing (just by linking), it may not have received the close examination it deserved. Because this sort of thing makes me angry, and because I am apparently an official journalist now, I’m going to go over it in detail now. For reference, the two articles, from Cyclingnews and VeloNews, respectively, are located here (scroll to “ProTour council”) and here.

It’s a slow newsday. But I will make up for it later, I promise. Anyway, the current financial woes of the GP San Francisco are no secret. But Threshold Sports’ President and CEO David Chauner says here that everything is fine. Threshold, who also recently lost the USPRO Championship event to upstart Tour de Georgia organizers Medalist Sports, and has yet to pay some ’05 prize money, was less than convincing in its explanation:

“Prize money checks are going out today…The fact that it’s later than normal is unfortunate, but…it’s normal.”

When my mind wanders, I sometimes find myself contemplating how wasted those Germans who spat on Jens Voight and called him Judas at the ’04 TdF Alpe TT must have been. Even if you disagree (read this one carefully – lots of fun ProTour rumors) with what he says, how can you not like a guy so honest, compassionate and devoid of ego? However, I still think “working from 7 am until 8 pm” is a weak excuse to veto a split-stage; having worked days that long while both competing and volunteering at bike and ski races, I’ve gotta say that it’s entirely within the realm of human ability. I’d love to do a Grand Tour sometime, to get some feel for how debilitating they can be, but it seems there’s only three of them in the world, each with entrance critera well beyond my abilities.

First topic today is the Giro split-stage. Or rather, the lack thereof. Yes, it’s just too hard for professionals to get up early, and work a super long day, even though their afternoon shift is really just a downhill coast into town. I just don’t know how all those USCF 4 and Collegiate C and D riders do it pretty much every freakin’ week. Oh, yeah, and they have to work instead of sleep when they’re not on bikes. Man, being a pro rider is tough. Oh, and hugs to VeloNews European Correspondant Andrew Hood for his brutal rip-off of this Cyclingnews report (scroll to “ProTour Council”); I give VeloNews more flack than they deserve, but plagarism this blantant rarely gets by without a lawsuit. Plus, both reports mentioned Tour of the Basque Country, but each forgot Criterium International, 3 Days of de Panne, and the Tour de Georgia, which all frequently feature split-stages.

I’m not one for this “going to a race every weekend” sort of lifestyle some folks pursue. It’s not out of laziness or dislike of the sport or any particular training plan, but because it’s danged expensive to piddle away that kind of dough. Do I look like a rich millionaire? Do I look like someone who’ll be financially solvent for more than the next month or so? Do you think Google AdSense alone can support my nacho habit?

Bob Roll once wrote, when ticking through his cycling alphabet, that “V is for VeloNews, without which we would know nothing.” My, oh my indeed how things have changed. Because today is a relatively slow one, let’s briefly examine how. On Cyclingnews, you could read an interview with Allan Peiper, where he describes living in squalor to make it as a pro, or an interview with Tim Johnson, who talks about how hard coming back from Europe can be, or you could learn about RaceinEurope.com, an organization that tries to make that difficult European transition a little easier. Or, you could go to VeloNews‘ “Cycling in the News” section, and see this. Now, that linked site is, I will admit, funny in its own way, but the “Cycling in the News” section (according to VeloNews) is supposed to be about, well, cycling in the news. Stories like this one, “about competitive cyclists and cycling that appear in the mainstream media.” And I can’t recall reading about ineedaprocontract.com in the Durham Herald-Sun recently. Imagine the terror of having this organization as our only defender against complete and total cycling ignorance!

Ok, so perhaps last week’s contest between Campagnolo and Camp Anawana was a little esoteric. No big deal. Today’s battle between Gary Fisher and Bobby Fischer (yes, that link is his official page) should prove far more of a crowd pleaser.