Say what you will about Lance Armstrong, but you must admit, the man has cajones. Er, un cajone. Or something.
Anyway, going over the UCI to race at Gila, donning the mysterious black kits a day after Der Speigel put a doping story on his teammate back in the headlines, and, just for kicks, smashing everyone to help his teammate win the first stage. Armstrong is nothing short of Odyssean in his defiance of the cycling gods.
Speaking of, Velonews’ Charles Pelkey wrote a great Explainer the other day sorting out the acronymic goat rodeo that hands down decisions from on high in this sport. Long story short, the UCI gets its power from the approval of the IOC. WADA was endowed with authority by the IOC to curb doping, but a certain blustery Canadian must be credited for making it an utterly independent testing agency.
They weren’t mentioned in the article, but the ASO and other race organizers have formed their own cabal, leveraging the marketing power they have from owning the biggest and oldest races in the world. They took the UCI ProTour as a threat to undermine the importance of these races, and thus their authority, and this has been the source of all sorts of Euro drama since 2004 or so.
And yeah, I guess there was more racing yesterday, but a weather shortening—which I’m guessing probably meant it was flurrying or something—let a break get clear, and foiled the Farrar / Cavendish showdown, at least ’til tomorrow. So I’ll pick it back up then.
Also, I just realized the Giro starts in less than 10 days. Who’s excited?
The Pez is excited, as always.
Can’t understand why Lance and Levi feel compelled to win at Gila. It really isn’t a race they should be riding in at all. If they chose to ride it, then let someone that deserves to be there win it. What’s next on their schedule a the woman’s Tour De France, maybe a Juniors race.
A million thanks for posting this infromtaion.
When I last left off I was preparing for the time trialbike clothes, excited about a chance to give an all-out effort in an event that I have become somewhat fond of this year.