Cima Coppi, handmade wool cycling wear from East Vancouver, Canada, is participating in a fundraising ride for Multiple Sclerosis. MS affects more women and North American women than anywhere else in the world!

Someone(s) will walk away with a Wool Jersey, Wool Cap or the Cima Coppi Track jacket (the grand prize!) for just $10!

Please support the team and make a small donation toward a great cause!

Cima Coppi Blog: http://cimacoppirides.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/multiple-sclerosis-fundraiser-win-a-cima-coppi-wool-track-jacket-for-10/

Cima Coppi MS Team Page: http://mssoc.convio.net/site/TR/BikeTour/General?team_id=1501&pg=team&fr_id=1052

Cima Coppi: http://cimacoppi.ca

Thanks gals and guys!

I was away on vacation for a week so perhaps this has already been discussed, (but a quick search turned up nothing). It appears official, now, that Valverde will return with Movistar for 2012.

http://noticiasdenavarra.com/2011/09/04/deportes/ciclismo/unzue-confirma-el-retorno-de-valverde-y-niega-que-este-hecho-el-de-karpets

It comes as little surprise considering Valverde has been riding and unofficially training with friends and Movistar riders in Spain to keep in shape. It's no secret that Unzue has a soft spot for the Murcian. This to me makes Movistar a team more capable of racking up the wins next year if Valverde can hold his previous form, but there will also be many questions about that until he hits the road.

Maybe the biggest question is: How much will Valverde be in the 2012 VDS? 2? 14? 16? 20? 28?

UPDATE: More details coming out on the Valverde signing. The Murcian paper linked below states that Valverde signed with Movistar for 2 years with an option on the third for almost 2million euros per year.

Further, that he was offered more money by both Radioshack/L-T !?!?!? and Quickstep, but not significantly more @ a reported 2.1million per. A drop from his former 3million per, but likely because his WT points won't count for 2 years. Valverde perhaps prefers the leadership role he will be given, and familiarity at Movistar vs the log-jam of riders at LT-Shack and Quickstep? 

http://www.laopiniondemurcia.es/deportes/2011/09/13/valverde-mantiene-estatus/350059.html

There has been a lot of talk about Lance lately, understandably. To me, this is further confirmation of something that I have suspected for a number of years and leaves me feeling somewhat sane. Lance doped to win. I once thought that I was the only person in the world who thought his story was too-good-to-be-true, and then over time, more and more people moved from that believer camp to, what I thought was, reality.

Now, that the majority seem to have accepted that Lance did in fact dope to win the Tour. Yet, I'm completed confused by the response in the media to the allegations and evidence that is unfolding. I feel that there are four primary 'personalities' trying to make sense of it all.

1. The Hater - Lance was a cheat, is a cheat and doesn't deserve and recognition for what he's done. He should have all of his wins revoked, and may in fact go to jail for perjury, which is what he deserves. There is no proof everyone was cheating, so he's as despicable as any of the other cheaters we've hated on or worse, cause he was the leader of them all.

2. The Patroit - Lance may have cheated, but so did everyone else. He is still the best Tour Champ in history cause all the others were cheaters too. He is America's champ and he was a extremely talented rider who beat dopers just as he would have beat them if everyone were clean. It sucks he cheated, but he's still the best of that time.

3. The Sympathetic - There are two Lance's here. Lance the rider, who cheated and Lance the person who has done so much for cancer research through philanthropic causes. Leave him alone. It's history, and now we're learning it's not so great history, but, who cares? Let's move on. The guy has done enough good to equal out the bad. Look, the guy didn't invent cheating, he just perfected it and beat everyone else on a level doped playing field.

4. The Believer - Testimony doesn't count as proof, at least not enough proof. I still think he was clean. He is the best Tour de France champ in history, and that's not going to change until someone comes along and beats him fair and square.

Edit: 5. The Indifferent - Don't care, and are done with it. Maybe are interested, kinda like a car-crash, but really, really, just want it to be over, and to be history. (Is that fair?)

I'll admit. Of those four, and I'm sure there are many more, I'm mostly a hater. So sue me. I don't understand why the same people who can hate on "Contadoper", Di Luca, Landis, "Valv Piti", Ricco, Rasmussen, Vino etc. etc. can not feel an even greater disappointment/frustration toward Lance.

I see him as a guy who has the worst possible claims of cheating against him including corruption at the highest level as he should have been suspended for two-years for both the Cortisteroid in 1999 and the Tour de Suisse positive that was "paid-away." That would have changed his history entirely had the sport held Lance to the same standards as everyone else. He actively encouraged doping and was exemplary of what we want out of the sport and it could be argued that although it existed, everyone else just had to keep up to Lance, both on the road and with the drugs.

So, I don't get why people don't feel the same way, and why the media overall, has seemed relatively forgiving. 

Why do you feel how you do? Does it change how you feel about other "dopers"?

Apparently, WADA and the UCI are trying to repair the marriage. WADA praised the UCI for it's comprehensive testing during the Tour in this article. WADA continues to say that the UCI should consider testing atheletes in the middle of the night to "seriously consider removing the informal knowledge and comfort all riders have in knowing they will not be tested [in the middle of the night.]"

Night testing. hmmm.

I wonder how the riders will feel about being woken after a grueling mountain stage...or before one. Should we care?

Is it reasonable that it comes with the territory of being a professional cyclist that you will be interrupted during sleep to be drug tested?

Are WADA and potentially the UCI going too far?

Bettini, what thinks you?

Ok, I'm off to Europe again to ride, ride, ride my bike and since it's so heavy around here with all the Landis-HHSNBN business, I figured I'd talk about something that makes me happier than that. AND, I'm hoping you people will be game to help out if you can with all your worldly knowledge.

Here's what going down. Each year I do a little tour with my company Cima Coppi, which first was only me, and now will be two and hopefully in the future will be more people who want to join. It's our chance to play 'sponsored rider' for one-three weeks and enjoy the best part about bikes...the riding.

I'll be going to Spain this year, leaving July 10th and Returning Aug.15th. I plan to rider for 2.5-3 weeks of that time. One from July 18th-23rd and then Aug.1ish-Aug 13th or so. I've set up the first week which can be seen on the Cima Coppi Blog right now and I'm looking for feedback on my route from those who have done parts or all of said route.

Also, any suggestions outside of the actual ride prep, which I'm pretty comforatable with, would be very welcomed. So, if you know that there is a better road than one I've chosen, a landmark I absolutely cannot miss, or a tunnel I can't go through, cause you've been there before. Let me hear it. Then, follow the blog as I ride the route if you're down with that kind of thing.

Then, I'll owe you all big time when I'm in a place to include more peeps who want to join in this and hook you up! (mini five year plan hinted at there.)

Awesome thanks!

Lawrence

PS, Other suggestions for the period of Aug1-Aug 13 are also something I would love to hear cause I haven't really planned that out yet. I do know that the Clásica de San Sebastián is on July 31 (so I might ride the route the next day), and the Vuelta a Burgos is on from Aug.4th.

"The riders tell me that cycling has never been as clean as now, but according to them there are still about 20 riders in the bunch that are especially 'prepared.'" -- Peter Janssen, former pro team doctor and author of a book called "Bloedvorm" [Blood Form], in which he discusses the dangers of various performance-enhancing substances and methods.

Can this be true? I have a hard time believeing that this statement isn't just a marketing device to sell books, but I'm intrigued by the claim. If so, I would think that riding "clean" would have long reached the tipping point and the supposed 20 (or about 10% of a Grand Tour peloton) could easily be vanquished from the group. That would represent about 1 rider per team. I'm calling a big BS on this statement. Thoughts?

NOTE: PLEASE, out of respect of a focused conversation can we avoid making a "speculative" list of who the supposed 20 riders are, as I think that will be extremely pointless and lead to a nasty conversation. Thanks.

Cima Coppi is having a cycling cap trivia contest in celebration of the 93rd Giro d’Italia because the Giro is awesome and we love it! The first competitions will happen this Thursday May 6th and Friday May 7th at 8:00 PST (15:00 GMT, 17:00 CET) sharp.

The Prize: One free Cima Coppi recycled wool Giro Cycling Cap (MSRP – $35cdn) and applicable shipping fees for each of the Thursday trivia and the Friday trivia. Contest winners will be announced immediately following the podium presentation of the Giro D’Italia prologue stage on Saturday, May 8th.

Check the blog for more details and good luck!

...and check back often because there is likely to be at least one other competition on one of the days of the Giro, but you'll just have to guess which one.

Call me a fatalist, if you will, for feeling that the fate of the Flames is already determined to be on the golfcourse...but I'm in looking forward mode. Never shy to step into controversy, or as some might feel, neck deep in my own bullsh*t, I'm of the opinion the the 2010/2011 Calgary Flames should be an Iginla-less team.

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Canucks sign Luongo to another one of these magic 12 year deals. I wonder what Brian Burke is gonna say about this one? Reportedly 64 million over 12 years....so, a cap hit of 5.3 million until he is 42 years old!

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As it stands, the Calgary Flames are in an interesting predicament. This is something we hear every time the Olympics rears its head - How will it impact the players who play and their specific regular season teams? The reason why I single out the Flames more than anyone else is for two reasons: First, the Flames are the team I am interested in and see the Olympics as a serious threat to the success of the franchise this year. Second, no other team, as it now stands, has the potential to have such an effect on one Olympic team position (defense) as the Flames.

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So, I have been working on some detailed calculations regarding goaltending, and a goalie's metric,which I hope to complete before the seasons beginning but I thought I would start with this: Why I still have slight hope for Miikka Kiprusoff.

Now, before I get into the numbers, I would like to state that I believe and have always believed that the goaltenders position is subject to many team and coaching factors which cannot be captured when looking at sv%, even strength sv%, or even sv%n. I also do agree that when looking for a quick metric to rate goaltenders by sv% is the most fitting. However, as you will see in the example below, there is often misleading information hidden in the years end sv%. I think that although Miikka's performance has dropped off the last couple of years, the "what have you done for me lately?" mentality, and the idea that Kiprusoff is a below average goalie is not considering the whole picture.

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Regarding the Flames so far, I was shown to this link by you Kent, from a previous post. I had never seen it before and found it very interesting. Hockey Numbers breaks down players by value and then allows the comparison against the contract itself (note: not the cap hit). It's quite interesting. Here are a bunch of the Flames (Value first then contract amount and then lastly I have added the current cap hit.)

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