Bobby writes about the time trial and Carlos and says he is humbled, but I can't quite make out why.  That he got Carlos wrong and in fact the laid back non-leader prove-it-with-your-legs leadership worked?   That he is at home and not with the team and thus reduced to fan status?

I always enjoy Bobby's posts, but for this Tour I've been struck by the fact that he didn't pick up more on the incredible work done by his friend Jens!  Maybe infra dig?  Too much like boasting?

I'm also curious about what he's referring to in this quote:

"I''ve always respected Carlos, but now, I have a newfound admiration for him. I honestly think he's had a hard time dealing with the controversies over the past few years at the Tour, where positive tests have popped up and contributed to keeping Carlos off the podium."

What positive tests have kept Carlos off podiums?  Seems to me that they've put him ON podiums (2006 Tour) or moved him up a step (Heras Vuelta, forget the year)  Anybody have an idea?

.

I knew you'd all want to keep current with his dating life.... 

(Wish I knew how to post a picture.  For those too impatient to click I'll give it away: it's Kate Hudson.)

Hm.  A message telling me I'm twenty words short.  Well, she's yet another blonde.  Doesn't look too much like his mother or his first wife though.  And she's more famous than he is.

Link here!

From cycling fans anonymous:

04 May 2008
Eule a Stasi spy?

German media is reporting that long-time T-Mobile soigneur Dieter "Eule" Ruthenberg, who was masseur to riders such as Ullrich and Zabel, is under suspicion of being a spy and informant for the Stasi, the notorious and hated East German secret police. Ruthenberg is said to have worked for the Stasi from 1976 to 1989. Ruthenberg is well-known to American cycling fans due to his prominent and compelling role in the Tour de France documentary Hell on Wheels. Apparently doping was hardly the only thing going on behind the scenes at T-Mobile.

Check out cycling fans anonymous http://cyclingfansanonymous.blogspot.com/

(I have no idea what a Seven is.  A bike.  But whose?  What does it mean?)

Continue reading this post »

VN Link

He pays a million Euros in the sporting fraud case against him in Germany.  Why would he do that? Just to make it (expensively) go away?  I don't understand how it could possibly have been found to be fraud if ... any one of the following is true: a) the team was managing or directing or requiring it (evidence not yet complete, as far as we know), b) the team knew about it (a strong probable), or c) others on the team were also doing it (known).  Why didn't the suit include Aldag or any of the other Telekommers who've actually confessed?

Who was being defrauded?  The public?  Why by Ullrich alone?  The sport of cycling?  Same question -- plus, Give me a break!  ARD?  I read they paid Ullrich a hefty retainer, maybe a million Euros a year.  They've been pretty prickly on the subject, yanking their coverage in mid-TdF after the 2007 doping scandals.  Are they behind that professor who mounted the suit?  And why wouldn't they have just sued Jan directly?

On another note -- yet another German rider has now had an epithet permanently attached to his name in the "rosy-fingered dawn" mode.  Joing "the ever-popular Jens Voigt," we now have "disgraced former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich."  VN always says this!  They don't say "Disgraced former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis," do they?  Of course, Bjarne confessed and can therefore be labeled "Confessed doper and former Tour winner Bjarne Riis."  Plus, he has had a second act.

Where oh where is poor Ulle getting his advice from??  I worry about him.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/nov07/nov12news

More from Jef D'Hont, the former Telekom soigneur whose book published earlier this year brought confessions from Aldag, Zabel, Riis and a couple of others.

Continue reading this post »

on cycling fans anonymous, copying from the Amazon blurb for a new book on same
   

Continue reading this post »

Bruyneel announced as Astana GM with Gallopin as lead DS.  Biver paid off (apparently) and gone away.  They'll use Dr. Ramsus [oops, Rasmus] Damsgaard as doping consultant -- the phrase was "will work with."  

Kazakh Cycling Federation says the team will have no dealings either directly or indirectly with "any of the implicated team members."  Vino, that means you.

Roster to be announced later.

http://velonews.com/race/int/articles/13508.0.html