SB Nation User Blog: plinytheelder

Theo Bos suspended 1 month

plinytheelder — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:39:22 -0000

Theo Bos suspended 1 month

suspension to take effect 15 Aug.

Joe Parkin, "6 Years in a Rain Cape"

plinytheelder — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:17:44 -0000

Joe Parkin, "6 Years in a Rain Cape"

Seems Joe Parkin, author of the excellent A Dog in a Hat, now has a new blog, in collaboration with Competitive Cyclist if I understand correctly. The title refers to the time he spent in Belgium, where he came to own a vast array of rain capes, from the heavy-duty one he used on crap days, to the light one he put in his jersey pocket for sunny days (since it would inevitably start to rain). Anyways it looks like he posts very regularly and fields daily questions. I highly recommend him, he's funny and really colourful.

Why not me? Fabian Cancellara

plinytheelder — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:44:46 -0000

I heard the mountain stages weren't too bad on this Tour. Hmmm, reminds me of another Tour I just won. Perhaps you all missed that one? I can't wait to send my lieutenant Schleck (sehr schlecht) up those mountains and watch puny Evans and Contador try to follow. Then I make my move and POWER STRAIGHT UP LIKE IT'S A TT BABY! ok ok so maybe Armstrong or Menchov take a few seconds out of me on the Ventoux. That's ok because I take 20 minutes out of them on the TTs! Do the math people!

Why I'll win: I'm the man! Auch bin ich der schweizer König, wusstest du nicht? I speak this awesome German no one outside my country understands. I have plenty of experience in the yellow jersey even if I'm not a machine. My motivation comes from the fun I'll have snickering at the Tour-appointed interpreter who botches all my words at the presser after each stage (see especially 2:10-2:35 for hot laughs). I've had a nice relax all spring long while these other fools (whom I pity) rode too many miles. I've been training with Frinkster or Frinster or whatever his name is in Holland for the last week and he says I'm awesome. I'll be wearing this rad red Swiss national champion jersey and will tell all the Spaniards that the leader's jersey is red this year just like the new Vuelta - causing them to panic and over-exert themselves while I go flying by (hasta luego!). I go really really fast and I have a big butty like Raúl Alcalá - all muscle. That's right people, I'm one big muscle. One big Tour winning muscle, ready to flex.

Why I'll lose: Get serious. Did I mention I'm the man?

new drug tests (shhh, it's a secret)

plinytheelder — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:28:15 -0000

new drug tests (shhh, it's a secret)

This is kind of hilarious:

"AFLD announced Monday that it was going to use a new test during the Tour that will be able to detect a hitherto undetectable substance. AFLD president Pierre Bordry did not wish to give the name of this product and furthermore declared that the test was not yet completely ready. He nonetheless specified that, like last year, the UCI has authorized the AFLD to conserve the blood samples taken from riders for future tests."

Wow, this is cold war language!

Drugzzz: Boonen, Valverde, Rooks (?!)

plinytheelder — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:04:48 -0000

Drugzzz: Boonen, Valverde, Rooks (?!)

Just perusing some headlines at L'Équipe, first off Quick Step plans to challenge the ASO on Boonen's Tour exclusion; second, Valverde is asking the Court of Arbitration for Sport to "take note of CONI's incompetence" and acquit him (source; UCI also looking at CONI's file and expected to make an announcement next week); finally, Steven Rooks (remember him?) has admitted, in a recent book on the 1989 Tour by Dutch journalist Mark Smeets, to taking EPO - says he started after 89, i.e. after his best years, because without it he basically wouldn't have been able to keep up (source).

no Boonen at Tour

plinytheelder — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:19:28 -0000

no Boonen at Tour

Sorry for posting 2 Boonen fanshots in one day, but the ASO has just announced that he won't be riding in the Tour.

Boonen: "indirect contact" with coke?

plinytheelder — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:01:45 -0000

Boonen: "indirect contact" with coke?

This has been out for a while but I didn't see it mentioned on the site so thought I'd post it... According to this report (it's now reported in CN too) the amounts of cocaine found in Boonen's hair analysis - in separate tests by the Universities of Strasbourg and Louvain (not sure if it's the Flemish or the French one) - were so small that they could only have occurred as a result of "indirect contact" with the drug. Recall that Boonen said he had "blacked out" on the night in question and remembered nothing.

Tomorrow We Ride, by Jean Bobet

plinytheelder — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:31:29 -0000

With the Tour approaching, I wanted to put the word out about this fantastic book, which came out last year in English translation. I haven't finished it yet, and frankly I don't think I'm going to anytime soon, since it's overdue from the library. I'm a little more than halfway through though, and it's really, really good. It's basically a memoir of pro cycling in the 50s, from the perspective of the author, Jean Bobet - you may not have heard of him, but if the name sounds familiar, it's because his brother, Louison, was the first great French cyclist of the post-war period, and won pretty much everything in sight - 3 straight Tours, every monument save LBL, the world championship, etc etc etc.

The fact that it's written not by Louison (who died in 1983) but Jean is quite interesting in itself. Jean was a pro for many years, most of them spent on his brother's team (which just happened to be the "équipe Louison Bobet" - Louison got so popular that he basically formed his own team, along with Mercier bicycles). Jean was never a star, though he won Paris-Nice and the amateur world championship, and finished third one year in Milan-San Remo. However, the fact that his brother was the biggest star in cycling means that the story is told from somewhere between the perspective of a star and a domestique. So, for example, we hear about Louison picking out the most strategic spot on the Paris-Roubaix course for his team to take a pee; then we hear about how everyone pees as fast as he can - except Louison, who takes his sweet time because he's not the one who will be doing the work to catch up to the peloton; then we hear about the grumbling of Jean and all the other teammates who are busting their asses bringing Louison back to the bunch; finally, we hear Jean's description of riding into the Roubaix velodrome:

Here's the velodrome. It's really incongruous, a velodrome at the end of hell. It's indecent.

But you do your lap and a half because, good god, you've arrived in Roubaix. On your bike. You pass the finish line. You look at the podium and you see Louison, with flowers in his arms.

He's won, the bastard...

And freewheeling, at long last, you tell yourself that next year...

Anyways I don't want to go on forever, suffice it to say that I'm loving the book, the writing is pleasant and unpretentious, it's an easy read without being simplistic. There are some fantastic photos too (at least in the French edition) - a great one of Coppi, Schulte, Koblet, Van Steenbergen, Kubler and Louison Bobet all standing next to each other at the Velodrome d'Hiver (the famous "Vel d'Hiv") in Paris in 1952; another of Louison rocking this fantastic "L. Bobet" jersey with front pockets and a collar (can someone please bring the collar back to cycling jerseys? They look so good), with the caption "Louison at the summit of his art."

But perhaps the most beautiful lines of the book come in this description of Jean being passed by Coppi in a time trial during the Giro:

He arrives. He passes me on the left. He doesn't see me. He's on a cushion of air. His long legs turn with incredible speed. He has his hands on top of the bar. He's sublime. I manage to keep him in my sights for a little while. I see his Bianchi jersey, blue celeste, and his blue celeste team car where his mechanic, the faithful Pinella, balances with his spare bike on his shoulder. No one will ever take that image away from me. That day, in a cloud of golden dust, I saw the sun, riding his bike, between Grosseto and Follonica.

Here's a description of the book at abebooks.com.

Laurent Fignon has cancer...

plinytheelder — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:53:53 -0000

Laurent Fignon has cancer...

reported by Lance Armstrong on his Twitter page. One of the all-time greats. Sad news, I hope there are some good prospects for treatment.

LeMond presentation

plinytheelder — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:55:31 -0000

I just watched the LeMond "Play the Game" presentation, and thought I would create this post, in part because I really think CN got their summary wrong. No offense to CN, I like them very much, but the presentation I just watched (LeMond basically speaks at a conference for just over half an hour, then fields questions for 15 minutes or so) was very different from CN's portrayal of it. Thanks to Chris for bringing up the story in the first place, and to Gavia for linking to the presentation.

What follows are just notes I took while watching.

- I really think CN got the sport drink thing wrong, it seems pretty clear to me that he says "a sip of water, or my sport drink," i.e. whichever he happened to be drinking at the time. It's just after 10min.

- I have no idea how CN came up with the title "LeMond laments cycling's loss of innocence." In my opinion, this completely misrepresents everything he said. The tone of his talk definitely isn't "the good old days," i.e. that everything was fine in his day - on the contrary, he talks about how, in the 80s, he was suggesting that there be mandatory testing, and other riders would come up to him and say that testing would violate their human rights. He's basically saying that drugs were everywhere in the 80s, but that a. he didn't take them, and b. they were much less effective than EPO and everything that was to come in the 90s.

- He says some very interesting stuff about Armstrong: "I had a little argument with Armstrong when I questioned his relationship to Ferrari. In this conversation he said 'come on Greg, you're telling me you've never used EPO? Everyone's used EPO. Your win in 1989 was like mine, it was a miracle. Mine was a miracle, yours was a miracle.' And I just said 'Hold on. Mine was not a miracle. I won the Tour before EPO ever came out...[had I used it] I'd have won the Tour by 30 minutes, not 8 seconds.'"

- This is nothing new, but he speaks of himself as an "advocate for riders," who are like "lab rats" upon whom doctors experiment. Then he talks about how necessary such advocacy is given how many riders have died and how rampant depression is as a result of doping.

- Some interesting stuff around min. 30 about communications he's had with the UCI, especially over the last year or so, regarding possibilities for reform from within, getting away from culture of turning a blind eye to the real problems in cycling, etc. -- However how over the past year or so "the bad guys won," guys like Clerc and Gilbert (sp.?) were fired, hence he's decided to completely abandon any involvement with pro cycling.

- According to LeMond, "There is no anti-Americanism in French laboratories." He talks about how people use this idea as an excuse to not deal with the real issues. "I know the sport, and I doubt that there's been anyone who's been wrongfully convicted," except the bobsledder who'd used Rogaine ;) He cites and lauds the Ashendon interview in NY Velocity about the 1999 samples.

- Interesting stuff about Kohl: he says that if Kohl's being honest he should be given another chance, that it shouldn't be the athletes who always pay the price. Talks about how unfair it was that Pantani was treated as a villain. He met Pantani and suggested anti-depressants or therapy to him because "he was left out in the cold, he was branded a criminal." "Punish honesty and reward dishonesty, that's the motto of the UCI." -- The stuff about Pantani is actually very moving, around min. 38 if I remember right.

- "We need a bear market in cycling that wipes the criminals out."

- Someone in the audience asks: Will Armstrong ever come clean? "Him? No way. He has no conscience."

- Finally, despite aging and weight gain, he says his wattage output and lung capacity are pretty much the same as when he was racing. Bastard. ;)

Anyways there's much more to be said but I don't want to go on forever, I'd highly recommend watching, it's interesting stuff. I hope there aren't too many typos here, I typed some of this while listening/watching.

Sorry, one last thing: Armstrong's response on Twitter: "Uh oh...someone drank too much Hate-orade and ate too many Hater-tots."