SB Nation User Blog: slowK

More Lance vs Contador polemica

slowK — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:29:10 -0000

More Lance vs Contador polemica

From today's Sydney Morning Herald.

Cafe Bookshelf: Cadel Evans - Close to Flying

slowK — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:13:03 -0000

Title: Cadel Evans - Close to Flying
Author: Rob Arnold, Cadel Evans
Publisher: Hardie Grant
Pages: 304
Strengths: very well written (for a sports bio); interesting sections from Chiara, mum, old coaches and other riders (Damian Grundy, Hendrik Redant, Dario Cioni, Matt Lloyd, Charlie Wegelius...), gives a thorough picture of Cadel's early life, formative years as a cyclist and his family. Not too cycling-geek heavy for non-cycling readers.
Weaknesses: a cycling geek might want more racing anecdotes, very occasionally the odd sentence is a bit drippy.
Rating: 4/5

More on the flip...

Well, at least one person asked for a review (of my personally signed copy, no-less!), so here it is. Co-written with Rob Arnold (who edits the Australian Ride Cycling Review magazine, which, incidentally is an excellent magazine), the book charts Cadel's life from birth and early childhood up to his World Championship win in 2009. Rob's narrative is very well written, and is interspersed with sections from other individuals (mainly Cadel, with a supporting cast listed above). These sections were highlights - very personal opinions and recollections of Cadel.

Other interesting tidbits:

* his mum wrote a very personal and harrowing account of Cadel being kicked in the head by a horse when aged 8, suffering a depressed skull fracture and likely brain injury. He was air-retrieved from the country to a major hospital, and was given a pretty bleak prognosis while in intensive care, but slowly recovered. (side note: the Neurosurgeon who operated on Cadel is my wife's friend's uncle! Three degrees of separation!)

* his early MTB days - I enjoyed this section as this was when I first became a Cadel fan. As a 17 year old kid he came 5th at a World Cup race. Some great pics of him wearing a special red/blue jersey as leader of both the under-23 and senior World Cup series. He really was very skinny in his MTB days (and nicknamed "The Lung")!

* Dario Cioni (who was an MTB rival, but teammate at Mapei and then Lotto) writing about Cadel's bonk while in Pink at the Giro.

* Heiko Salzwedel (Australian coach) let him try Robbie McEwen's TT bike at the 1995 Worlds. He'd never ridden a TT bike before, but still came 3rd in the juniors.

* lovely section of his meeting and courting Chiara, and their relationship.

* Chiara's section on the World Championships - a great read (an edited version is in Chiara's section of Cadel's website). She writes very well for someone for whom English is not their first language. (I may have just massacred the grammar of that last sentence...)

I guess most cycling books now get compared to Lance's "It's Not About the Bike" or "Every Second Counts". This one isn't as chest-beatingly full of polemica, but gives the reader a fairly full picture of Cadel, his persona and his background. There are some cycling anecdotes, but not an onerous amount - it doesn't follow each tour stage in excruciating detail, nor give detail of cycling equipment, or too much on the behind-the scenes side of the *-Lotto team. (Compared to say Michael Barry's "Inside the Postal Bus" - different intent, different kind of book.) It stays away from being critical or controversial, which may be a good or bad thing.

Worth reading? Yes. Well written and easy to read? Yes. But I am a fan of his. However, I think that even if you like pro cycling in general (and why else would you be at PodiumCafe?), you will find this of interest. Cadel seems to polarise people and he generates a lot of chat on various cycling forums - this book gives good insight into why he is the way he is.

Matthew Lloyd to start Dauphine

slowK — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:49:00 -0000

According to both the Silence Lotto and Cadel Evans' websites, Matthew Lloyd will be starting the Dauphine Libere. After his big crash in Amstel Gold (where he sustained multiple vertebral fractures), that's a pretty impressive recovery and great news.

Oh no - I need another 35 words! So I'll try this: check out this video that did the rounds a while ago on another cycling forum.

here

If it doesn't work, the URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3qvJgY9XQI

Absolutely nothing to do with cycling, but will make you laugh. Yes it's safe for work and for all ages too. Hope that's 75 words now...

More doping at Telekom

slowK — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:31:35 -0000

Today's cyclingnews.com has an article concerning an anonymous ex-Telekom rider who is giving evidence on doping.

What's interesting to see who was on Telekom/T-Mobile in 2003 and 2004.

link here

T-Mobile rider claims widespread EPO use

The rider, whose name was not released, rode for the team in those two years, but it was not clear as to whether those were the only two years, or whether he is still active. He allegedly made a comprehensive statement about doping practices at the team during those years.

A former Team Telekom/T-Mobile rider claimed that team doctors from the Freiburg University Clinic distributed EPO (Erythropoietin) to riders during 2003 and 2004, public prosecutors in Freiburg, Germany said Monday night on German TV.

What's interesting is to see who was in the squad in 2003/04.

The info is taken from cyclingwebsite.net; I've just included riders who were in the team for both 2003 and 2004.

Mario Aerts, Rolf Aldag, Santiago Botero, Cadel Evans, Giuseppe Guerini, Torsten Hiekmann, Matthias Kessler, Andreas Klier, Andreas Kloden, Daniele Nardello, Paolo Savoldelli, Jan Schaffrath, Stephan Schreck, Alexanre Vinokourov, Steffen Wesemann, Sergei Yakolev, Erik Zabel.

Some big names left after the 2003 season: Danilo Hondo, Bobby Julich, Stefan Schumacher

Interesting signings for 2004: Jan Ullrich, Heinrich Haussler

Quite a few of these have been busted for doping or admitted as such. Aldag, Botero, Kessler, Vino, Zabel, Hondo, Schumacher to name a few.

Rampant speculation begins now as to who is coming clean...

Kohl to Silence Lotto

slowK — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:57:12 -0000

The rumors have been confirmed: as per cyclingnews, Bernhard Kohl is going to Silence Lotto. The polka-dot jersey should really beef up the mountain firepower for Cadel, which was desperately lacking at this year's Tour. Quote from CN:

In a press statement, Kohl said, "the whole team is strongly focused on the Tour de France as the season's high point. As we saw this year, you need a strong team to really be able to win. That means you must have at least two or three riders who have the class to ride in the top ten. With Cadel Evans and me Silence-Lotto now has two strong riders, who can be at the top of the race. We will have to wait and see which of us will be stronger in the end."

Sounds like he has ambitions to be the leader as well if Cadel falters. Will he play loyal domestique? Next year's Tour is already shaping up to be very interesting. I can't wait!