Blah…Blah…Shut this guy up!

I am going to start this by stating that I truly believe Lance did not dope post-cancer.  I mean you would just have to be a complete idiot to have gone through what he went through and then take the risk of doping.  Does this mean I believe Lance doped pre-cancer? No.  It just means I really don’t care.

So, then how did Lance beat the plethora of cheaters when he himself didn’t cheat?  To the non-cyclist, or endurance athlete, this may seem impossible.  It is not.  I will state this, Lance did for cycling what guys like Joe Gibbs and Bill Parcels did for football.  No detail was too small.  So, I am going to quickly review some of the reasons why Lance did not have to cheat.

First, Lance was already a World Champion and winner of a Tour de France stage even before cancer.  He had the power to be an elite cyclist even before cancer.  Then cancer hit.  This changed him in many ways.  First, it stripped off a lot of his mass.  If you look at early photos of Lance compared to those of him winning the Tour, you would think he took the drug that makes you lose muscle mass.  Weight in cycling is a killer.  So, post-cancer, Lance weighed only about 150-155 lbs compared to about 175 lbs pre-cancer.  So, take World Champion power, reduce body weight by over 10 percent and you have a great climber.

That isn’t all though.  Due to his cancer, Lance could no longer generate power by grinding out big gears.  That situation would be great to win a one-day race or win a Tour stage, but that wasn’t going to win the Tour.  Lance, post-cancer, had to figure out a better way to generate his power.  Thus, he and his team of coaches focused on pealing.  Lance needed to generate the same power by using cadence over strength.  This ended up making Lance 20 percent more efficient. Twenty percent!!!!  Think about that.  Take any elite athlete, world class, and improve one area of their performance by 20 percent and that is a huge edge over the competition which might make gains of a couple of percent.

So, where do we stand with just this… a person with World Champion power decreases his body mass by 10 percent and increases efficiency by 20 percent.  Now that and that alone would make you win the Tour seven times, even against cheaters.  Once again though that isn’t all.

Lance was the first to focus on the little details.  He understood that any wasted watt meant he had to work harder.  So, Nike designed shirts that were tested and retested in wind tunnels to make sure they were not catching wind.  In fact, I heard Nike once spend $100,000 to rework a manufacturing line to move a single seam.  Giro designed a helmet to give him an advantage in time trials, one of the places Lance would gain on his rivals.  Trek, the largest elite bike manufacturer in the world, designed bikes specifically with the goal of Lance winning the Tour.  What other cyclist could state they had the resources of Nike and Trek at their disposal.  Most companies at best make a custom version of their stock bike for their riders.  They don’t design bikes around the rider.

So, now we have world champion power, 10 percent reduction in weight, 20 percent increase in pealing efficiency, and the biggest companies designing the best technology just for one rider?  Does that sound like a 7-time Tour winner yet?

No?  Okay… how about Lance was the first to scout every critical stage of each Tour?  He didn’t ride them just once, but many times to the point that he knew them intimately come race day and how his body would react.  Convinced yet?  How about a guy that once he decided he wanted to ride again post-cancer, didn’t miss a single training session in 10 years?  How much weight did Ullrich gain in the off-season? Sometimes up to 30 lbs and he would take a month off of the bike.  How about a guy that planned every meal around training and recovery.  Do you think Basso did that?  How many guys were getting $15,000 dexascans to determine body fat a couple of times a year?  What this is getting at is Lance was watching every detail  He was single-minded in winning one race.  No other rider has or had that luxury in the past.

Could any great cyclist of done this?  Well, physically they all had the ability to replicate Lance.  Technologywise, maybe a bit harder.  However, no cyclist had the single-minded focus to bring everything together to win.

That is how a person wins without cheating in a world full of cheaters.  To paraphrase the Nike campain, “What is Lance on?  I’ll tell you what he is on.  He is on his bike.”  365/24/7 everything was focused towards winning the Tour.

Let’s see, a rider tested positive for testosterone (the same thing Floyd Landis tested positive for).  We already know the name and the B sample hasn’t been tested yet.  Imagine that!  There was a leak from LNDD.  How could that be?  They have such scruples and ethics in that lab.

I hope Le Tour is as quick to kick the French-based Cofidis team out of the tour as it was Astana.

The doping by the riders makes me sick.  The actions of LNDD and the UCI in these matters is also deplorable.  Let’s see if Le Tour really practices what it preaches when it comes to a local team.

This is out:

“By Philippe LE GARS et Damien RESSIOT

News to l’Equipe: Alexander Vinokourov, 33, leader of team Astana, tested positive for a homologous transfusion Saturday 21 July at the end of the individual Tour de France time trial whch he won at Albi. After analysis by the laboratory at Châtenay-Malabry, the blood taken at the finish showed the presence of two distinct populations of red cells in the A sample. In plain speech, this means that Vinokourov made use of a homologous transfusion shortly before the stage, utilizing blood from a compatible donor.

The Astana rider (about whom the Internation Cycling Union, in statements by its president, Pat McQuaid, had manifested its displeasure after he had admitted working with the sinister Dr. Michele Ferrari) underwent a new blood test in the late afternoon the day before yesterday, Monday, after his second victory in the 15th stage at Loudenvielle-LeLouron. This new sample is currently under analysis at Châtenay-Malabry, and could confirm the first positive result as early as tomorrow, since the two populations of red cells would still be observable.

Homologous transfusions, as distinct from autologous ones (in which the athlete’s own blood is transfused) have been detectable since the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, by means of a method developed by the laboratory at Lausanne (LAD). American Tyler Hamilton was the first cyclist to test positive in this way, during the 2004 Vuelta.

PS. Following this revelation, team Astana, of which he was the leader, has decided to leave the Tour.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not going to defend Vino. Most likely the B sample will come up positive. Most likely his A and B sample from his mountain stage victory will confirm his cheating. I hope it doesn’t, but deep down, those of us following cycling and doping know it will.

With that said, how is it the test results were leaked yet again? Did they come from LNDD? Did they come from UCI? I am sure when the police show up to a hotel to execute a search warrant, you know something is up, but the information came from somewhere and I am guessing the authorities didn’t leak it. So, these continued breaches of the WADA code are disturbing. More disturbing is doping in cycling.

As a person that has acquired a love for cycling since taking up triathlon in 2001, I stand at a crossroads.  Today and tomorrow, Tour de France Champion Floyd Landis will be in my area.  I am torn.  In the last six years, I have grown to like the less traditional American sports.  Although I still enjoy basketball, baseball and football, the lemmings that follow those sports pale in comparison the Americans that follow European sports.  The shrug off a Shawn Mariman (sp) suspension in the NFL and put the guy on the Pro Bowl Team.  Bonds is both vilified and celebrated.  Meanwhile, cycling still takes a hit on the drug front.

Here is the dilemma, I probably won’t have another opportunity in my lifetime to take my sons to see and maybe be photographed with a Tour  Champion.  Landis will be in Wheaton, IL tonight.  One of my favorite suburbs.  I spent many high school and law school days riding my bike in Wheaton on the Illinois Prairie Path.  Yet, I think taking them to see Floyd Landis would be a bit hypocritical.  After all, any day we will get a decision on the Landis hearing.  He could be declared a doper.  What would that be teaching my sons?  Does it teach them to have faith in humanity?  Innocent until proven guilty?  Or does it perpetuate the idea that cheaters that win are still worth seeing?  After all, he has tested positive.  I wouldn’t give this type of slack to a football player or baseball player that had tested positive.  I would have written them off.  No way would I take my sons to see somebody in those sports in the same situation as Floyd.  So, why am I even considering giving Landis a pass?

Is it because he is rumored to ride with Robbie Ventura up on the same roads I ride each weekend?  Is it because he is an American in a mainly European sport?  Is it because I just like to stick it to the French press and the Tour whenever possible?  Most likely, it is because I am naive and want to believe he is innocent just like the rest of them on Trust but Verify (who have missed my last two blogs even though I refer to the Tour and doping in each).

The easy answer is to go and if he is found guilty, to just ignore the fact I took them.  After all, they are three and one and would never remember anyway.  That is the cowards way though.  As a father, I need to lead my sons.  Part of that is teaching them to not support the athletes that break the rules.  Part of that is to teach them the values of “innocent until proven guilty.”

If we do go and they get an autograph and a picture, what will they say in 15 years if they are themselves cyclists?  “Dad why did you waste your time taking us to see that doper?”  Or will it be something like, “Thanks for teaching us that people can be innocent even when accused.”  Either way, the clock is ticking and I need to make a decision.    No matter what I choose and what the outcome is of the hearing I will not regret my actions.  After all, in the long run, Floyd is just an athlete in a sport.  The outcome of his hearing and whether my sons see him, really means nothing in the scheme of our life and family.

What more could the Brits ask for in a single weekend? They had two of the greatest sporting events to start a weekend. First, they had the Wimbledon finals for both the ladies and the gentleman. Then they had the Prologue and Stage 1 of the Tour de France. Could it get any better? If I were there, assuming I had Wimbledon tickets, I would have been hard pressed to choose one (actually it would be easy… Prologue Saturday, Gentleman’s finals at Wimbledon on Sunday).

At Wimbledon, Venus became the lowest seeded women’s player to win at a seeding of 23. Really, it is kind of a joke. Kind of like Agassi becoming the second unseeded man to win Wimbledon (at least I believe Becker was unseeded in when he won his first). Both were top players in a difficult time and everyone knew they were better than their rankings. I am happy for Venus. I have always thought she would be better off removing herself from her sister and her father when it comes to tennis. Although, I still laugh at her youthful arrogance when she once said she would be No. 1 in the world and her sister No. 2 and they would have every record in the book. I don’t think that combined her and her sister have as many titles as Steffi Graf nor will either of them ever win a “Golden Slam” as Graf did.

On the men’s side, Nadal pushed Federer into a fifth set. It was an incredible match and Nadal could easily have unseated the now 5-time Wimbledon Champion. Federer has tied Borg’s record for consecutive Wimbledon titles, but to be the “King” of Wimbledon, he will still have to win at least two more and tie Pete Sampras. Federer now has 11 grandslam titles along with Borg and Laver. He need s three more to catch Sampras. What is amazing is that Federer has won 11 grandslams in 19 grandslam tournaments. That is just unreal. Talk moves to whether he is the greatest player ever. Well, that is a tough one. I am going to state this, out of 13 matches, on a variety of surfaces, Federer beats any other player in history at least 9 times. He has a complete game. He may never beat Nadal on clay, but that doesn’t even matter. However, as far as the most dominant player of his era, I still give the nod to the man from down under. Rod Laver. After all, the guy won a grand slam when only amatuers were allowed to play. He then goes pro. Doesn’t get to play in a grand slam event for 8 years, until pros are allowed to play and then wins another grandslam. How can you top that? Think about if he had played in grandslams those 7-8 years. He would have like 25 total titles instead of 11.

Onto the Tour de France which started with the Prologue in London. How cool is that? Despite the coverage being dampened by the drug scandals in cycling how can you not be excited to see Fabian Canellara just destroy the field in the 8k TT. Meanwhile, Andreas Kloden establishes himself as a Tour favorite with an awesome Prologue. Meanwhile, in stage 2, the finish comes down to the sprint and a master, Robbie McEwen, emerges from nowhere to out-sprint everyone. I mean in the television coverage the guy isn’t even on the screen with 1 KM to go. How did he do that? The Tour is already shaping up to be exciting.

My fan loyalty at the Tour is torn. I would like to root for an American and an American team in Discovery and Levi Lempheimer. I will be very happy if he wins. I am even pulling for George Hincapie to somehow come up and end up being the number one guy for Discovery; however, I cannot overlook the management of the team being more of the problem than the cure for doping in cycling. They blindly defended a rider which has pled guilty and accepted a suspension. They did everything they could to spin it, but what it comes down to is they wanted a rider that was a favorite at the Tour and they didn’t care about the doping implications surrounding Basso. As a fan, I cannot accept that attitude from a team. So, I have to say I am cheering for a team at the Tour. It just isn’t the team I thought it would be. I am cheering for T-Mobile. They are the only team that seems truly dedicated to cleaning up cycling. So, even though they may not have someone on the front at any time, I will cheer for them and they are now my team. I just wish you could buy their gear in the USA. What is up with that Stapleton?

Here we are. A couple of days a way from the Tour de France. The grand daddy of cycling events (meanwhile the grand daddy of tennis events is going on as I write). We don’t even know who last year’s winner is. According to Trust but Verify we may have an arbitration decision by tomorrow. Thank God! I am tired of hearing about Floyd. Whether it be the people supporting him stating the French Lab was mishandling, USADA is out to get him, ect. or the other side not even looking at the facts, at least there will be a resolution. Yes, I know there will be yet another appeal; however, this one is a biggie. This is the one people are going to remember. After this, people will either deem him as guilty or not. I hope he wins, but I would bet against him at this point. It will be interesting if he loses to see if he shows up for his book signing in Chicago on July 10th.

Once again, the Tour bring out other fireworks too. An author, who I will not name just as to not promote his book, released yet another book slamming Lance. Lance came out swinging. I love his response. It is aggressive, just like he was in cycling. I am going to pull just one quote, but you can see the entire response here.

“Here is the simple truth – while others may have cheated to try to beat me, I didn’t cheat to win. Beating a cheater doesn’t make you a cheater. I won using hard work, single minded devotion to a goal, dedication, exhaustive preparation and training, physiological and mental advantages, pain and suffering, innovative technology, teamwork and sacrifices that came with a price in my professional and personal life. None of that came in a pill or a bottle. All of that is why I could beat others, even when they weren’t racing clean. If I beat people that were cheating, it was because I worked harder and got more from my abilities, not because I cheated. “– Lance Armstrong, June 29, 2007

I believe that Lance did not dope post-cancer. I will believe that until there is actual proof otherwise. I will not let people try to profit off of bringing him down. As you notice, I say post-cancer. This doesn’t mean I think he did pre-cancer, but it is hard to imagine anybody not doping in cycling in that era. At this point though, it doesn’t matter. I believe he was a clean champion.

Finally, it isn’t just cycling that has doping woes. Barry Bonds is just 4 shy of tying the greatest record in all of sports. There is turmoil and controversy on how to treat it. The truth is, I am actually pulling for Barry to break it. If he doped, oh well. The sports writers aggravate me more than the players at this point. These writers now want to denounce Barry for being on steroids and the steroid era in baseball. What a crock!!!! If these sports reporters had been doing their jobs in the last 20 years, instead of just wanting to be on the “inside”, they would have broke this story 15 years ago by doing some investigative reporting. Instead, they just wanted to not rock the boat and cover teams and not make waves. Can you tell me they didn’t hear rumors? See things? Of course they did, but they figured it was fine and let it go. Now, these same reporters want to hang the players out to dry. I think the reporters are even more at fault than the players. These reporters are supposedly there to report and protect the game. Instead, they just wanted to watch baseball and get a paycheck and not make waves.

Okay… so maybe I did DNF in my last two races… nothing wrong with that…. right?  After all, it was a brutally hot half IM and the IM ran out of water/gatorade.  So, nothing wrong right?  Well, in my own mind there is something wrong.

So, here I am.  Getting back into doing some races.  Nothing long… just some Olympic-distance.  Should be easy… right?  Why am I so nervous then?

This weekend, I will go through the ritual of packet pick up, waking up at 4:30 to get to transition and waiting for the race to start.  Something I haven’t done in two years.  Hopefully, I will come across the line… something I haven’t done in three years.

Ullrich.  Okay… Ullrich is dead to rights for at least lying to us… so guilty.  I believed Hamilton until VeloNews did a great point-counterpoint and there is no doubt that guy is guilty (as confirmed by CAS).  Armstrong, I still believe to be innocent.  Landis, is innocent until proven guilty, and it will be up to the arbitrators to decide at this point.  I believed Sosa, Bonds and McGuire were clean.  I never would have suspected Marion Jones.  The list goes on.

  Now though, poor Ian Thorpe is in the mix.  I am going to believe this guy.  He has always tested clean.  He has been tested more often than any athlete except maybe the big guy Lance Armstrong.  He has been outspoken against the lack of testing in swimming.  He has agreed to have his blood saved for testing in the future.  Then, while he isn’t even competing, he tests positive.  The guy retires and he tests positive.  It doesn’t make sense.

If I undersstand correctly, the postive findings were so baseless that the Australian authorities decided not to proceed.  Yet FINA, the international governing body similar to the UCI,  appealed to CAS. 

 Hopefully, Thorpe will learn from Landis and use the WIKI defense and keep everything public.  After all, even as an American, I want to believe this guy.

This is a no brainer.  Yes!!!!  I am not saying that because I want the Illini to have a better shot at beating OSU next year.  After all, even without Oden they are going to beat the Illini.  Unfortunately, NCAA men’s basketball is a profit-driven machine that gives nothing back to its athletes.  So, why shouldn’t Oden be the one making the money in the pros.  Let’s face it, if he goes pro, he is the number one pick (at worst no. 2) and makes whatever the rookie max contract is (probably 4-5 million a year for 4 years) and he also signs at least a 30 million dollar endorsement contract.  That is a guaranteed 50 million. 

Hmmmm… did I enjoy college?  Yes.  I really, really enjoyed my undergraduate years.  Would I trade those 4 years for 50 million dollars?  Yes.  Although the memories are “priceless”, I could make just as many “priceless” memories with 50 million dollars. 

Also, that isn’t even the extent of Oden’s financial future.  Right now he is still 18.  So, even if he turns 19 sometime soon, he would only be 23-years-old when his rookie-constrained contract expires.  Now if Tyson Chandler can dictate 8-9 million a year for 7-8 years when he did nothing and showed very little potential, how much will Oden be worth even if he doesn’t show improvement?  His next contract could be worth in the 100 million dollar range and that is guaranteed money.

 Unfortunately, I love NCAA basketball.  It has lost its luster though.  The NCAA claims to protect sports and athletes, but it only has its own intersest at stake (as Myles Brand always does).  So, Oden needs to think of his own interests.  Go pro… get the money… make your memories during the off-season.

It isn’t as if Illinois hasn’t had success in basketball in the last several years,  It is frustrating when so many other coaches, somehow associated with Illinois, good and bad, remain in the tournament.  Let’s take a look.

Lou Henson “retires” from Illinois.  We all know though he was forced out.  Illinois convinces Lon Kruger to come on as coach.  Who takes over at Florida?  Billy Donovan.  After all, all he has done there was win a National Championship and still is favored in this year’s tourney.  Lon Kruger came and left Illinois.  Who could blame him when you are being offered three to four  million a year for four years from the pros?  I don’t.  After his stint of guaranteed money in the NBA, he comes back to UNLV.  Where are they?  The Sweet 16 and knocked off a team in Wisconsin that Illinois couldn’t beat in two tries—once in Champaign and once in the United Center (Illinois’ home away from home).   It should be noted that Kruger’s name was mentioned for the Illinois job when Weber got it and Gunther dismissed it stating he would never be the Illinois coach. As if that wasn’t bad enough, when Kruger left we get a young coach out of Tulsa name Bill Self.  He comes in and leads Illinois to the Elite 8, Sweet 16 and round of 32, getting progressively worse.  Then turmoil strikes, and Roy Williams leaves Kansas for North Carolina.  Self leaves Illinois for Kansas.  A search is started and do you know what?  No coach of note is interested in the Illinois job.  So, we get the SIU coach Bruce Weber.  Well, let’s see….. Williams leads UNC to a National Championship over Illinois and has his team in the Sweet 16 this year as a number one seed.  Self, after a couple of dismal years at Kansas, has his team as a number one seed and in the Sweet 16.  SIU, where our current coach left, has a new coach and is now in the Sweet 16.  It should also be mentioned, that Weber was being groomed to take Gene Keady’s position at Purdue, but when the Illinois job fell in his lap, he had no choice but to accept.  Meanwhile, the coach Purdue never intended to have, Matt Painter, got his team to win a round in this year’s NCAA without any players anyone knows.