Lance Armstrong Turns Back on Cycling

September 26th, 2007

It seems that Lance Armstrong has turned his back on cycling. He has better things to do now. When asked about the Landis doping decision, he said

“I’d love to answer the question but unfortunately I’m out of that business. I’m here to fight cancer. I haven’t looked online. I still love the bike and ride all the time but on the competitive side I’m just not engaged.” Found via Biking Bis

I agree fighting cancer is more important than cycling but it gave him the platform to fight cancer. A lot of the LAF fund-raisers involve cycling. He isn’t at the top end of competition but that’s what partly feeds recreational cycling. He should use his champion status to help the sport but he’s not.

He’s not out of that business. He just doesn’t want to answer the tough questions about the state the sport is in. Several of his teammates have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. He used a doctor that was associated with doping. I believe there are doping issues but as we’ve seen with the Landis case, the anti-doping bureaucracy is also corrupt. Cycling isn’t the only sport with doping problems, other sports have them too.

Update: Lance has now made a comment on the Landis verdict.

“When you are giving someone the death penalty, which they essentially did, you cannot tolerate shoddy work, which they clearly did. I don’t understand that type of rationale. I don’t understand the verdict.

More about his comments at Biking Bis.

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Bear Creek Singletrack Trail Work this Saturday

September 25th, 2007

Bear Creek Singletrack Trail Work
Medicine Wheel is working on the new Bear Creek Singletrack this Saturday starting at 8:30 AM. If you can help out, head on down to the pavilion off 21st and Argus. Let Jim Schwerin know you’re coming by sending him an e-mail at jim[at]medwheel.org

I worked on the trail in July. Several sections are now open for riding.

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Results for PPV SuperCross Race #1

September 24th, 2007

September 2007 Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross

The results for Saturday’s Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross race (no longer online) have been posted on the ACA site. The next race will be on November 18th.

Related Links: Race Flyer | Saturday’s Race Pictures | 2006 PPV SuperCross pictures

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Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross #1

September 23rd, 2007

Pikes Peak Velo Cyclocross Race Sept 22, 2007

Yesterday was the first of 2 cyclocross races that Pikes Peak Velo is putting on this fall. The next one is on November 18th. It seemed like we had good turn out although I haven’t seen the number of racers.

I got to Bear Creek Park at 7 AM to help get the course set up. We had the course set up in an hour which gave us an hour before the first race. The course had some different section than we’ve used in the past and it seemed like people liked it.

The morning started out cool and foggy but by afternoon it was sunny and hot. It was also dry so we had dust instead of mud like last year.

The plan was for me to roam around the course during the races but I spent most of my time doing traffic control. We had a section of road down to one lane since we were using it as part of the course. There are 2 pavilions along that section of road and the plan was for them to not be used during the race. Somehow 2 large groups got them reserved and so we had a lot more traffic than we expected. Although it made extra work for us, I think things ran pretty smoothly.

Velo Soiree did the race. He recognized me and introduced himself. I got a couple pictures of him in the pictures I took. I think this is the best one of him.

Related Links:

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Landis Loses Fight to Keep Tour de France Title

September 20th, 2007

Floyd Landis at 2007 Leadville 100

The arbitration panel released their decision in the Floyd Landis doping case today. It ruled 2-1 against Landis. He can appeal the decision to Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.

He will lose his Tour de France title and be banned from racing through January 29, 2009. USADA had wanted the 2 year suspension to start today. Landis had wanted it to start from when he was fired by Phonak last year. The arbitration panel ruled he had voluntarily agreed to not compete internationally on January 30, 2007 and used that as the start of the 2 years.

USADA has posted the decision. It’s 84 pages and full of legalese and technical details of the testing. Although they agreed that the T/E testing was sloppy and didn’t prove Landis doped, they ruled the more complicated IRMS was reliable. Christopher Campbell, the desenting arbitrator disagreed. Even the 2 arbitrators that ruled against Landis issued a warning that they had concerns about the French lab that did the testing. Trust but Verify has a few posts with more details of the ruling.

I’m not surprised by the ruling. Although I think doping is common in cycling and other sports, I think the anti-doping establishment is corrupt. They have rules that make it hard for one lab directory to point out errors made by another lab. The French lab leaked Landis’s positive tests and have leaked other results. In the US you have to agree to arbitration to race. USADA chooses the acceptable arbitrators. Not surprisingly this case makes USADA 35-0 in cases brought to arbitration .

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Cyclocross Race This Saturday

September 19th, 2007

2006 Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross

The Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross race is this Saturday. The race flyer is on the website and has start times for each category. The categories and times are the same for the race on November 18th.

Last year we had perfect conditions. There was rain the night before which gave us plenty of mud but we had sun during the race. Last year I wrote a post about the cyclocross race. I also took several pictures of the races.

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Cycling Safety

September 17th, 2007

Cyclelicious posted a good summary of an article on Raise the Hammer about whether cycling is safe. The Raise the Hammer article seemed focused on Toronto but some of the statistics were for the US. One of the stats presented is that there are less deaths per hour of cycling than for driving. From the numbers given, I’m guessing that there are more fatalities per mile for cycling though.

I think how you ride makes a big difference on how safe it is to ride a bike. The Cyclelicous post has links to some information on riding safely. Bicycle Colorado has rules for riding in Colorado.

One thing I won’t do while riding on roads is wear headphones. I really think you need to be able to hear whats going on behind you and sense when a car is getting too close. Another important thing is to ride where people in cars expect you to be. One thing I like to do is ride a foot or two to the left of the edge of the road. That way when a car gets close to me I can move right and get a little extra space. Also I find when traffic is passing too close, wobbling a little bit makes them give extra room. I mainly just move my upper body back and forth and only slightly move the bike.

I’m not a cell phone carrying kind of guy normally but I’ve been taking one at least on my long rides the last few years. In Colorado you are allowed to use the hotline for report aggressive drivers to report drivers while you’re cycling. The important thing is to get the vehicle license plate. In case the worst happens, I wear a ID/medical band from RoadID.

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Hoodoo 500 Race This Weekend

September 15th, 2007

Hoodoo 500Picture from Planet Ultra

The first Hoodoo 500 is going on this weekend. It’s 519 miles in Utah with about 30,000 feet of climbing. When it was first announced, I was thinking of doing it. It’s closer for me than a lot of the ultra road races and there’s some great scenery. Of course I never got in shape this year and it’s all I can do to make it through easy 100 mile rides.

The solo racers without a crew started at 5 AM this morning and racers with a crew started at 7 AM. Teams started at 11 AM. The standings are being updated regularly. The standings page also has links to pictures that are being updated throughout the event.

The course is of the caliber for Race Across America qualifiers. Planet Ultra told me that they had wanted it to be a RAAM qualifier but isn’t because it was scheduled too close to the Furnace Creek 508. The UMCA has a rule stating

The UMCA will sanction one qualifier per section of the country / continent in a given season. No new qualifier will be sanctioned that would take place within approximately 1000 miles and two months of an existing qualifier.

I can understand the rule for all the other RAAM qualifiers. Most of them have 10 or fewer racers but the 508 has reached it’s field limit the few years. I can’t see that the 508 would be affected much by the Hoodoo 500 being a RAAM qualifier.

One thing that the Hoodoo 500 has done different from the RAAM qualfiers is to have a separate category for solo riders without a crew. The only RAAM qualifier that doesn’t DQ somebody for riding during the night without a follow vehicle is the Adirondack 540. It is also this weekend. They don’t have a separate category for riders without crews. When I did it in 2005, I know some riders doing less than the 4 lap RAAM qualifier were doing it without a crew but I think everyone doing the RAAM qualifier had a crew.

Although I think a race like this is doable without a crew, you certainly can’t be as fast without a crew. I also haven’t studied this race well enough to know how much water you’d need to get between places to get water. I know on some courses such as the 508 you would need to carry a lot of water at times.

I know people have mentioned to me that they would like to do something like a RAAM qualifier but either thought they couldn’t get a crew together or couldn’t afford a crew. It is expected that the rider will pay all crew expenses. By the time you pay for a hotel the night before and after the race plus travel expenses, even for a 3 person crew the costs can add up. I think it’s great that Planet Ultra decided to give racers the option of doing it without a crew.

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When to Drink Accelerade

September 13th, 2007

Hammer Nutrition Discount

Kent Peterson, finisher of the Great Divide Race on single speed, wrote a very humorous post about the taste of Accelerade. He came up with when to drink Accelerade.

I did try to come up with a scenario where I’d voluntarily choose to drink Accelerade and I think I’ve come up with it. I imagine a super hot day. I’ve just ridden the Issaquah Alps 100K loop four times without taking a drink. I stagger home, open the fridge and see two bottles. One contains Accelerade and one contains goat urine. In that instance, I would slam down the Accelerade.

My riding is fueled by Perpetuem and HEED from Hammer Nutrition. The Perpetuem has protein in it like Accelerade. I don’t think it tastes bad except when it gets hot. I also sometimes mix HEED in with the Perpetuem to change the flavor. The also have it in an unflavored version.

I have a post from last year that describes how I use the Hammer Nutrition products for different length events. I also wrote about how I used them during the Race Across America last year. If you’ve never ordered from them before, you can get 15% off your first order by following this link. They have a Yahoo group where even the owner will answer questions.

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Help Stop Continental Divide Trail Bike Ban

September 11th, 2007

Colorado mountain bikers may find several of the state’s best trails off-limits if the Forest Service pushes through with a new directive. The agency wants to limit or prohibit bike access on the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), which includes the Monarch Crest, Rabbit Ears Pass, Peaks Trail and many sections of the Colorado Trail. In all, hundreds of miles of Colorado singletrack could be lost if mountain bikers don’t make their voices heard. There is more information on the IMBA website.

IMBA has a simple online form that makes it easy for you to send your opinion to the Forest Service. The deadline for comments is October 12th.

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