TightyRighty.net

Yesterday (12/22), I hit 10,000 miles ridden for 2010.  What a year of ups and downs on the bike!

• 10,023 feet climbed from the ocean to the top of Mt. Haleakala on Maui
• 4 crashes
• 8th in the Hotter’n Hell Hundred
• 2 separated shoulders
• 17 rides over 100 miles
• 1 cracked frame (thankfully, warranty replaced by Planet X USA)
• 229 rides averaging 43.8 miles at 18.7 mph
• Permanent “road rash” on my leg and back

What an amazing year this has been for cycling!  This has been the best/worst year of my life.

I don’t usually like to toot my own horn, but after this past week, I will.

Last Sunday I rode around West Maui – 60 miles of up and down on roads carved into the  side of mountains – about 4000 feet of climbing.  I’ve done it before, but it was fun to do again.  Here are a couple of pics to show what it is like on the back side of West Maui.

This is “the Wall”.  18% grade.  When I looked down at my computer, I was moving at 5.2 mph.

This is typical of the back side of West Maui:

Monday, I did a loosen-up ride of 31 up the west coast of Maui.  Relatively flat – felt good.

Tuesday, the third time was a charm.  4 hours and 26 minutes to climb from the beach to the top of Mt. Haleakala – 10, 023 feet in 38 miles.  What a butt kicker!!

It took 1 hour and 25 minutes to come down and I could have easily shaved 15 minutes off that if I hadn’t had to slow down so often for car traffic.

I took Wednesday off to do a snorkel trip with my lovely and vivacious wife Jenny and Thursday I rode 60 around West Maui again.  Once we arrived back in Dallas Friday, I did another 30 mile loosen-up ride before heading to Wichita Falls for the Hotter ‘N Hell 100.

The Hotter ‘N Hell 100 – what a gas!  I took 8th place in the Cat 4 100 mile race (3rd in the field sprint)!!  Did I feel great!

Overall, it added up to 359 miles, 230 of which were spent in tropical Hawaii with my lovely wife Jenny.  Throw in the successful ascent of Haleakala and an 8th in the HHH – what could be better!

That’s what I screamed (to myself, at least) during the famous/imfamous Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France when Floyd took back most of the time he lost the prior day and reinjected himself back into the GC hunt.

I am screaming the same thing now that Floyd has taken his case out of the bailiwick of the USADA and CAS (where conviction is more important than the truth and the rules are changed/made up on the fly) and into the US Federal Court system (where evidence and procedure do matter).

Apparently, Floyd can’t race after his suspension expires (January) until he pays the punitive $100K that CAS levied upon him.  After being screwed the way he has, I would not be inclined to pay either.

That’s why I say – Go Floyd Go!!

ps.  Let me be clear, I do not know if Floyd doped or not.  I would like to think he did not.  However, it is very clear to me that his guilt was never proven – just assumed.  A system where the athlete is presumed guilty unless they can prove themselves innocent should be an anathema to any US citizen.  It is very difficult to prove a negative (I didn’t do it) as is evidenced by the USADA’s 95%+ record vs atheletes.

Floyd Landis has lost his arbitration hearing and been found guilty of doping. I would, in particular, direct you to the very interesting analysis done at Trust but Verify. Check out the “Our Appeal Brief” and Hue’s Review. Excellent reading!!

A read of the arbitrators opinion and dissenting opinion is very instructive. Significant mental and chemical gymnastics were exercised to find for the prosecution. In particular, the comment that “in the future an error like this could result in the dismissal of an AAF finding by the Lab” is unbelieveable. If this is so, why not in the Floyd Landis case NOW??

Therein lies the rub.

This case is no longer about Floyd Landis, but rather the future of anti-doping (in cycling in particular) in sport. If you can’t trust the labs, who can you trust? If there is no standard (and LNDD apparently can’t meet the standard because they don’t have the manual), how do you know if a positive is a positive? Ask Iban Mayo. (On a side note, who compensates him for the 62 days he was on unpaid absence after the LNDD screwed up his A sample??)

I am glad that Floyd is appealing. I think I will make another contribution to the Floyd Fairness Fund. Floyd’s effort is what is required to clean up the anti-dopers tactics.

Please don’t misread my point here. I am very firmly against doping in sports. If I caught my kids doping, they would be out of sports for a very long time. However, the “catch the dopers at all costs, and if we have a few false positives, that is the price of cleaning up the sport” mentality is just wrong – particularly if you are one of the false positives. The anti-doping agencies must be held to the same standard as the athletes themselves. Only then can the sport truly be cleaned up.

Bonnie D at ESPN is reporting the the Floyd Landis affair arbitration panel will meet this month with their WADA approved technical expert, and will then close the hearing. The rules provide for 10 days to issue their ruling after the hearing is closed.

Is this really going to happen? Who knows?

This whole affair has been a colossul mess and I think it could shake the foundations of athletic drug testing. If the arbs make the correct decision and rule the evidence was either tainted or did not prove Floyd’s guilt, where does that leave the drug testing process going forward? If we can’t trust the drug testing labs to do their work correctly, how do we know who is really juicing and who is not?

What a mess!

CyclingNews.com (a daily must read site) is reporting that the USADA will report its verdict on the Floyd Landis matter tomorrow, the eve of the start of the 2007 Tour de France. After following the hearing very closely on Trust but Verify (another daily must read site), and having read Floyd’s book, I am inclined to believe he is not guilty. I am certain that the evidence presented against him was so flawed and rife with errors, both procedural and mechanical, that no jury would have found him guilty under the US standard of law.

Unfortunatly, the USADA and its international parent, WADA, operate under a different set of rules where successful prosecutions are all that matter. False positives are not an issue, if you bring down a big enough fish.

As a result, I think that Floyd will probably be found to have doped. I hope he is not. If he is not, I fear that the WADA, in its endless search for scalps, will appeal to the CAS, and prolong this debacle further, and totally drain whatever cash Floyd may have left.

What a mess!!

That’s how Floyd Landis signed an open letter to Phonak on his blog at his website.  A very classy letter which can be found here.  I hope he is being truthful and is eventually exonerated and declared the true champion.

In the interim, we have name calling, conviction in the press, uncertainty, etc.  Overall it is a very bad situation.  Does it have to be like this?  Why do the UCI, WADA an the Tour itself feel the need to be so outfront in convicting Floyd before he has been tried by USADA?  For Dick Pound to state that Floyd should come clean and give up the “enablers” certainly presumes guilt doesn’t it?  I think I can see why Lance has issues with Dick Pound.

What I find so unfortunate is the desire of the UCI and WADA to prove they are cleaning up cycling by so much bluster and bravado, that they are bringing unneccessary negativity to the sport. I would guess there is no other sport which tests as much and has such harsh penalties as cycling.  However, with all the hoopla whenever there is the slightest whiff of doping, it makes the sport appear to be comprised of all dopers.  I don’t know how Operacion Puerto is going to end, but are you aware that all the Comunidad Valenciana and Worth Astana (now Astana) riders originally implicated have now been cleared by the Spanish authorities? 

These two teams were barred from the Tour because of Operacion Puerto.  Comunidad Valenciana and Worth have since backed out of sponsorship, and the Phonak team is disbanding after this year.  Can this be good for cycling?  I think not!

I do think what is needed is a little more rational action and due process, rather than running around like Chicken Little screaming “The sky is falling.”  There may be a meteor or a piece of Skylab falling, but certainly not the whole sky.  It is time the leaders of these organizations take some responsiblity and lead with credibility and not bluster.

Those are my thoughts – where do you stand on this issue?

With yesterday’s confirmation of the adverse finding in Floyd Landis’ B sample, Floyd was fired by Phonak and the matter truned over to USA Cycling for disciplinary actions.

Floyd continues to protest his innocence and will appeal, which will leave the winner of the 2006 Tour in limbo for likely 4-6 months.

So what are you and I, Joe cycling fan, to think?  I would like to believe Floyd is innocent and that he is the true champion of the Tour.  In an article about Lance in today’s DMN, it was said that Floyd was livid in the 2004 Tour because some riders were doping.  This would be consistent with Floyd’s claim of innocence.  However, at the time he was not a team captain, and was not under the pressure that GC men in the Tour are under.

That same article mentioned steps Lance and Greg LeMond took to protect themselves from being sabotaged with tainted food or waterbottles.  Perhaps someone snuck in a tainted roll or waterbottle in order to cause Floyd to fail the drug test.  Given that exogenous testosterone was reportedly found, this could be possible.

On the flip side, “me thinks thou dost protest too much”.  I think that Floyd has been fairly straight forward with his comments, but his legal team and spokespeople have thrown out every excuse, challenged the accuracy of every test, etc.  Sounds a little like Jan Ullrich, although, again, it is Floyd’s representatives and not Floyd making the comments.

So where do we go from here.  I think the Floyd has a long uphill battle to “prove a negative”.  If he is clean, I hope he is successful.  If he is guilty, I hope he comes clean.  Only time will tell.

Those are my thoughts – where do you stand on this issue?

The latest news from France is that recently crowned TdF champ Floyd Landis’ blood tests after last Thursday’s Stage 17 reflected an adverse finding related to testosterone.  His B sample will be tested within the next week or so to confirm this finding.  Floyd has denied taking testosterone and asked his B sample be tested.

From what I can gather, there is a high degree of variability in naturally occuring testosterone levels, and a number of riders who failed their drug test because of elevated testerone levels have proven it is a naturally occuring phenomena, and had these failed test results thrown out.  Floyd has apparently retained the services of a Spanish doctor (NOT Dr. Fuentes of Operacion Puerto fame) to assist with his case. 

I hope he is cleared in this matter.  It would be highly disturbing (and very dumb) for a contender in the Tour to risk being caught taking banned substances – all stage winners are tested and Floyd planned to win the stage.  Particularly after we all marvelled at the effort Floyd made in Stage 17 on that epic day.  It would be a real bummer to know that this never say die, come from behind effort was chemically aided.

Unfortunately, this is potentially another black eye on our sport.  If he is determined to have doped, he should be stripped of his title and banned from the sport for a couple of years.  Fortunately, this will happen if he can’t clear himself since cycling takes a very hard line on doping, which is more than can be said about most other sports.

But whether he is cleared or not, cycling needs to take a hard look at its testing procedures.  As noted above, a number of cyclists have proven false positives with respect to testosterone testing.  This test needs to be fixed or discarded.

We’ll all be watching very closely, and my guess is that the B sample will return positive, then Floyd will then undergo some endocrinological testing which shows his adverse testosterone levels were naturally occuring and he did not dope.  He will then retain the title of TdF champion.  However, there will probably be some lengthy amount of time to do this add’l testing which will leave Oscar Pereiro and the TdF champion in limbo, which is a bad thing and is bad for cycling.

Those are my thoughts – where do you stand on this issue?

For many years (at least since I started cycling), Preston road and SR1461 in Prosper have been great roads to ride a bicycle on.  I can remember riding from my house in Richardson south on Greenville to Walnut Hill then west to Preston then north 30 miles up the 2 lane road thru Frisco all the way to CR 134 north of Celina.  What a great road that was – low traffic, good shoulder, great surface, etc.

That all ended Wednesday when the Collin County resurfaced Preston road north of SR1461 with chip seal (tar and gravel/rock).  Not the pea gravel chip seal which is rideable after a couple of weeks of being driven on by cars.  This is the nickel-sized chip seal which “chips” off easily due to its size and leaves a hole which makes it easier for the next rock over to chip off and leave a bigger hole.  Just check out FM455 east of Celina if you want to understand what I am saying.  That surface is unrideable on a road bike.

Based on the piles of rock I see on the side of SR1461, I assume they are also going to resurface SR1461 east of Preston road.  What a waste of good roads.  Both Preston and SR1461 are asphalt roads with good surfaces.  There are minimal cracks on these roads and there is relatively little deformation of these roads due to the ground shifting.  I don’t think that chip seal would address that problem anyway.  I should know since I (used to) spend a lot of time riding these roads.

Unfortunately, this is just a continuing trend in NW Collin County.  FM455 east of Preston was resurfaced with chip seal 2 years ago and has been unrideable since.  2478 (Custer road) north of 380 and FM455 west of Preston to the Denton county line were both resurfaced last summer and are still very rough roads.  The Collin Classic charity bike rally had to move their course east of Central Expy because these roads were so rough it negatively impacted particpation.  I know I did not ride the rally because of the roads it traversed.

As a result of resurfacing Preston, I expect bike traffic in our corner to the county to reduce to -0-.  Perhaps there will be one rider if I decide to put some fatter tires on my Santa Cruz and go out and punish myself.  Maybe I will fantasize I am riding the cobbles thru the Arenberg forest in Paris-Roubaix.  I wonder if E.L. Marks will have lower sales at Bobcat Kuntry, a favorite stopping point for the PBA Saturday morning ride?

Clearly, this is the end of the era of good cycling in NW Collin County.  This presents cyclists with a Hobson’s choice – do I get in my car and drive to a place where I can ride well surfaced open roads, or do I stay in town and risk life and limb to share good roads with automobiles.  My guess is that more cyclists will choose to stay in town on the good roads, which will only create more opportunities for conflicts with cars and their drivers.  Don’t blame us cyclists, we have been forced into this position by our state and local governments – by our tax dollars at work.

Those are my thoughts – where do you stand on this issue?