Friday Roundup

Quote of the day

You are stopped whilst driving, given a breathalizer test, it shows a blood alcohol above the legal limit . . . yet you know that you have not had anything to drink. Would you (1) challenge the functioning of the breathalizer unit or the competency of the person adminstering the test or (2) say, "Gee, I don't want to undermine the credibility of the breathalizer test because as a society we sure want to rid our streets of drunk drivers, therefore I will simply be quiet and take whatever punishment is meted out." (link)

Optimism remains, but pissed at process, says Rant your head off, also with comment from me.

Letters to CyclingNews remind us of Diane Modahl, who eventually proved sample mishandling and got off; Agreement that it might have been natural; How can you judge Floyd's character when you don't know him?; What else can Pound/WADA do, really?

Perdiguero leads Phonak at Vuelta, team packed with Swiss to get exposure in the team's last grand tour.

Excellent review at the UK Sports Journalist's Association, a source I will mine further.
It includes the single best explanation and history of the T/E test I have yet seen.

Speaking of Diane Modahl...

Case finally dropped, report in NYT
She doesn't get to sue the Federation for damages, say the Lords.
Used as a Case study, note the panic in practice press conferences.

Problems at WADA will ‘drive innocent athletes out of sport’, says report in Feb 06 citing Modahl case. Full report buried in this magazine [pdf].

Floyd did take an IV, according to links in this discussion on DP forums, and in BikeForums on Aug 8, from this LA Times article. There are observations that this contradicts statements he made at a press conference that he didn't take one. A defender points out in BikeForum that if he had the IV in the afternoon right after the stage, it wasn't "that night" as asked in the question in the press conference. Yikes, that's the kind of nuance that drives some people crazy.

Petition pointed to by daily peloton forums, and on Bicycling forum.

Another Phonak related scandal -- points to the mother company!

Finally, the Bicycling Magazine had one more article that I didn't mention in yesterday's roundup. By Bill Strickland, "And it Breaks my Heart" is subtitled "Our cycling generation's greatest racing moment was stolen from us." He discusses Eddy Merckx' legendary attack in 1969 as the definitive moment for a generation of cyclists, and how our equivalent has been emotionally stolen from us.

Ain't it the truth, Bro.

Amen.

[ updated Sat 10:00 AM ]