Friday Roundup

News
The IHT opines that 2007 was yet another year of doping for cycling, and the Landis/USADA hearing in May was the highlight of the year. In a litany of PED related cases that were thrust into the light in 2007 the IHT ends the piece with a dubious quote from Pat McQuaid:

"I thought that after Landis, Operation Puerto, it could not get worse," UCI president Pat McQuaid said. "In effect, it has got worse."

AP/Yahoo says the Spanish Federation is taking the UCI on regarding Mayo.


The CyclingNews reveals the latest reason for Bjorn Leukemans' positive for testosterone. Leukemans' test result was apparently due to the product Prasteron, which contains the steroid DHEA, and was mistakenly prescribed by a former team Predictor-Lotto doctor. And Iban Mayo is furious about the LNDD positive "B" sample test result which was leaked to the public by L'Equipe:

Mafioso McQuaid

I don't know about all of you, but I've heard enough out of this joker-president of the UCI. Pat McQuaid is certainly more articulate (though rarely making any sense) than his predecessor Verbruggen, but clearly suffers from perhaps even greater incompetence and delusion. He fashions himself to be godfather type holding absolute authority, protecting the "family", attempting to mould a beautiful and richly traditional sport to his own skewed, irrelevant concepts. Recall his less than savoury remarks about the "two cultures" in cycling, the Anglophone versus the Romantic? What the hell does this kind of political conjecture have to do with sport? It was shocking to me to hear such Nazi-esque drivel coming from someone claiming his interest is to unify the world of cycling.


No one cares about the ProTour. It is flawed and it has failed and it is dead. Cycle races such as the grand tours are complicated enough to follow for the casual fan, and difficult enough to manage for the organizers and competing teams without the superfluous mandates conjured up by the politicians at Aigle. Give cycling back to the riders, the federations, and the public that have made this amazing and unique sport the greatest in the world. There's no room for the incredibly misguided agenda of the UCI mafia anymore. The president can talk himself in circles all he likes, however, Pat McQuaid lacks the vision, charisma, or diplomacy to convince anyone of his worth, particularly the most important faction concerned: cycling's fans.

Impeach him.

Thank you!

Adam Simms, California

PezCycling News comments on the three big stores of the past few days: Bjorn Leukemans and his revolving excuses, Iban Mayo and the seemingly endless testing of his "B" sample, and of course Floyd Landis' ban from competing in France until 2009.

Completely off-topic, we are amused by the reported creation of anti-social websites Snubster, Enemybook and Hatebook. How should we characterize our comment stream?

Blogs

Scholars and Rogues thinks the Mitchell report is hopelessly ineffective, and makes a case for legalizing it, with props to Peter Tosh.