Friday Roundup

Quote on the Day

"You visit a website and you try to register and they asked for your birth date," he explains. "So you put in February 29 and a little pop-up appears that says something like 'Please enter a valid birth date' or 'You've entered an invalid birth date.'"

link

Of course the test is correct, it's ISO certified!

News
The CyclingNews writes more of Pat McQuaid's reactions to the stunning rejection the UCI suffered when pro teams were forced to choose between it and the ASO. McQuaid now accuses the ASO of deliberately stirring up trouble and "disharmony" within professional cycling, while the ASO claims that teams and team managers have suffered attempted intimidation from the UCI. Pat McQuaid also claims that the "bio passport" program will not fly this year unless all interested parties pony up their share of the program's costs, and there is some confusion about its implementation in ASO events if the AFLD is forced to manage it due to current political concerns. Stay tuned, this is far from being over.

Eurosport has the rider's group suddenly concerned the UCI might sanction riders who participate in Paris-Nice. That may be McQ's remaining bullet, and it seems poised to go right into what is left of his foot.

The AP is reporting a Judge has ordered that Barry Bond's Grand Jury testimony be made public, but it is not yet released. Expect a feeding frenzy when it arrives. Tip for all young readers: it's best to tell the truth under oath. You promised, it's easier to keep the story straight, and you are less likely to get indicted for perjury.

Having given the old Ford Escape to brother-in-law Max, Landis recently did some test driving of new grocery getters. This was quick, but missing a big-enough basket and a cup-holder. This might work better for trips to the store, but will never win an IHVPA event.
(Photo: D Kohli, at Robbie's Vision Quest Camp)

Blogs
Rant notes that what goes around comes around and the UCI's greed and heavy handedness of the past has come back to haunt them. Pat McQuaid has managed to unite the pro teams as he could have never imagined.

WADA Watch runs down the recent WADA press workshop, with slides of the "Athlete's Passport" system, and pointers to online documents. WW also goes down responses to some pointed questions he'd posed before the event.

Huffpost runs a new article by Gary Gaffney discussing some myths of PEDs, ineffectiveness, and synergetic effectiveness.

[W]e could conclude that scientific studies of the performance enhancing qualities of these metabolic hormones (testosterone, HGH, IGF-1, insulin, HCG, thyroid hormone) remain incomplete, and will never be totally conclusive.

...

Odds say that the PEDs enhance measures of athletic performance thus giving an unfair advantage to the PED abuser; the evidence also indicates these hormones produce potentially dangerous side-effects. These drugs constitute one of the most powerful classes of drugs known to medicine, and not to be entrusted to street dealers, strength coaches, gym rats, juiced outfielders, or mail-order hucksters. Regulation of HGH as a controlled substance seems appropriate. And that's no myth.

Petro-World describes some of the events he experienced this week at Robbie Ventura's Vision Quest camp in California. Floyd Landis was there for some of the festivities and Mark posts some tiny pictures to commemorate it.

Velocity Nation posts a couple of cartoons, one of which previews a "fantasy" congressional hearing involving Michael Ball of Rock Racing. The other features Ryan Seacrest and Dave Z, very zen stuff.

Gwadzilla writes about Floyd Landis' intention to run the NUE MTB series this year.

Racejunkie notes the monumental hypocrisies of Pat McQuaid and his new found " best-friend-of-the-rider" conscience:

...Yes, race organizer ASO and their disgusting employees are evil scumly anti-rider dirtballs who will lose no opportunity to destroy the innocent cyclists and their even more cherubic team managers on the most slender of unsubstantiated unkind doping-related rumors in heinous disregard of the truth, in contrast to UCI of course, which always has the very best interests of the poor riders at heart and has shown them nothing, as their exemplary track record will clearly show, but compassion, kindness, understanding, and, most of all, justice. Um, aren't we talking about the same pack of soulless rider-whoring vicious bitter bastards who left Iban Mayo wallowing on his couch like a slop-stuffed pig over their nasty refusal to accept his unpositive Z sample and bonfired Floyd Landis as the loathesome example of all that is wrong with cycling to every press outlet on earth before the boy even had the chance to get his boxers on the morning the scandal broke? What a sparkling little snowglobe of a fantasyland you live in, Pat "Dick" (McQuaid)!

MixItOnUp has another photo of Landis with a fan. Someone would have happily traded the sharpie for what's in the other's hand.