Wednesday Roundup
News
The CyclingNews notes the continued "freezing out" of Astana, with RCS shunning the squad this week:ProTour team Astana has been dealt another blow with major cycling race organizer RCS Sport not inviting the squad to this year's Tirreno-Adriatico or Milano-Sanremo, according to HLN.be. The news comes exactly one week after fellow major cycling race organizer ASO, which operates the Tour de France, announced the Johan Bruyneel-led squad wouldn't be invited to any of its races in 2008.
The VeloNews also reports on the exclusion of Astana by the Giro's RCS, which did invite Team High Road, giving some credence to the theory that more is involved in these decisions than just a history of doping within the squads.
Floyd Landis makes The San Francisco Chronicle's entertainment column with the following item:
There was a big dinner in Sausalito on Friday night, catered by McCall's, for the Tour of California, which started on Monday. Many guests were champion cyclists from Europe, easily recognized and celebrated, but it was Robin Williams who warmly greeted one who wasn't formally introduced: Floyd Landis, the cyclist whose Tour de France title was revoked and who was barred from the sport for two years after testing positive for synthetic testosterone. Landis was standing off by himself, a spy tells me, when Williams, after performing onstage, passed right by him. Landis tapped him on the shoulder and Williams turned and recognized him, the two pausing for an affectionate hug.
The Boulder Report's Joe Lindsey writes a nice profile of former Landis Postal teammate and Girona flat-mate Dave Zabriskie. We hear Dave is still using "Casa Floyd".
Blogs
Free Rolling, who had a "Landis in Palo Alto" story with a narrow perspective, didn't like the attention it brought, and has taken it down. He also explains some things you can learn from people clicking into your blog. This saves us the trouble of investigating what may or may not have happened on Saturday, an experience we were afraid was going to go all Rashoman on us. We've got enough of that as it is.
The Arena feels Floyd Landis is either the victim of an unlikely conspiracy, or a bigger liar than Nixon.
Forums
Beermapping hosted a thread on "most loved and hated blogs" and someone out there, calling him/herself Faro, likes us.
3 comments:
AP is reporting that UCI "may" sue ASO over the exclusion of Astana. UCI's Idle Threat.
These are the fruits of UCI putting off till tomorrow what they should have done today (last year), wrt Uninbet & Astana.
ASO broke the ProTour/UCI last year when Unibet wasn’t allowed to ride in many ProTour races. McQuaid/UCI are doing a great deal of hand wringing, posturing, and threatening, but not much else. ASO has the upper hand. The riders hold the keys, if they can effectively organize. Odd, UCI/riders are all of a sudden not at cross purposes. Very odd indeed.
Not so odd, really, just a natural consequence of a 3 way power struggle. Unless all 3 sides agree about any particular issue, you will always get a 2-1 split.
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