Saturday Roundup

News
Reuters/Yahoo has Verbruggen "conceding defeat" to the ASO.

“We’re completely isolated and ASO demonstrated the extent of their power in the world of cycling. They had the backing of the French sports minister and the French presidency. It was a lost cause,” Verbruggen said.


He accused ASO of organizing “a privatization of cycling which ignores international regulations in order to create new ones for their own interest.”


“ASO is now a private professional league,” said Verbruggen, a claim ASO has always rejected.

We wonder if this vice-president of the UCI cleared his statements with President Pat McQuaid first.


ESPN features a Reuters peice that reveals Verbruggen likely did NOT talk to Pat McQuaid first as McQuaid says he, and the UCI, are not going away and will fight on:

I've no intention of resigning," the International Cycling Union (UCI) head told Reuters at the track cycling world championships.


There are 169 other national federations in the UCI that want to develop the sport of cycling and who are willing to follow the rules," said McQuaid.


"The teams and riders have decided to go with ASO. We're worried about that but if ASO create another body to manage professional cycling and if sponsors and teams go with them, we'll let them go.

The CyclingNews reports that Alberto Contador is stickin' with Astana.

Blogs
WADAwatch has a rewrite of his open "Amicus" brief to the Landis Appeal Panel. In toto, is an indictment of Mr. Young's work product under his WADA hat:

47. If the Code is incomplete; if the Code as written, is legally biased against Athletes and imbalanced, in favor of not disciplining a Laboratory whose work shows substandard performances, or 'departures', if the precedent hearing was able to conclude that there existed a sufficiency of evidence to penalize Mr Landis simply because the Code contains loopholes that allow egregious Laboratory errors to be ignored, these may be attributable to the one individual who has worn two hats in this case. WADA may be funding this appeal illegitimately, to protect the entire body of work that it has deliberately produced, under this attorney's guidance.

Rant wonders if what we have been seeing in cycling over the recent past is foretelling the apocalypse. Can the four horsemen, or riders, be far behind?

The Fat Guy has 35 days left to get in shape, and consequently is a bit behind in his Landis news. The hearing concluded Monday, and yes the silence is still deafening. The bad news for FG is that based on our experience training last year, he's in trouble.


Velo Vortmax reviews the sad truth of what happens when an athlete is presented with an AAF. The burdens of proof are on the accused, the presumption of guilt is also there, and judicial fairness in a system stacked against the athlete is nonexistent.