Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Tuesday Roundup

News
AP/Graham Dunbar previews the Landis Appeal hearing, starting next Weds, March 19th in NY, and running over both sides of the Easter weekend. Joy for all involved, we're sure. It's going to be closed-door, so don't expect live blogging, or daily reports unless people are feeling talkative at the end of each day. It is angling to be a much drier affair than the hearing in Malibu.

The VeloNews Mailbag covers topics ranging from the opinion that Pat McQuaid just doesn't get it, to one respondent who feels it's the riders are traitors. Go figure.

The CyclingNews'
last update from yesterday has Pat McQuaid feeling "benevolent" as he relents on a threatened appeal of Jorge Jaksche's one year ban:

"UCI boss Pat McQuaid called me on the weekend and personally told me of the decision," Jaksche, 33, told the German press agency sid. "A stone fell from my heart. Now the hard times are finally over, I can start making plans again."

He added that a cooperative witness like himself "no longer needs to pay for his openness. They have finally realised that doping is an octopus with many arms. It is a system which is carried out by team managers, soigneurs, doctors and athletes." He said that he assumed that now the UCI would take actions against those he named in his confession.

In more recent CyclingNews it appears that thus far the UCI is holding its cards very close to its vest as no sign has been given as to what actions it might seek against riders who are participatiing in Paris-Nice. We hold our collective breath.

Blogs
Sara Best wonders what may of us have wondered over the past year and a half, where would Floyd Landis be now IF he had rolled over and done what he was told?

WADAwatch points to blind spots In L'Equipe regarding substantive discussion of the non-UCI motives in the current disputes. No coincidence that L'Equipe it is owned by the very same ASO that is one of the antagonists. He also points us to an old piece wherein he finds himself introduced to Damien Ressiot.

Racejunkie covers subjects from the defiance of the UCI by its riders to being sure you don't trade your valuable, and rather ironic, equipment to a street pusher for drugs. Sturm und Drang indeed. She's also continuing her windmill tilting over her fave:
[W]here the hell is Iban Mayo's CAS ruling on how completely grotesquely the vindictive cornered rabid snarling raccoons at UCI have chewed him to pieces by ignoring their own rules on B-sample results, I mean, on his perfectly objectively fact-driven prosecution goddammit?

Caught on the Run
has borrowed a Cycleops PowerTap 2.4 for two weeks and plans on making good use of it in his training.

A Tad Askew posts what feels like an ancient quote from Floyd Landis. Was life ever really this amusingly simple?:
While eating lunch today, I was reminded of a funny story regarding Floyd Landis and his reaction to someone saying a rider always gave 110%. His reaction was "Why stop there? If you can go over 100%, why not give 100,000% or 1,000,000%? Why stop at 100?"

5 comments:

ms said...

i am sorry but Jaksche is wrong. doping is much more like a jellyfish than an octopus. Jellyfish.

bobble said...

While Patty McQ is reloading his mouth, let's kick around the realistic possibilities available...

"Teams were threatened with the suspension of their UCI registration" A definite possibilty and probably easy to do from the UCI bat cave. I'm curious what the practical difference is from having their licenses suspended?

"a fine of up to 10,000 Swiss francs" No doubt that's coming and it's probably the first salvo but what is that, like $100USD?

"withdrawal of the UCI ProTour licence or Wild Card label" Again, probably easy to do procedurally but might also bring on lawsuits from the teams looking for their ~$150,000 license fees back for the privelege. Either the UCI gives back roughly $3mil to the teams or they spend a big chunk of the operating budget on litigation.

If PM really took away all those ProTour licenses, who would realisitically be left to race? Wouldn't they have to scramble to promote a bunch of continental teams? I don't actually know so someone who's been following pro cycling for longer than I have help me out there.

I'm sure the other race organizers who are working with the UCI would be REAL happy about having a bunch AAA minor leaguers show up at their races.

Random thoughts, your mileage may vary...

bobble said...

Oops s/privelege/privilege

Dangit that's going to bug me now.

Larry said...

Beeble, it's pretty close to $1 per Swiss Franc these days.

UCI has to be very careful here, because if they start tossing teams and riders out of the Pro Tour, they're going to be messing with their primary source of revenue. Expect that UCI will continue their "divide and conquer" tactics: attack the ASO but not the organizers of the other Grand Tours, attack the President of the AIGCP but not the teams themselves, attack the French but not the other countries at the heart of pro cycling.

TiGirl said...

So, does anybody remember this?

http://www.velonews.com/article/9602/landis-triumphs-at-parisnice

It seems like a lifetime ago....

But gotta love those HOT legs! Show us what you got at the NUE series this year, Floyd!

(and may your vindication begin at the CAS hearings next week.)

Aloha,
Kate