Bradley Wiggins, GBR, recent 4th place finisher in the Tour de France, has published all of his blood testing work from the last several years. Info on the exact data can be found at cyclingnews.com and I'm sure other sources as well. Wiggins' values represent a fairly confident conclusion that he is a clean rider. His data from this year's Giro and Tour show naturally occuring changes in the blood values easily and logically attributed to the demands of a tough 3 week Grand Tour, basically, they went down. Wiggins also shows a caluculation of his "Off Score" which shows a relationship with hemoglobin and reticulites.
The following is a direct quote from the cyclingnews.com story.....
- The Off Score was developed as a more robust measure because reticulocytes tend to decrease when haemoglobin is artificially high. The upper limit for the Off Score is 134; Wiggins' haemoglobin, hematocrit, and off score values were 14.93 ± 0.8 g/dl, 44.9 ± 1.9 %, and 89.4 ± 9.4, respectively, well below the cut off parameters that indicate potential artificial performance enhancement.The best indication that Wiggins rode clean is in the fact that his hemoglobin and Off Score values followed the same curve - according to the logic employed in the Off Score, if there was artificial performance enhancement occurring, the end of each curve would point in the opposite direction. - cyclingnews.com -
Given this new data I feel very comfortable that my eyes have not deceived me and indeed the peloton looks a little slower (at least in France) than it has been AND it actually is. I do love that new term, 'cleanish'.
BRAVO BRAD WIGGINS, VIVE LE TOUR
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Whispers about rumors and people on bikes
Ahhh, bike racing. As soon as a major race is over the rumor mill begins to grind away...... Have you heard anything about Wiggins going to Sky? Did you hear that Hincapie and Lance have a new deal? I heard the AFLD may have some trouble on the boil...... Wait, what was that last one? What did you hear? Oh nothing, just whispers about a possible thing about that one guy that's really fast. But you didn't hear it from me. Didn't hear what? Exactly.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Tour wrap - Stage 1 of 2010 Tour was fun
After three weeks full of drama the 2009 Tour feels more like the first stage of next year's race, than an event in and of itself. The internal struggle of the Astana team was of course at the forefront of events, but there were plenty of side stories as well. Here's my lasting impressions:
Lance Armstrong has been great for the sport of cycling. Regardless of what you think of the man, cycling is more important now than ever before and that's largly because of Big Tex.
Alberto Contador may be a great champion but he's still very immature and has much to learn. Look for Lance himself to be dishing out the lessons next July. El Pistolero shot off his mouth and his little toy gun plenty but many of those shots were backfires that we won't know the full affect until next summer.
Garmin and Columbia-HTC and in an all out battle. We saw plenty of fireworks from these two teams throughout France and the rivalry is just beginning. There are many questions surrounding these teams, will Wiggins, Millar and Cavendish all ditch for the Sky team out of Britain? Will Hincapie leave Columbia to go back to Lance and Johann? Will Vaughters really try to sign Alberto Contador into the squad and if so, does that mean the end of Christian Vandevelde's chances as a GC rider?
The Team Time Trial is a critical event. We can see from this year's race that Cadel Evans and Carlos Sastre, without a good TTT, were left adrift with no hope of returning to the front of the GC. Should Contador try to build a team around him ala Lance, he will have a hard time finding the firepower it takes to contend in the TTT and ultimately the Tour. ASO, the Tour organizers, now find themselves in an orchestrating position of deciding two options for two greatly different champions. The 2010 Tour without a TTT will favor Contador, however if ASO brings the TTT in for 2010, look out for Lance and the new Radioshack team to dominate next year's race.
The Tour is as popular as ever. The crowds in France this summer were massive and it made the event even more dramatic. Aside from the transgressions from a couple kids who used a pellet gun to shoot at the peloton, the crowds were largely well behaved.
The pressure of the AFLD and ASO in their fight against performance enhancement, has slowed the Tour to a more human level. This year's Tour looked better than last summer and looked better than the Giro from this spring. Danilo Diluca got busted for EPO in this Giro, what really? You don't say.... Meanwhile I didn't really have to yell at the TV for riders to breath, there was more pain and suffering in this Tour than I've seen in awhile. Quite a bit less robotic racing and that's definitely a good thing.
I'm looking forward to next July already. I am having less withdrawls from this year's Tour while really anticipating next summer. The Tour organizers really put on a great show and the sport seems to me to have stabilized a little. To coin a term I heard recently, bike racing looks fairly 'cleanish' to me right now, at least in France, and I'm more happy because of it.
And what about my picks? Well, not too bad. I hit Contador and Lance dead on in 1st and 3rd, and although I had Andy and Frank Schleck in 4th and 7th, those were two pretty good picks as well. My big surprise, just like everyone else..... Brad Wiggins, wow!! Way to go on that Tour! Congrats!
That's about it for today. VIVE LE TOUR!!
Lance Armstrong has been great for the sport of cycling. Regardless of what you think of the man, cycling is more important now than ever before and that's largly because of Big Tex.
Alberto Contador may be a great champion but he's still very immature and has much to learn. Look for Lance himself to be dishing out the lessons next July. El Pistolero shot off his mouth and his little toy gun plenty but many of those shots were backfires that we won't know the full affect until next summer.
Garmin and Columbia-HTC and in an all out battle. We saw plenty of fireworks from these two teams throughout France and the rivalry is just beginning. There are many questions surrounding these teams, will Wiggins, Millar and Cavendish all ditch for the Sky team out of Britain? Will Hincapie leave Columbia to go back to Lance and Johann? Will Vaughters really try to sign Alberto Contador into the squad and if so, does that mean the end of Christian Vandevelde's chances as a GC rider?
The Team Time Trial is a critical event. We can see from this year's race that Cadel Evans and Carlos Sastre, without a good TTT, were left adrift with no hope of returning to the front of the GC. Should Contador try to build a team around him ala Lance, he will have a hard time finding the firepower it takes to contend in the TTT and ultimately the Tour. ASO, the Tour organizers, now find themselves in an orchestrating position of deciding two options for two greatly different champions. The 2010 Tour without a TTT will favor Contador, however if ASO brings the TTT in for 2010, look out for Lance and the new Radioshack team to dominate next year's race.
The Tour is as popular as ever. The crowds in France this summer were massive and it made the event even more dramatic. Aside from the transgressions from a couple kids who used a pellet gun to shoot at the peloton, the crowds were largely well behaved.
The pressure of the AFLD and ASO in their fight against performance enhancement, has slowed the Tour to a more human level. This year's Tour looked better than last summer and looked better than the Giro from this spring. Danilo Diluca got busted for EPO in this Giro, what really? You don't say.... Meanwhile I didn't really have to yell at the TV for riders to breath, there was more pain and suffering in this Tour than I've seen in awhile. Quite a bit less robotic racing and that's definitely a good thing.
I'm looking forward to next July already. I am having less withdrawls from this year's Tour while really anticipating next summer. The Tour organizers really put on a great show and the sport seems to me to have stabilized a little. To coin a term I heard recently, bike racing looks fairly 'cleanish' to me right now, at least in France, and I'm more happy because of it.
And what about my picks? Well, not too bad. I hit Contador and Lance dead on in 1st and 3rd, and although I had Andy and Frank Schleck in 4th and 7th, those were two pretty good picks as well. My big surprise, just like everyone else..... Brad Wiggins, wow!! Way to go on that Tour! Congrats!
That's about it for today. VIVE LE TOUR!!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Immature Contador isolates himself and puts team at risk
Today's stage saw more spectacular racing in the Tour de France highlighted by Alberto Contador's risky acceleration near the top of the Columbiere climb. Contador instantly dropped his teammate Andreas Kloden and isolated himself against the two Schleck brothers. Although he's the fastest climber in the race, the young Spaniard has plenty to learn about bike racing. This latest transgression is sure to fuel the fires of vengence by next summer when Lance and Kloden look to put Contador in the corner for his mis-behavior.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Max Taam doing well in Wisconsin/Illinois Superweek
Max Taam is still upping his game and looking good, last night 8th place in the Evanston Crit at Superweek. Right in there with the heavies like Sulzberger and Cantwell. Good job Max.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Dave Z. cutting George H. out of Yellow
I know there have been alot of comments about yesterday's stage into Briancon and Hincapie's loss of the yellow jersey by a scant 5 seconds, and, who's fault was it. Hincapie partly blamed Astana, while much of the venting has fell on Garmin. Let's get personal..... I'm with Lance on this one, Astana was setting a false tempo to prevent massive time gains like 15 to 20 minutes, which would certainly make Hincapie nearly as dangerous as Pereiro a couple years ago. When the gap went out to 8 minutes AG2R took over, and when they flailed is was indeed Garmin drove to the finish. And to be exact, it was Dave Zabriskie, front and center, driving it like a mad man. Now you can call that protecting Wiggins or whatever, NOT. Dave Z. was not on the wing, in the wind protecting Wiggins, he was at the top of the arrow head, down low, giving it all he had. Now that's personal. And it cost Hincapie yellow.
Another side of the story: Hincapie certainly knows how to cry and complain and look around for help from the others in the group. Whether it's L'enfer du Nord or Le Grand Boucle, Hincapie can be seen looking around and gesticulating, and for all his complaining, he could have saved those 5 seconds himself.
Another side of the story: Hincapie certainly knows how to cry and complain and look around for help from the others in the group. Whether it's L'enfer du Nord or Le Grand Boucle, Hincapie can be seen looking around and gesticulating, and for all his complaining, he could have saved those 5 seconds himself.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tomorrow starts the Tour for reals
Andorra - Arcallis. The last time the Tour finished on this HC climb, the youthful Jan Ullrich rocketed away from all of his rivals to win solo and signal the start of a new era. Tomorrow starts the Tour for real and by the end of the day we'll have a pretty good idea who will finish in the top ten in Paris. In the meantime, Bradley Wiggins of the Garmin Slipstream team, has posted that he heard some news tonight that will shock the cycing world when the press gets ahold of the news. Uh Oh, looks like all the favorites might not even get to start. Get up early tomorrow folks and check your news, there may be some crap in there.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
2 picks destroyed, Menchov and Pellizotti left their form in Italy
So much for the big talk and dreams from two of the Giro podium finishers a month ago, Denis Menchov and Franco Pellizotti were both shattered yesterday in the opening time trial. Menchov in 53rd and Pellizotti in 61st and both lost so much time that it will take an amazing team situation to put either back in contention. So much for overall Giro contenders doing well in France this July. On the other hand, Astana looks unbeatable with 4 riders in the top ten and a plethora of tactical choices at their disposal. Looks to me like it will be impossible for another team to win the overall, and by the way, look for Astana to take the team comp as well. Bruyneel could use all the props he can get by the end of July, he'll need the publicity now in order to secure the best situation for him and his team in the off season.
Friday, July 3, 2009
TOUR PICKS
TDF top 10 unless someone from this group gets popped or hurt in the next 12 hours.
1. Alberto Contador, Astana
2. Cadel Evans, Silence Lotto
3. Lance Armstrong, Astana
4. Andy Schleck, Saxo Bank
5. Carlos Sastre, Cervelo Test Team
6. Denis Menchov, Rabobank
7. Frank Schleck, Saxo Bank
8. Franco Pellizotti, Liquigas
9. Levi Leipheimer, Astana
10. Roman Krueziger, Liquigas
Side notes: Lance takes the opening TT and the jersey to get a good publicity splash right off the bat. Contador will be clearly the strongest rider, not only on Astana, but in the whole race. Thus, Lance will stay close in case Alberto suffers or crashes out while Kloden and Levi do the bulk of the pacing. Evans will remain a very solid rider that lacks the panache to win. Saxo's powerful brothers Andy and Frank will come up just short. Carlos Sastre, the defending champion, will not have the benefit of such a strong team as he did last year but will make the top 5 in his second GT in a row.
1. Alberto Contador, Astana
2. Cadel Evans, Silence Lotto
3. Lance Armstrong, Astana
4. Andy Schleck, Saxo Bank
5. Carlos Sastre, Cervelo Test Team
6. Denis Menchov, Rabobank
7. Frank Schleck, Saxo Bank
8. Franco Pellizotti, Liquigas
9. Levi Leipheimer, Astana
10. Roman Krueziger, Liquigas
Side notes: Lance takes the opening TT and the jersey to get a good publicity splash right off the bat. Contador will be clearly the strongest rider, not only on Astana, but in the whole race. Thus, Lance will stay close in case Alberto suffers or crashes out while Kloden and Levi do the bulk of the pacing. Evans will remain a very solid rider that lacks the panache to win. Saxo's powerful brothers Andy and Frank will come up just short. Carlos Sastre, the defending champion, will not have the benefit of such a strong team as he did last year but will make the top 5 in his second GT in a row.
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