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I think the same thing every time I see the pajama brigade at the top of the leader board-- It was nice to see Cance take the prologue ahead of Kloden, but then again its probably one doper against the other.
REUTERS LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Swiss Fabian Cancellara of the
CSC team won the 7.9-km prologue of the Tour de France round the
streets of London on Saturday.
...for some reason I expected that this week was going to be the darkest week in cycling ... maybe tomorrow during the prologue...?
check out "competitors radio show," there's a 2-part (2-hours in total) interview with David Walsh
http://www.competitorradio.com/details.php?show=150
More Quantum Leaps in Commodities?
JOHANNESBURG (Business Day) -- Classic Business Day gets Jim Rogers - co-founder of the Quantum Fund with George Soros - on the line from the U.S. about the next leg in the commodities boom.
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=33524
from Andy's blog:
Event Risk Oil: With crude getting near to prices seen last summer, I think it's time to do a Seinfeld and state the obvious: there's a strong risk that it could go higher, much higher. Russia, Venezuela, Iran, and Iraq are driving the production process and all are not producing as much as they could. Both Russia and Venezuela are taking control of their energy resources from big oil and chilling investment in production. From 1999, Venezuelan production is down 25% after Chavez took over.
With Mexico bleeding Pemex and not allowing foreign participation, all five countries mean oil is subject to lack of political will to get the stuff out of ground to sell it. I don't want to sound to Cassandra-ish, but this is hurricane season and we will likely get a least 1 or 2 that will be headed to the Gulf of Mexico. This means rigs and pipelines will be impacted. This means the market will anticipate damage if it's not doing it already. This means it's likely crude oil will see $85 to $100 a barrel with just a hurricane warning for the Gulf.
http://www.bmocm.com/publications/fxcom/busch/
Taking into account that I'm the "average joe," my wife and I watch the O'Reilly Factor nightly, sometimes, depending on the guests, I'll watch Hannity and Colmes. Normally, I never watch Greta ... that said, since this wrestling story broke, I've been watching all three programs (and sometimes checking into CNN) looking for little nuggets of insight.
Yeah, a ratings winner.
What I'm really curious about is the role of the medical occupation in all of this, and its ethical responsibilities. How many Hollywood Doctors are there that will hand out prescriptions for anything the heart desires, from testosterone to methadon? I've read that Michael Moore's new movie "Sicko" is cleaning up at the box office-- I think the public is in a mood for this.
...and I wouldn't be surprised to see the wrestling story turn into a cycling story going into the TdF.
Imagine this for a second, David Walsh on a book tour in the US, on cable news, and a split screen debate between Walsh and Landis...?
I'd watch that...
the deafening silence from the VS network...
Unfortunately you're right-- they'll be mum on the subject.
That said, because of what happened last week in wrestling-- it would be in everyone's interest if doping did become the number one topic. IMO, glossing quickly over the issue, the average viewer isn't stupid, they'll smell the obfuscation and tune out, by being open and honest, they'll have more viewers, not less.
We're all interested in the truth.
very funny, thanks.
That's a serious piece of news-- Astana may be new but they aren't fly-by-night. From what I've read they have a $16 million budget in 2007 which puts them just behind T-Mobile ($20 million) and just ahead of Rabobank ($14 million).
-- Jorg Jaschke, good, and it's before the start of the tour.
Too bad Tyler Hamilton doesn't do the same here-- his career is over (old age?) and he's already sealed his legacy as a doper. Why not come clean...?
The "Men in Black" could very well be the group from Caisses d’Epargne-- Astana was fingered by the press because of an earlier interview with Vino where he stated that he and his teammates where to fade from the public eye and train in private until the beginning of the tour, which isn't suspicious to me considering the attention pro athletes receive, regardless the sport.
That said, "Oil for Drugs" and "Non-Negatives" are the words of the day-- anyone under suspicion will be whacked before Operation Puerto becomes the center stage (during the TdF prologue?).
-- the political manuevering in pursuit of racing advantage
yeah... Earlier I stated that if I were trying to race in that mess, I'd take a pass of the TdF ... now I'm thinking it might be interesting enough to be in the middle of it all to have of my own book to peddle, just like Flandis who was on Fox News (Hannity and Colms) the other night doing promo. I suspect we'll see him there again, soon, when OP is in full bloom.
...and unfortunately, you’re right-- this year's tour winner will be won because of politics, odds are the best man for the race will be sitting this one out in a jail cell.
Anyway, I've got to retape the handlebars on my crapper RB-- it's the bike I prefer riding in the rain, and it has been raining on and off around here for what seems like an eternity.
I only agree with the very last sentence. Klöden wasn't out on that "Men in Black" trading ride, he was racing the Tour de Suisse. As for Matthias Kessler, that sample was taken in a surprise doping control on April 24 in Charleroi.
April 24...???
I took awhile for the results, no?
Backlogged?
Just thinking about how busy the labs must be analyzing all the material from Operation Puerto going into the ultimate deadline for the TdF. I haven't seen the exclusion list yet, will it also included the irregularities found in the Giro, will it knock out half the riders in the peloton...?
Will they publish the results during the prologue in England...?
Were getting damned close to the tour-- 10-days?
If I were a pro cyclist, I would not want to be involved in this circus. I would take a pass.
...and who's getting caught today...?
Kessler suspended by Astana
Astana's Matthias Kessler has returned an adverse analytical finding for testosterone, according to a team press release issued today. The sample was taken in a surprise doping control on April 24 in Charleroi, Belgium prior to La Flèche Wallonne. Kessler finished fourth in the race.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/jun07/jun28news
...and if three books in one go isn't enough, here's something even more frightening:
...and another jit for the TdF
...and a new edition of this classic, and jit for the TdF
CSC reaffirms sponsorship plans
http://velonews.com/news/fea/12447.0.html
------------------------
I found this part of the NR interesting:
"An important factor in our decision is Team CSC's groundbreaking anti-doping program, which has become a model for clean sports in general. Bjarne has been instrumental in establishing the program, and we believe his continued leadership in Team CSC and the sport is critical to ongoing efforts to clean up cycling. Indeed, we strongly encourage all of the ProTour teams to implement anti-doping programs similar to the one in place at Team CSC."
Could the Z-man actually be maturing "naturally," or do we have the fox guarding the hen house?
Anyway, I see there's a new Walsh book, this time in English-- just in time for the TdF.
I haven't heard anything more-- nothing to add ... that said, I keep hearing that the raids were more of a political nature than one based on facts. Also, there's so much conflicting news being reported that I'm not sure what to believe anymore.
-- from the cyclingheroes column:
Van Hooydonck retired in 1996 when he was only 30 years old and said the reason was he wasn't able to win anymore because he could not keep up with his rivals who took epo. "When I think about all those beautiful victories that were snapped away from me I get really angry," Van Hooydonck said. "But I did not continue with a profession were one is surrounded by people who know more about medicines as many pharmacists do."
-- kinda got me thinking about the way Astana dominates the TT, and seeing a specialist like Zabriskie destined to finish one step behind.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/jun07/dauphinelibere07/?id=results/dauphinelibere073
I'd like to think that Zabriskie is clean, but then he rides for Riis... <sigh>
It's certainly an odd name-- maybe the paper trail leads back to Ollie North...?
<vbg>
Anyway, the odds of Valverdi starting the TdF are getting smaller by the day-- it'll be like Basso, he'll claim innocence up the point where he's forced into DNA testing, then he'll quit for the sake of the team.
Podium Cafe has a new poll...
http://www.podiumcafe.com/
The Human Scale Giro? How confident are you that doping played no role in the outcome of this year's Giro d'Italia?
Completely confident 1 vote - 3 %
Not certain, but feeling good 12 votes - 38 %
Giving the benefit of the doubt 6 votes - 19 %
Uncertain, and wondering 3 votes - 9 %
Suspicious 3 votes - 9 %
It was a sham, as usual! 2 votes - 6 %
Totally agnostic 4 votes - 12 %
-- out of the 31 votes, without being too cynical, only 5 were, IMO, being realistic...and I say that because of the inevitable publication of the 100 or so names in the OP investigation.
I hope (like the others) that Di Luca is clean and that his secret trips to the mountains in South America where he claims to do training at altitude are on the up and up and not some fabricated way of avoiding dope screening in the off-season.
"After all, only the most blind-loyal, hard-core Armstrong fans think he didn't dope."
...just finished reading an article in VN about Hamilton-- the team director from Toyota-United guesstimated that 90% of the peloton "don't believe," but the public at large who aren't close to the sport "believe."
All Armstrong needs is the public-- us diehards on these boards don't mean much.
Accordingly, the only side-effect Riis detected while he doped was more speed ... which would indicate a moral dilemma for his GC leaders, namely, Hamilton and Basso as they were pressured to perform.
...so I would have to agree with TdF organizers about pulling the plug on Riis, if anything they should pull the plug on the entire team, odds are his GC leader is doped like all the others.
http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/12336.0.html
The biggest loser, yes, but not on a personally level-- he will not confess. The confession would be a disaster for cancer survivors when someone realises that his cancer was probably due to his own PED abuses.
The big loser is the team, Bruyneel need sponsorship, and I doubt that they'll get anything as good as they had.
I think they'll continue racing, but on a much smaller scale.
...Riis, I agree-- show this freak of nature the door.
...as the investigation evolves, time and time again we've seen that doping starts at the top with management and not at the rider level as one would be led to believe.
...as for Zabel and his "I only did once and didn't like the side-effects," so what he actually said was that if the side-effects were manageable he would have leaned into PED like everyone else ... what makes it worse is that he's been a vocal critic of the Landis situation (just search this thread in 2006 for your post). That said, even if he spent most of his career clean, he was artificially enhanced by being sheltered and aided by doped domestics who dragged he's morally superior ass to the finish line.
Doping is systemic, everyone involved in cycling guilty-- no one cannot be trusted.
IMO-- the Giro will end... with a winner... and a high probability that this winner will be included among the 100 or so names presented by the OP investigation.
...and there will be no 2006 TdF winner.
...as I waste away the hours watching this pointless sport.
<sigh>
"Everybody cheats. I just didn't know."
- Dennis Christopher as Dave Stoller in "Breaking Away"
good opinion piece from VN
http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/12283.0.html
Suggestions...???
your post are always too complicated for me to understand.
-- but I'll tell you this;
being that your native currency is the $C, all you would have to do is rotate between uranium, coal, natural gas, oilsands and back to uranium again... you'd make a pretty good living doing just that without tripping over yourself by converting your good currency for a bad one just to own a stupid tech stock like aapl.
did I mention gold...?
well, it lags--but then again it should be part of your rotation ... and may I suggest an overweight position...?
It's a once in a lifetime opportunity-- don't blow it...!
Check out what Zapata George had to say on FSN (1st hour), he's a strong buyer of Canada.
http://www.financialsense.com/
I've even read rumours that the samples actually belonged to Serhiy Honchar.
-- who just happens to be suspended
http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/11052007/58/t-mobile-suspend-honchar.html
...as it should be, here at home the local baseball clubs are busier than ever despite the professional scoundrels.
...and I still ride.
I cringed when I read that... now I'm hoping for my own sanity that he's innocent.
sheeessssshhhhh...
Special Report: The Heat Is On.
http://www.marketwatch.com/newscommentary/specialreports/theheatison/technology/
they did a piece on these fluorescent lightbulbs on the National about a month or so ago-- and mercury contamination was the concern ... also, defaults where the bulb exploded and fire concerns were raised.
Anyway, the brunt of the lighting in my house has always been fluorescent (daylight kitchen ceiling) -- specifically lights that are used most frequently. That said, I haven't changed the 10 cent bulb out of my closet for the $5 unit thinking that I'm about the save the environment, and then there's that hemi truck sitting in my driveway.
There's plenty of areas where a person can look to save energy first-- like ensuring your house is properly insulated.
...and check this out:
netzero housing:
http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/maho/yohoyohe/heho/heho_003.cfm
The Riverdale NetZero Project
http://www.riverdalenetzero.ca/
Landis confident he'll win arbitration
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070514/ap_on_sp_ot/cyc_landis_hearing
English commentary live on Eurosport now:
http://www.eurosport.com/eurosport/mc_vid20993.shtml
.it live feed here
http://www.cyclingfans.com/
AMGN...?
-- just brought myself up to speed, ouch...!
I wonder if the chart is representative to the state of cycling...? If we see a good turn out for the Giro with a successful conclusion (a winner???) then I'd be looking to buy the stock in the $52 area in the next month or so.
<vbg>
...a respite for the Giro...
you'd think-- but the knock against professional cycling is that it's not very professional.
My biggest concerns are the possible leaks and rumors that could easily start around anyone showing dominance in the race.
yet, the show must go on.
...and fwiw, I did subscribe to the versus channel on cycling.tv-- it'll be the first Giro for me. I suspect I'll like the Giro better than the TdF just by the profile of the race, its a climbers delight.
What I don't like about this is that it's happening just before a major tour ... will they be naming names during the Giro...?
After the Giro...?
What if the winner is named...?
Paolo Bettini wears Giro's number 1...?
Is there rumours surrounding the third place finisher of last years Giro (1 and 2 were Operación Puerto dopers) Simoni since he's been uncharacteristically quiet through all of this...?
yup, he went from hero to buffoon in a mere 24-hrs.
-----------
"If Dura Ace is being cranked at 400 watts and no one is there, does it still make a sound?"
WOW...!
Guilty...
http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/12213.0.html
just think of it this way, it's a level playing field.
<sigh>
Btw, wouldn't it be something if both Óscar Pereiro and Andreas Klöden are named in "Operación Puerto?" Apparently there's over a 100 riders involved in the new documents, so it's not a farfetched idea.
Could they announce no winner for the 2006 TdF...?
-- considering the tv ratings, would that mean that riding the TdF is a pointless exercise...?
drop in total live audiences for Flanders down by 77%...????
ouch...!