God Save The Cycling Queen

For the first time in 100 years we have an English champion of France's finest sporting event. The Brits took second, won six stages, and with the likes of Team Sky--what amounts to a national team of sorts and perhaps, with a fine assortment of the Queen's subjects, even an Empire team--fair Albion has stormed the Tour like Henry at Agincourt. However, as is usual when the UK dominates the world, something is rotten in the state of... in this case cycling.

As I mentioned in my Tour intro, Bradley Wiggins and team have set a new template for how to win one of sport's greatest spectacles. But this new idiom has not exactly set the world on fire. Like the dominance forged by the Welsh longbow, calculated technology isn't always what the world wants to see. And, gentle reader, this brings me to today's most important topic. How are we going to save the world of cycling? For Queen. For country. And for all the rest of us.



The problem, it seems, is that many have found the calculated cool of Team Sky to be boring. Our hero, one Wiggo of down-the-pub, does this no favor in the above interview when he starts throwing around numbers that make racing seem like little more than a computer program (click here if the embed doesn't work--seems geo restricted). Without the chemical enhancement that we've seen in years prior, particularly the 90s when most of cycling's records were set, human limits are established and with a peloton full of data all one needs to do in order to cover a move is to assess the numbers. Can you sustain a 500 watt output for 20 minutes without a haematecrit north of 50? No? Therefore, no reason to chase. And so on.

As a physical trainer I find this fascinating. As a sports fan not-so-much. Give me Tommy Voeckeler any day. Sure, his cavalier riding will never with a Tour in this day and age but, man, it's fun to watch. And with this in mind just what is our beloved sport supposed to do? For the answers we turn to the same panel as my mid-race recap: Bob, Sam, Josh, Reed, Aaron, Dustin and moi. Take it to heart.

"Bring back dope. Seriously. Have a divisions for doping and no doping and let people watch whichever they want."

"I agree with Bob, it was kind of a boring tour. I think Sagan made it pretty interesting at times, as well as Cav, but there wasn’t a lot of excitement. Cadel and Nibali did attack, but they just didn’t have enough gas to make it stick. I don’t know that Van Garderen did either, but it would have been nice to see him try. I had hoped for more and thought Cadel could bring it, but I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

But the Cav sprinted out of the group yesterday was insane. I was gobsmacked.

Actually the most exciting parts of this tour have been the finishes while I’ve been waiting to see if the break is going to get swept up or make it to the end. Those are always great, but it seems like this year they were the highlight."

"Random doping control where you inject some riders and not others so that everyday is a crap shoot."

"Or maybe we could just have a realistic parcours. 120k stages, 2-3 climbs, let folks recover and be fresh for the next day. Fucking Horner said he had to let go of the leaders on peyresourdes because since gc wasn't an option, he needed to save his gas for today. Boring."

"I have to agree. It’s a boring tour. Bring back more DOPE!

I re-iterate, not random drug testing ,but random drugging."

"Prefer clean riders, but they need to re-consider the parcours to make things more interesting. Obviously, the profile for this Tour did not result in compelling racing, at least among the GC rivals.

Big mountains are not likely to shake things up either. Without the dope, riders simply ride hard tempo and slowly shed the weaker riders. If a GC guy has a bad day (Evans) he loses time, if not, then the time gaps between riders are manageable.

I think they need more classics style stages that reward risk taking and are far less easy to control by the dominant teams. You can’t do away with the Alps and Pyrenees, but I think the Tour should put in more lumpy stages with cobbles, dirt, and time bonuses to make it interesting.

It might actually bring more riders into contention, which is a good thing."

"Or . . . This just dawned on me: do away with teams altogether. Everyone relies in neutral service.

That would be interesting."

"This is actually productive. We could save cycling.

Do away with measurement shit for sure. No watts et al. And no radios. I like teams but maybe not team cars. Neutral support and lots of it so you can't complain (or pay them off). Team cars can ride behind with spare bikes but that's it. No talking to your riders.

I really like Sam's idea about the parcours. Remember when Lance was complaining about having to ride cobbles, like it's a different sport. Fuck 'em. It's bike riding. Make shit hard but not just with endless miles on good pavement. I want to see some of those wimpy little GC fucks climb the 20% cobbles in Cordes. Guys like Boonen or Cancellara could gain minutes. Dirt. Sand, construction sites, super winding intercity courses. Back roads with wild boar. Courses are now so boring the peloton crashes all the time rolling down a dead straight road. Liven it up and they'll ride better. Bring back pub raids. Everything will be better. You won't even need dope. Just a few brews at the end of each day to take the edge off.

Henri Desgranges"

"Cobbles. Any race that has cobbles, or at least dirt, especially dirt climbing, is instantly better. Maybe Gilbert missed an opportunity to change things when he freaked about the dog instead of applauding its insolence in knocking him sprawling. But we don't want the dogs getting hurt. And what if we fucked with the riders, instead of late or early drug tests, make them go to the club on random nights and dance le velo techno. Be good for morale at least. And no more bank team sponsors, occupy cycling. Now just beer, bikes, or lingerie (why not? imagine the podium. and you know Cipo would love it, probably wear it too.)."

"You better put that on the straight dope. And shit, while you're at it, what's your platform for President. We still have a few months before people vote maybe there can be a write in!"

And whilst we contemplate our sports future, at least we have French commentators to inject cycling with all the enthusiasm they can. Their riders may never win another Tour but they will continue to stylishly remain the best venue in the game.

Panache Spelled Tommy

If anyone needs a power meter, heart rate monitor, watch or any other measuring device to calculating your riding mine are all for sale. I’m going Tommy Voeckler. Who decided we needed all the crap anyway? Just ride your bike and let everything else take care of itself.

On Eurosport today someone wrote in, “If it wasn’t for Voeckler this would be the Tour de Snore”. And while I don’t agree, necessarily, it sure would be a lot less fun. Everyone loves an attacking rider. Especially one who starts grimacing in agony with 60k and three climbs still to ride. Throw in lack of most techo gadgets thought to be indispensible for even recreational riders and you’ve got the definition of panache.



There was a moment today that made me so nostalgic I wanted to cry. Our hero, attacking on the day’s final climb, asking a fan how big a gap he had. No radio. No team DS. Just a guy on the side of the road. Probably took a swig of wine from him too. Maybe even a drag off his cigarette.

For a moment it was 1986 all over again. A lone rider attacks an entire peloton, against the sage advice of anyone who would listen, with no calculation whatsoever about whether or not he might make it or completely blow up. All he knows is that he’s going to put his head down and mash on the peddles until either his soigneur or God himself pulls him off his bike. Win or lose, that is how cool people race their bike. You just know The Badger is smiling.

Tour Challenges For Everyone

Oddly enough I’m not the only person in the world who’s thought of doing challenges that mimic grand tour bike races. For your Friday Psyche I present a couple of other versions, one for motivation/cool-ness and another for practicality.

Starting with the latter I present the Velo News Tour training program. This is a great opportunity to, not only mimic what’s going on in the Tour (in very little time each day), but to get a solid cycling training program for free. I can’t believe it took me so long to hear about it but I’m sorry to say that VN has been one of my old daily indulgences my busier schedule has caused me to give up. I think they did it last year, too. Ugh, I feel shame.

Anyways, I did find time to give it a quick once-over and it’s a good, solid training program that would help any recreational cyclist improve without spending heaps of hours in the saddle. If you want to jump into a Tour challenge, or just get fitter on the bike, click on this paragraph.

Next is the more ambitious Reve Tour, where six women are riding the entire Tour de France route in order to raise money for bike awareness/access in America. It’s one of those dream jobs that most fans of the Tour (at least fit ones) would kill for. Click here for their blog and get prepared to be inspired, and a little bit jealous.

look better than whatever you're doing this month?

The psyche part is that this is obtainable. Anyone can ride the route of the tour, as you’ll see in their blog they aren’t alone. Sure it’s a challenge on many levels, not just physical. But it would certainly worth some organizational headaches to try. There’s simply no way it wouldn't be a life-altering experience. To help them raise money click here.

Tour Challenge: Rest Day Wrap-Up

I did some yoga to start the day and am pretty psyched to have a day off of my bike, except I’m not. I’m starting to finally feel decent after a week of some amount of misery. Let’s do a little recap, on both the race and the challenge, and lay out what’s ahead.

The actual event has been crazy, with crashes galore—ga-LORE! I’ve been following the Tour for nearly 40 years and have never seen anything like it. In lieu of boring reporting—after all this is a blog with no political restraints—let’s recap citing some spirited banter of my friends. Special thanks to Sam, Reed, Josh, Dustin and Bob.

“Wtf!? Has everyone in the peloton completely forgotten how to ride a bike?”

In spite of crashes and some serious fashion misgivings, the sprints have been excellent, spurred by the demise of the HTC train that at one time included most of today’s fastest men.

“Those helmets don’t look very cool.”

“Horrible helmets!”

“Well, I think Cav has put the “he’s got the best train” argument to rest. Like Steve said, he won that won McEwen style.”

“It should make for an interesting week. I've never seen such a deep sprinter field. If Cav wins them all he'll start making a case of best of all time. I don't think he will but he's smart so maybe, especially if he gets Greipel's wheel everyday.”

Unfortunately Cav got caught twice by crashes (such is life without a train) and, so far, Sagan’s been the revelation although Greipel probably won the rubber match if his last lead-out man doesn’t drop his chain. Anyway, the battle for the green jersey is still completely up in the air, as well as Cav’s place in history.

However, the best moment in the race so far was a transition stage where a breakaway held, animated by director sportif Marc Madiot’s enthusiasm. Check out the video above.

“I think it should go to the FDJ DS (most aggressive rider of the day award)—he was going crazy in the car!”

“He seems more enthused than I would expect a 2-time winner of Paris-Roubaix, but then I think that makes me appreciate it that much more.”

And on the race for yellow…

“Enjoy these lumpy stages, because the GC is battle is ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.”

“It's a long time since the days of Cippolini and friends. Any chance Sagan will show up in a leopard striped skin-suit? Doubt it.”

sagan, take some fashion tips, please

“I think what all of you Wiggo/Evans detractors are saying is that you miss dope. Well fuck, I miss it too. Shit, wasn't baseball more fun when every game you went to was like a home run derby? Who doesn't like seeing Discovery leading Big Tex onto Alpe d' Huez like the launching Cav at 200m?! It's fucking rad. Shit. I miss Ricardo Ricco. I miss Raimondas Rumas. I miss Simoni's grandmother's cookies and Festina. Willy Voet where have you gone?”

“Evans attacks way more than Armstrong ever did. The only difference is that he can't make it stick. Okay, he has a whinny voice but he rides with a fuckload of panache. And Wiggo trains like a Spartan and drinks a ton of beer. And he swears. In his first interview in yelllow he said it was "fucking great". Tonight he called his detractors "fucking cunts". The Texan would never do that because it would hurt his corporation. How is that boring? Nibali attacks on every single descent. Who the hell has ever done that? These guy aren't boring. They just aren't jacked full of EPO. And they're not Cipo. But, well, nobody is Cipo. Anyway, if he were in the race he would have won four stages and dropped out already so no use talking about him."

Cyrill Guimard “

“I fucking hate Cipo. He races the first week and now he’s already down on the beach in the French Riviera while I’m trying to hold onto the grupetto.”

~Frankie Andreu

super mario, you are missed

Finally, Sky’s dominance has everyone screaming dope and it does bring back some fond memories. Not that it has any bearing on doping but, as my post suggests last week, Wiggo’s Tour build-up has been as systematic and anyone since the Texan. I for one am not surprised.

All of which has provided sufficient motivation to stick with my own challenge. It hasn’t been easy. Psyche has been low, it’s been crazy hot, and I’ve been tempted to pull a Cipo and pack it in almost every day. Yesterday, however, I actually felt a bit better on the bike, which has renewed my enthusiasm for the weeks ahead, which looks like this:

Wed and Thurs are simulated Tour mtn days. On the slate is an 80-mile ride with over 10k of climbing on the road bike, followed by a mtn bike day featuring 4X 20 minute climbing intervals. Then I get two recovery days where I’ll ride trails staying as aerobic as possible, followed by another long mountain day and then a shorter interval day leading into the next day off.

Of course there’s other supplemental training. Primarily yoga and foam rolling, easy climbing (too hot to climb hard so sticking to active rest or ARC training), and one resistance—usually Asylum Strength--workout per week, following the 3 Weeks of Hell plan. During the next rest day the final week will be determined.

In closing, the Tour’s ads have been much better this year, especially on the European networks. This Specialized ad is truly inspired. Now get out there and ride!

The Tour, P90X, & A Guy Called Wiggo

To me, by far the most interesting storyline in this year’s Tour de France involves Bradley Wiggins. On the road he might be deemed a boring racer but when you lift the hood and see how’s he’s prepared for this year’s race it’s a fascinating story that brings back memories of creating P90X.

I’m inspired by training systems. Not just the day-to-day efforts that athletes use to prepare for events but the entire scope of training for a goal. During our P90X development Tony was generally focused on making the hardest and most creative workouts he could while I was strategizing how we’d integrate them into a system. A lot of how it came to fruition was stuff I’d learned from the Tour.

In fact, I have a memory intrinsically linking the two. While Tony was putting the hurt on the first 90X test group in LA I was in a hotel in France digging through data I’d been compiling from un-official test groups through our Message Board community attempting to do the opposite. I vividly recall a conversation with my colleague Isabelle, about stress tolerances of athletes vs lay people. We were both in Europe on different agendas but each had Beachbody projects foremost on our minds. She was there working with some Olympic athletes in Italy, but also had a program she was working on for us. I was there for the Tour, to witness Lance Armstrong attempt tp re-write history while trying to create a fitness program that might do the same.

Armstrong won his Tours by forever alerting the template cyclists used to train. Instead of logging thousands and kilometers and then racing into shape, his team devised a periodizational training plan focused around one big peak, the Tour de France. In his mind, no other race really mattered.

This is exactly what we were trying to do with P90X, alter the template for home fitness. Instead of making another sweat-fest cardio program, the idea was to systematically break down your body and build it back up over time, targeting all of your physiological factors in one program. On this balmy night in Grenoble my challenge was how to modify the training system we’d created for the broadest demographic. This required some hedging on the tolerance levels of regular folks vs athletes to accommodate the greatest number of people without injuring or overtraining them.

iconic climbs/iconic no helmet fashion

The results of that trip were that Armstrong made history, I wrote a couple of articles on the Tour, cancellation of Isabelle’s proposed Beachbody program leading to her wedding our CEO, and P90X Lean. All of which comes full circle around a guy called Wiggo.

Maybe he’s the P90X2 of cycling. Riffing off of Armstrong’s template only took Wiggins to the podium of a grand tour. Not satisfied, he’s re-shuffled the deck of cyclist training card with an audacious new plan using a coach with a swimming background. Like P90X did with home fitness, they’ve scrapped pretty much every traditional notion of how to train for bike racing. No “base miles”. No “racing into shape”. Not even Armstrong’s throw away races. Just blocks of training followed by a test race taken seriously, periodizided to include a few minor peaks leading to a major one.

Preliminary results are stunning. He’s won every race he’s targeted as a test, something even Armstrong never managed. And if he can indeed parlay that into a Tour victory he’ll have once again altered the training template for those harboring Tour dreams. And while he still has many detractors who dig up his past failures or say he’s peaked too soon, most of the industry “experts” said we’d never sell P90X.

Of course he hasn’t done it yet. That’s precisely while I’m watching. The first big test is tomorrow. For me, the drama will be more than what we see on the grimacing faces of men pushing their bodies to the limit. It will be the validation or failure of a new training system, which is something that excites me even more than sport.

Vive Le Tour

Vive le tour! from Bear Thunder on Vimeo.

With Le Tour and the Tour Challenge going on it's clearly bike month so let's celebrate the world's most iconic bike race with a classic short film from famed director Louis Malle. It focuses not only on the bike race but the culture around the race. Having been there I can say Malle has captured it very well and, in fact, even though Vive Le Tour was filmed in '62 it's amazing how little the spectacle has changed. The bikes are more techie (though probably less cool), the doping excuses more sophisticated than "bad fish", and feeding is more strategic than "pub raids"; but from the daily lifestyle of a town when a stage rolls through to the pre-race parade and the riders' extreme suffering, Tour still looks very much like it did in the 60s.

Le Tour Challenge

My Tour challenge is a bit different than your average office pool. Instead of betting on who might win the actual race, I challenge my own fitness to keep up with them in a virtual stage race. I have a long history of such nonsense. Beginning back in ’98 with "Le Cog Corrode." I’ve often used the Tour, Giro, and Vuelta as a template to concoct very difficult 3-week training blocks. With a race coming up at the end of July this year’s early Tour start (it’s still June fer crissakes) was tailor made for me.

Though my ’98 challenge mirrored the race almost identically it’s not necessary. Your own personal goals should/need to be on the horizon and you can do a Tour challenge even if you never ride on the road. In fact, you could do one without riding at all but non-cyclists would likely find a different form of motivation more effective. Three weeks, however, is the perfect amount of time for a very hard block of training. Not only does it make good physiologic sense when you analyze the “specificity of adaptation” but it’s a mental window that psychologists seem to agree is an ideal amount of time to induce long-lasting habitual changes.

As serendipity would have it two factors led to a “bingo” moment in designing a Tour challenge this year. After last week’s breakdown I’d just happened to take a recovery week leading to today’s “grand depart”. I’ve also been struggling with motivation on the bike this year and very much questioning my ability to be ready for my upcoming race. I needed to ramp things up somehow and the Tour, one of the most exciting athletic events in the world, has come at just the right time.

So what’s it gonna be?

As in ’08 I’ll start and finish with a time trial to gauge fitness.

I’ll ride everyday they ride in the race (so only two days off the bike in the next three weeks)

One day per week will be full distance of the race (this will be by far my longest days of the year on the bike so far)

Time trial days will be time trial days (100% effort)

I’ll mimic the days course to some degree—though mainly on dirt—-especially the mountain days

So that’s it, though it is more like IT. This will be hard it’s the motivation that I sorely need. And can really only be heightened by doing Le Velo.

Le Velo

There’s this bike race in France that started today that, for some reason, I just can’t get psyched on this year. Maybe if I watch Le Velo a few more times my mind will get straight. Maybe it’s a self-imposed tactic hoping my ambivelance will lead to some great racing. Yeah, yeah, that’s it.

It's just that deep down I don’t believe Contador can lose. Plus, his main rival is pretty boring. There are some cool stories on the undercard, particularly Chris Horner, but c’mon. Horner’s as old as Lance; how can he be a serious contender? And, even the the parcours means that Schleck could conceivably lose no time to Contador in the time trials (a TTT and his team has fastest time trialist in history and a short, hilly, TT near the end) I’m still not buying that when it comes down to winning a grand tour anybody is dropping Contador—and his special Spanish beef—when it actually matters. So c’mon guys, prove me wrong!

Uh-oh. The first stage just wrapped and, shockingly enough, Phillippe Gilbert won. That guy hasn’t won a bike race since, like, the last bike race he did. He might win four stages in the first week. Then the Contador show starts. So I guess until someone shows that things are different I’m going to keep getting’ dirty.



re: hmm, ac gets behind a crash and loses over a minute. tactic could be working... thanks josh and reed for the vids.

Ridin' Dirty

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Bike Racing

For your rest day entertainment, here's a good article on the doping and the difference between how cycling as sport is viewed in Europe compared to America. It's from SI, whose coverage of cycling is generally banal at best. This explains why, in part. Having read all the books referenced, I can recommend it as a short amalgamation of the lot.

Tour de France, cycling a clash of cultures for Americans, Europeans

Here's a taste:

"Any 7-year-old Flemish schoolchild," Bob Roll has written, "knows 100 times more about cycling than all Americans combined." They know the sacrifice -- that, simply to train, a pro will log enough mileage each year to circumnavigate the earth. They know the suffering -- that Rene Vietto's toe, lost to sepsis during the 1947 season, sits in embalming fluid in a jar over a bar in Marseille. They know the fate that four Tour winners have wound up suicides, and that 1998 champion Marco Pantani shot himself up vocationally and avocationally and, finally, tragically. Moreover, they know the positives, raids and confessions that have implicated at some point during their careers half of the 18 men to win the Tour since 1974. They've read the corpus of European journalism devoted to doping in cycling, some of which implicates Armstrong, and find it more human and persuasive than any clinical positive test. They've heard the testimony of repentant dopers like France's Philippe Gaumont, who rubbed salt on his testicles until they bled so he could get a prescription for otherwise-banned cortisone; Ireland's Paul Kimmage, who after describing a drug-riddled sport in his book Rough Ride returned to the Tour with a press credential and was advised to leave because organizers couldn't guarantee his safety; and Spain's Jesus Manzano, who after an against-the-rules transfusion mid-Tour, which turned out to be of someone else's blood, suffered a seizure that nearly killed him.

Le Tour '09

Since I’ve been asked, I guess I’ll write a Tour preview. Interesting year, for sure, and I’m not even going to mention doping. The return of the Texan is the major headline but the course is very strange. There are more “easy” stages than normal, and the hard bits happen during the first and last week. This means that someone could be peaking in week one and fade by week three. The result is that no lead will be considered safe. This should make the drama higher than usual.

monaco teams presentation
The common tactic is to arrive at stage 1 at maybe 90% peak fitness and build towards week three. Young riders, in particular, seem to have trouble with this, which is why it’s rare to see youth win at le Tour, even if they’ve been dominating everything else (Valverde is a prime example). We generally don’t get a true glimpse at the GC until around stage 10.

This year, however, you could easily lose too much time to make up. The first week has at least three stages where significant time gain be gained or lost. The interesting aspect is that no one seems to be very sure how it will go. Certainly the major players have their private thoughts but it’s all feigned confusion in the press. And this is adding greatly to the fun.

Throw in all the confusion and leadership issues at Astana, the last-minute loss of Dekker, the addition of Boonen, the exclusion of Valverde, the sudden verve of Evans, the mind games of Riis (not to mention Armstrong), the cool of Sastre and the quiet of Menchov and you’ve got intrigue galore. I can’t wait for tomorrow. I with, like my friends Bruce and Alisa, I were there.

Demand Media Video -- powered by demandmedia.com

the texan perspective

Armstrong’s return means that there is no lack of press in the US. For straight reporting, velonews.com and cyclingnews.com will still rule the day. Cyclingfans.com should not be missed, either, as they grab video feeds from around the world. Livestrong.com is also broadcasting a lot of pro-Lance stuff. If you can get your head around that, it’s pretty cool. I think personal daily reports from any rider doing the Tour is worth a look. Armstrong is more measured, more practiced, and probably cagier than your average rider but he’s still out there racing and suffering. It’s a pretty cool bonus.

As for who will win, who knows? Lance, Evans, and even Andy Schleck seem confident. And they’re all looking at numbers, so they must have some idea because those reflect their chances. Lance tipped Sastre and Menchov, who are certainly in the picture. Menchov looked unbelievably strong at the Giro and Sastre had better be dispatched by the Ventoux because he’s always strong in week three and climbs like an angel. But Lance didn’t mention Contador, who climbs even better and just crushed everyone in the Spanish time trial championships. No matter how I try, I can’t see him losing.

Supplements, Dope, and The Tour, Part II

I'm officially bored of this topic. Well, I'm not really. It's fascinating. But I'm ready for the cycling news to be about racing and training. It's getting better, for sure. A couple of years ago I stopped counting how many days in a row featured at least one doping headline on cyclingnews. This year we've had stretches of weeks at a time. The best thing, I suppose, is that the public is getting a bit more informed about it.

There is no better spectacle for viewing dopers than a grand cycling tour. Bodybuilding and track and field run a close second. One day cycling races a distant third. Next come sports more based on skill, where absolute strength is less a part of the equation.

The reason for this is EPO. Over the course of intense daily training it's natural for the body's red blood cell count to drop as the body breaks down and doesn't have time to fully recover. This lowers your blood’s oxygen carrying capacity and, essentially, your performance ability. For a one day race you can taper and peak. This isn't possible over time, especially when stage races are fast every day (none are as fast as le Tour). By injecting EPO you can offset the nature drop in haematocrit so that, essentially, you're fresher each day as other riders tail off. This is the reason that only 3 of the last 33 grand tour winners have not had some type of doping suspension.

Doping has been around forever, but nothing has changed grand tour racing like EPO. As Greg LeMond said, "You can deal with that other stuff." EPO provides a massive advantage during stage racing.

It doesn't, however, create supermen. They are born. It won't make a club rider competitive with a professional. It won't increase your lung capacity or your VO2/max beyond its natural predisposition. It simply allows you to maintain your peak performance for longer (after reading Elijah's research I should clarify this because EPO usage can ensure you're tapping whatever potential you have aerobically, which is extremely hard to do training naturally, so hard that some say it's impossible to do--David Walsh's Lance to Landis covers this in depth. The point I was attempting to make was that it can't elevate someone with a VO2/max of 60 (good weekend warrior athlete) to 80 (Tour de France rider). Changing your haematocrit changes your VO2/max slightly, but this can also be done naturally by training/supplementing. Among like athletes its advantage is huge. The research provided would suggest that it's also significant in one day races and, certainly, would take a lot of guesswork out of training to peak.)

Here's a good study (thanks Elijah):

Some EPO stuff

Peak performance is possible by natural means. By eating right, training right, and recovering well you can maximize your body's potential (at least to what sports science currently understands). This, however, is very hard to do. Doping makes it easier. If you dope than you don't need to get your diet and training and recovery perfect. Steroids (colloquial name for a lot of performance enhancing drugs) enable you to recover better from hard training, which is most cases is only an advantage over an even playing field.

This is why dopers don't always win. You see dopers lose, especially in one day events, all the time. The advantage isn't all that great. It just stacks the odds in your favor. But in a grand tour, EPO stacks those odds even further; to the point where it becomes almost impossible to keep up naturally.

Supplements are basically legal natural doping substances. “Dope” isn’t always bad--at least as in bad for you. It’s just using medicine to aid recovery. Almost all “dope” has a life enhancing characteristic. It's cheating as defined by a sport. Supplements fall into the “everything that isn’t defined as cheating” category, basically. By definition they are natural but many are synthetic “natural” supplements. Most of the reactions that supplements can be duplicated by eating perfectly. Supplements allow you to eat less well by, basically, condensing nutrition into a supplemental form for easier ingestion, which can also be administered via injection.

Because smart supplementation—and smart doping as well—can enhance your lifestyle, it’s a recommended thing for most people to do. Cheating in sports is defined by sport only. It’s not considered cheating to use EPO to recover from cancer or use a testosterone cream to offset the effects of aging. It’s only cheating when it comes to sport. For most of us, I recommend that we supplement whenever we can, provided that we know what we are doing. Eating well and exercising are the most effective ways to age gracefully but supplements and, sometimes, medicine, will give us more margin for error.

Supplements, Dope, and The Tour, Part I

My friend Heather asked why I wasn't blogging on the Tour this year. I'm not because I'm all about 90X at the moment, but I've also been a bit bored about commenting so much on doping. Yesterday's madness, however, has given me a chance to write about both.

What was looking like a pretty clean Tour got skewered yesterday with a positive drug test for rising superstar Ricardo Ricco, who had won two stages. As the investigation unfolds it seems like it may be a bigger, and more systematic, issue that will lead to more busts. Ricco's team pulled themselves from the race and one of his teammates, who also won a stage, has been implicated. So let's look at three issues: is cycling cleaning up, how much does doping matter, and how is it different than supplementing.

Is cycling cleaner than it was?

The evidence all points to an affirmative. Many teams now have strict doping controls within the team. At CSC, anyone can download physical data of each rider. If blood levels start to get squirrely, it will be noticed.

The biggest evidence, however, is on the road. Racing has slowed down. A lot. Piano (stretches of grand tours where the riders cruise at a pedestrian pace) is back in vogue. Over the 90s and early 2000s the average speed of the peloton was increasing every year. Over the last couple, this has reversed.

Another, more subtle, clue would be riders acting more human. In the old days, grand tour leaders would gain and lose 20-30 minutes in a single stage regularly. No lead was safe because the guy in front could crack at any time. Now, with better training, diet, teamwork, and strategy, this is far less likely. But looking at this years Giro d’Italia we were seeing things that all seemed very, well, natural.

The best example of this was at the final day’s time trial, where the leaders of the overall race where no where in sight of the podium (a far cry from the days when Armstrong and Ullirch would crush everyone through the mountains and then take minutes in the final TT as well). Mario Bruseghin, who won the first TT and came in 3rd overall came in 28th and lost 1:33. Race winner Alberto Contador, second in the first TT, came in 11th. Simoni and DiLuca, who had both made huge solo efforts trying to win the race in the mountains, came in 135th and 112th.

Then there was Ricco. A bad time trialist, he was the only one of the overall race leaders who improved on his effort. He lost more time to the stage winner, but far less to every GC contender.

In the Tour Ricco was riding incredibly well. His attack on the Aspin was like nothing we’ve seen since the days of the Texan. He dropped everyone like they were club riders. He said Piepoli would win on Hautacam and Sanuier Duval then dominated all of the important points of the race. Ricco seemed to be barely breathing while shadowing the GC contenders. Up front, his teammates dropped Frank Schleck the second they decided it was time to go. It was all, as David Millar said, “a bit too good to be true.”
Apparently, they were using a new form of EPO. One of the doctors on the anti-doping committee was surprised they were caught because he didn’t believe there was a test for it yet. He stated that they knew riders were using it, and even which ones, but had no way to prove it. Apparently there was a specific team working on this test and trying to get it ready for the Tour. We may still have more busts. I’d bet against many more. There was one team riding oddly better than everyone else and now they’re gone. We’ll see, but I’m optimistic that the playing field is getting a bit more level.

I’ve got to get to more-pressing work, so I’m breaking this into parts. More later…

pic: Ricco looking astonished at how easy it is to beat guy who aren't juiced.

Le Tour

It's that time of year, again. The Tour starts on Saturday.

If you're not already stoked, watch this.

While it's a completely open tour this year I imagine most people's money would be on either Evans or Valverde. On paper, no one else really has a chance. But since neither has actually won a tour you can't really say that either of them will deal with the pressure all the way to Paris without a mistake. In fact, the Tour must be in Valverde's head a bit by now, since he's never ridden it sans mishap of some sort. He's got the most talent, for sure. But talent isn't everything.

Day 90 came and went. Even though I've got another training block coming up I should probably do a fit test, huh?

Le Grand Boucle of Dope

I've had a few adventures lately, which I'll get to later this week, but first y thoughts on this year's Tour. Another Grand Boucle has come to an end and, unfortunately, the doping news far exceeded the racing news. Pity because it was a damned exciting race. I've been a fan of the Tour all of my life. This year they're telling us 'we've turned a corner' when it comes to doping issues. I hope so, but can't help but be skeptical.

It does actually seem to be trendy amongst the younger racers to be anti-dope. This must be a positive sign and is a far cry from when "Mr. Clean" Bessons was regularly chided by the peloton. But when you hear reports such as this one (Kloden Considers Retirement) it's hard to be positive.

I love cycling and hope it can clean itself up. We recreational cyclists have a battle to just keep our bikes on the road. A scandalous professional scene isn't going to help our cause. But scandals make media and, I'm sure, people will keep trying to uncover them. Sometimes they can actually make a difference. Bravo to the David Walsh's and Betsy Andreau's hope dare--and risk--to take on the big guys. Check out Betsy's candid radio interview on Competitor. This women has some huevos.

Below is a list of the Grand Tour winners over the last decade or so and their status as to being involved in drug scandals. Many of them have minor busts, some received two-year suspensions, and some have had their careers basically ruined, like Ramundo Rumsas, who didn't make the list because he only doped his way to the podium.

Grand Tour Winners

Tour:

Riis - doper

Ullrich - doper

Pantani - doper

Lance - clean?

Landis - doper

Rasmussen (would have been) - doper

Contador - (currently invovled in scandal but luckily protected under Texas law)

Vuelta:

Vino - doper

Heras - doper

Ullrich - doper

Mancebo - did he win? anyway, he came close and is a doper

Menchov - doper

Aitor - doper

Sevilla - may not have won but almost did and got busted. doper.

Casero - doper

Zulle - doper

Olano- doper

Rominger - doper

Jalabert - doper

Delgado - doper

Hamilton, Perez - both would have beens that got busted during the same race for the same offense.

Giro:

Di Luca (still under investigation but cleared on first offense)

Basso: doper

Simoni: doper

Salvodelli: hmmm, he must have a bust somewhere. anyway, his totally erratic performances certainly must mean dope and, for sure, he ate some of Simoni's grandma's cookies. i hear they were quite tasty. in fact, rumor has it that Grandma Simoni, Rumsas' wife, and Haven Hamilton are opening a restaurant at the Olympic Village which will, no doubt, become quite popular.

Garzelli - doper

Pantani - doper

Frigo - doper

Cunego - clean, but he at least got epstein-barr so he doped to get it or, perhaps, passively doped to get it which might actually make him a non-doper which would be rad because most of the white jersey winners from the tour, like him, have gone down too. So perhaps he didn't dope but he was, like, 21, won in a fluke, and hasn't been able to find the same form since, which sounds like text book passive doping effects on a highly talented youngster. if he ever finds his form again we'll probably find out.

Tonkov - doper

Rominger - doper

Gotti - doper

Berzin - doper

But, hey, as bad as all this sounds it's still a beautiful sport. Here's a fantastic montage of the 2006 Tour.

Doping and Le Tour - David Walsh Interview

Not surprisingly, I've been bombarded with email the last few days about the Tour. It's been so crazy that I haven't even known what to say about it. With Vino's bust, the only rider that I've heard of who has worked with Dr. Ferrari and hasn't been busted is Lance. The Rasmussen case is also interesting. The story of the smuggeled drugs was in From Lance to Landis but no one was named. Furthermore, the original of "men in black" (riders who train in un-marked clothing to avoid detection) was Armstrong. If you watched The Lance Chronicles, he never trained in his Postal/Disco kit. Always in plain black. This, apparently, was one of the things both Vino and Rasmussen did that put them on WADA's radar. Hmmm.

Well, I think things in cycling will begin to improve. WADA seems to have gotten serious. And with a sponsor throwing their own rider off of the team while wearing the yellow jersey it confirms the end is no longer justifying the means in cycling. Bravo. With more and more young riders strongly anti-dope, the situation should begin to steamroll. Let's hope so.

Anyway, here a LONG interview with David Walsh, conducted by two guys famous in the multi-sport world, Paul Huddle and Bob Babbit. It's very interesting--dare I say required listening if you are a fan of the sport.

Walsh Interview

And Then There Were Nine

The Tour couldn't be different than during the Armstrong era. With no real favorites riders are all looking at each other and no one team dares to try and take control of the race. The cynical might even say that, sans dope, no one is sure what they're individually capable of either. And cynical or not, you can't argue the fact the race is a lot slower than it's been in years. And the riders are the same, so what could the difference be? Anyway, the result is some interesting racing, for sure.

Today we leave the Alps and the race is whittled down to 9 true contenders, minus a few of those from the preview. Most missed will be Vino, whose injuries form a crash have been too much to overcome. With Denis Menchov also losing the pace today, both Astana and Rabobank now have clear leaders to work for.

Here's a quick rundown on those left in the GC fight.

Michael Rasmussen, Rabobank - With nearly 3 minutes in the bank he's going to need more time with 100K of time trialing to come. Last year, he lost 14 minutes during the tt. This year, he came in 166th in the prolog. Luckily, there are some big mountains to come. Overall chance to win: very small.

Alejandro Valverde, Caisse d'Epargne - The "sprinter who can climb" or "climber who can sprint" is now my favorite to win, since he also now can time trial too. He will need to drop a couple of guys prior to the final time trial because those sprint wins at the summits aren't going to give him enough of a buffer over Kloden or Evans. His team is also very strong and may need to employ a bit of stategy to pull this off.

Iban Mayo, Sunier Duval-Prodir - One of the few climbers every to drop Armstrong in the mountains, his form has been erratic his entire career. He's riding very well but isn't a good enough time trialist to win the whole thing.

Cadel Evans, Predictor-Lotto - Riding very strong he's now a major favorite. Almost a cinche for the podium, at least.

Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, Disco - Contador is a "future star" whose time may be arriving a bit early. If he has a good TT on Sat, Levi may have to work for him. But Leipheimer has been timing his form to come good in the Pyrenees and he hasn't lost enough to be counted out. It's all oh-so interesting for Discovery. Bruyeneel is a great tactician, making the Disco boys a major player once again.

Christophe Moreau, Ag2r - At 36 winning the Tour doesn't really seem possible. His form is very good and it would be nice to see this classy rider get on the podium. Unfortunately, his time trialing ability has been sacrificed a bit to improve in the mountains and he hasn't been gaining the time he needs. His chance for the podium looks pretty slim, but my fingers are crossed for him.

Calos Sastre, CSC - CSC is a formidable team and won't go down withouth a fight but Sastre has showed nothing yet to indicate he can do anything but follow the best riders. Maybe he's waiting for the Pyrenees, which I'm sure is the psyche card CSC is playing, but is it a reality? Not likely.

Andrea Kloden, Astana - Having finished on the podium twice, Kloden is now the major favorite to win providing his injury isn't too bad, which it doesn't appear it is. He lost a bit of time to wait for Vino the other day and it could cost him. But when on form he's the best time trialist of the contenders. It figures that the others will need to drop him in the mountains; something they haven't been able to do yet.

Starting Saturday, it should all get very interesting.

For coverage, if you don't have Versus they have dropped their live feed, so check with:

www.cyclingfans.com

for the lastest possibilities.

Lance to Landis: Le Tour or Le Suck?

One of our local races made up yellow shirts with "Le Suck" on them. I can see why. With in the insane doping problems surrounding the sport it's hard not to be cynical. The only Grand Tour champion in the last decade who hasn't been busted, Lance, may have been the most guilty one of all. At least that's the opinion in the racing world. And the publication of From Lance to Landis does nothing but add fuel to the fire. This work may not hold up in court but you can't read it with an open mind and not know it's true--at least to a degree. It would be impossible to make up. Not only that, it makes perfect sense if you know anything about doping and sports performance. And, well, when you race your bike and hang out in that world you meet people who've worked/ridden with people.... The big thing I learned from this book was that all teams don't necessarily dope. All have turned a blind eye to it but some programs are leaders and others followers. Postal, um, sheesh. You've got to read it if you enjoy the subject. So, anyway, bike racing has a big black eye at the moment.

But I love bike racing. I love the Tour. C'mon, doping has existed in sports--all of them--as long as there has been performance-enhancing drugs available. Armstrong may have doped to the gills but he still worked harder than everyone else. Dope didn't win him the Tour. Hard work did. Because, ya know, Ullrich and Basso were on the sauce too. If they want to rid the sport of drugs, they need to rid the sport of doctors, which may mean ridding it of money. But that still won't do it. People were regularly doing drugs during my high shcool days! College? Of course. Everyone joked about it. Anyway, cycling has done a lot more to combat this issue than any other sport. And it deserves some credit. I think it's getting better. Dope or no dope, you've still got to train like a maniac and race your bike.

Last year I blogged in depth about the race. This year I won't have the time. But for those who would like to learn more about bike racing, you can read through them starting here:

http://steve-edwards.blogspot.com/2006/07/explaining-tour.html

The race began in England to "the largest crowds I've ever seen" according to most everyone. Today they're in Belgium, it's raining, and the crowds are still huge. Long live cycling!

It's an open race and should be great. You can check it out live on the net on Versus streaming video which, thankfully, is only Paul and Phil and no Al Trautwig.

Versus network

Cyclingfans always keeps you up to date on the latest media options:

Cyclingfans

Greatest Stage Ever?

What a year for bike racing. Okay, most of the press is bad but, as if the sport knows it's in trouble and needs to make a statement, we're getting some of the best bike racing I've ever seen, or even read about.

Today's stage in the Vuelta was absolutely unbelievable (I realized I've used this word a lot this year). In the battle for the GC, two of the best--and most interesting--riders in the peloton have been waging a cat and mouse war for the last few weeks--maybe a shark attack war is a better metaphor, actually, as it's been attack, attack, attack to see who will crack. Alexandre Vinokourav is probably the most aggressive rider in the sport. Alejandro Valverde is probably the most talented. After failing to crack Valverde on any climb or even in the time trial, which up until this year was Valverde's only weakness, it's looked as though Vino would have to settle for second. But after failing to gap him on yesterday's final climb, and then watching helplessly as Valverde outsprinted him for more bonus seconds (Valverde is by far the best sprinter of any racer who can climb at all), Vino issued this statement:

Nothing is Over

So what happens when you can't out climb, out sprint, or out time trial someone? You either lose or, what the hell, attack on a descent. Today, Vino attacked on the final climb--again--only to, once again, have Valverde bring him back by the summit prior to a 20k plunge to the finish line. So he attacked on the descent and, somehow, gained over a minute and a half of time to take the race lead. It's truly the craziest thing I've ever seen happen in a major bike race. Cyclingnews.com sounded like they agreed, using language in their live report such as "descending like a demon," and, then, "descending like a looney."

Unfortunately, because I live in the USA I can't watch this, which I could if I lived almost anywhere else. I guess our hundreds of channels don't have room for one of the most difficult sporting events on the planet so we can bring you more shopping, dysfunctional family talk shows, bass fishing, and NASCAR.

Anyway, if you like bike racing, attempt to track this down. And if you find it, make sure and let me know.

Interesting Stuff on Doping in Cycling

I may not be writing much but I'm still reading. Two interesting pieces that may be positive for the sport in the long run. First off, David Millar has won a stage and claims to be clean coming off a two-year suspension for using EPO. Millar is a supremely talented cyclist, former world champion, and I would think may be clean (although his bread and water statement must be hyperbole so...). Since a single win, sans dope, isn't really that big a deal from someone this talented the true test of this story will be over time, where doping has a more obvious effect over the body's ability to recuperate.

"It's Possible To Win Clean"

The next is the recent confession by two of Lance Armstrong's teammates that they used EPO to help him win. There's a lot of condemming circumstantial evidence in this story but what's most interesting is that Andreau seems to have confessed to clear his own conscious and "help the sport," which revelations like the ones that seem to be happening daily must do, because it's either that or kill it. Certainly, track and field, as well as cycling, and probably even more sports, are at a crossroads over performance enhancing drugs and medical intervention.

Postal Teammates Confessions