Chiming In On Cheating
13 Jun 2010, written by moto 4 CommentsThis shitstorm was opened back in April, regarding the currently suspended masters phenom, Kenny Williams, who was suspended for a positive dope test. I wrote some of my thoughts down in this post when the story first broke about Kenny. Read this article by Charles Pelkey of Velo News. Williams has apparently showed up at a few local training races, to the objection of a few local, non-cheating, ethical type bike racers. It has thrown the Northwest scene into a tizzy over the definition of “suspended” and the definition of “cheating” and the definition of “race.” After Pelkey’s article, there is a sounding board of comments. Here’s my take. Other racers on the scene are criticizing the rider who wrote the letter of objection. Kudos for Mike Hainsworth for speaking up. Suspended means suspended. There should be no place for dopers to keep racing, to keep their fitness sharp for when they make the big comeback. You know Kenny can’t wait to get back to racing when his suspension is up. What do you think?
It’s a Juicy Friday In The World Of Professional Doping
23 Apr 2010, written by moto 0 CommentsWow. VeloNews. Lots to report today. BMC draws first blood (no pun intended) and suspends Swiss rider Thomas Frei after he tested positive for EPO. Read the story here. This is after they suspended 2 riders for being implicated in an ongoing doping investigation in Italy. Unfortunately, Alessandro Ballan, last year’s World Champ, is one of the riders who has been suspended. Things are not looking good for Lance Armstrong’s Radioshack team mate Fuyu Li. Fuyu is the first rider from China to ride for a ProTour team, and now he becomes the first one to receive a doping suspension, pending the analysis of his B-sample. Read his story here.
Sad Cycling News: Steve Larsen Dies While Training
20 May 2009, written by 1 CommentsI received the newsflash this morning via Twitter from @mudandcowbells that Bend, Oregon resident Steve Larsen died while doing a running workout. The first thing that struck me was “is this real?” I did a quick search on Google, Velo News and cyclingnews.com to verify the story. Amazing that all the news right now about Google revolves around their public statements that they need to evolve to become more realtime, and here is a concrete example of how Twitter delivered the news in a flash. Then the sad reality hit home as I received more Twitter posts from cyclists like @slctbird that it has been confirmed that Larsen passed away. I met Steve a few times when he was making his transition from pro road racing (rode on Motorola and was team mates with Lance) to his cross-country mountain bike days. When he rode for Scott, my wife spent a few weeks traveling with him when she was competing on the European World Cup circuit. My wife has great memories of Steve showing her and her friend Tammy Jacques Grewal around Italy, particularly a place called Zi Martino in Castegneto Carducci, a popular country inn that was a popular training outpost for pro cycling teams. Here is the article on velonews.com, and I am sure there will be more to come on Steve’s passing.