Cycling continued

[DaiKozOda]

Volta a Portugal
19-08-2012; 4th Stage; 151,9KM (Viana do Castelo / Sra. da Graça) - pretty much all about mountain.
Winner: Rui Sousa from Portugal (Team Efapel Glassdrive)
Video summary of the stage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLSYq034WmM&feature=plcp
Exciting day. There was a break away with around 13 cyclists but they were interested in gathering points for the red shirt. The break away wasn't successful. Lots of attempts to attack but Efapel got the best of it finishing in the top 3 places of the stage.
Jay Thomson lost the yellow jersey to Hugo Sabido (LA Antarte) but kept the blue shirt (mountain). José Gonçalves (Onda Boavista) lost the youth jersey to David de la Cruz (Caja Rural). Hugo Sabido (LA Antarte) got the red jersey (points) but Reinardt van Rensburg is now just 4 points behind.
Team results: United Healthcare took a big stumble and dropped from 1st to 7th overall. Efapel is now leading from LA Antarte.
Ricardo Mestre (Carmin Prio Tavira) was one of the big favorites but in 3 days he had 3 big falls!!!! I'm surprised that he was able to keep going. José Gonçalves also took a big fall on stage 4 and injuried his shoulder.

[Garden Kitty]

USA Today article about Tejay Van Garderen

USA Pro Cycling Challenge kicks off this week with some big name Euro talent mixed in with the American smaller teams. It's also Hincapie's last race.

The Vuelta has some striking scenery

Bert and Miguel Indurain

[Garden Kitty]

Court dismisses Armstong's lawsuit against the USADA but not before snarking on almost every party to the lawsuit

[DaiKozOda]

Volta a Portugal
20-08-2012; Stage 5; 176,9KM (Armamar / Oliveira de Azeméis)
Winner: Sérgio Ribeiro from Portugal (team Efapel)
Incredible day. The stage was difficult. Straight away in the beginning they had to face a big climb.The bunch was completely torn apart. Only much latter during the stage some were able to regroup.
Sérgio Ribeiro beat Reinardt van Rensburg on the finishing sprint. Unfortuntely, there was another big fall in the last 3KM. It's unbelievable to think that Ricardo Mestre was one of the guys involved on the fall. Mestre is taking big falls every single day... He's jinxed. José Gonçalves injuried his shoulder on a fall yesterday and he also fell today when he was trying to break away at the end of the stage. Crazy. Many cyclists gave up today (mostly the brazilian guys and some russians)
Hugo Sabido kept the yellow jersey. Jay Thomson had two terrible days in a row and dropped from 1st to 69th.
Mountain jersey: Rui Sousa (Efapel) is the new leader. South African Jay Thomson is second and spanish David Belda is third. French Cyril Bessy recovered to 6th place.
Points jersey: South african Reinardt van Rensburg is now in the lead with Hugo Sabido in 2nd.
Youth jersey: The two falls were costly to José Gonçalves (Onda Boavista) and he dropped to 4th. David de la Cruz and Bravo Garikoitz, both from Caja Rural, are in the lead. Spanish Jordi Simon (Andalucia) is third.
Team Results: Efapel leads from LA Antarte. Poor brazilian guys are in last place, 1h55m19s behind the leaders.
Videos:
Summary of the stage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyvLQMoBOCk&feature=plcp
Last 15minutes of the stage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM4susOvyzk
(12m26s - José Gonçalves tries to attack and falls on the curve shortly after; 12m55 group fall; 13m50 Delio Fernandez tries to attack; 14m38s van Rensburg tries to attack and Sergio Ribeiro follows him)

[DaiKozOda]

Volta a Portugal
21-06-2012; 6th stage; 184,1 KM (Aveiro / Viseu)
Winner: Jason McCartney from USA (Team United Healthcare)
Video summary of the stage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAtQwvvcYPQ&feature=plcp
Video with the last minutes of the stage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxul9...hannel&list=UL
Hugo Sabido still has the yellow jersey but only by 12s.
The 6th stage was the more quiet one so far. 17 cyclists were on the break away. McCartney was one of those 17. In the last KMs he attacked and went to the finish line all by himself. Polish kid Karol Domagalski was second on the stage.

[Garden Kitty]

We're less than a week into the Vuelta and it's already more exciting that the Tour. A close battle for the GC, Contador attacking and polemica about Sky not waiting when Valverde crashed.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, Tyler Farrar finally wins a stage and Tejay has taken the lead in the GC.

Good for McCartney in Portugal!

[DaiKozOda]

Oh my God, Valverde crashed! I will only be able to watch footage from the Vuelta tomorrow.

Meanwhile, here's an hilarious video from the Giro. The eurosport commentators are so cool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=c7T_8do5Ask

[Garden Kitty]

Article about Valverde

[Garden Kitty]

Apparently Barry Bonds has become quite the cycling fan. He's been hanging out at the USA Pro Challenge this week, and was riding the peaks in Colorado last month.

And unlike many athletes he also seems to have "slimmed down" since his playing days.

[DaiKozOda]

Thank you for the links Garden Kitty

Volta a Portugal
23-08-2012; 7th Stage; 185,3KM (Gouveia / Sabugal)
Winner: Kai Reus from Holland (Team United Healthcare)
It was an emotional day. It was great to see Kai Reus as a stage winner cause he has been through so many problems during his career that he deserves some joy and success. The guys from United Healthcare must be proud of him and must be happy with their overall performance so far.
Today, there was no way that the bunch could have catched the break-away. The break-away kept things in control for a long time. Then two guys tried to escape from the break away group but french Jean Marino was able to get them. Kai Reus was the last one to join them and he ended up attacking at the right moment to eventually win the stage.
Hugo Sabido (LA Antarte) still wears the yellow jersey with a 12s advantage over César Fonte (Efapel Glassdrive). The time differences between 1st and 15th place is less than two minutes and anything can happen.
In terms of the mountain jersey, Rui Sousa (Efapel Glassdrive) is still in the lead but David Belda (Burgos) has recovered to 2nd place.
The orange jersey (youth) is still with David de la Cruz from Caja Rural.
Reinardt van Rensburg (MTN Qhubeka) managed to keep his red jersey (points).
Carmin Prio Tavira leads the team board.
A great number of cyclists have whithdrawn in the last two days. Mostly russians and brazilians. Unfortunalely that number increased today as well due to a big crash. Guess what? Ricardo Mestre was once again a victim of crash but more serious than the other 3 he had already suffered. He was taken to hospital straight away and is under observation. Mestre wasn't the only one having to be rushed to the hospital. Edgar Pinto (LA Antarte) and Bravo Garikoitz (winner of the youth jersey in 2011) also had to be taken to hospital and have withdrawn. I wasn't watching live so I don't know how the crash took place.
Video summary: latter.
Video summary of the first week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x3S4...&feature=share
Newspapper article: http://www.record.xl.pt/Modalidades/...tent_id=774735

[Garden Kitty]

Sounds like a very exciting race! It's nice when it's close enough that anything can happen.

In Colorado, Jens! Voigt won the stage (and a lifetime ski pass to the local resort presented by Lindsay Vonn) and Tejay took back the yellow jersey. Rachael Flatt tweeted that she's going to be at the stage conclusion when the USA Pro Challenge finishes up in Colorado Springs tomorrow. Maybe some of the other skaters at Champs Camp will turn out too as the race apparently goes right by the Olympic Training Center.

And Floyd Landis will avoid jail under a deferred prosecution agreement he reached with the authorities provided he uses a certain amount of his earnings to pay back donors to his "Floyd Fairness Fund"

[DaiKozOda]

Rachael Flatt tweeted that she's going to be at the stage conclusion when the USA Pro Challenge finishes up in Colorado Springs tomorrow. Maybe some of the other skaters at Champs Camp will turn out too as the race apparently goes right by the Olympic Training Center.

Great news. I'll try to follow the stage at the eurosport broadcast. Maybe we can have a glimpse of her

Volta a Portugal
7th stage video summary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mCZvP-HL9g&feature=plcp

Edit: evening news footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU185v8pkFI
Still haven't figured out how the hell the crash took place. According to the evening news, some cyclists fell off the road in a curve and rolled down until 3 of them ended up in the backyard of a house. Another guy stayed on a sidewalk Meanwhile it has been confirmed that Jesus del Pino has also withdrawn and Edgar Pinto broke his collarbone.
David Blanco (Efapel Glassdrive) was supposed to be one of Ricardo Mestre biggest rivals this year. It was heartwarming to watch him offer his personal amulet to a guy of Mestre's team so he could give it to him in the hospital. Great sportmanship.

[Garden Kitty]

Reports indicate that Lance Armstrong won't fight the USADA charges any longer.

This is reportedly Lance's original statement, which doesn't seem to be posted on the original site anymore.

[BittyBug]

It's a brilliant PR strategy. Walk away before any conclusion, painting USADA as the big, bad bully and leaving room for supporters to continue to believe he's clean.

I'm struck by the similarities between his defense and others who later admitted to doping. He doesn't say he never doped; he says he never had a positive test. Big difference.

[tarotx]

The way Lance describes it, it's McCarthyism all over.

I still believe everybody cheats. Until they can start catching cheaters at the time of the events, everyone will continue to cheat. Stripping Armstrong of his wins won't matter to his life or to the sports cleanliness. He's made up for whatever bad he did or so many people believe.

Oh I guess everyone is a big word but those who compete to win cheat. Sucks but mostly for their own health and the ones they inspire who will grow up to cheat and risk their health. But hell that's the name of sport I guess...

[liv]

I always believed he doped. Glad that he's finally been "caught."

I agree that this is a great PR strategy. You know that if you were innocent, you would keep fighting, irregardless of fatigue/cost etc. I would. He knows that there is finally evidence and before it's made a bigger news item than it is, he throws in the towel and still looks innocent to many people.

That being said, he's done a lot for the cancer cause and charities, so I am torn about how I feel about him.

[Rafter]

It's a brilliant PR strategy. Walk away before any conclusion, painting USADA as the big, bad bully and leaving room for supporters to continue to believe he's clean.

I'm struck by the similarities between his defense and others who later admitted to doping. He doesn't say he never doped; he says he never had a positive test. Big difference.

Good point. Is interesting that he has never denied doping, just says he's never had a positive test.

As for a brilliant PR strategy, I'm not so sure. In reading a lot of "comments" under various articles, a lot of people seem to be glad he's finally been punished for doping. But he definitely has some supporters who believe he's clean.

I'm torn about him. I think he's definitely a cheater, but I also suspect everyone in cycling is doping so he was playing on a level playing field, so to speak. I also admire the work he's done for cancer charity. Though some comments I've read from the anti-Armstrong people suggest that he got cancer because of all the doping/extended use of EPO.

[Theatregirl1122]

It's weird that no one seems to really be reporting on the dispute between the USADA and the UCI. Everyone is reporting that Lance has been stripped of his titles but not that the UCI disputes that the USADA has the power to strip him of his titles. So technically he hasn't lost anything yet.

I believe that Lance was probably doping. But then I believe that 95% of the riders in the tour the years he won were doping. So what's the point of going after Lance? Unless the WADA intends to dedicate the same level of investigation to every rider in the tour those 7 years.

I also think that they should not, as has been done in the past, give those 7 titles to the 2nd place finishers if the titles do end up being stripped. Can you imagine how stupid the sport will look if they take 7 titles from Lance and give 3 of them to Jan Ulrich? "We've concluded that Lance Armstrong is a doper and gave his titles to clean riders!" What, like the guy who has already had his participation in one twour vacated due to doping and retired after a doping ban? Oy.

Ultimately I still think that, without a positive test, it shouldn't be possible to strip titles from anyone. And, while I don't believe everything that comes out of the Lance Armstrong PR machine, I'm also puzzled by some of the USADAs actions here. Especially the statute of limitations issue. This article covers that issue and I don't know that it has really been satisfied:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lega...-against-usada

And Hinault's reaction is my new favorite thing:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/...ecision_235762

But Pereiro, Delgado, and Olano have interesting comments.

[Zemgirl]

It's weird that no one seems to really be reporting on the dispute between the USADA and the UCI. Everyone is reporting that Lance has been stripped of his titles but not that the UCI disputes that the USADA has the power to strip him of his titles. So technically he hasn't lost anything yet.

I noticed that; it should be interesting to see how this dispute plays out.

Good point. Is interesting that he has never denied doping, just says he's never had a positive test.

IIRC, he has denied it repeatedly while also emphasizing the "I've never failed a test" line.

I'm torn about him. I think he's definitely a cheater, but I also suspect everyone in cycling is doping so he was playing on a level playing field, so to speak. I also admire the work he's done for cancer charity. Though some comments I've read from the anti-Armstrong people suggest that he got cancer because of all the doping/extended use of EPO.

I would imagine he has taken illegal substances at one point or another - certainly in his Motorola days, likely after. As you and others have noted, cycling is rife with that, so I'm having a hard time being upset that someone who doped beat others who doped. When Armstrong won his last TdF, Ulrich and Basso were on the podium with him, followed by Mancebo and Vino. Come on.

BTW, isn't EPO used to actually treat people with some forms of cancer - those with anemia from the chemo? Or is that a different type of EPO?

Leaving aside the Armstrong case, I'll admit that I have some concerns in general about anti-doping efforts and the appeals process, which almost never ends in favor of the athlete (even ones who were clearly not at fault, like Andreea Răducan). I don't believe all doping cases are created equal, and sometimes the zeal to punish and strip people of their results is misplaced, IMO.

[Zemgirl]

sorry, double post.