Before you read below, check out what Trick Dick had to say about our retired wannabe hero!
In an interview with French Sports daily L'Equipe, three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond has claimed Lance Armstrong threatened him after criticising his involvement with a doctor linked with a drugs scandal.
LeMond, who in 1986 became the first American to win the Tour de France, stated "he [Armstrong] threatened my wife, my business, my life."
"All that I can say, is that the last four or five years haven't been very pleasant for me. His biggest threat against me was that he would find ten people to testify that I took EPO. Evidently, he didn't find anyone."
LeMond had previously tried to steer Armstrong clear of working with Italian doctor Michele Ferrari who was at the centre of a drugs scandal in 2004, and who LeMond now considers to have been proven to have been "a negative influence on cycling."
The American, who will turn 45 tomorrow, also hit out at the current state of cycling, saying that the problem of doping in cycling goes far beyond just Lance Armstrong.
"The scandal is Spain is just another example, the entire system is corrupt, the UCI is corrupt."
Comparing the current situation in cycling, to that when he was in his pomp, LeMond's message was a depressing one:
"Maybe I'm being naive, but in the 1980s it was possible to win the Tour de France without doping. In their careers, riders had the choice of taking drugs or leaving them. Unfortunately, I don't think they have the choice nowadays."
25 June 2006
20 June 2006
My new buisness adventure.
I'm going enter into as many races as I can and then offer to sell the win to my fellow racers. Just like Basso!!
14 June 2006
You have herd of scuba Steve, meet scuba Peace.
Oh I had to do it, it's been on my mind ever since he sent me the picture. Bad news is that he NEVER EVER checks the site so he will not see the picture. I guess it's illegal to have grapes in Cuba so he has found a way to smuggle them in. He dives out into the bay and pickes them up where they have been droped of. Either he is been shafted and is confusing rasians with grapes or can only fit 2 at a time in his shorts.?
12 June 2006
Killer Birds
Straight out of a Hitchcock Tale, I was on my way home from work today, riding into the never ending headwind that consumes my evening commute, when I was attacked by a Blackbird. Literally attacked. I kept feeling something hitting me in the back & then the helmet & finally turned in time to get dinged on the side of the head. I stopped, and the bird flew across the road onto a post. I started to ride again & the bird flew into my helmet again. We did this over & over for about 15 minutes. He chirped at me & kept hitting my jacket, which was tucked into my back pocket, or my neck or my head. Every time I stopped, he perched onto the nearest post, and then finally an owl or hawk flew lower from up over head and the Blackbird thought better of hanging out in the open any longer. Talk about surreal.. Freaked me out.
Anyway, I still had 10 miles to go & the wind was not letting up, but at least my mind was on something other than the wind for a little while...
Still freaking me out though!!
Anyway, I still had 10 miles to go & the wind was not letting up, but at least my mind was on something other than the wind for a little while...Still freaking me out though!!
09 June 2006
The Ditty Bops cross the USA on bikes
Check out the blog link at the bottom. Sounds like a good deal. I need to ride cross-country!
American rock band, the Ditty Bops, is taking a novel approach to promoting an album: by riding their bikes across the USA. Assisted by the Adventure Cycling Association, the group's members Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald will tour the country on two wheels, playing live shows at theatres, music halls, bike shops, and old barns (Nebraska farmers get ready) in support of their new album Moon Over the Freeway, recently released on Warner Bros. Records.
"We decided to do the tour this way to promote not only our album, but also cycling and cleaner air," said DeWald, who left Los Angeles with Barrett on May 25. "If we can ride our bikes across the country and play music, we hope others will be inspired to ride their bikes more often."
Bicycle travel expert Adventure Cycling is providing the Ditty Bops with route and technical expertise. Whenever possible the Ditty Bops are following Adventure Cycling's 34,000-mile National Bicycle Route Network. Adventure Cycling's maps for the network try to show the best, safest, and most scenic routes as well as bike shops and places to stay, camp, and eat.
When they're not following the NBRN, the Ditty Bops will use The Cyclists' Yellow Pages to locate other routes, maps, and cycling resources. For example, in Missouri, they'll ride the 220-mile Katy Trail, in Illinois they'll follow the Route 66 Bicycle Route (recently developed by the League of Illinois Bicyclists), and in Cleveland they'll ride bicycle routes mapped by Columbus Outdoor Pursuits Cyclists' Yellow Pages.
As they ride, The Ditty Bops are raising money for Adventure Cycling's efforts to inspire people to travel by bike (www.adventurecycling.org/dittybops). As a nonprofit, all donations are tax-deductible. They'll also be handing out Adventure Cycling flyers at their shows.
You can check out the Ditty Bops' blog at www.thedittybopsbiketour.blogspot.com, where besides daily ride and show updates, they keep a running tally of everything they eat and all the roadkill they pedal past.
American rock band, the Ditty Bops, is taking a novel approach to promoting an album: by riding their bikes across the USA. Assisted by the Adventure Cycling Association, the group's members Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald will tour the country on two wheels, playing live shows at theatres, music halls, bike shops, and old barns (Nebraska farmers get ready) in support of their new album Moon Over the Freeway, recently released on Warner Bros. Records.
"We decided to do the tour this way to promote not only our album, but also cycling and cleaner air," said DeWald, who left Los Angeles with Barrett on May 25. "If we can ride our bikes across the country and play music, we hope others will be inspired to ride their bikes more often."
Bicycle travel expert Adventure Cycling is providing the Ditty Bops with route and technical expertise. Whenever possible the Ditty Bops are following Adventure Cycling's 34,000-mile National Bicycle Route Network. Adventure Cycling's maps for the network try to show the best, safest, and most scenic routes as well as bike shops and places to stay, camp, and eat.
When they're not following the NBRN, the Ditty Bops will use The Cyclists' Yellow Pages to locate other routes, maps, and cycling resources. For example, in Missouri, they'll ride the 220-mile Katy Trail, in Illinois they'll follow the Route 66 Bicycle Route (recently developed by the League of Illinois Bicyclists), and in Cleveland they'll ride bicycle routes mapped by Columbus Outdoor Pursuits Cyclists' Yellow Pages.
As they ride, The Ditty Bops are raising money for Adventure Cycling's efforts to inspire people to travel by bike (www.adventurecycling.org/dittybops). As a nonprofit, all donations are tax-deductible. They'll also be handing out Adventure Cycling flyers at their shows.
You can check out the Ditty Bops' blog at www.thedittybopsbiketour.blogspot.com, where besides daily ride and show updates, they keep a running tally of everything they eat and all the roadkill they pedal past.
02 June 2006
O'grady's Foaming Rant is hilarious!!!
It doesn't get any truer than this! spot on & hilarious too
Friday's Foaming Rant: Sports, entertainment and business
By Patrick O’GradyVeloNews editor at large
This report filed June 2, 2006
Liberty Seguros cycling team director Manolo Saiz, arrested on doping charges, was released Wednesday after being questioned by police, the Civil Guard said. - The Associated PressManolo Saiz has found a new sponsor to underwrite his ProTour team, barely a week after insurance giant Liberty Seguros pulled the plug on its $8.5 million-a-year deal. - Andrew Hood, VeloNews
So, Lance Armstrong is innocent and everybody else is guilty. Thank God we finally got that settled. Now we can say to hell with bicycle racing and find a respectable sport to follow, like cockfighting.
photo: Jimmy OlsenBeing a clean cyclist in the 21st-century peloton must feel like being a Quaker among the Crips. Call me crazy, but I think there may be something wrong with our sport if its practitioners - despite years of dope raids, bad press and lost sponsors - are still skulking about with enough dirty money in their pockets to buy a sticky 15 minutes with Paris Hilton and packing Igloo suitcases full of refined corpuscles, ursine growth hormone and gorilla testicles. What the hell is the plan here? Going for the GC in the Tour of the Island of Dr. Moreau, are we?
Maybe. Yahoo Sports' cycling page yesterday sported 14 headlines. All but two involved doping. Our own site today looks like the sports page of The Lancet, or maybe The Daily Planet's police blotter ("Luthor Found With Banned Kryptonite, Vows to Clear Name"). And whenever I write another screed on this scummy topic I feel less like a correspondent and more like a co-defendant.
Following this sport has become something like girl-watching in Orange County. You'd like to think it's all diet and exercise, but you know why the surgeons all drive next year's Mercedes-Benzes.
What's in our future? Cloning? Got bad legs today? Send out You No. 2, he's feeling tip-top, and nobody will be able to tell the difference, not even Dick Pound. Or maybe the directeurs sportif will be able to take a page from Superman's Fortress of Solitude, wherein the Man of Steel's army of replica robots stands lined up like so many mechanical water-carriers awaiting the star's pleasure. Human beings are so last century, don't you agree? You won't see any Giro stages shortened by weather once ASO (Asimov Sports Organization) is running the show. And just think, only three laws to remember, too.
In the meantime, we're stuck here in the present with the flesh-and-blood dopeheads, so we'd better try to make the best of it. Maybe we should begin by reconsidering whether there are any significant differences remaining between "sport" and "entertainment."
I used to have firm if foolish notions about the former. A sport had to have a finish line, or points awarded impartially for specific actions. It demanded a high degree of skill and fitness. And it couldn't be something a fat bastard could do drunk while sitting down.
OLN and ESPN promptly flushed out my headgear in that regard by televising the likes of poker, dominoes and bass fishing. I fully expect that before much longer, one or the other will be treating us to the World Fart-Lighting Competition, presented by Taco Bell, Bud Light and Bic. And before the first commercial break, some smart guy will be busily designing an asbestos asshole that is both indistinguishable from the original equipment and contains a miniature propane tank to give the savvy pooter that little extra something. Damn the rules, doc, there's money to be made! Sure, we may lose a few guys to ignition mishaps, but that's one of the costs of doing business.
Because that's what this noisome crap is all about - business. You can call it sport or entertainment, but if you do it for money, it's business, and you don't have to look much beyond the front page to see how that game is played.
And anyway, who cares? We don't object to doped-up movie stars treating rehab like we might a Starbucks (a quiet place to drink some coffee and take a break). We just smile, shake our heads bemusedly ("These crazy Hollywood types!") and plunk down a ten-spot to see their next inane flick. Why should we give a rat's ass about cycling's drug problem?
So relax. Quit trying to peek behind the curtains and enjoy the show. Speaking of which, there's a new Superman movie due out this summer, and it's just what the doctor ordered for cycling fans desperate for a guy in colorful, tight-fitting garments who's clean as a whistle and can fly.
Of course, he can't, really; not without a whole lot of specialized assistance. But you knew that.
Friday's Foaming Rant: Sports, entertainment and business
By Patrick O’GradyVeloNews editor at large
This report filed June 2, 2006
Liberty Seguros cycling team director Manolo Saiz, arrested on doping charges, was released Wednesday after being questioned by police, the Civil Guard said. - The Associated PressManolo Saiz has found a new sponsor to underwrite his ProTour team, barely a week after insurance giant Liberty Seguros pulled the plug on its $8.5 million-a-year deal. - Andrew Hood, VeloNews
So, Lance Armstrong is innocent and everybody else is guilty. Thank God we finally got that settled. Now we can say to hell with bicycle racing and find a respectable sport to follow, like cockfighting.
photo: Jimmy OlsenBeing a clean cyclist in the 21st-century peloton must feel like being a Quaker among the Crips. Call me crazy, but I think there may be something wrong with our sport if its practitioners - despite years of dope raids, bad press and lost sponsors - are still skulking about with enough dirty money in their pockets to buy a sticky 15 minutes with Paris Hilton and packing Igloo suitcases full of refined corpuscles, ursine growth hormone and gorilla testicles. What the hell is the plan here? Going for the GC in the Tour of the Island of Dr. Moreau, are we?
Maybe. Yahoo Sports' cycling page yesterday sported 14 headlines. All but two involved doping. Our own site today looks like the sports page of The Lancet, or maybe The Daily Planet's police blotter ("Luthor Found With Banned Kryptonite, Vows to Clear Name"). And whenever I write another screed on this scummy topic I feel less like a correspondent and more like a co-defendant.
Following this sport has become something like girl-watching in Orange County. You'd like to think it's all diet and exercise, but you know why the surgeons all drive next year's Mercedes-Benzes.
What's in our future? Cloning? Got bad legs today? Send out You No. 2, he's feeling tip-top, and nobody will be able to tell the difference, not even Dick Pound. Or maybe the directeurs sportif will be able to take a page from Superman's Fortress of Solitude, wherein the Man of Steel's army of replica robots stands lined up like so many mechanical water-carriers awaiting the star's pleasure. Human beings are so last century, don't you agree? You won't see any Giro stages shortened by weather once ASO (Asimov Sports Organization) is running the show. And just think, only three laws to remember, too.
In the meantime, we're stuck here in the present with the flesh-and-blood dopeheads, so we'd better try to make the best of it. Maybe we should begin by reconsidering whether there are any significant differences remaining between "sport" and "entertainment."
I used to have firm if foolish notions about the former. A sport had to have a finish line, or points awarded impartially for specific actions. It demanded a high degree of skill and fitness. And it couldn't be something a fat bastard could do drunk while sitting down.
OLN and ESPN promptly flushed out my headgear in that regard by televising the likes of poker, dominoes and bass fishing. I fully expect that before much longer, one or the other will be treating us to the World Fart-Lighting Competition, presented by Taco Bell, Bud Light and Bic. And before the first commercial break, some smart guy will be busily designing an asbestos asshole that is both indistinguishable from the original equipment and contains a miniature propane tank to give the savvy pooter that little extra something. Damn the rules, doc, there's money to be made! Sure, we may lose a few guys to ignition mishaps, but that's one of the costs of doing business.
Because that's what this noisome crap is all about - business. You can call it sport or entertainment, but if you do it for money, it's business, and you don't have to look much beyond the front page to see how that game is played.
And anyway, who cares? We don't object to doped-up movie stars treating rehab like we might a Starbucks (a quiet place to drink some coffee and take a break). We just smile, shake our heads bemusedly ("These crazy Hollywood types!") and plunk down a ten-spot to see their next inane flick. Why should we give a rat's ass about cycling's drug problem?
So relax. Quit trying to peek behind the curtains and enjoy the show. Speaking of which, there's a new Superman movie due out this summer, and it's just what the doctor ordered for cycling fans desperate for a guy in colorful, tight-fitting garments who's clean as a whistle and can fly.
Of course, he can't, really; not without a whole lot of specialized assistance. But you knew that.
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