Broken Heart Round 2...

Not again... A couple days ago, the Giro d'Italia, King of the Mountains Emanuele Sella got popped for using the EPO. Reports state that he tested positive for the same EPO that they had found in Riccardo Ricco. He was scheduled to return to racing on the 20th of July, however his team pulled him out last minute due to tendinitis. Keep in mind that Ricco had just tested positive 3 days before... therefore, when he pulled out of the race that threw up the red flags. Yet another fallen hero of mine.

I must say I am a huge fan of climbing specialists, because I know first hand the pain and difficulty of climbing. The way they can rocket up the mountains with no perceived effort and maintain leg-shattering pace is just amazing to me. Watching Sella & Ricco, was a beautiful thing... in the mountains they could crush the competition. Sella, in the Giro this year, was so spectacular you couldn't help but jump out of your seat in shock... as more and more riders drifted off his wheel.

I don't think that riders of this caliber need to use EPO to be competitive and win, but they did none the less. Does that mean that they should be shunned forever, maybe... but not in my opinion. I have never seen a sport with such odd fans. On one end they post all over the web how dopers should be put in jail and banned from the sport for life, however conversely their favorite rider is Marco Pantani or Jan Ulrich. My favorite fans are the David Millar fans, like that guy is so honorable now... he did EPO his whole career and now he's on an anti-doping squad, and you idiot's go and read his blog and throw him mad props all day.

If you hate the dopers in the sport, then fine, hate them. However, you cannot choose to play favorites. One of my favorite riders of all time is Marco Pantani, cliche I know, and he died from a drug overdose. Love cycling for what it is... a beautiful sport. Chances are that unless you ride a bike you don't even give a crap about cycling. So enjoy your own rides and one day perhaps the gods of our sport won't be using performance enhancing substances, not likely, but perhaps.

I leave you with this... I am quite unsure as to how much additional strength is achieved through the use of EPO, but I can guarantee that the stock broker, dentist, GP, and the lawyer at the local group ride could live and train at 18,000 ft, inject EPO until their blood runs like frozen maple syrup and they still couldn't hang with a pro peloton in the flats.

-Pace

Our Voice Was Heard???

No sooner than I finished posting my complaint about the poor reporting standards of the Southern California race promoters, I go to USA Cycling and see 3 more race results reported. I hope this is a sign of progress... I even got results for the Devil's Punchbowl race and they have never reported their results in the past. The tide is changing... be sure to make your voice heard... like with your own lame blog... I mean tight blog.

"Ride Lots" - Eddy Merckx

Weekend Projects

Over this past week and weekend I spent some time building a commuter bike for my girlfriend and did a favor for a friend. First thing on the agenda was a thorough bike cleaning for my boys Torelli. It really is a beautiful bike and probably hadn't been serviced or cleaned for a few years. So, I basically hooked him up with a $200 bike service for free, just because I am obsessed with working on and cleaning bikes. I stripped down his bike and cleaned everything on the bike... and also revamped his beautiful Campy set up. A very aesthetically pleasing Campy Chorus. I also added some orange tires to accent the frame a bit as well. I took a picture before I brought it back to him and thought I would share this with the world... It looks more like art work, after I cleaned it up I drove it back to him... I couldn't bear to ride it anymore.

Now on too my little pride and joy. I bought an old specialized crossover on Craigslist a while back, for about $60. after a while I finally decided to get it revamped and give it some style. Of course a lot of work had to be done here, the bike had been sitting around for several years and was also a beach bike. Operating it was pretty labor intensive, from spinning the knobby's to shifting the push button gears. The gear shifters essentially required the wrist strength of Mariusz Pudzianowski.

So I took her to the living room bike shoppe and stripped her down to the frame and sanded off the nasty green paint. I decided to go with a nice fire engine red for the frame color... I figured the black and red would look sharp. Unfortunately I only got one spray can so I was a bit short on paint for the underside... but it looked pretty good anyway. A quick visit to performance bike, which had a great sale this weekend, and I was able to pick up all new cables, housing, chain and a sharp little commuter rack for cheap. I've got to say that putting the bike together from the ground up was quite an adventure, and a super fun project. If I can liken it to another similar activity, it would be the equivalent of tearing down an old classic car and building it back up from the ground up. So needless to say I was very proud and learned a lot from my work.

The bike is now better than new... great shifting, comparable to shimano 105. I presented this to my girl this past weekend and she loved it... we went for some rides around the southbay. I am hoping this sparks excitement for her to commute to work a couple times a week. Eventually I am going to fix up and sell my old road bike as well, so be on the lookout, for both of these bikes will be available on craigslist soon. I will be trying to raise funds to set her up with a really really nice roadie style commuter. Probably something along the lines of the LaSalsa Casserole.

Build a bike... it's way fun

ATTN: SO CAL CYCLING PROMOTERS

... REPORT YOUR RESULTS!!!

I am absolutely sure that this will not be a surprise to anyone currently racing in California, however one quick blurb in case you have not been paying attention. As a member of USA Cycling, and clearly a racing license holder, your results for your races are to be reported by the promoter so you maybe ranked against your peers and fellow racing enthusiasts. However, after having participated in about 15 USA Cycling sanctioned events I have only had my results for 3 of these races reported.

Now this to me seems inherently odd, because if I go to SoCalCycling.com, I can access all my results for the year. Clearly there is a break down in communication here. Promoters are reporting results to SoCalCycling but not to USA Cycling... clearly reporting to USA Cycling must be difficult for these absent minded promoters, therefore I have decided to post step by step instructions online.

Results and Rankings

Following you will find the guidelines for submitting your race results online. Please feel free to contact the Results and Rankings Coordinator at rankings@usacycling.org, at any time during the process if you have any questions.

1.You will need to have an account on the USA Cycling website. You do not need to purchase a rider license to have an account; just create a login and password.

2.Once you have created an online account, please complete the online results and rankings agreement (see link below) to have the ranking logo applied to your race. This logo also indicates that the point value level has been set for your race. If this value is not set, the system will not rank your event.

3.When the point value level is set, you will receive an email notification granting permission to submit and edit race results directly from your USA Cycling account.

4.When your race results are set with the proper information (follow example format headings for Mountain Biking and Road/Track/Cyclo-cross), you will just need to follow the directions through the new system submission process.

Here is the Agreement form below, which keep in mind all of the local promoters have had to have established... especially in the event that they post their USA Cycling permit number.

USAC and Promoter Results and Rankings Agreement

USAC and event promoters agree on a process that each will follow for events that are to become part of the USAC Results and Rankings Program. The objective of this agreement is to identify the responsibilities each of us has in keeping the integrity of the rankings program accurate and a value to members at all levels of ability.

Event Promoters

- Agree to submit race results in the 21 days following the conclusion of the event.
- Recognize that should a promoter not live up to this agreement, action may be taken by USAC on future sanctioning of events.

USAC

- Will continue to commit itself to the goal of maintaining an athlete ranking program that distinguishes its value to all of its constituencies.
- Will calculate the rankings on a daily basis.
- Will provide members with access to their ranking on the USAC web site. Riders will be able to compare themselves with other riders on a national level, state level and even by their own zip code.

This agreement is established to serve the USAC membership. USAC, along with our promoters, recognizes the need to continually increase participation and strengthen our sport.

I agree to the conditions listed in the USAC and Promoter Results and Rankings Agreement. I agree to follow the USAC approved format using Excel or any other comma delimited file and submit it directly to the web site or to rankings@usacycling.org. I understand that results need to be submitted within 21 business days after the close of the event.

I would really like to call attention to the line above, "USAC, along with our promoters, recognizes the need to continually increase participation and strengthen our sport." Why has this vision been lost between the promoters and our representatives at USA Cycling. Clearly penalty for missing he 21day reporting deadline must not be very serious, as evidenced by the fact that none of our events are being reported in a timely manner. In fact TORRENCE CRITERIUM just reported last week... only 110 days later. Yet for some reason SoCalCycling had results within 2 days. I cannot believe that the same email that goes to SoCalCycling must be that difficult to forward to USA Cycling. Here is their email one more time, rankings@usacycling.org .

Please let your promoters now by voicing your concern for the reporting. My email requests have undoubtedly ended up in someones junk mail. Perhaps if we get enough out there, crowding enough space in the inbox, we may finally get some of these promoters to add that extra CC in the address box.

Please its not that difficult... please send in your results, otherwise I may never now how much better I am than Mark Vitaliano from Chicago or little Billy Applebee from Podunk, Kentucky... I need the validation of results to finally prove once and for all that not only am I the best racer, but more endowed and able to piss further than all of my competition.