T-Bones Rare

First off a warm hello to all my fellow cyclists I saw out this evening east of Edmonton in Strathcona County. I hope your ride went as as well as mine.

On Velo News today there was a press release regarding the investigation into allegations of Lance Armstrong. In short the report has cleared Lance of any wrong doing and claimed misconduct on the part of anti-doping agencies in the way they handled the case. In addition UCI, Lance and WADA have reacted to the report. For the time being it looks like UCI and WADA are pretty choked about the report being released before they had a chance to look at it.

I’ve only had a chance to read a small part of the report, legalese is tough too handle after a 2 hour ride and it is fairly damning about the way the samples, and the whole affair where handled. However it is pointed out the testing was not a witch hunt to get Lance. The first part of the report also clears up how saved urine samples are supposed to be used compared to what we may have heard in the media when the scandal first hit.

My take on all this. I can’t help but feel there are some people or groups of people that have hard time believing a person can make the kinds of achievements Lance did with out having some sort of pharmaceutical help. I think its unfortunate. Here in Edmonton we never questioned Wayne Gretzky’s abilities, we never said he had pharmaceutical help. Let’s face it, every few generations we are lucky to have an person come along who has great ability in an aspect of live, be it athletic, artistic, musical, or scientific. We should really be celebrating the achievements of such people, if they use a crutch they will be found out sooner or later. Look at what happened to Ben Johnston, talk about a shattering blow to Canadian pride. Do we turn a blind eye to drug use in sports, I don’t think so. Doping in sports has been around for a long time, just read about the history of the Tour De France, take a look what is happening in sports like baseball and so on. What we shouldn’t be doing is chasing after guys who are proofed innocent. Lets face it, Lance had a very good run at the Tour, he can back despite odds saying he should have died. He worked hard to achieve his goals and should be an inspiration to anyone. So let him get on with the rest of his life, he didn’t do drugs, the report vindicates him, lets get over it.

Whew… glad to get that off my chest. Those thought were rattling around in head as was riding this evening. The weather was almost perfect and I was glad see other riders out chasing after their goals and dreams. For myself I’m getting ready for the Pigeon Lake Road Race this coming Sunday. I wonder how many of the guys I saw on the road tonight are going to be there?

The ride tonight was a nice combination of flats and rollers for a total of about 73 KM. As usual going out of and coming into the city involves stop light sprints, I find those frustrating, I just get a good rhythm going and then you have to stop. Shouldn’t complain too much, intervals are also good for you.

Cheers!

Technorati Tags: Lance Armstrong, Cycling, Doping, Roadies, Edmonton, rant

I was out for a shorter ride, 50 KM in total. Riding while the Oilers game is on has its advantages, mainly the roads have less traffic on them. Overal a good ride, with a fairly string wind making sections a bit of challenge. In a couple of cases when I was heading downhill I thought I was going to go in reverse.

Compared to last year I'm finding head winds and hills a lot easier to deal with, for a couple of reasons, my overall fitness levels and weighing about 20 pounds less. But that being said, I still feel room for improvement, I'm not quite dancing on the pedals yet. No map yet as it's waiting for processing at Motion Based. 

Victoria Day weekend in Canada. With the nice weather, for the most part, it's a good for getting saddle time in. Two rides this weekend so far. First up was the regular 9th Street Cycle Logic St. Albert ride. This ride is about 50 KM from the shop to St. Albert and back. We usually stop in at St Thomas Cafe & Bistro to fuel up for the ride home, I highly recommend the ginger snap cookies

Being a long weekend we didn't have as many riders this time around, only about 10 or so. Another unusual feature of the ride was a southerly wind. Usually the wind is from the north, making the ride back a bit easier. On the way back everyone chipped in with short pulls at the front making it an easy effort for all.

Today I was out on my own for a couple of hours. I did a 70 KM loop south and west of the city. The roads are in reasonable condition for most of the route. Lots of the roads in Edmonton are in bad condition, for a province that is out of debt, the infrastructure really sucks in some places, but I digress. Light winds made it easy to maintain a good pace for most of the time. And traffic was fairly light also, a nice thing on some of the narrower roads.

As for the problems I was having with my Garmin Edge, I was able to do some experimenting and come up with a solution, thus getting rid of the weird readings I was getting for speeds. There are times I wsih the owners manuals had a little more detail in them.