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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Weekend Notes

Despite the forecast calling for thunderstorms and clouds, there will be plenty of cycling action to satisfy the twitchy nerves of riders everywhere who need to get the next fix.

Saturday
:
The AmainT 11km Circuit race will be going on out near the Taichung Science Park.
I believe things will get rockin' at around 7:00am. Lots of racers from all over will be there to join in.

Sunday: The Wu Ling Race up to the top of Ho Huan Shan will get going. It is quite a climb. Lot's of riders burn out early on this one.

Me? Maybe a Century Ride up to the Ming De Reservoir and back on the Highway 1. Back to the endurance training for June.

You Never Know What You'll Become



Like most people, I have known how to ride a bike for a long time. I remember my first hand-me-down, yellow, girl-tubed Schwinn I learned to ride on. The red Schwinn Stingray I inherited from my cousin. I have fond memories of my first dirt-bike with the Enduro number plate on the front my brother and his friend Darren painted and put together for my birthday. That was followed by the black and white Toys R' Us Huffy 10spd with spongy grips on the drop bars (I thought the Team Murray was stupid and the Stu Thompson series even worse.. Stu-pid). I got that because that is what I saw Jim Murray, the paper-boy riding. That bike sucked. As a pre-teen I bought the neighbor's 1980 chrome Mongoose BMX and tried to polish it up to look as nice as the new Fisher, Haro and Diamondback BMX bikes that were popular at the time. At the same time we dredged up the great Clipper by Columbia, a massive early 29er with super-fat tires and coaster brakes; the precursor of the mountain bike. That thing had no end to its crank range. These were all tickets to childhood independence and misused as a means to sneak off to the store to blow pocket money on: doughnuts, Laffy Taffy, Red Vines, Shasta, Fruit Pies, Hostess-anything for that matter, Fruit Rollups, Charleston Chews, Powdered Donette Gems, Nestle Quick, A&W Root Beer, Runts, Fun Dip... crap! It was wonderful. Income from becoming a paper route mogul made the issue of biking to the store a more serious enterprise. Once I bought a car I put the bike down and would drive or skateboard. Finally before moving to Taiwan when my car was no longer insurable, I used a Specialized Rockhopper that was about 3 sizes too big.

Now I am a quasi-roadie who is totally addicted to cycling and everything about it.
It is amazing what we become. Ten years ago I would never have thought I'd be lusting for bikes and following the Giro every night. These surprises make life so worth it!





1st Night Ride To Caotun: 48Km

These stats above that look like a richter scale are from my first night ride out to Caotun 草屯and back on the Highway 14 on the Changhua 彰化 side of the river, through Fen Yuan 芬園.

It wasn't so bad... but could have been better. I think I rode a little on the conservative side as it was a solo ride during peak traffic at night on a route I have done... maybe once before. I think it took way too long for my legs to warm up, but the added nutrition from insects flying into my mouth provided a little energy boost half-way through. I need to get a little bit faster on this route and I hope that will happen as I get more familiar with it. It was a great way to get a few more kilometers into my week. And yes, I still use Standard measurements.
:(

UCI Responds

The UCI, which is the main governing body of professional cycling and the keepers of arcane beliefs that regulate official equipment use and other trivialities that influence what average consumers buy to look "pro", has issued a statement regarding the potential bombshell released last week by 2006 Tour de France winner and loser Floyd Landis detailing the UCI's response to the allegations it colluded with Lance Armstrong and others in hiding positive results from random tests for performance enhancing drugs.


Oooooo.... the plot thickens! I hope there is a part coming up where a splinter group of the Catholic Church sends out an auto-masochistic assassin to suppress the truth and preserve the power of the UCI and its Rosecrucian overlords.


UCI Press Release, May 25 2010


Floyd Landis’s accusations: clarifications from the UCI

Due to the controversy following the statements made by Floyd Landis, the International Cycling Union wishes to stress that none of the tests revealed the presence of EPO in the samples taken from riders at the 2001 Tour of Switzerland. The UCI has all the documentation to prove this fact.

Between 2001 and 2003, only the Paris, Lausanne, Cologne, Barcelona and Madrid laboratories, commissioned by the UCI, detected the presence of EPO in the samples that had been entrusted to them for analysis. During this period, the first laboratory carried out three positive analyses for EPO, the second 18 and the three last laboratories one each. None of the samples concerned had been taken at the 2001 Tour of Switzerland.

The International Olympic Committee received a copy of all the reports for the positive analyses mentioned above. Furthermore, in 2001, all the analysis reports carried out at the Tour of Switzerland were sent to Swiss Olympic.

Since 1st January 2004, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) receives a copy of any analysis reports which show an abnormal result. WADA has not reported any abnormal analyses from any of its accredited laboratories that have not been duly dealt with by the UCI.

The UCI wishes to reassert the total transparency of its anti-doping testing and categorically rejects any suspicion in relation to the concealment of results from parties involved in this field.



Read more: http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/05/news/uci-press-release-floyd-landis’s-accusations_118561#ixzz0p1Gw1uwf