If they didn't have Christmas, they'd invent something else

Performance Bike was having an early bird special so I went to their Raleigh location to see what I needed. After going through their clearance rack and seeing that only larges and xxl sized jerseys and bibs were left, I decided to look elsewhere. I went through the whole store and settled on a bike stand to use with the front tire when you're using a trainer. It cost a whopping $8.60. I brought it up to the cashier who looked disappointed when I put it on the counter, and after spending 2 minutes checking to see if I'd ever shopped at one of their stores, commented, "That's it? I mean, 20% off all purchases..." I replied, "Yeah, but this is all I need." He rang me up and I waited for my dad to finish with his purchase while I watched the other people stand in line with items costing less than $50. I know that if we didn't have Christmas, department stores would create something else to inundate us with some sort of cultural obligation that would require us to spend a small fortune to enjoy the created holiday.

Great Dismal Swamp Cycling

The Great Dismal Swamp is a unique biosystem consisting of three foot long mosquitoes, angry black bears, venomous water moccasins, black hornets, bees, and high humidity. And yet I still ventured into it Friday morning after a filling breakfast at a local eatery. Why? Because this certain stretch of the Great Dismal Swamp near the VA-NC border has a stretch of paved road, remnants of an old highway, that runs through it. This makes it a prime candidate for running, cycling, and walking which I took to full advantage when a couple of gents from work and I hauled down to the swamp to ride our trusty, dusty carbon fiber steeds. 28 miles later, and I'm convinced that I should ride that stretch more often. A continuous path with no traffic to worry about, although the car barriers are a nuisance to steer around, and nature completely surrounding you. I was mostly quiet during the ride, busy smelling the honeysuckle and other foilage that reminded me of back home, while feeling stress slip away from my body. At the end of the ride, I packed up my bike, knowing that whenever the opportunity would present itself I'll make the drive back down.

Clouds of Suspicions

So, the WADA and other anti-doping officials and organizations decided to retest blood and urine samples from the Tour de France, since several of riders had hematocrit levels higher than the normal upper limit of 49%. They got a little antsy, especially when Ricardo Ricco and his teammate Leonardo Piepoli were implicated in using a new generation of erythropoietin known as CERA (continuous erythropoitin receptor activator) which has a very long half life, but only requires a small dose to be effective. So they came up with some tests to actually detect CERA, and Stefan Schumacher was one who tested positive for the new generation of the drug. I hadn't really expected Schumacher to test positive; the doping officials stated that about 30 riders were under suspicion for having high hematocrit levels or trace amounts of drug metabolites which weren't enough to signal a definitive positive (if there even is such a thing as a definitive positive), but still enough to be detected. However, I didn't really expect Schumacher to be doping. Granted he did win 2 stages in the Tour, but the announcers didn't seem as fascinated or surprised with this accomplishment as they did with Ricco.
It's hard to actually gauge who dopes and who doesn't: a cloud of suspicion is usually proven right. The announcers never mentioned that Schumacher tested positive for amphetamines outside of competition or that he popped a positive for an amphetamine that was in an inhaler which was prescribed to him. Interestingly, Jan Ulrich also tested positive for amphetamines before becoming implicated in Operation Puerto, but he was further cleared due to lack of proof.
But the Tour de France looked pretty good this year: everyone looked tired coming across the lines (Marcus Burghardt gasped out answers to reporters' questions after winning the 18th stage) and the finish was close between Cadel Evans and Carlos Sastre, two riders who have had solid reputations of showing cycling talent and promise at young ages.
Lance Armstrong has always been under suspicion of doping, and that's unlikely to change considering the French's unsatiable hatred of him, especially since he's making a comeback. Apparently having a VO2 max off the charts, producing infinitesimal amounts of lactic acid despite heavy workloads, and solely training for the Tour de France year round instead of doing professional circuit tours isn't a good enough answer for the Tour organizers. Who knows.

However, if you do look at the list of athletes who have tested positive for minor drugs, such as amphetamines found in inhalers, a lot of them have tested positive for definitive performance enhancing drugs. Justin Gatlin tested positive in his younger years for a banned amphetamine which he claimed was in an inhaler that he was prescribed. He didn't provide a medical waiver for it, nor did he nor his coach attempt to talk to the "doctor" who prescribed the inhaler to determine if the medicine was on a banned list. Some years later, Gatlin tests positive for testosterone or an androsteroid which he claims his massage therapist used some cream that had corticosteroids in it which caused a positive test. And how about that Tim Montgomery? He was implicated in the BALCO scandal even though he never tested positive and recieved a two year ban which ended his athletic career. Now he's doing hard time for selling heroin in Virginia. Marion Jones, you say? Her husband C.J. Hunter, a shot putter and coach for UNC-Chapel Hill, attempted to make it into the 2000 Olympics at Sydney. He failed no fewer than 4 drug tests for nandrolone, but blamed it on dietary supplements he obtained from BALCO. Sensing a tarnished image, Jones decided to shack up with Tim Montgomery who also obtained performance enhancing drugs from BALCO and was strippedo of all medals and titles he'd won. So what's a gal to do at a time like this? Why, start training under coaches who have known to provide the best drugs and results for athletes! She trained under Trevor Graham, Charlie Francis, and Steven Riddick, all who have been accused of providing drugs for their athletes. All of Trevor Graham's athletes were implicated in using performance enhancing drugs. Charlie Francis is famous for setting up a doping regimen for Ben Johnson so he could do well in the 1988 Olympics. And all but two of Steven Riddick's athletes tested positive or were implicated in the doping scandal.

As of right now, the IOC is re-testing samples from the Beijing Olympics. I can only wonder how many Chinese athletes, weightlifters, cyclists, track-and-field competitors and marathon runners will test positive. Just because an athlete is under a cloud of suspicion doesn't necessarily mean that they're doping or cheating in some way. But honesty, if it looks like shit and smells like shit, what are we supposed to think?

SOB's

There were some SOB's (sketchy old bikes) in my grandparents' stables on Monday so I put myself up to the task of cleaning and tuning them up. My grandfather's bike is a '72 Schwinn cruiser style bike with a serious heft to it (it's a solid steel frame instead of steel tubing) and a serious coating of rust. I used a dremel with a steel brush to get most of the rust off and I put new tires on the bike, degreased the chain and rear derailleur, cleaned the chainrings and the cassette, and the rims. Now it just needs polishing and some more cleaning to actually get the final bit of rust off the handlebars and look decent. But it works! Ultimately, I'm going to pour something down the rear derailleur and try to blast air into it to knock all the caked grease off of the springs and levers, but so far so good. When I rode it, it felt really smooth, and the 2nd chainring is actually kind of large for a cruiser type bike. Hopefully I can educate myself on putting pictures up on google blog, and I'll definitely take before and after pictures of my grandmother's bike.

The Bike

I did a 15 mile jaunt this morning on stiff and sore legs. Overall, I really liked it, but my main gripes are with the shifting system and the cages (but I knew I wasn't going to like them anyway). I was able to cruise comfortably at about 20MPH and the shifting with the rear derailleur was smooth. Not quite so much with the front derailleur. And the brakes had some cable stretch so they needed adjusting. The thing that really jumped out at me wasn't that it was light and fast, but the tires were completely different from the mountain bike I've been riding around. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the pedals. You have to reach down to fasten the straps on the pedals in order to get more power throughout the stroke. But if you ride through the city and you have to stop quickly, you'll lose balance and fall over. I demonstrated this by falling on top of my car on the way back. Maybe when I get a job, I can save up enough money to buy a road bike. Someday...

Road Bike!

When I was dropping Lara off at her new home, I stared at the bike that was out on her back porch. 27 speed, and I wasn't about to touch it without anyone's permission. It looked like this
and it even with the lever type shifters on the down tube and straps on the pedals, instead of the more common shifting systems that are placed near the brakes on the handlebars and clip on pedals. I casually asked Katie, "How often does your roommate ride her bike?" "That's my bike! You can borrow it if you want to since Greenville isn't cyclist friendly. I bought it at some church sale for really cheap." Hallelujah! I proclaimed, here's a chance for me to try out a road bike. So I've planned a little outing for tomorrow morning to see what it's like. I'll update if I like the bike or not.