Around the Web on Wheels: 07.26.07

By Jessica | Permalink | 3 comments | July 26th, 2007 | Trackback

Here’s some of the news that’s been slipping through the cracks:

• Alessandro Petacchi’s been cleared of doping charges by the Italian Cycling Federation. The Italian Olympic Committee says it will appeal. Lather, rinse, repeat.
• The 2008 route for the Tour of California has been announced, and after reading Bob’s reports from this past February, I really need to make more of an effort to get down there next year.
• David Millar reacted to the Vinokourov news the way I think most of us wanted to - he wept for his sport.
• The head of the Swiss Cycling Federation says the doping battle is lost, and an IOC member says cycling is “dreadful” for the Olympic image. How can these people say stuff like that when cycling is actually trying to do something about doping? It’s absurd and harmful. Let’s reward the people who are trying to make the sport clean, not vilify them, shall we?
• Oh, those kooky Italians - according to a poll in La Gazetta dello Sport, nearly 20% of Italians are in favor of just legalizing doping in cycling and moving on. Interestingly, the second most popular option was a press ban on covering the sport at all.
• Let’s hope more teams join the select few who have started the MPCC (Mouvement pour un cyclisme crédible). Let’s also hope that someday members of this group are just called “cyclists.”
• A Swiss court has rejected Jan Ullrich’s appeal to prevent information about his Swiss bank account being given to German prosecutors who continue to look into the doping charges against him.
• Now here’s an interesting one - Franck Bouyer, a French cyclist, has sued the UCI and WADA because they refuse to let him ride while using a banned substance which he fully admits to using. Why does he do this seemingly crazy thing? He’s got narcolepsy, which is treated with a banned drug.
• A Swiss paper jokingly mourned the death of cycling in a mock obituary - which was published before several scandals rocked the current Tour. I wonder if they feel sheepish now?
• Alexandre Vinokourov is a national hero in Kazakhstan, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that Kazakh cycling officials would be disappointed - but they’re not. Instead, they’re blaming it all on the Tour de France.
• Shockingly, Audi and Adidas say they’re not sure they’re willing to contineu sponsoring cycling. Gee, I wonder why.
• The New York Times published an interesting piece about why an event like the Tour de France is almost secondarily about cycling - and primarily about advertising. Again, there should be no questions why sponsors dropping out of the sport is a mammoth concern. (If you don’t have an NYT subscription, go here to read the article.)
• Before Michael Rasmussen was pulled from the Tour and Pat McQuaid made public his hope that the Chicken would not win, Tour director Christian Prudhomme apparently asked McQuaid if he was trying to “kill the Tour de France.” I’d broaden that question to whether he and his buddy Dick Pound are trying to kill cycling, but it has nothing to do with McQuaid’s comments about Rasmussen.
• If you’re confused about why different body types are suited to different kinds of riding, this article about why cycling is different should help clear some things up.
• Christian Prudhomme is right - we don’t just need change right now, we need a revolution.

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