Around the Web on Wheels: 08.20.07

By Jessica | Permalink |

No Comments | August 20th, 2007 | Trackback

I’m about to go on a mini-vacation (just a few days in the mountains without a computer, nothing fancy, but still), so hopefully these newsy tidbits will tide you over until either I or one of the guys has something witty to say about cycling.

Why not take your mind off cycling’s troubles with a little erotic cycling art? A village in Norfolk, England is showing the exhibit for the second time due to popular demand. See this page for more information.

Here’s a safety measure for cyclists everywhere - a cycling jacket that has brake lights and turn signals built in. Scroll to the bottom of this post to see a video of the jacket in use.

New Belgium Ale’s Tour de Fat is the perfect antidote to a chaotic Tour de France this year. The tour stopped in Portland this past weekend, but there are still several stops to go. Find one near you and have fun.

Organizers of the 2007 World Championship road race in Stuttgart have said Erik Zabel is not welcome to compete for the rainbow jersey after he admitted to doping in 1996. Zabel’s team manager, however, stands behind him.

Dick Pound says the doping crisis is the fault of the former UCI director, Hein Verbruggen. Not surprisingly, Verbruggen didn’t take that lying down. I love how these guys seem to be more focused on figuring out who to blame rather than fixing the &%*^$ problem.

Rant Your Head Off looks back a year in the cycling world to a time when Floyd Landis was only just finding out how crappy his next year was going to be. Of course, it ain’t over yet - and Landis is still waiting.

With JumpTV having recently bought Cycling TV, the biggest thing I’m concerned about now is not a rise in the subscription price but rather a change in the commentary lineup. Anthony and Brian rank right up there with Phil and Paul, and I’d be very sad to see them replaced. Anyone know whether that’s a real danger?

The doping scandals in this year’s Tour were both incredibly depressing and a huge leap forward - at least that’s what optimists like me want to believe.

It looks like Alessandro Petacchi could have competed in the Tour after all, now that the Italian cycling federation has refused to even hear an appeal to ban him from the sport. I hope he can make it back next year, he’s a joy to watch.

Astana’s team manager was asked to explain all the positive doping tests coming out of his team bus. In other Astana news, Andreas Kloeden is looking for a new team and the Vuelta organizers have withdrawn their gold-plated invitation for the team to participate in the last Grand Tour of 2007. If there’s any future at all for Kazakh cycling, I dunno what it looks like.

From the department of “Duh,” Unibet.com has pulled out of its sponsorship deal of the ill-fated cycling team, leaving the team without a sponsor or a future.

There’s a good post here about the “Quiet and Unprecedented Death of Discovery Cycling” - and while I’m not sure it was quiet, exactly, there are some good comparisons to other sports and major teams which really bring home what a massive deal this is. There are more comments about it here.