Beautiful Sports

Tongue and horns ready to climb

 I spent my Sunday in the Church of the Great Outdoors with an old high school buddy, Dave.  We took in an awesome day at Powder Mountain resort, one the best (and last) real places to just ski.  Its a low key joint with a rustic couple of lodges, very few lifts, but access to about 7,000 acres of skiing.  Not to mention a lift ticket is only $65, a true bargain in today's reality if $100 lift tickets.

Among the unique amenities at Pow Mow is all natural snow and a $15 add on ticket for a ride on the snowcat.  The cat ride takes you to lighting ridge and its steep chutes and gets you access to the 25 minute hike up to James Peak.  From James Peak you can ski a good 3000 uninterrupted feet of quality, mostly untouched snow.  Its well worth the hike and the $15.

After a few warm up runs and waiting for the snow to soften in the sun a bit, we made our way to the cat and started our morning adventure.  My friend, who now lives near sea level, was a bit nervous about the hike.  It looks steep from afar, and in reality, it is.  Some people skin to the top but there's usually a well stepped boot pack as well.

Brand new Bontrager RL Road Cycling shoes, size 43, $140 (self sponsored ad)

We started the boot pack and Dave started to really feel the altitude.  Dave's in great shape, he's a cyclist and triathlete and an expert snowboarder, but 9,500 feet is a lot of elevation.  But he kept on, kept telling himself "the next tree".  We had caught up to one skier skinning up and he told us the summit wasn't worth climbing to because the snow off the top was in poor shape.  We were darn close to the summit though and with all the effort we had put in, especially Dave, we weren't going to stop our climb and bug out early.  we figured if the snow sucked from the top, we could always traverse over to the next face where the snow was better.

Dave on the summit

Once we got to the top, we quickly realized just how worthwhile the climb really was.  From James Peak you can see 3 Utah borders, the Uintah Mountains, the Cottonwoods, the Wellsvilles and the expanse of the Great Salt Lake.  On this day though, we could only see the top of Antelope island poking up out of the smog.  But we were high above it all, in the warmth of the inversion with bluebird skies above.  At that point, it didn't matter what the snow was like, it was the climb, the view and the company that made James Peak great.

There are many reasons why I do the sports I do, but one of the biggest ones, is just simply being out there.  The rewards of a long hike up a peak; the thrill of a big downhill line; the joy of sailing along under your own power in the middle of the ocean; the whine of your freshly home tuned turbo charged engine; and the sheer thrill of riding your bike in the open air.

With so much focus this last week on Lance Armstrong and his confession, I had to remind myself of why I do what I do.  I was a cycling fan long before who I knew who Lance was.  I had my first pair of spandex even before Lance's World Championship win.  Yes, I was a huge Lance fan once he started winning the Tour, but he was never my reason for riding.  Lance did great things to grow the popularity of cycling, but you know what the fastest growing sport in the world is?  MMA!  A world that has nothing to do with cycling.  Cycling was awesome before LA and it is awesome after.  I really think the non-cyclist fans of LA will look past his cheating and bullying and move on.  For the cyclist, I believe the love of the sport transcends one super star or multiple doping scandals.  While I love bike racing and putting on my kit filled with generous sponsors and col designs, what I love most, is simply being out there.  Its why I put on races, so others can experience that joy.  Just finishing the 157 mile Tour de Park City or the grueling Powder Mountain Hillclimb is a feat unto itself.  Add racing others in that journey and you have a beautiful thing.

I'm over Lance Armstrong.  He has his own bed to lay in now and his own problems to sort out.  I hope he does right by making amends to all the people he's hurt directly and indirectly, but I'm over it.  Its time to look forward to the next training ride, the new racing season, the next sail across the Pacific and the next epic powder day.  There is so much beauty in these great sports that to let the professional athletes dictate how we feel or participate would be wrong.  For those who love the stick and ball sports, are you going to give up your Thursday night pick up games because Kobe's an unfaithful husband, or give up your next golf outing because Tiger's a DB?  No.  And I will not give up riding my bike and helping others do the same because some of our heroes have falling.

So, here's to your next big thing, here's to your next epic and your next mountain to climb!

Fiber Friday

No, most of us do not have enough fiber in our diets, but thats a topic for Tuesdays.  Today's fiber is a set of videos giving us a look at how carbon fiber boats, bikes and an F1 car's monocoque chassis are made.

Stainless Steel Black Carbon Fiber Band Ring (Google Affiliate Ad)

Once upon a time, I was a Mechanical Engineering major.  I love all the technical aspects of my sports, but turns out I'm terrible at advance math and couldn't pass calc II.  As my GPA moved closer to zero, I became a business student.  But my love for the technical stuff hasn't waned.

Carbon is really a super fiber.  Light, stiff and very resistant to fatigue.  Its why we use it in so many applications where weight is an issue.

For next week I'm working on some thoughts about Lance Armstrong's interview.  So far, I've been impressed with Big O's line of questions and after tonight's final segment I'll be sure to have something to say.

In the meantime, enjoy video Friday!

Lance to confess??

So the big cycling news over the weekend was the New York Times article stating Lance Armstrong was considering a confession.  While I think its a possibility Lance could confess, the confession would certainly be rife with passing the buck and self-victimization.  His confession would also need to include some serious apologizes to a number of people.  See, over the past few months, my opinion of LA has changed quite a bit.

I used to be very pragmatic over the whole "did he or didn't he dope" argument.  I figured if he did dope, then good for him, he was the best of all the dopers, since nearly everyone at the top of the spot during that time.  If he didn't, and somehow he was the only clean one, then even better for him.  So when USADA came out with their decision to ban LA for life, it really wasn't a surprise.  But after reading the decision and some of the evidence and combining that with some of Tyler Hamilton's revelations, I decided it wasn't just that LA doped, it was that he was the ring leader, the bully, the mafia boss that would destroy anyone who dared speak against him.  He ruined careers, he ruined human beings.

His first apology would need to go to Besty and Frankie Andreu.  They, Besty really, were the first to tell the truth about what LA had told them about drug use.  They have also bore the brunt of LA's wrath and super powered spin team.

His next apology needs to be for Greg Lemond.  When Lemond dared to some out against him Lemond ended up losing a bike licensing deal with Trek.  While I have my own doubts about Lemond's cleaniness from PED's, he's never shied away from calling a spade a spade.

Sigma BC 1909 HR Cycling Computer with Heart Rate (Google Affiliate Ad)

He needs to apologize to Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton, whom he skewered in the press and public.  He then needs to hand out personal apologies to all his teammates over the years, for not backing them up, for pressuring them to dope.  He needs to apologize to every cyclist who decided against a pro cycling career by choosing not to dope.

He needs to apologize to every fan, including me, who bought into the lies, and purchased Nikes, Oakley's and Giro helmets because of him.

He needs to apologize for a lifetime of bullying a deceit.

If he's going to continue to profess all the good he has done for cycling then he needs to own up to all the damage he has now done as well.

I have my doubts though  that a confession is coming.  A confession would open LA up to all kinds of legal action.  He's already being sued by SCA Promotions for the $5mm bonus they were forced to give him.  I'm surprised there haven't been defamation lawsuits and more sponsors coming forward asking for some money back.  Wouldn't he be purge-ring himself as well?  I'm pretty sure he's professed his innocence under oath.

Whatever the reasons LA may have for confessing, if it happens, it needs to be more than just an "I doped, lets move on."  For a confession to stick for me, he'll need to spend the rest of his life repairing the damage he has caused to sports in general, cycling and most importantly to the lives he has destroyed in the process.

Sigma BC 1609 STS CAD Cycling Computer (Google Affiliate Ad)

Lance

Its been a while since my last post.  Its been an insanely busy summer and I'm still behind on a bunch of stuff.  But my season has continued, with some success to boot!

For me personally, this summer has been up and down.  I'll write later on some issues I faced with mid season training.  I did manage my best results during July however, with a 9th at the state crit champs and a 2nd and 3rd at the Utah City Crits.  I'm making final preps for LOTOJA as well.  The Tour de Park City grew by 50% over last year and we had some great racing out on the 157 mile course.  We've got an awesome line up of late summer races as well with the Powder Mountain Hillclimb on Sept 1st and the Harvest Moon Crit/Cross weekend on Sept 22nd and 23rd.

On the professional side of things, we had an awesome Tour of Utah and the US Pro Challenge in Colorado has seen some exciting racing so far.  But the big bomb that was dropped obviously was the news that Lance Armstrong has decided not to go to arbitration and fight USADA's case against him, at least not fight in the way USADA has laid out.

Again, I'm pragmatic about the whole thing.  I was, and still am, a huge Lance fan.  In my mind it has never been about if he doped or not.  I have no delusions he did not.  But why am I a fan then?

Johnathan Vaughters confession to doping sheds some light on why I'm still a fan.  As he so eloquently stated, it was either dope or give up on the dream of racing in the bigs.  Doping was part of the game and if you wanted to play the game, or least play it well, you had to be doping.  Lance, being the fierce competitor that he is, played the game.  There are some good charts out there showing the history of doping amongst the top 10 riders at each of Lance's 7 tour wins and podiums.  Its filled with allegations, bans, investigations, confessions, half confessions and tainted beef.  Lance proved to be the best of all the dopers. 

Of course rules were broken and these riders cheated.  But if everyone is doing it, is it still cheating?  The part of me with integrity says "yes, of course".  But what we have seen is that doping, and not getting caught, was truly part of the sport and succeeding in the sport.  It even had a name, Omerta.  Its kind of like pornagraphy in Utah.  Hear me out... It is actually illegal to sell porn in Utah.  As the law is written however, enforcement of the law is left up to the "standards of the community".  If the community accepts the creepy smoke shop downtown that sells porn, then so be it and nothing is done about it.  Obviously, the standards of the pro cycling community were to dope and it was accepted.  Riders, team directors and I bet even sponsors were ok with it.  It you weren't, you got out the game.  I think even organizers and sanctioning bodies were probably complicit to an extent as well.  Sure, some came out of the closet like Frankie and Betsy Andeau, but they ended up like the do gooder family who tries to rid their neighborhood of porn.  On the outside no one wants porn in their neighborhood, but deep down most of us are glad its readily available.  Its sad but as we find out that all of our heroes were juiced, we either cheer for them and the game or ignore the winners and cheer for the those competing for the Lanterne Rouge.  But who's to say they weren't doping too?

This is what brings up the most frustrating parts of the Lance ordeal.  I won't go so far as calling him a fraud or liar, again, because they all would be fruadsters and liars.  Yes, some are reformed fruadsters and liars, but we can't single out Lance.  But the frustration comes from how USADA went about this whole ordeal.  I'm a USAC liscense holder and so I'm totally down with USAC rules and USADA's role in those rules.  But here we have a dozen or so teammates and friends of Lance who have allegedly squealed in exchange for some immunity for their own doping offenses.  Supposedly this list of people includes, George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie and Christian van de Velde.  All these guys are still riding, still racing and still holding on to their results.  Are they really OK with Lance taking the fall for all of them?  Vaughters held on to his secret for a decade and just because he was eloquent in his confession he gets a free pass?  It looks very much like USADA had a vendetta against the guy since they were so willing to let others get off in order to catch Lance.  It just so happens Lance had the most to lose from playing the game. 

I'm also frustrated that we'll never get to see any of the evidence.  I think its crazy that USADA had evidence of doping during the comeback years and waited until now to do anything.  It also shows that testing doesn't work.  Especially if they are going to convict someone without a positive result.  Yes, there are some issues with Lance's samples from years past, but independent investigations have proved those results unreliable. 

Am I justifying the cheating?  No way.  But I am saying I cheered for these guys and got some great enjoyment and entertainment from doing so.  I'm still a huge fan of pro cycling.  But, lets face it, all of my cycling heroes were cheaters.  Tyler and is broken collar bone, Floyd and the huge solo comeback.  The whole gang were guys I jumped out of my couch to cheer for.  I guess it was always in the back of my head that they were juiced, but I guess we all had that feeling.  But to be a fan in the 90's and 2000's required that kind of perspective.  I truly believe we have a cleaner peloton to cheer for nowadays.  The only real positive I can see from this ordeal is that maybe Lance will now be a great example of how not to get ahead in sports.

Cycling is still one of my top 3 favorite sports, right up there with sailing and skiing.  Doping does not take away the beauty of the scenery, the excitement of the tactics or Phil Ligget's classic one liners.  I hope we can all move on, look forward and keep training and racing.  There's really nothing greater.

Weekend round up

I'm going to experiment a little with the format and timing of my posts. While I try to make Friday's posts dedicated to the best short video I can find, lets make Mondays and Tuesdays special as well. Lets make Monday's dedicated to wrapping up the weekend and Tuesdays will be about training. So, Mega Monday and Training Tuesday? Well, lets hit it, Mega Monday!

The news last week in pro cycling came fast and furious. First, lets get started on a positive note. The Tour of Utah made their official route announcement. The ToU is near and dear to me as this is the second year I have been involved with the Ogden Local Organizing Committee. The event will spend its second year on the UCI calendar giving cyclists some major climbing, long days in the saddle and a totally new route for the final stage. The prologue has been dropped in favor of a full stage being run on the first of 6 days. This, along with the other route tweeks increases the mileage of the race but also the elevation climbed by a whopping 25% to 37,415 feet!

Most of the stages take in roads that local cyclists are very familiar with. Stage 1 that starts and finishes in Ogden, sees the racers tackle Ogden Canyon, Trappers loop, East Canyon and North Ogden Divide for a full 131 miles to start the week. Stage 2 is a new team time trial out at Miller Motorsports Park. With only 6 stages, this should make the GC battle quite interesting. Stage 3 starts in Ogden and follows the classic training route for locals to Research Park in Salt Lake City. Stage 4 is a flat one, touring Happy Valley from Orem to SLC. Stage 5 is the venerable Park City to Snowbird route. Its Stage 6 that will really open peoples eyes to the climbing we have right here in our backyard. Taking in Empire Pass, the Park City stage looks awesome. How do pitches at 22 percent sound? That's where I'll be camping out for sure!

Along with the route announcement it was noted that Levi Leipheimer will return with his Omega Pharma Quick Step squad. The team will be making its ToU debut to support Levi in defending his GC ins from the last 2 years.

With the good news, came some bad news however. I thought we could get through a Tour de France this year without hearing about Lance Armstrong and doping. As many already know, USADA lobbed their charges against LA and his cohorts from US Postal/Discovery and even Radio Shack days. You can find the actual letter to LA and his team here. Its worth the read. I think reading it helps the public get a handle on the charges and the case that USADA has laid out.

The crux of their accusations stem from evidence gathered during the 2 year FDA investigation into LA for possible federal law violations. That case was suddenly dropped under suspicious circumstances but there was apparently a basket load of evidence uncovered. That evidence was turned over to USADA and here we are. From the letter, it sounds like most of the evidence is testimony to the Grand Jury by 10 or so witnesses. For the sake of cycling, I sure hope there's more than just testimony. When Spanish courts went deep into the Opercaion Puerto scandal, they had blood bags, DNA matches, documents cross referencing code names and a host of other hard facts. For USADA to finally put this to bed, I think we need to see the same kind of hard evidence. Not only will USADA be facing arguably the most powerful legal team in sports, they are facing a deeply polarized cycling fan base of those who think Lance is innocent and those who think he doped.

I think regardless of the outcome, no one's opinion will change. If he gets off it will because of his powerful legal team, a technicality, etc. If he's sanctioned, his fans will cry witchunt and a waste of tax dollars. More than anything, this distracts from what is supposed to be the most entertaining 3 weeks of the pro cycling season. I hope the headlines from this years TdeF will focus on the racing and not LA's accusations.

But lets think for a moment, if LA is convicted, who are they going to give his TdeF titles to?? Basso and Ullrich? They would just be handing the titles from one doper to the next. Therein lies the great conflict of Lance's heyday, they all doped!

The real concern for me however is that USADA says they have proof LA doped during his comeback in '09 and '10. First, if anyone of authority had proof of doping during that time, it should have come up then. Not to mention, LA must be some kind of serious stupid to dope under so much scrutiny.

I for one, am in the camp of believing Lance until some body of authority convicts him. It will be terrible for cycling and for sports in general in LA falls. LA has transcended sport for so many people. It would be the lie of all lies and mean crushed dreams and heroes for so many. We'll be watching the headlines, but don't forget there are other things going on in cycling that will continue to inspire and motivate. Chris Horner going to the Olympics is one of those things.  Now, get out and ride!

Sometimes you're the nail

A few years back, during one of Lance Armstrong's comeback Tours de France, he was having a particularly difficult stage along one of the cobbled roads of northern France.  When asked what happened that day he simply said "sometimes you're the nail and sometimes you're the hammer.  Today I was the nail."  After the Utah State Road Race Championships this past weekend, I can say I'm definitely feeling like the nail right now.

I showed up at Saturday's start line north of Logan still feeling quite fatigued from the Bikes4Kids stage race.  The state champs race course gives me fits every year and with the way I was feeling, I wasn't  confident with how I would do.  Needless to say, I only lasted 1 lap of the 5 lap, 80 mile race with the group.  Once the road turned uphill, I was dropped.  2 other riders and I tried desperately to bridge back but after 5 miles of chasing at full gas, the group kept extending.  Normally, I would sit back and just continue the race solo for the workout but I felt like garbage so called it quits after 2 laps.  What is most concerning however is that after 30 miles I felt like I had raced for 100 miles.  I just haven't been recovering very well this season.

A few more things are starting to concern me about my health.  Over the winter, I rode more than I ever had, ever.  I was riding between 8 and 16 hours a week and eating reasonably well.  But I didn't lose more than 3 pounds.  I figured it would come off this summer.  But as we enter mid season, I'm still 180-183 lbs, always tired and now my recovery is woefully slow.  Top it off with the poor numbers of my body composition test and it looks like I'm not an athlete at all!

I've been putting some of these things together and thinking about my past health history.  I've actually never been able to lose weight very quickly, but more importantly, I've always been tired.  I've required naps for as long as I can remember.  In high school I would take a snooze before swim practice.  In college, I would need a nap about 2 pm most afternoons and even now, I could nap at almost anytime if you gave me the chance. 

I'm not sure what this all adds up to, but this week I'm going in for a full physical.  Maybe the good doctor can find something that isn't quite right.  I shouldn't be this fatigued, this tired.  With the state crit champs coming up in 2 weeks, I'm taking it easy, but have to balance resting with keeping some speed and fitness.  State crits is big on this year's goal list so we'll see what we can do.

Albertostrong

By now the news about the Federal investigation into Lance Armstrong being dropped and Alberto Contador's ban have funneled through the news outlets. Now the more detailed stories and reactions from the cycling world are emerging. I thought I'd chime in as well on what really are the two biggest stories in cycling.

Lance

Lance is an enigma. Some love him. Some hate him and some love to hate him. For most, the decision by the Fed to drop the case will do nothing to sway their opinion either way about the guy. For those who are convinced he doped, no charges means the Fed dropped the ball, Lance has good lawyers or it just means Lance doped, but just not on the taxpayer's dime. I've read through the comments sections on the articles I've read, and the haters are just gonna hate.

For the Lance supporters, this vindicates him of doping and is more proof that accusations are just that. Those in the Lance camp believe the investigation was a waist of time and money and the lead investigator, Jeff Novitsky was just on a which hunt trying to make up for failures in the Barry Bonds case. Regardless of which side you're on, the latest news probably changes nothing.

For me, it proves that Lance is untouchable. Whether its because of wealth, power, influence or actual innocence, people keep lobbing up there and he keeps knocking them out of the park. With what was being said, the FDA had no choice but to look into it. If federal funds were being used illegally, we as taxpayers have a right to know. And if the law was broken, the guilty should be brought to justice. But the Fed case also proves to me that accusations are just that...comments by people who may or may not be telling the truth and have no evidence other than their word.

The Fed investigation focused on the claims by Floyd Landis and others that there was systematic, team sanctioned doping going on within the US Postal Service cycling team. After 2 years of investigation, trips to Europe and Grand Jury testimony, the government couldn't gather enough proof that Landis' claims were true. Did Lance dope? Well, according to the FDA investigation, he didn't dope in the manner claimed. I think that says a lot about Landis' testimony and the beef he's got with Lance.

It doesn't look as though all is well over at the FDA however. According to NPR, there are some who believed charges were coming and the case ended prematurely.

What about the other "evidence" against Lance, namely the positive tests from 1999 or the alleged cover up from the UCI in 2001? A look at the investigations into those cases yields results similar to the Fed case. There's not enough there to prove Lance doped. The 1999 samples were refuted by an independent investigation. Yes, it was a technicality that called the samples into question, but they couldn't prove they were Lance's samples. The UCI cover up was also hearsay. There was no solid information that could prove the UCI covered up a Lance positive from a race in Switzerland.

So you have a guy who's never failed a drug test, been investigated numerous times and yet still comes out clean. That's good enough for me. Plus, I'm a bit pragmatic about the situation. If Lance doped, then he was the best doper. Almost all of his competitors during that time have been caught, implicated or confessed. So it was a level playing field. If he didn't dope (and this is where the evidence lands) then he's an even better athlete as he pummeled the dopers.

This leaves us with the situation where Lance himself can point to various official findings, reports and investigations where they weren't able to pin down a doping infraction. The book is not closed on Lance however. USADA is requesting the details of the Fed investigation to see if there's anything they can find about Lance doping. They'll run into some issues with statutes of limitation and other loopholes that I'm sure Lance's legal team will fight tooth and nail. But until then, I'm going with what's been presented...not one entity able to prove Lance doped.

Alberto Contador

Contador's case is a whole different ball game. I'm not a big 'Bert fan but that's more because of of public persona and the attitudes of him and his Spanish mates not because of doping. What we have with 'Bert is an undisputed positive test, something Lance does not have. After almost 2 years of court proceedings and appeals, the Court of Arbitration for Sport handed him a 2 year ban retroactive to the date of the positive test in August of 2010. The ban negates all of his results from that time, including the 2010 Tour de France.

The real tragedy here isn't so much the positive test, but the way it was handled by the powers that be. 'Bert's defense was tainted beef. The minuscule amounts of clenbuteral found in his urine sample were smaller than most labs can even test for but there is no acceptable limit for clenbuteral. Sponsors, riders and fans shouldn't have to wait this long know the outcome of a race. Could his positive test be the result of tainted beef? Sure, but he couldn't prove it within the system that's in place and it took too long. Both sides were allowed to stall and posture for no real reason at all. There needs to be more in place, to protect riders as well as organizers, so this kind of charade doesn't happen again.

Is 'Bert guilty? Of course he is. Was there dope in his system? Yes! That was never in dispute. The thing about doping isn't so much for race day performance but to train hard enough to be the best on race day. Most doping takes place during training. Clenbuterol isn't really a "performance enhancer" but allows for rapid weight loss. As CAS indicated, the small amounts of the stuff in Contador's sample indicated possible drug use just prior to the Tour or worse, that he transfused tainted blood during the Tour. They did acknowledge in their decision the possiblity of accidental contamination, but the rules state that it doesn't matter. The rider is ultimately responsible for what they ingest. It sucks that this happened. But with so much at stake, CAS had to set precedent here. Could the positive been from beef? Sure. but 'Bert couldn't prove it so he got flicked. Was Contador a victim of an overly intolerant system? Possibly, but as with Lance, I'm going to go with the official record.

The only good thing to come out of all this is that cycling is doing something about doping. It does cast a cloud over the sport but the cheaters are getting caught. NFL, MLB and NBA players are probably just as dirty, but very little is being done to catch the cheaters. Cycling will survive. It survived the Festina affair in 1997 and it survived Landis and it will survive Contador. There is a new crop of young riders who are adamant in their fight against doping and becoming a victim of something tainted. Taylor Phinney won't even take supplements as he's afraid of ingesting something by accident. While its sad that kind of paranoia exists, its good that we can finally start to believe our heroes are racing clean.