A Leap Year Bike-Y!

Leading things off this week with a pretty fun video. Since when you watch it you might not understand it, but what they are doing is throwing a raw egg off a 22m roof, and it lands on a pad of Asics Gel without breaking. Pretty cool i thought. I also heard that a full 50% of the New York Marathon finishers in 2007 wore Asics shoes. That surprised me, especially with so many other choices for runners. Anyhow...that was a mere Bike-Y warmup...


Nice picture above of Mr Bike-Y Canada! Dominic Rollin did indeed finish this year's Tour of California in the green sprinters jersey, even if he had to finish strong on Sunday to hold of Team CSC's sprinter JJ Haedo. So a huge Tour for the Canuck, with an epic stage win and a Sprint Title. Not bad for someone from a land covered in snow in February! Cyclingnews put together a nice profile of Dominic here.

Speaking of the Tour of California, Levi Leipheimer did win the Tour of California last weekend. However, more interesting is the new Trek website called letleviride.com which includes a petition to ride in this year's Tour de France. So far 46,000 fans have signed up, and I'm sure exactly zero French race organizers care. Plus, shouldn't we start a letcontadorride.com web site, being he's the champion and all Levi does is wheel suck for 3500 km?

158 days until the Olympics, and I hope all of you have been watching the very good (but way too short) half-hour CBC show called "Countdown to Beijing". It airs Mondays at 730 pm local time and is a great preview of the Summer Olympics. Although they spend the majority of time on Canadian athletes (including Simon Whitfield, Alex Despatie, Tyler Christopher, Perdita Felicien, etc) and teams, it also touches on Beijing life and international superstars (Paula Radcliffe and Michael Phelps). Well-worth the 30 minutes a week. You can see more archived video with Ron Maclean here.

Dopers beware! The new HGH test might be ready for the Olympics, which could potentially lead to many athletes losing sleep over the possibility of not being able to take their fave supplement. I was shocked to read that the current test only has a 48 hour window. So if you dope 3 days out, you're okay?? Hmmm. I can't believe that we can't figure this out...

A couple of triathlon and running stories before we end for this week...

First off, I picked up the first issue of Canadian Running (on newstands everywhere!) and was pretty impressed. A really good story on Danny Kassap (a potential Bike-Y fave) and lots of Canadian profiles, plus lots of gear reviews. I was impressed, plus it was only $4.95. Go check it out or see their site here.

ESPN actually gave ultra-running some love here. This article talks about Scott Jurek (Mr. Ultra), guys who run 1000 km on a track (unreal), and the Spartathlon (only 153 miles!!). Another worthy read...

Edmonton's own Paul Tichelaar has been tearing it up lately. He won a early season duathlon last week (beating Simon Whitfield) and even got profiled on Slowtwitch this week (for all the ladies out there, there is a pic of a shirtless Paul on there). Anyhow, it appears he is going to go all out for an Olympic spot, so let's cheer him on this year.

And a long last...the violence in Kenya appears to be over. 100,000 children have lost their homes, and over 1000 people dead. I started following this story since top Olympic-caliber runners kept getting injured, or whatever, but it's sad that this kind of thing still happens in 2008.

A very Canadian Bike-Y!

Wow, looks just like riding in Stony Plain! What a vista as a backdrop for the Tour of California. The above picture is courtesy of Casey Gibson and Velonews.com . Anyhow, the T of C is indeed moving along, and big names like Fabian Cancellera and Levi Leipheimer have already worn the Yellow Jersey this year. At press time, Leipheimer (and Team Astana) still lead the race. That, and the absolutely crappy weather in California (riders are wearing jackets, booties, leg warmers, rain jackets, etc) were the main stories. Except for us Canucks that is! Yesterday, in stage 4, Dominic Rollin, the only Canadian in the field, joined a 11- man breakaway at mile 15. The group then spent over 100 miles ahead of the Astana-led peloton (did i mention it rained all day yesterday, and there was a huge headwind too). Anyhow, with about 20 km to go, the "Horse from the North" looked back at the rest of the breakaway (including George Hincapie) and just took off. He then held on for by far the biggest stage win by a Canadian male cyclist is a few years (Canadian women do far better on the world stage). This also won Dominic Rollin a probable trip to the Olympics! And the sprinters jersey at the Tour of California (still a few days to go). And all this for surviving a 216 km stage where they averaged only 31 km/h! I told you it was crappy weather. It was a survival day yesterday - only 105 out of the 132 riders who started the stage finished! Anyhow congrats to Dominic, our new Bike-Y favourite!

http://www.pedalmag.com/index.php?module=Section&action=viewdetail&item_id=12690

From our Canadian biking Bike-Y fave to our Canadian running Bike-Y fave...Jon Brown has now officially run for Canada for the first time. Jon Brown was part of an elite field last weekend in Tokyo, where unfortunately, he just missed the Canadian Olympic standard of 2:12:38 by, umm, not finishing the marathon. Oh well, it's expected that he will give the marathon another try before May 25th, which ironically is the date for Canada's fastest marathon (Ottawa). Anyhow, here is the recap of Tokyo (won by a Swiss guy in 2:07!) and a link if you want to see Canadian Track & Field Standards for Beijing (you women reading this have to run 2:29:08 to make Team Canada) . More on this next week...
http://www.iaaf.org/news/kind=100/newsid=43424.html
http://www.athleticscanada.com/files//NationalTeamPrograms/NationalTeams/SelectionCriteria/OGSTANDARDSREPEATABILITYCHARTFINALNOV28.PDF

Since Canada seems to front and centre this week, I'll add a story about Canada's best chance at a track medal this summer in Beijing. Gary Reed, a 800m runner, finished 2nd at last years Worlds, and is obviously a medal hope this year. I didn't like his comment that the 800 m field is so competitive, "Probably anyone in the semi-finals could have won"...so we need to keep our fingers crossed on him having a great year leading up to August.
http://www.iaaf.org/OLY08/news/kind=103/newsid=42854.html

Last week I also talked about the XC battle between Ryan Hall and Dathan Ritzenheim at the US Cross-Country Championships in San Diego. Turns out that Ryan Hall is human after all. He finished 5th while Ritzenheim triumphed (35:03 for 12 km...not bad). I was very happy to see that the last runner finished in 56 minutes and change, so for slow-ish guys like me, it's nice to see that I could potentially run the same time as some people in National Championships!

Speaking of Ryan Hall, Asics America announced this month that Ryan Hall will run in April's London Marathon. We'll see how fast he goes this year (remember he has Beijing in August) but it should be an epic race since London typically gets the best field of any early season marathon.

Ok, promised you guys some triathlete stuff, and this is another big-time story to watch. Rebecca Keat won IM Western Australia in 2004 with an out-of-nowhere unexpected win, and promptly tested positive for a steroid precursor. She was rewarded with a 2-year suspension. Fast forward to 2008, and now she says she has evidence that her Endurolytes supplements (made by Hammer) Nutrition) were contaminated. So she's suing Hammer Nutrition to try and get her name cleared (and probably get some money to make up for 2 years off). Interestingly, a couple of other athletes, including Canadian Mike Vine, also have joined the lawsuit, claiming this has happened to them too. No word if Ben Johnson or Roger Clemens took Endurolytes...
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2008/02/13/7716_gold-coast-sport.html
This week Hammer issued a statement that stated of course they will be "vindicated of any wrongdoing". Did we expect them to just roll over? Lawyer up!
http://www.e-caps.com/za/ECP?PAGE=ARTICLE&ARTICLE.ID=9107

Triathlon Guru Dan Empfield just updated his guidelines on how to descend a hill on a bike correctly (ie. when to brake and when not to) and I thought it was interesting. I learned a lot, and can't wait to try this when descending Yellow Lake in May. Except if it's raining, or windy, or both, in which case I'll brake all the way down like a wuss...
http://www.slowtwitch.com/Training/Descending_203.html

Bike-Y On Everyone!! See you next week...

...Lots to Bike-Y about...

Hey All,

The fallout in the bike-Y world has been severe this week around the non-invite of Team Astana to this year's Tour de France. Here's an interesting tidbit I found...
The 2007 Tour runner-up Cadel Evans has already said that he does not want to start the Tour without his main rivals. Also, both the pro teams’ association and the pro riders’ union indicated last week that they are prepared to boycott this year’s Giro d’Italia should the organizers not accept Astana and other UCI ProTour teams to the Italian grand tour. It’s likely they will now threaten to boycott the Tour.
As i said on Wednesday, I doubt this is the last word...
http://www.velonews.com/article/72013

Let's go through some housecleaning...the Super Bowl is now behind us (only 10 weeks until the Draft!), but I did stumble upon this classic 19-0 commercial. Kind of an ironic icon now that Reebok can never use it...




Okay, before I get to two non-Bike-Y topics, there are other key happenings in the Pro Cycling universe. Bad news first...

It appears that the UCI is going to try and pursue a 2 year ban against Michael Rasmussen for missing drug tests when he was said he was in Mexico. Actually, the term they use is "evading controls in a premeditated manner" which does sound better. Interestingly, the UCI has no real power, and has to ask Monaco's Cycling Federation (who granted Rasmussen his pro licence) to investigate and potentially impose a 2-year ban. Again, Bike-Y will keep you posted...
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/UCI_Calls_For_Rasmussen_Doping_Investigation_article_178603.html

Good news on the Bike-Y front...the Pro Cycling world comes to North America this weekend. The AMGEN Tour of California, which attracts a world class field (including Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara, Paolo Bettini, Oscar Friere, all 4 have been world champions!) and might be the only stage race that allows Team Astana to compete this year! Other teams include Gerolsteiner, Credit Agricole, Quick Step, CSC, High Road (formerly T-Mobile), and bike-Y new favourite team, Team Slipstream. Anyhow, the official Tour of California website has lots of interactive coverage of the race from the 17th-24th, so check it out!
http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/news/press/2008-roster-announced.html

By the way, does anyone else think it's ironic that the company that sells EPO (Amgen) sponsors a cycling race (a sport with more EPO problems than almost any other)?

With 6 months to go to the Beijing Olympics, I found this story and found it interesting. I have always wondered how China can be so world-class in so many areas but still be so behind in human rights (i know, that's putting it mildly). Apparently, the British Olympic Association is concerned about its athletes bringing up the issue during the Olympics, so is making every British Olympian sign a contract which will ensure that the athletes don't make any political comments. If you dont sign, you dont go to Beijing...wow, nice free speech...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=513362&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

On the running front, this weekend also includes the US National Cross and Field Championships in San Diego. I guess this is only interesting to me since two US Olympians in the marathon (Dathan Ritzenheim and the simply amazing Ryan Hall) plus 6 other men who have run sub 28 minutes over 10 km. Pretty wicked race...the winners go to Glasgow in March for Worlds.
http://www.usatf.org/news/view.aspx?DUID=USATF_2008_02_12_14_36_31

Canada has already has its National Championship (last fall in Guelph) but I can't find out who if anyone is representing our fine nation. We are sending a team to a North American/Carribean/Central America XC Race in Orlando on March 1, which includes Calgary's Lisa Harvey and Edmonton's Paula Findlay (Jr Woman). Good luck to Team Canada.

http://www.athleticscanada.com/main.asp

Next week we'll update the Tour of California, plus lots of triathlon updates...oh yeah, NBC is showing their 1.5 hour Kona 2007 broadcast at 12 noon MT on Saturday. It's worth taping for some indoor trainer motivation!

Breaking Bike-Y News...

Wow, today the group that organizes the Tour de France has told Team Astana that they will not be invited to the 2008 event. This team includes last year's winner (Alberto Contador) and last year's third place rider (Levi Leipheimer). So I guess Cadel Evans goes into July as the prohibitive favourite.

http://velonews.com/article/72000

I'm still stunned that the TDF doesnt want Astana. They are "the old Astana" in name only, with different sponsors, different riders, and different coaches. Plus they have marquee names up and down their roster...oh well, i doubt this is the final word...

Bike-Y Friday Now Online!!

Welcome one and all to another bike-y Friday...got some serious stuff and some funny stuff this week! As you have obviously noticed, this week's is the first of many to be posted to my new Bike-Y Blog. I will try to archive some more old ones as time goes on...feel free to pass along the link to other interested parties...

First off, the new Team Astana (refresher: old USPS/Team Discovery) was rolling along last week, getting ready for the year's big races. Johan Bruyneel even claimed "there is no stronger Tour team". Can't say i blame him, they do have Contador, Leipheimer, and Andreas Kloden on their team.

http://velonews.com/article/13981

But...and huge but...the new Team Astana has generated enough ill-will (or has enough leftover from 2007) that the Giro d'Italia didn't invite them to the 2008 race. Whoops. That is not a good sign for a new team. Anyhow, now Astana are in serious spin mode and have to find other races to do in the month of May. At least 2008 is an Olympic Year so the riders can instead prepare for that, but getting excluded from a Big Three Race is never good. Actually, three other high profile teams got shut out of the Giro (including the old T-Mobile, Credit Agricole, and Bouyges Telecom).

http://velonews.com/article/71759

That last link did mention that the new Team Slipstream did get an invite. Here's a pic, courtesy of Andrew Hood of Velonews.com, that shows off their sweet 2008 uniforms. Check out the leg warmers!

Okay, three more interesting links. One, Canada has reclaimed ownership of Sugoi. In 2003, Cannondale (big US bike company) bought Canada's own Sugoi. However, this week, Dorel Industries bought both Cannondale and Sugoi for $190 Million dollars and change. Sweet, i wonder if we can start claiming Cannondale's should get a Canada flag thrown on...thanks to Hooper for being the first one to pass this one on...

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=285562

Set your pvr's on Tuesday for what promises to be an interesting look at Nike. Darren Rovell with CNBC recently spent a lot of time interviewing Nike executives, going to their factories, etc, for this one hour show on the company, its impact on pop culture, etc. Anyhow, it premieres on CNBC on Tuesday night, so for all you Nike-addicts, check it out. The link below does include some pictures of the factory tour, which does look remarkably non-sweatshop...and they did manage to keep all the 8-year olds out of the pictures...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/22492149/

Last thing this week, here's a pretty funny recap of Lance Armstrong's Least Impressive Accomplishments...

http://www.yourcycling.com/cycling-features/least_impressive_accomplishments.html

Okay, thats it for this week, comments welcome below...

Bike-y Free Bike-Y Friday...

I've decided to take it easy on all of you (and myself) by having a rather bike-y free bike-y Friday. But, there are still many things to go over this week, so let's get on with this week's headlines.

Kim mentioned something about her schoolkids last week, so when I saw these links I thought of you. First off, last week's SI had a great article on a 12year old competitive inline skater who got put on steroids, hgh, etc by his father. Kinda makes the crazy hockey dads in Alberta seem much tamer. The dad ended up going to jail (surprise) but this gets into the whole parents-living-thru-their-kids argument. A good read.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/magazine/01/15/sins.of.a.father0121/

On a really related note, here's a story where the Texas high schools are going to start testing for steroids. I read somewhere that 500 thousand US teenagers take steroids! That’s an insane amount. Anyhow, Texas is going test 40-50000 students this school year. Pretty good start.
http://www.tsn.ca/headlines/news_story/?ID=227919

In the interest of being fair and balanced, I wanted to touch on everyone's fave actor, Mr Sylvester Stallone. Apparently, when you're 61 and trying to be an action star (Rambo 4 just came out), you need some help. So he has become a loud advocate for HGH to get into shape. He even says that "it increases the quality of life" and "in 10 years, it will be over the counter". I will update his predictions in January 2018.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=4194709

I can't even describe this story, but I feel like I should pass it on. The only amazing thing is that it didn’t happen in the US.
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/29/wtf-of-the-day-driver-kills-cyclist-sues-victims-family-for-d/

Okay, a couple more quick hitters on sports. First off, Jon Browne, who we found out in November was going to run for Canada (reminder:he's twice been 4th in the Olympic Marathon). Now its official. And he's planning on getting the 'A" qualifier. Sweet.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080122/sports/track_iaaf_brown

Speaking of Canadian running, there is a new magazine coming out that is completely committed to the Canadian running community. It is by the same group that publishes the very good Canadian Triathlon Magazine. It hits newsstands on Feb 15th. Although the website is not up yet, here's the teaser. Looks promising.
http://runningmagazine.ca/

I promised to discuss the Super Bowl - and while I'll be no one at my house on Sunday is allowed to cheer for the Patriots, I am looking forward to the game. It will be either history-making or a historic upset. Degenerate betters like Hooper have agreed that Giants plus the points (12) is the way to go. Anyhow, for those of us who don’t care about the game, but watch for the event of it, perhaps these wagers would be more your style. The Super Bowl is the biggest betting day of the year, and prop (non-sporting) bets are a big part of it. Perhaps you could bet how long you think it will take Jordin Sparks (American Idol) to sing the National Anthem (plus/minus 1m42s) or what color the Gatorade will be during the winning-coach-takes-a-Gatorade-shower. Unbelievable. Gamblers will bet on anything. http://vegaswatch.net/2008/01/most-ridiculous-super-bowl-xlii-props.html

Okay, that’s enough for now (I guess I did end up with one bike reference) so I promise lots more next week. Enjoy the game!!