A lesson that I'm learning is that taking a break of two weeks off in the middle of racing season will only result in leaving me with wayyyyy too much to cover. So this week's edition will include doping, pro cycling (surprisingly, the two are not related this week), triathlon, more doping, some fast runners and maybe some sexy bikes. So read on...
First off, remember that story from a couple of months back where the Jamaican runners were so proud that they had never tested positive? Ummm, that was a long time ago. There was that positive test at Olympic trials, and now there is a story that two Jamaicans ordered steroids from the mail-order pharmacy that has busted so many baseball players over the past couple of years. Whoops. The female sprinter implicated, Delloreen Ellis-London, who finished 5th in the 100m hurdles in Beijing, of course said she never opened the packages. Of course, why we would think otherwise? Anyhow, there might be more to come...
Speaking of fast Jamaicans (and I am absolutely NOT trying to link them with the previous story since that might destroy the sprint game), Usain Bolt is really fast. Although he didn't break the world record in his first race since Beijing, he did run the second fastest 200m of the year, despite running hard for only 140m! That guy is ridiculous. At the same meet, Asafa Powell tied the second fastest 100m EVER (9.72s)! So those two will continue to batter the fastest times we've ever seen run into 2009 and beyond. I expect both the 100m and 200m records will be broken before Worlds in Berlin next August.
Some Olympic recaps too. The IAAF standards had Canada in 16th place overall in the track and field events in Beijing. USA was first, Russia was second, and Kenya was third. So little Canada, despite only one medal (Priscilla Lopes-Schliep) did not too bad! Two 4th places finishes (Dylan Armstrong and Gary Reed), a 5th (Jessica Zelinka) and a 6th (men's 4 X 100m) showed that we are getting closer. London 2012 is only 205 weeks away! And there may be no bigger star in London than will-be-38 year old Paula Radcliffe, who says she will be on the starting line in London, looking once more for an Olympic medal. Most of us would agree she might be the best female long distance runner ever (she won 14 of her past 16 major races going into Beijing, with only Athens in 2004 and a second place finish in her first race post-baby in 2007 the only blemishes), but she still has zero Olympic medals. 5th in the 5000m in Atlanta, 4th in the 10,000m in Sydney, her only marathon DNF in Athens, and now 23rd in Beijing.
Before moving on to pro cycling, let's cover some triathlon results. First off, Chrissie Wellington is the best. She easily won this week's ITU World Long Distance Championships (4k/120k/30k) by 18 minutes! Although the field wasn't deep, it did include Yvonne Van Vlerken, who did the Roth IronDistance race in a female world-record 8h45m! So Chrissie goes to Kona as the absolute unchallenged front runner. How many can she win in a row?
Speaking of amazing female triathletes, Belinda Granger also took the drama out of Ironman Canada by biking 4h51m to absolutely destroy the really good female field. With previous Ironman champions like Lisa Bentley, Rebecca Granger, Desiree Ficker, and Heather Wurtele all competing, it was among the most competitive Ironman fields this year. But none of them came close to Granger, who coasted in for a 9 minute win. Australian Allison Fitch was second, with Heather Wurtele (who's only 29) holding off Sara Gross and Lisa Bentley for 3rd.
The men's race was a bit closer. Mark van Akkeren blistered the bike course, but couldn't hold on. So Kiwi veteran Bryan Rhodes (who once was a swim coach in Penticton in the late 90's!) used a 2h55m run to win his fourth Ironman race. It looked as though Jasper Blake was going to make a move to catch him, but he faded down the stretch to finish third. Another great day of racing...too bad Sister Madonna Buder just missed the official cutoff by less than 3 minutes. Full race report here.
Now a triathlon story that has been way under the radar. It turns out that a Spanish triathlete (Francisco Pontano) tested positive for a stimulant at a race in June. I guess while this 'A' sample was being tested, he ended up winning Ironman Lake Placid in July. There is no sign of his 'B' sample results in the article i found, but this does bring up many issues. Like why Ironman athletes do not get tested (no drug testing this year at any North American Ironman events). Or what would happen if this Spanish positive test gets upheld. This is a very murky area right now, and unless triathlon gets a bit more proactive, we could be missing a huge doping problem. And it's not even race-day testing we need, it's year-round, out-of-competition tests. Of course, i'll keep you posted...
Ok, finishing up with cycling. What's new? The Spanish version of the Tour, the Vuelta a Espana, is underway (stage 5 was today). This is noteworthy because Team Astana (with Kloden, Leipheimer, and Contador) are racing after being excluded from the Tour de France. Tom Boonen is also racing after sitting out the Tour after a recreational drug penalty. Plus Carlos Sastre and Alejandro Valverde are among the big names doing the Tour-Vuelta double. After today's Time Trial (won by Leipheimer), he's the race leader, with Contador and Sastre close behind. But they have a long way to go (and a long way to go up!). I'll keep you posted.
That is the least of news around Carlos Sastre. Fall is when riders are free to sign with opposing teams, and the biggest name on the market is Sastre. With CSC appearing to be willing to lean on Cancellera and the Schleck brothers going forward, Sastre's name had been linked with Garmin-Chipotle, the new Cervelo team (more on this below), and this year's big money team Katusha. Katusha is owned by a Russian oil tycoon, and they are reported to have a 30 million euros budget (most teams are in the 10-18 million euro range). They have already signed Robbie McEwen and Vladimir Karpets, and will ride Ridley bikes.
Last few things before I sign off. It appears both the Gerolsteiner team is officially dead due to it's inability to sign a sponsor. Too bad. I always liked their uniform. Scott bikes has decided to sponsor Team Columbia (the old T-mobile/High Road) which is switching to Scott from Giant. This all means that Saunier-Duval, which became Scott-American Beef after the Tour, is now without a bike sponsor. Don't worry, i'm confused too.
Unfortunately, i'm just getting started. As I hinted at above, Cervelo is no longer sponsoring Team CSC in 2009. They are forming their own European pro team (for now it will be called Cervelo TestTeam) but it is unsure so far if they will be a ProTour team (in all the big cycling races) or simply a developmental team. Cervelo has done great things by sponsoring CSC over the years. It will be interesting to see if they can continue the momentum on their own. Oh yeah, Team CSC will be riding on Specialized bikes next year!
More to come on Friday, including news on Lance and his buddy Tyler Hamilton. And oh yeah, some nice bikes! See you then!
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