Lance’s appearance on Barbara Walter’s 10 Most Fascinating People was pretty brief - Sheryl appeared with him. Honestly, I would have thought that Baba Wawa’s staff could have come up with some original interview questions, but no, it was the usual re-run of the same-old, same-old stuff. Sometimes I wonder how Lance can be so gracious in responding to the same questions, interview-after-interview, year-after-year.

Got the email from Dan Osipow yesterday afternoon, announcing his departure from Tailwinds Sports, and his new position across the Bay in Berkeley. Dan will be Associate General Manager of Cal Sports Properties for ISP Sports. Dan’s focus will be the sponsorship and marketing of the University of Cal Berkeley athletic department, mainly it's football and basketball programs. ISP Sports is out of Winston-Salem, NC, and is the sports marketing company for most of the best collegiate sports teams - their client list of top colleges is a mile long.

As a Cal Bear Alum, I think that’s great news - Dan is a top-notch, experienced and high-quality person with sponsors. I’ve seen him in action as long as I’ve been with the Posties/Discovery Channel team, and ISP Sports is lucky to have him on their marketing team. Best of luck and good fortune to Dan Osipow.

I’ll miss Dan as a person at Discovery events. I have so many memories of five Tours of France, and hanging out beside the team bus with him - also the Tours of Georgia, SF Grand Prix, Wachovia Series, all the training camps - so many places and so many memories...

That said, I love the folks at Capitol Sports Entertainment and know they are also top-notch, experienced and high-quality people. My favorite management folks there are Higgs (Mark Higgins), Bill Stapleton and Bart Knaggs. A really fine bunch of guys - all great friends of Lance. Both Lance and Johan are partners in CSE, along with Bill and Bart. Higgs always treats me just the best, and I luv the guy.....

I took the photo of Dan Osipow at the 2005 BGI SF Grand Prix sponsor/team dinner at the Acme Chophouse on the Embarcadero. Super great place to dine...

Kinda like dog daze for the teams right about now. Most of the Classics guys are hitting the training roads and the gym and getting in gear. The guys who are changing teams are basically still supposed to be wearing their old team kits until December 31st. Like at the Cycle with Champions fundraising event in Santa Rosa, Chris Horner was wearing his Saunier Duval-Prodir kit, and Freddie Rodriguez was wearing his Davitamon-Lott kit, but Chris will not officially be teammates with Freddy in D-L until 2006.

Training camps are starting to happen - the Discover Channel Team newbies will have camp in Austin in the next week or two. The Austin camp is basically to get the new guys acquainted, comfortable, and start team-building. Not all the guys will be there. The entire team will be at the January training camp in California...

T-Mobile froze their behinds at a camp already, and Jan has headed to the warmer climbs and climes of South Africa to warm his tootsies. I’m sure you saw the images of Jan hanging onto a climbing rope in the snow. Bjarne Riis has his tough-as-Hell bootcamp all set up and the CSC team is heading out to some desolate place in Denmark to test their mettle.

Liberty Sequros is getting together to try to pick up the scattered pieces and process the emotions around recent events. Definitely not a training camp....

Most of the team have training camps in January and February. Not sure if the Amgen Tour of California will bring any changes to any of the team schedules. Speaking of the Amgen Tour, I got a press release that the Wellness Community and the Lance Armstrong Foundation are coming together in a project to provide support for cancer survivors. The Wellness Community is the charity that will benefit from the Amgen Tour of California, with race efforts headed by George Hincapie.

Photo is Lance at the 2005 training camp, with the usual cellphone attached to his ear..

First, I want to say thanks to so many of you who wrote with your similar concerns about the UCI drug testing process and procedures. The current doping control testing measures are a farce and a disaster, and suffer from the worst kind of Group Think and political CYA by the UCI and WADA.

Any dissenting scientific opinions or recommendations are dismissed by the UCI in statements such as this about Roberto Heras: “The regrettable context of suspicion and distrust created around this affair, which will once again have provoked very negative consequences for the image of the cycling, is only the will of a number to discredit, in a totally unacceptable way, the reliability of the most important tool with which the UCI, as first International Federation in the world to be equipped within the framework of its commitment against doping and this already in 2001." The UCI is totally ignoring and degrading valid questions, concerns and suggestions by renown scientists with impeccable reputations. Honest protests by clean riders are labeled as attempts to discredit the testing process...

In case you didn’t read Chief Editor Dr. Jeff Jones’ article in Cyclingnews.com on September 23, 2005, entitled Serious Concerns Over Urinary EPO Test, I urge you to read the entire article. Here are some excerpts:

Chief Online Editor Dr Jeff Jones' recent report titled: "Serious concerns over urinary EPO test" stemmed from the three recent cases in the endurance sport of triathlon, where scientists defending Rutger Beke, Virginia Berasategui and Ibán Rodríguez were able to prove to test for artificial or recombinant EPO (rEPO) could lead to false positives.

In early 2002, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) called for the urinary EPO test to undergo an independent review, whose experts recommended seven points of improvement, ranging from the assessment of the urine samples prior to analysis to a new approach for the interpretation of the scanned EPO profiles, as well as the use of more appropriate testing materials.

The experts asked to review the test, Drs. Gabriel Peltre and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Thormann, also noted stress-induced activity can lead to proteinuria, where the body can naturally excrete proteins that would yield a positive test - which lead to the three aforementioned triathletes having their cases dropped. Furthermore, the doctors noted the use of an antibody that is non-specific for rEPO identification - that is, other proteins in the sample could be identified.

The highly politicized UCI has all the power over the riders. UCI’s pompous pronouncements, combined with unassailable and self-serving guilty verdicts are blasted all over the media, with never a smidgeon of a doubt on their part as to the reliability of their testing. The goal of the UCI is to sell their testing process and the “battle against EPO” without regard to any errors or injustices, or destruction of careers and reputations along the way.

A disgrace, a disaster, and a deadly farce....

The photo of Roberto Heras is one I took at the 2003 Tour de France.

In my last posting, the audio blog, I talked about Robbie Ventura at Downers Grove. It was 2004, and the pic shows two Posties: Robbie, with Floyd Landis doing a great job of working for him. Robbie is now doing a great job as DS for the Advantage Benefits Endeavour Cycling Team. The ABE cycling team had a busy schedule in 2005 and looked real good.

EPO-Gate: I am just appalled that the totally screwed-up testing process came up with a positive for the B sample of Roberto Heras. It’s just too, too fishy about the “delay” in the process because they couldn’t get a reading and then, with extra time, they came up with a positive...

It makes absolutely no logical sense at all that Roberto would use EPO at the end of the Vuelta when he was four minutes ahead of his nearest competitor. Roberto had already been tested something like twelve times with no problem. He knew, with no doubt, that when he won, he would be tested thoroughly. Why in the Hell would he use EPO? That’s just totally nutz - nobody with a brain in their head would use EPO at that time in a race... Especially since he had already won three times and knew exactly what the testing process would be.

People, there is something really wrong going on there, and the UCI and WADA have gone so far that they cannot afford to even consider the thought that they are screwing up badly, somehow, some way.. The bureaucracy has to do whatever to CYA, and riders are being ruined because of it. The UCI released a statement late Friday to express its "full satisfaction with the way the procedures relating to this case were carried out and reaffirms its unconditional confidence in the method used to trace EPO." The reality is that no procedure of any kind is flawless - human error always enters into the equation.

I was trying to locate the very small article that I read recently online about Santi Perez and his fight against his homologous blood transfusion findings. Santi’s case has kinda gone off the radar screen, but I recall reading that his legal team had produced proof that the samples used came from three different storage units. The article gave the numbers on the testing documents, showing three different storage locations. What does this mean? The question is: How could Santi’s blood sample be stored in three different locations? How easy is it for some lab tech to misread one digit and pull a sample from the wrong place? CYA... Who is going to admit that they made a mistake? CYA and keep your job... Whether it is lab tech, lab director, WADA official or UCI official... CYA is the name of the game.

And, no publicity at all for this Santi Perez article that might cast doubts on the testing process.. No thunderous headlines, not picked by much of the cycling media - not trumpeted in the headlines by L’Creep - CYA there, too...

More SF Grand Prix musings: I think that Aaron Peskin, the SF supe from the North Beach area, needs a reality check. How can a politician spout catchy, politically charged phrases like “Corporate Welfare” about a tourist and family-oriented event that brings 10.2 million dollars to SF businesses? How does that mesh with the City shutting down the streets and providing police for political and environmental protests by the dozens, throughout the year: year after year. How about other events like the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, or the Chinese New Year Celebration or Gay Pride celebration in the Castro? How about the Bay to Breakers? How about Critical Mass?

Think of all the events that shut down streets in SF and think about all the members of the SFPD who are on duty at each of those events. Maybe some of you can name some of the other events for us.... Do all these folks pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in city costs for that one event day? Maybe they do - I don’t know....

Think about the last SF protest march that you saw live or on TV. Think about all the police and emergency personnel, think about all the cops on horseback and all the cops in full SWAT gear. Does the group that staged the protest and broke all the store windows pay for their political day in the limelight?

I’m from San Jose and don’t give a rat’s ass about the politics in SF, but it sure seems like there are some real inconsistencies in Peskin’s political name-calling. Why are Peskin and Chris Daly not talking about the costs to the City for all these other events? Perhaps because these other events fall into the category of “Political Vote-Getting Welfare”?

Photo is from the 2004 T-Mobile in SF. Freddie Rodriguez, Charles Dionne and George Hincapie on the podium. You can find the Audio for this post at www.velogal.podomatic.com

Totally Off Topic of cycling... One of my favorite news crawlers is Topix.net, so I check it out at some point during the day. Some of the news headlines and stories are so funny. For example, this morning, a headline was “Naked Prowler Shot in Genitals with Taser by Deputies Near Fort Meyers Beach”. Seems this 26-year-old guy was breaking windows and asking women to touch him - he ran away from the long arm (or should I say hand?) of the law, so they tasered him. Seems that a moving target is hard (a-hem) to hit, and somebody aimed low....

Next favorite: “Frozen Turkey Saves Couple From Burning Car”. Seems that an elderly couple in Maywood, Ill had a car crash - the car was on fire and filling with smoke - the doors were locked and windows rolled up. A passerby couldn’t break the windows, so he used his frozen 20-pound Thanksgiving turkey to smash the window and rescue the couple from the fire. All I can say is, “Well done”...

Okay, okay.. back to cycling and the Great San Francisco Cycling Scandal or Cycle-Gate. Accusations are flying fast and furious, along with the usual “he said, she said” dynamics. Newsom versus Peskin in the political ring, with Threshold Sports caught in the middle, or some may say, with their pants down. As I said yesterday, I tend to believe the TSL version of the story. The known outcome is that American cycling will suffer a loss, and American riders will have one less opportunity to earn income here in the States. And sponsors will again step back from the sport.

However, I saw a news story in the Contra Costa Times this morning that said the City of San Jose is doing some very preliminary talking with Threshold (San Francisco LLC) about hosting the event. Dean Munro, Executive Director of the San Jose Sports Authority, says he plans to speak with Threshold to see if SJ would be a good match. Threshold has already run a race here in San Jose in 2001, I think it was. I worked that race for them, and so much hard work and planning went into the effort. There was good support from the SJ Sports Authority, but the local media pretty much ignored it. We had great course marshals for the race...

I think last summer’s NASCAR racing in downtown SJ really made the city realize how much tourist money can be dumped into the lifeless economy of the downtown area. Thousands of NASCAR fans jammed into SJ, and the place was really jumping - the restaurants and bars downtown were packed, as were the hotels. Parking structures raised their prices to $25 a day and all was green for them...

Rumor has it that two large Bay Area cities are expressing some interest. David Chauner said that he is talking with folks around the Bay Area. Hmmm... How about Berkeley? There are certainly hills there, and none in San Jose. But Berkeley also has vociferous politics.... Maybe Oakland? The street danger for the riders certainly wouldn’t be from cars - their $5k bikes would be stolen out from under them, and the team cars would have to have security guards inside...

The photo is from the 2005 BGI SFGP, showing two American cycling Tour de France stars, Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie near the top of Fillmore Street Hill. Maybe one of the last shots you’ll see of these two guys on Fillmore.... And I'll do the audio of this posting again on www.velogal.podomatic.com

The axe has officially fallen on the Threshold Sports San Francisco Grand Prix for 2006. The official press release said, “There is considerable uncertainty regarding the amounts we will be billed after each year’s race, making it impossible to accurately forecast budgets or question charges beforehand,” said CEO David Chauner. “On top of that, the periodic, emotionally charged Board of Supervisors’ debates over the value of the event make potential sponsors very nervous. Few companies will sponsor a politically charged event and, when sponsors back out or can’t be replaced, we have to cut important elements of the race, like eliminating the very popular women’s event this year.”

Since 2001, San Francisco Cycling has paid City of San Francisco agencies and police a total $1,564,634 to stage the race. “This is a staggering amount, but we paid it in order to make this a world class event in a world class city.” said Jerry Casale, Operations Director of the event. According to Casale, the most recent charges leveled by Supervisors and Daly and Peskin at the November 14 Audit and Oversight Committee that San Francisco Cycling LLC failed to pay its bills for the 2004 event were misleading. “We were faxed the final and adjusted SFPD bill for $89,924 for the first time on November 10, 2005, just one working day prior to that meeting, all other city charges had been paid before we got our ISCOTT permit for the 2005 race, it wouldn’t have been issued otherwise”, said Casale “And then they said we were late and purposely avoiding payment. That’s simply not true.”

If you recall what I said in a recent post, the politicians in SF are well-known for twisting the truth to make political hay while the political sun shines, and I think supes Chris Daley and Aaron Peskin are certainly following the yellow journalism school of politics here. Their own political ambitions are going to destroy badly needed income for the City. I don’t think having a Prologue of the Amgen Tour of California in SF is going to create that kind of income for businesses that the SFGP did. That is really a stupid statement by Peskin...

The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau study showed that this year’s race brought $10.2 million tourist dollars into the city.

Other Stuff... I saw in the news that Lance Armstrong is going to do his first visit to South Africa in January to promote the Unite 4 Health campaign. According to the news item, he will do a fundraising dinner and visit several clinics and healthcare projects around the country. The goal is to improve healthcare clinics and services.

Tom Danielson, Michael Barry, Dede Barry, Bob Roll, Chris Wherry, Ned Overend, Todd Wells, and Shonny Vanlandingham will appear at a fund-raising celebration in Durango, CO on December 16, 2005. The event benefits the Fort Lewis Cycling Team, Durango Wheel Club Junior Development and Cycling Advocacy. Check out Tom Danielson’s site for info www.tomdanielson.com

And our Belgian Connection tells me that Stijn Devolder won’t be at the Austin training camp because he is expecting the arrival of his first child right about that time...

Wanna hear the audio version of this blog posting? Follow the Link to my new podcasting site...

Saturday morning miscellaneous stuff... I read in a New Zealand paper that Hayden Roulston said he walked from Discovery because he didn’t want to race in Europe anymore. He said he would like to get on an American team and ride American races only. Didja hear that, Frankie Andreu and United Pro Cycling Team?

Threshold Sports CEO, David Chauner, announced that there would, indeed, be a race in Philly in 2006. The Pro Cycling Tour Championship of the Americas will be June 4th in Lancaster, the PCT Invitational will be on June 8th (venue to be announced) and the new Philadelphia International Championship, along with the Women’s Liberty Classic, will be in Philly on Sunday, June 11th. All races will have UCI international status. Title sponsor is not yet announced, but there is strong support from the city of Philadelphia and the Governor of PA...

Reason for the photo of Rubens Bertogliati, Tour 2005? I just read a press release that said there is a new, additional sponsor for the Saunier Duval-Prodir team. Squirt Lube, an American company, makes the Squirter (lube)and the Sweatsucker (headband). I keep playing around with new team names like Saunier Duval-Prodir-Squirt or Saunier Duval-Prodir-Squirter-Sweatsucker... Fit that on a lycra behind...

Discovery Team news of the day: Hayden Roulston has asked to leave the team, and Johan has released him from his contract for 2006. Hayden was appreciative of the time he spent with the team, and everyone wishes him well. Hayden has had a rough time the past year or so, and maybe he just needs time to figure out where he’s going and how to get there...

So the question is, will Johan hold the team as is, with the addition of Matt White, or add another rider at this late date? The Austin training camp is only three weeks away... Not all the DC riders will attend the camp. Matt told me in an email that he will train at home, and then come to the California camp in January....

I also saw that the CSC training camp will be in California, after their boot camp training in Denmark. Wouldn’t it be cool to see the DC team and CSC team both training in the same area at the same time? A lot of teams use the San Gabriel Mountains area for training.... Plus the Amgen Tour of California will go by there, too... The photo is the Discovery Channel team training in the SG mountains last year.

I liked the Johnny Cash special last night, and I think my favorite was the duet with Jerry Lee Lewis and Kid Rock. Sheryl sang Ring of Fire, and I wished they had rocked it a bit - Sheryl sounded great and I would have liked to hear her blast it and rock on....

The big news is, of course, the USA Cycling announcement about the USPRO Championships moving to Greenville, becoming a totally American competition race, and being run by Medalist Sports. The date of the event is smack-dab in the middle of the Vuelta. Sounds like it may cut out some great American riders like Tom Danielson, and others, who usually race the Vuelta.

It leaves the Wachovia Series as an unknown... The Wachovia sponsorship ended last year, too. The Wachovia races in June are on the UCI calendar, so let’s hope that something good happens there. Yeah, I know that there is a lot of crap going on in SF about the Barclays Global Investors Grand Prix and finances. I worked for Threshold Sports as an independent consultant for all the races they’ve put on for the last five years, and I know that they are a good bunch of folks who love cycling... And I know that the politicians in SF are wickedly brutal in their own political self-interest, and the truth often gets lost in the soapless SF political wash....

For Sheryl fans, you can catch her singing on the Johnny Cash special tonight on CBS.. And a quick update on the Sirius Faction Lance Armstrong show: Two weeks ago, the show ran a tape of Sanjay Gupta hosting the Friday night Survivor’s event at the Ride for the Roses. This past Sunday, the show was a re-run of the show that was taped before Lance’s Saturday Night Live debut....

Sorry for the disappearing act - it’s been crazy busy with a couple of photography projects. Doing some product photography for a jewelry line, and fine-tuning my macro photography skills.

In addition, I drove up to Santa Rosa this past weekend for the 2005 fund-raiser for Team Swift Junior Cycling Development Team: Cycle with Champions. Great line-up: Freddie Rodriguez, Chris Horner, Kathryn Curi, Brenda Lyons, Dylan Casey, Steven Cozza (U23 Discovery Channel/Specialized USA National Team), John Peters, Roberto and Lynn Gaggioli, and Team Swift Coach Laura Charameda. Chris Horner drove down from Bend, Oregon to support this great group of young cyclists. All of these well-known cyclists went out of their way to be there to support junior development. Check the Link for their site, and please support the Junior Development Team in your area... They are the future of cycling in the USA.

It was a sweet ride through very mellow and beautiful backroads around Santa Rosa. The Wine Country is especially beautiful in the Fall, with its best orange, bronze and yellow colors on display. The tourist traffic is minimal and riding is relaxed and sweet. At the end of the ride, we were treated to a first-class catered lunch, a raffle with tons of donated goodies, plus a silent auction with great schwag! Adobe donated two Photoshop CS 2 packages, and I scored on one of them. I’m stoked and happy to have donated to Team Swift. You can go to my smugmug gallery to see the happenings.

Jim Birrell of the Amgen Tour of California flew in on Sunday morning, and gave a presentation about the plans. Santa Rosa is so enthusiastically behind their part in the Tour - a City representative was there (I did not get her name, other than Moe). She talked about all the great plans for ancillary events in the city. Of course, Team Swift and their parents will welcome the opportunity to help out. Freddie, Chris, Steven and Laura gave their huge approval for the Amgen Tour plans.... Also, Jim and I put our heads together about plans in San Jose for the Amgen Tour...

I tried to do an audio post from my phone on Sunday evening, while stuck in a horrendous traffic jam on the Sausalito side of the Golden Gate Bridge. I called the audio post number, blabbed on and on about the weekend - then I pushed the review number - listened to myself babble on, and decided to inflict it on all of you. The traffic suddenly started moving - I moved five feet forward and into a dead zone just as I pushed the “publish” number. I was so pissed when my cell phone went dead and my long-winded audio post disappeared into a Verizon wireless black pit...

Here is the follow-up on the story of the stolen bike in Durham - Jonathan Vaughters of TIAA-CREF comes to the rescue and shows that the TIAA-CREF team slogan really means something: “Cycling for the Greater Good”. Yep, JV, you really done good.... And Bravo to Branan Cooper. The right thing to do... Like the good neighbor of the chained dog, Branan refused to give up until he found help...

By Lovemore Masakadza : The Herald-Sun
Nov 11, 2005 : 9:49 pm ET
DURHAM -- Jonathan Vaughters has power-pedaled up the French Alps in the grueling Tour de France and has called bicycle superstar Lance Armstrong a teammate. Now he can say he's helping Durham resident Gail Brantley restore her faith in mankind. Brantley is the cancer survivor whose cherished bicycle was stolen from her home in the Willowhaven neighborhood on Oct. 25. The dual-wheeled vehicle was a constant reminder of her victory over a deadly disease, and was an emotional memento -- she was astride the bicycle in races to raise funds for cancer research, and the names of fellow cancer survivors were affixed on the bicycle. Some of those friends later died.

Vaughters, who knows a little about the determination of cancer-fighting bicyclists -- his former teammate Armstrong was a testicular cancer survivor -- is the Denver, Colo.-based director of the TIAA-CREF cycling team. The 32-year-old retired professional bicyclist doesn't casually go about giving away expensive Javelin bicycles to total strangers.

That's where Branan Cooper comes in.

Cooper is a Duke University graduate living in Landenberg, Pa., who reads The Herald-Sun on the Internet to keep up with the community and his friends. He read about Brantley's misfortune in the Nov. 3 online edition. Though her plight pricked his heart, he was confident that the thieves would realize how dirty their deed was and return their plunder. Days went by, and when Cooper did not read that the bicycle was recovered, he was unable to sit by idly any longer.

"Gail's story was so compelling," Cooper said. He remembers thinking, "There's got to be a way to do the right thing."

So he did what any modern-day bicyclist would do. He turned to the computer.
Cooper wrote e-mails to more than 200 people trying to get contact information for the makers of Cannondale bicycles. Brantley's stolen bike was a Cannondale. But company officials said they receive many similar pleas for help and could not provide a replacement for Brantley. Instead, they offered to do a nationwide plea to get the bicycle back by issuing a news release highlighting Brantley's case. Cooper did not like that idea, so he returned to his e-mail contacts and made calls to other people in the cycling world in search of new ideas. The solution came to him.

Vaughters heard of Brantley's dilemma and knew immediately what had to be done.
He said his cycling team gets 30 to 40 bicycles a year from sponsors. At the end of the year they normally sell them in anticipation of a supply of new bicycles the coming year. He decided to give Brantley a bicycle from the outgoing stock.

"It seems like the right thing to do instead of selling the bicycle to someone," Vaughters said.

Brantley said she was shocked -- grateful, to be sure, but shocked -- when she received the good news from Cooper. "I am very honored that they would do that," Brantley said. "It's nice to know that there are kind people and it's not all people that would steal bicycles."

Brantley is already making plans to take part in the Pan-Mass Challenge in Boston to raise money for cancer research next year. That is the same competition in which she entered in 2001 to celebrate her cancer-free life and raised $10,000 for cancer research in the process. She covered the 92 miles in seven hours and met all those friends whose names were on her former bicycle.

This time she'll be on the 47-centimeter Javelin bicycle from Vaughters, who is shipping it to the Bicycle Chain Store in Durham for assembly.

But, as they say on those late-night television commercials: Wait, there's more. Brantley also will be given a U-lock that is more burglar-proof and a Pan-Mass Challenge jersey from Pan-Mass Challenge.

Though Cooper doesn't wish to be in the limelight, he did allow that he was thrilled with the fruits of his indignation-turned-activism. "It's great to see the cycling community rally to help a cancer survivor," he said.

The photo is TIA-CREFF riders - Redlands 2005. News article courtesy of the Durham Herald Sun

Here’s the cycling version of the Grinch who stole Xmas - a news story about some super-mean thieves who stole a bike from a breast-cancer survivor. Anybody have any contacts with Cannondale people who might want to help Gail Brantley? The bike was a R800 Cannondale, Frame Size 47, Frame Type Road and Wheel Size 650... A friend of mine and the LAF, Branan, is trying to get help for this woman. If you can help, email me and I’ll put you in contact....

Here’s the news article from The Herald Sun, in Durham , NC:

Theft of Cancer Survivor's Bike Like Losing an Old Friend

Nov 2, 2005 : 9:51 pm ET
DURHAM -- Gail Brantley is one tough woman. A survivor. But she finds herself inconsolable over the loss of what was -- to the unenlightened eye -- an old two-wheeled contraption with a lot of miles on its tubular frame.

The bicycle that was stolen from her was not an ordinary pedal-powered vehicle. It was a companion down paved streets and highways and, in an intimately symbolic way, across her rocky road to a rejuvenated life.

Ten years after surviving breast cancer, Brantley decided to take part in a bicycle ride in August 2001 to celebrate her life and raise money for cancer research.

She rode her bicycle for 92 miles in seven hours at the 22nd Pan-Mass Challenge in Boston. The annual bike ride to raise money for cancer research is sponsored by the Dana-Farber Institute's Jimmy Fund. Brantley raised $10,000 in the process.

The Cannondale bicycle, valued at $2,500, had white labels with black lettering of the names of 50 cancer survivors, some of whom later died.

Brantley, 60, the N.C. Board of Pharmacy financial/administrative services director, kept that bicycle and the sentimental value in which it was encased in a storage area at her Willowhaven neighborhood home.

But about 6 p.m. Oct. 25 she was devastated to find it had been stolen.
"I was very emotional and upset," Brantley said. "I thought I had quite an accomplishment with the bike. What that bike means to me it can't mean that to anybody else."

Maj. Lucy Zastrow of the Durham County Sheriff's Office said investigations into the bicycle's theft are ongoing on and that investigators have several leads.

She also said that the bicycle was stolen at the same time there were several break-ins reported in the Willowhaven neighborhood. Zastrow said theft of bicycles is a common crime in Durham, often because owners leave them outside without chaining them up.

"We get bicycles stolen every day," Zastrow said. Brantley understandably wants her bicycle back. And not just because of its cash value or because it was tailor-adjusted to suit her riding needs. Rather, it represents her personal struggle to overcome and offers memories of cancer-afflicted friends whose fight for life has drawn to an end.

If the thieves cannot find it in their hearts to return the bicycle, she said, she hopes they put their ill-gotten gain to good use. "It will be nice if they will contribute the proceeds that they will get from the sale of the bike to breast cancer research," Brantley said.

Rachel Paris, a cancer survivor whose name was one of the 50 on the bicycle, said she was saddened to hear that the bicycle was stolen. "It was more than a bicycle," Paris said. "It had a lot of meaning behind it." Paris said the people who stole the bicycle should be ashamed of themselves.

The theft will not deter Brantley from taking part in the Pan-Mass Challenge to raise money for cancer research next year. But it is looking more and more like she will have to buy a new bicycle to participate.

Thanks to my official news correspondent in Belgium, we now know that Johan Bruyneel signed the “golden book” in Izegem, Belgium. Johan is now an honorary citizen of Izegem, the town where he was born... The photo is from the 2005 Tour, with Johan, Elvio (soigneur) and Paolo warming up for the stage....

And a big thanks to Cosmo (http://cyclocosm.com) for his post in this blog yesterday. It totally puts this Amgen crap into perspective and I will repeat it here: “Here's a logical breakdown of EPO usage world-wide: Let's say there's 600 cyclists in the Pro Tour (20 teams of 30 riders), and 600 riders in each continental tour. That makes 3,600 male pro cyclists. In the name of fairness, let's double that to add women. Now let's assume that each of the other major sports affected by EPO (Nordic skiing, mountain biking, cyclocross, triathalon, distance running) have equally large numbers of participants (which they don't). That's 43,200 people.

According to the American Cancer Society, there were 1,372,910 cancer cases in the United States alone. Even if every single endurance athlete on earth were doping, it still wouldn't amount to a drop in the bucket against the number of people who use EPO to get through their cancer treatments.”

Here we go again: now we have lab tests showing Roberto Heras as positive for EPO in his A test at Stage 20 of the Vuelta. As usual, the results were “leaked” to the press long before any chance of having results for the B part of the testing. So now Roberto’s reputation is tainted, if not ruined - now there will always be doubts. This list of athletes grows and grows.... The integrity and confidentiality of the doping control results diminishes just as fast. When people associated with the testing are in bed with the Media, the credibility of all testing is nil... This whole thing is, indeed, a witch hunt, catering to the news media....

WADA has serious problems, flaws and incompetencies with their testing procedures, and worse. The problem is that Dick Pound and his crew will never admit it. How many athletes are going to have their reputations ruined before somebody does something?

One thing that I’m pretty sure of, is that Roberto is not stupid. Does anyone really think that Roberto would do EPO right at the end of the Vuelta, when he knows full well that he will be tested? He won something like four stages, and then came right down to the wire with the last couple of stages. So does anyone really think he would do EPO before that TT? When he knows that he will be tested for sure? This all does not make any kind of logical sense at all...

People, what more does it take? There are serious, reputation-ruining problems that the UCI and WADA need to address, but to do so will expose so much incompetence and corruption within their organizations that will never happen.... The bureaucracy is too large for cyclists to have a voice or a choice in this big CYA bureaucracy called Doping Control....

I spent the weekend in a Nikon Photography workshop - it was so well presented and full of information. I highly recommend these workshops if they come to your area. There is always something new to learn in digital photography. Photography and cycling are my passions.

Hope you have looked at the 2006 Discovery Team schedule by now. We’ll have four chances to see the team in the US: Tour of California (insert subliminal message here: volunteer, volunteer, volunteer...), Tour of Georgia, the USPRO series in Philly, and the Barclay’s SF Grand Prix. So all you DC team fans, put this on your calendar and start scrounging around for ways to travel to the races.

Segueing into another race topic, it looks like I may be one of three state-wide coordinators of the course marshal volunteers for the Tour of California. The organizers gave me a call, and we’re doing some talking... It’s gonna be a huge event, a huge boost for cycling and a huge job to pull off in short amount of time. So we need all cycling clubs to pitch in and give support to the sport of cycling by volunteering in your local areas where the race comes through. We’ll need road marshals and local coordinators - we’ll need hundreds and hundreds of volunteers... Go to the website and sign up... I’ll put it on the Link again....

With cycling races struggling to survive in the US, and sponsor dollars disappearing like food at the end of a Century ride, I was disgusted to see that some people in the sport couldn’t wait to jump on the “ain’t it awful” bandwagon about Amgen sponsoring the Tour of California. Yes, they do make EPO, and there are thousands of cancer, leukemia and kidney patients who are alive today because of it. They are surviving and thriving with a legitimate medical product. So some cyclists and athletes abuse it - yeah, that sucks.

My long-departed grandmother had sayings like, “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”, and “cutting off your nose to spite your face”. I think, if she were a cycling fan and still alive, she’d be saying that about folks like this pitiful representative from the UCI: Elizabeth Hunter of the World Anti-Doping Agency said Amgen's involvement sends mixed signals to the athletes. "We were pretty shocked when we heard about the title sponsor for the Tour of California," Hunter said. "Why does the largest manufacturer of EPO sponsor an event in a sport known for abuse of banned substances? That raises questions for us."

A sport known for abuse of banned substances? That’s what UCI thinks about the sport that they govern? Hunter’s statement raises questions for me - what the Hell is she doing and saying? This is an insult to every cyclist - pro, amateur or recreational. This is the philosophy of the World Anti-Doping Agency - guilty until proven innocent. A blanket statement about the sport of cycling and all cyclists.... WADA - You suck, too....

If Amgen wants to step up to the plate and sink $35 million into sponsoring cycling, it is also going to help the sport survive and thrive. It will give a boost to the economy of every town and city it goes through. Every cyclist is going to make their own decision about whether or not they put shit into their body and whether they will win fair and square. Personally, I think the vast majority of cyclists ride and win clean. And I know cycling races are falling by the wayside and being cancelled because of no sponsor dollars to cover the costs of putting on a race.... Let’s support cycling instead of tearing it down... Let’s not cut off our nose to spite our face, OK?

Photo is the men's start at the Morgan Hill Grand Prix 2005... Morgan Hill, CA.

Of course, the super, ultra big news is the Amgen Tour of California announcement. I watched the webcast and it was pretty impressive - Amgen is popping $35 million into this sponsorship. The team line-up is also pretty impressive: Discovery Channel, T-Mobile, Phonak, Davitamon-Lotto, Gerolsteiner, Saunier Duval Prodir, Health Net-Maxxis and Navigators Insurance.

All the big poobahs were there from the sponsoring companies, Mayors, USA Cycling, and Levi Leipheimer. Eurosport said that George Hincapie was there, but he wasn’t introduced or called upon to speak, so if he was there, it was pretty low-key.... Levi said a few words - he’s pretty stoked that the race will go thru his hometown of Santa Rosa.

George is the headline name for the Breakaway from Cancer Initiative, a partnership with the Wellness Community, an international non-profit organization dedicated to providing support, education and hope for people affected by cancer. The goal is awareness and funds to support valuable services and programs that help cancer patients and caregivers. The Wellness Community non-profit organization was started by a physician in Santa Monica in 1982.

The eight-stage race route looks something like this: Prologue starts in SF at the Embarcadero on Feb 19th. Feb 20th will be Sausalito to Santa Rosa, Feb 21 will be Martinez to San Jose. On Feb 22nd, there will be an Individual Time Trial in San Jose. Feb 23rd will be a Monterey location to San Luis Obispo, and the 24th will be SLO to Santa Barbara. Feb 25th will be SB thru the Amgen Campus in Thousand Oaks, and the final stage will be a circuit race in Redondo Beach. The exact cities along the route will be announced in the next 45-60 days.

If you belong to a cycling club or just want to help make this race a success, go to the Amgen Tour of California site to volunteer. Click on the Link to find the Volunteer page... Hundreds of volunteers are going to be needed, so let’s get the word around... Just like the Tour of Georgia, I think they will be looking for a crew of traveling volunteers that will be the prime, elite Road Course Marshals for the entire race.

I was one of the Road Course Marshal Volunteer Coordinators for the first Tour of Georgia, and I’ll tell you it is a great experience to be part of a traveling course marshal crew. It is truly the toughest job you’ll ever love....

The pic of George is from Interbike 2005 - he’s signing autographs at the Foot Fitting booth.

I guess my blog posting and photo of Matt White on October 14th foreshadowed today’s good news. Johan called Matt and asked him to come back to the team. That is just the greatest news - Whitey is a great, hard-working rider and a really cool guy. He got the shaft when the Sony team deal fell thru, and was left without a contract for 2006. It seems that Johan came up with some new sponsor money and called Whitey right away. Of course, Whitey jumped at the chance...

We’re gonna have a super strong team again this year. On one hand, Johan is saying that it will be a while before the team can be a real contender at the Tour. But on the other hand, he is also saying that they have been preparing to win the Tour for seven years, and he’s not gonna change that now. I think he kinda welcomes the pressure being taken off, but he is a real competitive guy, and he doesn’t take insults lying down. He’s like Lance in that way, it just becomes a driving force toward victory....

This photo was taken of the guys and me at Interbike 2003. Kenny Labbe, me, Matt White and Damon Kluck.

Quick post this morning - lots to do today. I was going down to the Red Bull Road Rage in Malibu this Saturday. I think I mentioned it in an earlier post. In talking with the organizers, I was told that all photographs would belong to Red Bull, and just like the Cougar Mountain Classic, I could not sell any of my images. Well, I’d love to see it and do some photography, but not if I can’t make a dime back toward my travel and lodging expenses.

I just received an email a short while ago, announcing that Tony Cruz will be one of the contenders for that break-neck race down Tuna Canyon. Of course, that really makes me want to go even more, plus seeing my buddy, Steve Bauer, race again. And to top it all off, they said that Bob Roll will be there as announcer. In addition, Marty Northstein and David Clinger will participate.

Sure would like to see it! And in case you missed the Tour de France commercials featuring Bobke, the Link directs you to the site... Thanx goes to Cosmos for sending me the link....