My (awful) Tour predictions

Well, the Tour's finished, and my selections weren't so great. I had Contador, Schleck and Vande Velde in about the right spots, and I picked the Green, White and Team winners, but I chose all the guys who had dire Tours too - Evans, Menchov and Rogers all performed below anyone's expectations.

1. Cadel Evans - 30th
2. Alberto Contador - 1st
3. Andy Schleck - 2nd
4. Carlos Sastre - currently 17th
5. Denis Menchov - 51st
6. Lance Armstrong - 3rd
7. Christian Vande Velde - 8th
8. Mikel Astarloza - currently 11th
9. Michael Rodgers - 103rd
10. Sylvain Chavanel - 20th

Plus Green jersey
Thor Hushovd - in Green

Polka Dot
Carlos Sastre - 14 points (43rd place)

White
Andy Schleck

Team
Astana

And now for a new category - Best Post-Tour Trick (click on photo for link to PEZ Cycling - www.pezcyclingnews.com)

A stab in the dark at Lance's new team

So Lance Armstrong has a new team - and he's signing new riders every minute. Here's my guess at the line up

LA
Chris Horner
Cadel Evans
Jack Bobridge
Taylor Phinney
Levi Leipheimer
Brice Feillu
Mark Cavendish (depending on budget)
Mark Renshaw (depending on Cavendish)
George Hincapie (depending on all of above plus ability to forgive LA)
Simon Gerrans
plus a dozen big motors - anonymous guys like Popo who would be team leader on your average French team.

teamradioshack.com/getready/

Keirin guy takes on politics

Tomohiro Nagatsuka (above), silver medalist in the Olympic Sprint in Athens, looks like joining the race for mayor of Ibaraki as the DPJ-backed candidate, according to a report in today's Sankei. Nagatsuka is said to be quite an economist with a great knowledge of how money markets work - so that's where he's been investing all his winnings on the keirin circuit.

My Tour Top 10

1. Cadel Evans
2. Alberto Contador
3. Andy Schleck
4. Carlos Sastre
5. Denis Menchov
6. Lance Armstrong
7. Christian Vande Velde
8. Mikel Astarloza
9. Michael Rodgers
10. Sylvain Chavanel

Plus Green jersey
Thor Hushovd

Polka Dot
Carlos Sastre

White
Andy Schleck

Team
Astana

Lance a bit pants on Twitter

Lance Armstrong has blocked Cycling Weekly on Twitter because they questioned whether it was right that he participated in a small race not (in theory) open to top pros called the Tour of Gila.

I guess that also means his "black book" of people he won't talk to has been reopened, and Cycling Weekly is back on the list (he took them off the list to give them this interview, which won the interviewer an award http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/Lance_Armstrong_exclusive_interview_article_273248.html).

So, the LIVESTRONG anti-cancer message is now no longer received by the UK’s best-selling cycling publication. Who wins?

Tyler Hamilton

Busted a second time for banned drugs, U.S. champion Tyler Hamilton has left cycling (but would have been banned for life anyway).

He refuses to speak about his past, but he's full of excuses for the present.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/8004759.stm

The Lance question

As a cyclist, I often have friends and colleagues ask me "So, do you think Lance ever used drugs?" The problem of course is most people want a one sentence answer like "He's the most tested guy on the planet, he never failed a drug test, of course he was clean." But the answer I really want to give is READ THIS:

http://velocitynation.com/content/interviews/2009/michael-ashenden

A tale from 2003

Back in 2003, I made a trip back to Adelaide to see family and friends. After a night spent at the Exeter pub with a few mates I was making my way back to the train station when I spotted someone who looked familiar. I realised it was a cyclist I'd seen on TV quite a bit.
It was probably the beers that made me go up to him and say hi, but he didn't seem to mind. He talked to me about his racing - he'd recently won a world championship in the keirin event - and was telling me about his training. He even asked if I raced.
All I was expecting was a quick exchange - one of those awkward "Good on ya mate, love your work" type exchanges you have with celebs. But he was a nice guy, and he walked along with me for a good 10 minutes. Chatting like we'd known each other for years.
A couple of hours ago, the cyclist Jobie Dajka, was found dead in his house. Aged 27. News reports say he battled depression, aggression and with the bottle. But that night I met a really down-to-earth, well adjusted guy.

Cyclists on Twitter

I've been following Twitter a lot lately, and I've been enjoying the Twitter posts by various cyclists around the world. Here's a list of the cyclists I'm following:

twitter.com/PhilLiggett - Commentator Phil Liggett
twitter.com/ghincapie - George Hincapie
twitter.com/kmoerenhout - Koos Moerenhout
twitter.com/taylorphinney - Taylor Phinney
twitter.com/axelmerckx - Axel Merckx
twitter.com/velonews - Velo News magazine
twitter.com/ChristianVDV - Christian Vande Velde
twitter.com/LizKreutz - Liz Kreutz photographer
twitter.com/tourdownunder - Tour Down Under
twitter.com/bikeworld - Bike World (very good)
https://twitter.com/dzabriskie - Dave Zabriskie
twitter.com/carlossastre - Carlos Sastre (real?)
twitter.com/christianmeier - Christian Meier
twitter.com/KankiKnight - Japanese cycling/product news
twitter.com/TeamSlipstream - Team Slipstream
twitter.com/EdwardPickering - Cycle Sport writer
twitter.com/SRichardsonCW - Cycling Weekly writer
twitter.com/lionelbirnie - Cycle Sport writer
twitter.com/neilroad - Road Magazine
twitter.com/jimochowicz - Jim Ochowicz
twitter.com/mickrogers - Michael Rogers
twitter.com/TwitEndurance (very good)
twitter.com/steephill Steephill TV

...and there are others I choose not to follow, such as Ivan Basso, Lance Armstrong and the Ouch! team of Floyd Landis.

You might notice I've included my site: twitter.com/KankiKnight
I focus on Japanese design, but I always pass on news about Japanese cycling products from Shimano, Araya, Bridgestone etc.

Keirin rider Keisuke Tejima dead at 33

Top keirin rider Keisuke Tejima has died. Tejima was ranked among the top 18 riders in the nation. Some websites are hinting that he commited suicide.
Tejima won the SS Cup Minori in 2008 and raced for Japan in Copenhagen.

MASH SF

I see I was recently added to the MASH blog roll. Does that mean I'm a hipster now?

www.mashsf.com

Great news for Japanese cycling

Former national road race champion Yukira Arashiro has been signed by French team bouygues Telecom, which is great news because Bouygues will field a team in next year's Tour de France - and Arashiro is a "rouler" - the type of rider made for stage racing, long breakaways and rolling terrain.

The rider has certainly put in years of hard work, riding for the Vang team before getting picked up by Dutch/Japanese team Skil-Shimano.

But now he's in the big league riding the big races - perhaps Paris-Nice, Route du Sud, Paris Roubaix and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The races you can see on TV - races young kids in Japan can watch on J-Sports. I hope Arashiro scores a few wins so we see more kids go get on a bike.

Cycle Mode Tokyo part 3 - Road bikes and TT rigs

Tom Boonen's bike













Oscar Freire's bike






Great hidden rear caliper on this Cherubim






Interesting lug on this Anchor





Something for the trackies
The best looking frame of all?

Cycle Mode Tokyo part 2 - Mini velos, Cervelos and velos

Dark days for the Tour de France

Re-testing began Monday on samples taken from riders at the Tour de France this year. It is said two 'big name' riders and 12 others are under suspicion. Names have been named but I'm not going to do that here. If the names mentioned are found positive I really don't know how cycling can move forward. Some of the guys mentioned are (were?) my heroes, so I really hope there's no truth in the rumours.

More on Lance - this time his charity

Some fascinating figures here. Turns out Lance Edward Gunderson Armstrong's Live Strong charity allegedly has the lowest possible efficiency rating, and it is said to have made a loss of over $5 million in FY06 (which seem to be the latest published figures, hmmm). I know that many people who know little about cycling think that Lance is a god, so I've added a few links below.

Boulder Report

Investigate Lance

Investigate Lance "The Facts"

Weight Weenies forum

Wikipedia

(see "Allegations of Drug Use")

Note: These Web sites don't reflect my views 100%. In particular, Investigatelance.org makes allegations that seem unverifiable. Yet they all give you an indication of the alleged potential problems of Lance heading the Tour organization.

Lance to buy the Tour de France

Multi-millionaire cyclist Lance Armstrong is tipped by the Sydney Morning Herald as a potential buyer of the Tour de France organization. This would surely be the final nail in the coffin for the sport. I, for one, will not watch an event owned and run by this awful man. (click on the title for the article)

I'm pleased to see I'm not alone: http://cyclingfansanonymous.blogspot.com/

Bad news for keirin fans

Beijing Olympic triple gold medallist Chris Hoy has pulled out of the international keirin series in Japan in October with an injury (hmmm, really an injury or a more lucrative offer?)

However, Ross Edgar will take his place and he'll be racing against Australia's Shane Kelly and, I believe, Dutchman Teun Mulder.

Sad news

Yesterday in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, keirin cyclist Kei Uchida, 27, crashed and died while racing. Uchida was a great rider. Pro since 2002, he was incredibly strong. He could ride a 200m in the low 11s, yet at the 1995 World Championships he lined up for the individual pursuit and finished in 4.47.601, he went to the Asian Games a year later and rode 4:44.264. He also excelled in the keirin, riding at World Cup level.

It's kind of weird bit of synchronicity, but his old racing bike is on sale: http://columbus.craigslist.org/bik/800215256.html

Well done Masahi Ishii

Masahi Ishii won the 1km time trial at the Beijing Paralympics in a time of 1.08.771 on Tuesday. An amazing time. This guy rides in the cerebral palsy category, and yet he can ride a kilometer in a time more than one second under the time a rider must do to qualify as a keirin rider.

Ishii actually was a keirin rider before a car hit him, leaving him injured. The amazing thing is he's riding as fast, or faster, than many current pros.

Well done Ishii.