Der Kaiser, Der Quitter

What does Ivan Basso have that Jan Ullrich does not? A national cycling federation that looks the other way at every turn when it comes to drug use in cycling. Basso, licensed in Italy, was the benefactor of an Italian cycling federation ruling to halt the investigation into Basso's involvement in the doping ring known as Operation Puerto. Ullrich, a German native licensed in Switzerland was forced to retire when those two countries refused to roll over and were aggressive in their quest for the truth. Maybe not exactly forced. It was more likely a plea bargain of sorts.

Ullrich's retirement comes just days before German prosecutor's planned to compare Ullrich's DNA with that of bags of blood found at the home of the physician leader of the doping ring. Elvis suspects that Ullrich's retirement will bring an end to further investigations of his illegal activities and the net result for cycling is negative. Another doper walks without the truth being told. The more things change, the more they remain the same.



On a related note, Denmark, like Germany, is taking a hard stand on doping and has said that Basso and Discovery (the team Basso recently signed with) are not welcome at any races in Denmark. The head of Denmark's cycling union made an interesting comment regarding the duplicity of the Discovery team and it's leader Johan Bruyneel when he pointed out that the simple fact that Bruyneel/Discovery have four lawyers looking into the risk of having Basso on the team suggests that the team is doubtful that Basso is clean. Read HERE. The lawyers were probably hired to run interference on the investigation, giving Basso and Discovery a shot at winning the Tour. Clean or doped - a win is a win - right?

Have you ever wondered what top cyclists pay for a doping program? $92,000.00 per year according to documents that you can read about HERE. Although I suspect that one Dr. Michele Ferrari was paid more for the world's top doping program. Ferrari's most famous client claims to have paid and used Ferrari, a medical doctor, for advice about, "My form on the bike" as well as "gearing". Holy chain ring Batman! The next time I go to the doctor to get a tetanus shot I'll take along a picture of me riding my bike. The doctor can take one look at the picture and give me the most efficient gear ratios for climbing and sprinting. After three arduous years of medical school there's no question that physicians would be expert at this sort of thing. This discovery, like pouring water on your head, will soon be sending Cat. 4 riders to the big leagues. Who knew?

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The weather in Wisconsin continues to suck. In the last two weeks we've had 24 inches of snow dumped on us. That's two feet of the white stuff. Add cold and wind to that and you've got a recipe for more hours in the basement.

I can't take much more of this

Take a good look at the photo above. Yes, that's Dr. Benton Quest and Roger "Race" Bannon in an episode of Jonny Quest on the television. I've watched every cycling video and work out tape/DVD so many times this winter that I just had to make a change. 4 DVD's with 659 minutes of classic cartoons just might get me through until warmer weather arrives. If you grew up in the 60's you'll remember how cool this show was. It was an adrenaline rush of danger, science fiction gadgetry and adventure travel. James Bond for kids. Order your own set of Quest DVD's HERE.

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The weather has been so bad that even the mice have resorted to drastic measures. When I opened up the hood of my car to add some windshield washer fluid I discovered a mouse nest the size of a football (American football, not that round soccer thing the rest of the world thinks a football is). Apparently the residual warmth of the engine attracted the rodents. Look at the picture and say it with me, "Ay, carumba!".

Home sweet home

And for those of you keeping score; the average temperature in the United States during the month of February was 1.8 degrees colder than the 20th century average for the month (National Climatic Data Center bulletin HERE). Riddle me that you global warming fear mongers. And why no headlines marking the event? Had it been 1.8 degrees warmer you can bet your bottom dollar that old pal Al Gore would have been front and center on television and in newspapers regurgitating his doomsday rhetoric.