the racing union implicitly, through the supreme wisdom of our guiding principles, seeks to eliminate negative social and economic forces that adversely affect cycling.  we've talked a lot about doping.  we've offered proposals to catch people who cheat.  and i have personally gone out of my way to mock people who made lame and highly improbably excuses for why landis was not guilty. 

but i did not realize until this morning, when i happened to come across this article, that i had overlooked somethign considerable.  read it once or twice and really let the idea sink in.  i have obviously neglected to pursue other options that were and are available.  we don't need expensive testing regimens and we certainly don't need cumbersome legislative or judicial processes.  we just need to call people dopers and suspend them from racing.  problm solved, and seriously, what could be easier?

i frankly don't know why this did not occur to me earlier.  maybe it's because i spend so much time in the streets, fighting the man.  i am basically skeptical about using the man's system to do what the people need done.  but i hear it all the time, especially down at hains:so-and-so is a doper or you-know-who is on the juice.  i ask them if they are really certain (i mean really, really, really, super-really certain) and they always say yes and then go on at length about how obvious it is.  well then the answer is just right there.  mabra needs a new department of doping adjudication.  we'll just bypass the whole wada/usada** process and post their names as dopers after some sort of simple adminstrative process.  heck, we could probably just modify the mabra web site to allow you to enter the names of people you know are dopers.  sweet.  if anyone knows anything about who's doping or about modifying php coding so we can get cracking on the mabra site modifications right away, you know where to reach me. 

- - - posted by scott

** i really love the fact that when i pulled both of these web sites up, there were pictures of cyclists on both.  it turns out that this is not so funny as i first thought, as the pages have a rotating stock of photos that you can scroll through by reloading.  but check out the mtb cycling shot on the wada page.  it's not even a racer, just some guy in a yellow jacket riding a trail somewhere.  that tells you how damned prevalent doping is, if even the freds are juiced to the gills and in need of attention from wada...

web site has been "dark" for a while.  news has been grim all around.  but the struggle must continue.

it's time to rock the house.  mabra annual meeting is around the corner and we have some plans.  will the sheep be fleeced and led to pasture by the shepards?  i say no!  brothers and sisters, racers and riders, throw off this contemptible yoke of oppression.  rise up and greet a new day.  the racing union supports you as you support it.  collectively, we'll flex our muscle.  let's bring it.

- - - posted by scott

In only its first year of existence, Racing Union has demonstrated its superiority to all detractors and taken a strong standing among the nation's best pro cycling teams. In the current MABRA Team BAR standings, the Union trails Navigators and Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team by a mere 6 and 4 points respectively. One good finish will assuredly boost "Squadra Tifosi" over the pros in the standings and prove once and for all the unstoppable power of the revolution in cycling beating at our doorstep.

okay.  i'm going to just totally geeze out here, but man, when i was coming up, revolutionaries were a whole lot harder than they are today.  they struggled and they strived.  reading their exploits will bring tears to your eyes and inspire you to great things. and now there's this....

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/748441.html

What happened in Bint Jbail recurred in Ayta al-Shab. Although it seemed that the town had been conquered, it transpired again and again that there were still Hezbollah men in it. Once again, clashes and battles took place, and again, the IDF suffered dead and wounded.

Although the army had conquered the town, Hezbollah men were hiding in underground bunkers well camouflaged from the outside. The bunkers had been stocked with large quantities of food, enough to last for weeks, and ammunition, including antitank missiles and, in several cases, short-range rockets.

The bunkers are connected to electricity and, according to one report, are air conditioned. (emphasis mine)

how did they survive between attacks without an espresso maker?  we can't be far from a large-format, glossy stock, monthly magazine that's something like a cross between better homes and gardens and soldier of fortune.  this month: 20 foolproof foxhole recipes that even the kids will love.  install your own bidet using recaptured water, we show you how.  accentuating bare earth walls, our experts give you the hot tips for this summer.  and seriously, can a barbara walters interview be far behind.

the revolution has just taken two large steps backwards.  mabra in conjunction with the plutocratic forces of big money in cycling rejoices!

- - - posted by scott

. . . and then they came for us all . . . .

first, they came for the fixed gears, but i am not really a fixed gear rider, so i said nothing.  i think you all know how this ends... 

the racing union is currently out of the office attending to the needs of our dear comrade in cuba.  our hopes for a speedy recovery are with him.  all of the resources of the people's medical establishment have been made available and at this point, we hope for the best.

 

 

fidel castro

in consideration of our absence, and in honor of his manifold contributions to the glorious revolution, we offer an encore presentation of a post which we would make even this old warhorse a bit misty with nostagia...

viva la revolucion!

you may leave your thoughts for the people's hero in the comments section. 

i was planning to avoid this.  but people are just writing stuff that's not right.  and i don't care much for that.

 

>>>-----Original Message-----

>>>From: David Allen

>>>Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 1:37 PM

>>>

>>>I agree that doping is a serious problem and needs to

>>>be promptly and severely dealt with when it is

>>>discovered but what safeguards, if any, are in place

>>>to protect riders who are either intentionally or

>>>accidentally unjustly accused?

 

The problem here is that riders will always claim they did not dope and are the victims of either one or all of the following:

 

(a) an overzealous antidoping regime or agency

(b) a national sanctioning body that does not want them to get ahead

(c) a (intentionally or unintentionally) spiked nutritional product

(d) bad advice from a coach/soigneur/advisor

 

very few have the class to come clean and admit it.  i cannot remmeber the name of the world champion mountain biker who did htis.  I could google it but I'm so freaking lazy right now that it's beyond me.  millar also spilled the beans when he realized they had him dead to rights.  thiscompared to someone like virenque.  superlatives are useless in describing him. 

 

anyhow, from mr. allen's post, when you say they (riders) are unjustly accused, i feel that's a bit to general.  a test in a certified laboratory was performed, by qualified diagnostic personnel, presumably using good quality standards to calibrate the machinery.  if they are "accused", it is generally on this basis.  if your throat hurts and you see a doctor and he does a swab and he subsequently calls you and says you have strep, you don't ask for another test or a second opinion.  ask yourself why this is the case. 

 

if a rider i concerned about their ability to make a living by racing a bike, they must deny the allegation that they cheated in the strongest terms.  (example: tyler hamilton swore over the body of his dead dog tugboat that he had not cheated, and many people bought that story: hook, line and sinker.  his case was repeatedly arbitrated and his defense was found to be substantially lacking. 

he still has not come clean about what happened, in spite of overwhelming evidence.  he is serving a two year ban.  was he unjustly accused?)

 

i don't think this point should be conceded.  drunkenly yelling "dopage" and "j'accuse" at racers from a hillside in southern france is unjustly accusing them.  you have no factual basis for doing so.  but making an assertion based on results from a laboratory which has done a proper analysis doesn't strike me as the slightest bit malicious.  it's objectively based, not subjectively based.

 

now there may be issues or mitigating circumstances.  floyd has obviously passed numerous tests this year given his palmares so the result does seem odd, or rather, at odds with previous tests.  if floyd is getting good advice, he will have lawyered up and they will depose everyone in sight.  they will be sure the samples were appropriately cared for.  they will examine the standards used to calibrate the machinery.  they'll look at the service records on the gas chromatograph or mass spec units.  they'll interview the analysts and go through their procedures in minute detail.  and they will look for a mistake.  they will endlessly discuss the rate fo type 1 and type 2 errors coming from the analysis.

 

but even if they find one, can you still say that the person was unjustly accused?  the lab followed their standard procudure and they have been certified by wada.  everyone screws up on occasion.  it happens.  but the lab followed procedure and returned the result.  i'm not arguing that the current set of drug rules is a good idea (i'm not sure it is) and i'm not arguing that the current system is fair (i'm fairly certain it's not) but the rules were well defined and they appear to have been followed.

  

>>> -----Original Message-----

>>> From: Ron Carl

>>> Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 10:21 AM

 

>>> Maybe it’s just me, but I believe that it is extremely

>>> unfair to speculate on the guilt or innocence of someone

>>> until all of the test results are in.

>>> When we see the results of the B test all this speculation

>>> and chatter may be for nothing.

this is true.

 

>>> A single and be beneficial (sic) is to send out samples to other labs that

>>> are completely outside of the cycling community. It may be extreme but how

>>> about sending samples to say the FBI? Apparently the quality of the test

>>> from and the FBI labs are used to catch terrorists and serial killers and

>>> send them to jail for capital punishment. I think that makes them more than

>>> capable of performing the tests. OK so maybe this is a bit extreme but how

>>> about a lab specifically set up in a neutral location with no ties to racing

>>> whatsoever and governed in such a way that it is completely impartial. Regular

>>> testing of the equipment and sterility of the lab assured.

 

i sort of feel like i get to have all the fun.  so i'm turning this one over to the rabble in comments.  there's a lot to look at here.  i mean assuming the dhs hasn't compiled all of this information on us already.  your turn.  is this a good idea?  why or why not?

 

- - - posted by scott

the thursday herndon ride is always fun.  i do not get to do it often but it's always fun.  the ride out to herndon on the wo&d is nice.  you can just sense that traffic is in gridlock all around you as you softpedal along.  that's pretty sweet.  unfortunately, i think i'm allergic to something on the trail.  i've tripled my claritin intake in the last 12 hours and i've passed the point of usefulness.  i'm useless without the medicine, but at this dosage, i'm useless with it. 

there's some major construction going on between reston town center and herndon adn still more out by church road.  this, in and of itself, is not unusual.  i was surprised at this one however as there's not really a clear cut through.  you sort of jump up to the old gravel path and wind around but there not signs or anything.  there were some herndon police aorund but they seemed pretty focused on operating a speedgun and ticketing motorists so i didn't bother to ask.

the crowd takes the sign in before the daily stage...

bill breslin and judd milne roll in from the west

judd shows the excitement and enthusiasm he feels for non-cross events.

and they're off.

aric and colleen sitting on comfortably.

rolling towards belmont plateau.

it was really nice to see joe marques out last night.  for those who know him, he seems to be doing well and has put off his move south for another couple of months.

- - - posted by scott

greenbelt!

the greenbelt race was hot.  not many people showed up so the pace was sort of hot as well.  on again, off again.  here, the route one synchronize disrobing begins.  is there anything these guys don't do as a team?

bill on the warm up. 

joe setting up for the corner

chatting with bill during the warm up.

after the greenbelt race, everyone always seems to be in a good mood.  whatever bagels are left over are quickly scarfed.  the last of the nutella is scraped from the container as people wind down.

we all owe ben a huge thanks for the water.  the hard attacks and stuff, well, you'll pardon me if i'm not quite so thankful for those.

andrew rode an aggressive race but he failed to pay me the hush money required to keep pictures of him from being posted

and finally, thanks to bill luecke, who was kind enough to give me a ride home after the race as well.  that was generous.

- - - posted by scott

early this week, ben, my neighbor and fellow commuter scott clokey, and myself all got together to try to work on some fairfax city and county connector trails.  these trails are a huge asset for getting aorund but the city and county don't keep them on the maintenance schedule.  and they were absolutely being taken over by poison ivy.

a few weeks earlier, i had taken the metro home from the greenbelt race and forgotten my lights.  I ended up cruising through here in the dark and rolling right off the trail into the ivy.  suh-weet.  my house was close by so with I was able to shower and with the help of a kitchen scrungee which was pushed into service as a loofa, i miraculously avoided the pox.

check out the ivy encorachment in the shot below....

we decided to deal with the symptom rather than the cause.  it was hot, but we knocked it out pretty fast and had a nice sense of accomplishment to boot. 

all the more reason for people to join organizations like fabb.

- - - posted by scott

the revolution takes a pause for a moment as i apologize for the lack of timely content.  current events around the globe are having a cumulative depressing effect, and degrading my ability to find humor in things.  in spite of advocating the overthrow of mabra by any means necessary, i will meekly admit that i don't care much for the images of armed combat i've been seeing.  it is my hope that all people will come to see less benefit in geopolitical machinations and more benefit in improving the lot of everyone, everywhere.

and just like that, the revolution resumes, and we'll have some posts up soon with additional proposals in preparation for the mabra annual meeting.  some of our previous proposals were very well received.  we continue to address the critical issues of, by and for the people.  also note that this serves as a final warning to mabra that their current state of being in thrall to various interests is at an end.  the people are speaking, together with a single voice, and demanding change.  and we're bringing change.  we have attempted to operate within their framework by suggesting badly needed reforms, but the lack of response is pronounced and they continue to ignore us at their peril.  they are locked in a single mindset, inflexible and unadaptive.  but the great impending change is a huge, irresistible force; a social tsunami which sends the elite tumbling from their precarious perches and brings a hightened tide which floats all boats.

along these lines, all responsible citizens and cyclists should take the time to study the material in the following link.  it clearly shows that breaking with old ideas can be difficult.  the elite of mabra should pay special attention.  the people move forward towards a better day.

I'll be riding out to greenbelt tonight from dc assuming there are no significant storms on the radar.  email me at i_want_to_ride_in_traffic_to_a_bike_race@racingunion.org if you're interested in riding out.  I'll be leaving from right near the capitol around 5:15.

- - - posted by scott