Random thoughts of a not so random guy

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Another Tuesday of Spinning tonight.

I got some good rest yesterday/last night and it felt good. I fell asleep around 8:30, woke up just after 10pm. I got out of my clothes and crawled under the covers for another good 6 hrs of restful sleep. There's a radio in the headboard of my bed and I have a nasty habit of turning it on very lightly and falling asleep to the "soothing" sounds of ESPN Sports Radio. While I fall asleep this way I think it takes longer to fall asleep because I get caught up in the talk and I also think my sleep is not nearly is good. As if there is something subconsciously going on while I sleep that prevents a good, restful night.

The times that I do leave the radio off I feel better in the morning. If I do turn the radio on maybe I should try KFUO instead.

News Item of the Day: Johan Museeuw, whose use of doping products in 2003 was recently established by a Belgian public prosecutor still maintains his innocence. At the moment, the 'Lion of Flanders' refuses to answer any questions from the media about the allegations made against him in the Landuyt case, but might start a public debate at a time of his choice.

"I don't want to and cannot talk about the content of the court's files," he explained. "I know that I haven't done anything wrong and have nothing to hide. If this goes on, I'll open up a debate at the right moment, and at the right place to defend myself. But I cannot do this now."

Museeuw, who won Paris-Roubaix three times, also feels mistreated by the media. "What is the meaning of all these so-called revelations of the last few days - which to me, contain nothing new - in comparison to what has been reported before?" he asked. "Do you want to create a second Pantani in this country? It could just be too much for me too. At the moment, I feel the media treats me worse than Marc Dutroux," referring to a convicted serial child abuser and murderer, whose case plunged Belgium in a deep social and political crisis in the late nineties.

Viewpoint: Thou dost protesteth too much, Johan. I delcalre thee guilty
posted by The Shadow at 6:10 PM [edit]

Today is my typical rest day but even so I wouldn't have ridden today. I'm tired. That's what I get for staying up too late Friday and Saturday night and then getting up early both days. I normally get about 6 hrs a night, but five hours Friday night followed up by four Saturday night with a good ride a few hours later and I'm fatigued.

News Item of the Day: SILVER SPRING, United States (AFP) - Six-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong will make up his mind whether he competes in this year's renewal at the end of April. However 33-year-old Armstrong added that under the terms of his contract with new sponsors Discovery Channel he would have to take part in either this year's race or the one in 2006. "The deal was I was going to do the tour in 2005 or 2006," said the Texan. Armstrong will race in the one day classics in April before making up his mind. "That would be a good time to adjust," he commented. "At the moment I cannot say if I will be able to take part. "We are not ruling anything out, but we will see at the time."

Armstrong, though, said that his decision would not be based on his sometimes fractious relations with the French public, in fact he claimed he was liked by the majority of them. "I think this perception between myself and the entire French public is absolutely incorrect. "The majority of people are supporting me on the side of the road, a few say nasty things ... I am fine with that."

Armstrong added that he would like to compete in the Tour of Flanders from March 4-6, the Liege-Bastogne-Liege on April 24, The Fleche-Wallon and perhaps the Amstel Gold Cup on April 17. He is also hoping to take part in the Tour of Italy or the Tour of Spain.
posted by The Shadow at 5:47 PM [edit]

Columbia IL today with Ted, Justin and Patrick. Chilly weather to start with the temperature around freezing and a stiff headwind heading south to Maeystown. I was looking at a map a couple days ago and decided to take a little different route today. Instead of dropping down to the B Rd, we stayed on Levee Rd to A Rd which turns into Levee again and then stayed on Levee until making a left on Outlet Rd. This is a little longer route but it eliminated two of the three railroad crossing we normally pass.

Justin and I pushed it pretty good into the wind, eventually dropping Ted and Patrick unintentionally. We enjoyed some tasty bread at the Sweet Shoppe in Maeystown before heading back and enjoying a good tailwind. Justin went off and did his own thing again while I stayed with Ted and Patrick. It was a pleasant trip back. I love a tailwind. Patrick started to bonk on the stretch along 255 and officially hit the wall when we turned into the wind for the last little bit on Bluff Rd. He hung on though and struggled in.

63 miles according to Ted with a ride time of just over three and a half hours. Not real quick but my legs were stiff afterward. A nice workout.

News Item of the Day: Dutch track rider Leontien van Moorsel finished her professional cycling career on Saturday evening at the Rotterdam Six day. In front of 8,000 spectators, Van Moorsel gave her last show in the 'Ahoy' velodrome and thanked all the people that supported her, especially her parents and her closest family members.

Van Moorsel called it a career as the evening was filled with a speech from the NOCNSF president Erica Terpstra and battles between the best track riders against Erik Dekker, Michael Boogerd and Max van Heeswijk. However, Leontien will stay involved in cycling in the future as she will coach cycling talents together with her husband Michael Zijlaard.

Viewpoint: Too bad Leontien lost a few years with weight issues. A great talent that achieved much in her career. And a pretty hot babe too.
posted by The Shadow at 6:11 PM [edit]

When I woke up the roads were not so bad. Just wet and temperatures of 28. I rode out to Kirkwood so if no one else showed up and the roads were not good after all I would at least get some riding done.

The roads were good the whole way out but as I feared no one else showed up. Chickens! I waited around for 15 minutes and in that time managed to get chilled a little. That wasn't so bad but my gloves seemed to lose all warmth. The tips of my fingers, especially on the right hand, literally hurt.

I was going to get in a few extra miles by going down Marshall and through Fenton but there were signs at the top of Marshall saying the road was flooded. That crushed any ambition I had for riding and just headed home the normal way. My hands made the ride home pretty much unbearable. My gloves aren't the warmest but I don't know why they got so cold. I've ridden on colder days before. I really need to buy some nice warm gloves.

In summary, I got in a little more than an hour's worth of pretty worthless riding. The trainer would have been much more beneficial today. I'll tell myself the conditions made me tougher in some suffering type of way.

News Item of the Day: Lance Armstrong has scored a significant victory in his libel battle against The Sunday Times and its chief sports writer David Walsh.

A judge in London's high court has struck out the newspaper's defence in its entirety after the six-times Tour de France winner sued them for libel. The suit was prompted by an article last June, bylined Alan English, repeating allegations made in a book LA Confidentiel: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong which Walsh co-authored but was published only in France. The newspaper had sought to argue that the article was true. They could now face a six-figure compensation payout to the American. Mr Justice Eady said he considered the tone of the article to be "sensational" and to "stir things up".

The book calls on 52 witnesses, whose evidence, as Walsh admitted when the book was published, is "circumstantial". Armstrong has repeatedly denied allegations that he has taken performance-enhancing drugs. Upon publication of the book and article, the Tour de France winner mobilised legal teams in London and Paris. News International has removed the article from its online archive.

Armstrong is also involved in a bitter court case in his native Texas, having sued his former personal assistant, Mike Anderson. Anderson claimed he wanted $500,000 and other benefits under an employment contract. Now Anderson has counter-sued for an unspecified amount, accusing Armstrong of fraud, breach of contract and causing him severe emotional distress.

Source: The Guardian
posted by The Shadow at 10:29 PM [edit]

Nothing on the agenda for this evening. I'm feeling good. Sleeping well. Still carrying around a few more pounds than I'd like but thats okay.

The weathermen blew another forecast today. It never warmed up as much as they expected and now a small front is moving through the region this evening and is expected to dump a couple inches of snow with some sleet. If the roads are crap tomorrow morning I'll be on the trainer.

News Item of the Day: Former Belgian champion Johan Museeuw doped in the season 2003 with EPO and Aranesp. This comes from determinations of the law, from which Belgian media quoted on Friday evening. The Flemish TV network VRT and the daily paper De Morgen had view of official reports of the public prosecutor's office of Kortrijk. The Ermittler(?) intercepted in particular SMS text messages, which the accused doping handler animal physician José Landuyt exchanged with Museeuw. Landuyt gave Museeuw pieces of advice for income for the forbidden doping substances. "from the heard SMS and faxes, the questionings and the expressions of Landuyt and other people it comes out that Johan Museeuw took Aranesp and EPO with security", is called it in the report of the public prosecutor's office Kortrijk. Johan Museeuw was banned October 8th by the Belgian cycle racing federation for two years because of its entangling into the "veterinary surgeon affair" around the presumed hormone black market operator Landuyt. The hearing before the federation had taken place in private at the request of Museeuw.

The SMS intercepted by the Ermittlern is very informative and gives deep views. For instance, veterinary surgeon José Landuyt sent a SMS on July 7, 2003 to Museeuw with the text: "you should take now 80 to 100 wasps, then July 9 between 40 and 60. Then you are completely clean starting from the July 19" In the code of Landuyt and Museeuw "wasp" meant a unit of the product Aranesp, which works similarly as the more well-known doping hormone EPO. On July 26, 2003, Museeuw sent an SMS to Landuyt, in which he called excitedly: "I have 52!" With it Museeuw meant his hematocrit was over the threshold of 50 per cent. But the veterinarian knew how to help: "take salt and drink much!", it answered. Museeuw, the best Classics rider in the last ten years, ended his career this past spring at the age of 38. Few months later now a large shadow falls on the shining career of the "Lion of Flanders". Museeuw could threaten legal proceedings. His compatriot Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said this past December "his palmares remains, because he was never caught. But one can doubt the value of his victories".

Viewpoint: Its bad enough when a cyclist fails a doping test. You always hold out hope that in some remote way, the test might be wrong (e.g. Hamilton) but when they have calls and messages implicating yourself it really drives a stake into any argument. Alas, another mythical cycling figure falls.
posted by The Shadow at 7:16 PM [edit]

Rode the trainer tonight for 1hr 10min. I did a series of different intervals. Five 2 minute intervals, two 5 minute intervals and then five 1 minute intervals. In order to establish some type of baseline, I did all them in my 53x17 and can then compare future rides to this one.

News Item of the Day: In an exclusive NOS-TV interview with Dutch journalist Mart Smeets, Lance Armstrong has given more clues as to his participation in the 2005 Tour de France.

"I don't want to go back," he said when asked if he was to return to the streets of France in July 2005. "I don't know which realisation is greater - do I not want to go back or do I want to do other things? And there are other things that I want to do in cycling." As examples, Armstrong stated the Flemish Classics as the Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold race, which he described as the race "with 300 million turns", Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège or even Paris-Roubaix. "I feel an urgent need to do those races," he said.

Asked if he could imagine the Giro d'Italia or the Vuelta a España on his racing schedule for the coming season, he clearly declined. "I cannot do the Giro because they are trying to prosecute me for sports fraud [referring to his ongoing case involving Filippo Simeoni - ed.], so I'm not going to present myself in that country and give them the photo opportunity that they're dying for."

As for the Vuelta, "The problem is: I do think the Giro is bigger than the Vuelta. The big days, in terms of the people, the emotion, the intensity on the roadside, are the Angliru and the Mortirolo - and the Giro is bigger," he explained. Other competitions he was keeping in mind were the World Championships in Madrid, as well as the hour record on track.

Although the interview was broadcast on January 5, 2005, it took place in November 2004 and therefore does not include any new statements. The Discovery Channel team presentation will be held in Silver Spring, Maryland, on January 10, 2005, where the secret of Armstrong's return to the Tour de France might be lifted.

Viewpoint: Lance is putting a good act if he plans on doing the Tour. I still wouldn't rule it out though. The new Team Discovery website has "Road to the Tour" videos and the new jersey has the pretentious yellow armband on the left sleeve. Not sure what to believe. Is he laying down a bluff. I wouldn't put it past Lance to take a home a Spring Classic and a Tour win plus an hour record in one year to shut up some of his critics.
posted by The Shadow at 8:59 PM [edit]

I dont blame the poor kid for being depressed. I know I'd find school far less interesting.
posted by The Shadow at 6:25 PM [edit]