USA Cycling Inquiry

The post concerning Levi Leipheimer's positive doping test from 1996 has been updated to include the email response from USA Cycling to our request that they confirm the sanction and provide some measure of detail concerning it. You can find it here. Enjoy your weekend, and if time permits - ride your bike! We'll leave you with this - a photo from Ed Hood taken at this year's GIRO:

Roddy Hammersmythe podcasts at Twisted Spoke

Roddy Hammersmythe is a versatile rider, a rouler, hard man and captain on the road for Team Sky’s debut at the prestigious Giro D’Italia. The last man signed by manager Scott Sunderland, Roddy brings a wealth of experience and a dominating personality whenever and wherever there’s a bike race to be won. Right now that race is in Italy, and friend-of-Pappillon Twisted Spoke will be talking with Roddy via phone after each stage to get his unique and entertaining view of the Giro d’Italia.

There is no mistaking the excitment and passion Roddy brings to Team Sky. “My role is to bring the hammer,” he says. That’s the attitude, right? I set the tone on the squad and it’s all about the hammer.”

Working with a British team and so many British riders is a dream come true from Hammersmythe. “We got got something special here, it’s like when Deep Purple would hit the stage or Led Zeppelin. The lads believe in each other and we’re putting on a show,” says Roddy. We’re here to rock ‘n’ roll, top the podium and score UCI points.”

With major stars like Bradley Wiggins, Evald Boassen Hagen and Juan Antonio Flecha, it would be easy to overlook the major impact that Roddy has on the squad. “He’s the spark plus, the emotional leader of Sky, he brings the hammer,” says manager Scott Sunderland. “He makes my job easy, because Roddy knows exactly what to do at any given moment in a race. There’s nothing he hasn’t seen or done.”

Stay tuned to Twisted Spoke because we’re sure you’ll be hearing plenty from Roddy as team Sky tackles the Giro for the first time.

Regarding the Opening Stages of the Giro d'Italia

While Christian Vande Velde can't possibly have anything good to say about the opening road stages of the Giro, having crashed-out of the beautiful Italian Grand Tour on the same day for the second year running (stage 3, this time), and we lament his forced-abandonment ("crabandonment"?) the more sophisticated cycling fans are savoring two days of road racing in Holland that saw game-changing racing in week one of a GT.

No one likes to see riders like CVV abandon because of injuries sustained in a crash, but watching Brad Wiggins be all but eliminated from the GC when he couldn't get back to the first echelon, just as overnight leader Cadel Evans lost the leader's jersey because he, too, missed the split and was left isolated, without a single BMC teammate to help him chase...this was fiercely beautiful racing that evoked memories of the Merckx-era, when anyone with aspirations of winning a GT was expected to fight for supremacy from the first kilometers of the race if the conditions demanded it. Francois the Postman, a contributor to the CyclingNews.com forum, explained it best after today's stage (3) and we quote him here:

"Normally I am sorta lukewarm about the opening stages, but this was great viewing, and we certainly are hitting Italy with an almost perfect set-up for fireworks.

It's a shame some folk got really hurt on the road, but I totally disagree with the Eurosport commentators. To me the last two days highlighted what I really dislike in most stage races, that they are taking all risks out of racing by sticking to wide roads and perfect run-ins. Always felt they were neutering something that I think is part and parcel of a GT: endurance, trial, challenge.

Knowing that the end run ins are following the usual pattern, and cruising on great roads to it, it just breeds that calculated let's have an escape group dangling out there and then reel them comfortably in when it's "that time". A flat stage style that I hate, but have been forced to endure far far too often. Here, that really doesn't work as a race approach.

The only thing that would have worked, as pointed out, is to make the race on Dutch roads hard from the get-go, to make that big group smaller, and thus the road less risky. I know we have a long 3 weeks ahead of us. So what? Isn't it the point that no stage should be "comfortable, controllable and predictable? We got waaay to used to "the normal way" a 3 week GT rolls out. The last 2 days showed that that doesn't need to be the way. You don't even need tome bonuses to create interesting gaps artificially.

Everyone knew yard by yard where they would be racing. If they were so keen their main man really safe, teams were simply not deploying the right attack attitude: make the race a lot harder. They chose not to. And reaped the rewards for that attitude: Dutch lottery.

But why should only mountain stages run folk into the red in the last week and a bit?

It proved to me that the current crop of GT specialists, riders and directors, can learn a trick or two from the classic folk too: how to race here. We have started to specialize over the last decade and a bit. Well, please let that era come to end quickly if the stages can be this entertaining from the start.

As a group, they were bloody nervous, out of their comfort zone, and, ironically, too careful. And that was responsible for more crashes than anything the road threw at them.

And the main riders who actually have more all-round skills knew it. Even after yesterday's crash fest, the only thing I got from most interviews by the big names was that the nervousness was fingered more than the actual route taken.

So, to my delight, 2 great telly days. And we are having some great gaps, after the first 2 proper stages. And all we crossed was a pancake. Wow.

Glad they brought the Tour here too. Could keep me more awake than usual during the first days."

For Pappillon, the real treat is to see Vino in pink! We can't wait for Wednesday's TTT!

Carlos Sastre repetirá en el Giro de Italia

El ciclista español Carlos Sastre ha deshojado la primera hoja de la margarita. “Después de analizar el recorrido de las tres grandes vueltas y comentarlo con la dirección técnica de Cervélo, he decidido correr el Giro de Italia”, ha comentado el vencedor del Tour 2008 y tercero en la pasada edición de la ronda italiana, en la que ganó destacado las dos etapas de alta montaña, con final en Monte Petrano y en el Vesubio.

“El año pasado disfruté mucho en el Giro y quiero volver. Me motiva de forma especial el no haber estado en el pódium y el recorrido es muy atractivo para un corredor de mis características. Es más, es una oportunidad muy importante”, afirma el corredor abulense, que no ha querido ir más allá en sus planes de la temporada 2010.

“De momento sólo he planificado hasta el Giro. Para decidir el resto de calendario tengo tiempo y quiero hacerlo siguiendo mis sensaciones. No tengo ningún tipo de presión a la hora de escoger y la siguiente prueba que haga la haré porque estoy listo de nuevo para afrontar esa nueva oportunidad”, comenta Sastre.

Debutará en la Volta a Catalunya

En cuanto al calendario que hará antes del Giro, sólo tiene claro que “debutaré en la Volta a Catalunya (22-28 de marzo) y luego haré las dos clásicas belgas que más me gustan: Amstel Gold Race y Liège-Bastogne-Liège (18 y 25 de abril, respectivamente)”. Es posible que dispute alguna otra prueba, pero eso “todavía no está decidido”, concluye.

Carlos Sastre se concentrará con su equipo en el Algarve el próximo 8 de enero, permaneciendo en tierras portuguesas hasta el 24 del mismo mes. El Cervélo Test Team celebrará su presentación oficial el día 17, en el mismo hotel donde tiene lugar la concentración, en Vila Nova de Cacela.

Gavia '88

Not sure who the photo credit goes to, but hats off to him, and the poster creator.

Dutch Reaction to Menchov's last-stage Giro Crash

Video @1:38

Live Giro Dashboard

Live Giro Dashboard ---> HERE

Live Giro Dashboard ---> HERE

Giro d'Italia TV

I've been enjoying the Giro on internet TV these last few days. The set-up is to use the video feed from Universal but with the audio muted, and in a second window open a feed from the RAI. It's like being back in Italy, except without the doping, focaccia, beautiful roads, cycling, my friends, cappuccino for breakfast, etc. haha. I'd move back to Tuscany or Liguria in a second, without hesitation. Alas, it's not to be - at least not right now, and certainly not to race bicycles. Maybe someday...hopefully.

You know I love Formula 1, and watching today's stage I caught a glimpse of one of my favorite drivers, Jarno Trulli, who looked to be padding around the finish area in Chiavenna! Bravo, Jarno! The Giro is a bike race that transcends sport and is a fundamental part of modern-day Italian culture and identity. This being the 100th anniversary of the Giro has imbued the race with an even more special quality, and I wish I was back in Italy and part of the spectacle.

But anyway...while watching the race, I've had the chance to chat with other fans and viewers, and enjoyed the conversations - even the ones that dealt with doping (unfortunately, today the site we were using to grab the RAI feed doesn't have that stream - so there is no chatting to go along with my coffee, bagel and Giro). I can appreciate Michele Scarponi's perspective, however, evident when he was asked about Puerto yesterday after his stage win in Mayrhofen im Zillertal: "I simply answer that what belongs to the past isn't to be talked about anymore." Bravo.

There are only about 50km left to race, so if you're not at work, or even if you are but think you can get away with it, check out the last hour-plus of racing:

1. RAI Sport
2. Universal Sport
3. Steephill TV

Ok, I'm outta here. But before I go, lemme give shout out's to Andrea P., The Chicken, and Alfonso Gatto. Ciao a tutti!