image: isteroids.com
Ever repentant Kohl discusses the horror of living a double life as a doper:
Interviewed in the Swiss newspaper nzz.ch, the Austrian said that not 100 percent of the peloton doped. “There are a few riders who are clean, that may well be – but it’s not very many.”“You have your good friends in the field, and you know what they do – and they have friends, too. There is a fairly large circle of riders that you know about.”cyclingnews.co
Interviewed in the Swiss newspaper nzz.ch, the Austrian said that not 100 percent of the peloton doped. “There are a few riders who are clean, that may well be – but it’s not very many.”
“You have your good friends in the field, and you know what they do – and they have friends, too. There is a fairly large circle of riders that you know about.”
Remember Kohl finished 3rd in the 08 TdF while on the juice. Now that he’ll return a “clean” man, where will his results end up; on the first page? On the Hamilton “I can’t do it without PED’s” page? Let’s not forget Ricco, or Piepoli, or Schumacher either.
The CERA positives of teammate Leonardo Piepoli, Stefan Schumacher and Bernard Kohl followed Riccò’s. Saunier Duval stopped its sponsorship of the Spanish team before the end of the 2008 season, as a result of Piepoli and Riccò’s positives.
Riccò is currently serving a 20-month ban, but he signed a contract through 2011 with Ceramica Flaminia-Bossini Docce on Friday.
“I can return with my head high March 18, but with the humility of a neo-professional. I will have to battle the scepticism from many,” he said.
Kids these days. Remember Kohl is all of 26 and has been PRO for 6 years. Imagine being driven to use the PEDS from the age of 20 and then tell me that this will all blow over soon enough. Hell. Domestic cycling can’t hold a match to the dynamics in play overseas; or maybe the juice is on the uber DL here.
The punchline is that they act like they’ve come over from the dark side, repentant and full of guilt for winning. Because of that, I like how Manny handles himself in the face of doping in the MLB. None of this “disgrace” bullshit. He did it. He’s serving the time, and he’s getting on with it as if it’s a non-issue. Because handling it like it’s a non-issue lends no additional credit to the accusations and so the moral heresay die’s quietly in the backpages. Songbird Kohl on the other hand, just points out that doping is still the status quo in the pelican and nothing is really changing whick, folloed by Jaksche, simply backs up an idea that every serious amateur and neo pro mush wrestle with.
Jaksche told the German magaine Tagesspiegel am Sonntag that extreme endurance sports such as cycling lend themselves to doping. “I have experienced it myself: doping simply brings too much [to consider doing without it.]”
So will the passports even matter? Considering how stupid the organising bodies seem to be, I’m expecting status quo to be just that. OK. enough with the doper news.
In more important “human” efforts… and I’m using the term “human” loosely here too because what these guys do on their bikes puts that whole “Im on my bike 6 hours a day” thing into perspective as well.
First, the elusive Chad F Brown posts up about their recent loop around the Verde Valley. Morris has more images and reportage on it too only he’s call’n the Coco-Mingo-Bob. I’m just calling it a huge ride; a huge ride that is official come October 9th. Because Morris’ is holed up in my apt, I’m a bit ashamed that I’ve wasn’t able to join them for that longer ride… It’s because of the “cant-leave-itis” I suffer from. Better just start packing now for that Oct 9 gig.
These long rides bring me back to what Jonny pointed out about Mike Curiak who not only knows how to keep a beat in the saddle over days and months and weeks but he also has an incredible eye when it comes to photo-documentation which provides unquestionable legitimacy for why it makes sense to ride along in the woods for days and days and days. The bikepacking world is evolving.
Last thing I want to mention today is that BTS is expanding the knowledge gap with their most recent publication because they are doing good things over there:
Hello Friends,
I am pleased to announce that Utility Cycling – www.utilitycycling.org – is now live and running, and we invite you to check us out online.
Utility Cycling is a blog and online resource for all things related to the practice of utility cycling. The purpose of the site is to help bring clarity to and better define the concept of utility cycling. At Utility Cycling.org, we see the practice of utility cycling as separate from the practices of sport or recreational cycling. Utility cycling encompasses many types of cycling activities and advocacy, and it is made unique by its goal-oriented nature. Utility cycling activities often focus on achieving tangible goals that can be accomplished during any particular outing, such as getting to work, delivering cargo, or patrolling a neighborhood.
At Utility Cycling, we will be examining and analyzing all of the categories and subcategories of utility cycling that we have set down in our first post. Additionally, we will conduct reviews, make reference to other important and related projects and topics, discuss a variety of issues related to cycling in general, and much more.
Because Utility Cycling is quite a wide topic that would benefit from a broad range of perspectives, we are looking at our opening post and launch as an opportunity to invite you, our favorite bicycle experts, editors and bloggers, to join in our efforts. Perhaps you’d like to join our conversation with a guest post. We’d love to hear your thoughts perhaps within a comment on our opening post. Or perhaps it would make a good topic to post what you think of when you think about utility cycling on your blog. (Let us know about your post and we’ll be sure to link back.)
All the best,
Josh Lipton
Tuesday Noon. It is hot as shit in the northland today. I’m not even going to try to envision the hell of the southland. I’m just going to get on mah bike and start riding until it gets cool.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
…kohl – schmol…deal w/ that shit later…
…i just wanna see tommeke get fucking served & today’s ruling by a french civil court that they didn’t have jurisdiction & that the french olympic committee’s arbitration panel should hear the case better serves that end…
…piss on their “image” & you’ll prob’ly get to enjoy some pleasant rides in the belgian countryside, rather than tearing it up in france during the month of july…
June 30th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Tommeke could do more booger sugar than a Vegas stripper and would still get dusted by Cavendish in the Tour.
Sick of hearing all the Astana BS, “best team on paper”, I hope they all get dropped like a prom dress…
best team on paper my ass, they ain’t nothin but paper champions..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethon_Flowers
June 30th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Yo BDJ,
Seems like you might have a little case of “slothitus”. Take it from the king of Slothitus. Nothing cool happens before 2:05 AM. I guess for yuns’s guys, it would be 1:05 AM. Sleep in n shit. Are you ready for a giant glass of the Huskiterno? I’ve been riding at least 5 miles a day – so when I kick yer ass on saturday on that there sacred mountain, I won’t be able to call it an off the couch victory. If I can f up christmas, ya better believe I can f up the 4th of July. Ya won’t need any fireworks after you smell my breathe and armpits. I’m coming and I’m ready to PA FLG. Fridee – Harlows followed by SOMO. Saturdee – Party at Bryces house (psyche, coruser nation) Sundee – wherever. All next week I’ll be at the little Mericer. Be there ot square mofo’s. Ya know who ya r.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
…humpty…agreed…cav’s got that finishing kick to qualify as kick-ass…much better pure sprinter than tommeke…
…i’d say 9 times outa 10, in one on one straight up sprints, tommeke would get his ass handed to him by cavendish & while road sprinting ain’t that way, i’m bettin’ cav shows up in paris ready to claim the green…w/ his talent & stapleton’s direction, that’s some serious shit…
…& if anyone says “well, what about the giro ???”, i’d hafta say “well, the giro, bunky, was a warmup for young but already successful cycling star”…
June 30th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
“If I can f up christmas, ya better believe I can f up the 4th of July.”
Word.
July 1st, 2009 at 2:27 pm
A doped pro cyclist is a well prepared pro cyclist.
Why do you pretend doping is unfair? Why do you pretend that doping is something wrong with cycling. The sport you fell in love with was doped up…from the beginning.
You’ve never seen a clean pro cycling race…. never. Why change something so beautiful.
July 1st, 2009 at 2:41 pm
It’s an issue of values. What you believe is fair. Is a synthetic performance advantage fair? Not for those of us who missed it because of that.
If the org bodies can take offense, why can’t I?
July 1st, 2009 at 11:12 pm
As we’ve seen, words like ‘values’ and ‘fair’ have no real meaning. Like ‘patriotic’ those words can mean entirely different things to different people and you can never say someone’s ‘values’ are wrong because that would be intolerant.
Ask Obree if cycling governing bodies have any thing to do with what’s ‘fair’.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Here’s a question… was it fair when Vaughters was stung by a bee in 2001 and had to drop out of the Tour because he couldn’t get a cortisone shot? Governing bodies took offense to that.
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:57 am
…king george…there’s about a million points of contention that you & i will never see eye to eye on but that question brings up a very sad & stupid occasion in the annuals of modern cycling…
…one fucking cortisone shot would have simply allowed vaughters to both see & breath properly but because it would be “public” info, it wasn’t allowed…this at a time when all kinds of drug use & behavior was being swept under the rug…
…amazingly idiot…
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:00 am
…that should read “amazingly idiotic”…i’m the idiot who wasn’t paying attention…
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:47 am
King Jorge: we all know the governing bodies are no good, what with always chasing their tails and never really knowing the intent of their actions. Their stance per se isn’t the point. Their abilities to muddle intent such as with Obree, Vaughters, Landis or the countless others – guilty or not- who have had to endure the Monty Python efforts of the UCI et al; Hell, not even Boom-Boom-&-the-cocaine-train should have to stand up to their moronicity, but the point is in regards to PEDS; especially for the pro-am and domestic set. It’s pretty lame for an amateur to have to dope in order to be in contention. If you consider that Hamilton can’t get out of his own way unless he’s on the juice, that say’s a lot about the realities of PED’s. they’re not just a simple advantage. They transform the abilities of a person so profoundly, that their use is simply absurd. That’s the foundation of the value for me. The sport should not be about synthetic segregation.