I missed delivering the daily dose of snark yesterday due to a combination of deadlines, writer’s block and insomnia; sorry ’bout that. So I’ll just say that the Astana boys really screwed the pooch, and if I were Alberto Contador I would give my time-trial bike a good going-over for sidewall cuts, severed cables and wired lumps of Semtex before climbing into the start house this morning.
Today we heard that big George Hincapie may have cracked a collarbone in a crash yesterday but is racing anyway (chapeau); Texus Maximus may be riding for Radio Shack next year (please fire the surly bitch at Bibleburg’s 8th Street location); and Cuddles Evans is still displaying signs of a serious short-circuit under the helmet, pissing away more time in the early going of the ITT. And now it appears to be raining, which could turn the GC war into the Battle of Jutland. More as it develops.
• Note to Phil and Paul: Shut the fuck up about Lance Lance Lance Lance Lance Lance, please. Jesus.
• Alberto Indurain: Contador slays all in the time trial.
• Killer dope, man: And oh, yeah, Danilo Di Luca tripped the Dope-O-Meter® for EPO CERA during the Giro d’Italia. He’s innocent, naturally.
Mad Blog Media 
I’m good with AC’s alliance with the Schleck’s on the Queen stage. To BruyStrong: paybacks are Hell.
As for the ITT today–I pray AC and the Schlecks are clean. I hate to think every Joe the Plumber will declare the rider who shant be named or capitalized as the true and glorious victor because all them eurofags are cheaters and AmericaHaters and the rider who shant be named or capitalized is as pure as American virtue.
BruyStrong: Team Radio Shack for 2010. Colors–red, white, and blue or yellow and black? Home base Austin? Mellow Johnny’s–sycophant HQ?
Where does Levi land?
Good Luck and Goodbye, Vino.
World Roads this year for the rider who shant be named or capitalized? Or do we get a new book declaring what a great significant other and dad he is to the Colorado girlfriend and fourth (that we know of) child?
note to PetroMetro, WHAT????
The simple answer to CERA is for the manufacturer of the drug to add some sort of inert tracer that’s easily detectable. Some sort of harmless chemical marker that can’t be masked but doesn’t interfere with the drug or other drugs.
I’m sure the original intent in the development of CERA wasn’t to make it undetectable. For those who are using it legally for it’s intended medical purpose, it doesn’t matter whether or not it can be traced.
I don’t know how they would do it since I’m not a chemist, (but I am an engineer) but there must be a way to make it detectable.
Problem solved.
Phil: I’m pretty sure the manufacturer of CERA did put a tracer on it and alerted the testers last year. That’s why the Tour police were able to get Ricco out of the TdF last year so quickly. But other CERA positives haven’t come so quickly, so maybe it’s still hard to detect.
Bromasi: I’m sure BruyStrong/RadioShack is good for the bike industry here in the US, but I really don’t like BruyStrong at all. Not liking the rider who shant be named or capitalized probably makes me un-American. Whatever. I don’t ride Trek, buy Nike, nor am I tired of being tired. I don’t/won’t own a Mellow Johnny’s anything. I didn’t buy his previous books, and I won’t buy the next one.
If Levi can come home to a big paycheck, great. I like the guy. I hope he can get out of his Khazak contract.
The web was a-jumping with folks predicting LA would move up to the top spot with a pulled-out-of-his-ass performance today, but the only way that was going to happen was if Mr Sherman showed up with his WABAC machine and zapped an extra couple of minutes onto everyone else’s Swatch.
Now they’re already predicting a Rocky IV rebirth. AC has the technology, so LA will go native, back to his roots, ride a Huffy up hills in the snow carrying a double load of the Grit (do they still make that paper?) and somehow beat Ivan Drago and his henchmen.
Can’t make this shit up.
Seems the rider who shant be named or capitalized has definitely slowed down a tad.
As far as CERA? Chemical markers are possible. I’d have to see the drug structure to suggest one. Past efforts have looked at mass fractionation of light elements in industrially produced vs. naturally produced molecules using mass spectroscopy. I think that’s how they nailed Landis. Even in that case, what little I read made me uneasy. Then again, I’m an inorganic chemist…or something.
Interesting article below on the quality of these drug tests. What worries me is whether there is enough external oversight or adequate standards and calibration controls to get the confidence limits on these results high enough when it is someone’s career and ass on the line.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/ExerciseFitness/10188
This is the shit that scares me:
“…the test used to detect CERA has raised eyebrows because details of the analytical protocol, which was developed here at the Laboratoire National de Depistage du Dopage, the French national doping lab, have been kept under close wraps.
The same lab is conducting all EPO tests for the race.
Neither the lab nor WADA had publicly disclosed that such a test even existed until today, leading many in the cycling community to believe CERA could escape detection.
Nothing about the test protocol has been published. If it was independently validated at another lab, that too has been kept secret. ..”
Nothing like a little external peer review on this stuff to catch any errors. Sheesh…
My, oh, my, how the mighty have become….irrelevant. Neither our host and moderator, Patrick, nor anyone else around here has speculated on the meaning of Cuddles’ “cryptic” comment following his less than stellar performance on stage 16: “Physically, everything (is) fine. But for professional reasons I can’t comment on the problems I’ve been having”. Hmmm. Why do we suddenly not care about the man who pulled a Raymond Poulidor the last couple of years? After all, this guy came close to winning the Tdf last year, except that he couldn’t take enough time out of Carlos Sastre on the last time trial (man, it’s hard to say that with a straight face). Anyone care to start the irresponsible speculation?
Chance Legstrong needs the dope that takes 10 years off your age, otherwise AC (assuming he’s using the same dope or same transfusion scheme)will kick his Radio Shack equipped butt in 2010 as well. Will the Belgian and Legstrong dump AC’s blood bag down the loo like they supposedly did to Landis? THAT could mess him up on Mt. Ventoux but my guess is AC has his own supply,untouchable by the opposing forces. Will they still call the Belgian the TdF mastermind if, despite all he and Legstrong have said and done to thwart his effort, AC is in yellow in Pair-ee? I’ll give the Belgian credit for inspiring Legstrong post-cancer but after that Patrick O’Grady could have probably DS’d Legstrong to 4 or 5 of those TdF titles! Let’s see how many the Belgian can win with a 40 year old Radio Shack-controlled Legstrong vs AC or the Schleck’s. Is ANYONE in this game not doping or transfusing? Sadly the whole deal is starting to resemble World Wrestling Entertainment rather than any genuine sporting event. Interesting? Certainly! Believeable? Uhhhh….let’s see how many positive dope tests come out from TdF tests in the next few months.