Leip’n lizards!

Hey, whaddaya think you're looking at, pal?
Hey, whaddaya think you're looking at, pal?

More good news today for the Radio Shackstrong crowd.

First, in The New York Times, another former teammate has detailed “some of his own drug use, as well as the widespread cheating that he said went on as part of the Postal Service team,” all of it allegedly performed with the “knowledge and encouragement” of Texus Maximus his own bad self.

Second, at VeloNews.com, former Gerolsteiner honch’ Hans-Michael Holczer — who is pimping a book, “Guaranteed Positive” — charges that Levi Leipheimer was blood doping during the 2005 Tour de France. Holczer said he would have pulled Leipheimer from the race but feared losing his title sponsor, otherwise known as his meal ticket.

“I was caught between a moral obligation and a legal threat,” Holczer said. “After (Danilo Hondo’s positive) we were sitting on an economic landmine. I was facing total bankruptcy.”

Neither Big Tex nor Leapin’ Levi seems eager to discuss these latest allegations with the press. They know that when the phone rings, it’s not some hack calling to ask how nifty it feels to win a bike race, because they’re not doing much of that sort of thing these days. It’s either Juliet Macur, Jeff Novitzky or one of their lawyers, and who wants to chat with that lot?

Or it’s some executive veep for marketing over at The Shack calling to ask, “Say, remind me, can you, exactly why the fuck did we get into this sport again?”

• In other news: Gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes (R-Batshit) is getting plenty of attention following his dire warnings about the Hammer and Cycle transforming Mile High into Mao High. Uh, Dan — they’re laughing at you, not with you.

Uncorking the Vino’

Updating the DogSite from the back deck — and yes, that is a fan working away back there. I told you it was hot. ...
Updating the DogSite from the back deck — and yes, that is a fan working away back there. I told you it was hot. ...

Watching all these dudes riding their bikes across France kinda makes me want to get out there, too. But by the time I’m through with my labors for VeloNews.com, it’s hotter than the hubs of Hell and I tend to lose interest in anything other than cold beverages.

I used to work the site with a laptop at a table on the back deck, which at least got me outdoors in the cool of the morning, but the “advance” of technology has made this impossible. Now I need two 22-inch monitors so I can follow the stage via video and have quick and easy access to e-mail, instant messaging and about a jillion browser windows.

To tell the truth, I could use a third monitor, like my colleague Charles Pelkey, but I haven’t got enough desk for it. So sometimes I power up the MacBook and leave it sitting atop the drawing board next to the desk.

All this, mind you, so I can follow and chronicle a stage that pretty much sucked ass. About the last 10km of today’s 196km stage were interesting, thanks to Alexander Vinokourov. Whatever else you can say about him — and you can say plenty — the dude loves to bring the pain.

Now that he has a stage win under his belt, Vino’ has vowed once again to work for Super Spaniard. And the defending champ will need all the help he can get. The next four stages are some bad mamma-jammas, and his main tow truck Dani Navarro hit the deck today, as did Jesus Hernandez, who seems to be having an even worse Tour than Radio Shackstrong.