Headline:  “Cycling has another week riddled with news of doping and not much else”

Well, at least that is what you’d think if all you read is the mainstream press, or even the mainstream cycling press.  We’ve already had racing action this season.  First in Australia with the Tour Down Under, and the Tour of Qatar just started.  Now honestly though – how many folks do you suspect actually know the standings of the early season races?  I’m betting a fair sight less than the number that know that 1) Lance Armstrong is off the hook, and 2) Contador has been stripped of his 2010 wins – including the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.

And this season is promising to be a great showdown.  The combination of some of the riders from both Leopard Trek and Radio Shack into one team.  Renshaw free to clash sabers in the sprints without having to focus on delivering Cavendish to the front.  This is real racing drama – happening now.  Armstrong doesn’t race anymore – remember?  And now Contador won’t be racing this year until the Giro either.  So let’s focus our attention on the people out there trying to beat each other on the roads and single tracks – not in the court rooms, press rooms and headlines.

If only we could get as much coverage of our race winners as we do the doping circus…  Just one man’s opinion.

Hypocrisy is something that drives me particularly nuts.  I am especially sensitive to situations where I find myself acting or thinking in this way, and strive to stamp it out.  Thanks to Alberto Contador I’ve actually found myself in one of these situations, and I’m still trying to figure out where my thinking may have gone wrong.  Specifically, I’m realizing that I’ve not been judging Lance Armstrong and Contodor by the same standards.  Even more so I’ve found myself holding the exact same opinion of Contador that I previously criticized others for having regarding Armstrong.

It was not too long ago when Lance was dominating the Tour de France that many a Frenchmen (and others, for that matter) were sure that he had to be doping.  “There is no way that an athlete can perform that far above all of his contemporaries without cheating” was a common belief.

While I’ve repeatedly stated that I’m not a “Texas flag waving Armstrong supporter“, I felt at the time that the “Lance is doping” mantra was just nonsense.  I liked the idea of Lance clean, and found it inspiring that a person could actually dominate a sport in the way he did.

But then a funny thing happened.  This spindly Spaniard started climbing hills like nobody’s business.  I was watching the 2011 Giro d’Italia as he seemed to ride past all the competition as if he were out on a casual Sunday morning group ride.  The guy blew by folks on the climbs and didn’t even seem to really be breaking a sweat.  With the background of the entire clenbuterol nonsense still in my mind I had a thought that seemed a very logical conclusion.  “Obviously the guy is doping.  There is no way he could keep dropping those guys like that over and over.”

Now hold on just a minute…

The critical thinkers among you will realize that I was now thinking in exactly the same way as all the Armstrong doubters had been.  Yup – I just became a hypocrite.  Now the question I need to answer is, which of my two opinions is wrong?  Was I overly optimistic in my previous belief in Armstrong’s clean racing?  Or am I being overly critical of Contador?  Perhaps Lance was riding dirty, and Contador simply did get some bad beef.  Unfortunately there is a growing body of evidence that seems to be pointing to the fact that neither of these men may be able to adorn their bikes with the blue spacers that signify a rider dedicated to keeping the sport fair and clean.

Floyd Landis, in what should have been a completely expected move, has chimed in on the Alberto Contador Clenbuterol issue.  Not only has he expressed his doubts about Contador’s explanation of the failed test, he has taken the opportunity to again point the finger to the UCI, reiterating his claims of wide-spread cover-ups.  Speaking to German television, he stated:

In the peloton, everyone knows that Pat McQuaid, Hein Verbruggen and other UCI officials have protected some riders, and not others, for the past 20 years.  It was manipulation, and their way of creating stars.

I still can’t decide – is Landis a press-hungry moron out to cause terminal, or is he becoming to doping what Kevin Mitnick became to computer crimes?  No matter what evidence may come to light, I suspect the answer to that will always be a mostly personal – and emotional – one.

OK ok. I concede that English is not his primary language, and I get the intent of his message. But c’mon – this was just too good to pass up:

As I sit on the cusp of a big change in my own personal life, I found myself pondering other changes taking place around me.  “Change” somehow seems to be a theme that is thrust upon us every fall.  It is hard not to think about change when the very colors of the trees around you draw attention to it in vivid reds and yellows.  Well, assuming that there are trees around you, that is.  Turns out that I don’t have to look very hard to find a whole lot of change in the cycling universe in just the last couple of days.

Going back to my own life, I’ve now accepted a position at a company right in my home town of Sacramento.  Yup – that means I’m trading my three day a week 250 mile round trip commute for a 5 day a week 15 mile round trip.  No more trains, buses, ferries or tunnels under the San Francisco bay for me.  Instead, it will be all bike all the time.  Is it a coincidence that my new job just happens to be almost exactly 15 miles round trip?  I’m guessing it is more likely that I too am being controlled by some massive United Nations conspiracy using bicycles as the insidious means of mind control.

Admittedly that 4-6 hours a day spent otherwise idle on the trains made for some great blocks of time to write about cycling, and for that aspect I’ll miss it.  I’ll miss some of the friends I’ve made to.  But this is a change that I couldn’t be happier to have finally made.

Huh.  This may actually be the last article I write on board Amtrak in the foreseeable future.

And since we’re talking about change, and I’ve already thrown in the obligatory leaves-changing-color literary device, let us throw in a cliche as well.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  I’m speaking here of the Tour de France and doping.  Yea, we’re on the cusp of a change there as well.  Looks like Alberto Contador may find his 2010 TdF win taken back as he has tested positive for clenbuterol.  The story being told by the Contador support team is that it was contaminated meat and not intentional usage that has lead to this positive test result.

Not only is Contador facing a potential loss of his TdF win (putting Schleck in first if you didn’t notice) but a 2 year suspension is the standard outcome for positive doping tests. And poor Riis over at Saxo Bank. He has watched rider after rider (after rider) depart his organization this season. The Riis response to the mass migration away from his organization seemed logical at first: if you lose the second place TdF finisher (and his brother, and his drinking buddies) why not just replace ’em all with the first place finisher.

Ooops.

Riis is facing the very very real possibility of Team Saxo Bank not having a GC contender next season. And given that Saxo Bank almost pulled its sponsorship, and Sungard just came on board, well… it just might become Team No Name very quickly. That would be unfortunate for all involved.As much as I would have rather seen Andy Schleck take the title in the mountains of the Tour de France than in the bathrooms of doping control agencies, there is some good that might come of this.  Contador is a great cyclist to watch.  Getting two years off from the stupid finger pistol routine, however…  now that is a change that I could embrace.

The Vuelta a Espana (or Tour of Spain) may be slightly lopsided this year.  This year’s Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, who is also the holder of the current UCI #1 world ranking, will not be participating in this year’s Vuelta.  Contador’s contract with current team Astana ends right in the middle of the 3 week race, and Contador has already announced his move from Astana to Saxo Bank-Sungard for the next season.

Also absent from this year’s Veulta is Team Radio Shack.  Bruyneel’s team was denied a wildcard spot in the race – apparently for not being a “good enough team” to compete.

The absence of many GC contenders from this race may end up being the perfect setup for Frank and Andy Schleck before they leave Saxo Bank for their new Luxembourg team.

However, that does not mean that a Saxo win is a sure thing, either.  VeloNews is reporting that Carlos Sastre will still ride the Veulta for Cervelo this year – despite him also switching teams for next season.

The Veulta a Espana – together with the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia – make up the “3 grand tours” or major stage races of every cycling season.  Alberto Contador has stated numerous times that it is his goal to win all three in a single year.

The Saxodus continues as more and more people confirm that they are leaving Saxo Bank for other teams.  Here’s a quick rundown of current migrations:

• Frank Schleck – “I’ll go where Andy goes!”
• Andy Schleck – “I’ll go where Frank goes!”
• Frank-n-Andy Schleck – New Luxembourg team.  Sponsor still TBD.
• Jens Voigt – Confirmed to be leaving Saxo Bank.  Most indications are that he is going to join the Frank-n-Andy endeavor, but that has not been confirmed at the time of this writing.
• Jakob Fuglsang – Moving with Frank-n-Andy
• Steuart O’Grady- Moving with Frank-n-Andy
• Matti Breschel – Transfering his accounts from one bank to another, Matti is moving from Saxo Bank to Rabobank.

That makes six out of the nine Saxo Bank riders in the 2010 Tour de France that are heading for other teams – 5 of them apparently to the same new team.  Fabian Cencellara still has one year remaining on his contract with Saxo Bank, and of course Alberto Contador has signed on to the newly names Saxo Bank-Sungard team for two years.

The Danish website TV2 Sporten is reporting (English translation here) that there are indications Jens Voigt will possibly be leaving the current Team Saxo Bank to join Frank and Andy Schleck on their new Luxembourg team.  Reports are that Kim Anderson – former directeur sportif of Team Saxo Bank now working to help set up the new Luxembourg team – has contacted Jen Voigt about a possible spot.

VeloNews as confirmed the rumors that Alberto Contador will leave Astana to ride with Team Saxo Bank next season.  These moves are potentially setting up a repeat of this years Tour de France next year, with Andy Schleck again facing off against Alberto Contador.  In fact, Andy Schleck as already stated as much on the website andyschleck.com:

Next year I can turn the tables and win the Tour. I did a bad prologue this year and I have to admit that, but Fränk crashing out was a big loss. If there were two of us in the mountains it could have been so different. But now I know that I can beat Alberto and that gives me huge confidence and motivation for next year.

I actually thought this was pretty damned funny: