Need to keep your bike dry and cozy in your backyard? Then pitch a Yardstash and store your bike and other gear worry-free. Assuming nobody is going to just jump the fence and steal your whole bike and tent at once, that is. Yours for a reasonable $100 plus $20 s/h.
These two videos are making the rounds of the interwebs featuring some pretty insane bike riding. First the finals of the Red Bull Rampage, the 2nd is Martyn Ashton taking an expensive bike for a ride.
Lets be honest, the USADA's goal in lynching Lance Armstrong is to make him out to be the most evil athlete in cycling history, despite the fact that probably every top cyclist in the world was doing the same thing he was. Don't begrudge the man for just doing it better than everyone else. And lets not lose sight of the fact that the USADA, since it began operating in October 2000, has been about as effective as condoms in a frat house. So of course putting attention on Armstrong distracts people from figuring out what a piss poor job they actually did rooting out doping. Makes sense to us. And lets not forget US Cycling and UCI, they were all complicit in the rampant doping taking place in the sport, turning a blind eyes at worst, never taking doping that seriously at best. Everyone knew what was going on, everyone. Anyhoot, enough about that. We're just enjoying Lance being made out to be the Don Corleone of cycling by the USADA. Sweet baby j, the fun never ends:
The United States Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday that Lance Armstrong was at the center of the most sophisticated and professional doping program in recent sports history and that it would soon release details of its findings.
The agency said its dossier on Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor who denies ever doping, will include sworn testimony from 26 people, including nearly a dozen former teammates on the United States Postal Service team. Those Postal Service teammates have admitted their own doping and say that Armstrong doped, encouraged doping and administered doping products on the team, the agency said on Wednesday.
The file, as described by the agency, would be the most extensive, groundbreaking layout of Armstrong’s alleged doping, bolstered by unprecedented interviews, financial statements and laboratory results.
“The U.S.P.S. Team doping conspiracy was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dangerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage through superior doping practices,” the agency said. “A program organized by individuals who thought they were above the rules and who still play a major and active role in sport today.”
Cannondale has introduced a nifty new concept bike, the Continuously Ergonomic Race Vehicle or CERV, that has the capacity to automatically adjust the handlebar if the rider is heading up or down a slope. When the bike senses it's descending, the handlebars move down to reduce the angle of the rider and lower his/her profile. When climbing, it raises the handlebars, all without changing the seat-to-crank distance.
Of course, this means no front fork, so the bike has a pretty far out design and unique steering mechanism that translates movements from the handlebars through the frame to turn. No chain either, power is transferred to the rear wheel through a transmission running through the shaft of the rear support arm.
Cannondale partnered with a company called Priority Designs to build the concept, which it unveiled at the Eurobike exhibition in Germany last month.
Anyone who's ever biked at night doubtless knows the fear of not being seen by cars. Even with lights, there's a constant, nagging sensation that drivers aren't keyed in to the fact that someone might be crazy enough to bike at night.
Purveyors of colorful fixie bikes, Pure Fix Cycles, has figured out a pretty clever way to help make bikes more noticeable at night - simply making the frame glow-in-the-dark. The Kilo is the first offering from Pure Fix that uses glow-int-the-dark paint to make the frame shine. They start at $399, but I'm not sure if that's for the frame only, or a complete bike.
Of course, you could just buy glow in the dark paint and give your bike a new, safety conscious look, at a fraction of the cost. I would probably use lights anyway, even with a glow in the dark frame, especially at dusk, which might be too bright for the glow to work, but too dark for drivers to see well. Either way, you'll be riding the coolest bike that the 7-12 year old crowd has seen in a long, long time.
The USADA would like nothing more than to strip Lance of Tour de France wins. Seems rather silly to us, given how dirty the sport was and continues to be. How on earth are you going to find a clean rider to give the titles to? The NY Times put together a nifty infographic conveying this very succinctly. Basically everyone was doping, so the search for a clean rider would be rather fruitless, not to mention pointless.
In the end, probably the wisest decision. Move on, get on with your life. Let us get on with our lives, some people have been writing about this for well over a decade, we've only had to do it for 7 years and we're rather sick of it. Dust still has to settle on what this exactly means, for example does he get stripped of his Tours? NY Times say yes, other say no, USADA has no jurisdiction over the Tour. As we wrote before, in an era of rampant doping, when so many top riders were being caught doping, it would have taken an unbelievable athletic specimen to have won the Tour seven times in a row. Lets be honest. Regardless, lets not rehash. Perhaps the sport can move on now with its continued efforts to clean itself up. Doubtful, but lets see what happens. Here's is Lance's statement from yesterday.
Lance Armstong's Statement of August 23, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas - August 23rd, 2012 - There comes a
point in every man's life when he has to say, "Enough is enough." For
me, that time is now. I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and
had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. Over the
past three years, I have been subjected to a two-year federal criminal
investigation followed by Travis Tygart's unconstitutional witch hunt.
The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for our foundation and
on me leads me to where I am today – finished with this nonsense.
I
had hoped that a federal court would stop USADA’s charade. Although the
court was sympathetic to my concerns and recognized the many
improprieties and deficiencies in USADA’s motives, its conduct, and its
process, the court ultimately decided that it could not intervene.
If
I thought for one moment that by participating in USADA’s process, I
could confront these allegations in a fair setting and – once and for
all – put these charges to rest, I would jump at the chance. But I
refuse to participate in a process that is so one-sided and unfair.
Regardless of what Travis Tygart says, there is zero physical evidence
to support his outlandish and heinous claims. The only physical evidence
here is the hundreds of controls I have passed with flying colors. I
made myself available around the clock and around the world.
In-competition. Out of competition. Blood. Urine. Whatever they asked
for I provided. What is the point of all this testing if, in the end,
USADA will not stand by it?
From the beginning, however, this
investigation has not been about learning the truth or cleaning up
cycling, but about punishing me at all costs. I am a retired cyclist,
yet USADA has lodged charges over 17 years old despite its own 8-year
limitation. As respected organizations such as UCI and USA Cycling have
made clear, USADA lacks jurisdiction even to bring these charges. The
international bodies governing cycling have ordered USADA to stop, have
given notice that no one should participate in USADA’s improper
proceedings, and have made it clear the pronouncements by USADA that it
has banned people for life or stripped them of their accomplishments are
made without authority. And as many others, including USADA’s own
arbitrators, have found, there is nothing even remotely fair about its
process. USADA has broken the law, turned its back on its own rules, and
stiff-armed those who have tried to persuade USADA to honor its
obligations. At every turn, USADA has played the role of a bully,
threatening everyone in its way and challenging the good faith of anyone
who questions its motives or its methods, all at U.S. taxpayers’
expense. For the last two months, USADA has endlessly repeated the
mantra that there should be a single set of rules, applicable to all,
but they have arrogantly refused to practice what they preach. On top of
all that, USADA has allegedly made deals with other riders that
circumvent their own rules as long as they said I cheated. Many of those
riders continue to race today.
The bottom line is I played by the
rules that were put in place by the UCI, WADA and USADA when I raced.
The idea that athletes can be convicted today without positive A and B
samples, under the same rules and procedures that apply to athletes with
positive tests, perverts the system and creates a process where any
begrudged ex-teammate can open a USADA case out of spite or for personal
gain or a cheating cyclist can cut a sweetheart deal for themselves.
It’s an unfair approach, applied selectively, in opposition to all the
rules. It’s just not right.
USADA cannot assert control of a
professional international sport and attempt to strip my seven Tour de
France titles. I know who won those seven Tours, my teammates know who
won those seven Tours, and everyone I competed against knows who won
those seven Tours. We all raced together. For three weeks over the same
roads, the same mountains, and against all the weather and elements that
we had to confront. There were no shortcuts, there was no special
treatment. The same courses, the same rules. The toughest event in the
world where the strongest man wins. Nobody can ever change that.
Especially not Travis Tygart.
Today I turn the page. I will no
longer address this issue, regardless of the circumstances. I will
commit myself to the work I began before ever winning a single Tour de
France title: serving people and families affected by cancer, especially
those in underserved communities. This October, my Foundation will
celebrate 15 years of service to cancer survivors and the milestone of
raising nearly $500 million. We have a lot of work to do and I'm looking
forward to an end to this pointless distraction. I have a
responsibility to all those who have stepped forward to devote their
time and energy to the cancer cause. I will not stop fighting for that
mission. Going forward, I am going to devote myself to raising my five
beautiful (and energetic) kids, fighting cancer, and attempting to be
the fittest 40-year old on the planet.
Allegations of doping by Armstrong have been around for a long, long time. But Lance and his legal and p.r. teams have managed to protect Lance for years, mostly through excellent jedi mind trick skills that made everyone question the accusers rather than Lance. Because, no way has Lance doped. Nope. Not one syringe. Not even a little one. Just super human strength and determination led him to 7 consecutive Tour de France wins. Because somehow he managed to stay super clean and beat everyone else that was doping, in one of the dirtiest sports during one of the dirtiest eras of cycling. To summarize, these aren't the "roids" you're looking for. Move along.
We first wrote about Lance and doping accusations way back in 2005, and we're still writing about it seven years later. But have we perhaps reached an end game? Has the USADA finally been able to do something no one has ever done, make the charges stick? Doubtful, slick Lancy still has options, but a dwindling number of them. The Detroit Free Press does a good job of summarizing his 3 options.
Appeal: Though it is unlikely to achieve a different outcome, Armstrong could appeal Sparks' opinion. But the ruling followed legal precedent, and Sparks agreed such disputes "are best resolved through the well-established system of international arbitration, by those with expertise in the field, rather than by the unilateral edict of a single nation's courts." Sparks said he opposed a system that would "turn federal judges into referees for a game in which they have no place and about which they know little."
Arbitration: The silver lining amid the resounding defeat for Armstrong was Sparks' dim view of USADA's handling of the case. The judge defended the agency's authority but not its performance. USADA is 58-2 in arbitration. Yet it has never faced an opponent such as Armstrong. Sparks said the June 12 charging document USADA sent to Armstrong "is of serious constitutional concern." Armstrong has said USADA is waging a vendetta against him, and Sparks also struck a suspicious tone. "USADA's conduct raises serious questions about whether its real interest in charging Armstrong is to combat doping or if it is acting according to less noble motives. Ultimately, however, the subjective motivations of the parties cannot control the court's due process analysis or give this court jurisdiction … ." The downside for Armstrong is that, as Sparks noted, USADA can easily remedy the shortcomings with a more detailed charging document. Indeed, Sparks ruled Armstrong had not been irreparably harmed and had not exhausted his remedies, because he could win in arbitration. USADA chief executive officer Travis Tygart seemed prepared for arbitration, saying in a statement, "The rules in place have protected the rights of athletes for over a decade in every case USADA has adjudicated, and we look forward to a timely, public arbitration hearing."
Deal? It's what everyone wonders: Would either side agree to a deal? Hard to say. And while Armstrong has more at risk by going to arbitration, USADA would not be completely at ease.
Team Armstrong has until end of day to decide. What will it be folks?
Wow. That's pretty much all I can say about an estimated 10,000 people showing up last Saturday night in Portland, OR to ride naked through the streets for the 2012 World Naked Bike Ride. The World Naked Bike Ride is organized in cities across the world to draw attention to the vulnerability of cyclists, and is an annual thing. According to Bike Portland, the weather stayed dry and most folks avoided crashes and kept things happy and friendly, although there were a some incidents of groping and some tough crashes, which is to be expected when 10,000 folks ride through a city at night without any clothes on.
Hard to know just what motivates 10,000 people to mount a bike without any clothes and ride through a major city. But if it's gonna happen in America, Portland is probably the one city where there's 10,000 folks willing to do just that. Although I'm kind of surprised that San Francisco didn't put up a fight. I mean, it's San Francisco. Anyway, check out Bike Portland's website for several pics of the event that I couldn't post here. We maintain a pretty professional website and there are strict editorial directions as to content.
A small, white, stray dog in China adopted a team of cyclists on a grueling 1,800 kilometer-cross-country ride after the team fed it some food. According to the Toronto Star, Zhang Heng, 22, met the dog in the Sichuan Province and slipped it a bit of chicken. After that, the determined little dog followed the team for more than 20 days, over mountain passes, to the trip's end in Lhasa, Tibet.
Heng and his trip partners started a blog about the dog, which quickly grew to more than 40,000 fans. Heng named the dog Xiao Sa, aka "Little Sa," and will apparently be adopting the dog now that the race is over.
Xiao Sa ran the entire trip, except for the high-speed downhill sections, when Heng strapped a cage to his bike and gave the dog a ride to avoid the danger of hurtling downhill at speed.
Check out the video below for a Chinese news clip about the dog. You can't understand much (unless you speak Chinese) but it's a cool video nonetheless.
