Phantom Reflections

Next Couple Days Packed with Cool Stuff

This is a big big big big weekend folks. For me, I get to run another 10 mile race this weekend after doing a half marathon last weekend. Am I nuts? Hey, you read this blog so you should know. I just checked all the things coming up that hit high on my coolness meter, and here they are:

Tonight, Friday - The Premier of Season 3 of DR. WHO
I've been a huge fan of DR. WHO since John Pertwee manned the TARDIS. And let's be honest: if Russell T. Davies did a mini-series based on John Cage's 4' 33" I think we'd all watch. Check your local listings, but look for it between SARAH JANE and BSG.

Sunday April 20th - Women's Olympic Marathon Trials
A day before the Boston Marathon, beantown will be hosting the Olympic trials for the women runners. I get nervous just thinking about how nervous I would be.

Monday April 21st - The Boston Marathon
It's a tough race, and a lot of people say it's one of the toughest in the world. Maybe ... maybe not, but I know that it's damn hard to get in. Only uber fast runners need apply, unless you are a member of a sanctioned running club or something like that. Still, I don't think there is any runner on the planet who doesn't dream about running over Heartbreak Hill in Newton. All I can say is practice that speed work.

Monday April 21st - The Tour of Georgia
We can thank the Tour of Georgia for starting the trend of American cycling tours that has led to the Tour of Missouri and the Tour of California. The bad boys of Rock Racing are in and it should be a fun week.

Di Luca Cleared of Doping Charges

Link: VeloNews | Di Luca cleared | The Journal of Competitive Cycling.
Wow! Danilo Di Luca has been cleared:

The Italian Olympic Committee’s court of last instance acquitted defending Giro d’Italia champion Danilo Di Luca of doping charges on Wednesday.

Prosecutors representing the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) had been seeking a two-year suspension for Di Luca after he returned an “anomalous sample” following the 17th stage of last year's Giro in May. Had he been found guilty of a violation, his Giro title, too, would have been negated.

"Finally justice has been served," Di Luca said. "It's true I lost a year of my life but now I'm only thinking about riding and winning. Victories are the best cure for unhappiness.

"I have suffered a lot during the last year during which I have tried to avoid a lot of the criticism. Now I'm back in a happy mood. "

And on doping allegations, Di Luca added: "There was no proof and there could not have been any."

That's good news for cycling. I just wonder what will happen next, meaning will he bring any civil charges against anyone? This will hopefully make it easier for cyclists to get acquitted of trumped up charges. Now let's clear Floyd.

Slipstream-Chipotle in the Tour de France

Link: VeloNews | Slipstream-Chipotle gets a Tour invite | The Journal of Competitive Cycling
Finally, some good news on the 2008 Tour de France:

Tour de France organiser ASO on Thursday named the 20 teams it has selected for this year's race.

The line-up includes the American team Slipstream-Chipotle.

Team director Jonathan Vaughters said the invitation was a relief.

"I found out about 5 minutes ago," Vaughters told VeloNews Thursday morning.

"I feel relieved after all the work we put in. We proved we are one of the better teams in the world right from the start all the way through Tirreno, but we had a mediocre Paris-Nice, of all the friggin' races to have go sideways on us!! So of course that worried me a bit. But anyway, the bigger picture has been A+ work for a new team, so I'm glad ASO agreed with that. Off we go."

This team deserves to be in the Tour, and even though they had a tough time in Paris-Nice I'm glad the ASO invited them. Make sure that you mark down that I actually said something nice about the ASO.

UCI will back Contador

Link: VeloNews | McQuaid to Contador: I've got your back | The Journal of Competitive Cycling
The ASO is acting like a band of fascists. The good news is that Pat McQuaid president of the UCI is now vowing to back last year's Tour de France winner in a legal fight with the ASO.

UCI chief pat McQuaid on Friday promised to back reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador should he decide to take legal action over his exclusion from this year's race.

The tour's organisers, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), ruled on February 13 that Contador's Astana team would be barred from competing in this year's race as a result of doping scandals over the past two years.

But International Cycling Union (UCI) president McQuaid said the decision is unfair.

"If Contador decides to take legal action in Spain or internationally myself and the UCI will give evidence in his favor and I will be a witness," McQuaid told the daily El Mundo.

Contador has no plans to sue anybody right now. He will focus on other races, but if the UCI is willing to back Contador does that go for Levi too? I can't believe that the ASO has effectively disallowed two podium finishers the chance to come back and compete in the 2008 edition of the Tour. It just furthers everybody's gut feeling that the ASO has been on a quest to attack American cyclists and cycling teams. Contador was on Team Discovery when he won last year and that was the worst thing he could do in the eyes of the ASO. He just should have sat up and let a Frenchman win. Then they'd be happy and he and Astana would have probably been invited back to the Tour.

Is there any doubt now that the smear campaign against Floyd Landis is anything but a farce? The ASO is associated with both L'Equipe and the French lab that was responsible for the testing. I think that when all is cleared up the UCI should definitely back Floyd Landis in a full frontal legal assault on the ASO.

What can you do? First, support Floyd Landis -- he was the first winner of the TDF to be victimized by the ASO. Second, go to LetLeviRide.com and sign the petition to allow Levi, Alberto, and the whole Astana squad to ride the Tour.

Tour of California - Recap

Wow! Almost two million people caught the Amgen Tour of California live. That is just incredible! You can’t stuff that many people in a stadium to see the Superbowl, but cycling allows throngs of people to line the course and get into the excitement of the sport.

Let’s first talk about George Hincapie. He wanted to win a stage so badly this year that I had a feeling he would have done just about everything to cross that line first. With his vast experience he played the final stage like a finely tuned instrument and crossed the line with three lengths to spare. I felt bad that Zirbel wasn’t able to finish it up, but the man went out solo with over 27 miles to go. My thighs burn just thinking about it.

It was nice to see Floyd Landis hanging out at the finish line. As the inaugural winner of the Tour of California and rightful winner of the 2006 Tour de France he deserves to go anywhere he wants and get a strong, supportive reception. I really hope the guy gets vindicated.

What can I say about Levi Leipheimer? He’s just the man and that’s that. The ASO has really screwed him and the rest of Astana by barring them from the Tour and other associated ASO races. Make sure you stop by Let Levi Ride and sign the protest petition.

The Amgen Tour of California has in three years become one of the premier cycling races in the world. That’s a great thing, and the fact that there seems to be more pro-tour level teams based in the U.S. than ever, this is a good year for American cycling.

2008 Tour of California

I’m not going to put any links in this post. I’m waiting to watch the time trial on Versus tonight so I don’t want to hit the official page, any of the team pages, or Velonews and have it all spoiled for me.

What a great race so far! Cancellara is hanging right in there, and being only a few seconds behind Leipheimer means he’s a stone’s throw from the lead. Levi couldn’t shake him on the mountain stage on Tuesday, but has at least twenty seconds on the man going into the time trial.

I think George Hincapie has to be one of the most aggressive and talented riders on the bike today. He keeps going for it, but it hasn’t been in the cards for him yet during this tour. Well, he has a new team and a whole season to grab some wins. I’d love to see him crush the field in the TT. Now that would be cool...

It’s also great to see Mario Cippolini back on the bike. Rock Racing is just his type of in-your-face team. I have to hand it to Michael Ball—he’s giving a lot of great riders a second chance at redemption. And you have to love the team uniforms! I also like the team cars. While everyone else putters around in Subarus and the like, Rock Racing rolls with black Cadillacs.

Team Astana looks strong and dominant. Bryuneel definitely seems to have transplanted his U.S. Postal/Team Discovery brain into the old Team Astana. Even though the TDF is trying to keep them out of the Tour, it’s going to be hard if they keep racing like they do.

Slipstream to Giro d'Italia

Link: Slipstream scores Giro invite
Nice!

American continental professional team Slipstream-Chipotle has received an invitation to compete at this year's Giro d'Italia, Slipstream team manager Jonathan Vaughters confirmed with VeloNews Saturday.

Vaughters got the news last week from RCS director Angelo Zomegnan, who is expected to announce the full list of teams invited to the Giro in coming days. In addition to the May 10-June 10 Giro, Vaughters said Slipstream would compete in other RCS events such as Milan-San Remo, held March 7, and Tirreno-Adriatico, held March 12-18.

That's great news! Now they just need to get an invite to the Tour de France. We'll have to wait and see on that one. Can't wait for the Tour of California...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

If you got a new bike for the holidays, make sure to ride off all that food and eggnog. If you didn't get a bike, make sure to take advantage of the sales tomorrow to treat yourself ... you know you deserve it. Nothing helps ring in the new year like titanium and carbon fiber.

What? No Posts! Is this still a blog?

I've been neglectful of Phantom Reflections. Real Honest Film has been my focus and with all the other stuff I'm doing It's hard for me to roll over here and write something clever or at least interesting. The fact of the matter is that I'm doing all my media blogging over there, which leaves this good ol' blog for sports, writing, computers, and generic rants about whatever. I don't like to talk too much about writing, because it's a personal thing and everyone has his own opinion on the subject. I like to talk cycling, but we're in winter for at least half of the planet. I guess I can still hang with the Aussies. I'll have to make a better effort to swing over here once and a while for a new post. All the action is at my new blog Real Honest Film, and some of the uber deep reflective stuff you used to see here is over there. But that's all. I need to get moving so I can catch a showing of I AM LEGEND.

Tour of America Shortened

Link: Shortened Tour of America announced
I don't know if this think will go, but I sure hope it will.

Aqu, Inc., organizers of The Tour of America, a coast-to-coast professional stage race, on Thursday announced revised dates and a tentative route for its inaugural event. 

Based upon feedback from racers, professional racing organizing bodies, the media and supporters, the tour has been shortened to 21 stages covering approximately 2200 miles (more than 3500 km) and scheduled for September 6-28, 2008. 

The tour will start in New York's Central Park and travel through 18 states before finishing in Palo Alto, California. Cities along the race's route include New York City, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Denver, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Napa, Santa Rosa and Palo Alto. 

Twenty-five teams will be invited to compete for a prize purse of $10 million.

The Tour de France makes my underwear itchy. I think it's time for an alternative race that doesn't convict its winners of a crime.