New Pathways for Pro Cycling

NON AGRESSION PACT

2010-07-14T16:47:00.000+10:00

A very nice piece by Pedro Horrillo on the unwritten laws of the peloton: In the peloton there is an unwritten law that must be observed. When the leader stops for a piss the rest waits for him, although first he should be able to interpret the race in order to stop at an appropriate time. Another unwritten law is, and that's the one I mean, when a rider gets into a break he has to work and

Dear Friends in Cycling

2010-06-16T15:53:00.001+10:00

Dear Friends in Cycling To coincide with the World Road Championships in Geelong Australia we have organised the New Pathways for Pro Cycling Conference. The conference has been organised to bring together cyclists, administrators, experts and fans interested in the future of professional cycling. Given the current situation we feel that this project is even more important and timely than ever.

“We Don't Want to Know.” - Third Installment of It’s not about the Blood!

2010-06-11T11:00:00.000+10:00

I feel like Charles Dickens releasing a chapter by weekly installments! “We Don't Want to Know.” The Spanish judicial process, like any other judicial process, has not been a linear affair - with interlocutory steps and appeals by various parties including the UCI and WADA all having their effect on the course of the proceedings; such that in 2007 the Investigating Judge Serrano shelved the

Puertas Abiertas - Second Installment of It’s not about the Blood!

2010-06-03T19:25:00.000+10:00

The second instalment of It’s not about the Blood! Operacion Puerto and the end of modernity. Puertas Abiertas In May 2006 Operacion Puerto broke when El Pais published details from the leaked Guardia Civil files. Not only were Liberty Seguros embroiled but so was Hamilton, Perez, a host of Kelme riders and two of the main challengers for that year's Tour de France – Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso

It’s not about the Blood! Operacion Puerto and the end of modernity.

2010-06-02T17:12:00.000+10:00

I am going to start posting excerpts of my work on Operacion Puerto here. Not the complete stuff but bits. Some of this has already appeared in Spanish in the Journal NÓMADAS. 26 | Enero-Junio.2010 (II)Revista Crítica de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas | Critical Review of Social and Juridical Sciences It will also appear soon in an anthology on Doping and Legal Rights. The First Installment:

An Open Letter To The UCI President Pat McQuaid

2010-05-26T18:32:00.001+10:00

Cozy Beehive has published this interesting and timely letter to UCI President Pat McQuaid Note : A gentleman on a Cycling News forum wrote the following, not me. I'm only helping to spread the word to other cycling fans, as I told him. The letter comes in direct response to McQuaid's statements today, denying using the money Armstrong "donated" in 2005 as bribe to cover up the latter's positive

More Allegations against Bruyneel and the UCI

2010-05-23T10:40:00.002+10:00

Below a rough translation of an article from this weekend's Danish paper Weekendavisen A dirty deal. The case of the Russian rider Vladimir Gusev uncovers the concealment, the parallel system of justice and the abuse of power in the International Cycling Union UCI. It also suggests how riders like Lance Armstrong and his team director Johan Bruyneel have been able to get away with the

Professional Cycling - escaping the crisis.

2010-05-21T17:42:00.002+10:00

This week the cycling world again has been plunged into controversy after doping statements made by Floyd Landis. This is a further chapter in a saga that started with doping allegations in the Festina Tour of 1998. The allegations made by Floyd Landis this week raise issues that many people believe go to the heart of world cycling – its ability to deal with doping that appears to be embedded in

International Network for the Humanistic Studies in Doping Editorial May 2010

2010-05-10T10:37:00.000+10:00

Martin Hardie Ghandi once wrote that there is just the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed and the tree. Ghandi’s point was that depending upon which means we adopt the end or result will always be different. We reap exactly what we sow, he said. His aim was to show that only with fair means can we produce fair results. What has all this got to

Recent Danish media on WADA etc 3

2010-05-10T10:35:00.001+10:00

Presumed guilty. Two athletes. Two asthmatics. Two idiotic sentences. Sprayed away By KLAUS WIVEL FOOTBALL Player Jesper Münsberg can still not enter his home team's grass field. The 33-year-old defender from Lolland-Falster Alliance, located in the second division East, received in November 2009 a quarantine on a half years after a legal process that has lasted almost two years. Not before

Recent Danish media on WADA etc 2

2010-05-10T10:34:00.001+10:00

Doping. In Denmark half of all athletes a sanctioned due to drugs that are not performance enhancing. It's more about creating an image of a clean sport than creating a clean sport," the founder of Anti-Doping Denmark Bengt Saltin says. The Spirit of Sport By KLAUS WIVEL "THE worst thing were judgment of the press," Anders Gotschalk says – a sailor from Charlottenlund, north of Copenhagen,

Recent Danish Stories on WADA etc 1

2010-05-10T10:33:00.002+10:00

WADA. The Anti-Doping Fight has ended in innocent athletes being convicted while the doped athletes get off. Prominent scientists deliver a harsh sentence. Closed circles By KLAUS WIVEL CLAUDIA Pechstein’s glorious career ended in a scandal. The then 37-year-old German skater who has won five Olympic medals was accused of doping during the World Championships in Norway in February 2009.

Two Stories about MichaelRasmussen

2010-04-16T18:54:00.000+10:00

Outcast. "Personally, I think it is the biggest scandal in sports history. Across sports. "Michael Rasmussen of miscarriage of justice, on doping hysteria, to understand Marco Pantani, the sick thoughts, and about why he did not intend to give up. Yellow Fever By Klaus Wivel There is a narrow street in the outskirts of the small northern Italian medieval Lazise. The slope slightly downward,

New Ideas

2010-02-04T15:27:00.001+11:00

Project Summary.The project will examine the links between:• athlete education and anti-doping;• a sustainable career structure, job security, and anti-doping; and• the social organisation and norms of the peloton and anti-doping.Issues brought to light during research undertaken on behalf of the Commonwealth Department of Health & Ageing by Deakin University (2009 “Doping and Australian

bibliography in the works

2010-02-04T15:06:00.002+11:00

This is the beginning of bibliography of cycling, doping and other issues ........ a work in progress no doubt . "Cyclingnews' recent coverage of the ProTour-Grand Tours split." Retrieved 06/02/2009, from http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/protour_affair_complete. Free Floyd Landis. Free Floyd Landis, Free Floyd Landis. Independent Investigation: Analysis Samples from the 1999 Tour

Cycling Australia juggles political football

2009-12-09T16:20:00.001+11:00

from crikey.com.auCycling Australia juggles political footballby Ross StapletonA series of meetings and delicate negotiations are taking place behind closed doors as Cycling Australia, the sport’s governing body, tries to handle a political football that’s giving some of the sport’s key stakeholders considerable heartburn.With still more sensitive talks scheduled this week, CA is being asked to

NEW PATHWAYS FOR PRO CYCLING

2009-11-23T11:35:00.002+11:00

NEW PATHWAYS FOR PRO CYCLINGBuilding the Future Common Wealth of Cycling.Version Espanol Conference 27, 28 and 29 September 2010Deakin University, Waterfront Campus,Geelong, Victoria, Australia.Presented by the Alfred Deakin Research Institute and the Deakin University School of Law and School of History, Heritage and Society.In association with the International Network of Humanistic Doping

NUEVAS VÍAS PARA EL CICLISMO PROFESIONAL

2009-11-23T11:33:00.001+11:00

NUEVAS VÍAS PARA EL CICLISMO PROFESIONALConstruyendo la futura comunidad del ciclismo Conferencia: 27, 28 y 29 Septiembre 2010Deakin University, Waterfront Campus,Geelong, Victoria, Australia.Presentado por el Instituto de Investigación Alfred Deakin, la Facultad de Derecho y la Facultad de Historia, Patrimonio y Sociedad de la Universidad Deakin.En asociación con la Red Internacional de

A note on the social peloton.

2009-10-30T13:00:00.002+11:00

The following occurred to me recently when i was chatting with Rock Racing Director Laurenzo Lapage at the Herald Sun Tour.There is something inherently social, even possibly democratic, about the peloton of road cycling. Social in that it is a place where conversations take place – both in the "heat of the battle" and in the lulls along the road as a race progresses toward the next event, the

The peloton and strategic intervention.

2009-10-23T13:06:00.000+11:00

From the Theoretical Notes from the Ponds SeriesThe kind of investigation we have in mind is impossible without the cooperation of the peloton. In fact given that it appears incontestable that the peloton is the most isolated or excluded of all ‘stakeholders’ in the policy process to undertake research without their cooperation appears to be futile.On one hand, what we are trying to undertake is

pseudoephedrine is back (on the list)

2009-10-23T07:41:00.004+11:00

This month the International Network of Humanistic Doping Research Web site Editorial has an editorial from the esteemed English Sports Sociologist Ivan Waddington on the return of pseudoephedrine to the WADA list.Here is the full text which once again raises concerns about transparency and rationality in Anti Doping Policy:October 2009 International Network of Humanistic Doping Research By

Coming Soon

2009-10-22T12:46:00.001+11:00

Lots to report and lots not reportable .... coming soon ... the Tour, August, Travel all this takes its toll on the blogger's regularity

Horrilo's open letter to McQuaid 2007

2009-06-16T16:32:00.002+10:00

Finally got around to doing a translation of Pedro Horillo's Open Letter to Pat McQuaid originally published in 2007.Open letter to Mr McQuaid, President of the International Cycling Union PEDRO HORRILLO 2007Mr McQuaid, I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you personally, although to make things clear from the start, I am not inclined to in the slightest. However, it should not be so, because

“Mr Adams, whereabouts are we?”

2009-06-03T10:29:00.001+10:00

Following Agamben's signposts in cycling's state of exception.Abstract for talk at Doping and Legal Rights Conference, 20 – 21 August 2009, Department of Sport Science, Aarhus University, Denmark.This paper seeks to take as its starting point Moller's view that the contemporary religious engagement in anti doping campaigns signals a farewell to the ideas of modernity, that is, it is a symptom

Giro and Dolomites - more on myth and the Atlantic question?

2009-05-29T14:57:00.004+10:00

This story was written a year ago, the characters then gods, now possibly fall into the category discussed previously in this blog. The story may address the question, quite possibly, as to why Europe had better things to care about?Giro and DolomitesCARLOS ARRIBASEmanuele Sella comes from Vicenza, like Pozzato, like the Olympic Theatre of Palladio; Riccardo Riccò comes from Modena, like Ferrari,

'Whilst the onomania lasted, bickerings and divisions endured.'

2009-05-27T14:33:00.010+10:00

A paper to be delivered at FOUCAULT: 25 YEARS ON CONFERENCE - UNI SA , 25 JUNE 2009.From Barthes to Foucault and beyond – Cycling in the Age of Empire. Martin HardieMay 2009'Whilst the onomania lasted, bickerings and divisions endured.'Barthes is right in that he tells us that there is an onomastics of the Tour.But in the time since Barthes, in a manner the semiotician may not have envisaged,

La Via Horrillo

2009-05-18T18:32:00.005+10:00

Today we should salute Di Luca and Armstrong. And of course Horrillo.Whatever may be said about the old and the new ways of cycling, on thing is certain and that is that cycling has always had an ethic of its own. An ethic were the slaves of the route, and the older and the wiser of the sport have not been afraid to take a stand. It seems that sometimes those of the new way forgets this ethic.

"Me chiamo Pedro" (My name is Pedro)

2009-05-17T15:19:00.001+10:00

Not a story about doping, but a story, translated from El Pais, about our good friend Pedro Horrillo.If we had more people like Pedro in cycling, and the world, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in."Me chiamo Pedro" (My name is Pedro)By Carlos Arribas Pedro Horrillo, a cyclist of 34 years, married with two young children, jumped on his bike in Morbegno, healthy and strong, a bull, at 12.08, at

The Doping Dilemma and Game Theory

2009-05-07T16:05:00.003+10:00

Article in April 2008 Scientific American Magazine entitled The Doping Dilemma Shermer argues that Game theory helps to explain the pervasive abuse of drugs in cycling, baseball and other sportsShermer's key points are that: * An alarming number of sports—baseball, football, track and field, and especially cycling—have been shaken by doping scandals in recent years. * Among the many banned

Beijing Positives and Fear and Self Loathing in Adelaide

2009-04-29T17:51:00.003+10:00

Not sure what to say about this just yet. The TDU Director excels himself. Self loathing perhaps. You can hear it here.Beijing drug cheats still being caught The World Today - Wednesday, 29 April , 2009 12:44:00Reporter: Simon SantowPETER CAVE: The boast last year that the Beijing Olympics was one of the cleanest games in decades is looking a little hollow this lunchtime.New testing on samples

One more death

2009-04-27T10:42:00.005+10:00

Carlos Arribas the doyen of Spanish cycling journalism has a piece in El Pais today on the sad death of Jobie Dajka.In the same edition my open letter has been published in Spanish.The only other brave people to publish the open letter were the guys in new York at Velocity Nation and Doug at the Doug Report - see his April Wednesday 8th Archive.

Mr Adams Conference in Denmark - Doping and legal rights 20 - 21 August 2009

2009-04-20T19:00:00.001+10:00

The conference theme of “Doping and Legal Rights” addresses the present large‐scale supervision of elite athletes in connection with the fight against doping in elite sport. With the publication of the most recent version of the World Anti-Doping Code in January 2009 high profile athletes have begun to speak out in protest against the regime. Recently 65 athletes in Belgium have decided to

How to adjust to a life more ordinary

2009-04-20T11:48:00.004+10:00

A good article by Australian Olympic Rower, Kimberley Crowe, raising concerns that are relevant to cycling generally and not only the recent tragic events.

AN OPEN LETTER TO:

2009-04-08T19:19:00.002+10:00

AN OPEN LETTER TO:Juan Carlos Castaño, President of the Real Federacion Espanol de Ciclismo, Mr Mike Victor, President of Cycling Australia, Mr Pat McQuaid, President of the UCI, Kate Ellis, Minister for Sport, Australia, His Excellency Mr Jaime Lissavestsky, Minister for Sport, Espana, Mr John Fahey, President, World Anti Doping Agency, and Mr Ettore Torri, Comitato Olimpico Nazionale

Velocity Nation and The Prospect Before Us

2009-03-22T10:24:00.007+11:00

Velocity Nation is fast becoming one of the only sources for critical analysis of what is going on in Cycling. Not afraid to laugh, the velocity-team also have an eye on, and are not afraid to delve into, the subterranean movements occurring as cycling grasps the possibilities of its globalisation.The two most recent interviews with Jonathan Vaughters and with Paul Kimmage Fighting the Good Fight

A bad hair day for Lance Armstrong

2009-03-19T07:12:00.000+11:00

PARIS: Lance Armstrong literally had a bad hair day.A French anti-doping inspector armed with a pair of scissors this week took six clumps of the former Tour de France champion's hair that now will be tested for signs of drug use. Armstrong says his hair was so "butchered" by the test that he had to get a buzz-cut to hide the mess.more

THe Sport Scientists: An interesting read to continue a debate

2009-03-13T07:30:00.001+11:00

as always just putting the different views ..... we don't take sides just search for an explanation as to why the red neon sign is more persuasive than truth .... is it because it glows red but because of the pool of colour lying reflected in the wet asphalt?

A chat with Graham Watson

2009-03-11T13:16:00.001+11:00

From Bob Gosford's The Northern MythTNM: What does cycling need more of now - more law or a better sense of ethics among the riders?GW: I would think it needs more clarity in the law and the rules - and the ethics - they will come together. They won’t come without each other.The laws, you know, they are pretty ambiguous and all over the place - they are not yet controlled by Governments - it is

15 Reasons why Valverde should be able to ride in peace

2009-03-02T13:09:00.001+11:00

1. Valverde was in Kelme directed by Vicente Belda.2. Kelme had a team program (Puerto docs, Manzano etc).3. Belda is on trial for his part in the Fuentes operation.4. Valverde left Kelme in 2004 and from that point on had no contact with Fuentes.5. Fuentes conserved a bag of blood (no. 18) which is alleged to be that of Valverde's.6. There is a note on folio 106 of the Puerto summary made by

New York Times and the Biological passport

2009-03-02T12:00:00.002+11:00

'Interesting' article in the New York Times over the weekend about the biological passport. "... Mr. Ashenden said, the biological passport is not perfect. Riders who transfuse their own blood may not be caught because the swings in their blood values are not as dramatic as they can be with EPO use. He also said that the passport system would be successful for “about a year or so” until riders

MR.ADAMS*

2009-02-13T06:37:00.005+11:00

By Pedro Horrillo original published in El Pais in Spanish Mr. Adams entered my life at the same moment as we started the new year, on January 1st, 2008. To tell the truth, I never approved of him, but

Lance Armstrong, $3 million and the silence of the Rann

2009-02-12T15:24:00.001+11:00

Bob Gosford writes from Yuendumu: (from crikey.com.au) Lance Armstrong went to Adelaide for a fortnight in January. While there he spoke to a few cancer charities, visited hospitals, charity fund-raisers and cancer victims, and schmoozed with Kevin Rudd, a fawning South Australian Premier Mike Rann, assorted SA Ministers and half the population of Adelaide. Oh, and between schmoozes he rode

Tour de France team budgets, 1989-2008

2009-02-09T10:41:00.002+11:00

Interesting post from Kadisco regarding Tour de France team budgets, 1989-2008Interesting in the light of the fact that rider's salaries seemed to have fallen 40% over the last few years and that despite the globalsiation of cycling and the Armstrong effect cycling hasn't kept pace with other sports. The March 1989 issue of VeloNews - reproduced on page 18 of the January 2009 issue -

Operacion Puerto says cyclists have not defrauded sponsors

2009-02-08T09:31:00.001+11:00

A quote from last year's Spanish Court decision to re open Puerto regarding the CPA's claim that cyclists had engaged in fraud against their sponsors etc:"When it is notorious that for many years there has been talk of irregular practices, when there have been cyclists who have died from the consumption of drugs, frequent disqualifications and sanctions, when cycling is the mirror which other

La fusión de las vueltas es, según Astarloza, «un síntoma de la crisis»

2009-02-06T10:29:00.001+11:00

Anger grows over anti-doping code

2009-02-06T07:28:00.000+11:00

By Matt Slater Wada chairman John Fahey has made implementation of the code his priority

Cycling in the Age of Empire.

2009-02-05T16:26:00.001+11:00

Cycling is a game in flux. It is not the myth or an epic as Roland Barthes wrote. Mont Ventoux is a moonscape, bare, barren and rising out of the lavender plains of Provence. They are no longer heroes of epic proportions but bare life, homo sacer competing for all to see in the desert of the real. The precarity of this existence better depicts the state of the peloton today: Free as the birds to

Does the compulsory reporting system violate athlete autonomy?

2009-02-05T15:08:00.002+11:00

Here is the part of the article by Hanstad and Loland that I feel is a little weak in its analysis.The relevant point that Foucault was making in his discussions of surveillance was not that it was "a Big Brother-system where the athletes are being watched covertly", but that those under surveillance felt as if that surveillance was constant. That is they took on the role of controlling

Norwegian study on Athlete Whereabouts system

2009-02-04T19:10:00.003+11:00

This article is interesting but it doesn't really do justice to the arguments against the whereabouts system. The authors promise an empirical study in the near future. If anyone wants a copy to read email me.I'll post some notes on the article after re-reading it.Elite athletes' duty to provide information on their whereabouts: Justifiable anti-doping work or an indefensible surveillance regime?

Que CERA CERA

2009-02-03T15:24:00.002+11:00

and the current faves post cera seem to beLuteinizing hormone Adrenocorticotropic hormone IGF-1 S107

Coyle and Armstrong

2009-02-03T13:08:00.003+11:00

Over the last decade money for drug testing in sport

No sólo resucitó Armstrong

2009-01-30T14:26:00.001+11:00

Davis, un damnificado por la Operación Puerto, y Pereiro, tras su caída en el Tour, destacan también en la Vuelta a las Antípodas MARTIN HARDIE - Adelaida - 26/01/2009 MARTIN HARDIE - Adelaida - 18/01/2009 http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/nueva/resurreccion/Armstrong/elpepudep/20090118elpepidep_11/Tes

"En la Operación Puerto también había tenistas y futbolistas"

2009-01-30T14:12:00.000+11:00

CARLOS ARRIBAS / M. H. - Quinta da Ria / Adelaida - 18/01/2009 http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/Operacion/Puerto/habia/tenistas/futbolistas/elpepidep/20090118elpepidep_12/TesCuando Lance Armstrong se retiró por primera vez, el último domingo de julio de 2005 desde el podio de su séptimo Tour, la Operación Puerto aún no ocupaba los titulares de los periódicos y el 23 de mayo de 2006, cuando

A conversation with Pedro Delgado - Part II

2009-01-30T13:53:00.000+11:00

http://velonews.com/article/11235By Martin HardiePosted Nov. 22, 2006You may not agree with him, but you can't accuse 1988 Tour de France winner Pedro Delgado of being shy about stating his opinions regarding the sport in which he made his living. Now a cycling commentator for Spanish national television, Delgado still works in and around cycling and he often doesn’t like what he sees.In this the

A conversation with Pedro Delgado

2009-01-30T13:52:00.000+11:00

Part 1 of a two-part interviewhttp://velonews.com/article/11233By Martin HardieIt’s hard to imagine that it’s been 18 years since Pedro Delgado took a hard-fought victory at the 1988 Tour de France. These days, Delgado — “Perico” as he’s known in Spain — spends much of his time serving as a regular commentator for Spanish national television’s coverage of cycling. Working with colleague Carlos De

Dopaje y ciclismo profesional australiano: Aspectos, actitudes y una vía para un nuevo enfoque.

2009-01-30T13:47:00.001+11:00

Dopaje y ciclismo profesional australiano: Aspectos, actitudes y una vía para un nuevo enfoque.Propuesta presentada por la Facultad de Derecho y Empresariales de la Universidad Deakin al Ministerio de Sanidad australiano, Programa de investigación Anti DopajeResumen del proyectoEl ciclismo posee una reputación de prácticas de dopaje arraigadas en una comunidad cerrada, donde el romper algunas

El ciclismo busca la tierra prometida

2009-01-30T13:00:00.000+11:00

El Tour Down Under, en Australia, abre la vía a la globalización de un deporte que quiere garantizarse el futuro económicoMARTIN HARDIE - Adelaida - 04/02/2008 http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/ciclismo/busca/tierra/prometida/elpepidep/20080204elpepidep_31/Tes"Esto es mucho más que una carrera", destaca Indurain en Adelaida"Es una fiesta, un acontecimiento cultural, un estilo de vida""China

Allan Davis: No way out?

2009-01-30T00:59:00.000+11:00

procycling Bloghttp://www.bikeradar.com/blogs/article/allan-davis-no-way-out-14045Martin Hardie Thursday, Jan 17, 2008 2.22pmThe accepted mantra within cycling is that it is 'cleaner' than most other sports and that its anti-doping procedures are transparent and out in the open for all to see. Whatever the reality in terms of comparative cleanliness it is arguable that the lack of transparency in

A Cyborg Counternarrative of Lance Armstrong

2009-01-29T16:16:00.000+11:00

Ted Butryn and Matthew Masucci concluded their article "It's Not about the Book. A Cyborg Counternarrative of Lance Armstrong" (published in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Volume 27, No. 2, May 2003, pp.124-144) in the following terms:"From our perspective, whether Armstrong used any performoance-enhancing drugs while he competed is secondary to the larger question of why sporting

Kafka on Wheels One.

2009-01-29T16:15:00.000+11:00

Kafka on wheels, the phrase coined by the doyen of the Spanish cycling media, Carlos Arribas, is a pretty fair description of the state of cycling within which the 2006 Vuelta a España found itself. The race kicked off in the shadow of suspicion and doubt. Like K, la Vuelta was the subject of allegation without detail, nothing positive, just a heavy air of suspicion. Everyone knew something had

Tour Down Under – The future of Cycling in a global world?

2008-01-30T17:24:00.000+11:00

Adelaide is a small grid like (cuadricular) city known as the city of churches. It is laid out on a hot dry plain wedged between the Mount Lofty ranges and the Southern Ocean. To the south the Ocean stretches to Antarctica. The landscape in colour is reminiscent of the plains of Castille Leon. However here there is a lot less water than any part of Spain.Immediately inland lie some of Australia's

Tour Down Under controversy

2008-01-28T20:02:00.000+11:00

Tour Down Under controversyJanuary 28, 2008 03:15pmREAD below for a full transcript from the Mornings program on ABC 891 hosted by Matthew Abraham and David Bevan which included guests Duncan McFetridge and Mike Turtur.PART ONECOMPERE: Were you interested in the Tour Down Under? Now a lot of people were. A lot of people were very, very excited about it.Duncan McFetridge is the Shadow Minister for

Bring us the head of Valverde.

2007-08-27T16:17:00.000+10:00

It's probably fair to assume that given the attitude of various German personalities and institutions there has been some pressure on the UCI make sure the World Championships on September 30 are credible. Just like there was pressure to make the Tour and its winner a credible one - and what a great job they did of that! The World's are the UCI's biggest money spinner and with this assumption on

¿A Vuelta to die for?

2006-12-09T11:20:00.000+11:00

La Vuelta one of three grand dramas.Even before the peloton assembled for the first stage of the 2006 Vuelta a España, it was a race that seemed poised as one that could mark a new beginning. The run up to La Vuelta possessed all the drama required for it to go down in history. Crime, drugs, police, tension, riders with something to prove and a peloton in search of a future. La Vuelta was a

In search of V - la Vuelta part 2

2006-12-09T11:19:00.000+11:00

La Vuelta end of the first Act .....In search of VCycling is a bit like life, well a lot, and writing as well , nobody owns it, it is a matter of things flying back and forth, collaboration, affect, the composition of bodies out of different materials, and so on. Some of the things we do and are at any given time come from outside of us, we fold them up and they become us. The Vuelta is a place

2006-12-09T11:17:00.000+11:00

Kafka on Wheels One.Kafka on wheels, the phrase coined by the doyen of the Spanish cycling media, Carlos Arribas, is a pretty fair description of the state of cycling within which the 2006 Vuelta a España found itself. The race kicked off in the shadow of suspicion and doubt. Like K, la Vuelta was the subject of allegation without detail, nothing positive, just a heavy air of suspicion. Everyone