Looks like Ben Swift has decided to leave Team Sky to pastures new https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...merida-cycling

Amazingly, this article about Lizzie Armitstead getting married is currently the headline story on the Daily Mail website.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti....html#comments

As only one cyclist has been revealed as having a certificate for a cortico-steroid injection in the butt for a pollen allergy a week before three GT, the assumption everyone else is doing it cannot be valid.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...ed-steroid-tue
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sp...brad-k9s50whdd

that's not the point though.........the competitor probably thinks that everyone else is pushing the boundaries. Of course he doesn't know because he hasn't got their medical records but that wouldn't stop him thinking that they are, particularly if they put in a few good performances

Okay, just dodgy self-justification for pushing the limits.

Men's C4-5 Road Race in Rio from yesterday. Who wins? Finish line is under the gantry shadow across the road . https://my.mixtape.moe/uwcisz.mp4

Official results:http://results.paralympics.channel4....4-5/index.html

I mentioned in one of the other threads that regular doctors have been saying that giving someone a steroid injection for a pollen allergy or asthma is most irregular and it would normally only be administered to someone who is very ill. It's not like it would be a standard form of treatment for someone with asthma or a pollen allergy, far from it in fact.

Griepl, Sagan, Degenkolb, GVA, Kittel, Van Poppel (x2), Kristoff, Ewan, EBH, Demare, Bouhanni,

The only big names missing are Cav and Viviani........not sure what happened with Cav as I think he was in the provisional line-up a few days ago

Viviani was too, they cant be fully fit and want to rest up for the worlds maybe

Dunno what kind of form Cav is in now - he spent most of the Tour of Britain working for Steve Cummings, hardly contested any of the sprints.

It passed by a bit un-noticed but yesterday saw the first modern running of the Elite men's road race at the European Championships..........in the last few years the Europeans have been contested by U23 and Junior men and women with road races and time trials..........this is the first time for ages that Elite men and women have competed

Sagan won with Alaphillippe in 2nd
Castroviejo won the elite time trial

In the elite women's races Anna van der Breggen won the road race and Ellen van Dijk won the time trial

Doesn't appear that GB sent an Elite team..........

Sophie Wright was GB's only medallist with a bronze in the Junior Women's road race

I only knew about this because I put ES on at 1.30 for Eneco and they were showing highlights of the men's road race

Shame we didn't send a team and that we would rather compete in Qatar than in France.


The television coverage will probably start in November. Hopefully it'll be on Eurosport because they showed the action live. If not, then I hope ITV44 get highlights. I don't have BT Sport or Sky Sports, and Channel 4 showed it at stupid times when they had the rights.

The Cyclo-cross World Cup starts up again this Wednesday with the first round being CrossVegas, followed on the 24th by a new addition, Jingle Cross in Iowa City. Startlists at the bottom of this page - http://www.uci.ch/cyclo-cross/ucieve...ndings-179502/ (Helen Wyman going for GB, only in Iowa; Ian Field in both races.)

Watching CrossVegas live is only for the insomniacs though. They're night races beginning at 4.15am our time on the 22nd. Jingle Cross kicks off at 9.30pm our time on Saturday.

UCI Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClo...pW13LCntQglS-Q


The first 3 rounds are being streamed live on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RevolutionUK/
Round 1 is available there for replay.

I think I've read that Eurosport will cover the 3 European Champions League rounds.

An unusual sight in today's Eneco ITT - the world champion joined the start ramp late and began his ride around 45 seconds in arrears, so he was caught by Dennis (who leads the stage ATM and is arguably the most likely to take custody of his stripes in a few weeks) for a minute.

First blow to Rohan Dennis but I suspect the likes of Martin Dumoulin are focussing on Doha.

Performance of the day for me was the young German Sutterlin.

Here's the BC longlist for Doha. No entries in the junior categories.



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Today's Eneco stage was a blinder at the end - definitely worth a watch.

The Wiggin's TUE will be covered on BBC2's Newsnight tonight: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37456623

The TTT at Eneco has pushed eight riders from the top two teams (BMC & EQS) into the top ten. Given the bunch finishes it looks likely most gaps will remain static (unless the weather intervenes).

Sagan's form in Eneco makes it look likely he is heading for a second year in the rainbow stripes.

Getting a bit messy for Wiggins it seems now with even a former doctor questioning his usage of the drug..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37456623

Serious issues raised by the Garmin doctor and Rasmussen. Old footage of the Tour of Britain presumably used to avoid inadvertently linking the current story and riders pictured. The harrowing item that followed on Aleppo put it into perspective.

Wiggins has recorded an interview for Marr on Sunday: https://twitter.com/RobBurl/status/779268320520507393

The official start list for Il Lombardia was issued today:
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/...2016_Startlist
http://www.ilombardia.it/en/

The whole thing stinks and I don't think we've heard the last of it.

It appears to me that the drug was administered to Brad to enhance performance. Whether he was active in the decision or simply accepted the treatment advised by his team is a good question.

Compliant with the rules it may be but I want to know from Dave Brailsford whether he was seeking to mislead when speaking of Sky competing 'clean'. That gives the impression that no drugs associated with 'doping' were used. We now know the most extreme 'therapy' allowable was considered fair play.

The interview on the BBC tomorrow morning may clarify how the decision to ugrade from inhaler to injection was taken.

Chaves won the untelevised Giro dell Emilia this afternoon. http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/...ll_Emilia_2016

I hope there will be a decent translation of this Dumoulin interview. Strong words on Qatar, the UCI, and Wiggins. The Google Translate version is a little muddled. http://www.limburger.nl/cnt/dmf20160...el-vlijmscherp

A rumour in the European press is that Landa held meetings to discuss breaking from his two year deal with Sky and join the new Bahrain-Merida team.

The interview tomorrow feels odd. Andrew Marr of all people? He's hardly a sports expert or doping expert.

David Walsh is writing an article in the ST:

"The more I've looked at the Wiggins' TUEs, the murkier they seem. I've tried to explain in tomorrow's ST how it happened."

The ST article says little new. It makes it clear Sky have pulled down the shutters and slammed the door shut on David Walsh. He is an outsider looking in, not the 'access all areas' embedded journalist of a couple of years ago. Sky are not denying they crossed a line. It is inconsistent with their zero tolerance purge of a couple of years back.

Wiggins says in the Marr interview:

He appears to admit there was an advantage - just not, in his view, intentional. The fact it was kept secret though shows there was something to hide.

It is important to note this was a one-off injection. The abuse in previous generations used a wide-ranging, systematic approach:


From Willy Voet's book 'Breaking the Chain'

I think this is pretty straightforward as I posted a few pages ago

The UCI (or governing body in any other sport) lays down the rules. The teams and competitors seek to gain any advantage they can within those rules

If they cross the line they risk being banned

If the line is deemed to be in the wrong place it's up to the governing body to move it.........and if they do move it the teams and competitors will seek every advantage up to the new line

Competitors will always push at the edge, stretch the boundaries, whilst staying within the rules.

Sky and Wiggins can reasonably claim to have done northing wrong because they worked within the parameters of what is acceptable according to the governing body of the sport

Let's face it......if you've got a boil on your bum and you apply for a TUE to use 'Superwonderdrug' to cure it and they say 'OK' then you use it !

it's what competitive people do.

There you have the tension between professional competition and 'sport', in the broad sense of the word with connotations of spirit of the game and fair play.

The problem is that one aspect of that larger sporting theme is trust. Professionals depend on sponsorship and sponsors (including much of the British Public) don't want dishonesty to be linked to their products, brands, and representatives.