September 14, 2017

The Problem with Rule 5

Harden the fuck up.

That’s what we’re supposed to do isn’t? Stop whining. Stop complaining. Don’t even dare think about quitting.

Harden. The Fuck. Up.

Cyclists are supposed to be hard. You fall in the middle of a bunch sprint at 65 kilometres per hour and shave the skin off half of your back. You stumble over the line wheeling your bike beside you. You cry tears of self pity and pain when the cold water from the shitty shower in the flea-riddled ‘hotel’ hits your sticky bald flesh. But you are expected to take to the startline the next day, so you harden the fuck up, smile for the cameras and be thankful you are one of the privileged ones. ~ Continue reading ~

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June 28, 2016

The Big Red Button

Monica: And Ross, if it weren’t for Rachel’s rumor, I mean, no one in high school would even know who you were. She put you on the map!
Ross: As a romancer of the elderly!

Imagine you’re staring at a big red button. If you push this button it would mean that all doping would be magically eradicated from cycling’s past, present and future. If you pushed it, it would mean there was no Operation Puerto, there would have been no Festina affair, Lance Armstrong would have ridden clean for his whole career. So would everyone else. There would have been no doping up until this point and there would be no doping from now on. ~ Continue reading ~

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September 7, 2012

Nicolas Roche’s learning curve

A leader of a cycling team must have a strong personality, a will to win and the ability to get results. Some leaders are the quiet type that like to lead by example, think Carlos Sastre, while others are more vocal but still have no problem getting the job done, Mark Cavendish springs to mind. The leader who is vocal and yet can’t back up his words with performances will inevitably lose the trust of his team-mates and will shortly thereafter no longer deserve the status of leader at all.

‘Leadership and learning are indispensable to one another’ said a great U.S. leader of Irish descent. A current leader of more established Irish descent could have done with listening to these words of John F. Kennedy for he has now come to the end of the road as leader of his cycling team. ~ Continue reading ~

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May 24, 2011

And Ekimov is calling Hamilton a liar?

No doubt over the coming weeks and months, as the federal investigation into Lance Armstrong comes to a climax, there will be plenty of riders, past and present who will be asked to comment. Now more than ever it is important to scrutinise carefully what each of them say and not allow what they say to easily pass into the realm of what is true.

Armstrong himself has been a master of proof by repeating over the years. A major case in point is his tired old line ‘the most tested sportsperson in the world’. This line has been repeated so often by Armstrong and his entourage that it seems to be taken as fact by millions. This, despite the fact that Armstrong himself has no way of knowing whether this is true or not. ~ Continue reading ~

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