natbikes.com

Hello there.

Yes I am doing fine. Thanks for everyone who is wondering if I am lost somewhere, AWOL or otherwise.

If you have not heard the news is that Jan Ulrich’s DNA matched up to the DNA found in the refrigerator of a Spanish ‘doping doctor’. I don’t think that anyone really is terribly surprised at this, his Lawyers were trying to block the DNA transfer, and when they failed he retired.

Technically the entire investigation is shelved, and as one, fingered athlete argued, buying a gun, doesn’t make you guilty of murder. But come on, what did 200+ athletes involved in this toothless investigation (only 58 were cyclists) have their blood saved for? The Red Cross? The other sports (soccer, athletics, and tennis among others) have lobbying groups, and unions which are strong enough to keep their sports, and athletes names out of the press.
Unfortunately People Cheat.

Don’t think that your local sports hero is a good role model, look to your favorite politician to see a worse one. If you are allowed to make up some story to start wars (what WMD?), who cares if everyone in the Tour Peloton is doped to the gills.

Big ringing 9000′ passes while breathing calmly through your nose makes for better TV.
No I have never raced Pro in Europe, but on the local scene, the riders know which guys are clean and which aren’t.

And Jan? Well he’s our tragic villain. The enemy for the 7 year long Lance show. Super talented, German, tubby and mis-understood. The rumors that I have always heard are that Jan was so talented that 1. he really did give Lance nightmares, and 2 he didn’t take half the dope the other guys did, because he could go so damn fast without it. Ironically, the same is true for Floyd.

Just read todays cycling news: Basso, Ullrich, and Floyd. All caught, dirty, same article. Baseball, football, hockey… I was on the Canadian National team, riding world cups as a junior and never saw, or heard of people using dope at that level. Mean while my friends playing local hockey and baseball have told me about all the steroids they were on for highschool sport. Thats scary.

Just to put that into perspective. I was flipping channels and saw a clip of George Carling, back in the 90’s ranting about how the Government was trying to ban toy guns, to solve violence issues, but not looking to curb the easy access to real ones. Then following the shoot up in Virginia all I hear on the news is talking about early warning systems. I’m just Canadian, we aren’t free to get handguns and shoot our fellow citizens, but if I walk into a hospital I get free health care when I need it. Silly, eh?

A kid falls off a cliff and hurts himself, but because the small towns one ambulance is too far away he dies before he can get to the hospital. Everyone is in an uproar, demanding to spend hundreds of thousands on new ambulances. One lady steps up and suggests just spending $500 and building a fence which will prevent people from falling off the fence.

(wow! what a rant, still with me?)

The solution? Team Symmetrics. They have a great group of guys, and good management. At the same time, they know if anyone on the team every is involved in ANY sort of doping scandal, it is all done. So there is peer pressure from within the team, to train harder, and they boys are all CLEAN and inspirational. Kind of the opposite of most teams where the pressure pushes the other way.

Go Symmetrics.

Relaxed problem solvers

Scientists like to explain the orangutan’s unique approach to problem solving with this example: If a chimp is given an oddly shaped peg and several different holes to try to put it in, the chimp will immediately try shoving the peg in various holes until it finds the hole that the peg fits in. But an orangutan will approach the challenge quite differently. It will stare off into space, or even scratch itself with the peg. Then, after a while, it will offhandedly stick the peg into the correct hole while looking at something else that has caught its interest!

Speaking of Dopes

Up in Ojai, for the Gerret Lemire GP last weekend, I along with young Grant, yeah, you wish you had a role model like me, managed to miss the race start, along with 20 % of the field. April Fools? No, Mrs. Boots replied, your race has really started without you. The officials concurred.
We were allowed to start, but not to get final results. Since I’d already spent a few bucks, getting there, entering, and buying a license, I decided to go and win the 3 largest primes of the day.
Mr. Boots took the more important win at the finish line.

At this point I have no other races planned for the season, save maybe a canoe triathlon.

I do love cycling though.

More doom and gloom, we’re all going to the Bees, but at least we will have a double tall disposable everything to go with it. Yeah I bought one of those pay by the moment cell phones. So my coach, mother, sweetie can locate me when I am late for the group ride.
I don’t think that I got more than around 3h of real work done last week but don’t know what I really did get done

Of course I was Lagunar Beaching, going to the San Diego Zoo, Kayaking in the bay, and dealing with a butt-headed e-bayer (as well as 400 nice buyers), scratching the borrowed dream ($9000) bike (which has been replaced by a $600 cross bike). Hopefully my ice axe is in so that I can go climbing.

Late,

Nat

PS this is what you get when I write 2 minutes every 5th day over a 3 week period.
PPS I am not on any dope, the fast, or the slow kind