2010 Review of the Cycling Year

Last year I marked the turn of the decade with what I called the first, maybe annual, but definitely not prestigious Muse-ette Awards. The fact I'm doing another edition this year means at least the annual bit is now true!

If 2009 was what I called "a good year for the bike world" then 2010 has turned out a bit differently. It started out well, had a great middle and a pretty good end, racing-wise, but unfortunately the whole year has been tarnished, like so many before it, by the spectre of doping. Yet again we've had to witness great races nullified by positive tests or besmirched by unworthy, unrepentant cheats.

But enough ranting. Here, in no particular order, are the 2010 Muse-ette Awards:

Best Stage Race: Naturally one thinks of the Grand Tours when looking for a candidate for the best stage race but this year, despite all of them being up there among the most compelling races ever, all three have had shadows cast over them. First there was the tarnished figure of Basso taking pink in Italy, then Beef-gate, then  not one but two high profile positives from the Vuelta. So this year I've decided to give the award to what (I hope) is most likely the cleanest, purest stage race around, the Junior Tour of Ireland. For over thirty years this great race has been a nursery for future champions and it deserves all the recognition that can be bestowed on it. Perhaps more than ever this year when it survived through the hard work and perseverance of a dedicated team, despite the loss of it's title sponsor.

Best Stage in a Grand Tour:  I know I'm kind of contradicting what I said above but, despite the later problems, there were some epic individual stages this year. For me this one has to go to stage 7 of the Giro to Montalcino. It was like going back in time to the early days of the sport seeing Cadel et al, caked in mud, battling it out, without the interference of team instructions, over the Strada Bianche. Honourable Mention: In a similar vein stage 3 of Le Tour to Arenberg was an epic, dusty, dramatic day with winners and losers galore. That particular day was personally special seeing as I was actually there, standing for the first time on those hallowed pavé.  

Best One Day Race: Tour of Flanders. Who wasn't awestruck by the sight of Cancellara and Boonen simply riding away from the rest on the Molenberg, 40k plus out from the finish? And then, in a straight head to head battle up the Muur, Spartacus simply powered away from a helpless Tom to take a great victory. Honourable Mention: Tour of Lombardy, where Gilbert left the rest for dead in appalling conditions before having time to point out the number one on his bike with over 1km to go.

Best Finish: Cadel Evans at Huy. In a year when he did the Rainbow Jersey proud, the highlight for me was the sight of Cuddles powering up the Mur De Huy to win the Fleche Wallone. Sheer determination oozing from his every muscle, he left Contador and the rest for dead.

Best Irish Rider: Tough one to call this year, so I'm going to bottle it and give the award jointly to the pedalling cousins, Nico Roche and Dan Martin. Nico for his magnificent Tour and Vuelta rides and Dan for his wins in Poland and Japan. Honourable Mentions: Matt Brammeier for taking on the big boys to nab the Irish title and then turning it into a contract with HTC and Orla Hendron, our latest World Champion after taking the Masters Points race.

Best Young Rider: Felix English I know it's a bit churlish of me, but for an 18 year old to take on Sir Chris and win, even if His Knightship was looking the other way, deserves a pat on the back!

Best Celebration: Michael Matthews. It's always great to see raw joy on the line but when it's a 20 year old after just bagging a World title in his home country it gladdens the heart even more.

Most Embarrassing Result of the Year: For the second year running this gong goes to Piti Valverde for winning the Tour De Romandie when the dogs on the street knew he was about to be banned, finally, for the Puerto goings on. (Dis)Honourable Mention: Who among you wasn't sickened at the sight of Vino crossing the line at Liege. And then he rubbed it in with his half-hearted "apology". Eugh!!

The George Lee What Was I Thinking Award: Lance Armstrong, for what might turn out to be the most ill-advised ego trip, sorry I meant comeback, in the history of sport if Floyd Landis has his way. BTW Lance, posting snide tweets about Jeff Novitsky using your One Ball pseudonym isn't really helping you much.

The Tiger Woods Award for Most Stage Managed, But Still Really Awkward, Press Conference: Alberto Contador for the double whammy of p***ing off the cycling world and the entire Spanish beef industry in one fell swoop. If it all turns out to be true he can reel off as many "zero, zero, zero"'s as he likes, his credibility will still be in the gutter. But then again he wriggled out of Puerto so who knows how it'll all end.

The Thierry Henry Cheat of the Year Award: Another joint award goes to Alberto Contador who should have had the fish and Ezequiel Mosquera for ruining a great Vuelta. (Dis)Honourable Mention: Vania Rossi, the Szczepaniak brothers, Bernucci, Frei, Li Fuyu, Bosisio, Pellizotti, Prado, Valjavec, Larpe, De Bonis, Caucchioli, Serrano, Axelsson, Staite, Sentjens. Sevilla, Dapena, Benta, Colo, the Rui Costa brothers, etc, etc.

The Grassy Knoll Award for Most Ridiculous Conspiracy Theory: Davide Cassani for triggering the "Cancellara used an engine" stories on Italian TV. For the UCI to actually start checking bikes for engines while simultaneously not getting around to telling the world that the Tour winner had tested positive for angel dust just compounds the silliness.

The No News is Bad News Award: Yet another joint award (I'm really indecisive tonight!) goes to Vancansoliel and Christina Watches for proving that some sponsors do see a value in the column inches the cheats generate. The employers of Ricco and Rasmussen respectively must be hoping that a Festina-style sales jump happens to them too.

The UCI Award for Making It Up As You Go Along: UCI for making it up as they go along. When is a Pro Tour not a Pro Tour?

Because it's my blog I'm adding two new awards this year.

The first is the My Best Day on a Bike This Year Award which goes to the 15th August. That was the day I rode the Inishowen 100, a day of blistering sunshine, beautiful scenery, tough climbs and good legs. It doesn't get much better.

The second is the My Worst Day on a Bike This Year Award which goes to the 27th August. That was the day a Golden Retriever called Max decided to run across the road just as I was passing. He didn't use the Green Cross Code and I ended up with a broken pelvis.

Finally, 2010 has seen the passing of some true cycling greats:

JJ McCormack, 84, Multiple Irish Champion, Administrator and Race Organiser but most of all one of the biggest, most respected, characters the sport has seen and a great friend.
David Hourigan, 38, Manx International winner and former Irish international, found dead in a hotel in Thailand.
Laurent Fignon, 50, Not just the guy who lost the Tour by 8 seconds, but the guy who won it spectacularly on his first two attempts. Succumbed to cancer on 31st August.
Joe Daly, 89, Dundrum bike shop owner and passionate supporter of the sport for many, many years.
Franco Ballerini, 45, Twice Paris Roubaix winner and Italian national coach, tragically killed in a rallying accident in February.
Txema Gonzalez, 43, Team Sky soigneur struck down by a mystery virus during the Vuelta.
Fortunato Bernardi, Rosario Perri, Francesco Stranges, Vinicio Pottin, Giovanni Cannizzaro, Pasquale De Luca and Domenico Palazzo, from 35 to 58, a group of Italian clubmates from Lamezia Terme mown down in early December by a 21 year old driver who was allegedly under the influence of marijuana.

Armando Borrajo, 34, Former Argentinian National Champion took his own life on December 18th, shortly after he was allegedly kidnapped for a short period.
Aldo Sassi, 51, legendary Italian coach, famous for vowing to only work with dope free riders, who raised eyebrows by agreeing to take on both Basso and Ricco was lost to a brain tumour in December.
Jure Robic , 45, five times Race Across America winner killed in a collision with a car on a fast descent in his native Slovenia in September

May they, and all other cyclists lost this year, rest in peace.

Finally, once again, thank you for reading the muse-ette in 2010. I wish you all a very Happy New Year and many enjoyable miles in 2011.

Ricco/Rossi "family" hit the headlines again!

I don't know about you but I've been missing our favourite villain, Ricardo Ricco, recently. Apart from transfer gossip, his name's been missing from the headlines for too long. But fear not, because he's back in the news again. That didn't take too long!

Last week there was an easily missed story (here) quoting one of his new Vacansoleil team-mates saying that he was angry with our hero for not being a team player. Belgian rider Bjorn Leukemans accused Ricco of riding against him in the finale of the GP de Wallonie. According to Leukemans, Ricco rode with a chasing group to catch him on the final climb. Instead of winning the race Leukemans finished sixth behind Rabobank's Paul Martens, with Ricco coming in second. Was the ever-lovable Ricco getting revenge for Leukemans questioning before the race why the team had signed the Italian at all? He had told Sporza, "Riccò does not have a UCI point. I still wonder why the team would take a rider with no points."

Enrico Rossi

But things have taken an even more exciting turn today. According to reports from Italy, Ricco's extended "family" are back in the doping spotlight. His former partners brother, and Ricco's former Flaminia Ceramica teammate, Enrico Rossi has been arrested as part of a doping investigation. Police arrested six people, including Rossi, a nurse, a pharmacist and an amateur rider. However that appears to be the tip of the iceberg. Reports suggest they are targetting up to 35 people suspected of dealing in drugs and stealing from hospitals. Apart from the six arrested, the group includes other pro riders, trainers, doctors and gym members.

Where this gets really interesting is that the police operation is codenamed "Operation Cobra-Red". Think about that! Cobra is Ricco's nickname, while Rosso is the Italian for red. Ricco hasn't been named in the investigation so far but that codename has to be more than a co-incidence, doesn't it?

Having chivalrously left the mother of his child, Enrico's sister Vania Rossi, after she was accused of doping because he didn't want it to affect his career (really!!), Ricco would be facing a lifetime ban if he was to be convicted of any more doping offences. What would we do for stories then!

Read more here, here and here  

Landis opens a can of worms

In an extraordinary about face Floyd Landis has given an interview to the US press admitting to doping and claiming to have written emails to various people/bodies blowing the whistle on several high profile riders, managers and officials and their allegedly dodgy practices. He's also raised big questions about doping procedures and enforcement.

This is going to be a hell of a sh*t storm! He has tried to open so many cans of worms it's not funny. Needless to say Twitter is alive with this!

Among other things he claims:

- he did dope in 2006, but not with what he was caught for!
- US Postal, including Lance, Hincapie, Vaughters and Bruyneel (among others) were up to their necks in it including blood doping, testosterone patches and other methods
- the UCI and Armstrong colluded in covering up a positive test for money
- Phonak not only turned a blind eye but actually paid for his "treatments"

Of course Landis could be said to be a less than reliable witness with more than enough motives for bitterness and revenge but it remains to be seen what evidence he will be able to produce. This brings previously forgotten incidents back to the fore (the famous Vaughters/Andreu IM messages for example). It also focusses a much needed spotlight back on what was going on at US Postal. It can't be a co-incidence that so many of Lances lieutenants from back then have since been caught or admitted doping of one form or another.

It's early days yet and we need to see how this story develops over the next while but there must be some very uncomfortable people in Aigle, Italy and California today!

Will there be a Lance/Bruyneel backlash or will they keep quiet on it? Will Vaughters live up to his avowed Garmin philosophy and come clean on what he knows? Will Cadel get caught up in it via the Lelangue connection to BMC?

To my mind the inevitable witchhunt for offenders shouldn't obscure the need to look at the systemic issues he raises. I've already posted here about my concerns re the Vania Rossi case. Is it time the UCI/WADA were put under scrutiny too?

The story is here and here

Some of Floyds email is here

What's going on with Vania Rossi?

I know I said that this is getting like a gossip column with all the Ricco/Rossi posts lately, but events over the past week mean another post on the subject is unavoidable. However, this time it's not Ricco character flaws I'm interested in, but more the developing story of the Rossi's positive test.

Just to recap, following the Italian Cyclo-Cross Championships on January 10th, the A sample given by Rossi tested positive for CERA. The test was conducted by CONI and approved by WADA as legitimate. Rossi immediately protested her innocence, citing the fact that she is breast feeding her baby as a compelling reason why she wouldn't be doping. Rossi was provisionally suspended from racing on January 29th.

There then followed the pantomime shenanigans of Ricco, leading to him abandoning his partner and baby.

However, this week events have taken another twist. On Friday 26th March CONI posted news on it's website saying "In the B sample analysis for Vania Rossi, conducted in the period from March 29 to April 2, 2010, the minimum levels of CERA required to meet the World Anti-doping Agency's (WADA) criteria have not been found."

Despite this negative, anti-doping investigator Ettore Torre has announced that he will continue to investigate Rossi, with the possibility of an attempted doping charge still open. That could leave her facing up to a two year ban, along with a possible criminal sanction and even disciplinary sanctions by the Italian military, who she was representing on the day she tested positive.

But what does this all mean? To me there are two questions raised by this story.

1) How reliable were the tests?

According to reports the Rome lab is the first to detect CERA in urine, as opposed to the blood tests used to catch Rossi's partner and others. There appears to be a strong likelihood that CERA breaks down in urine very quickly. In this case there was a delay of almost 10 weeks between the tests. According to the head of the Rome lab "there was a significant amount of CERA in the first test, so much so that there were no doubts at all; in the second test, evidently because of the degrading of the urine over time, the amount (of CERA) wasn't within the limits established by WADA."

Given that the ability for the accused rider to conduct independent test on the same sample is a cornerstone of the dope testing process then surely this whole process is flawed? If indeed CERA degrades that quickly then the only options must either be to scrap this test as unreliable, stick to blood testing or design a new procedure which can be fast tracked while still ensuring the integrity of the process.

2) Could Rossi actually be innocent?

When I first wrote about this issue I did raise the question as to whether Rossi might be innocent. As a parent I know first hand how obsessed we can become to ensure nothing exposes our babies to potential harm. That's why I find Rossi's plea that as a breast feeding mother she'd be nuts to dope so compelling. Would a new mother really think it worth the risk so she could do well in the Cross nationals, a race she's won twice before?

Of course, on the other hand, she was living with Ricco at the time. As someone said it's hard to imagine they had different fridges in their house! His reputation as the most cynical and selfish of the pelotons many cheats inevitably casts a very big shadow over her.

However, no matter what we may think of the pair of them, no one will benefit from either a) a flawed testing process that cannot stand up to challenge or b) an injustice done to any rider. After years of struggling with the doping scourge we have to ensure that the possibility of a rider actually being innocent is still taken into consideration. It is a huge challenge to keep testing procedures up to speed with the ingenuity and recklessness of the doper but that can't be done at the expense of natural justice and the risk of destroying a clean rider.

And think of Vania's baby. It's bad enough that he will have to grow up the child of one confirmed doper. But now we run the risk of adding to that burden either the shame of another one or the bitterness of a miscarriage of justice. Poor kid!

Riccardo Ricco - the snake! - Part 3

This is turning into a gossip column!

This week Riccardo Ricco returns to the peloton at the Coppi et Bartali race in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. And, on the face of it, he finally appears to be showing some understanding of just what he's actually done.

"I made a mistake, I know, but I’m human, too and people make mistakes in life. I’m sorry. I want to apologise to all the cycling fans, cyclists, officials, journalists, everyone in the world of cycling. My errors are part of my past and from now on you’ll get to know a new Riccardo." he said this week.

But don't be fooled! This is the same snake who said of his CERA positive girlfriend (and mother of his baby), Vania Rossi (above): "I am disappointed with my girlfriend and there can be no reconciliation until Vania is shown to be innocent of the allegations that were raised". Pot, kettle, black?

But there is, hopefully, some good news. Giro D'Italia organiser, Angelo Zomegnan, appeared to rule out any return to this years race for Ricco and his team. Although he didn't mention any names he was quoted as saying “At the 2010 Giro d’Italia, there will be riders in quarantine. In the past we have put our faith in riders who didn’t deserve it, as time showed later on (Di Luca perhaps?). From this experience, we learnt that whoever has to be invited to the Giro will have to be patient for a certain period of time.”


Photo  © Bettini

Riccardo Ricco - the snake! - Part 2

Just when you thought the Ricco/Rossi soap opera couldn't get worse the guy digs himself down even deeper into the mire. Now we can add delusion and desertion to his growing list of reprehensible traits.

Read this and, literally, weep: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ricco-believes-the-tifosi-are-on-his-side

Riccardo Ricco - the snake!

I was all set to write a long rant on what a s**t Riccardo Ricco has shown himself to be in how he's handled the news that the mother of his child has tested positive for CERA, but Europeloton has done it for me. Read the post here:

http://www.europeloton.com/2010/02/riccardo-ricco-real-life-snake-but.html

One aspect of the issue that Europeloton hasn't mentioned is Rossi's defense that she's a breastfeeding mum so would be crazy to use CERA. If she's telling the truth then Ricco is truly a weasel, if she's not then I can't find a suitable word for what she is. Either way it's the child you have to feel sorry for!

In addition, if she is telling the truth, she has been done a very serious wrong and it would raise major questions about the whole system of testing. But given her choice of partner it's hard to believe her.