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My apologies for the plain vanilla posting — no photos, no humorous stories. Tom and Michael are at a race. Rain is forecast starting later in the day on Sunday, with clouds arriving Saturday evening. Jerome and I are planning to leave my house at 7AM for a ride — ideally Matsuhime and back. Start time is subject to change (need to check with Julianne) and destination is subject to weather conditions. Let me know if you want to join up. Thanks, David

Transkript eines Radio-Interviews mit Paul Kimmage zum Armstrong-Comeback:

„My reaction … I’m reminded of that memorable scene in The Shawshank Redemption, where Andy crawled through a giant pipe of steaming excrement in order to escape to freedom. That’s how I feel right now about Armstrong’s come back. I feel like we’ve been dragged through this pile of steaming excrement. And the enthusiasm that I had built up about the sport in the last couple of years has been all but completely wiped out in the last couple of hours.

Let’s turn the clock back to Armstrong’s last apparition in the sport. The Tour de France 2005. He’s standing on the podium. And he makes this big impassioned speech. Which is basically saying ‘The last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics, the sceptics: I’m sorry for you. I’m sorry you can’t dream big. I’m sorry you don’t believe in miracles.’ That was 2005, his last ride in the the Tour de France. And the people flanking him on that podium were Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich. And a month after that race ended the French newspaper L’Equipe reported that in his first winning Tour de France, in 1999, Armstrong had tested positive for EPO. Six separate samples taken during that race revealed positive tests for EPO.

This return, he wants us to believe that it’s all about saving the world from cancer. That’s complete bullshit. It’s about revenge It’s about ego. It’s about Lance Armstrong. I think he’s trying to rewrite his exit from the sport. He’s sat back and he’s watched the last two years and he cannot stand the idea that there are clean cyclists now that will overtake his legacy and buy the memory of all the crap that he put the sport through.

When I heard it being mooted first that he was coming back, I thought well that’s fine, because the first thing ASO are going to say is ‘sorry Lance, we’ve seen your results from the 1999 tests , you’re not coming back.’ I expected a similar statement from Pat McQuaid. What’s happened instead is that Christian Prudhomme has said ‘yes, you can come back, no problem.’ And Pat McQiad has said ‘I really admire this man, he’s a tremendous ambassador for cycling.’ What we’re getting here is the corporate dollars and the money that’s going to accompany this guy back into the game. The money that’s going to bring for Nike, one of the big sponsors of the Tour. And for the UCI, who have been experiencing some serious problems in the last couple of years.

Much as you want to say the sport has changed, as quickly as they can change their own opinions – McQuaid, who says one thing in private and quite the opposite in public, and Prudhomme – if they can change so quickly then I’m sorry, it’s really very, very difficult to have any optimism with regard to Armstrong and the way the sport was moving forward. For me, if he comes back next year, the sport takes two steps back.

I spent the whole Tour this year with Slipstream, the Garmin team. That wasn’t by accident. I chose that team deliberately, because of what they were saying about the sport and the message they were putting out. But also the fact that so many of that team had raced with Armstrong during his best years and knew exactly what he got up to. And the stuff that I learnt on that Tour about him and what he was really like was absolutely shocking, really shocking.

What’s going to happen now is he comes back and everybody’s going to wave their hands in the air and give him a big clap. And all the guys who really know what he’s about are going to feel so utterly and totally depressed. And I’m talking about Jonathan Vuaghthers, who raced with Armstrong that first winning Tour and who doped. And if you look at that Tour, Armstrong’s first win, there were seven Americans on that team. Frankie Andreu has said he used EPO. Tyler Hamilton has been done for [blood doping]. George Hincapie was exposed as a doper by Emma O’Reilly, the team soigneur. Christian Vand Velde and Jonathan Vaughters … both are members of Slipstream and would promote the notion that this was not a clean team by any means. When you look at that and what Armstrong’s done and how he’s seemingly got away with it, it just makes his come back very hard to stomach.

Astana’s the absolute perfect team for him. He’d be renewing his old acquaintance with Bruyneel, who wanted to hire Basso last year. Will he be renewing his old acquaintance with Ferrari, the famous doctor? Will Bruyneel be taking pictures of the questioning journalists and pinning them on the side of his bus?

When Armstrong talks about transparency, this is the greatest laugh. When he talks about embracing this new transparency … I’m really looking forward to that. I’m really looking forward to my first interview request with him and seeing how that comes back. Because that would really make it interesting.

This guy, any other way but his bullying and intimidation wrapped up in this great cloak, the great cancer martyr … this is what he hides behind all the time. The great man who conquered cancer. Well he is the cancer in this sport. And for two years this sport has been in remission. And now the cancer’s back.„

linky

Labeled ‚David’s Sayonara Ride‘, it was to be his last ride in Japan. And what a ride it turned out to be. The participants: Jerome, David, Graham, Juliane and myself (yes, I finally made it out of bed in time)

We met in Shinagawa, from where we took the Kodama to Mishima. The train ride only took 50 minutes – short – but long enough to catch up (having seen those guys in ages) and to discuss the route we were going to take. First step of action: Taking copies at the ‚conbini‘ to be sure about the route.

The first hour (!!!) was spent finding road 17 – we had to ask for directions oftentimes. It was worth spending that much time finding this road – it led along the coast and saw little traffic. Just perfect ! The road eventually turned inland requiring us to do some climbing in order to reach Heda. We had a lunch stop by the harbor – where we had the opportunity to eat BBQ’ed fish from a street vendor. The ride out of Heda also required climbing … all bearable,even enjoyable.

… the road eventually merged with road 136 – with the traffic also getting busier. We did not continue on the 136 for too long…as the most interesting part of the ride was yet to come … the climb up Nishina Pass. Graham decided to skip this climb and continued on the 136 to Shimoda, where we would eventually hook up again.

The climb turned out to be a real challenge for all of us … 8 km straight up … with a steady incline between 10-14%. I had to stop more often than the others to catch my breath … i dragged myself up very slowly considering more than once to give up. It took us close to an hour to reach road 59, where we would split paths. David, Juliane and Jerome headed back towards the west coast, heading for Shimoda, while I headed for Ito, from where I would take the train back to Tokyo.

Barely making it the top, my strength and energy was fully consumed. The descend was fun, but the remaining 40 km to Ito along busy roads was painful.

Nethertheless, it was a fantastic ride. Thanks to David, Juliane, Jerome and Graham to have made this a memorable experience. I will miss riding with you guys and the all the others who did not make it for this ride.

Folks. whats the go for tomorrow ? I havent heard anything. I have really been looking forward to this ride. Maybe we can schedule something spontaneous for tomorrow … i would love go riding with you guys again … the thing is, it would not only be David’s ‚Sayonara‘ Ride, but also mine. I decided to move on as well – not to spend long office hours in Canary Wharf – but to go back traveling … i know, i know … but i just cant get enough of it. I will spend the next few months in China, before setting off to Oz and Nz.
Therefore I would much appreciate if we got together tomorrow. Awaiting feedback 😉

Jerome and I made a quick, 155 km+ trip via Oume and Naruki to Sho Maru Touge and then back via Rte 299 and Hanno City/Irima City, hunting and pecking back to the Tamagawa. Jerome pulled me just about all the way home — the usual situation where he gets stronger as the day goes on, especially after soaking in a river for a few minutes on the longest climb of the day, but also his desire to keep up a really fast pace, something to do with a business meeting with his staff that he had hoped to get home by 2PM for … we ended up getting back a bit before 3PM, but based on the mobile call he placed shortly before the end of our ride it sounds like the staff had things very well under control without the boss around, so it was all for the best.

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Nagai-san at Positivo swapped out my recalled Wolf SL fork for the new 3T Funda Pro on Friday — recall accomplished. The 3T is rock solid — with noticeably thicker material in the steerer column — still light as a feather.

Yet more proof that I made a great choice when I joined MoFo last year — here is the new firm cycling kit, designed with input from some of our intellectual property lawyers in California. I’m told that the molecule is mofebutazone, an M01AA class non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent. It could be my secret weapon on the grand tours.

Here they are: http://www.gem.hi-ho.ne.jp/kfc-onishi/htm/result_Tokyo_hillclimb.htm

(story on Tom’s blog)