It's not exactly a cycling governance issue but here goes... When you hear commentators saying that the Tour of California is the "fourth grand tour" they are engaging in a bit of hyperbole. This is surely a message put forth by marketing types to pump the race up a bit for American audiences.
The Tour of California is a great race with a lot of long-term potential. And as long as it continues it will attract a top-flight field. But I suspect this is (at least for now) primarily due to the high value of U.S. market exposure for so many of the sponsors. I just saw an ad on American TV for Rabobank that said they have 120 branches in California. Who knew?
Flipping things around a bit, consider how many teams target the Tour de France before they even have sponsor, let alone a sponsor who is targeting the French market. It's not the French economy that draws them.
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Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Upcoming Races
If all goes according to plan (it won't) I will shoot ten races in the next three weeks. That's counting stages of the Tour of California as individual races. Here is the schedule:
May 20 - AToC, Solvang, CA
May 21 - AToC, Mt. Baldy, CA
May 22 - AToC, Thousand Oaks, CA
May 27 - Manville Madness, Manville, NJ
May 28 - Somerset Road Race, Somerset County, NJ
May 29 - Bound Brook Crit, Bound Brook, NJ
May 30 - Tour of Somerville, Somerville, NJ
June 2 - Base Camp Int'l, Basking Ridge, NJ
June 5 - TD Bank Phila Int'l, Philadelphia, PA
June 5 - Liberty Classic, Philadelphia, PA
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May 20 - AToC, Solvang, CA
May 21 - AToC, Mt. Baldy, CA
May 22 - AToC, Thousand Oaks, CA
May 27 - Manville Madness, Manville, NJ
May 28 - Somerset Road Race, Somerset County, NJ
May 29 - Bound Brook Crit, Bound Brook, NJ
May 30 - Tour of Somerville, Somerville, NJ
June 2 - Base Camp Int'l, Basking Ridge, NJ
June 5 - TD Bank Phila Int'l, Philadelphia, PA
June 5 - Liberty Classic, Philadelphia, PA
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Sunday, May 15, 2011
Sunday May 15th
I decided to skip the Team Challenge today in Trenton. This may come back to bite me as I still need some practice with the new camera. I noticed at the race in Prospect Park that the controls on the Nikon are much more prone to accidental pushing. For example while in shutter priority mode my shutter speed mysteriously dropped several times. I think a trip out to Floyd Bennett Field on Tuesday evening may be necessary.
On the upside I did get in a long, if humid ride.
UPDATE - I just realized Floyd Bennett is Thursday. I guess I'll have to work everything out on Friday in Solvang.
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On the upside I did get in a long, if humid ride.
UPDATE - I just realized Floyd Bennett is Thursday. I guess I'll have to work everything out on Friday in Solvang.
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Saturday, May 14, 2011
Lucarelli & Castaldi Cup - Prospect Park
Friday, May 13, 2011
The Leak
The story of the day, at least until the AToC press conference started, was the leaked UCI document which categorized the 2010 Tour de France rider list based on how "suspicious" the UCI was of their having doped or not. Cyclingnews.com has the story here. I initially found the list fairly encouraging because so few riders were scored high on the suspicion scale.
Of course, my initial assessment makes a fairly big assumption that I wouldn't assign a probability of 1 or anything close to it. It assumes that the UCI is honest about doping and acting in good faith. I'm not a conspiracy theory theory buff but I do believe in incentives. And the UCI is has an incentive to sweep doping under the rug as much as possible. So after some reflection my initial enthusiasm is tempered.
But regardless of whether the UCI's list is accurate or not the leak itself poses a danger to anti-doping efforts. According to the reports much of the data used to determine suspicion is based on the biological passport. I don't have first-hand knowledge of the process that led to the implementation of the biological passport but it is hard to imagine that privacy concerns were not an issue. This situation reminds me a bit of the list of steroid-using ballplayers that Major League Baseball possesses. They have been under pressure for years to release the full list (it has been leaked in bits and pieces) from journalists and fans who say they have a right to know. But that list wouldn't exist if the players had not been promised that the results of the testing would be completely confidential. Releasing the list sends the message that such agreements are worthless and that the players should not trust management in future anti-doping efforts. And the leak of the UCI document does the same.
In that context it is hard to see how the leak is helpful. Either it is accurate and the riders will be more reluctant to cooperate with anti-doping efforts in the future, or it is corrupt and riders will be more reluctant to cooperate with anti-doping efforts in the future.
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Of course, my initial assessment makes a fairly big assumption that I wouldn't assign a probability of 1 or anything close to it. It assumes that the UCI is honest about doping and acting in good faith. I'm not a conspiracy theory theory buff but I do believe in incentives. And the UCI is has an incentive to sweep doping under the rug as much as possible. So after some reflection my initial enthusiasm is tempered.
But regardless of whether the UCI's list is accurate or not the leak itself poses a danger to anti-doping efforts. According to the reports much of the data used to determine suspicion is based on the biological passport. I don't have first-hand knowledge of the process that led to the implementation of the biological passport but it is hard to imagine that privacy concerns were not an issue. This situation reminds me a bit of the list of steroid-using ballplayers that Major League Baseball possesses. They have been under pressure for years to release the full list (it has been leaked in bits and pieces) from journalists and fans who say they have a right to know. But that list wouldn't exist if the players had not been promised that the results of the testing would be completely confidential. Releasing the list sends the message that such agreements are worthless and that the players should not trust management in future anti-doping efforts. And the leak of the UCI document does the same.
In that context it is hard to see how the leak is helpful. Either it is accurate and the riders will be more reluctant to cooperate with anti-doping efforts in the future, or it is corrupt and riders will be more reluctant to cooperate with anti-doping efforts in the future.
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About This Blog
I am planning to use this blog for two main purposes: 1) A place where I can organize and express my thoughts about governance in profession cycling. 2) A diary of my experiences photographing bike races. This is a personal blog so I expect there will be all sorts of other distractions as well.
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I am not a natural diarist. I don't know how long or how consistently I will be able to keep this up. In order to get things jump started I am pledging to myself to post at least once per day for the next 30 days.
The meaning of the name of this blog is open to interpretation. Mostly I just like the way it sounds.
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