Happy Holidays to everyone. Hope you all got where you were headed this Xmas. I had a DNF for my flight to Denver, so I’m doin’ the Home Alone thing. So I went over the hill (happens to the best of us) to Santa Cruz and shot some surfing images at Steamer Lane. May go back over there today to shoot some more if it’s not raining.... You can follow the Link below to check some of them out on my other photography site at www.sammaryelewis.smugmug.com or you might get a chuckle reading my latest post on my Diary of a Kidney Donor www.kidneydonordiary.blogspot.com

My cycling club, the Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club, is very proud of two of our Junior riders: Ben Barsi-Rhyne and Daniel Tisdell. They have been selected to be on the new Elite Junior Development Team by the AMD-Discovery Channel Cycling Team. Huge congrats to Ben and Daniel, two of the hardest-working juniors that I’ve seen...

Here’s the press release - you’ll also see a couple of names you know on the Master’s Team:

The AMD-Discovery Channel Cycling Team is pleased to announce the addition of nineteen riders to its 2007 Team roster. Twenty years ago, Thomas Weisel and Steve Johnson united to create a dominant masters team with a focus on winning races at the National and World level. This commitment to excellence has been continued since the inception of the team and is exemplified in the performance of the team on the bike as well as in the team’s active participation in the continued growth of the sport. Thom is Chairman of the USA Cycling Development Foundation Board and Steve is the CEO of USA Cycling. The team of today is focused on helping the sport of cycling move into the future as well as to win races.

To that end we are leaping at the opportunity to build an Elite Junior cycling team. Already having proven their talent on the bike, in the classroom and in their community, we anticipate that these ten young men will blossom even more so in the coming years given their willingness to work as a team, and from the mentoring and experiences that the Masters bring to the Junior team.

FabienDior Heinz (2006 Golden Nugget Stage Race winner from Alta Alpina), Ben Barsi-Rhyne (2006 Tour de L’abitibi stage winner from Los Gatos), and Micah Herman (2006 Nevada City Classic from Alta Alpina) will be racing in their 17-18 year age races as well as their category events. Daniel Tisdell (2006 USA National time trial champion from Los Gatos), Joel Shaffer (2006 CA State road race champion from Alto Velo), Davis Bentley (from Spine), and Charlie Avis (2006 CA State road race champion from Alto Velo) comprise the 15-16 year age group. And, we have Marcus Smith (2006 CA State road race champion from Int’l Christian), and Chris and James LaBerge (from Lombardi’s) in the 13-14 year old age group.

We are also thrilled to be adding nine Masters to our team. These riders that can win on their own, can help teammates win and love to give back to the sport. We are pleased to bring the AMD-Discovery Channel team back to the top as a vigorous and active racing team.

Joining the 2006 roster of nineteen riders are Rob Anderson (World Mountain Bike Champion from Fralock), Jeff Angerman (from Team Spine), Dave Bailey (from Pedali Alpini), Steve Cassani (from Equipe Le Matin), Marco Hellman (from Fralock), Billy Innes (from Lombardi’s), Dean LaBerge (from Lombardi’s), Kevin Metcalfe (from Pacific Coast, formerly with the team 1995-2002) and Craig Roemer (from Clover).

2007 AMD-Discovery Channel Junior Cycling Team
Charlie Avis (16) Woodside, CA
Ben Barsi-Rhyne (18) Los Gatos, CA
Davis Bentley (15) Mill Valley, CA
Micah Herman (18) Carson City, NV
Chris LaBerge (13) Napa, CA
James LaBerge (14) Napa, CA
Joel Shaffer (15) Los Altos Hills, CA
Marcus Smith (13) Pleasanton, CA
Daniel Tisdell (15) San Jose, CA
FabienDior Heinz (18) Reno, NV

2007 AMD-Discovery Channel Masters Cycling Team
Peter Allen (49) Fair Oaks, CA
Rob Anderson (51) Mill Valley, CA
Jeff Angermann (38) Reno, NV
Dave Bailey (36) Truckee, CA
Kent Bostick (54) Knoxville, TN
Ken Carpenter (42) Orinda, CA
Dylan Casey (36) Palo Alto, CA
Steve Cassani (41) Portola Valley, CA
Vic Copeland (65) Rancho Sante Fe, CA
John Creed (71) Dana Point, CA
Tom Doughty (55) Aurora, IL
Marco Hellman (46) Kentfield, CA
Glen Hinshaw (45) Phoenix, AZ
Billy Innes (35) Menlo Park, CA
Steve Johnson (57) Larkspur, CO
Dean LaBerge (37) Napa, CA
Jerry Malone (52) Mill Valley, CA
Mike McCarthy (39) Mill Valley, CA
Scott McKinley (39) Mill Valley, CA
Rich Meeker (45) Corona Del Mar, CA
Kevin Metcalfe (46) Pleasant Hill, CA
Andre Mogannam (54) Benicia, CA
Harvey Nitz (51) Rocklin, CA
Larry Nolan (49) Fremont, CA
Craig Roemer (42) St. Helena, CA
Wayne Stetina (54) Mission Viejo, CA
Thom Weisel (66) Ross, CA
Wyatt Weisel (36) Menlo Park, CA

OK, OK - I can't resist making an elf of myself... Click on the Link below...

Happy Holidays!!

To all the media who have had a field day misquoting and misrepresenting Floyd Landis from his latest interview...

Floyd is just fine, but he could have a new career if he wasn't going to continue cycling (which he damn well is). Go HERE to see Floyd perform. Thanks to Neil Browne of Road Magazine. Very funny, Neil...

OMG - When you read the second part of Michael A. Hiltzik’s Los Angeles Times article on December 11, 2006, (read exposés) on the whole WADA cesspool, you’ll understand why Floyd Landis is feeling pretty dismal about his upcoming hearing. And why Tyler Hamilton had to just sit out his two-year ban.

To say that the arbitration system is flawed is a major understatement - it is an outrageous, appalling farce, with a controlled, contrived masquerade of “justice”. To even call it an arbitration is absolutely an unbelievable outrage. And to call it a fair hearing is so ludicrous that only WADA, USADA and CAS can believe their own propaganda...

Hiltzik says this: ”A Times examination of the appeal system found that:

• Athletes are presumed guilty and denied routine access to lab data potentially relevant to their defense.

• Trivial and accidental violations draw penalties similar to those for intentional use of illicit performance-enhancing substances.

• Anti-doping authorities or sports federations have leaked details of cases against athletes or made public assertions of their guilt before tests were confirmed or appeals resolved.

• Arbitrators, theoretically neutral judges, are bound by rules drafted and enforced by the World Anti-Doping Agency and its affiliates, including the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. They have almost no discretion to adjust penalties to fit individual circumstances.

The WADA rules govern the admissibility of evidence, the burden of proof and the selection of the arbitrators themselves. In each category they tend to favor the accusers. Athletes wishing to compete in national, international and Olympic events subject to WADA jurisdiction have no option but to agree to this system.” And further in the article, ”The question is whether they go so far that they deprive athletes of due process and fair hearings.”

There’s a lot of discussion about this never happening in US football, basketball or baseball leagues. And the reason is the strong, united player’s unions. The teams in the union all work together and take a stand for the player’s rights. In cycling, this does not happen and the best example is the voluntary organization, International Professional Cycling Teams (IPCT). Are they looking out for the rider’s rights?

Hell, no, they’re too busy fighting and back-stabbing and using any reason to try to keep Ivan Basso out of the 2007 Tour. Yeah, right, what a bunch of bull crap about gentlemen’s agreement, blah, blah, blah... They know damn well that if Ivan rides, Ivan wins in 2007.

If the ICTP was a union of any value to all the riders (instead of just a business organization), they would take a stand against the publicly announced guilt assumptions from media rumors, and leaks to the press from the French cesspool. A strong, rider-focused ICTP would say that none of the teams will ride until a rider is presumed innocent until charged by credible evidence, and proven guilty in a fair, open hearing with an impartial panel - not WADA yes-men and yes-women, whose jobs depend on a verdict upholding WADA’s “already guilty” decision. The ICTP, instead of their ridiculous in-fighting, should demand a WADA house-cleaning and that the Chatenay-Malabry cesspool no longer be contracted to do any kind of testing.

And... the all important, Team Sponsor Gods should back up their teams in this WADA house-cleaning, and also demand fairness and impartiality in an open testing and open arbitration process. If everybody - every team, every sponsor - stood together and told WADA, the UCI and ASO that they’re not showing up next July until changes are made, I wonder what would happen?
What if they gave a Tour de France and nobody came?

The investigative report in the Los Angeles Times from Sunday, December 10, 2006, by Michael A. Hiltzik, Times Staff Writer, titled “Athletes Unbeatable Foe” is a must-read for all of you - click on the Link below. It’s a long article - and dare I hope, the beginning of a long overdue exposé on the cesspool of WADA. The absolute, biased and blind power that WADA holds over cycling athletes. Can it be that some of the media is finally getting off the Guilt bandwagon and actually taking a look at the outrageous WADA flawed practices and procedures? Well, this article will surely make you stop and think, I hope...

Here is a quote from the first paragraph of the article, ”The worldwide sports anti-doping program, created to fight performance enhancing drug use in international athletics, imposes severe punishments for accidental or technical infractions, relies at times on disputed scientific evidence and resists outside scrutiny, a Times investigation has found.”

And further in the article: “You have a closed system where very few people in the world know what the science is, and the system has a vested interest to make sure its findings are confirmed," says David L. Black, president and chief executive of Nashville-based Aegis Sciences Corp., a large independent doping lab unaffiliated with WADA. "The lab should just be a fact-gatherer, but the WADA system is designed in a way that the labs are not just objective fact gatherers, but part of the body of prosecution," Black said.

Today’s article in the LA Times, which I haven’t read yet, is titled Appeals are Costly and Usually Fruitless. This ties in with Floyd Landis’ latest statement that his defense will cost at least $500,000, and that he basically can’t afford to continue to fight. Athletes like Floyd and Tyler Hamilton do not have the resources to fight doping organizations with unlimited power and resources. Yet the hatefully biased, rigidly right regime of Dick Pound continues on, unchecked, unstoppable.

Please note on page 3 in this Times article, where it says ”the UCLA Olympic Laboratory is the domain of Don H. Catlin, a professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA Medical School who has made the fight against sports doping his life's work. For all his expertise, however, Catlin is forbidden by WADA rules from testifying in defense of an athlete in a doping case. He and the lab's more than 40 employees are prevented by WADA rules from engaging in "testing or expert testimony that would call into question … the scientific validity of work performed in the anti-doping program."

Despite WADA's claims of "public transparency and accountability," it operates largely as a hermetically sealed scientific community with minimal public oversight.

WADA pays labs, usually one of those in its network, to develop tests for banned substances. It then is the sole arbiter of the test's scientific validity.”

The more we learn, the more the WADA cesspool stinks....

Interesting to read that the Golden Boy of the Race2 Replace, AJ Smith, is now trashing the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team because they hired Ivan Basso. You can go to the Link below to read the article that I saw.

Now I must admit that I did not follow the Race2 Replace at all - to me it was merely a fund-raising publicity item, with no real meaning as to seeking out the most talented amateur racer in the US. As a matter of fact, I doubt that any of them even entered. I may be wrong, but I think anyone who could pay the money could enter the event. I’m not even gonna call it a race, OK? Anyway, I heard that AJ sat in until the last minute and took the sprint to win the marketing event.

Now, I’m not knocking the Discovery Channel event, it was just as legitimate a fund-raising event as the Ride for the Roses, or a LiveStrong Ride, and it generated a lot of publicity for Indiana University Cancer Center’s research and for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and maybe a bit of money. Good on it for that. I totally support that.

And the Discovery team really did open their arms to AJ, in addition to giving him a new Trek, a Discovery kit, a helmet, $500, and allowing him to ride with the team at the US Pro Championships. He got to hang out with the guys and was really buddy-buddy with them all, getting lots of hanger-on glory and publicity. And it sounds like the publicity catch phrase, “The next Lance Armstrong” really went to his head.

But now, the spotlight has dimmed, and what is he doing? Trashing the Discovery Channel team... In the Link article, AJ says that he has no interest in racing for the Discovery team now that they have hired Ivan Basso... No kidding, I think he really said that... And I think he was serious. Unbelievable.... He must have an ego the size of a Volkswagen with a moron driving it. Does this guy really think he would have even been considered as Pro rider by Johan? Give me a break, as John Stossle would say...

You’ll have to read the article, by Sharon Robb, wherein he calls cycling “the dirtiest sport in the world”, and goes on to say, "There is no other sport that even comes close to the amount of drug use that is going on. It is happening overseas and over here in the U.S. It is happening much more than anyone wants to talk about. It's ridiculous."

Then he goes on to brag about his accomplishments. Er... Ah.. Well, he won a Junior National sprint title at age 15... Junior Champion, hmm.... But, he sees himself in the Yellow Jersey at the Tour de France - he’s quite sure of it.

No matter, whatever he may lack (especially gratitude and class), it is not confidence, "But next year I am going to be a somebody ..... and the year after that I am going to be THE somebody.

"It's not even a question of whether it's going to happen ..... it's just a question of how long is it going to take. There is no doubt in my mind, it's already happened. I see myself wearing that yellow jersey."

Here is what Cathy Mehl wrote for The Paceline in her September 1, 2006 interview of AJ: “Looking a little like a kid in a candy store, AJ exudes enthusiasm for cycling and is grateful for his chance to ride in Friday’s championship race. The Paceline took a few moments to share AJ’s enthusiasm as he prepares for the most exciting race of his life on Friday.

“What kinds of memories and feelings do you think you’ll take away from this experience, AJ?

AJ: Oh, my God. Four months ago when I was sitting at home sulking and depressed because I was injured, if someone could have foreseen than I would be in this press conference or the one with Lance a few weeks ago, I would have said you were crazy, that there was no way I would be in this position. I am still having a little trouble believing it.

I just want to say I have no specific ambitions or expectations for my results Friday but I hope to put in a decent time and not embarrass myself. More than anything I feel it’s a real honor to be riding on the same course as these guys. I want to thank Discovery Channel for giving me this chance, and I hope it opens some doors for me in the future… “

Dude - You just closed quite a few doors with your mouth... “Honorary member of the Discovery Pro Cycling Team”? I don’t think so now.... Coached by Eki during the Race2 Replace - Nice photo op with Eki... Wonder what Eki thinks about you now? Dude, better be careful or you’re gonna get flicked bigtime one of these days....Especially in that dirty Europe, if you were ever to get there...