Plain Old Wednesday

God... enough already with the doping. Now Museeuw has come back from the dead to blast the sport with the "news" that he wasn't completely honest in his final year of PRO racing. Ummm... yeah we knew that already... that's why you quit. I'm also pretty sure it was just your final year that you doped Muso... Perhaps we need a different approach here. Why not open the gates and let everyone dope to level the playing field? Reverse psychology if you will. Then we can prosecute those that don't dope. I just want to watch some fricken bike racing without having to wonder if they did it clean or not. Bottom line is that EVERY rider has put the time in... drugs do not make super-riders out of eternal cat 4's... they make better riders out of already great ones.

On a happy note... USA Cycling threw some money into developing young cyclists finally. One of the recipients was our own RAD team out of Olympia. Good to see them doing some dev work on the next generation. There needs to be a boost in numbers for these programs. I've always felt bad for the majority of Jrs. that have to race in a field of 5-8 riders or race with the 4/5s. That's no way to learn. I'm not sure what else can be done to recruit young folks into the sport, but it's on my mind and you know what that means... I'm thinking. And when I think, things happen... good or bad. Bottom line is... start having more kids folks... we have a program to build.

In other news... Shimanno announced yesterday that the first 11-cog cassette is out in the PRO ranks and being tested. They're still trying to make an 11-speed shifter to go with it, but at least they have the cogs now. Campagnolo also announced that they have the first 11-speed shifters, but sadly they have been unable to make a cassette that will fit on any hub. They're working to widen the rear spacing on road bike to fix this...

Come back tomorrow... for you know what...