johnguinness's Diaryland Diary
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storms everywhere
Still online, knock wood.
I don't know how late I actually stayed up Sunday night, but with a Giro Rest Day, and a possibility of no web, I stayed in bed until way past noon. When I got up, I could barely tell it was daylight, and there were thunderstorms rumbling away.
It seemed like the perfect background for the cycling stories I was about to read. The UCI denied a cover up, said Hamilton was bad for cycling, and made an idle threat that they may sue him. Two types of Italian police searched the hotel rooms and vehicles of Team Radio Shack, and 4 guys who wouldn't identify themselves to reporters maintained a presence in the hotel. Unfortunately, Bruyneel, the co-mastermind included in all the doping allegations, had left town Sunday night.
On this side of the pond, pulp factory writers are cranking out the two cent a word stories at places like Bleacher Report, saying things like all the lives that Lance has saved from cancer far outweigh any cheating that he did against other cheaters. It really makes me sick, except that I know none of the International law enforcement are concerned about his popularity.
People don't realize that there are going to be bank records, wire taps, recorded conversations, wire transfers, blood and urine samples, and all kinds of physical evidence from all over.
Anyway, after reading way too much propaganda, the thing that got me was George Hincapie. He's the tall, good looking, guy next door type who is the only one on all of Lance's Tour de France teams. Last year he was subpoenaed by the grand jury, went in, as he had to, and apparently told the truth, under oath. There's nothing heroic in that.
60 Minutes has a reliable source that says he used EPO, saw Lance use EPO, and they supplied it to each other. He hasn't admitted this to the public, made a point of saying he never spoke to 60 Minutes, said he didn't know where they got their info, and he couldn't talk about the Federal investigation. He went with the standard line of wanting to look to the future, which is what guys say when they got away with things for years and feel entitled to keep it that way, with the income and the nice house and the trophy wife.
I tried watching the Tour Of California for a few minutes, and seeing him race there in front of a fawning crowd, and knowing he's an unpunished, unrepentant cheater, who was only out there because of some immunity deal, bugged the Hell out of me. He's going to ride the Tour de France for a record sixteenth year, and I can't watch the sham. He would have doped for the race for seven years, using at least EPO and testosterone, and probably blood transfusions, but he's welcome there. Contador had .0000000005 grams of Clenbuterol in his system, an amount that is too small to consume on purpose, and had no athletic benefit, and people protest because they don't want him at the race, even though Spain has found him innocent.
The announcers and many of the journalists have been covering things up for years. I just can't take it any more. Seeing how poorly Andy Schleck has done all year, including up Mt. Baldy in California, while a hundred guys did way more impressive things in the mountains of Italy, and knowing that in six weeks he'll magically become one of the top guys in the Tour, it's just wrong. So were the old Americans, former teammates of Lances, who dominated the race.
The good news for you is, I'm going to totally enjoy Alberto's last six days at the Giro. After that, I'll pray for him every day until the CAS makes their decision, but other than that, I'm done with the sport. I just unfollowed my handful of cycling friends on twitter, including the possibly hot doctor that I've been bonding with lately. I deleted all my old tweets. I have a second account where I follow all the same actresses and stuff, so I'll just switch to that until I'm well and truly over the sport. I don't need the anger of the past two days, or the sense of futility of everyone knowing these people, especially Lance and the UCI are corrupt, but are too powerful for anyone to do anything about it. There are team managers who have admitted doping in the past, others who everyone "knows" doped, and they've almost said as much, but they're running the sport too. The Italian media hand fans have blamed Contador for the course change, even though he was willing to take the risk and ride it all along. The Italian riders who can't beat him on the road have talked trash to the media, so that he's suddenly getting boos and whistles after he kills himself for seven and a half hours in the heat.
Anyway, I'm staying up all night tonight, catching up on TV shows, then watching my first bit of French Open at 4:00. The Giro has a great mountain Time Trial, with Contador going last against the clock. I'll watch that, and root for him to win, but instead of looking for articles, and quotes, and video, I'll just go to bed. I'll watch the other five stages when they're televised, but I won't read about them, or talk about them, or argue with anyone. I'll just switch to tennis, or whatever.
I wish I had alcohol, preferably a nice, icy pitcher of sangria.
12:52 a.m. - Tuesday, May. 24, 2011
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