johnguinness's Diaryland Diary

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Fugitive

There was a Spanish cyclist named Xavier Tondo. Everyone said he was a really nice guy. And honest. Months ago he was contacted by someone trying to sell him doping products. He reported them to the police. The cycling world found out about it because an investigation was started that led to a big raid on a distribution ring. Yesterday, he and a teammate were getting ready to drive off to the mountains to train. Something happened - for some reason he got out of the car, and the garage door hit his neck, and he died.

He was a good friend of Contador's. Alberto was having coffee on the rest day yesterday when he heard the news. He and his team cancelled their scheduled press conference. Before he went to sleep, Alberto decided to win the mountain Time Trial stage today, and dedicate it to Tondo. It was a fierce battle, and the Eurosport announcers kept saying he looked slow, or could be having a bad day, but when it came to the finish line, hurting, he had won by a good margin. In the photo, that's him dedicating the win to his friend.

I'm still in the transition stage of forgetting cycling. I am making the effort, with five days left in the Giro. But the Lance story isn't about cycling, it's about fraud and lies and cover ups and bullying.

A guy named Verbruggen ran the UCI at the time that guys say Lance tested positive and it went away. Today Verbruggen not only denied that test, he said that Lance, who was not his friend, had never never never doped. It's kind of a ridiculous lie, and an insult to the reader, because how the Hell would he know what Lance did, say, on a June Friday in 2009? But that's the sort of crap cycling fans have put up with for years, and his replacement, Pat McQuaid, seems even worse.

I think I told you yesterday that Italian police had searched the vehicles and hotel rooms of Team Radio Shack on the rest day, and there was a police presence that stayed there. In the early stories, it said that Johan Bruyneel had left Sunday night, like when the 60 Minutes story came out, with his picture on the screen, talking about systemized doping on the team he ran. Now there's a cool rumor on twitter, being shared by people devoted to discussing the dark side of cycling, that Bruyneel had left so fast that all of his stuff was still in his hotel room. Fun times. A guy has the hotel, and the room number, and will make some calls. He's vanished off twitter, too.Some people think maybe it's time for the U.S. Government to bring him in. I'll keep you posted, but I hope it's the fugitive thing.

I'm still putting in my Tuna Helper and (separate meal) pancake-eating days. I haven't heard anything from the Township people. My hope was that the letter would go to the secretary or whatever, and she would just address it for Springfield and kick it up the food chain. On the other hand, it's possible that the local lady read part of it and burned it to ashes. I'm sure there are other possible variations, but if I bother to think about it, I go with those two, and don't care.

I watched a bit of Kim Clijster's match in ages, but I have zero attention span. I read an article the other day about college kids popping Adderall, and the focus and duration sounded great, but addiction is bad, umkay? On the bright side, FRS Plus sent me an e-mail offering me a $15 off coupon for taking a survey. I jumped on that, then went to their closeout section and saw a 12 pack of orange, shipped, for eighteen bucks. I gave them the three bucks plus tax, and am anxiously awaiting a twelve pack of orangey energy goodness.

The season finale of House was MESSED UP.

My hair is officially the longest it's ever been.

I'm excited for The Biggest Loser finale with people who have been off the show for ages showing how fit they got. Then comes The Voice, which will get better again once they get through this duos elimination phase.

7:00 p.m. - Tuesday, May. 24, 2011

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

previous - next