Is Contador welcome at the Tour de France?

Christian Prudhomme

Tour de France organiser Christian Prudhomme has said he wants the matter of Alberto Contador’s Clenbuterol samples settled. “The only thing which we want is to have a response. It is the most important thing. Too often we are in a grey area” he told AFP in March.

But things are now set to stay grey for some time. Yesterday we heard that Court of Arbitration for Sport has postponed the double appeal from the UCI ad WADA at the request of Alberto Contador’s defence team. Fair enough, a hearing should always go ahead when both sides are ready. But at the same time, I can’t help noticing lawyers are paid by the hour and Contador is paid monthly and the incentives to play this one for as long as possible. The “contaminated beef” hypothesis was first presented in late August after all.

Fast forward to the present and Contador hadn’t reached cruising speed in the Giro’s opening team time trial before the Italian TV commentators mentioned the pending appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It wasn’t an auspicious start for the Giro. To mention the race favourite is linked to an appeal and allegations of doping is like a magician opening his act with the words “this isn’t real and don’t watch my left hand too close“.

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Giro Keyring Competition, Part II

I ran a competition last week to win a keyring and it proved popular. I’m using one myself but Mick and Andy from British bike shop Prendas Ciclismo were kind enough to send four. So one more is up for grabs.

Prendas Giro Key ring

This time please pick who will finish last on Stage 18 from Morbegno to San Pellegrino on Thursday. Once again, it’s not the winner but the last rider. Put your pick in the comments below.

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Esta Thé review

Esta Thé

If you’ve been watching the Giro d’Italia then you might have noticed maglia rosa sponsor Esta Thé, especially if you’ve been following via the RAI or Gazzetta.tv internet streams.

Esta Thé is a sweet tea soft drink. It’s made by Ferrero, the Italian food giant that makes Nutella and more. It’s name is a play on words, estate is Italian for summer, Esta Thé is pronouned the same way and té means tea, hinting at “summer tea”. It comes in three flavours, lemon, peach and green tea.

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Cycling podcast reviews XV: The Flammecast

Flammecast

My last review was of the VC Don Logan podcast. It’s infrequent but I liked the dry Scottish humour and the edgy style, the way they brought some sarcasm and wit to deal with some of the sadder elements of pro cycling. I mentioned it was a substitute to the now defunct Velocast.

But now one half of the Velocast is back, with John Galloway’s in the hot seat with Irishman Derek Troy. Galloway is superb with a warm voice, an assured broadcasting style and plenty of enthusiasm and knowledge too. Troy’s got a different style, he’s not afraid to swear, but if his radio manners aren’t as polished as Galloway, he makes up for it with tactical analysis and punditry that’s great fun and insightful.

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Giro Stage 16 preview

Giro stage 16

The “further, higher, faster” nature of the Giro d’Italia is on pause today. Stage 16 is 12,7km and if it’s a mountain time trial, the first 5,000m are about rolling out of town before the actual climb to the Nevegal plateau and ski station starts and even then, the final part eases up. It’s not at all like the Plan de Corones course used in previous years when riders winched themselves up a tricky road. The middle part of the course includes some tougher gradients, with 10% for a while and sections at 12% and one short ramp at 14%.

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A rest day still means riding

Team Sky rest day ride

It’s a rest day in the Giro d’Italia today. With two weeks of racing you’d imagine there are some tired riders by now but yesterday saw riders doing seven to eight hours across the mountains, with 6,500 vertical metres in one go. I think it was the most mountainous stage of any race ever seen at pro level.

Add in the cold weather to mean even more calories get burned up, not to mention the previous day’s leg busting climb of the Zoncolan and if there was every a welcome day of rest it’s today.

But what do the riders do? It varies. Many simply have nothing to do. Used to a daily routine of eating, racing, travelling and sleeping, suddenly there’s a change, a lot of time to waste. It’s welcome but can feel awkward too as time can pass slowly, stuck in a sleepy hotel in a ski resort normally that’s more at ease in winter.

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On amnesties

Pro cycling struggles to escape the past. As much as we want to look to future races, scandals from a decade ago rumble on. Even watching live coverage of a race means noting riders linked to ongoing investigations, appeals as well as those previously banned and maybe some you just can’t bring yourself to trust.

So the idea of drawing a line under a colourful history is attractive, a way to distance the sport from events that are getting pretty old. Some are calling for an amnesty, for cycling’s version of the “truth and reconciliation” hearings that helped to heal a post-Apartheid South Africa. In return for coming forward and confessing to past mistakes, those who go public could get an amnesty from prosecution. Only I just don’t see this working.

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