Cycling Shorts : 07 July 2010

1. Interpol In Armstrong Doping Probe : What you may not know is that WADA has an agreement of understanding with Interpol, which was established in 2008. That's the International Criminal Police, with a reputation for helping nab crooks and fugitives worldwide. That they are providing assistance in carrying out the Armstrong doping probe should be significant and good news to the people who truly care about the reputation of procycling. I hope they investigate the managers and financiers of the alleged doping ring, the real head honchos behind the U.S Postal campaign. People like Jim Ochowicz should really know what happened to the Lance's bikes in Austin TX that sold quite possibly for blood money. Did he act as a liaison or not for the transaction? Ask the people he worked with!

2.  Team Sky Says Goodbye To Kimmage : Award winning journalist Paul Kimmage was to be embedded in Team Sky for the Tour in order to see and report how clean (or not) cycling at the highest levels have become. We now know that Bradley Wiggins did not want Kimmage snooping around so British cycling's Performance Director Dave Brailsford told him thank you, goodbye. So much for transparency. If they have "nothing to hide", why not let him be part of their team?

3. Could Dopers Be Forming 'Strategies' Ties With Blogs? : The oldest trick in the book is to manipulate human perception about the truth through mass media propaganda. I laid out a plausible theory here that this sort of clandestine alliance might be happening between Armstrong and his blogging friends, among them which includes Fat Cyclist (Elden Nelson) and BSNYC (Eben Weiss). These two cycling blogs, who command a wealth of American readers, have revealed quite ostentatiously that they are friends of L.A. Their blogs, like Rick Reilly's unpopular ESPN columns, could potentially become a tool to brainwash people. At the other end, a single link from Armstrong on his Twitter account could divert millions of people to read the blogs.
 
4. Armstrong Talks To Media Via Laptop Now : Another strategy to try and cause a deliberate media blackout is to not appear at press conferences at all, but in fact deliver half hearted, mundane, oft-repeated phrases through a laptop at hard questions. Think of the poor journalist who has waited for hours on end to get any kind of word out to his workplace. What would have been much more entertaining was if L.A chose to employ an electronic synthesizer like one Stephen Hawking uses, and attach it to his helmet. All he has to do then is utilize a small keyboard to press "1" for We like our credibility, "2" for No Comments, "3" for He's a f_____ troll etc. Can The Shack build him such a circuit is a good question, now that you walk into one of their outlets and find they are short on stock with electronic components.

5. Steering Geometry : For those of you who would like to read an academic take on steering geometry, there is Mark Sanders' Master's Thesis from many years ago which he wrote as part of designing his famous Strida. He linked it to me so why don't I go ahead and embed it here so you can take some time off to read (click on it for Fullscreen access). Any questions on this topic, please ask away and I'll get the word out to Mark.