Weekend Notes & News - 6/22
It's going to be a busy weekend with racing and other interesting events across the area. First off we've got the Avery Trace Road Race & Time-Trial in Gainesboro on Saturday. Then on Sunday is the Tennessee State Criterium Championships at the Cookeville Criterium in downtown Cookeville.
If you're into century or metric century riding then the 11th Annual Harpeth River Ride in Franklin is just for you. I've done this ride myself in the past and it's a well supported ride with a great route. Another cool event tied in with the Harpeth River century is a Serotta demo day today at Harpeth Bicycles in Franklin.
So whether you're a hard core racer or weekend enthusiast you've got options this weekend. The weather forecast appears to be scattered showers, and as long as it brings cooler temps to lower the 93 & 97 degree highs. Get out the sunscreen!
Remember all the bumper stickers that would say in order to be considered a great city it had to have a "great library", a "great symphony" and a great "art museum." Well, Nashville finally has all those things, but I'm not sure we've achieved greatness just yet.
Until now.....after the action on two wheels get a bottle of wine and a fruit and cheese platter to enjoy the Red Bull Flugtag Nashville '07 at Riverfront Park in downtown Nashville. If we haven't reach "great" status after this we've at least moved up a notch or two.
If you've seen the commercials on television about Flugtag then you know it looks like a crazy freak show that's sure to leave you laughing hysterically. Flugtag means "flying day" in German. This contest has people build their best homemade human powered contraption to fly off a ramp into the Cumberland River. Genius idea! Get your cameras ready because there's going to be a lot of people making complete idiots of themselves. Here I thought that Dukesfest really put us on the map.
More riders taking Music City Star
Left out of the greatness discussion is the fact we now have a public rail system in Nashville. With gas prices at or above $3 a gallon it has meant an increased ridership on the train. I haven't ridden the train in awhile, but at least there's something good coming from higher petro prices.
Cody the Roadie: The Cody Stevenson diary 2007
While we've all been keeping up with part-time Nashvillian Trent Wilson of Jittery Joe's through his Cyclingnews diary we can also be treated to Trent's teammate Cody. Both guys reference Nashville quite a bit in detailing their travels and race experience across the country. Cody was in Nashville back in May and did a couple of races, and of course Trent was a workhorse during the Edgar Soto Stage Race setting up his teammate Neil Shirley to the overall victory. Cody took over as criterium extraordinaire during the USA Crits Southeast Series after Jeff Hopkins broke his wrist, and then finished high consistently each day to place second overall in the eight race series.
UCI dope-testers target Tour de France favorites
A pre-emptive strike to avoid another embarrassing start? Not everybody is agreeing with this tactic as you can imagine. For one, Alexandre Vinokourov isn't too pleased after being implicated again. Vino was initially wrapped up in the Puerto Affair before last year's Tour start, but then was found to not be part of wrongdoing. On the one hand it's great Tour organizers are being more proactive, but on the other why target only the top six or seven guys? For that matter, why target anyone?
CSC released internal test results and all riders came up clean. It's gotten so bad that even Oleg Tinkov is making some positive comments regarding doping. Tinkov's recent interview with Cyclingnews has him making some strong statements regarding the doping dilemma within his team.
It's about time Tinkov came out with clarity such as this: "Legally we can't fire these riders. That is the crazy situation. I want to get rid of them and just have young Russians for next year and maybe two or three more Italians... we don't want to continue with this situation." Regarding Hamilton he had this to say, "I don't want to see him in the team. I want to fire him. That is it. To me he is fired. I don't know, with the legal perspective it is tricky. I am fed up with Hamilton's type of scandals."
Lastly, Tinkov's best and most honest remark: "I have to admit that I made a mistake."
Finally, a team owner showing a bit of ownership to his mistakes. You get the impression he rushed to put this team together and allowed his "second-chance" personality guide his decisions. Fortunately he's not making excuses and admits after all this negative experience he has a lot to learn. Let's all hope so because the sport at the highest level needs people like Tinkov who are passionate about cycling and sponsoring teams. At the same time owners must be engaged in the process, set incredibly high standards of conduct for the entire organization, and help cultivate a culture that avoids the pitfalls of the last 15 years.
I've mocked their team quite a bit over the last year with their questionable signings. From here on I'll give Tinkov more of the benefit of the doubt, but actions speak louder than words.
A strong start to a stand-out career
Speaking of interviews here's another one from Cyclingnews with NashvilleCyclist.com diarist Katharine Carroll. I'm a day late and a dollar short on blogging about this one. After a successful spring campaign she's had a break and now getting back into the swing of racing.
In case you didn't know after 22 races Katharine is leading the individual women standings in the NRC Series:
Women's Individual Standings
1. Katharine Carroll (Sausalito, Calif./Aaron's) 711
2. Laura Van Gilder (Pocono Pines, Calif./Cheerwine) 678
3. Amber Rais (Palo Alto, Calif./Webcor Builders) 572
4. Mara Abbott (Boulder, Colo./Webcor Builders) 481
5. Katheryn Curi (Mountain View, Calif./Webcor Builders) 479
Ok Katharine, we know you love the west coast and all, but Sausalito gets billed as home?! You'll get some slack with an updated diary sent to yours truly (Kat, note my rate of blogging this week!). In the meantime check out Katharine's blog and catch up on her European racing adventures with the US National Team.
Have a great weekend!
If you're into century or metric century riding then the 11th Annual Harpeth River Ride in Franklin is just for you. I've done this ride myself in the past and it's a well supported ride with a great route. Another cool event tied in with the Harpeth River century is a Serotta demo day today at Harpeth Bicycles in Franklin.
So whether you're a hard core racer or weekend enthusiast you've got options this weekend. The weather forecast appears to be scattered showers, and as long as it brings cooler temps to lower the 93 & 97 degree highs. Get out the sunscreen!
Remember all the bumper stickers that would say in order to be considered a great city it had to have a "great library", a "great symphony" and a great "art museum." Well, Nashville finally has all those things, but I'm not sure we've achieved greatness just yet.
Until now.....after the action on two wheels get a bottle of wine and a fruit and cheese platter to enjoy the Red Bull Flugtag Nashville '07 at Riverfront Park in downtown Nashville. If we haven't reach "great" status after this we've at least moved up a notch or two.
If you've seen the commercials on television about Flugtag then you know it looks like a crazy freak show that's sure to leave you laughing hysterically. Flugtag means "flying day" in German. This contest has people build their best homemade human powered contraption to fly off a ramp into the Cumberland River. Genius idea! Get your cameras ready because there's going to be a lot of people making complete idiots of themselves. Here I thought that Dukesfest really put us on the map.
More riders taking Music City Star
Left out of the greatness discussion is the fact we now have a public rail system in Nashville. With gas prices at or above $3 a gallon it has meant an increased ridership on the train. I haven't ridden the train in awhile, but at least there's something good coming from higher petro prices.
Cody the Roadie: The Cody Stevenson diary 2007
While we've all been keeping up with part-time Nashvillian Trent Wilson of Jittery Joe's through his Cyclingnews diary we can also be treated to Trent's teammate Cody. Both guys reference Nashville quite a bit in detailing their travels and race experience across the country. Cody was in Nashville back in May and did a couple of races, and of course Trent was a workhorse during the Edgar Soto Stage Race setting up his teammate Neil Shirley to the overall victory. Cody took over as criterium extraordinaire during the USA Crits Southeast Series after Jeff Hopkins broke his wrist, and then finished high consistently each day to place second overall in the eight race series.
UCI dope-testers target Tour de France favorites
A pre-emptive strike to avoid another embarrassing start? Not everybody is agreeing with this tactic as you can imagine. For one, Alexandre Vinokourov isn't too pleased after being implicated again. Vino was initially wrapped up in the Puerto Affair before last year's Tour start, but then was found to not be part of wrongdoing. On the one hand it's great Tour organizers are being more proactive, but on the other why target only the top six or seven guys? For that matter, why target anyone?
CSC released internal test results and all riders came up clean. It's gotten so bad that even Oleg Tinkov is making some positive comments regarding doping. Tinkov's recent interview with Cyclingnews has him making some strong statements regarding the doping dilemma within his team.
It's about time Tinkov came out with clarity such as this: "Legally we can't fire these riders. That is the crazy situation. I want to get rid of them and just have young Russians for next year and maybe two or three more Italians... we don't want to continue with this situation." Regarding Hamilton he had this to say, "I don't want to see him in the team. I want to fire him. That is it. To me he is fired. I don't know, with the legal perspective it is tricky. I am fed up with Hamilton's type of scandals."
Lastly, Tinkov's best and most honest remark: "I have to admit that I made a mistake."
Finally, a team owner showing a bit of ownership to his mistakes. You get the impression he rushed to put this team together and allowed his "second-chance" personality guide his decisions. Fortunately he's not making excuses and admits after all this negative experience he has a lot to learn. Let's all hope so because the sport at the highest level needs people like Tinkov who are passionate about cycling and sponsoring teams. At the same time owners must be engaged in the process, set incredibly high standards of conduct for the entire organization, and help cultivate a culture that avoids the pitfalls of the last 15 years.
I've mocked their team quite a bit over the last year with their questionable signings. From here on I'll give Tinkov more of the benefit of the doubt, but actions speak louder than words.
A strong start to a stand-out career
Speaking of interviews here's another one from Cyclingnews with NashvilleCyclist.com diarist Katharine Carroll. I'm a day late and a dollar short on blogging about this one. After a successful spring campaign she's had a break and now getting back into the swing of racing.
In case you didn't know after 22 races Katharine is leading the individual women standings in the NRC Series:
Women's Individual Standings
1. Katharine Carroll (Sausalito, Calif./Aaron's) 711
2. Laura Van Gilder (Pocono Pines, Calif./Cheerwine) 678
3. Amber Rais (Palo Alto, Calif./Webcor Builders) 572
4. Mara Abbott (Boulder, Colo./Webcor Builders) 481
5. Katheryn Curi (Mountain View, Calif./Webcor Builders) 479
Ok Katharine, we know you love the west coast and all, but Sausalito gets billed as home?! You'll get some slack with an updated diary sent to yours truly (Kat, note my rate of blogging this week!). In the meantime check out Katharine's blog and catch up on her European racing adventures with the US National Team.
Have a great weekend!
posted by NashvilleCyclist.com at 6/22/2007 09:40:00 AM
3 Comments:
i guess i don't understand the situation....didn't we already know that tyler doped back then? is he eligible for another suspension for the puerto stuff, even though he already served one for doping during the same time period?
Yep, he can get a second suspension. Puerto is different (slightly) than the doping that he got nailed for the last time. Say hello to my lifetime ban . . .
sorry, tim, i know i am LONG over due on a update. europe has been awesome...and really f'in hard. i will write some more...but you'd be glad to know that i got to ride last week with mr. hamilton and jorg jaksche from tinkoff. tyler has a place in lucca and rode us around for a couple hours up "small climbs." they kept pulling their phones out to take calls and text and i had the feeling it had to do with their imploding careers. hope all is well in TN!
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