Is Lance without a team?

Lance Armstrong announced Tuesday (April 27th) that his return to racing after his crash would commence at the 23rd SRAM Tour of the Gila (New Mexico, USA), despite earlier reports of him and his Astana teamates being barred from the competition. The Tour of Gila started today and lasts for five days. This is his first race since his subsequent collar bone fracture in the Castilla y León in (Spain) stage race on March 23.

But the UCI had barred team Astana and Lance Armstrong from racing in the SRAM Tour of the Gila this week, enforcing rule 2.1.009 which states "only the UCI continental teams of the country, regional and club teams, national teams and mixed teams may participate in national events. Mixed teams may not include riders from a UCI ProTeam." Bla Bla Bla.
The rule is a UCI regulation and not a USA Cycling rule, and USA Cycling spokesman Alan Lee told VeloNews, "It's not our place to waive the rule or enforce it," Lee said. "From what we've been told they (the UCI) are choosing to enforce that rule in this case."
So to conform to the UCI rule Lance decided to take two of his Astana teamates to the race and enter under the team name “Mellow Johnny’s” which is the name of his bike shop in Texas.
Levi Leipheimer --one-third of the "Mellow Johnny's" team-- took first place at the Tour of The Gila's Stage 1 today. Lance Armstrong and Chris Horner rounded out the "Mellow Johnny's" team.
According to VeloNews.com, Leipheimer sprang from a disintegrating pack on the finish climb, taking a clear win ahead of Peter Stetina (Garmin-Felt) and Chris Baldwin (Rock Racing).
Leipheimer said he had some doubts about whether the team should go for the win so early in the five-day race, cites VeloNews.com.
"I said to Lance coming up here, 'maybe it would be better that we try and let somebody else win, ' " Leipheimer said at the finish. "And, he said something that made a lot of sense, he said, 'you know what, you are a winner, go win the race and we'll figure it out.' So we'll figure it out." For more results, visit the Team Astana's website.

My wife thinks I can’t write and my brother in law thinks I trace.

Amanda asked me yesterday after posting my blog if I wrote it? Um yes! This seems to be a pattern, her not recognizing my talents because not to long after Amanda and I were married I was wasting time on the computer and drew a picture of Lance Armstrong while looking at one of his time trial posters. Now mind you I drew it in the Windows program paint. Amanda looked at what a drew and said, “Did you trace that?” After giving her a puzzled look, I stood up from computer and proceeded to trace the out line of Lance on the poster with the mouse… what is this all about?
From a very young age I have displayed a talent for the arts, when I was and infant my mother noticed this talent and told my older brother I was “artistic” (Being only 10) he thought my mom meant “Autistic” Creative writing and art have always been a interest of mine so much that I excelled in both of them in school, so it surprises me when people challenge my need to express myself through art. I guess what this means is I don’t share my talents enough with those who are close to me; and for that I apologize.

58th Little 500

Baseball has films such as “Field of Dreams” and “The Natural.” Football has “Rudy” and “Brian's Song.” Basketball has “Hoosiers” and … “White Men Can't Jump?” (okay, there are probably better examples than that last one.)
The point is that sports and movies go together like Bert and Ernie. Of course cycling has a film to call its own ─ the 1979 Oscar-winner “Breaking Away.” Even the most fervent cycling fans among us might forget that the race featured in the story is, in fact, a real race... and the 58th running of the Little 500 is slated for this weekend on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
Now the drama at the center of the film's plot ─ the townie kids pitted against the rich Spoiled college kids ─ was dramatic license for the film. In reality you need to be enrolled as an undergraduate at the school to compete. There is a Cutters team but that was an independent team formed after the movie.
The rivalries that are a part of this race can go back decades, often involving fraternities and sororities. For many years the race was all Greek-dominated. But in the early 1980s the real Cutters team formed as a splinter group out of one of the fraternities, and won the race. Since then teams from the Greek system, residence halls and independents have traded wins with the Cutters, the team which has since enjoyed the most wins, at nine.
What is at stake? Not a dime. Whatever money the race generates, all of it goes to fund scholarships, more than $1.4 million to date. For the riders, there is only pride. But make no mistake; the level of competition that surrounds the actual race is as serious as it gets in bicycle racing.
The student-athletes, many of whom have never raced a bicycle before, train most of the year for this one event. Some are former high school sports stars, others are just in it for the experience. It is so serious the top teams pay for their riders to go on spring break training camps to Arizona and Texas, foregoing the usual fare of partying in Mexico or Florida. That represents serious dedication for a college student.

How does it work?

The race itself is unlike any other in cycling. It is modeled after the Indianapolis 500 motorsport race to form a strange hybrid of track, cyclocross and criterium racing. It is run as it was 58 years ago, on a “Chariots of Fire” style quarter-mile cinder track, adding the risk of some intense road rash for those unlucky enough to crash.
Riders are obligated to use what the rules define as a “stock” bike, which is about as low-tech as one can get these days. First, it weighs a lot compared to today's carbon wonder-bikes... about 22 pounds. Second, teams can only change a few insignificant parts, such as the seat and handlebars. The gearing must be 46x18, with a coaster-brake style freewheel hub and platform pedals. (The taping of shoes onto the pedals a la 'Dave Stoller' is not allowed.) What comes out of all this is a level playing field so that ability and not money determines who wins.
Teams consist of three to four riders that “exchange” during the race, making for the most unique aspect of the event. Exchanges are done on-the-fly with one rider coming into the team's designated pit, on one pedal like a 'cross racer getting a clean bike.
Meanwhile a teammate stands on the opposite side waiting to take the bike and continue racing, hoping to regain their spot in the pack. Even more challenging is that the exchange must take place within only a 16-foot long pit area. The only rule for exchanges is that there must be ten (five for the women) at any point during the race.
Like the Indy 500, the teams must qualify to be in the race, riding a 4-lap time trial with clean exchanges each lap. The fastest 33 teams make it and are seeded as such, like in the auto race, in ten rows of three. There is a 3-lap parade before the green flag is dropped for a flying start to 200 laps (50 miles) for the men and 100 laps (25 miles) for the women.
The initial laps are usually very chaotic, with the top teams fighting for position and the weaker teams trying to keep up. A crash in the first few laps is quite common and the protocol for that is identical to the Indy 500. Yellow flags slow the field down holding their positions as the carnage is swept up. Also as in the car race, the pit is a critical strategy position with a team coach using a marker board to communicate with riders.
In the final laps the race is usually down to 4-5 teams in contention, though there have been rare cases of a solo break and even recently a team lapping the field. The main strategy for teams at this point is to decide when to exchange to put the sprinter on the bike ─ too early could wear the sprinter out, and too late could cost valuable position in the lead group.
This year's event is packed with the usual rivalries and pre-race favorites. The back-to-back defending men's champions, the Cutters, have qualified third behind two fraternities with the Cutters' captain Eric Young winning the spring series' individual time trial.
In the women's race, the defending champion Delta Gamma team is farther down in seventh, and will get a challenge from the Teter dorm team who qualified for the pole position with a new track record; as well as the independent team Wing It, whose Kristi Hewitt won the ITT with a record herself.

Tyler made me cry

American national road champion Tyler Hamilton announced he is retiring from cycling on Friday after confirming that he tested positive for a banned substance in an herbal supplement he used to treat depression.
The 38-year-old Hamilton confirmed that he had tested positive for Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) a multi-functional steroid he said was in an herbal remedy he took after he had stopped using prescription anti-depressants.
Hamilton said his depression was initially diagnosed in 2003, a year that on the surface “was the best year of my life.”
“Depression has been in my family for a long time,” Hamilton said. “I sought treatment in September of 2003.”
Since then, Hamilton said he’d been using prescription anti-depressants, none of which are banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. However, after his recent divorce, his mother’s diagnosis of cancer and other personal issues, Hamilton said he began to experience more severe symptoms and first attempted to double his dosage of those prescriptions.
Feeling the side effects, he then stopped taking the drugs entirely, which further exacerbated his problems with depression. Hamilton said he turned to a “homeopathic” remedy ─ Mitamins Advanced Formula ─ that included herbs, such as St. John’s wort, and DHEA.
"I took a banned substance so I need to take whatever penalty they will give me and move forward," Hamilton said.
Hamilton suggested that he knew that Mitamins Advanced Formula contained DHEA, which he also knew was banned, when he took it on February 8 and 9, but was acting out of a sense of desperation.
“Anything you can do — even if it was hitting yourself over the head with a hammer — to make yourself feel better, you’d do it,” he said.

GOOD LUCK TYLER!