"NO ONE would be so stupid, SO dumb, SO arrogant to dope at THIS year's Tour de France! Vino could barely pedal a few days before & he's ripping past EVERYONE? Kloden crashes hard & still finishes in the top 5? But, I convinced myself that it was but another example of the sheer strength of will over the weakness of the body..." MD (tour blog)

Today is the 2nd rest day of the Tour and what better time to announce your entire team is withdrawing b/c team member Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping.

This is really unfortunate. The Tour has been great this year (well from my daily active.com email updates it has been...I've still not bought into the idea of owning a TV). A real race. A true competition. A test of who is the strongest. Not so much. A test of who can make it the 21 days without getting caught for blood doping. Having recently signed myself up for fitness testing and personal "Dobutamine Doping" I've been asking lots of questions. It's really no wonder Pro cyclist have VO2 max's in the 90s...with all that extra oxygen carrying blood circulating their system, of course it would be elevated! So there's no point in even comparing their VO2 max to myself or any real athlete for that matter. Don't get me wrong though, I have utmost respect for Pro Cyclist. Blood doping is part of the cycling culture. You do what you gotta do to get that competitive edge. You've got to keep up with your teammates and if they're doping, the you had better hop on the wagon too or get left behind.
When it comes to competition people will do almost anything if they believe it will give them that edge. Like Paula Radcliffe (my hero in running and life) with her TED socks and nose strip, and even at a more familiar level, individual pre-race rituals. Just look around at the beginning of any race and you'll see the nerotizism that race day brings out in the best of us.

Yes everyone has been loving the Tour this year, feeling like it's not a runaway show like the past 8 years. It has come a long way from the Picture down below... but I don't see why the whole world is shocked to discover, even in this 'real race', doping still exists. Perhaps wishful thinking. Either way, until I have a coach that'll pay for my $100 000 bike and even more expensive blood, I'll pull on my chamois and try to ride like the big boys - drug free.



Happy Trails

SO NAIVE YET SO...

It's 0849am...Things can only look up from here....right...

Around 0745am this morning I was [cautiously] biking home from my night shift at the downtown hospital when I looked down at my wrist. My heart sank. My wrist was bare. Nothing. No bright yellow rubber LiveStrong bracelet that I've become strangely yet completely attached to. :( It must have come off as I was de-gowning after leaving my isolation pt's room during morning rounds, so it has now been dumped into the biohazard waste and has been lost for good.

Before this I sleepily left the hospital and found my bicycle right where I locked it 13 hours prior. The only problem was that someone had cut my breaks and loosened all the bolts on the wheals. seriously. who does that? why don't you just steal the freakin bike next time - it'll be less work. freakin jerk faces.

ANDDD before that while sleepily chatting with the 2nd cup guy and sippin my coffee around 2am, 3 guys ran into the hospital screaming "HE'S SHOT! WE NEED SOME HELP! HE'S SHOT" while carrying their friend and dripping blood all over the place...when the security guard told them to go outside and around the corner to the ER department (you can't access the ER internally anymore - since someone strolled in and opened fire one night...), anyways, they got angry and yelled and waved their guns around, but finally gave in and ran off (hopefully to the ER) with their bleeding friend.

I don't like today.

JUST DON'T LET ME DOWN...