long overDEW... a ZENmud TdF 2007 home video

Some things are nearly worth waiting for...
:-)

(some more than others?!)

A long winter seems over, and thoughts are turning back to our world of cycling, here below the northern French Alpes.

It was only some months ago, that ZENmud posted an item: Tour de France: Saturday to Grand Bornand, which displays what has long been an annual ZEN saga: finding a cycling day to observe and enjoy the Tour de France, as it finds it's way closest (to within 100 km of Geneva) to ZEN Central. We posted the article last July, and today, we are finally enjoying the fruits of editing it for your pleasure, at Youtube.

Enjoy this homemade brew of a film!

Note if you wish, four events of 'total ZENia'...

• The setting for this, is a sharp turn, with a beautiful stone 'pont' or bridge, that hides the 12++ meter drop to the small brook below. It was probably not farther than about 6 kilometers from Scionzier, the town below this Col. A ways into the film, you'll see one guy in a white cap and long white shorts, walk to the inside of the corner, at midpoint over the bridge: CHILDREN DO NOT DO THIS AT A CYCLING RACE! NEVER.
  
  

• You may see very early, a blue cloud of pollution, from the most disgusting French police Peugeot 106, that spewed its way at unsafe speeds up through the tight turns we found: the shot taken was nearly 20 seconds after the car passed: that's proof of the magnitude of his motor problem! (one would think one would not want to bring one's WORST vehicle to a bike race, but then: ZEN is NOT a French gendarme, c'est clair!)
  
  

• The small boy, yelling 'KEEEM!' repetitively, was the nephew of LUX. rider Kim Kirchen; his enthusiasm overwhelmed us, as he waited and screamed for his uncle...

• At the point where you hear your Humble Narrator saying 'Fabio', you'll hear the ZENphone playing some Pink Floyd, in harmony with the B-52s

So, well, anyway, this is not a profound post... sorry for the delay: JUST A four-minute moment for you ZENers to enjoy one of many reasons to live in Europe...

___çç*******/ ZENmud \*******çç___
© 2008

Open Letter to la famille Amaury...

Bonjour mes chers amis du cyclisme,

Forgive this article being written in English, all the ZEN'ers are sort of used to this. And forgive the title, M. Philippe Amaury, as it is really your former wife, Madame Marie-Odile Amaury, who controls the privately-held company since your death in May of 2006 (at age 66 or so). And to note for certain readers, that the ASO group, is a branch of EPA (Editions Philippe Amaury)

Some of we, the fans of your cycling events, are certainly curious about the recent announcement of your company's decision to exclude the Kazakhi team ASTANA from any and all ASO - produced events this year.

That news comes as a shock to those fans, who don't (or maybe haven't) chosen to associate the 'name' of a team with the past, as vociferously as your employees have.

When the Liberty Seguros-Würth team was in the torment, in the late spring of 2006, your spectacle was ensured, as far as the riders who were not implicated in the Manolo Saiz/Operacion Puerto, when the Kazakhi Government stepped in late as a sponsor. Until it was revealed that this newly-reformed team was unable to start the minimum required six riders, your ASO management appeared happy that one of the few stars of the sport could be present - in spite of the team's former turbulent era.

There's no question (other than the typical incredulous variety that come from ANY doping controls effected by your concitoyens at LNDD/département des analyses) that Astana shot themselves in the feet in 2007...

But it strikes some of us cycling-lovers as a bit disingenuous, when you deny Astana of a right to participate, by cumulating their 'offenses' of 2007 to their 'rescue' of the team that WAS in the hotseat: Liberty Seguros-Würth, for 2006.

As a long-time Tour de France (TdF) fan, ZENmud can state without any qualms, how much he thought that the Rabobank team was one of those very few (since we now know that even 'rabid' anti-doping French teams such as Cofidis are not 'perfect'...) which seemed to uphold the cleanest ethics. Yet Rabobank gave us, gave you, the Michael Rasmussen 'affair'; the implications of that extensive cover-up by team management, have not apparently bothered your staff at ASO.

It sometimes appears that your Organisation has two sets of rules:

• HARSH, for those 'who sleep with my wife', and
  
• TOLERANT: for those 'who slept with my neighbour's wife'...

But here at trusting ZEN Central, the appearances are not in line with the 'high moral road' your staff claims it seeks to follow.

As ASTANA ponders its future, it would do well to remember that back-room decisions become tomorrow's global headlines. Not only in their proper effect, but as they spawn the legal battles that are generated by what appear to be ill-conceived, and arbitrarily discriminatory decisions.

Whether or not Alberto Contador is in your 2008 Tour, or not, your actions do not bode well for ANY NEW SPONSORS to rush into the sport we love.

In learning about Amaury Sport Group, whose President Patrice Leclerc, and Director of Cycling Christian Prudhomme have emulated Dick Pound in terms of outrageously premature pronouncements to the press, one finds out much about the privately-held company which owns ASO.

Tidbits and factoids abound... in the Amaury 'family history' (personal or EPA-related):

• 1903: Not all TdF fans realize that this flagship race came from an idea floated by Henri Desgranges, who managed the journal L'AUTO; was it first conceived to highlight where and how automobiles could circulate throughout the early dirt roads that adorned the Alpes?
  
  
• 1944: L'AUTO is suppressed, amidst charges of collaborations with the Nazi French occupational government; at the same time that Emilien Amaury was helping the Résistance to publish false ID papers and other documents. In that same year, M. Amaury began Parisien Libéré (now Le Parisien).
  
  
• 1944: Jacques Goddet creates the L'Equipe sporting journal, which Amaury purchased in 1965.
  
  
• 1983: Some six years after the death of Emilien, a struggle between siblings forced the family business to divide: Philippe bought out his sister, and that was accomplished through the investment by the Lagardére group (whose 25% take effected Philippe's payments to his sister). (factoid: Lagardére is a tight, close friend and major backer of French President Sarkozy)
  
  
• 1988: Long before WADA, and EPO, the Tour de France had an interesting rule for doping cases... if a cyclist were to be caught via testing, they incurred a TEN-minute penalty! At least that's what could have happened to Pedro Delgado, who was found 'positive' for a substance, probenecid, which was used to mask the use of steroids: he wasn't 'busted' because that substance, while on the IOC list for prohibited substances, was not to be placed on the UCI list, for another month!
  
  
• 1998: Festina - EPO. Enough said?
  
  
• 1999 / 2000: Amaury, or EPA, being in the publications and sporting events business, branched into a field that it may eternally regret: it acquired the FUTUROSCOPE theme-park business; little public knowledge, when Futuroscope was placed into the Tours 1999 and 2000, of its close association with your family.
  
  
• 2003: After only three to four years of ownership, EPA sells Futuroscope (or reduces its exposure), after the 2002 year saw many employee layoffs. Losses to Amaury appeared to be around 55 million Euros.
  
  
• 2005: The journal L'Equipe shows slowing sales, amidst a year in which that paper was the vehicle through which seven-time TdF champion Lance Armstrong faced serious accusations via mis-applied 'research' data, uniquely generated by the pursuit of your reporter Marc Ressiot: "Monsieur A-TEST".
  
  
• 2006: Landis
  
  
• 2007 - Vinokourov, Rasmussen, Moreni
  
  
• 2008: The future of cycling is in your hands, Madame Amaury.
  

A far cry from the 'ten-minute rule' days... is the Tour such a money-maker that it can overcome objective criticisms for its stances vis-à-vis doping, teams, and the UCI ProTOUR?

Posting these tidbits and factoids is perhaps a groundwork for the future, as the world watches the fall-out of ProTOUR teams remaining outside of the Giro in May, or your Tour in July...

Bonne chance, Madame A!

___çç*******/ ZENmud \*******çç___
© 2008

Les Surprises d'Octobre

This post is carried simultaneously at

WADAwatch.blogspot.com and crystelZENmud.blogspot.com

+ + + + + +

What a week we'll be witnessing, from outside closed doors...

Conclusion? A Mirror...

In the heart of France, on the 22^nd and 23^rd of October, the French Minister for Sport and Youth, Madame-Docteur Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, is going to be cracking heads, or hearts, as she hosts within the walls of the French Committé Olympique, a closed-door 'High Level Summit on Doping in Cycling”.

As meager as the press coverage has been, attendance is apparently limited to officials representiing: WADA, cycling's three Grand Tours (Giro d'Italia, Tour de France (owned by the group ASO), Vuelta de Espagne), the French Cycling Federation, the Agence Française du Lutte contre le Dopage (AFLD), and 'others', perhaps of European governments, the IOC, etc. Some 150 total participants should be sipping Evian or a fine Bordeaux, while discussing the ramifications of certain contrasting actions that have been digested over this last amazing year of 2007.

A snapshot of noteworthy items would have to include:

a: the ASO-instigated fight against inclusion of the UCI ProTour team UNIBET.com in the lineup of teams competing in the spring race 'Paris-Nice';

b: the revelations produced in the Floyd Landis hearings, from his allegedly positive 2006 TdF test for testosterone use, which implicated the French testing lab LNDD for its multitudinous lapses, in the application of standard international rules defining sports-doping test procedures;

c: the pre-Tour de France exclusion of Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, as a result of lingering suspicions centered on the curious Operacion Puerto affair in Spain, and its attention on the career of Dr. Fuentes;

d: the tardy (yet hope-filled) confessions of Bjarne Riis and Erik Zabel, of their EPO use in 1996, while under the Deutsche Telekom team colors;

e: the near-daily revelations, during the second and third weeks of the 2007 Tour de France, of rider's pre-Tour infractions, such as Michael Rasmussen, the Danish racer who wore the Yellow Jersey, accused of missing mandated testing procedures by the infraction of not informing the Union Cycliste Internationale of his pre-Tour whereabouts, the properly-delayed but annoying (to Tour director Christian Prudhomme, and ASO president Patrice Clerc) announcement of German rider Patrik Sinkewitz' positive test for testosterone, another in-Tour test for blood transfusion, that was brought against Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov, then another positive test, which implicated an Italian rider for a French cycling team – Cristian Moreni – and for all of these envenomed the excruciating relations between the TdF/ASO and the UCI

f: recent news that the French Agency AFLD would reinstate its own litigation against Floyd Landis, creating an unprecedented and highly suspect 'double jeopardy' situation of two sports-arbitration cases for one test at one event under one set of (UCI) rules, due to the potentially- devastating news that the next year's Tour de France may not be run under the auspices of the UCI.

+ + + + + +

So once again, this week?

Monday and Tuesday, the above-named players will be meeting for their closed-door session, in the midst of other unfolding news-items.

The biggest one on the sports-doping radar screen, come from the sour-grapes pronouncements of Jean-Pierre Lamour, who's anticipated reign as the Second 'Grand Inquisitor' of WADA (succeeding President Dick Pound of Canada) was nixed by a considerable candidate's presentation: former Australian government Minister John Fahey, whose candidature was abruptly promoted by a meeting of the WADA Executive Committee nearly a month ago.

Lamour will probably be there; whether Fahey is invited remains to be seen.

Monsieur Lamour, apparently as cocky as was Dick Pound during the greater part of his reign, let fly a few news-IED bombs as loud as the door he slammed against his own backside. Insinuations he offered included hints that WADA was taking a 'ten year leap backward', that 'WADA was about to open the door to greater 'flexibility' through its CODE revisions, and most importantly, that he would potentially become involved in a new, European-centered anti-doping agency that would not suffer the problems inherent in WADA.

Talk about the love of a minister scorned... remembering that it was J-F Lamour himself, that was the French Minister of Sport and Youth, whose Ministry oversaw the LNDD lab during both the unseemly 'Armstrong case' and the 'Affaire Landis', and whose Ministry was both antagonistic towards the UCI investigation of the Armstrong case, AND was under suspicion during and after these, as a source of the leaks to the journal l'Equipe regarding these and other leaks of 'A Sample' test results.

Other amazing moments came out in a recent (September 18, 2007) interview in Cyclingnews.com, where Patrice Clerc was all over the game board in discussing how offended was his company, the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), by the attitude and actions of the UCI, with whom the 'Grand Tours' have been battling all the issues surrounding the inception of the ProTour cycling concept, initiatives of the UCI (including this year's UNIBET.com French court case, their (above) exclusion from the Paris-Nice and Tour de France events, and the doping issues.

Unfortunately Monsieur Clerc has no memory, nor apparently any desire to discuss, those endless leaks of doping revelations that stem from the ASO-owned newspaper l'Equipe, the French national sporting journal. Had he been honest with himself and with Cyclingnews.com (who should themselves be hanging their heads for not asking about this issue), he might have addressed these constant leaking incidents, that undermine any Athletes' rights of privacy and process, specifically in the case where l'Equipe published its 2005 article, timed for two weeks after the end of the Tour de France, entitled 'Les Mensonges d'Armstrong', which insinuated that Lance was on EPO in 1999.

And as those leaks came from either the French Ministry (which controls the LNDD laboratory – thus whether that equates with one or two entities is a secondary thought), or WADA, both of whom are key players in the fight against doping in sport, to l'Equipe, there is ample grounds to suspect that there is a bit of 'cover-me, cover-you' corruption that belies the strident WADA message about 'harmonizing the battle against doping in sport': a foundation of the fundamental message found in the Introduction to the WADA CODE.

The practical substance of these revelations, including the great interactions with the French Ministry-sponsored conference, the AFLD second-spin Landis-doping case, the Lamour/Fahey/WADA dénouement, all creating an implosive whirlpool at the very heart, and future, of cycling itself.

But all of the outlined points, above steer us only to the early part of the week; later, on October 25^th, is the usual annual announcement of next year's 2008 Tour de France route. Reading Patrice Clerc's interview, with the discussions of the impossibility of working with the UCI, mentions of national teams and other doping agencies' involvement, leaves the average cycling fan whirling and wondering if all of it is worth the price of sustained interest by the sports-consumer?

Given what you've read above, the amalgam of these events symbolizes something that is bedrock-shattering. A point not to be missed in the evolution of this week is that, unlike many other sports, cycling has had a long history of 'airing its dirty laundry' in public, with every opportunity for the sporting press to make cycling into a laughing stock, while it could be presented legitimately as the one sport that is suffering the most, while undertaking the greatest effort to clean its own ranks.

Soon, members of these entities, present at these meetings, in Paris, Madrid and elsewhere, will have an opportunity to prove their love for cycling, or their love of their own inflated and destructive egos.

Whether they choose to do, that which the world could proudly remember them for their involvement, or that for which the world would sadly remember their involvement, remains to be seen, very soon.

Thus: A MIRROR...

... is the best thing that every participant to these 'Summit' meetings could bring to the table, to remind themselves:

“I am watching my own professional actions, as is the world, for whom I work at this table.”

Courage

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç

Is USADA in Violation of WADA CODE Article 8?...

Has the USADA violated WADA CODE Article 8 (link to PDF for downloading) in its hearing against Floyd Landis?

“Busted” for a positive Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) from the 17^th Stage of the 2006 Tour de France, Floyd and concerned observers await the forthcoming decision to be announced by the panel of three Arbitrators that were mutually appointed, between Floyd and the United States Anti-doping Agency (USADA), to hear his case in May 2007.

This case, an international doping 'scandal' (in what sense we await to know...) is governed by USADA's status as a Signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA. Under the WADA CODE, Article 8, titled “RIGHT TO A FAIR HEARING”, it is stipulated that any Anti-Doping Organization shall...

SIDEBAR: the use of 'shall' in an English-language legal sense, creates a mandatory obligation, without derogation: 'shall' begets an undeniable duty on the party to whom the clause refers.

“I, NAME 1, shall pay you, NAME 2, the sum of $100.00, on Tuesday morning, the 3^rd of August 2007, at the xxx County Courthouse, between 10 and 11am.”

Such a sentence is legally unassailable (presuming the entirety of the agreement is a legally binding obligation).

... “shall provide a hearing process for any Person who is asserted to have committed an anti-doping rule violation.... The hearing process shall respect the following principles:”
[.....]
“a timely, written, reasoned decision.”

Hearings regarding Floyd Landis' alleged doping in the TdF 2006, were held from May 14 to 20, 2007. Initial indications were that the decision would be announced sometime prior to this year's Tour de France, which debarked on July 7^th of this year. The world waited as the decision was being addressed by the Arbitration Panel.

Now, in late August – three months later – no timely, written, reasoned decision has been pronounced. See Environmentalchemist for a good, timely, reasoned article...

Floyd, the USADA, WADA, and Amaury Sport Group (owners of the Tour de France (TdF)) are all waiting. As well, the French Anti-doping Agency (AFLD: link to a French-language page) also waits... they who had announced, no matter the outcome of the USADA case, would also be prosecuting Floyd for his offense as it occurred on French soil.

What's customary or standard, or is this case overly-delayed?

Is USADA, the ADO which brought the case against Floyd, in violation of Article 8?

To know this, we would have to know whether the Arbitrators have been interfered with by USADA pressures, or whether outside influences, from perhaps the French Ministry of Youth and Sport (which oversees the former LNDD, the French Anti-doping Laboratory), or WADA itself, have conducted unlawful ex parte sessions?

“The answer my friends, is blowing in the wind, the answer is..."

COURAGE, Floyd, as we stand with you, awaiting your Fate...

ç*”*”*””*ç”*”* ZENmud ”*””*ç*”*”*””*ç”

Tour de France syndrome 2007... part I

ZENers, my apologies for bein' damn silent. My apologies, I want to post this and will have to do the links later... (memory moment!)

My deepest regrets for not providing a nearly 'You were there' type of commentary on this year's Tour de France.

And 'chagrin total' that you are reading something different, perhaps negative, about this Tour, from ZENcentral.

It could have been different, this is true.
It could have been cleaner, also true.

But as far as we know today, of the 189 riders who were designated 'apt' to start their Tour, 2007, only //three// (watch this number change) were controlled 'positive' while on this Tour. Yet four riders left the race, ostensibly due to 'les affaires du dopage'.

One racer, Patrik Sinkowitz from the German T-Mobile team, was controlled positive in early June and announced positive July 18, 2007, was already sidelined from a post-race, severe collision with a spectator, was in the hospital and 'hors combat' before the news fell. T-Mobile stayed in the race.

Alexander Vinokourov, wearing the thorny crown of pre-race favorite, was victim of a fall, severely impairing his chances for “GC” (general category) victory, and, upon winning the Stage 12 time trial in Albi on Saturday, July 21, apparently was tested positive for homologous blood transfusions by the same laboratoire that impugned the 2006 Tour de France Champion, Floyd Landis, on his testosterone test.

//update: Iban Mayo controlled positive for EPO //

Astana, the team for whom “Vino” races, was requested to withdraw from the 2007 test, based on the information provided to it, and to the public by: L'Equipe. Astana did withdraw. Vinokourov is a man without a team.

L'Equipe: aka “The World Cycling PRESS Authorized Source of (Bona Fide) Test Result Leaks” is the national French daily sporting newspaper,. It alone provided the announcement of Vino's positive A Sample test result; this came prematurely, and illegally, on July 24, 2007, through L'Equipe. This came through the long-established fact that L'Equipe is without equal in having sources in at least the French national laboratory: the Laboratoire Nationale du dépistage du dopage, from which it culls and illegally publishes premature and unconfirmed A Sample test results.

That fact, combined with another fact, creates a huge Conflict of Interest. The other fact, is that the paper 'L'Equipe' is owned by Amaury Sport Group, owners/promoters of the Tour de France business.

The paper L'Equipe, being owned by the same group that owns the race, is perenially in violation of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) rules concerning 'Results Management' and their International Standards for Laboratories Appendix 'Code of Conduct'. Savour that thought-sequence, as we continue to surmise in the greatest French tradition of insinuation(s)...

Returning to our saga, Vino was the first of //three // controlled racers to be forced out of the competion, based on the positive results from A Sample tests; the second was Cristian Moreni, an Italian who rides for the French team COFIDIS. Third Mayo.

Also prematurely announced through the L'Equipe paper, from leaked, unconfirmed A Sample results, his test for testosterone 'revealed' him as being 'positive'.

COFIDIS happens to be a French team that has long pronounced itself in favor of draconian reprisals against teams that harbour dopers... it was obliged to withdraw based on its own damning attitude announced publically: that Astana should not stay in the Tour after Vino's 'positive'. Falling on its own sword, it nearly instantly announced its departure upon public disemination of this news.

Yet the pièce de resistance was the news-media-tornado that occurred when the Danish Cycling Federation announced, on July 19, 2007, that the current Maillot Jaune, Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen, had missed at least two unannounced doping controls, which resulted in two warnings (ed: a third warning in an 18-month period would have incurred the equivalent of a confirmed doping test violation: a two-year suspension).

The furor around this incident was inflamed by the constant inuendo and rumour-mongering of L'Equipe and French TV. Added to it were other factors that appeared to augment these charges.

The case was built on a factoid, that the Union de Cyclisme International (UCI) had not received the mandatory quarterly submission of Rasmussen's actual whereabouts; he, as a professional racer, must offer the UCI accurate data concerning his location, so that these unannounced controls are not wild-geese chases, depleting the valuable financial resources of the UCI in their quest for clean sport.

Problem was that his claim of being in Mexico, and being only guilty because the Italian Post system had 'lost his mail', was countered by the submission of Italian reporter Davide Cassani of RAI, that he'd seen Rasmussen in Italy at the same time that the team Rabobank cyclist announced he'd been in Mexico, with his Mexican wife and her family. Further insinuations published by the L'Equipe, proferred evidence that a US-based Mtn Bike racer, accused Rasmussen of requesting his aid in bringing 'doping substances' into Europe in his luggage, under the guise that the box contained some new 'cycling shoes'.

A rumour and a case of lost mail, some leaked A Sample results (actually two: one (Vinokourov: blood transfusions) was the same 'modus operandi' that effectively ended Tyler Hamilton's career; second (Moreni: Testosterone) was the same as Floyd Landis), and ONE verified result (Sinkewitz' June tests based on A Sample, and B Confirmation results), were the nexus for all four to exit the Tour via la petite porte. Two of the known best (Vinokourov and Rasmussen), and Moreni, one of the domestiques (the worker bees of the peleton, who support team leaders, sprinters and climbers with various talents they may bring to a cycling team), while Sinkewitz was reaping the 'joy' from his hospital bed.

Now don't come down on ZENcentral, yet: all ZENmud people are against “doping” by pro athletes for temporary physical and professional advantage (in quotes because the term has expanded from substances (amphetimines, cocaine, etc) to include hormones, steroids, and “blood-packing” (transfusions from one's own stored blood or, from compatible human sources).

What the greater picture of MACRO-ZENism reveals, is that somehow, a very secret link exists, between the French Government, which oversees le Ministèrie de la Santé de la Jeunesse et des Sports (Ministry of Health, Youth and Sport: thus also the Agence Française de la Lutte contre le dopage (AFLD), which directs the LNDD), and Le Tour de France, via the leaking tandem of source provider and reporter (Marc Ressiot of L'Equipe). This exposed link via leaks has direct bearing on the Tour and its outcome.

Stand by, however, because the end of the Tour came about with the succession of Alberto Contador, a young Spanish star who was recently drafted into the Discovery Channel team, and who quickly became the next victim of French insinuendo. Given that this team, directed by Belgian Johan Bruyneel, has won eight of the last nine Tours de France, flames the questions that arose from Contador's association with Manual Saiz, who was forced out of cycling from the esteemed 'Operacion Puerto' case that has cast an evil light on a large number of cyclists and other sporting individuals.

A 2007 Tour, which began with the promulgation and signing of the newly-drafted UCI Charter, and the requisite pre-Tour testing for all 189 riders (all tested negative), ended with the second-best mountain rider (as long as we saw Rasmussen besting most of Contador's efforts, as and when needed) being awarded the prize. A 24-year old vanquished a decimated field of predicted leaders, some who 'fell by the wayside' by injury, others staggering under the race's demands, by imperfect training, improper mental focus or tactical errors.

And veritable bombs were lobbed between the ASO company and the UCI Federation, that will assuredly become the focus of these next two months of ZENtalk. ASO described UCI directors as 'incompetent, or bent to destroy the Tour', while UCI vented about its rôle and its desire NOT to be a (paraphrased) “Dick Pound toy for political use and gain”.

If we are to be assured of a future of cycling, my ZENfriends, and we are talking about the cleanest sport in all sports (3 of 189 of the Best cyclists in the world, my friends: find me 189 tennis players, NFL, NBA, MLB, soccer, track and field, or swimming stars, and we'll compare notes!), what has to happen is a fantastic ZEN experience.

An Epiphany, between those who cry “SCANDAL”, those who promote events, and those who promote the racers themselves: they share a Golden Egg that only they can break.

A Concord, the ZEN Cycling Concorde, if you will, that stipulates in any order you wish, that:

Racers will be clean, through force or voluntary methodologies to be determined, improved or repaced;

The WADA Codes and other Rules documents will be re-drafted to represent the better and best use of financial resources, to increase the burden of proof by laboratories of their honest efforts in following the mandatory and efficient ISO and WADA Standards at all times, with severe institutional and personal penalties accruing to the dangerous aspect of false, or negligent results and results-management, as is required.

The UCI will continue to apply the pressure necessary to change the culture of cycling, offering in its rôle, support to the redrafting of WADA Codes and Rules, and increased vigilance within the 'family' of cycling, the rather in-bred group of former cyclists that create the mechanics, the coaches, the medical and therapeutic staffs, the directors sportif, media announcers and cycling products sponsors or sales.

The UCI will re-consider its ProTOUR concept, and refine and revise with current membership how to insure licensing fees and Team promotions are to be objectively reformed and reviewed, in liaison with...

The major and minor event sponsors, from the ASO to the other Grand Tour directors, who all must continue to prepare in harmony with the UCI the proper means of promoting the sport and the races that define who The Best of The Rest may be, from tomorrow and the tomorrows to come.

Little time remains, and ZEN is going to publish here, and wherever else he can, the ideas that spring from an 'outside the box' mentality, or maybe...

An OUTSIDE THE PIE point-of-view.

Because even as the World of Cycling exists in its glory and history, cyclists earn nearly minimum wage, unless they are an Undestroyed Hero in a cycling world gone mad.


COURAGE ...

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç

Tour de FRANCE : Saturday to Grand Bornand

ZENers,

It's Thursday morning here, and you've heard rumours of the film I'm creating for my day at the Tour de France... patience!

Using a new software, isn't the best way to rapidly go from Computer to YouTube to my Blog...

Update 19 February 2008: here is the YouTUBE AT LAST...




Anyway, Saturday was a perfectly SCORCHING summer day, just as it was last year, when Our Hero Floyd Landis wailed up those Cols towards Morzine, and regained 7 of the 8 or more minutes he'd lost when bonking the day before.

I live near Geneva, on the shores of Lac Léman, and I was about 60+ km from le Grand Bornand, where Saturday's stage would arrive. My ride across the French 'countryside' involved one of their "N" roads ('National route'), the equivalent in the US would be a 'US Highway' like Route 6, which comes across Colorado and winds its path out across Utah and Nevada...

Around the first foothill, across the valley of the Arve river, born in the glaciers of Mount Blanc, to the foothills of the Massif des Aravis, is about 55km, or about 32 miles. My only problem, was an increasingly loud, grating Bottom Bracket, the axle which unites the crank arms and allows the pedaling action.

So I thought it unwise to climb too high up the pass Col de la Colombière. As well, I really wanted to see the finish, and I knew if I stayed on the lower half of the hill, I could watch the beginnings of the tactical assault, yet still early enough that the sprinters' 'Gruppetto' would still be less than a kilometer or two behind the stronger climbers.

So I found a tight, climbing left-hand turn, which crossed a beautiful small brook, and had plenty of shade for the four-hour wait, plenty of relief from which to take films, and a gorgeous old stone bridge that served well as a backdrop to the action: the corner was so tight, that no one sane would think to stand there.

I met a nice family from Telluride, COLO (aka To-Hell-You-Ride), and the wife mentioned that they had only gone climbing in the Dolomites of Italy, and 'by hazard' found that their drive back to Paris would cross the Tour route: their finding the same corner as ZENmud allowed us to reminisce about the Colorado Rockies (ZENmud hails from Vail, you see........).

Anyway, I was travelling light, took no food but a cereal-bar, found a café, at the base of the ascent, wherein I purchased a liter of water, hoping that the sponsoring Aquarel trucks would be lenient on their passage... four hours anywhere at an altitude of 8-900 meters is thirsty time.

So waiting and chatting with strangers, seeking the faces of anyone I knew, knowing various comrades were across the ranges, towards Italy or Val d'Isère, was a warming thought.

The show begins as it does, often with the French police screaming up the hills in cars, vans and motos; our 'highlight du jour' was the little French Peugeot police car that FUMED a sinister amount of pollution, while the crowd HOWLED and ran for cover, escaping the clinging blue fumes that he laid upon us like a wet blanket of death... GASsssssssspppp

Then the sponsor's caravan, a truly French spectacle which can be best understood if you seek the great animated film 'Les Triplettes de Belleville', which was written and directed by Sylvain Chomet, and personally a ZENfave film...

How to show the hundreds of thousands of TourFriends along the route, the commercial aspects of this spectacle, is difficult, unless you form a parade about 25km long, pursuing their own company's image while racing by the very fans, some less than some centimeters away from cars doing 30-80km? How to throw 'gadgets' so as not to leave scars?

And then... what's that noise? The Helicopters!

Down across the valley, the heli's are following the leaders, and we all revive our lost adrenalin, to anticipate when the leading police cars, Commissaires' cars and police motos will give way to the screams of racing fans lining the stretches below us!

And then it's THAT MOMENT... Taking films means not being 'in the moment' directly, anxious to maintain camera angles and ensure proper enregistering of their passage...

So hang on, you know by now what happened, and within hours or days I'll have put my YouTube films in this and subsequent posts.

COURAGE ...

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç