The Lea Valley CC '25' was held on the E2/25 course with an HQ in Exney, near Newmarket.  It was also the victim of a car break-in during which all the entry forms were pinched.  It's to the organiser's credit that the event went ahead at all, let alone so smoothly.  I went over to the event with my club mate Tony - both slightly apprehensive, and in particular in my case rather worried about the course, which is based on the A14 and A11 dual carriageways near Cambridge.Anyway, for a change I found myself setting up to race on a warm and sunny afternoon, rather than the wet and cold conditions I've raced in recently.  Both Tony and I decided that for our first '25's of the season, we'd be happy with results in the 57 or 58 minute range.  After we set up the bikes, we went to recce the ride up to the start, and do a brief warm up.  After that it was off to the start.  I was there good and early as I was a bit concerned about the start time (15:12 isn't usually correct for number 62!).  Eventually the start came, and off I went, down the sliproad onto the A14.As I joined the A14, I was surprised to find myself tearing along at over 30mph. On the face of it, the A14 is rather alarming, with three lanes in each carriageway. In practise, the E2/25 (this was my first ride on the course after last year's debacle) turned out to a be a rather nice course - quite flat with few sliproad junctions.  I didn't expect to keep up that pace, but much to my surprise, I found myself rocketing along at an average of 30mph.  I'm a realist, so I didn't actually believe I'd become Chris Boardman - most likely the breeze, which had got up during the afternoon was assisting me.I kept on roaring along, occasionally seeing speeds in excess of 34mph and never dropping below 28mph, to the junction with the A11 (see the map below).  Here riders just stick to the left and the lane scoots off to form the A11.  The only problem were the potholes, but having been pre-warned at the start, these presented no difficulty.  In my mind, the A11 ran at in a slightly different direction than the A14 (but this isn't the case), so I was pleased to see my speed holding up, and I found myself ascending the sliproad to the turn at about 25 minutes.Descending from the turn, it was clear that there had been significant wind assistance - once out on the A11 again, I found it hard to keep up 23mph most of the time.  As usual in these circumstances, I started mental calculations of my likely finish time - I figured I was heading for a 57.  However, by the time I rejoined the A14 I found my speed picking up again.  At the time I though this must reflect a change of direction relative to the wind, but looking at the map, this can't be the case.Very soon, I passed the two service stations that flank the course not far from the start, and saw the sign for the exit slip where the finish is (this is nice, it gives the rider half mile notice of the finish!).  And with some delight I crossed the finish in what appeared to be a long-ish 55.Back to the car to change and recuperate, while waiting for Tony (who's start was 47 minutes behind me) - when he turned up, he thought he'd done a long 53 or a short 54.  In the end, it turned out Tony had recorded a 53:54, and I'd done 55:38 - results we were both very pleased with.Reviewing my old records, this might be my fasted '25' since 2004 when I recorded  54:38 on the F1B/25.  I'll need to check more carefully!  I'll post more results when they become available. The map below includes some of the warm up prior to starting.
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Here's a report criticising recent Government pronouncements on DNA data retention (one of many to surface on the internet today) Public being misled over DNA benefits - Public Service.  In the runup to the UK elections, the main political parties are jostling for the right message - in this case, to be seen to be "tough on crime".Having been smacked down by our European protectors (at least where human rights and privacy are concerned), the Government still plan to keep DNA fingerprint data on unconvicted individuals for a considerable period.  Everyone collared for an offence has there DNA sampled and fingerprinted.  It's what happens to those data if said individual is not charged, or is found not guilty of the offence that's the issue here.  In Scotland, this is limited to 3 years.  In England, the Government proposes to hang on to these data for 12 years in cases where the individual was charged with a serious offence, or 6 years where the charge was of a less serious offence.Pause to think.  In both situations, the individual will have been found not guilty.  So the Government is effectively suggesting there are two degrees of innocence!  Someone found not guilty of rape is somehow less innocent that someone found not guilty of car theft.A further point is that the case being used to argue for long term DNA data retention does not in point of fact support the retention of DNA data from unconvicted individuals.  As the article points out:

Because Bowman's killer was arrested after a pub brawl, Labour has claimed he would have been much tougher to find under Tory proposals as his profile would have been deleted.But GeneWatch said the killer, Mark Dixie, was arrested after the murder. This means his DNA did not need to be retained for an indefinite period as it would have been checked against the database at the time of the arrest.It said there are "numerous other high profile cases cited by ministers" that also did not require the retention of innocents' DNA."Murders solved by keeping innocent people's DNA records are as elusive as the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," said Dr Helen Wallace, GeneWatch's executive director. "If the government has a case to make why can't it produce the evidence?"

Genewatch also claim that "crimes brought to court following DNA detections have not increased since 2002/03, despite the DNA database more than doubling in size."  How much truth will be sacrificed in the pre-election posturing?

A consequence of the events that followed a recent club event at Astwood was that I needed to replace both tubulars on my Corima wheelset.  Veloflex Records appear to be hard to find - and when you do, they are rather pricey, so I plumped for a pair of Continental Tempo tubulars.  I've always found that Continental tyres are rather hard to fit, and always need an undue amount of heaving and effort to get them on the rim, so I guess I should have expected to have hassle getting these blighters on.I'd recently bought a few tubes of Continental rim glue, as I'd found that tub tape is just a bit too tight for rapid removal (for example after said club event).  In the past, during my (so far only) ride in a 12 hour time trial, I have successfully and rapidly replaced a Veloflex Record when I punctured during the event.  This was using Continental glue to fix the tub to the rim.  With this in mind, I've been keen to return to gluing tubs again.Then the problems began.  Here's the Continental instruction leaflet, which makes it look oh so easy:[caption id="attachment_702" align="alignnone" width="550" caption="Instruction sheet for fitting Continental tubulars"][/caption]What I particularly like is the suggestion that a mere 8h after wrestling these things onto the rim, I'd be winning an event.  Heh, some hope!Anyway, I found the tubulars so tight I even checked I'd ordered the right size.  In desperation, I arranged for my long-suffering Team Grumpy team mate to show me how to fit the blasted thing onto an unglued rim (stage III above).  Even he had some hassle, but at least on went the first tyre.  Last night I deflated the tyre and, following stages VIII to X above.  Glue went on fine, dried for an hour, but then there was an almighty struggle to stretch the damned tubular back onto the trispoke wheel (Team Grumpy team mate was not available).  By the time I'd managed this, the air in the garage had turned decidedly blue and my thumbs hurt spectacularly.  Fortunately a Corima trispoke wheel is fairly robust and stood up well to the "manipulation".Tonight will see the attempt to fit the rear tubular to a disk wheel, a wheel that has already suffered from impressions of fingers and thumbs from prior tubular fitting experiences (most carbon disk wheels appear to be constructed from a carbon fibre skin over a foam interior).  I may not be able to grip the handlebars firmly for a few days, so it's a good thing my next event will see me mostly on the tri-bars.

Some progress.  I now have Mythbuntu 9.10 working on at least one of the TV input channels. It seems to work very well, with easy to navigate programming schedules.  The first real test to to record a couple of films this evening (Control and 24 Hour Party People as it happens - I have a long-standing affection for Joy Division and Factory Records).I've also got it daisy-chained from the Humax box, and the S-video output comes into the TV on a separate channel from the Humax box.The big challenge now is to get the remote control working, so I don't have to run it via a vnc connection from my Linux notebook.  More later

Cyclingnews today reports further on a series of searches that have been taking place during an Italian crackdown on doping in cycling (Bernucci House Search Part Of Larger Investigation | Cyclingnews.com).  What's interesting is this little gem (my emphasis):

This same work led to the arrest of former professional rider Aleksandar Nikacevic, the seizure by police of a line of homeopathic products from a pharmaceutical company in central Italy and the searching of dozens of pharmacies following complaints that doping practices were being undertaken by a Venetian doctor on athletes, some of whom were minors, from various sporting disciplines.

It baffles me why homeopathic potions, which after all contain no active ingredients, could be considered in any way performance-enhancing.

For those of us tired of hearing how Apple have reinvented mobile computing with the iPad, here's evidence there's one less iPad on the planet - "Will it blend? - iPad" courtesey of Blendtec, via YouTube. As ever, not to be tried at home!

[caption id="attachment_685" align="alignleft" width="90" caption="Mythbuntu"][/caption][caption id="attachment_679" align="alignleft" width="65" caption="Drupal"][/caption][caption id="attachment_680" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="Joomla!"][/caption]Usually, the short holidays such as Xmas and Easter provide me with the opportunity to put some time aside to deal with ongoing projects, often related to websites and/or computing.  This easter was no exception - I decided to overhaul a Drupal site I maintain, and to install Mythbuntu on an old desktop PC.  Both of these projects were a little challenging, but for different reasons.Drupal and Joomla! CMSI find myself in the position of maintaining and/or building several websites. These range from the "low-effort" Team Grumpy blog hosted by Google's Blogger site to several sites built on Joomla! (this site, plus the North Bucks Road Club, Team Grumpy, and Northwood Wheelers sites). I also use Wordpress as a standalone blogging platform (Wonderful Life) and also integrated within this Joomla! site.Another major open source CMS platform is Drupal. I know from reading about this that it's widely considered to be superior to Joomla!, for reasons which escape me in detail - though it's often said that Drupal has better security.  Indeed at work we seem to be moving over to Drupal from a confusing array of other CMS systems (some apparently custom-built), and in previous blog articles, I've described my initial forays into using Drupal to build websites for my work - largely in comparison with Joomla!.Since last autumn, and upon joining the executive committee of the British Society for Research on Ageing, I've been managing the BSRA website. I inherited this as a slightly outdated installation of Drupal version 5. One of my first actions was to update it to the most recent minor version of Drupal 5 (I believe 5.22 at the time).More recently I've been keen to update it to 6.16, as fairly soon Drupal 5.x will cease being supported.  This turned out to be fairly simple, if time-consuming - each contributed module has to have an updated version identified and downloaded,  It does seem to me (as a user of Joomla! for three or four years) that there are lots of features which really ought to be included in Drupal in the default installation, rather than in contributed modules.  Notable among these is a WSIWYG editor - why on earth one isn't included in Drupal is a bit of a mystery to me.On the other had, the flexibility in user roles afforded by Drupal is rather refreshing after working with Joomla! - it allows a degree of fine-tuning not available (at least in a stock install) of Joomla! - and the extensions available for Joomla! are rather fiddly.Identifying modules for particular tasks isn't easy.  As so often the case, a variety of modules for each task is available, and it's not obvious to me which is the best.  A case in point is my desire to incorporate a slideshow of images within a page in my Drupal site - I've spent the morning floundering around among various modules (and in one case entering a "dependency hell" as more and more dependencies were uncovered).  I have become heartily sick of the deep blue Drupal site, and the minimal documentation that seems to be available for some Drupal modules (on the other hand, some are excellently provided for in this regard).  I guess this is all part of the learning process.MythbuntuWe've had a Humax PVR device for a few years now, and on the whole, it's been fine. However, recently it's been misbehaving, with symptoms rather like those described here. Essentially, the stored files get corrupted, allocated to the wrong programme title, and often cannot play.  The only remedy appears to be to reformat the hard drive, thereby losing all the recordings.  It's unfortunate that the Humax device seems to use non-standard systems, and it's is functionally very difficult to extract data from the Humax hard drive (the supplied Windows software has never worked satisfactorily for me), though I do know of various hardware modifications that enable this.  It was with this backdrop that I decided to buy a Hauppauge TV card and set about installing Mythbuntu on an old desktop PC.Mythbuntu is a derivative of Ubuntu GNU/Linux that aims to simplify the installation of MythTV.  If Mythbuntu is simple, I dread to think how hard MythTV is!  So far, I have:

1. Installed Mythbuntu 9.10
2. Replaced NetworkManager with WICD, so I can set the PC to set up the network connection at boot - network connection is via a NetGear USB WiFi stick.  I would prefer to avoid having a monitor/keyboard/mouse attached to this PC.
3. Failed to configure the TV card
4. Failed to enable DVD playback.

So essentially, I have another Ubuntu box, with a limited set of functions.  In my own defence, and that of Mythbuntu/MythTV, I ought to point out that actually the issues I face are due to my near-zero knowledge of TV features.  So quite a bit of fun and games on the horizon before this kit is fully functional.

El Reg has a report on shopping for an iPad on release day (Frisco fanboi frenzy on 'iPad Day' • The Register).  It all seems rather bizarre to me.  Why do so many blokes (the gender balance of that huge queue does seem rather one-sided) need a new toy on release day?  Why indeed do so many people want an overgrown iPod Touch?Personally, I'll wait until the frenzy has died down before deciding whether I want oneHowever, having read some over-effusive articles in the current issue of WIRED, it does occur to me that, like the iPod Touch, the iPad is principally a device for consuming information (i.e. reading the web, watching video, reading e-books etc) rather than creating information, for which a notebook computer might be more appropriate. And, yes, I know there's a keyboard you can attach the iPad to - I saw it on Stephen Fry's rather excited heavy breathing video clip of unwrapping his iPad!Maybe I'll eventually have a go with one of these, and quite probably decide it's a device I can't live without - but it's more likely that I'll wait for a similar device to appear.  One which allows handwritten note taking, is less encumbered by DRM and the iTunes app store, and which ideally can run open source software.

Another dreary morning for a North Bucks club event.  In actual fact the rain (mostly) held off for the event itself, but it was rather wet for the ride over to the start.  The NBRC hardriders course (F5x/22) starts at the bottom of the steep climb at Bow Brickhill, proceeds in a westerly direction towards Bow Brickhill station, then heads over to the A5, where the course climbs steadily past Little Brickhill and down to the Flying Fox roundabout, where it turns left to Woburn.  From Woburn, the course turns northwest to Woburn Sands, where it turns to Bow Brickhill at a double roundabout.  After completing two such laps, the finish lies up the climb from Bow Brickhill (the climb used for our Hill Climb Championship, which gives an idea of how steep it is).Anyway, this was the first time I had ridden the course, and I was rather dreading taking my TT bike up the final climb - my lowest gear is 46x21.  The opening leg wasn't too bad, predominantly downhill, the major issue was dodging potholes, and getting stalled by traffic at the first roundabout.  It was a different matter on the road up to and along the A5 - predominantly uphill with a head wind.  From the Flying Fox roundabout, it was surprisingly quick to Woburn, largely I guess due to the tail wind on that section.  Then a steady climb and descent to Woburn Sands.  I got held up slightly by traffic at this roundabout on both laps, but nothing serious.The major issue was the series of appalling potholes just after leaving Woburn Sands.  Unlike one rider I saw, who coped by riding in the gutter, I decided the prudent course was to ride it wide.  Through Bow Brickhill and onwards for a second lap.  Ultimately, I was really mostly worried by the prospect of the final climb.  Firstly I didn't have any spectacularly low gears, secondly the geometry of my bike doesn't I think suit hill climbs.  In the event, I chose to take it easy rather than blow halfway up and suffer the ignominy of having to get off and push!I finished in 1:00:56, which I was quite pleased with.  Full results, and hopefully a map of the course to follow.

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				Lap 1	Hill	Finish
Pos	No	Name	Club	Cat	Time	Climb	Time
1	6	Richard Wood	TeamMK	S	26.45	2.27	55.50
2	9	Simon Cannings	TeamMK	S	26.59	2.39	57.22
3	7	Rob Saunders	NBRC	V50	28.19	3.37	1.00.56
4	8	Lindz Barral	i.team.CC	S	28.05	3.26	1.01.03
5	1	Geoff Perry	TeamMK	V50	30.04	3.17	1.04.13
6	4	Julian Lane	Unattached	V43	31.32	3.36	1.07.05
7	2	David Skeggs	NBRC	V41	32.38	3.35	1.09.40
8	11	Rob Chaundy	TeamMK	V58	32.14	4.04	1.09.44
9	3	Brindley Martin	TeamMK	V47	33.28	3.54	1.12.40
DNF	10	Stuart Tarry	Team Sanjan Design	S	28.01	N/A
DNF	5	John Buchanan	TeamMK	V40	33.15	N/A
Time Keepers:- Steph Cousins & Tony Farmborough NBRC.
Pusher off:- Mr Bryan Scarborough NBRC.

Looks as though the practise of patenting genes may be at an end (at least in the USA) Judge Invalidates Human Gene Patent - NYTimes.com.  It's always seemed odd to me that patents of natural objects suc as genes were allowed in the first place - this case concerns patents held by Myriad Genetics on the use of BRCA1 and BRCA2.

A federal judge on Monday struck down patents on two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The decision, if upheld, could throw into doubt the patents covering thousands of human genes and reshape the law of intellectual property.

The case was brought jointly by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation.  This case has been interesting - my memory of events is that Myriad knew where the genes were, but that it was the public human genome sequencing projects which provided the raw data that enabled Myriad to determine the gene sequences.The implication of this ruling, if it's upheld, may be interesting.  I suppose smaller biotech companies with principal IP assets in the form of gene patents might find themselves in trouble.  The NYT article continues:

Judge Sweet, however, ruled that the patents were “improperly granted” because they involved a “law of nature.” He said that many critics of gene patents considered the idea that isolating a gene made it patentable “a ‘lawyer’s trick’ that circumvents the prohibition on the direct patenting of the DNA in our bodies but which, in practice, reaches the same result.”The case could have far-reaching implications. About 20 percent of human genes have been patented, and multibillion-dollar industries have been built atop the intellectual property rights that the patents grant.

I notice from a quick Google search that John Sulston released a statement back in 2009 supporting the ACLU case (BRCA - Statement of Support: Sir John Sulston):

I applaud the efforts of the ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation in challenging the patenting of human genes, and in particular the patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2. A patent on a gene specifically bestows the right to prevent others from using that gene. Rather than fostering innovation – one of the primary goals of the patent system – gene patents can have a chilling impact on research, obstruct the development of new genetic tests, and interfere with medical care.Genes are naturally occurring things, not inventions, and the heritage of humanity. Like a mountain or a river, the human genome is a natural phenomenon that existed, if not before us, then at least before we became aware of it.

Sulston's statement also illustrates the chilling effect of gene patents on research and development, specifically citing the chain of events which led to Myriad's patent application. Of course there are differing views on this: the NYT report quotes various individuals from the patent/legal/business side of the affair who clearly believe that medical research progress will be dented if individuals or companies are prevented from profiting financially from gene discovery (rather than inventing some application based upon gene discovery).This decision is to be welcomed, although the NYT reports that the decision is likely to be appealed.

As can be read over at the  Team Grumpy blog, the Icknield 32k time trial today was a bit of a disaster.  Last year my team mate punctured en route to the start, so we rode separately (and therefore got no result), while this year I had a mechanical problem which prevented me from starting.  The problem stemmed indirectly from yesterday's puncture sustained while returning from the NBRC club time trial.My current time trial bike has these nice pedals - Speedplay X-1 titaniumpedals:[caption id="attachment_641" align="alignnone" width="355" caption="Speedplay X-1 pdeal and cleat"][/caption]You'll note that the cleat (or "shoeplate" in British) is rather different than in other pedal systems where the clipping action resides in the pedal itself.  Here the clip action is within the shoeplate, which is quite large and complex, containing a couple of heavy gauge wire springs.  It was this design feature which led to my downfall this morning.While trudging home yesterday, I walked for a time on the verge, which led to the accumulation of mud on  my shoes.  Upon getting home, I cleaned then washed off all the mud I could see, and checked that the springs in the shoeplate at least moved.  What I didn't do, of course was check that they would still engage the pedal.At the point Team Grumpy was about to ride off to the start, I realised I couldn't clip onto the pedals.  I was unable to clear up this problem in time to get the ride in, and my team mate ended up riding solo (but in the 2-up section, so received a 'DNF').  In the end I had to disassemble the shoeplates, and extract a tiny quantity of mud that was preventing each spring from moving the full amount.So, there's a lesson there - Speedplays, which are otherwise excellent pedals which offer unrivalled float and very smooth clipping action, have cleats which are really quite sensitive to the ingress of mud. In future I'll take better care of them!

A very similar morning to last week's time trial: however, the rain was confined to the ride up to and back home from the event rather than the event itself.  The time trial was the first counting event in the 2010 NBRC time trial league.  A dozen or so riders turned out for the event.I rode the new Cervelo again, and once again with the tubular-shod Corima wheels, of which more later.  As with last week's event, there was a stiff headwind down the opening stretch to Chicheley, but I found it a bit easier than last week.  The whole course was a bit nicer this week without the driving rain.  I rode all the climbs seated rather than out of the saddle.  Unfortunately I found the saddle slipping in the clamp, which meant sometimes I was comfortable, sometimes less so with the saddle nose pointing upwards!I crossed the line in 24:03, an improvement of 27 seconds from last week - this was enough for second place behind Tony, who finished in 23:15.  Back at Astwood village hall, we all regrouped to await the results from the timekeeper.  Unfortunately, upon departing, I discovered my front tyre was soft - clearly a slow puncture.  JayBee kindly lent his track pump and I topped it up before setting off for home.  Conveniently, Clive was behind me in his car when I stopped in Cranfield University to top it up again, and once more I had the use of a track pump.All was now going well until my back tyre popped with a loud hiss, at about two miles from home.  Since I was unable to budge the tub (it was pretty slippery and wet, and fixed with tub tape), it was an annoying trudge home, spoiling a rather good morning.  Ho hum, perhaps I need to keep a 2010 puncture log!  In the meantime I'm going to switch back to using Continental tubular glue, which in my experience is easier to deal with for replacing tubs at the roadside.Results

								Pos. on
Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	.+ / -	Vets Std
1	8	Tony Parks	NBRC	23.15	V45	26.30	.+ 3.15	3
2	10	Rob Saunders	NBRC	24.03	V50	27.33	.+ 3.30	2
3	12	Lindz Barral	i-team.CC	24.14	S
4	11	Ian Marshall	TeamMK	24.31	V41	25.42	.+ 1.11	5
5	5	Andy Sharman	TeamMK	24.35	S
6	3	Glenn McMenamin	NBRC	25.33	S
7	7	John Buchanan	TeamMK	26.32	V40	25.30	.- 1.02	6
8	9	Gilbert Wheelwright	NBRC	27.45	V67	31.30	.+ 3.45	1
9	4	Clive Faine	TeamMK	27.49	V64	30.45	.+ 2.56	4
10	2	David Skeggs	NBRC	28.05	V41	25.42	.- 2.23	7
11	1	Alan Lawson	NBRC	29.45	V41	25.42	.- 4.03	8
12	6	Tony Brunton	NBRC	30.48	V45	26.30	.- 4.18	9
Time Keepers :- Steph Cousins & Tony Farmborough NBRC
Pusher off :- Bryan Scarborough NBRC

Well, here we go!  Another website reorganisation - these re-jigs seem to happen every couple of years.  This time, I've taken the plunge and decided to switch from Azrul's MyBlog (and its counterpart commenting system jomComment) to corePHP's Wordpress Integration for Joomla! 1.5.This will no doubt be an ongoing overhaul, but first impressions are pretty favourable.  CorePHP have developed a set of Joomla! components and modules that integrate the very popular blogging software Wordpress into Joomla! 1.5.  Installation of the principal component was straightforward, as was the import of my existing blog entries from MyBlog.  The system seems pretty neat: there are some sidebar modules that can be set to hold the various Wordpress widgets.  I suppose there are some downsides to relying on developers keeping up with the latest Wordpress releases, but the version installed seemed not to be particularly old (though not the latest).Documentation appears to be a little light - sufficient for installation to be easy, but not so helpful on aspects of installing the Wordpress plugins that have been modified/developed for the integrated Wordpress.  However, corePHP's website has an active support forum, and it seems that support is good - which is as it should be given this is a paid subscription.So, why did I switch from MyBlog?  Mostly because I found the MyBlog interface (both front- and back-end) rather clunky, and the JomComment component seems to build up a very large file cache.  And I mean very large - if not manually cleared, the backup component I use cannot work, and I run out of server disk space. And, of course, my experiences with a standalone Wordpress installation (Wonderful Life) had exposed me to the inner workings of running a Wordpress blog.

flies&bikes is an evolving website covering my interests which vary from biology through technology to cycle sport.  It has evolved from plain and simple html through several versions of the Joomla! CMS.  The present incarnation now uses the well-known blogging software Wordpress.I maintain several other related websites:Wonderful Life is a blog covering my interests in atheism, particularly as they relate to biology and creationism.North Bucks Road Club is the website of my cycling club.Northwood Wheelers is a website dedicated to the eponymous (but now defunct) cycling club, of which my father was a member.Team Grumpy features stories concerning cycle timetrialling, particularly as they relate to 2-up team time trials.The Team Grumpy blog is Team Grumpy's blog, and most definitely tongue in cheek. 

Cyclingnews.com reports that Alejandro Valverde has been accused (by the Spanish media) of implicating a team-mate as the owner of the Operacion Puerto blood bag  during his failed defence against the recent CAS blood doping case emanating from Operacion Puerto (Valverde Denies Naming Teammate In CAS Appeal | Cyclingnews.com).  Interesting, since according to the report, the blood bag was labelled "18 Valve. Piti".  Now, who among the 2002 Kelme-Costa Blanca team could that label possibly correspond to?  Well, Cyclingnews.com has a nice archive that generously lists the members of the 2002 squad:

Santiago Botero Echeverry
Francisco Cabello Luque
Juan Miguel Cuenca Martinez
Juan José De Los Angeles Segui
Isaac Galvez Lopez
Carlos Garcia Quesada
José Javier Gomez Gonzalo
Aitor Gonzalez Jimenez
Ignacio Gutierrez Cataluna
José Enrique Gutierrez Cataluna
Jose Cayetano Julia Cegarra
Francisco Leon Mane
Joaquin Lopez Torrella
Roberto Lozano Montero
Jesus Maria Manzano Ruano
David Munoz Bañóz
Leandro Navarrette
Gustavo Miguel Otero Gomez
Javier Pascual Llorente
Santiago Perez Fernandez
Jordi Riera Valls
Alexis Rodriguez Hernandez
Oscar Sevilla Ribera
Antonio Tauler Llull
Julian Usano Martinez
Alejandro Valverde Belmonte
Angel Vicioso Arcos
José Angel Vidal Martinez
Constantino Zaballa Gutierrez

Now, just who in that gang would have their blood labelled "18 Valve. Piti"?  I mean, apart from the obvious.  Valverde's legal team have denied that anything other than a general comment that the blood could have come from a team mate was made:

"Alejandro Valverde has never accused any rider forming part of the peloton and, as a consequence, what [has been] written in relation to that point is totally wrong," read a statement released by representatives of Valverde on Sunday.

"Mr. Valverde’s lawyers limited themselves exclusively to defend the rider’s interests and they never made such accusations against the cyclist mentioned in the [Spanish] newspapers."

I haven't read the said Spanish newspapers, so I am not sure which of the riders listed above might be a likely target for the accusation, and Cyclingnews.com aren't saying - other than to say that the rider is still in the pro peloton.  If Valverde's bizarre claim is true, and Dr Fuentes was liberally spreading false ID around the blood bags in his tender care, that represents another layer of dubious and dangerous practice in the doping scene.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Heavy overnight rain had passed over, leaving just a dreary cloudy sky when I set off to ride up to Astwood for the second event of the North Bucks Road Club time trial series.  Upon reaching the Astwood village hall, it was clear there was an excellent turnout.  Unfortunately, I didn't manage to sort out a 2-up partner, and chose to ride solo.  Ian Stokes was there with his exclusive hand-painted NBRC aero helmet, which I wasn't permitted to avoid complimenting - actually it's rather well executed.

After a bit of pootling about (and a little saddle tightening), I lined up at the start.  By this time the drizzle had started, and with a minute to go, the wind whipped up a bit and the rain turned rather heavy.  By then I was rather glad I wasn't paired up with a new TT partner, since the wheels I was using had carbon "no friction" rims!

I missed this story on Cyclingnews.com the other day (CAS Confirms Valverde's Italian Ban | Cyclingnews.com), but it would seem that CONI's ban on Alejandro Valverde's in Italy (which includes races passing through Italy) has been upheld by CAS.  Valverde was banned in May 2009 after it was found the blood stored as part of the "Fuentes affair" contained his DNA. The Cyclingnews.com report goes a little further, saying:

According to analysis performed in a Barcelona laboratory as part ofthe initial Spanish investigation, the bag of blood contained EPO andso the CONI banned Valverde for two years.

It's also reported that the UCI plans to take action aimed at extending Valverde's ban worldwide.  In my view there's a wider issue - how can one of the biggest doping scandals have failed to result in more action being taken against offending riders?  Is it fair on the few riders who have been penalised that others involved have not been challenged? 

[The cyclingnews.com page linked above has a useful timeline of the Operacion Puerto case as it relates to Alejandro Valverde]

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Back in the 1970s, when I nearly took up competitive cycling as a teenager, I was a failrly regular reader of Cycling, then the weekly cycle sport magazine in the UK (known colloquially as The Comic).  Of course, I went off to University and discovered a variety of youthful interests that put paid to any serious involvement in cycling as a sport.  My memory of Cycling at that time was of a black and white newspaper like magazine, printed on pulpy paper, but full of stories about the great time triallists of the era.

Fast forward about 15 years.  I had just spent the last four years of the 1980s working in a lab in London, when the whole lab moved to Scotland, lock stock and barrel.  I decided to get a bit more exercise as a largely sedentary lifestyle had filled me out somewhat, and what better way than to take up cycling again, and explore the Scottish countryside.  I bought a bike, and started buying Cycling Weekly (as it was known by then) again.  Having plucked up the courage to join a local cycling club, I finally started racing club then open time trials.

A bright but very cold and frosty morning greeted us as we loaded up the car to drive over to Resolven to ride in the 2010 Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up '25'. In fact we were both apprehensive - about the weather, yes, but also the uncertainty of what form our winter training had led to. In my case, I was reasonably confident, but I was aware of being rather overweight and lacking in mileage - most of my winter training had been in the form of relatively brief turbo sessions in the garage. On the other hand, my team mate Gerry had left resumption of training until late December, and had then been afflicted with a lengthy cold (possibly the same thing that got me during most of December). So he was pretty sure he was going to be riding sub-par.

We got to Resolven and signed on. The race HQ seemed to be colder than the car park, which by the time we arrived was nicely bathed in sunshine, raising the temperature to slightly above freezing. After setting the bikes up and getting sorted, we briefly warmed up. I tweaked the Polar computer so that it would work from the GPS sensor, and we rolled up to take out place behind the fourth team (we were fifth off in a nearly full field). Our time came, and off we went, out on to the DC and done the valley, with a glorious tail wind. We were riding pretty smoothly together, and we took care that any speed discrepancy didn't pull us apart. I don't think it would be indiscreet to observe that Gerry was indeed below par, but still, we gradually reeled in the teams that has started before us.

The Floyd Landis doping saga has reached new and bizarre levels. Soon after winning the 2006 Tour de France, Landis was stripped of his title after it emerged that he'd tested positive for testosterone.  Of course, and as is the case with just about every case of sports doping, Landis has never admitted guilt, and mounted a spirited defence with a high-powered legal team.  This defence used copies of material obtained from the testing lab, and wa sultimately unsuccessful.

Now, however, it would appear that the case has reached quite unusual levels - Cyclingnews.com reports that a French arrest warrant has been issued - for computer hacking (Arrest Warrant Issued For Landis In France | Cyclingnews.com).  The article claims:

In November 2006, the [Chatanay Malabry] lab reported that its computer systems hadbeen infected with a "Trojan Horse" virus, which was used by someone toaccess the lab's confidential documents. The lab said that data hadbeen removed or changed, allegedly in an attempt to discredit the workof the organisation.

An email carrying the virus was alleged to have been sent from acomputer with the same IP address as that of Landis' coach Arnie Baker.Both Landis and Baker denied any involvement in the hacking, butauthorities maintain that the pair made use of pilfered documents inLandis' defense argument.

"Landis used the hacked files for his defense, that's how wediscovered the whole scheme," Bordry said to the Associated Press. "Hewanted to show that the lab made mistakes in the handling of thetests."