one British cyclist's book I'm looking forward to is the autobiography Philippa York
is working on.
She's a super writer, had a stellar career with plenty of up and downs, she's said
some years ago was going submit a file on doping in her own career to the UCI
and Philippa will have the chance to tell her story of her own personal journey.
should be amazing.
when she wasn't appearing in public I thought we wouldn't see her again but thankfully
things have changed for trans folks.
the only British autobiography's I've read are David Millar's first book, Charly Wegelius
and one good one by Nicole Cooke.
Nicole was a bit of a good two shoes at times but dead sound and didn't get the rewards
she warranted due to other riders doping, injuries, sexism that devalued women's
cycling and meant even huge stars like her got paid a pittance.
i'm not aware of there having being an English language bio on Eddy Merckx before
Fotheringham's one - which always bizarre. haven't read that one tho'.
5-10 years ago Kimmage was more positive for the future of pro cycling than I was
but he seems to have totally lost faith now.
he wrote a piece on Jacobsen's awful crash in Poland (I was watching live and turned off
when they kept showing replays) but is rarely bothered now sadly.
I was closely following doping / anti doping in the 2000's and was a minor expert but
I haven't got a clue who is honest now. back then it was like:
''he's French-he's probably honest ! they have strict anti doping ! they always go on
about two speed cycling (their pace and the dopers speed).''
yeah, the Colombian lads at Arkea are in trouble reminds of when Bernaudeau signed
Beloki years ago. that didn't last long or end well.
wonder what's going on there ? Tour hasn't been raided for a very long time.
the no needle policy means that somethings that were legal and very standard for
decades e.g. vitamin injections are banned now as I understand it.
in the 2000's David Moncoutie was famous for not taking any injections.
yeah - likes millions of others i saw the pictures of Davide Bramati the Quickstep DS
taking 'something' out of Remco's jersey when he crashed.
are we surprised ? no.
i'm delighted to see Sam going well but i understand what it takes to get there
and it usually involves some horrible shit.
Rettucs -
I've been talking to you here for the last 15 years about bike racing.
to begin with I seemed have a better idea of doping than most folks on thumped.
you seem to not be able to reconcile enjoying bike racing with all the bullshit
that happens. with me while I know i'd be better off doing something else with
my time and ditching this completely, i've only downscaled my interest a lot.
I've just accepted things as they are because i've known all this for over 20
years anyway and haven't walked away in that time - things aren't going to
get any better.
some things are getting worse. looks at the sponsors - especially the countries
from the Middle East buying cred through sport.
I used to spend ages looking at the results - really spend ages looking at the
results of EVERY pro race on cyclingnews.com , kept notebooks on doping news,
was hooked to races from start of broadcast until end.
and until mid 2000's unconditionally bought Pro Cycling and Cycle Sport
every month etc etc.
but inevitably it became a straight jacket on my time and now I look races on
TV but skip a lot of mundane stuff, smaller races, fast forward to end of sprint
stages etc. i rarely buy magazines, I look at cyclingnews only about once a
week or less.
I had huge difficulty getting anyone interested taking my old cycling magazines.
earlier this year I put most of them into recycling.
i looked through every one of hundreds to decide what to keep and considering
the era a lot of the writing and race reports were irrelevant now anyway.
the ones i kept mostly had articles about about cycling history, or interviews with
old guys or Irish lads or riders that were rarely if ever interviewed in English media.
some articles on doping issues were still of interest.
i still love looking at old cycling footage - I've seen Sunday In Hell and Jorgen Leth's
other cycling docs about the 1973 and 74 Giros which are great and beautifully shot.
seeing footage of riders i had only saw pictures of for first time like Eddy's
Molteni team mate Jos Deschoenmaecker was a treat.
i find the history of the days before I can remember more interesting and
maybe always have.
is working on.
She's a super writer, had a stellar career with plenty of up and downs, she's said
some years ago was going submit a file on doping in her own career to the UCI
and Philippa will have the chance to tell her story of her own personal journey.
should be amazing.
when she wasn't appearing in public I thought we wouldn't see her again but thankfully
things have changed for trans folks.
the only British autobiography's I've read are David Millar's first book, Charly Wegelius
and one good one by Nicole Cooke.
Nicole was a bit of a good two shoes at times but dead sound and didn't get the rewards
she warranted due to other riders doping, injuries, sexism that devalued women's
cycling and meant even huge stars like her got paid a pittance.
i'm not aware of there having being an English language bio on Eddy Merckx before
Fotheringham's one - which always bizarre. haven't read that one tho'.
5-10 years ago Kimmage was more positive for the future of pro cycling than I was
but he seems to have totally lost faith now.
he wrote a piece on Jacobsen's awful crash in Poland (I was watching live and turned off
when they kept showing replays) but is rarely bothered now sadly.
I was closely following doping / anti doping in the 2000's and was a minor expert but
I haven't got a clue who is honest now. back then it was like:
''he's French-he's probably honest ! they have strict anti doping ! they always go on
about two speed cycling (their pace and the dopers speed).''
yeah, the Colombian lads at Arkea are in trouble reminds of when Bernaudeau signed
Beloki years ago. that didn't last long or end well.
wonder what's going on there ? Tour hasn't been raided for a very long time.
the no needle policy means that somethings that were legal and very standard for
decades e.g. vitamin injections are banned now as I understand it.
in the 2000's David Moncoutie was famous for not taking any injections.
yeah - likes millions of others i saw the pictures of Davide Bramati the Quickstep DS
taking 'something' out of Remco's jersey when he crashed.
are we surprised ? no.
i'm delighted to see Sam going well but i understand what it takes to get there
and it usually involves some horrible shit.
Rettucs -
I've been talking to you here for the last 15 years about bike racing.
to begin with I seemed have a better idea of doping than most folks on thumped.
you seem to not be able to reconcile enjoying bike racing with all the bullshit
that happens. with me while I know i'd be better off doing something else with
my time and ditching this completely, i've only downscaled my interest a lot.
I've just accepted things as they are because i've known all this for over 20
years anyway and haven't walked away in that time - things aren't going to
get any better.
some things are getting worse. looks at the sponsors - especially the countries
from the Middle East buying cred through sport.
I used to spend ages looking at the results - really spend ages looking at the
results of EVERY pro race on cyclingnews.com , kept notebooks on doping news,
was hooked to races from start of broadcast until end.
and until mid 2000's unconditionally bought Pro Cycling and Cycle Sport
every month etc etc.
but inevitably it became a straight jacket on my time and now I look races on
TV but skip a lot of mundane stuff, smaller races, fast forward to end of sprint
stages etc. i rarely buy magazines, I look at cyclingnews only about once a
week or less.
I had huge difficulty getting anyone interested taking my old cycling magazines.
earlier this year I put most of them into recycling.
i looked through every one of hundreds to decide what to keep and considering
the era a lot of the writing and race reports were irrelevant now anyway.
the ones i kept mostly had articles about about cycling history, or interviews with
old guys or Irish lads or riders that were rarely if ever interviewed in English media.
some articles on doping issues were still of interest.
i still love looking at old cycling footage - I've seen Sunday In Hell and Jorgen Leth's
other cycling docs about the 1973 and 74 Giros which are great and beautifully shot.
seeing footage of riders i had only saw pictures of for first time like Eddy's
Molteni team mate Jos Deschoenmaecker was a treat.
i find the history of the days before I can remember more interesting and
maybe always have.