Mailing list dynamics are often fascinating: a complex self-disorganizing system, like a bunch of really dumb ants who are neither very good at finding food, nor at finding their way back to the nest. When they work their best, they’re a fabulous tool for decentralized group communication, thinking and decision-making. At their worst… Today’s case …
A comment worth highlighting in the thread on whether bike helmets are dangerous because cars pass more closely when a cyclist is helmetted: The solution is invisible helmets. Duh.
One of my favorite bike racers, Alexandre Vinokourov, is winning the Vuelta. Vinokourov is a great joy to watch – an unpredictable, attacking racer with a flair for the dramatic. I had no idea he was winning. It’s not that I intentionally boycotted the Vuelta. I just got out of the daily habit of checking …
Continue reading ‘The Practical Effect of Cycling’s Doping Scandals’ »
Another contribution to the bike helmet debate (see also here): Drivers get more than 3.1in (8cm) closer to cyclists wearing helmets than they do to bare-headed riders and female cyclists are given more room on the road than male riders, according to a survey from the University of Bath. Dr Ian Walker, a traffic psychologist, …
A friend sends along a link to Squishy’s road markings gallery. I wanna know the stories.
There’s a fascinating anecdote in Peter Spotts’ Christian Science Monitor piece on athletes and doping. After publishing results of tests on a new compound that showed promise in growing extraordinary muscles in mice, University of Pennsylvania researchers were inundated with requests for information, but not from people in the medical community: After the university published …
Some useful background for those cycling fans in the audience trying to understand the context of Floyd’s test results. Turns out Malcolm Gladwell spent the necessary time getting on terms with the subject some years ago: Athletes have now switched from injection to transdermal testosterone patches, which administer a continuous low-level dose of the hormone, …
This was a joke. This apparently is not: Floyd Landis, who on Sunday became the third American cyclist to win the Tour de France, tested positive for a banned substance after winning Stage 17 of the race, his team announced Thursday.
We’ve discussed in the past here on Inkstain how Floyd did it. Now from Robbie Hunter, we get a better idea of why: Eddy Merckx has spent a bit of time with us over the past weeks because of his son’s attachment to the team. Yesterday we found out that the night after Floyd lost …
It’s a bit long for a crit course, but it was fun watching the boys have at it on the Champs-Elysées today. Great to see Ekimov hold the flag for us old guys, leading the peloton in, and even greater to see him bust a move there at the end to try to set up …