Stadiums

As I sit here there is a stadium power light beaming into both the rooms of the flat from the car park outside where some filming is taking place. It’s like it’s 8 o’clock in the morning, except it’s almost midnight. That plus the intermittent crackle of walkie talkies and people shouting through a megaphone. Inconsiderate bastards.

The suitcases which the FSR is going to fit into for the trip to Switz arrived this morning and are now suitably lined with cardboard. The wheels will fit if the tyres are deflated and the rear end and forks are going to have to be taken off the frame to get it to fit into the other case, but otherwise not much more disassembling than would normally occur to pack a bike into a cardboard bike box. It’s a cunning plan that might just work. Plus they both have wheels on which means they can be truckled around unlike a cardboard bike box.

Current thinking is that a trip down to TF Tuned is on for Wednesday and I’ve ordered some stiffer fork springs this morning. Bit last minute but there we go.

I’ve also been working on some team kit and t-shirt designs in preparation for a rothar.com team entry in Sleepless this year. Black and white seems like the way ahead to me, just like Guinness and Team Evil.

Some good results to report. Steve Peat is back to winning ways and Fionn Griffiths and Tracy Moseley are up on the podium too. The national road race results weren’t too surprising and this just goes to show that some people need the sort of assistance that isn’t allowed:

From: cyclingnews.com
Subject: Rumsas fails B test

Lithuanian cyclist Raimondas Rumsas has been confirmed to have tested positive for EPO during the Giro d’Italia. The results of the counter analysis were identical to the first test, which was performed on a sample taken on May 16. “The second test proves Raimondas had taken erythropoietin, also known as EPO. This is very sad,” said Rima Berloviene, a spokeswoman for the Lithuanian Sports Federation to AP.

Rumsas has yet to be sanctioned, but he could be facing a long penalty unless he can prove his innocence. After the first positive test, Rumsas stated that if the counter-analysis was also positive, “I would suspect my doctors…Everyone knows that I am under special observation. How then could I take EPO after what happened at last year’s Tour de France?”

Rumsas finished third in the Tour de France last year, but on the last day his wife Edita was arrested under suspicion of carrying doping substances in her car. She was jailed for two months before eventually being released. Rumsas always denied taking banned substances, and said the products in his Edita’s car were for his mother-in-law.