Stormy

Although it was sunny most of the day today, there's a big afternoon thunderstorm rolling though right now putting on a big lightning show outside my window. It's heavy enough that I wouldn't be too surprised if we lost power at any moment. It kind of suits my mood today, though, and in fact there has always been something about these sudden strong afternoon thunderstorms that I've liked.

I went out this morning expecting a slow and leisurely recovery ride, but instead we had a half-dozen guys and the pace stayed a bit faster than that. It was good, actually, except for the nagging clunking noise that has been coming from my bike lately. Yesterday I used a different rear wheel and didn't hear it. That would tend to eliminate the bottom bracket as the source, so last night I took the rear (Campi) hub apart and re-greased it. Indeed, the left side bearings didn't look too good, as if they were a little rusty or something, and they were just a tad loose. After battling with the damned cassette pawls I finally got everything back together and ready for this morning's ride. Well, the hub might have needed re-greasing, but that wasn't the problem because the clunk was back. The wheel is tight in the dropout and the cassette is tight on the carrier, so it's probably in the cassette carrier somewhere. I guess I'll have a look at that tonight. I think that's a cartdrige bearing, though, so I will probably just be able to make sure everything is snug. I really miss those nice old cup and cone hubsets that never caused trouble and lasted forever.

Well this Landis affair is quite a show. I've seen and read more mis-information and speculation than I can shake a stick at. And then of course good 'ol Dick couldn't resist the opportunity to render premature judgement as usual, blaming the UCI and cycling in general. I would just absolutely love it if it turned out that the test itself is inaccurate, but of course it probably isn't. Not that I have anything against drug testing, you understand. It's just that I think Dick is a self-absorbed, glory-seeking jerk. I think that it's at least partially because, being a lawyer, he has little use for actual hard scientific facts, preferring to make his judgements on the basis of rather squishy protocols, all the while proclaiming them to be 100% infallable. Well, that and the fact that he obviously hates the U.S. in general and U.S. athletes in particular, not to mention the IOC and the UCI. Anyway, it looks like it will be quite a while before the whole thing is resolved. Once they re-test the samples and confirm the result, which I'm sure will happen, Landis will be forced to appeal to the CAS, which could take months, in order to present his case and offer an explanation as to why his T/E ratio was over the limit. In the meantime, he and his team are screwed and the French newspapers can have a field day. In the end, whatever happens, we'll probably never get the real details.