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.

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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."

I posted the other day about the new BTCare customer support forums ( BT and the heavy hand of censorship).  In the intervening few days, the leaden effects of BT censorship have become ever more evident, not least because of the actions of moderators, which has caused a number of the long-standing and helpful/knowledgable members.  Check these threads out:

How do I send a P.M., how private is it & are there any restrictions?

Cyclingnews. com reports that Riccardo Riccò, whose partner and fellow cyclist Vania Rossi recently tested positive for the CERA derivative of EPO, has now separated from her (Riccò Splits With Girlfriend Rossi Over CERA Positive | Cyclingnews.com).  Nice timing, Riccardo.

I'm fairly sceptical that the two were ignorant of each other's apparent doping practices.  And Riccò has always come across (to me at least) in magazine interviews as rather unrepentant over his doping past.  Cyclingnews quotes Riccò as saying

"I am disappointed with my girlfriend and there can be no reconciliation until Vania is shown to be innocent of the allegations that were raised," said Riccò, according to Italian website Tuttobiciweb.com.

I have a Google Mail account, principally because it was the easiest way to set up an account with Google (for things like Google Maps APIs and a few webmaster tools).  I noticed a bit of a buzz on the interweb, but hadn't really looked into it (I normally use Evolution to access my gmail account via IMAP).

I was more than a little surprised to find that I'd been signed up for Buzz by default.  Fortunately I only had two contacts, because I rarely use gmail except as a mail drop for subscriptions, and I hadn't set up a public profile, so there was rather little impact.  I've now turned it off (via the little letters at the bottom of the gmail screen).  For others however, their contacts have been spread around as followers, and their mailboxes receive additional and frequently unwanted input.