Cycling shoes have a number of distinctive features - they generally have very stiff soles (with screw fixings to take shoe plates that clip to pedals), and often have exotic fastening systems (shoe laces are so last millennium!).  Common fastening systems include velcro straps and a variety of ratcheting designs.  Personally, I dislike velcro straps, and prefer the ratchet systems, as these are more amenable to adjustment while riding.

A couple of years ago, I bought a pair of Specialized S-Works shoes (see left), which featured a ratchet system that tightens up a criss-crossing string across the upper, and which fastens the shoe very effectively.  Unfortunately, the other day, the string snapped, leaving me to compete with a shoe held together with gaffer tape.  I disassembled the ratchet this morning and was struck by how the string resembled plaited dental floss.  I repaired the shoe with three lengths of dental floss, and it seems to have worked.  At least, it's stood up to full tightening with no sign so far of giving way!

Cyclingnews.com reports that a German laboratory has developed a test for genetic doping.  This is quite interesting, as there have been reports that genetic doping, if not in widespread use at the moment, may well be the next battlefront in the war against doping.

I have always understood that genetic doping would probably involve either insertion of genes for biochemical factors that might alter or enhance physiological response to exercise (either impacting endurance or the capacity to respond to training stress), or transient expression of such genes.  Likely target tissues would be muscle groups.  These sorts of techniques carry considerable risks - insertion of exogenous DNA into the human genome can have dangerous consequences - in particular one might worry about the potential to induce cancerous tumours.

As a racing cyclist, I'm pretty aware of the equipment restrictions put in place by the sport's governing body, the UCI.  While many of these restrictions are really aimed at safety (such as prohibiting the use of aero bars on road race bikes), many seem to be just a reaction to increased technological developments.

Thus, we are faced with regulations that among other things aim to

Cyclingnews.com has a newsflash story concerning a new professional road cycling team to begin racing in 2010 (Britons announce professional road squad), Team Sky.  Clearly building on evidence of success on the track over the last few years, British Cycling have moved to set up a British-based road squad.  Sponsorship for four years is from Sky, who already play significant role in the development of UK cycling.

Dave Brailsford clearly has a number of riders targeted for the 25 man squad:

As the UK  and international cycling season begins to swing into action, it's also the time that my blog articles on cycling will start to reappear (see also the Team Grumpy blog).

Some really quite sad news from the recently completed Tour of Qatar cycling stage race this week: one of the riders (Frederiek Nolf, of Team Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) died in his sleep, just five days short of his 22nd birthday.  The newsflash at cyclingnews.com (Belgian rider passes away in Qatar) was published on 5th February: the following stage was neutralised out of respect.

For the last few seasons, my availability for training has declined steadily.  This, coupled with the passing years, means that each year when I start reviewing past performances for completing CTT entry forms for the coming season, I find it a little depressing.  This season is no exception.

But at least the Cycling Time Trials website back again after yet another SQL injection attack, this time using a different platform.  Hopefully this'll be more secure.  Actually, I think it would look a lot better without all the flashing, moving adverts, but perhaps that's just me being a grumpy old man (and anyway, as a Firefox user, I can always use the AdBlock plug-in).

Followers of the huge Operacion Puerto blood doping scandal will remember the affair - Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes offered a blood doping service to professional sportsmen (and presumably sportswomen).  His services are most talked about in the context of professional cycling, but in fact his clients are reported to have included professional sportsmen from other sports.

The saga began with police raids in 2006, when Spain's Guardia Civil collected coded blood bags during its raid on the offices of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.  (There is excellent coverage over at cyclingnews.com going back several years.) Fuentes' scheme was to withdraw blood from the cyclists, and store it for retransfusion, a process known as blood doping. This is a formerly legal technique (I believe it was used in the past by the US Olympic track cycling team( but it has been prohibited for many years now.  It's still clearly in use - witness the sorry tales of (for example) Vinokourov and Hamilton in recent years.

Team Grumpy has a blog!

It's probably the worst kept New year Honours story I can remember, but Chris Hoy, triple Gold winner in Beijing has been knighted. 

Here's his response (BBC).  cyclingnews.com's report

The omens weren't good for this event. In early December I came down with a long-lasting cold that kept me from training for much of the month.  This, coupled with festive season food consumption, resulted in my carrying several kilos over my racing weight.  So it was with some trepidation that I set off for the club room to ride the New Year's day '10'.  The event was held on the F5d/10 Stoke Hammond bypass course.

As usual, I rode down to the club room, where we were meeting and signing on.  Fortunately, the weather was warmer than of late, and was just slightly over freezing. Less fortunately, it was kind of a damp, penetrating cold, that had us all shivering on the line. To add insult to injury, there was a gentle amount of tiny, almost imperceptible, snowflakes. Just before I was due to start, I decided against removing my outer thermal layers. This was all to the good, I think. I had a quick spin up and down the opening leg of the course, which was enough to confirm that was the correct clothing choice.  In all, we had a good turnout for this event - 13 riders.

When Astana rider Alxender Vinokourov was busted from the 2007 Tour de France for a pretty obvious case of blood doping, he received an astonishingly light 12 month ban from the Kazakhstan cycling federation.  A UCI challenge to the lack of severity was postponed because the dope cheat retired at that point.

Now that Vinokourov has announced his return from retirement, cyclingnews.com reports that the UCI has reactivated the appeal.  The UCI apparently seeks a doubling of his ban.  And so they should.  The guy is a fraud and cheat, and lied about the blood doping bust at the time, with flimsy excuses that his abnormal blood results were due to his injuries sustained earlier in the Tour de France.

Blood dope cheat Ivan Basso's back in action after serving his 16 months ban handed down for depositing blood in the Fuentes blood bank clinic.  He's riding for Liquigas, though it's not clear how this squares with the rule that riders busted for doping violations are not to ride for Pro-Tour teams for two years after they return from their ban.

Bernhard Kohl, the second CERA cheat (after Stefan Schumacher) on the soon-to-be-defunct Gerolsteiner team has confessed to doping, and has not requested the B sampled be tested.  Sadly the two Gerolsteiner positives continue to have a negative effect on German cycle sport:  Cyclingnews.com reports the Tour of Deutschlandand the Stuttgart Six have been cancelled as sponsors pull out of the sport.  Two German TV channels have announced they won't broadcast the Tour de France.  Well done Kohl and Schumacher, and other pro cyclists who decide to cheat - see what the consequences are?

Bernhard Kohl has apparently been interviewed about his slide into doping (cyclingnews.com).  The essential points make for interesting reading:

His decision to dope followed an extended period without results despite a good showing in the Dauphine Libere, a crash, and an awareness that contract negotiations for next season go on during and after the Tour d France.  He claims it was his decision to take CERA.  He complains about the press blaming riders alone for doping.  The media blame game may well be directed at the riders, and I think this raises interesting points.

So Frank Schleck transfers 7000 euros to Dr Eufemiano Fuentes, who he claims never to have met, has never sought to make use of a prohibited substance or method. Should I send him my bank details so he can send me 7000 euros? (Report at cyclingnews.com)

Seriously, how stupid does he think we are? What was the payment for, then?  He goes on to offer a DNA test to match the blood bags retrieved during the investigation.  Whats that?  The blood's not available for testing?  That's OK then.

Cyclingnews.com reports that Alexander Vinokourov, dumped in spectacular style during the 2007 Tour de France for blood doping (which fuelled a spectacular return to form after an injury-plagued race) is planning a come-back.  He says he's likely to return to the Astana team (the same team now run by Lance Armstrong's mate Johan Bruyneel and which Armstrong will ride for in his comeback season).

Has the world gone mad, or just Vinokourov?  It was Vino and his fellow team mates that earned Astana such a reputation for doping that they were excluded from the 2008 Tour de France.  Vino's ban for doping was astonishingly light, at a mere 12 months, and was the subject of a CAS appeal by the UCI, who suspended it following Vinokourov's retirement.  What responsible cycling team would touch him, even with a ten foot bargepole?

We've known for some weeks now that the Tour de France organisers have been re-examining a bunch of samples from the 2008 race, and recent indications were that 14 of these were sent for detailed analysis to look for traces of the EPO variant of choice in the prop peleton, CERA.  Athletes had believed that various characteristics of CERA, and its dosage regime would render it undetectable.

That this was wildly optimistic was revealed by a series of positive tests, as reported by cyclingnews.com.

Well, here's a turn up for the books - a doping blog entry not specifically about cycling.  I've blogged a couple of times about several pro cyclists who've tested positive for a new derivative of EPO, CERA.  One of the complaints about the bad press that cycle sport gets for doping is that perhaps it just reflects a higher test rate in cycling than in many other sports.  I find it incredible that other endurance sports have not embraced the benefits of EPO as cycling undoubtedly have.

Of course those dimwit athletes are probably mainlining CERA just as much as their equally dimwitted colleagues in the pro peleton, under the misapprehension that it is undetectable.  Well, I guess they are now thinking again.  A report at the BBC Sports website says that the IOC are gearing up (pardon the pun) to have 5000 samples retested (presumably blood samples, though this isn't stated in the article).

Apparently the organisers of the Giro d'Italia do not plan to re-test samples from their 2008 event for CERA.  Recent analysis of samples taken at the 2008 Tour de France have revealed further use of CERA (the EPO derivative naively thought by athletes to be undetectable), and the IOC have announce that they we re-test 5000 samples taken at Beijing this summer.

So why the dfferent strategy to doping checks?  Recall that the second placed Ricco won two stages in the Giro, and then tested positive at the Tour de France, after very strong performances in the mountains (Ricco's hero is apparently Marco Pantani, which is a little alarming given Pantani's sad demise following his positive dope tests). The claim is that tests were already doneduring the event.  But given that the Tour de France organisers have uncovered further evidence of CERA abuse, wouldn't it be wise to re-examine the Giro samples?  Or is this an indication of the "two-speed cycling" often complained about by the French?

Cyclingnews.com reports that another of the Tour de France follow up tests for CERA has turned up positive.  (Or in the rather amusing terminology of professional cycling, "non-negative").  This time it's Bernhard Kohl, a team mate of fellow drugs cheat Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner).  Of course, the B sample still has to be analysed - presumably if it is in agreement with the A sample, he'll no longer be "non-negative" but will be positive.  Kohl finished in third place overall, and also won the King of the Mountains jersey (after Riccardo Ricco was disgraced by failing a CERA test during the event).

What remains to be seen is whether German cycle sport (Kohl is I think Austrian, but the team is German) can survive this blow, after a series of high profile doping positives over the last couple of years.

A still, clear, and quite chilly morning, with a few wisps of mist greeted the riders who turned out for the North Bucks Hill Climb Championship for 2008.  As usual, held on F5z/H (for the uninitiated, the climb from Bow Brickhill to the golf course on top of the hill).  There were loads of mountain bikers hanging around and starting their ride in the woods, but none could be persuaded to take part.

I have to say at this point that I hate hill climbs.  I like cycling up big long hills, but sprinting up short steep hills seems foolhardy to day the least.  Anyway, my effort in the 2008 championship came to a quick end, as I got stopped on the steepest part of the climb by some twerp in a 4X4 who decided to stop to hold a conversation with someone.  That kind of buggered up my ride, and I lost enthusiasm after that.  Oh well.