Sunday, July 04, 2010

22 Cycling Shorts : 04 July 2010

The true punchline of my blog is "cross-pollinating velo buzz".  I'm going to continue the Cycling Shorts option - provide you short pollinations with a summary and opinion and you decide if you want to click on it and read further, agree or disagree with me. Hopefully, these links as they have passed through my bandwidth filter will be quality material.

1. Stage 3 cobbles could be a big decider : Chris Horner wrote in his Team Radioshack diary yesterday that on the day of the recon of the cobbled stage 3, he was putting forth some 475 Watts of power according to the beloved SRM. To his astonishment, he noticed Lance Armstrong go flying by him like he was standing still, that in his own words. Contador on the other hand, said he respects the cobbles, he doesn't fear it. His riding partner Van Petegam could also have gone overexcited and released wattage numbers for the ride but chose to not disclose it. Meanwhile, a father and son duo managed to go check out the fuss around the cobbled stage. I felt the little kid was flying, making his dad look still.

2. WSJ not a ragbag tabloid : Cycling Weekly argues for the validity of the Wall Street Journal article today. They write that not only is the WSJ a credible news source and not the rag bag tabloid people make it out to be, but that times, dates, places and multiple sources that are well listed in chilling detail making the case a strong one. Three U.S postal riders have confirmed already. A host of other former U.S postal riders had been caught or suspended for doping and to say Bruyneel & Armstrong never knew anything about this is not going to be believed by intelligent people anymore. Meanwhile, other news sources have begun to play around with the strip club part as headlines. But I think it is significant because a) cocaine was involved, b) behavior was displayed before his divorce and may explain why Kristin decided to move on and c) a source who was close to Armstrong back then told me that he had close knowledge of it and strongly disapproved of him cheating on his wife and kids.

3. Timing Of Interview : Others are claiming that Landis waiting for the TDF to start to make this revelation makes his account even more suspect. An argument can be made that it was in late May that he confessed to doping through his email and implicated Armstrong in it. Soon after, IOC and WADA demanded more 'concrete' proof from him to consider any of the things he said. So is it really out of the ordinary that he took over a month to gather the facts from his training diaries, talk to his lawyers from Wilson Goodrich and Rosati, and make arrangements with the newspaper of his choice? I think it would have been more awkward if he chose to reveal this on Christmas Eve later this year.

4. How much did Landis make from WSJ? Quite possibly nothing. Former pro and confessed doper Joe Papp supports the theory. "The WSJ didn't pay me", he told me, and he wouldn't ask them to either. "Just doesn't happen in proper journalism in the USA". Another source told me that "the Wall Street Journal--even under Murdoch's stewardship--does NOT pay its sources. Ever." What is interesting is that media boss Rupert Murdoch, who is indirectly involved in professional cycling via Team Sky, has not hesitated to have this article published. Did Team Radioshack try to get a court injunction to stop its publishing so it could "go away"? Unsurprising tactic, if true.

5. MadFiber Full Carbon Wheel Criticized : Ric Hjertberg of WheelSmith fame is branching out to new ideas. He's now taken an aerospace engineer from Kansas University onboard to develop "Madfiber", a $2500 full carbon fiber wheelset with carbon spokes. To create spoke tension on these "no weight limit" wheels, the spokes are first bonded directly to the rims and the flanges and then pushed to the edge of the hub to create tension. Meanwhile, another respected engineer Jobst Brandt told me that the whole idea of a non-heat absorbing rim is nuts. He saw a collapsed carbon fiber wheel in Italy and did not like the stress problems in the spokes. "I think he is more into the art of the wheels than function in manufacture, building and performance," he remarked. Yes, carbon fiber's strength to weight ratio is off the chart but I do have to consider Jobst' comments. How well do people know carbon fiber anyway? The engineers behind the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, built with 50% carbon composites, can't even accurately predict how the structure will behave in the event of a crash. Other experienced engineers remain uneasy in-spite of the fancy imagery their computers show them. The material's true value can be overrated when kept in context with its price.


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22 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:26 PM

    You forgot the 15000 dollar helmet for dear Armstrong's head. Still, EPO and steroids would cost more.

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  2. Sarah6:33 PM

    /..if I was Kristin and found out my husband was running after bimbos in bars and strip pubs, I'd knock the teeth out of him and mayeven break one of his knees so he wouldn't walk anymore. its a shame maybe it was because of her nature that he took advantage of her...

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  3. Trackasaurus6:39 PM

    LOLOLOL. Sad and funny at the same time but well said Sarah.

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  4. Anonymous7:11 PM

    Maybe out of context but only because you brought it up. That article on 787 is nervous. So here we are, 300 passengers or so in a marvel of modern technology and the designers hope to learn about whether it will work or not by making us guinea pigs? WTF?! Just bs.

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  5. Anon :

    The call of carbon fiber is one that many companies cannot resist. There must be some level of marketability in it. But due to an inadequate understanding of the behavior of carbon fiber composities, what designers can do these days is only to make the most conservative assumptions and build a structure around that. This is what I call fudge factors. For a Boeing aircraft, that fudge factor might be very high since no one wants to see an aircraft fall out of the sky and take hundreds of lives with it. But for bikes who damage potential is much lesser, whats the fudge factor? Everyone wants to make as light of a bike as possible and do no more than what is necessary for performance. This is what upsets people so much when their carbon stuff breaks, that they pay all this money and it snapped even without a warning. Metal alloys yield and have a big margin before ultimate failure. That is called insurance. Cycling as a sport should be all about insurance precisely because you as a human on a bicycle have no padding or no rollcage around you when you take crash. That includes helmets, safe structures for frames, wheels, good functioning components. I have yet to see a bike company keep safety first over design porn.

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  6. Anonymous7:37 PM

    Thanks for commenting. So whats the fudgeing factors in airplanes like so I could get an idea.

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  7. MarvinK7:39 PM

    I think there are very few cycling people who realistically believe Armstrong was clean all those years. I mean--many of the people who got 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th in many of the same races have already been caught or come clean. The question is, what is cycling going to do if they bust Armstrong, Contador, Hincapie any many of the other big name riders (do you really think more than 10% of the winning riders were clean?)? Strip Armstrong of his titles and pass them on to someone else who simply hasn't been caught yet?

    I don't think it's all bad that they look into the past--and I like how investigators are focusing on those funding the cheating. I'm just not sure what they are going to do when they realize almost everyone was cheating--or losing.

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  8. Anonymous said... Thanks for commenting. So whats the fudgeing factors in airplanes like so I could get an idea.

    In aerospace, about 10 or greater. Don't get me wrong. Carbon fiber is a fascinating material but cycling companies have yet to solve the problem of fork and steerer breakages. It still goes on today and lots of people get hurt. Hence I have little faith when the same companies, or others, incorporate more of them at other vital points in the bike especially in something thats only connecting link to the road.

    MarvinK said... I'm just not sure what they are going to do when they realize almost everyone was cheating--or losing.

    Thats a toughie isn't it? The first step would be to make these individuals publicily apolgize and if they have laundered money from the public based on manufactured fables and still deny it, throw them in jail. Strip them of their prizes yes. The biggest victory of the day would be shifting public opinion, stopping the public from believing in frauds and understand something about ethics. That will be for the good of mankind believe me. We'll figure out how to move on thereafter.

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  9. Ric's 3 flange rear wheels when he was at FSA were not that bright of an idea, resulted in an inefficient structure. Marketing was great tho. http://www.whitemountainwheels.com/Designvsmarketing.html I wonder if he's done his homework with carbon fiber of all things.

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  10. Ok, I reread the WSJ article, and changed my mind. With a very high probability, LA is a doper, and the greatest comeback story in history of pro cycling was a complete hoax.

    I just hate, by accepting it, to have to also accept names like Allen Lim don't necessarily represent clean cycling anymore...

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  11. MarvinK2:57 AM

    What I can't believe is how people really believe Armstrong and others are clean. I mean, seriously--nearly every major rival of his has been busted, and he beat them all--after going through cancer treatment.

    I don't see how stripping them of their prizes is productive--do they give it to the next guy down (that hasn't already been caught, anyway)?

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  12. kenem (Ken Matheson)4:39 AM

    The guy who disappoints me most is Hincapie. Obviously he knows all there is to know but, as far as I hear, he hasn't 'come out' and offered evidence. He seems a nice guy and could possibly get the kind of support that Vaughters, Zabriskie, Barry etc. should/will get. Instead he's likely to get busted along with LA etc. A missed opportunity George, you'll regret it.

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  13. Speaking of Zabriskie, he was a close buddy (actually a housemate IIRC) of Landis, so that's another name you have to accept that's linked to doping...

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  14. Andrew10:42 AM

    All Brandt's comments on heat regarding the MadFiber wheels indicate to me is that the UCI needs to take off its blinders and legalize disc brakes for road racing. It's pretty obvious that CF is not a great braking surface, but as a material offers pretty stunning potential for an ultra-light, ultra-stiff, low-maintenance wheelset. Considering the MTB industry makes <1400g carbon disc wheelsets, it's a joke to assume that a road-specific (which sees far lower stress) disc-compatible wheel couldn't be a gamechanger.


    A better look at how a road-specific disc system can easily work to address some of the ostensible showstoppers (like fork-loading) here:

    http://www.canyon.com/_en/technology/project68.html

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  15. The guy who disappoints me most is Hincapie. Obviously he knows all there is to know but, as far as I hear, he hasn't 'come out' and offered evidence. He seems a nice guy and could possibly get the kind of support that Vaughters, Zabriskie, Barry etc. should/will get. Instead he's likely to get busted along with LA etc. A missed opportunity George, you'll regret it.

    - i agree.. such a waste of opportunity there..

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  16. Hincapie is one of the nicest guys in the peloton, but we know now that he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It is most deplorable, his silence. It is to protect the Armstrong empire. It better for him to be on Lance's good side yeah. I suppose someday he will talk his heart out, perhaps he has too many things at the moment to take care of. But the day of reckoning will always come.

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  17. Anonymous1:42 AM

    "Yes, carbon fiber's strength to weight ratio is off the chart but I do have to consider Jobst' comments. How well do people know carbon fiber anyway?"

    How well does Jobst know carbon fiber?

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  18. They can't "solve" the carbon steerer problem because the folks who design the layups continuously design far too optimistically for the clamping environment the tube actually works in.

    The material isn't the problem.

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  19. Jason,

    The material is isotropic. That is a problem.

    ReplyDelete
  20. @Ron

    Aluminum has a comparatively low fatigue life, steel rusts, all alloys creep - I could go on.

    Any one of those limitations has lead to spectacular and fatal accidents in all manner of situations.

    Material particularities are limitations, not problems unless the design makes them out to be.

    Btw you meant anisotropic ;)

    ReplyDelete
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