Thursday’s Short Takes

Patrik Sinkewitz And Those Results

In a comment to yesterday’s post, reader LuckyLab asks something I hadn’t thought of: If Patrik Sinkewitz signed the UCI Pledge after the anti-doping test was taken in June, is he obligated to pay a year’s salary? Good question. I’d bet that a good lawyer would be able to argue that one in Sinkewitz’ favor.

In other Sinkewitz news, Edward Wyatt of The New York Times has an article about Sinkewitz. Missing from the article? Any of the comments by Sinkewitz, himself. Seems to me, if you’re writing an article about a positive anti-doping test, you might want a comment or two from the alleged doper.

Any copy editor or line editor work his/her salt should have held Wyatt’s feet to the fire on that account. The article gives a run-down of the charges that may confront Sinkewitz, should his B sample confirm the A sample. And it gives a good platform for Bob Stapleton to put forth the T-Mobile team and corporate line. But nowhere does it even attempt to give Sinkewitz’ side. Bias? A presumption that Sinkewitz is guilty? Hmm. Kind of seems that way, doesn’t it?

Give Jerome Pugmire of the AP, and the reporters at Agence France Presse and the German news agency DPA credit. At least they reported Sinkewitz’ reaction to being informed about the results.

And speaking of The New York Times …

Slow News Day At The Tour

In both today’s print edition and online edition, it’s not the Sinkewitz story that gets the lead. And it’s not really the race action from yesterday, either. Instead, it’s a story on cyclists being rolling billboards for their sponsors. Really? You’ve just noticed, Mr. Wyatt? Wasn’t that already obvious from the logos and adverts on the riders’ jerseys, shorts, gloves and helmets?

And if that hadn’t made it clear, Bradley Wiggins spoke to the matter when he did his long breakaway earlier in the Tour. After that stage, Wiggins (and any number of commentators and bloggers) noted that even if his breakaway was destined to fail, it was good exposure for the team’s sponsor, Cofidis. Might have been a better time to run that story back then. Just a thought.

Wiggins does get a quote in today’s piece, however, saying pretty much what he said a while back.

“It’s just a great advertising board,” said Bradley Wiggins, a British rider who went on a solo breakaway of 118 miles in the sixth stage. Wiggins’s effort was particularly appreciated at the offices of his team’s sponsor, Cofidis, a French company that provides consumer loans.

“I had nearly four hours television coverage the other day on my own, which is for free in many respects,” Wiggins said. “If Cofidis were to buy that advertising space, it would cost them a lot of money.”

Exactly. That’s why they spend the money to sponsor a pro cycling team.

Word Of The Day

Bonk: (verb) A lack of energy brought on by the inability of an endurance athlete (such as a cyclist or marathon runner) to take in enough food or liquid during a prolonged effort in training or in racing. See Stage 16 of the 2006 Tour de France.

Yes, it was one year ago today that Floyd Landis bonked on the last climb of Stage 16 of the 2006 Tour. Landis went from wearing the yellow jersey to being eleventh in the overall standings as he lost more than eight minutes to the other leading riders over the course of that last, difficult effort to climb up to La Toussuire.

Heat played a factor in the race. For Floyd Landis it was a bad day at the office. As Landis told VeloNews shortly after the stage:

“Sometimes you don’t feel well, and sometimes it’s on the wrong day,” said Landis, who plummeted to 11th overall at 8:08. “Today was not a good day to have a bad day. What can I say?

“I don’t think it was a problem of not eating enough. I just wasn’t good from the beginning…. A lot of times I feel that way and I come around at the end. There was never a flat part for 15 minutes where I could recover. I think I would have been better off, but that’s how it goes.”

In either case, Landis’ rivals — especially Team CSC and Oscar Pereiro’s Caisse d’Espargne — did what rival teams usually do when they sense that a competitor is struggling. They ratchet up the effort and put the hurt to him. Despite Landis’ best efforts to hide how he was doing, other riders started attacking in the final 14 kilometers, leaving Landis to struggle up the mountain as best he could.

By the time it was over, he’d lost 8:08 to Pereiro and sat in 11th place overall. Michael Rasmussen, the Danish climber who currently holds the yellow jersey in the 2007 edition of France’s most storied race, won the stage. As VeloNews also noted:

A dejected Landis came through 10:04 behind Rasmussen, his yellow jersey soaked in sweat, his face sunken from the effort and his dreams of winning this crazy Tour de France completely shattered.

Of course, the next day Landis came out of the starting blocks and proved VeloNews and all the others who spoke of his doom wrong.

I remember watching Stage 16, watching Landis implode, and then telling my wife that Landis would have to do something dramatic the following day in order to get back in the race. Prophetic words.

Landis went on to win the tour, and that’s not even the most dramatic part of the last year’s story. To be continued …