Bike and Ski

A post about the recent blow up of US Postal service and the Lance Armstrong drama was in queue but time is limited as it is for posting. To try and be articulate and unique to the million of articles that are out there, the motivation to put effort towards thought and writing wasn't there. Bottom line, it is sad, frustrating and disgusting. 

 One thing that bothers me the most is that if doping was so wide spread, why more people were not caught. Yes, there were positive tests but if the USPS team was doing like they did, it is a screwed up deal because they all should of been caught. Apparently they were ahead of the testers and had the doctors and scientists to get around getting caught or tests that did come back positive, were covered up as reported being done by Armstrong. You would think more people would make voice what was going on but there must of been so many people doing it, it was just part of the culture and if what is true about Armstrong "bullying", it can be seen why. When we hosted a UCI race, we paid some serious dollars to have the UCI and USADA people come, way more people than what was needed. My feelings on these organizations isn't very positive right now. 

One other comment, there were a few riders, locally, that were in Europe in the late 90's and early 2000's and I remember they came back because the doping was so bad and absolutely disgusted what was going on. I applaud their decision to not get involved, the real heroes and athletes. Other riders had choices but went down the dope path and seems since so many other were doing it and getting away, it was "okay". They will lose in the end and again, a sad deal. I am sure there were riders doped when I raced Nationals in the early day. I never was at that level I felt like I lost out because others were doped, gaining an advantage and I was not. I hardly feel that way, I was the winner because I was doing something I enjoyed naturally and those that chose to dope,are the losers in the end. I feel more bad for local riders like Jeff Hall, Doug Swanson and Tristan Schouten who were just on the bubble to being at the top of the elite level and were probably cheated out.But those guys love to ride and can feel good about what they have accomplished and are respected. I have more respect for the above riders than the winners that have question mark. Not saying the "winners" were doped, but hard not to have doubts.

My sister asked if riders were doped in the Chequemegon race that Jake won. I have a hard time believing that would happen in the short race but we know now the long race wasn't always clean with USPS riders toeing the line. Along the same lines, I said it would be good to test at the Birkie, if it did any good, because the years of Italian domination seem questionable to me. With that said, it has been written a big win or upset in cycling will now be in question. Again, a sad deal for those athletes who are doing it clean and hones. but each person knows in their heart what is right and wrong and making ethical decisions which seems less and less in today's word, business and sport alike.

Personally, I will continue to enjoy biking and skiing hopefully hitting a few more races next year but all for the love of riding and gliding, which was the original intentions of this post....

Once the leaves came down a few weeks ago, trail work focused on leaf removal, mainly on the key trails with other trails cleared if time allowed. The weather and shorter days can make time short but overall it has been great. In the time it takes to do 5km, could probably do 50km in same amount of time in the winter grooming! Thick, damp leaves make for slow going in spots. The last two weeks around 100 hours of leaf removal and only 1/4 done!

 Last weekend a surprise snow event left us with 4-5" of beautiful snow. Perfect timing to test out the trails recently cleared. Knowing it would melt off quick with the warm ground underneath, I only did a couple km.

 I got out early enough I was able to get on the skis shortly after on and enjoy incredible early season skiing.

 We also have blown on most of the singletrack and with the much needed recent moisture, the track is absolutely perfect. The snow packed the track and it is a surface rarely seen. Not greasy but hard and tacky with no loose on top.

Just a few days of skiing but any week or month to have skiing and perfect mtb conditions is a treat!