There will be no cycling action in Beijing until the men’s and women’s time trial events tomorrow, but there is, as usual, plenty going on:

• Yes, I’d probably have a panic attack, too: Old news by now, but Maria Isabel Moreno arrived at the Olympics on July 30th, got tested the next day, and pretty much immediately flew home. She said it was a panic attack, but in reality, she had a drug test and knew what was going to happen. This after Spain’s Olympic director said that none of their athletes would be found positive.
• Pat McQuaid is not too happy that the first doping positive of the Olympic games is a cyclist, nor that WADA chief John Fahey is casting doubt on the future of cycling at the Olympics. He points out that cycling has been performing tests for many years, while other organizations, such as for soccer just started testing last year. I think it’s fair to say that cycling is just starting to get good at testing (breadth, not necessarily accuracy) and other sports just starting up may have some years before they can really start to weed out the cheaters.
• Lance Armstrong finished second at the Leadville 100 mountain bike race, coming in just under 2 minutes after six-time defending champion Dave Wiens. Wiens set a new course record despite coming in on a flat tire. Armstrong and Wiens stayed together for the first 90 miles of the race, when Lance sat up and told Wiens to “go.” Lance’s long-time coach Chris Carmichael competed in the race for the third time this year and met his goal of finishing in under 9 hours and getting the BIG belt buckle.
• Sacre Bleu! Jimmy Caspar of France is the mystery rider that was said to have a drug positive during the Tour de France. I’m SURE that the organizers of the Tour de France will not invite this predominantly French team back for the 2009 race. Sure.
  • To Caspar’s credit, he has had a thereapeutic use exemption for this asthma medicine for a number of years and the paperwork did not get filed correctly this time around. Cedric Vasseur of the Association of Professional Cyclists pledged his support for Caspar.
• The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld Iban Mayo’s 2 year ban for doping. The Spanish national federation had decided not to pursue the case, so the UCI appealed to CAS to impose the ban. He will not be eligible to race until August of 2009.
• The UCI hopes to have their biological passport program up and running in time for the Vuelta, which starts August 30th. They did say that the program would be ready in 2008. It would have been nice for it to be ready for the majority of the season.

Tech & Product News:

• Fabian Cancellera was riding a brand new Cervelo for the Olympic road race. The new Cervelo S3 features new chainstays and seatstays that are more aerodynamic and offer more vertical compliance. The cables are routed internally just behind the stem (similar to the Felt AR that the Garmin Chipotle men were using at the Tour), and use internal cable stops that eliminate the need for a full housing run inside the frame. The frame also featured a special paint job with Olympic rings.
• The Garmin Chipotle team rode on the 2009 Dura-Ace group for the Tour de France. Shimano provided special technical support and was very interested to hear feedback from the riders.
• Charlie Kelly, one of the pioneers of mountain biking, wrote a very entertaining and interesting report on Specialized’s 2009 mountain bike rollout for Dirt Rag magazine.

Tags: 2009 dura ace, Agritubel, cervelo S3, dave wiens, EPO, Fabian Cancellera, iban mayo, jimmy caspar, john fahey, Lance Armstrong, leadville 100, maria isabel moreno, Patrick McQuaid, Spain, UCI, uci biological passport, WADA