Paris-Nice
Monday, March 5th, 2007Cycling’s major teams will be able to compete in the Paris-Nice race without fear of sanctions following an agreement with the UCI.
More to come.
Archive for March 5th, 2007
40 years of liberal media bias
Monday, March 5th, 2007David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest pg. 562, copied from The Cunning Realist:
And so in early 1967, Joe McGinniss, then just a young reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, would spend a day traveling with Westmoreland to the coastal town of Phan Thiet. There a young American officer startled McGinniss by giving an extraordinarily candid briefing on how bad the situation was, how incompetent the ARVN was. Westmoreland had demanded the briefing and the young American had been uneasy about giving it, apologizing for being so frank with a reporter present, but finally it had come pouring out: the ARVN soldiers were cowards, they refused to fight, they abused the population, in their most recent battle they had all fled, all but one man. That one man had stood and fought and almost single-handedly staved off a Vietcong attack. When the officer had finished his briefing, still apologizing for being so candid, Westmoreland turned to McGinniss and said, “Now you see how distorted the press image of this war is. This is a perfect example — a great act of bravery and not a single mention of it in the New York Times.”
Funny how so little has changed in the last 40 years…
Annual Announcement
Monday, March 5th, 2007It’s that time of year again! Time for the annual company announcement to be sent out to all employees!
Anyone caught discussing college basketball, researching collegiate basketball team rankings, or filling out college basketball tournament bracket forms during company time will be terminated immediately. Any employee caught wagering on the outcome of a collegiate basketball game during company time will have the amount of the wager garnished from their paycheck as a fine. Any employee caught celebrating the outcome of a collegiate basketball game in any form during company time will have their car impounded, home burned to the ground, family imprisoned and United States citizenship revoked.
Kind of harsh I suppose, but we do get to watch the Tour de France live on company time every year.
What might have been
Monday, March 5th, 2007
From the March 2003 issue of ProCycling magazine:
“Money wasn’t the issue,” he insists. “I was interested in Bjarne because of his ideas and his view of cycling. But if I’d had Bjarne as director then I wouldn’t have worked with Rudy Pevenage anymore.” Ullrich, close to agreeing a deal, claims that he discussed CSC buying some more riders to support him. He and the tall Dane discussed names and Ullrich sought assurances from Riis that the cash to buy in the talent would be in place before he finally signed.
Ullrich, in what may have been his strongest showing since winning in 1997, finished 2nd in the Tour de France in 2003. The top CSC rider? Tyler Hamilton in 4th place. CSC had the firepower to support Ullrich if he had chosen to race with Riis’ squad.
Instead he signed with Team Coast, which went bankrupt and morphed into Bianchi. At the end of the season, having not been paid for months, Ullrich once again signed with T-Mobile. Ullrich continued to work with Pevenage, whose links with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes seems to have ended Ullrich’s racing career.
Not to say that by riding for CSC Ullrich could have had a trouble free life. CSC rider Ivan Basso was also linked to Dr. Fuentes. Basso however, is still racing.
It is interesting to think what might have been had Ullrich ridden for CSC. With the right guidance Ullrich could have really given Lance a run for his money in 2004 and 2005.
I guess we’ll never know now…life blows.
