WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011

Copenhagen is where HTC high road Team are showing the “ Sponsors “ that they have missed the boat ! Nearly every race has shown the depth of Talent in this team ! That it is just the Individual Time Trials thus far .

The Road Races are yet to come with speculation that “ Ina “ will win the Ladies and of course “ King Cav “ will win the men’s Elite Race !
Whilst this is going on though the Media is having a feast with the recent revelations timed to perfection so as to maximise their impact ! Started as usual with the French and then was picked up by Cyclingnewsforum on a new thread :

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=15363&page=10   From there it got onto Twitter and now there are reports in Magazines such as Sporting News Illustrated :
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/more/09/21/Armstrong-paid-doping-physician.ap/index.html?eref=si_mostpopular  

Seems that “ ESPN “ the US sports channel has got into the act as well , but I have no link for that at this time , guess someone on CNF ( mushroom farmers anonymous ) will put that out in the forum in the near future .

Disturbing for me is that there will be mud flying and “ Livestrong “ will get a bath , which will be unfair to ALL those who have contributed their efforts and monies and believed in the “ Good Work “ that could be done by this foundation ! Typical of this possibility is this link that was mentioned as “ with this “ in item #87 on the CNF thread ! Already tweeted @premierMikeRann with a link to this story .

Lance is reported to have said “ certain things “ whether they are reported correctly and in context or twisted to suit the story , we can only speculate but more questions are emerging as time passes . That Flandis and Shamilton are “ bitter and convicted ex racers “ has been a defence used by those supporting Lance & co but if as suggested there are “ Tax Evasion “ matters and these guys had monies in the scheme that they did not wish to lose caused them to keep quiet is speculation at this time .
Not being in Copenhagen through matters beyond my control is somewhat annoying although the weather in Austria has turned to the good once again and thus am getting plenty of cycling done .

PAUL SMITH ! How i came to meet him .

Road.cc recently ran an article (  http://road.cc/content/news/43473-think-you-have-lot-jerseys-you-wont-have-many-paul-smith  ) about Cycle Memorabilia collectors and i went to the link   (    http://www.obsessionistas.co.uk/collections/2011/9/5/cycle-racing-jerseys-collected-by-paul-smith-0054.html  )  to follow the story further and discovered i had met this guy during this year's Giro d 'Italia !

Earlier this year i ran a post of some of the people i had met during the Giro d 'Italia and described how the Director General's car had passed me on the Passo Tonale before stopping a little further up for their lunch break . By the time i arrived the lunch boxes had been passed around and i finished up sharing some of the contents . Having shaken hands with Angelo Z. i was then introduced to the two guests . I asked Paul how he had come to be there and he told me that he was a " friend of the Cycling Family " .  Fair enough , we discussed what i try to do with my visits to the various tours in respect of " publicising the need for more Sponsorship for "Adaptive Athletes " and he mentioned the efforts of several well known figures in this area .

 On leaving Paul had said that i might hear from him , he certainly was aware of my blog site although whether there was any further interest who can say ? Certainly if Sir Paul is reading these blog posts he could contribute a " How i met Skippy " item !

There are a number of people such as Paul out there that could also do this if they choose , not only those i ride with in the Zillertal or the UK but some of the currently famous racers like "Gossy " or " King Cav " ! Francesco Moser could also relate some funny items should he choose !