This Week in Road Cycling: July 21 to July 27

Local Racing:

Races in July:
-Tortilla Flats RR (Series): Every (Except the second Tuesday of every month) Tuesday starting May 20 though August 12. http://www.azcycling.com/08cal/FLYERS/tft_08.pdf
-Flatjack Flats Time Trial: 7/26: Tucson, AZ http://www.summitveloracing.org/files/pdfs/FFTTFlyer_draft.pdf
-Picacho Time Trial Series: 7/27: Picacho, AZ http://www.saguarovelo.org/infopicacho.htm
-AZ Track Championships (San Diego Velodrome): 7/19-7/20. http://www.saguarovelo.org/velodrome.html

Pro Racing:

Tour of Qinghai Lake:

Tyler Hamilton (Rock Racing) got his first victory since his 2004 Olympic gold medal. I have mixed feelings about this. Not because of his past history of doping, but because he did this after winning stage 8. Who actually does that? I know Rock Racing is all about being edgy, but Hamilton just looks like a complete tool. I don't know if Michael Ball has mandated in Hamilton's contract that he has to do that whenever a camera is around, but I think the implementation of the rock fist (rawk fist?) in cycling is worse than blood doping and the UCI should work towards banning it.

Tour de France:

Stage 11: The day was characterised by a huge breakaway that consisted of 12 men and Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas). This group of 13 people worked well together and stayed away until the end. Kurt Asle-Arvesen (CSC-Saxo Bank) won in a 3-way sprint over Elmiger (AG2R) and Ballan (Lampre). Evans (Silence-Lotto) spent the day safely in yellow.

Stage 12: Probably the crappiest day of the Tour, but I won't talk about that just yet. Cavendish (Columbia) won his third stage. Evans still in yellow.

Stage 13: Cavendish again, Evans still.

Stage 14: Maillot Vert wearer Oscar Freire proved to be the best sprinter who can also climb. Winning the stage after the power sprinters like Cavendish and McEwen were dropped on a small climb shortly before the finish. Evans stayed in yellow.

Stage 15: The Tour went into the Alps on Sunday, and it was the most exciting day of the Tour so far. The stage was won by Simon Gerrans (Credit Agricole) out of a 4 man break that included Danny Pate (Garmin-Chipotle), Egoi Martinez (Euskatel Euskadi) and Jose Luis Arrieta (AG2R). I'm interested to know how many stages of the Tour have been won my people with braces. Further down the mountain, the favorites were battling out. Cadel Evans ended up losing time on most of the guys, and moved down to 3rd on GC. Frank Schleck took the yellow jersey, while there are 6 men within 49 seconds of the lead. The race is wide open, and there will definitely be a lot of action on Wednesday when the race finished atop Alpe D'Huez.

Everything Else:

I kind of have a rule that I don't talk about doping, unless I am making a joke about it, but this Tour has partially been characterized by a few doping controversies. The worst by far was on Thursday when Riccardo Ricco was arrested for testing positive for a brand new form of EPO. The two other positives were not really a big deal compared to this, because they were by riders who weren't really effecting the overall. The best thing about this though was the fact that the new drug wasn't even supposed to be detectable. The fact that it was, is proof that the antidoping authorities are catching up to the riders, which is important if the sport is ever to become clean.

Now that i've broken my one rule, I can show guys a funny video that I really wanted to post last week. This video is of Emanuele Beltran, who was the first rider to test positive during the Tour. The video shows him attempting to escape from antidoping officials by riding through a field.

That's all I've got for you.

-Anthony