Manuel Beltran - EPO

Tour de France: Liquigas cyclist Manuel Beltran positive for EPO.

Update: Bobke on Beltran. Trust But Verify expresses some cynicism about L'Equipe breaking the story. Boulder Report says Beltran's an idiot. Bicycle.Net reports the whole team might be expelled.

Boo!!!!

l'Espagnol Manuel Beltran (Liquigas), 37 ans, présente des traces d'EPO dans l'échantillon A de ses urines prélevé à l'issue de la première étape du Tour de France, samedi 5 juillet entre Brest et Plumelec.

Professionnel depuis 1995, Beltran a débuté sa carrière chez Mapei avant de passer par Banesto, Team Coast et de devenir l'un des principaux équipiers en montagne de Lance Armstrong à l'US Postal et chez Discovery Channel.

Beltran fait partie de ceux qui avaient été ciblés par l'Agence Française de lutte contre le dopage (AFLD) lors des prélèvements sanguins effectués les 3 et 4 juillet derniers à Brest avant le départ.

That's French for "37 year old Spaniard Manuel Beltran of Liquigas is SO busted! His A sample from Stage 1 tested positive for EPO." Beltran has been pulled from competition.

Beltran started racing professionally in 1995 with Mapei. From 2003 to 2006, he raced on the USPS Team and Team Discovery, often assisting Lance Armstrong with his wins as his teammate.


For Tour de France Stage 7 news and commentary, don't miss KWC's link round up.

Rivendell is hiring

They want "someone who knows bikes" to help out on Saturdays from 10 to 4. Details. Rivendell is located in the East Bay city of Walnut Creek, California.

I don't remember if I mentioned this here or not, but it seems like I learned (perhaps by reading the current issue) that the Rivendell Reader will be available online for free beginning with the next issue.

Transportation neutral language policy

Bikes are traffic!

I found an interesting little gem in the comments of this post about right hook collisions. It's a pointer to the city of West Palm Beach, Florida transportation neutral language policy. Check it out. This policy introduces the idea with this

Much of the current transportation language was developed in the 1950's and 1960's. This was the golden age of automobiles and accommodating them was a major priority in society. Times have changed, especially in urban areas where creating a balanced, equitable, and sustainable transportation system is the new priority. The transportation language has not evolved at the same pace as the changing priorities; much of it still carries a pro-automobile bias.

One of the targeted words is improvement...

The word improvements is often used when referring to the addition of through lanes, turn lanes, channelization, or other means of increasing motor vehicle capacity and/or speeds. Though these changes may indeed be improvements from the perspective of motor vehicle users, they would not be considered improvements by other constituents of the City. For example, a resident may not think that adding more lanes in front of the resident’s house is an improvement. A parent may not think that a channelized right turn lane is an improvement on their child’s pedestrian route to school.

And I love this part:

Traffic is often used synonymously with motor vehicle traffic. However, there are several types of traffic in the City: pedestrian traffic, cycle traffic, and train traffic. To be objective, if you mean motor vehicle traffic, then say motor vehicle traffic. If you mean all the types of traffic, then say traffic.

And this...

Promoting alternative modes of transportation is generally considered a good thing at the City. However, the word alternative begs the question, “Alternative to what?” The assumption is alternative to automobiles. Alternative also implies that these alternative modes are nontraditional or nonconventional which is not the case with the pedestrian, cycle, nor transit modes.

And finally, this goodie:

when we discuss protecting land for a right of
way for a road, the intent is not to shield the land from harm, but to construct a road over it.

The full document is available as a PDF download.

Bicycle product reviews

You know those buyer product reviews you see at retailer websites like REI, Trek, Sierra Trading Post and so forth? Those reviews are all managed by Power Reviews, which hosts the reviews and filters the content for spam.

In addition to getting published on the retailer website, those reviews are also published to Buzzillions. Online orders or product registrations are linked to email addresses, and the retailer sends a request to the buyer for a review that will be posted to both the retailer website and to Buzzillions.

If you're looking for reviews for cycling product, Buzzillions has created a Buzzillions Cycling Reviews category specifically for bikes, components, accessories, clothing and other cycling products. They have reviews on literally thousands of products.

An interesting feature for bloggers is the ability to directly post reviews to your blog. You click a button, enter in your blog info including username and password, and viola -- you have an automatic review post for your blog. I tested this feature out but I couldn't get it to work with Cyclelicious, which uses Blogger.com for posting.

There are also RSS feeds available, though I don't see any for just the cycling category. Let me know what you think of this kind of stuff.

T. Boone Pickens plan to reduce oil use

Link from Jack.

I'm 80 years old and I've been an oilman for almost 60 years. I've drilled more dry holes and also found more oil than just about anyone in the industry. With all my experience, I've never been as worried about our energy security as I am now. Like many of us, I ignored what was happening. Now our country faces what I believe is the most serious situation since World War II.

If we don't do anything about this problem, over the next 10 years we will spend around $10 trillion importing foreign oil. That is $10 trillion leaving the U.S. and going to foreign nations, making it what I certainly believe will be the single largest transfer of wealth in human history.

Read more In the Wall Street Journal.

Pickens believes the United States can cut oil imports by a third within a decade with wholesale construction of wind turbines across the Great Plains. The electricity produced can then be used to shut down natural gas power plants so we can use natural gas for transportation, though I'm surprised to see Pickens claim that natural gas in the United States is "abundant" and "cheap" since U.S. gas production peaked last year and prices are at record levels.

Locally, more and more people are taking public transportation to reduce their reliance on imported oil. Here's what Caltrain looked like this week during my commutes.


Murph attended the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Bikes On Board subcommittee meeting, where they discussed SFBC's response to Caltrain's Bicycle Master Plan. I plan to attend the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition meeting tomorrow night in Mountain View, where we'll discuss the same thing.

On a related note, bikes on board the Highway 17 Express service is on the agenda for this Friday's meeting of the Santa Cruz Metro Board of Directors. I spoke with Board Vice Chair Dene Bustichi this week about the issue -- he didn't commit to anything but I hope I was able to convey the importance of bikes on board the bus.

LAPD arrests motorist for assault with deadly weapon

Update Nov. 2 2009: Dr. Christopher Thompson tried and convicted of all seven counts against him.

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Christopher Thompson is an emergency room doctor who sent to cyclists to the hospital with his car.

A motorist was arrested after he allegedly swerved in front of two bicyclists during an argument over rights to the road and caused them to crash into his car, police said.

Christopher Thompson, 58, was arrested Friday for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon—the car—and booked into jail, Officer Ana Aguirre, a police spokeswoman, said Tuesday.

Thompson allegedly argued with the bikers who were crossing his path on a narrow road and pulled in front of them, slamming on the brakes, she said.

The bicyclists were taken to a hospital for treatment of moderate injuries.

Read more. See also:

• KSBY.
  
• LA Times.
  
• Daily Breeze.

LAist has the juicy personal details on Dr. Thompson. They also note, "There are other Dr. Christopher Thompsons in the Los Angeles area who work in medicine and unfortunately some are being wrongly threatened."