All Dressed Up...

...and nowhere to go.

For those of you who follow the Crankset, as you can see, we dressed up the blog in anticipation of this year's Tour. On the eve of the Prologue, we had broken out our prognostication hats and had given you our picks to click. But then specifics of Operacion Puerto came out for public comsumption; riders/clients of Dr. Fuentes were named and several names that had become synonymous with procycling over the past few years had suddenly been dismissed under a cloud of doping suspicions.

Frankly, for someone who is passionate about the sport of cycling, the latest doping news became too much to bear, like a loved one walking straight up to you and then kicking you in the groin (ouch...my apologies for that analogy). Sure we've heard the talk about the use or overuse of performance enhancing drugs/methods in cycling, heard cyclists admit use, seen cyclists suspended or banned, and we may have even seen an angry look on our loved one's face. But none of it really prepared us for what would transpire. Just like a swift kick to the onions (thank you Bill Rafferty for that turn of phrase), to dismiss the top names in the world of cycling, the Ullrich's and Basso's was just as painful and incredulous.

Ey, We've Got A Blogger Down...Blogger Down!

With one of us on a journalism tour on the east coast, and with the July 4th Independence Day Holiday weekend, we've had a built in excuse not to blog for several days. But in reality, we're trying to pick ourselves off the proverbial mat, and find a reason to continue to cover the sport we love. For those who like our rants about procycling, we'll still oblige. But we'll also begin to beef up some of our personal experiences of cycling and racing, and include some of the cycling/triathlon exploits of some of our friends and loved ones.

Though there's not much to our racing season left, 53rd Tooth can be seen in some upcoming Cat 4/5 races in or around the Pennsylvania area. As for Oude Granny, I've taken to the local track, the Ed Rudolph Velodrome, and will also be jumping into some Cat 5/Citizen races in the Midwest.

So with all apologies to Lance Armstrong, it is about the bike. Get on it, and get out!