This weeks cycling news....

I kind of got a bit carried away with the up coming vacation that I have not blogged about any new cycling news lately. I am sure some of you are VERY ok with that and others are biting their nails wondering if anything is happening in the world of cycling...hahaha.
Here is the latest scoop of news:

First off some sad news. The Scottish time trial champion was killed while on a training ride. Jason MacIntyre, 34, was struck by a transit van while out on a training ride January 15 and passed away later in the hospital. He won the Road Time Trial Council national 25 mile championship in 2006, 2007, the British time trial championship in 2006 and was ahead of David Millar during the 2007 British time trial championship until he had a flat. He was being considered for the British Olympic squad in Beijing. He leaves behind twin eight year old daughters. One daughter has had some very serious health issues and MacIntyre had been her full time caregiver. There has been a fund set up in his name to help fund a caregiver for his daughter for the next two years.

New blood bank scandal...here we go again...seems a blood bank in Vienna, Austria is the latest source in a blood doping scandal. They are saying that two thirds of the bank's 30 customers come from Germany and include cross-country skiers and biathletes along with some cyclist. Some of the bank customers are said to be George Totsching, Dennis Menchov, Michael Boogerd and Michael Rasmussen. Of course most everyone is saying they do not know anything about it or they have never been there. What will shake out this mess? This all came from a German TV station but then they later retracted their charges.....GO FIGURE.

The Tour of California host city for stage 5, Solvang, is trying to raise some money to defray tour cost for being a host city. They are touting 20 qualified amateur cyclist to ride the "Race of Truth". They will be able to ride stage 5 of the individual time trial one hour prior to the pros riding it on February 22. The riders will get 45 minutes to ride the 15 mile course. The entry fee is $1000 or $1500 depending on options taken. Pocket change for an amateur cyclist, don't you think?

Some of the cycling teams are being VERY SMART with all the blood scandals out there. The big cycling teams, CSC, Astana, Slipstream and Team Highroad will have independent testing done as well as being 100% fully integrated with the UCI's biological passports. It cost the teams a lot of money to do their own blood testing but it is just another check in the system to make sure their riders are clean. Kudos to those teams monitoring their own riders!

Lance Armstrong will run the Boston marathon April 21. He qualified for the event by finishing the New York marathon under the qualifying time of 3:15 (he ran it in 2:46 min) for his age (35-39 years old) category. He will race to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.