Seagull Hunting the Hard Way

I'm off for a couple of days of bidness travel, so the next post won't be until next week; sorry for the limited postings of late.

I see where some French newspaper thinks they've definitively proved Lance Armstrong was using EPO in 1999. I'd like to see a controlled experiment where they take a group of guys and train them in the exact same way for maybe three years, let them race the season to see where they comparatively rank, and then in the last season let half of them use EPO and see how different the results are. The experiment would get at how much EPO adds to comparative performance. My guess is that it adds enough so that it is possible to conclude the following - either most contendors in the Tour are doing it, or none are. So it is possible that it isn't a difference maker, although clearly maybe those who have never used it never became contendors for that reason. I like to think that that is the reason I am not a world class cyclist.

On a somewhat related note, I am fast enough on my Bianci roadbike to have recently killed a seagull en route to work. I was coming around a turn at Haine's Point, at the tip of the island, when from behind a trashcan a startled seagull tried to flee toward the Potomac and flew right in front of my front wheel. Fortunately, it was in front and not heading into the spokes. I had no time to react and ran right over its neck. Now, as a general rule I hate seagulls, as any person who has significant Jersey beach time would. But that doesn't exactly mean that I want to be killing them. The only upside is that I gain street cred with my hunting in-laws; I've never hunted in my life, nor have I ever shot a gun, two facts no doubt that hunters would hold me quietly in contempt for. But the way I see it, anyone can kill an animal with a rifle or a shotgun; it's quite another thing to stalk and kill 'em on your bike. And I did it without EPO!