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Cheating, trying and the Tour de France

July 25, 2008

4 comments

oil, gas, regulation, politics, Houston, refining, gasoline, beer, wind, alternate energy, policy, economics, bicycles

The topic of the day is moral ambiguity.      Yes, I’m writing about France, which brings us the Tour de France.      The race that lives up my definition of why it’s worth watching professional athletes on TV – they are doing things most people never could. Like ride up a mountain where I’d struggle to walk my bike, and do it way faster than I can ride on a flat road.      Oh, yes there is that other annual tradition, the doping scandals. This year it resulted in 3 riders kicked out of the race so far, and there’s always the chance that more could follow, even after it wraps up this weekend.      It’s enough to make myself, and a lot of other people, wonder if the whole thing is absolutely hinky. It’s been enough to drive away many of the biggest sponsors. But I’m over that.      To me the question isn't is there cheating?, it's what are they doing to get rid of it?      After doping scandals going back a decade, the tour is paying a high price to kick out stars who have used banned substances to up their red blood count for a punishing trip.      With the Olympics coming up, lots of sports fans will have to deal with the reality that the old baseball maxim: if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying,” is a common enough credo in sport, and life.     The number of cheaters kicked out of the race, which had weeded out quite a few contenders even before the start, shows the powerful urge to get an edge.     Riders do seem almost demonically driven, which is part of the appeal to me. Like the guy who crashed into a sign and was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N9uZupdGhQ">shown </a>on this You Tube clip flying over the handlebars as his bike snapped in half. And then he got on another bike and finished that day, a feat that now rates him a small place in Wikipedia.     The race will come down to a time trial Saturday where the leader, Carlos Sastre will try to hold off contenders like Australian Cadel Evans. Sastre said he expected, “the usual pain in my legs.”      I’m more interested in Evans’ contribution to the doping debate. He was asked in a New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/sports/sportsspecial1/18tour.html?pagewanted=2&sq=tour%20de%20France&st=nyt&scp=8">story</a> about third rider kicked out of the tour, Riccardo Ricco, why people should believe anyone in cycling is clean. He first pointed out that cheating is part of life: <blockquote> “The cheats are being caught and the sport is being cleaned up in a serious, fair and transparent way, which is a lot more than I can say for a lot of other professions in the world, Our sport is trying to do the right thing, and we’re being crucified for it. What are they supposed to do, have a free-for-all like some sports that don’t have testing at all?” </blockquote>     That comment raises a good question: do fans want clean racing or just no talk about cheating? For years there was no steroid problem in baseball, though there was plenty of accusations, because there was virtually no testing. Last winter it was a problem when a report came out same there was cheating, but that's now forgotten in the middle of some hot pennant races.     This sort of dilemma is hardly unique to sport. As long as corrupt political regimes control huge oil reserves, there’s going to be the same quandary for the oil business — some competitor is likely to do what it takes to get an edge. And the public misdeeds of a few oil companies lead to assumptions that everyone is dirty. Recently a person in the oil business turned that around by asking me, based on my time in the news business, why don't papers prevent some people who making up things to sensationalize stories. All I could say was: they do try hard to keep that stuff out.      But as Evans pointed out, trying hard to reform a sport has a way of making everyone look dirty. But it is the right thing to do. So on Saturday morning I’ll have no qualms about those crazy fools riding way too fast on what are likely to be rain-slicked roads. It’s what I do in July.    So am I just an apologist for sport that gives me some cool scenery and a Nascar-like fascintation for crashes?

Tags: cycling ethics bikes crashes doping oil cheating corruption

Houston seeking stimulus money for biking

January 11, 2009

2 comments

oil, gas, regulation, politics, Houston, refining, gasoline, beer, wind, alternate energy, policy, economics, bicycles

A passing reference in a recent newspaper <a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/6201599.html">story</a> said something about bikes in Houston, and what constitutes a shovel-ready infrastructure project in bailout America. The item near the top of a front page story in the Houston Chronicle said the wish list of Texas lawmakers included $13 million to build a bike trail in Southwest Houston. Since I ride bikes and live in that part of town I was really curious, and not a little frustrated by  the lack of further information. In the world of bikes in Houston that's huge money.   No amount of googling showed a project that matched the specs so I emailed the reporters seeking more info. I soon heard from Jennifer A. Dlouhy who wrote that they saw the request on a list from the U.S. Mayors. The short item said the money would help pay to build the Sims Bayou Hike & Bike Trail running from south of Hobby Airport to Southwest Houston.  This one didn't show up on the city of Houston's Bikeways <a href="http://www.houstontx.gov/parks/trail-map.html">website</a> which showed a short stretch along the bayou, though the map lacked the street names needed to pin down the location.  A search of the City of Houston website only offers a couple passing references to the Sims Bayou project. One showing design work budgeted back in 2005 and 2006 and another saying this would some day connect with street trails in this part of town.  I left a message with the department and late in the day got a call that answered my questions raised some new ones. I heard Rita Balchus, the number 2 person in the small bikeways department in Public Works. She said she was as surprised as I was by the reference in the story.  The Sims Path is something they've been working on for years. It is shovel-ready - it stalled back in 2005 when the Army Corp. failed to put up matching funds to help the city build this 19-mile long project, which would be one of the longest in town.  The fact it's in South Houston dashes my fantasy, but it would fulfill a long-time plan for city path builders. She'd said they'd met the day before to brainstorm about possible funding sources, like donations from non-profits.  The possibility of money for the Sims Bayou project wasn't the only sign of hope for bikeways in Houston. The city <a href="http://www.publicworks.houstontx.gov/bikeways/docs/bikeways_news_winter_08.pdf">website</a> reported the city has finally filled the bikeways director job. The new Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator, Dan Raine, is a certified transportation planner with over 15 years experience, and it said he rides to work some days on one of his eight bikes.  In a story, tucked in a neighborhood edition of the Chronicle, Raine recently talked about revising the city's 15-year-old bike transport plan, with an eye toward opening up bottlenecks for bikers.  But a comment on the Chron story that got me started - "Bike trail in Southwest Houston! Are you mad... --was a reminder that the job of promoting bikes as an energy saving alternative form of transportation involves a huge amount of effort on communication and well as on public works.  I think bikes need to play a bigger role in the transportation network here - for image reasons as much as energy saving -- but there's huge work to be done selling that idea.    So will Houston ever embrace bikes as transportation?

Tags: cycling ethics bikes crashes doping oil cheating corruption bikes houston chronicle paths

Looking for ideas to make Houston a little more bike friendly

January 31, 2009

0 comments

oil, gas, regulation, politics, Houston, refining, gasoline, beer, wind, alternate energy, policy, economics, bicycles

The first step toward making things better is asking a good question. At a meeting last week the city’s bicycle-pedestrian coordinator, Dan Raine, asked for ideas as he works on Houston’s long-term plan for bike transportation. This account of his public call for advice was recounted in this story by Dale Robertson in his cycling notebook in the Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/thingstodo/6235642.html So in the spirit of realistic optimism, here are my ideas. They’re the product of my rides in Houston. Or at least riding in the parts of Houston where I know routes that are reasonably scenic and safe. The goal is simple: open up as many miles of safe routes for bikes as fast as possible at the lowest possible cost. The strategies: 1. Find low traffic routes on existing streets and paths that are linked by spending on creating safe passages through bottlenecks and building bridges through the city’s isolated subdivisions. Right now there are too many marked paths on scary, narrow, busy streets. I think of getting past Interstates when I think of bottlenecks. Consider getting past 59. There are ideal routes over the series of white bridges linking the Montrose and the Art District neighborhoods. But things get tougher as you head west. There is a bike path crossing at Wesleyan but this lane on a tight, busy thoroughfare is potholed mess. I wonder if it’s possible to convert the sidewalk there into path side enough to accommodate bikes and walkers next to a large retail development that’s going in. It's time to turn the talk from Developers about creating "pedestrian friendly" multi-use" projects into action. 2. Creating maps online that distill the knowledge of bike riders on how to get around this town’s many obstacles. This would save the cost of putting up bike route signs, which seem to bother some Houstonians who seem to think bikes routes bring in the rabble. This town is home to a couple really useful communities here: Regular bike riders collect little useful bits of information. For me it’s that Sewanee allows safe passage from the Braes Bayou bike path to West University via a pedestrian bridge over a bayou that otherwise would force riders on to a busy street. There’s got to be a lot of other tidbits like it out there. This would also highlight bottlenecks where a relatively low-cost project could open up a useful route. There’s a community of experts in Geographic Information Software. These computerized mapping skills are needed to find a way to automate the process of inputting these little bits – perhaps like a wikipedia where volunteers can enter their bits and others can check it. The other goal would be a map that’s searchable. So a bike rider can enter beginning and end points and get the safest route. Or perhaps it will show routes passing historic houses or favorite watering holes. And since he asked for it I’ll even post it as the city’s web site and see if it’s noticed: www.publicworks.houstontx.gov/bikeways/masterplan.htm Now I just hope he’s listening. What do you want to see in the city’s long-term bike plan?

Tags: cycling ethics bikes crashes doping oil cheating corruption bikes houston chronicle paths bikes houston chronicle paths dan raine

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Rzznfzz
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News and talk about life, energy and other carbon-based phenomenon from a writer in Houston who has long followed the business.

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