I think they could change to a full-face helmet at the top of a hill - no problem. They already change jerseys. Though I accept that the macho nature of the sport will almost certainly prevent that happening.

I think that the opportunity needs to be taken for a re-design of the helmets. One where there's perhaps 'more holes' but that iincorporates a single metal bar across the face somewhere. The increased numer of holes could offset the additional weight caused by the bar. I don't think they'd countenance switching to a full-face 'BMX-style' helmet simply because they constantly need to drink and anything more than a single bar would impede that.

There would presumably be safety issues in introducing a full-face helmet into road racing. Downhill mountain bikers descend a course solo, whereas road riders will be descending a mountain while flanked by other riders and race vehicles. It's not difficult to imagine a rider colliding with a race car or motorbike on a descent simply because the full-face helmet restricted their field of vision and / or hearing.

That's true, TPC. And with a breakway group it might be manageable, but with the peloton arriving en masse it would be chaos, wouldn't it? Helmets missed, dropped, bouncing around on the road...? You already see that sometimes with the musettes and water bottles, and riders who've missed their windproof tops and had to resort to grabbing newspapers from the crowd to stuff down their jersey, old-school style.

Plus, on an Alpine stage, assuming you're not going to have them going up the next mountain in the full-face helmets, you'd need a way - and a place - for them to swap back into replacement "normal" helmets at some point beforehand, then another set of downhill helmets to hand out at the top of each of the next cols... tricky.

One where there's perhaps 'more holes' but that incorporates a single metal bar across the face somewhere
The problem with the more holes thing, according to that BHSI site is that more holes mean less material to protect the head. And "much higher production costs when the manufacturer has to add internal bracing, dense foam and higher quality shell materials to provide adquate impact protection with the foam remaining between the vents".

I don't think there would necessarily *have* to be a swapping of helmets, thinking about it. The motorcycle helmet I wear on a daily basis has a 'flip-front', with the 'jaw bit' dropping down and clicking into place. I'd think it might be possible to incorporate that into a cycle helmet design. The riders could have the bar up during ascents, where they need to drink a lot and are at relatively little risk, but would have to lower them as they crest the peak and start the (presumably officially designated) descent. It could perhaps be optional to have them lowered on designated 'flat' areas. This would give some protection in the required areas of a stage and yet not hinder drinking or vision too much.

Cheers for that info, Kugelrund - interesting!

L'Equipe have today published a leaked Suspicion Index drawn up by the UCI before last year's Tour. Riders are rated from 0 (not suspicious at all) to 10 (end-of-a-James Bond-film-type alarm whoopings).

You have to subscribe to see the list online, so I've bought a copy of L'Equipe. If I have time later I'll stick the interesting ones on here, or maybe scan the lists from the page.

Some rankings are surprising. Some aren't at all.

Edit: It seems Cycling News have now saved me the trouble.

Riders are really quite cross about the list

It looks like this is yet another stage in the ongoing battle between the teams and UCI, showing the UCI can't be trusted with holding sensitive information.

More riders are starting to react. OTF members who are Geraint Thomas fans will be disappointed with his 6 rating. And Bradley Wiggins gets a 5.

Here are a few comments loosely translated from L'Equipe:

What you have before you is not a list of offenders. The inventory drawn up by doctors at the UCI is a working document for the attention of their colleagues [who test riders], and for regulators...

The difficulty on reading this list rests on its interpretation. We can easily understand the meaning and scope of a zero. The difference between a 3 and a 4 is more difficult to understand. And while 10 is the top of this scale, it's not a confirmation of guilt, otherwise Popovych and Barredo would no longer be racing...

(Possibly questioning some riders' low scores?)
Another debate: does the current, established practice of using microdosing as a mode of administration (EPO, testosterone, transfusion of 150ml) pass beneath the radar of the biological passport?

At the same time, while questioning what the whole thing means, they're suitably triumphalist about the fact that the French riders all score so low. (Understandably, given that it's long been their argument for their lack of success in the Tour. And overlooking the fact that Moreau - caught in the Festina affair, and whose post-stage interviews and generally whackable face always made me want to punch him - got a 7).

They broke it down into average score per team and per nationality as well. I did see an online version of that somewhere, but it's disappeared - and I'm too lazy to type it out.

There's also an interesting mini-interview with the team doctor from FDJ, talking about the resurgence of corticosteroids, its health ramifications and their use in football and rugby.

[Edit]: If any French speaking OTFers would like to see these pages as scans, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

US teeshirt company Stomach of Anger have done a Wouter Weylandt benefit shirt, with all profits to go to his family.

Cav wins, but it doesn't go down too well with his fellow riders.

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cycling/13432233.stm

Is there any proof that this episode actually took place?

It wasn't in any of the Eurosport coverage I saw, which uses RAI's images, but then it wouldn't be, as the fireworks were happening elsewhere.

The two attacks by Contador in the Etna stage and the one before were surprising. To me anyway: I'd not long finished telling Ms Felicity that he seemed to be riding this one conservatively, waiting for the Alps!

There was a great moment in yesterday's otherwise uneventful stage (I'm bored by Cavendish sprint finishes, I have now definitively reached the position of wanting him to lose):

as the 3 breakaway guys sped through Pescara towards an intermnediate sprint banner, a teenage mountain biker, on his Mum's MTB by the look of the frame, shot out of the huge and un-corralled crowd (they were all over the roads) and managed to avoid the motorbike commissaire and almost kept pace with the (sprinting) trio!

Felicity, I guess so wrote:


(I'm bored by Cavendish sprint finishes, I have now definitively reached the position of wanting him to lose):



You've got your wish in a way. Cavendish wins again but then drops out to "recuperate for the Tour de France." Pretty much mountains and time trials all the way now.

Old news for the regulars, but will still make a splash over here:

CBS says Tyler Hamilton will publicly detail how he & Lance Armstrong cheated (and that he saw Armstrong inject EPO) Sunday on 60 Minutes.

Not sure where this is all going to end up. I did read on twitter that LA continuing to issue denials is a bit like trying to put out an inferno with a water pistol. I just cannot see him cracking and without the smoking gun he'll just carry on discrediting his detractors and take solace in his many ill informed supporters.

There doesn't seem to be anything especially new in Hamilton's story, more that he is able to back up the previous allegations made by Landis, Andreu, Emma Reilly etc. It would be even more useful to the sport as a whole if he could detail what went on at CSC (under Riis) and Phonak.

Armstrong's denials are telling though, he's reduced to the base argument of pointing out that he never failed a test.

Except he did.

One can never link too often to this.

Can't see a Giro thread, so I'll put my questions here. yesterday I watched them struggle up that 20% hill at the end of the stage, which was pretty dramatic. Anyway, the question is Contador - I thought he was banned for a year? how come he's racing? And, as a kind of sub question - he was booed over the line when he arrived in second place on yesterday's stage. Was that because of the drugs thing or because he'd sat on two separate Italians on the way up the hill and then sprinted clear when they got to the top?

This has been acting as the Giro thread, in that hardly anybody is watching it.

yesterday's all day climbing torture (for them) was great to watch.

Aupa Euskaltel! What a weekend they had.

because of the drugs thing or because he'd sat on two separate Italians on the way up the hill and then sprinted clear when they got to the top?

I think the latter mainly-he has been cheered fairly magnanimously at all the signing-on/ starts that I've seen live.

He's racing cos he was cleared by the Spanish federation, not sure if it ws on some technicvality, or bvecause of the main defence he put up about it being such a tiny trace amnount. But the UCI appealed and the Court for Arbitration in Sport will rule on the appeal on June 6-8th, just in time to rule him in or out for the Tour.

One twist that adds to this Giro is that while he suffered yesterday and might still be vulnerable to Italian cross-team ganging up on him, he looks to have it sewn up already...

But anybody finishing 2nd might end up the winner, if the ruling in June is backdatable. So there should be some Scarponi v Nibali fireworks to come.

Felicity, I guess so wrote:
This has been acting as the Giro thread, in that hardly anybody is watching it.

It's not on Eurosport in the UK?

Thanks for the rest of the info. He did seem to get applauded yesterday after he'd attacked everyone on the final climb and nearly caught the two up front. So yesterday was a big day for Scarponi, given the time he made up on Nibali for second place, and possibly, therefore, a win.