end of week & weekend

Well, I was able to get in a full normal training week. Thurs was the standard 4 hill ride, which went normal (hit the 4 hills hard and just pedal between them) and Friday’s short/easy was short and I took it easy. I felt fine overall. Today (Sat) was standard day off and all day work. I left at 5 instead of 6 though, so it was 9-5 (what a way to make living). I vaguely remember that movie (9 to 5), but it seems like it was the eighties version of "Office Space," right?
Anywho, tomorrow is the AMBC (American Mountain Bike Challenge) DINO (Do Indiana Off road) MTB (Mountain Bike) race in N (North) Vernon, IN (Indiana). That’s a lot of abbreviations and/or acronyms. It’s supposed to be hot and humid. I perform well in the heat, but when it gets humid and you’re moving through dense woods @ about 8 mph, it gets difficult. Should be fun though and that’s the name of the game.
Think cycling ain’t hard? Go figure why 28 riders were kicked out the Tour De France on the eve of its start. And don’t forget the countless others kicked out of the sport in the past. To perform at the level that has become expected, these guys have to take drugs. Le Tour has been turned upside down this year w/ several of the favorites made to go home. Bags of THEIR blood found in the Spanish Dr.’s lab has directly linked them (via DNA, get it?) to the biggest doping scandal in the sport’s history. Cycling’s tough; and on the pro level it’s dirty. Their all on drugs(period). Oh yeah, your precious Lance too.
Here’s how I see it (in several Venn Diagrams in my head): pro cyclists are the top 1% of the human population of endurance athletes (a). Of pro cyclists (a) there are the favorites (b). Of the favorites, we know that most of them are on drugs (b/d). Lance Armstrong (la) completely dominates all of the above. So, given (la) is part of groups (a) and (b) and group (b) is dominant over group (a) and group (b/d) is dominate over groups (a) and (b) and (la) is dominant over all of the above (including group (b/d)), he almost has to be on drugs. Sorry, but talent alone can’t make one so dominant over the best-of-the-best-of-the-best-of-the-best. Call me cynical, but I just don’t see it. Sorry if my scratch above is hard to follow, but that’s what being a philosophy major w/ 2 whole years of logic will do to your brain.