The Future of Pro-Cycling

(Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

As anti-doping labs develop tests to find usages of one type of doping, other labs find the next form of doping. AFLD, the French anti-doping organization, applied new test methods at last year's Tour de France and the IOC applied these methods also to samples taken during the Peking Olympics. Several cyclists (and other athletes) were caught cheating. One, Bernhard Kohl, has been quite vocal since his finding out. He makes at least one quite interesting point: he tested positive only once even while he was extensively doping.

Through the use of the blood passport the UCI recently announced the names of five cyclists suspected of drug usage because of unusual values in their blood passports. This may show that a blood passport is an effective means to evaluate whether an athlete uses substances or methods that s/he shouldn't but the announcement also implies that doping usage continues. This raises a question for me, what about the period before the athlete is required to maintain this passport? Will we see in the future athletes nurtured from a much younger age and so coming into the profession with established blood levels nullifying the impact of those passports?

In swimming and in speed skating performances are improved by faster suits. In support of my opinion stated earlier that technological advances cannot be stopped, the international swim foundation after some discussion and controversy recognized the records achieved with the new suits. In time trials we already see racers in long sleeved skinsuits, covered shoes and aerodynamic helmets. I wonder how long it'll be before we start to see more of that in the flat, fast stages. And maybe even in mountain stages where there could be an aerodynamic benefit in the long descents.

It seems that with Campagnolo's new 11-sprocket cassette a cyclist has all the needed gears and not much more can be gained there. Shimano, and I trust Campagnolo and SRAM too, is working on electronic shifting. This itself will not give a speed increase but fewer moving parts is still better than more. Did I see first Sylvester Szmyd and then Alejandro Valverde mis-shift in the final meters of the Dauphiné Libéré's Mont Ventoux stage?

For me the most interesting developments are in what has been started by the introduction of the radios and the emergence of GPS-enabled bicycle computers like Garmin's Edge line. For my own cycling, I love having a GPS on my handlebars. Knowing where I am, where I want to go, having all that data to play with afterwards: delicious. 

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