Minutes, September 21

Present: Dr Hubie, Bergen, Hal

A bit of a small turnout at the F&H last night. For a while it looked like it might just be me and the book I brought along to read just in case, but eventually a couple of others srtaggled in--and Penner did put in a showing of sorts via the phone. It took a few calls of "Johnny G? Is there a Johnny G here?" from the bar before Bergen and myself clued in that the bartender waving the phone in the air might have something to do with us. But while there may have only been three of us who were physically present, once again we had 100% participation in the bike ridership program. Not sure which is the more significant figure. Perhaps the meeting was more of a success than we first thought. Once again, the Dark was good--almost as classic as the F&H tunes.

No significant actions to report, but a wide ranging conversation covered such topics as enrollment trends at Manitoba's universities, Donald Rumsfield, Aiden's piece in the Free Press as well as the larger issue of rapid transit and the relative merits of the critical mass as a form of bike advocacy, Bergen's powerpoint skills, and Hal's oven, not to mention the u-lock/Bic pen crisis, and Tyler Hamilton's apparent blood doping problem.

We'll see how this latest saga turns out. But things don't look good for Hamilton and the world of pro cycling in general these days. David Millar, Phillipe Mierhage, and now Hamilton. Those are some pretty big names in the world of cycling. A couple of world champions and an Olympic gold medallist. I have to say I'm a bit bummed about this, as Hamilton always seemed like the good guy of the peloton. Even Dave of Evil Cyling's Pro Cyclists Suck has a soft spot for Tyler. Perhaps Floyd is also a bit sidetracked by the dim outlook of the guy he's signed on to ride for next year. He lost over 15 more minutes today in the Vuelta and now sits almost 25 minutes back, suddenly hurtling towards the middle of the pack. Heras increased his lead on Valverde, who also cracked today, and now has a lead of just over 1 minute over Hamilton's Phonak teammate, Santiago Perez. If Valverde can stay within 2:30 minutes, though, the final time trial should still be interesting, as Heras will likely lose some time on the final stage.