Wells, Wells, Lookie Here What I Found At Dante's

Cyclocrossing brothers Todd and Troy Wells had some interesting things to say on their blogs about last weekend's Portland races. Their posts also provide a small glimpse into life as a world class cyclist, including a post-race visit to Dante's in downtown Portland.

From Troy's blog "Tdub":

About Saturday's race ... "Portland is normally a good race for me but yesterday just didn't seem to be my day. I just couldn't get going. I was in suffering the entire race and going nowhere. I don't even think I was in the top 20. Every part of my body was hurting, but I hope I can turn it around today and put in a solid ride heading into nationals. ... it is still not raining here, which is amazing. Normally it rains from the time I get off the plane until I get back on in Portland."
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"Sunday night ended up being a fun night. Alison came down and watched the race and hung out. We had a large crew including Mcduff, Jpows, Timmy J, Treefarm, Kira, Salam, Simon, The Jacques-Maynes, and Meredith. We went to Treefarm's favorite place in Portland, Dante's. It is crazy there. You see some stuff you definitely don't see everyday, that's all I'm going to say. It was a lot of fun for everyone, including powers, even though at first he wasn't really feeling it. Todd and I flew out around 11 on Monday got back to dtown by 5."

Big brother Todd also discussed his weekend:

"I had a sweet white skinsuit that was covered with mud after about 1 minute of racing, and I spent the day with a look of agony painted on my face for the entire race. Not sure why it wasn't happening for me but it was just one of those days. Crashing into Wicks after he crashed at the start didn't help, and getting my bike stuck on Sheps as a result wasn't that great either. Neither made much of a difference though as I was destined to spend the day in the hurt locker."

But it was his mini rant about the USADA changes to its out-of-competition testing protocols that provided the most interesting look into an elite cyclists' life and the negative effects the dopers have on all cyclists. From Todd's blog:

"The big change for 09 is that you must provide USADA with a 1 hour window every day of the year for being tested. Now not only do you have to tell them where you are every day, but you must be at a certain location for 1 hour each day, so if they show up to test you during that hour and your dog got sick so you took him to the vet and didn't update your whereabouts form, you will get a missed test, of which you are only allowed 3 in an 18 month period. You can change your hour for that day anytime previous to it, but if you are constantly changing your time and/or location you will be targeted for additional testing b/c you will be deemed trying to avoid the testers.

"Now if you work a normal job you know where you will be most of the time for at least 5 days of the week, but I'm betting most people in this testing pool don't work a normal job. Do you know where you will be every hour of every day 3 months in advance? And would you remember to update all this information anytime you may wake up early and go for coffee instead of being at home waiting to be tested by USADA out of competition, which by the way, happens about 1 or 2 times a year?

"There has to be an easier way to do this. I would rather have a tracking device injected into my body like some Will Smith cyber movie so they can track me all the time then try to predict where I am going to be hour by hour 3 months in advance or remember to update it if it changes but not too often or I will be targeted.

"Whaaahwhaaah, things can always be worse.

Things can always be worse, true, but Wells' post reveals that the dopers have become a cancer that's infiltrated the life of every rider, clean or dirty. You have to wonder if overzealous efforts by the USADA are futile or if they really will lead to a cure."