Wednesday update

Graeme Brown weighs in on the TDU: "Astana aren't in Adelaide to lick stamps."

Things you won't read about on Twitter: Ronny Scholz says that Armstrong was booed at the TDU presentation. Guess all the reports of a total lovefest between Armstrong and the Australian fans may not be the whole story.

Sastre admits that he and the Schlecks are not best pals.

Blindness.

In a new book, Museeuw describes how easy it was for him to buy EPO.

Bettini has photos from the Tour de San Luis, showing off the new season's kits.

Three part interview with Vaughters (scroll down). Interesting comments about Danielson in there.

In the category of cycling on TV, A&E is said to be planning a follow-up series of shows on Chad Gerlach, who previously was featured on Intervention, and is making a comeback to cycling with Amore & Vita/McDonalds this season.

Joe Parkin: "I definitely learned how to work the guys that were doped to my advantage as much as possible."

Acqua & Sapone rider Stefano Cavallari gets 2 years for EPO. Meanwhile, CONI recommends 4 years for CSF's Matteo Priamo, and Sella's 1 year ban is being appealed to CAS as too short. Interesting to consider the discrepancy in punishment between Priamo and Sella. Who deserves a longer ban, the user or the supplier?

The CAS website states that "The CAS has also recently reactivated a case concerning the cyclist Alexandr Vinokourov. The UCI filed an appeal with the CAS in early 2008 requesting that the one-year ban imposed on Vinokourov by the Kazakstan Cycling Federation be increased to two years following a positive test for a homologous blood transfusion during the 2007 Tour de France. However, as Vinokourov had announced his intention to retire from the sport of cycling, the procedure was suspended. Shortly before Christmas, the UCI, having learned of the athlete’s intention to compete again, requested that the proceedings be resumed." CAS also has ruled on the Caruso and O'Neill cases, while the Rasmussen case has strangely still not been decided after a very long and unexplained delay.

Are cracks appearing in the UCI's pro-Armstrong stance?

Werner Franke says that internal controls are a big joke.

Rasmus Guldhammer was invited to join the Saxo Bank training camp as a young guest rider, and made his mark by taking third place in their informal climbing TT, beaten only by Frank Schleck and Chris Anker Sorenson.

Bonnie Ford on the Second Coming. Goes way too easy on the dark side, if you ask me. And why is Doug Ellis actually going out of his way to try to become friends with Armstrong? That is a bit scary.

Just about every cycling forum in the known universe has a thread about how ugly the Columbia kit is, and rumor has it that the jersey design was created by none other than Stapleton himself. Is that even possible?? If so, that is right up there in his list of dumb decisions, right along with his previous inexplicable attempt to hire Valv.Piti.

The revolving door in Spain keeps on turning. How much longer is this pathetic charade going to be allowed to drag on? By now, any semblance of justice is long past gone.

The long wait for the UCI to announce the bio-passport results seems destined to go on and on, with no explanation forthcoming. I can't help but wonder why, and the main possible reason that comes to mind is that the UCI is too scared of the collateral damage and has basically chickened out of naming the names. Maybe they think if they wait long enough, we'll all just forget about it. If they didn't dare to re-test the samples from the Giro for CERA, why would they want to publicly announce the potentially damaging bio-passport results? After all, who would want to cast the dark shadow of reality over the saintly glow of the cherished Second Coming? Or maybe the experts just can't make any sense whatsoever out of certain riders' blood value graphs that have bigger peaks and valleys than the Himalayas.