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1. James September 7th, 2007 10:22 am

   Great show. I’m glad you are back.

   Saul Raisin was a fan favorite at the time trial last Saturday here in Greenville. It was really great to see the crowd cheering him on. The Greenville News had run a prominent story about his recovery and comeback in the days before the race, so I think some of the locals, who wouldn’t normally consider themselves cycling fans, were really pulling for him.

   It really was great to see him racing. In addition to be an inspiration, he comes across as a generally nice guy. Go Saul!

2. jimmy September 8th, 2007 1:37 pm

   hi,
   i have enjoyed listening to your show the last year. for interbike can you have theme specific shows.
   e.g specific podcasts on shoes, wheels,helmets, components, bikes..etc
   concentrate on new interbike 2008 tech. don’t rehash heavily marketed items
   like trek 2008 madones…

   regarding the doping stories. floyd is a nice guy but a blatant cheat.

   something you should mention on your next podcast. their is no way a rider haematocrit goes UP during high intensity exertion over multiple days, it goes DOWN.

   from src http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20070708-9999-lz1s8landis.html

   “In a pre-Tour blood screen from June 29, two days before the 2006 race began, Landis had a hematocrit level of 44.8 percent and hemoglobin level of 15.5. On July 11, 10 stages into the Tour, his hematocrit had increased to 48.2 and his hemoglobin to 16.1….

3. Fredcaster September 8th, 2007 2:11 pm

   Jimmy,

   Thanks for your comments. I’m glad to hear you’ve enjoyed my shows so far. It’s always my pleasure to do the show and hear from people who enjoy it.

   I don’t think I’ll be able to do shows on specific topics as you suggest merely because of the size of the show and the time constraints on just one person trying to cover it. Take a listen to my shows from last year’s Interbike and you’ll have an idea of what this year’s shows will be like. I think you’ll agree that I tended not to concentrate on ‘rehash[ing] heavily marketed items.’

   I especially can’t say anything about the Trek stuff because they don’t attend Interbike. They do a show called Trek World every year. If they invite me (and I hope they will), I would be happy to attend!

   As for your comments about Floyd, I understand the frustration with doping in professional cycling. As a listener to my show, I think you know that to be true.

   In Floyd’s case, however, I have to say that my opinion has gone back-and-forth over the past year and that I am now of the opinion that he likely did not cheat. I read the Mark Zeigler article you mentioned and found that it contains much of the same type of gossip, innuendo, and hearsay that has pervaded much of the coverage of the Landis case.

   For instance, take the example that you gave about Floyd’s hematocrit levels before and during competition. Why, do you suppose,was Zeigler unable to find a blood expert in his hometown of San Diego, nearby Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, or any other West Coast city in the United States? Instead, he found someone in Australia whose opinion on the matter wasn’t entirely firm on the issue of whether or not these results indicated cheating. Look at all of the equivocating words he used in the full quote:

   But it is very unusual to see an increase after a hard week of cycling. You’d expect it to be the reverse. You’d expect that to fall in a clean athlete. An increase like this in the midst of the Tour de France would be highly, highly unlikely.

   There’s nothing where I could point to one value and say, ‘This guy definitely doped.’ But it raises red flags for me. I would definitely recommend to anti-doping authorities that an athlete presenting these values should be target-tested for blood doping.

   Is it possible that Floyd cheated? Yes. But for me, the evidence indicates that he didn’t. Of course, I’ve been wrong before. There’s a former football player looking for murderers on golf courses whose mere presence outside of prison indicates my fallibility.

   Thanks for listening!

   David

4. Rick September 9th, 2007 8:06 pm

   is it me or does the cambria bike coupon code not work? i want to order something but the code doesnt work!

5. Fredcaster September 10th, 2007 10:55 am

   Yes, it was down for a bit. Thanks for the heads-up because now it is fixed!

6. Tom September 18th, 2007 9:51 am

   The Polar power-meter review was good but the biggest complaint with Polar in the past has been their power accuracy. I’d love to see some data comparing the accuracy of the meters you review.

   Thanks,
   Tom

7. Fredcaster September 18th, 2007 9:54 am

   Tom,

   This is a great comment and something I would definitely like to consider. Any ideas on how I can perform this accuracy check? Personally, I have no idea how to do that.

   David

8. A Fan September 24th, 2007 6:50 pm

   http://www.cambriabike.com/includes/fredcastsponsor.jpg

   They spelled sponsor wrong 😉