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Why is it, when there are more important issues, this ONE, probably a lesser issue, gets all the "controversy" air-time?

Some reported facts and anecdotes:

As told to velonews, air pollution builds-up because Bejing sits on the edge of the Gobi desert. A good rain is required to clear the air that's trapped in Bejing. http://www.velonews.com/article/81199

As a former competitive cyclist living in Los Angeles, I can tell you from experience, you feel the pollution later, not really during the event.

What *would* affect most outdoor performances more than pollution is the heat/humidity combination.

Finally, the last olympics had major heat issues for road cyclists, so each location has issues. Smog is not a major one for Bejing.

Remember Mr. Hincapie's spectacular http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2006/apr06/roubaix06/index.php?id=s002crash at paris-roubaix last year? That was his aluminum steerer tube that failed. I too am a cyclist and worked in the industry for a time. The carbon fiber the industry has been getting is not the same as the mil-spec/aircraft grade stuff. As others have pointed out, there are many, many factors that go into materials failure, such as fatigue life, tensile strength, etc. Layup, curing, process, etc. all factor into the "performance" of carbon fiber and its potential to fail. Aluminum fails. Carbon fiber fails. One is not inherently superior to the other. Each has their advantages and disadvantages. Comparing a cycling fork to an airframe in inappropriate. Comparing the standards between the two industries is inappropriate; a torque wrench is considered a "hi-tech" tool in a bike shop. As for "so many cyclists have died," I'm going to get out the broom and call shenanigans. Mr. Zinn has a little http://www.velonews.com/tech/report/articles/3270.0.htmlwrite-up on the issue and my guess is that he would've addressed the issue of "so many" deaths. Being fairly immersed in the community, I've never personally heard of cyclist dying from a carbon fork failure, although other failures (such as a flat tire) have led to some serious accidents. Considering that cf is used on the crowns of some mountain bike suspension forks, my guess is any issues with strength and durability would be found out pretty quickly.

Floyd Landis is the disputed champion, not David Millar.

David Millar is a convicted and admitted doper, who's never come close to winning the Tour. He was in the press this year because it was his first year back from his suspension.

Landis, OTOH, grew up Mennonite, which is a bit less strict than Amish.

Plus, given that the international Court of Arbitration of Sport, just upheld that the French lab that tested Landis' sample doesn't follow protocol (and cleared another rider of his positive test), whether Landis will lose his title is very much a question mark.

http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/11366.0. html

(Not too mention, according to the lab's own documents, Landis' sample was too contaminated to be tested in the first place.)

...of at least one american where this doesn't appear to be a problem.

I thought Al frames and parts could fail spectacularly as well. As this person is about to find out.

good thing he's got a decent job with google, cause the guy sure can't time trial worth a darn. Two crashes and four bike changes? ouch.

Actually, the BioPace chainrings you speak of were retired after they were shown to damage the knees. However, the idea of a non-circular chainring will not die, and Bobby Julich rode one to a bronze medal during the 2004 Olympics.

Any bike racing ending with the wheel spinning at 60rpm is a pretty slow race. Most cyclists average around 90rpm, with the sprints getting up around 130+ rpm. Much higher for track races, where it is around 170rpm.

The Tour de France uses a system similar to the cameras for the 100m dash. Example image

I believe the transponders for the Tour were yellow and on the rear of the bikes (non-drive side chainstay). So what guard952 was saying sounds right on. Bottom of the page talks briefly about the transponders.

Unless they use non-tested product (like EPO until 97 in cyclism), unless they manage it (stop EPO on time before the race, and later inject previous one's blood samples), unless they manage to mask it (the controlled people are warned 20 minutes before they arrive - enough to drink and inject anything, plus delays before actual control), and unless the Tour organization and the UCI (Cycling Organization) have a wested interest in not declaring you a cheat because otherwise interest in Tour or in Cycling will drop dramatically.

I know that, in the past there have been doping scandals, but why generalize like mad ?

Well doping has been systematic in the race - for a reason: I don't know many competitions of other sports lasting more than 10 days in a row. Meanwhile, note that the major scandal in 1998, did not come from the UCI and Tour anti-doping control: they come from an over-zealous customs agent (same for the Giro in 1999 - same for the Cofidis scandal). This alone is scandalous: what is the explanation for this total failure?

The icing of the cake is some racers having admitted using doping products for 10 years, and who have been controlled positive only one time, 8 years ago (Philippe Gaumont).

Lance confronted by a compulsive recumbent geek...

Too bad the FCC can't do anything about Clearchannel DJs inciting violence against cyclists.

One interesting and vaugely related artical details that the performance enhancement effects of caffine can be realized by "social" consumption of the drug. Thought it was interesting.

The Segway could not have been going 12 mph when it took over 2 1/2 hours to get to the top all told!!!! See this article.

The current human bicycle record up Mt. Washington is 49 minutes and change. Yes this is a professional cyclist, but the majority of people who get into the one day ride to the top make it in under 2 hours.

So your questions should not be, "Why not buy a motorbike?", but why not just buy a bike?!?!?!?!?!? It's cheaper, less maintenance cost, and with a set of panniers can make your weekly run to the store/work/play.

Of course, a bicycle got up in in under an hour--40% the Segway time. And to think that one day, I might be on a multi-use path, having to shout at these morons to yeild right-of-way!