Team RadioShack's Johan Bruyneel Loses Appeal

Cycling News

Team RadioShack's Johan Bruyneel Loses Appeal

By AP and Roadcycling.com
Jan 1, 2011 - 9:38:16 AM

Lance Armstrong's Team RadioShack will be without chief Johan Bruyneel for important races in March.

The Belgian lost an appeal to change the start date of a suspension imposed because he insulted officials at the 2010 Tour de France.

However, Bruyneel can work at the January 2011 Tour Down Under around Adelaide, which is scheduled to be seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong's farewell professional ride outside the United States.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said yesterday it dismissed Bruyneel's challenge to an International Cycling Union ruling that ordered him to serve his two-month ban in February and March.

The full reasons for the court's emergency decision will be published later.

Bruyneel wanted the suspension applied in January and February before the top-tier European road races begin.

A ban through March forces Bruyneel to miss three stage races, including Paris-Nice, and one-day classics Milano-Sanremo and Gent-Wevelgem.

Armstrong rode his final Tour de France in July and was involved in a controversy before the final stage to Paris.

RadioShack riders arrived at the start line wearing black jerseys with "28" on the back to support Armstrong's Livestrong Foundation. The number honoured the 28 million people worldwide fighting cancer.

Bruyneel's team did not seek permission to wear the unofficial uniform and the stage start was delayed by 20 minutes while the riders changed into approved jerseys.

The Belgian manager posted a message on Twitter that Tour de France officials "don't need brains", though he soon removed the post and apologised.

The UCI, which said the delayed start jeopardised broadcasters' schedules, ruled in October that Bruyneel insulted officials. It imposed a two-month ban and fined him 10,000 Swiss Francs.

The riders were each fined 2,500 Swiss Francs.

Related articles

Team RadioShack's Johan Bruyneel Loses Appeal - Jan 1, 2011 - 9:38:16 AM
Robbie McEwen Signs with Team RadioShack - Dec 23, 2010 - 6:09:30 PM
Team RadioShack Fined for Tour de France Black Jersey Stunt - Oct 29, 2010 - 2:58:33 PM
Team RadioShack Signs Philip Deignan and Nelson Oliveira - Oct 12, 2010 - 7:33:47 AM
Team RadioShack Asks CAS to Arbitrate After Non-Invite to 2010 Tour of Lombardy - Sep 10, 2010 - 4:18:43 AM
Team RadioShack Signs Three New Riders for 2011 - Sep 3, 2010 - 3:52:42 PM
Team RadioShack's Haimar Zubeldia Fractures Wrist - Jun 7, 2010 - 12:04:49 PM
Bruyneel Set to Lead Team RadioShack - Feb 13, 2010 - 6:02:09 AM

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Happy New Year!

What can we say? It's been a blast. Stay safe and away from dirty piles of melting snow, don't do anything we would (or wouldn't) do, depending on your own personal style and previous criminal history, and above all, ENJOY. We'll see all of y'all in 2011!

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Attica: The Death of '60s Radicalism

?Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives.
September 16, 1971, Vol. XVI, No. 37

Attica: the death of '60s radicalism
By Clark Whelton

There are three treatments for cancer -- radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery. All three poison or mutilate the body and may even kill the patient before the cancer does. But the most skillful of physicians can only try one of these three scourges if he wants to attempt a cure. As destructive as they are, there's nothing else.

The State Prison in Attica, New York, is nothing but a different kind of cancer. The police attack on rebellious inmates there was ugly and bloody, but as destructive as it was, was there anything else?

There are many treatments for the various sicknesses of human society. Each political group prescribes its own special remedy and poultice, each blames its curative failures on somebody else. Doctors bury their mistakes, politicians alibi them. In the 1960s, American practitioners of radical politics expanded the theory of the alibi into an illusion of collective innocence. Sixties radicalism recognized that all available cures for social ills, like the cures for cancer, involved the use of harmful and possibly destructive methods. To govern, to be in power, inevitably means resorting to force to solve social problems. It shouldn't, but it does. In order to avoid choosing between the evil of the disease and the evil of the cure, '60s radicals kept themselves suspended in a presumption of innocence. They avoided the problems of government by not governing, by not assuming for themselves the responsibility of deciding the fate of other people. For a while it seemed as though it might work out, that flowers, goodness, righteous thinking, and political showmanship might actually be an antidote to the toxic effects of government. Even the advent of Weatherman bomb tactics, Panther militancy, and the auto-hypnosis of "armed love" somehow kept alive the illusion that the cure for society's ills was only a matter of doing away with the doctors who kept society sick.

The explosion of blood and violence at Attica has ended that illusion and stripped away the insulating alibis that kept it intact. In assessing the blame for the sordid murders at Attica, no person or group will bear the heavier burden of guilt than the contemptible '60s radicals who in their role as members of the mediating committee tacitly encouraged the prison inmates to go on thinking they were political prisoners engaged in a struggle of conscience instead of civil criminals engaged in a struggle against their keepers. Sixties radicals like William Kunstler -- who have no experience with the realities of governing other men -- should have known that amnesty could not possibly be granted by Governor Rockefeller or anyone else. By sticking with the radical theory, the pathetic and intoxicating '60s rhetoric which insists that radical believers are innocent victims of a fascist government, they pushed the prisoners deeper into delusion. By stating that unlimited quantities of time were available for negotiating, Kunstler demonstrated his perhaps willful ignorance of basic government which must consider the effect hat a siege has on other prisons and on the rest of the population.

The state had to act. Five days of talking is an extraordinary length of time for the negotiations to have continued. By not arguing against the political fantasies of the prisoners, the '60s radicals on the mediating committee were leading them, and the hostages, to inevitable death and a useful place in the propaganda pantheon of the left.

It shouldn't be that way, of course. Governments should be composed of human, loving, decent, honest people. But they're not. Governments are composed of people like you and me. They are imperfect, they make mistakes, they don't have the answers for society's problems any more than the radicals who criticize them. But the radicals never have to answer for their own ignorance. By keeping their hands off government, they never have to face up to the fact that ideas, in themselves, are worthless. Only by implementing social ideas through government can they be tested and judged.

The prisoners of Attica formed a government during the five days they controlled cellblock D. Armed with the ideas of '60s radicalism, they put some of them into practice. Among their first decisions was a death threat against their hostages.

Sixties radicals stayed away from government so they wouldn't be faced with political decisions like the ones made by the prisoners of Attica, the way a doctor might turn to faith healing in order to avoid the pain of slicing away huge sections of the human body to remove malignancy. But social progress is made through government, just as medical progress is made through the application of imperfect remedies. To persist in the floating innocence of '60s radicalism is to delay and deform any chance at social progress. An early demand of the Attica prisoners was transportation by plane to a "non-Imperialist" country. Nothing could symbolize the over-the-rainbow dreamworld of '60s radicalism better than this request. Where did the prisoners think they were going to? To North Korea? To China? To Cuba, Russia, Albania, police states all? There is no escape. The problems are everywhere, the cures have yet to be discovered. But the day of discovery can only be delayed by hollow political ideas like those of the '60s radicals who repeatedly point out that the people driving the country are drunk and dangerous, but who refuse to put their own hands on the wheel.

[Each weekday morning, we post an excerpt from another issue of the Voice, going in order from our oldest archives. Visit our Clip Job archive page to see excerpts back to 1956.]

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Post-Christmas Christmas Trees on Clearance in Queens

?If you missed Christmas the first time around, or want to celebrate it again, or just want to keep your home pumped full of that fresh, pine-y conifer smell, a Korean man in Flushing, Queens?is offering a "big sale" on his leftover stock of 300 Christmas trees. [NYT]

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Police Release Surveillance Video of Man With Suitcase Containing Woman's Body

Here's the surveillance video we mentioned earlier, of a man transporting a suitcase that contained a woman's body. The woman was found in front of 435 East 114th Street on December 22 at 12:15 a.m., and was pronounced DOA. It's been determined that she was a 20- to 30-year-old black woman, and that her death by asphyxiation was a homicide.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS. All calls are strictly confidential.

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Tales From a Greenpoint Christmas Tree Vendor

?Selling Christmas trees in New York City seems like a hard job. It's cold, for one. New Yorkers have that "reputation" for being tough customers and not always the friendliest, not to mention bargain hunters par excellence. And sitting outside a tree stand on an otherwise deserted street during the wee hours of the night shift sounds lonely, if not a bit scary. So what would ever possess a person -- with a full-time job no less -- to start selling Christmas trees?

Charlie Poekel, a Greenpoint resident who works a day job at a documentary film company, had for years been interested in the tree vending business. "A couple years ago, my roommate and I were trying to get a tree in Greenpoint at the stand across from Matchless," he told us. "We went down at 11 at night and asked what time they closed. They actually don't close because they don't lock up the trees. I thought, Wow, this is such a unique job. I starting asking questions, and the next year, I went to a few more stands and asked some more questions. As a job, there's really nothing like it."

After volunteering at a couple of Greenpoint stands, Poekel decided to open his own this year, at a spot on the corner of Nassau and North Henry, across from McGolrick Park. This made for a marathon Thanksgiving Day (the vending season runs from Black Friday to Christmas), including a trek to pick up the trees, 8 hours of loading and unloading, a 30 minute break for Thanksgiving dinner, and then hours more to get back to Brooklyn and set up the stand. "By 6 a.m. we were finished, and then I kept going to work the first shift," he said.

The stand operates with two shifts, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. Poekel is there mornings, evenings after his day job ends, and on weekends. His rotating staff of employees -- friends who live in the neighborhood who are musicians, photographers, or between jobs -- sit in at the other times.

?"The hardest part was trying to decide what trees to get and how many and what sizes," he said. "Turns out, we sell a lot of trees to first-time tree buyers. The couples or people who haven't had a tree in quite some time, like since they were kids -- they usually start small. There aren't many people who get a 10-footer."

Price is dependent on height, the tree itself, and any "flaws," like a bald spot or weird top. Due to a law passed in the '30s by the New York City mayor, as long as you don't obstruct sidewalk traffic, you don't need a permit -- just permission from whomever owns the property upon which you're setting up. Poekel brought in an RV to give his employees an escape from the cold. Bathrooms, however, mean a trip to a nearby bar or, he said, "I'll leave that to your imagination."

Stories tend to accumulate over the years, told from vendor to vendor, some of them real, some of them with the trappings of urban legend. "There's one I heard from a tree guy," he said. "Someone new was selling trees late one night. A good-looking girl came around, talked to him for 30 minutes or so, got him to sneak away, and gave him head in a nearby alley. When he came back, the story goes, every tree was gone."

In another tale, "This woman sold a tree to a drunk guy three nights in a row. The first two nights the tree apparently didn't make it home."

For Poekel, the best part of the job is the people, and the neighborhood spirit the stand creates. "Kids love every tree in there; I could show them the Charlie Brown tree, and they'd love it," he says. "Also, 90 percent of tree-vending jobs are worked by out-of-towners. I have nothing against people who come from out of town to do this, but most of that money is just leaving the city. There was something admirable in my mind about having locals working the stand. People think of New York as this cold city where you don't give a stranger the time of day. But there's a woman who brings us wine twice a week, and people bake cakes and bring hot cocoa and cider. People see me in the street and are like, 'Hey, you're the Christmas tree guy!'"

Some stands can be extremely lucrative, selling more than 1,000 trees in a season. Poekel's first year meant a lot of first-time operating costs, so it remains to be seen whether he'll make a profit, but either way, he says he'll be there again next year: "A little kid smiling and asking if you work for Santa can just make your day."

The last day to buy trees is Christmas Eve, so if you're still in the market, head over, say hi, and pick one up.

[JDoll]

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Robbie McEwen Signs with Team RadioShack

Cycling News

Robbie McEwen Signs with Team RadioShack

By AP
Dec 23, 2010 - 6:09:30 PM

Australian cycling star Robbie McEwen will make his debut for Lance Armstrong's Team RadioShack at next month's 2011 Tour Down Under, the first event of the 2011 ProTour season.

McEwen joins an already strong lineup that includes seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, competing in the Australian race for the third straight year, and former Swiss national champion Gregory Rast.

"McEwen has won more stages of our race than anyone else and is a big favorite with the fans," race director Mike Turtur said.

The 38-year-old McEwen has won 12 stages on the Tour de France and is a three-time winner of the Tour's green jersey as top sprinter.

The 2011 Tour Down Under will be raced in South Australia from January. 16-23.

Related articles

Robbie McEwen Signs with Team RadioShack - Dec 23, 2010 - 6:09:30 PM
Team RadioShack Fined for Tour de France Black Jersey Stunt - Oct 29, 2010 - 2:58:33 PM
Team RadioShack Signs Philip Deignan and Nelson Oliveira - Oct 12, 2010 - 7:33:47 AM
Team RadioShack Asks CAS to Arbitrate After Non-Invite to 2010 Tour of Lombardy - Sep 10, 2010 - 4:18:43 AM
Team RadioShack Signs Three New Riders for 2011 - Sep 3, 2010 - 3:52:42 PM
Team RadioShack's Haimar Zubeldia Fractures Wrist - Jun 7, 2010 - 12:04:49 PM
Bruyneel Set to Lead Team RadioShack - Feb 13, 2010 - 6:02:09 AM
Team RadioShack Releases Sneak Preview Photo of 2010 Team Jersey - Dec 8, 2009 - 8:15:12 AM

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