US Cyclists forced to grovel by US Olympic Team

Bike radar link

I'm surprised that El Presedente Bush Jr can turn up in China and provide criticism of China's human rights record seemingly without causing any problems (it was all probably agreed with the Chinese in advance anyway) but four US cyclists who appear to be acting reasonably intelligently to prevent themselves being affected by smog have to provide a groveling apology to the "people of china" for the offence they caused.

Oh wait......actually that doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

In other smog related cycling news, the Head of the New Zealand Olympic team describes the smog as "sea fog". The NZ Herald gets its geography right by pointing out the Beijing is 800km from the sea and in a sudden outbreak of straight talking, Julian Dean (NZ Road Race Champion, Garmin Chipotle team member and general straight talker) admits "it is going to be challenging...its going to have a big effect on the race".

NZ Herald

Japan does an International Whaling Commission on the Kierin?

The murky world of Olympic kickbacks gets murkier:

BBC World Investigation into Kierin kickbacks

Perhaps some of the members of Japanese Whaling Commission used to be involved with Cycling?