Dear Readers,
Welcome to the latest edition of The Prologue, the weekly summary of news from the world of competitive cycling from your friends at VeloNews.com.

On a personal level, my focus has largely been on the topic of doping this week, while attending the Third World Conference on Doping in Sport in Madrid, Spain. First off, I need to remark how much has changed since the first world conference was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, back in 1999. As you might recall, that first meeting was triggered in response to the 1998 Festina scandal. That first meeting resulted in a one-page document calling for the creation of an international agency charged with doping enforcement, but independent of the IOC. Nearly nine years later, the agency has grown into a massive organization with an enforcement code backed up by an international treaty and a $25 million/year budget. Nonetheless, no one is celebrating the end of doping in sport, and certainly the past few years has shown that simply having the enforcement mechanism in place has not done much to scale back the problem.

"The problem of doping is even bigger than even the most cynical among us might have guessed back (in 1999)," said Dick Pound during the conference. Whether you agree or disagree with him, Pound's tenure as president of WADA is winding down and the organization is expected to vote on his replacement this Saturday. It's still up in the air, but the only candidate thus far is Australia's John Fahey... although there may be new candidates popping up over the next few hours. [More]

While I may be mired in the minutia of doping rules, there was some real bike racing this week, including a very interesting event, the single-speed "world championships" won by Barry Wicks and Wendy Williams... a race that reflects the wonderful and goofy quality of the so-called off-season.

While there is plenty of 'cross and single-speed racing going on, there is already talk about the road season next year. This week the organizers of the Amgen Tour of California announced plans for the third edition of that race. We're all looking forward to seeing that one in February.

I'll be back in the U.S. next week and probably focusing on things involving two wheels and cleats as opposed to sample beakers and lawyers. See you then and make a point to check in with VeloNews.com this weekend for full reports from the latest rounds of the U.S. Grand Prix of Cyclocross.

Have a good week,

Charles Pelkey
Editor, VeloNews.com
CPelkey@insideinc.com