As doping scandals savage the sport of cycling, and track & field reels from a positive test by a world record holder, many triathletes wonder about the state of drug use in their sport.

For the second time in as many decades the owners of the popular San Diego-based De Soto Clothing company have had to take its German distributor to court to protect its manufacturing and distribution rights.

“What does global warming have to do with triathlon?” you might ask.

The new Portland-based trade show that only a month ago had the bicycle industry buzzing is gone as quickly as it came.

It didn’t take Skip Gilbert long. For the first time in 16 years USA Triathlon’s board of directors has approved a deficit budget.

Though competition is not always healthy in the short term, the market works itself out in the fullness of time.

One of triathlon’s most exciting new bikes will have its formal coming out party today or tomorrow, depending on the time zone of the reader. On Thursday, January 13th, at Mission Bay’s downtown store.

America’s three glossy monthlies became two some months ago, when American Tri folded itself into Inside Triathlon and absorbed its editor/publisher Kyle DuFord.

Venerated Bicycle Sports, owned and run by John Cobb out of Shreveport, Louisiana and more recently Tyler, Texas, is no longer in business.

This is not an obituary. John Cobb’s Bicycle Sports is still in business.

Yes, your favorite companies’ product managers were all over in Taipei working on next year’s bikes. They’re working hard, no-doubt, but are they designing and spec’ing good bikes?

With Interbike right around the corner I thought I’d write a bit about how the bike business works—not everything about it, but the nuts and bolts of how a bike gets from the “paper napkin sketch” to your local bike shop’s showroom floor.