Rosa

Traditionally, pink is a color associated with sensitivity, tenderness, sweetness, the feminine, and the romantic.But for me, the color is associated with pain, suffering and courage to rise above it all.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month although you might think that Oktoberfest is much more popular.

Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in women. My Mom died from the disease back in 2001 and for this reason, this awareness campaign is close to my heart. I know friends who are sick with the disease, some have beat it, some are still fighting it and some have succumbed to it. Young, old, rich, poor, there are no exceptions to this malady. In spite of advances in medicine, the cure is still out there, waiting to be discovered. Hopefully, somebody will find one.

But there is one thing that disturbs me when it comes to raising money for its cure. People are giving money to medical research, to find cure, yes, but why is it that when the medicine designed for a particular disease is discovered, it is very expensive? We paid for scientists to find the cure and when they do, it’s these big multinational drug companies that make a ridiculous amount of money out of it.

Anyway, don’t wait for something wrong to happen to you before you go to your doctor. Have an annual check up. The earlier the cancer is detected, the greater the chance of surviving it. We can beat this!

Retirements

Four very popular pros have retired this year. Jens Voight, well, I wrote about him, when he challenged the Hour Record as his final event. Another rider to hang up his cleats was Thor Hushovd. The big Norwegian had been a pro since 2000. Along the way, he won 10 stages in the Tour de France, with a brief spell with the Yellow Jersey. He also won the coveted World Championships back in 2010. His only major miss was Paris-Roubaix.

David Millar is another retirement, saying, he doesn’t “fit” anymore. Millar was one of the popular riders in the peloton when he started out. He was expected to win the Tour de France one day but it didn’t pan out. He was a popular rider since he was a dandy and an Anglophile. He was busted for doping in 2004 but he came back as an anti-doping crusader. He helped set up a team (now GARMIN) who had a very strict anti-doping stance. He won four stages in the Tour, all of them coming when he was “clean” proving to people that you can win in the biggest stage riding clean.

Andy Schleck won the Tour in 2010, but not in the way that he wanted it. He actually came in second to Alberto Contador but when Contador was banned for doping, he inherited the Maillot Jaune. Last week, he announced his retirement at age 29, citing a knee injury. Schleck was never the same rider after 2010, he seemed crash prone and on the 3rd stage of this year’s Tour, he crashed and injured his knee.

Finally, a friend of mine, George Guinitaran, passed away last week. He had what it seemed as innocuous bicycle crash on the Marcelo Fernan Bridge, but doctors later found out that a clot had formed in his brain. George always had a smile on his, and was a fearless sprinter during our races at the Rekla. He will be missed…….Condolence also to the family of the late Dr. Margarita CellonaCari…..Why “ROSA”? Well, Rosa is pink in Italian, the same color of the jersey for the winer of the Girod’Italia.