Ferrari profile online!

Update: My profile of Dr. Michele Ferrari, Lance Armstrong's "controversial" longtime trainer, is now online. (Or go to bicycling.com and search "Ferrari.")

The Bode Show

The woman from Maxim wore a bikini to their interview, but she really didn't need to: Bode Miller is a great interview, no matter what you're wearing. He's one of the rare athletes who treats an interview like a conversation, as opposed to an opportunity to dictate the usual sports cliches, so he almost always says interesting stuff. It was disappointing to see "60 Minutes" hyping his comments about skiing hungover as if it were "news," when anybody who's followed Bode knows that it was just him spouting off, a throwaway line. And besides, drinking and skiing are hardly strangers, for better or for worse. (Think St. Bernard.) If he stays sober for the slalom, he'll win three medals in the Olympics, and his teammates, like Daron Rahlves, will win three more.

A couple years back, I spent some time with Miller in his native New Hampshire, and then two weeks in New Zealand with Bode and his teammates, for this 2004 piece in Outside magazine; you can read my take on his current imbroglio here, in Slate. (Short version: Is anybody surprised? And is it really such a big deal? Except of course to his sponsors, who might like him to finish a slalom once in a while...)

Lance's Mystery Doctor

When a British newspaper revealed that Lance Armstrong was working with Italian sports doctor Michele Ferrari, on the eve of the 2001 Tour de France, it sent shock waves through the sports world that are still being felt. For the European press, who knew Ferrari's notorious reputation, it was as if Armstrong had tested positive for EPO, the illegal performance-enhancing drug. Though Armstrong and his then-U.S. Postal team tried to minimize the relationship, they've been under a cloud of suspicion ever since. And as usual, in such high-profile media controversies, truth was the first casualty.

In March 2005, I traveled to Italy to meet the elusive Dr. Ferrari—and some of his fiercest critics and supporters—for a profile of "The Legend" that appears in the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Bicycling magazine. Ferrari rarely gives interviews, with reason, but I found him to be intelligent, funny, iconoclastic, and more than a little jittery, thanks to his October 2004 conviction on (relatively minor) sports-doping charges. Behind his dark reputation, I learned, lurks the mind of a brilliant sports scientist, a man who revolutionized training for endurance athletes. He was also far more deeply involved in Armstrong's training—and that of his Tour teammates—than has ever been acknowledged. (There's a great section on Ferrari in Dan Coyle's book,Lance Armstrong's War.)

Is he "guilty"? Not for me to decide, though there is disquieting evidence that points in both directions. Read and decide for yourself.

Note: The piece is not available online, so you'll have to buy the magazine, on newsstands until January 31. There's no cover line, but you'll find it on page 51.