Pro Tour/ Euro/Whatever road thread

Clément L'Hottelerie - best name in the peloton?

paris-nice is approaching!

Cyclists and organisers of next week's Paris-Nice stage race have reached agreement over contracts for the event after weeks of uncertainly, team body the AIGCP said Tuesday.

It had looked as if the first major European stage race of the season would go ahead under a cloud after organisers ASO controversially opted to hold it under the aegis of the French federation, and not the International Cycling Union (UCI).

The latter promptly warned sanctions against participants, in the wake of major race organisers, such as Tour de France and Paris-Nice organiser ASO (Amaury Sports Organisation), splitting from the UCI's Pro Tour series amid a complex contractual dispute.

AIGCP said the ASO had accepted to make some changes to team contracts for the race, where 17 ProTour teams and 20 in all will take part.

"My role was to present the 20 team principals with two questions," explained Eric Boyer, chairman of AIGCP, who warned the UCI "it would be a mistake" to suspend any rider taking part in next week's event.

"First, do you intend to participate in the Paris-Nice? The reply was unanimously 'yes.'

"Then, do you accept the contractual conditions? There, it was a question of 'yes, but.' So we asked for some amendments to the contract."

Those will include acceptance that the French Olympic conciliation body CNOSF can step in as arbiter in the event of disagreements.

"The decision of the teams to participate in the Paris-Nice is linked to their wish to guarantee the interests of their sponsors as well as their sporting interests and those of their riders," an AIGCP statement read.

The AIGCP also called on all parties concerned to engage in a "structured dialogue" to prevent a repeat of the fallout which has marred the run-up to the race.

where is cutty's race thread

Was there already a thread? sry!

Cipo should be interesting in Sanremo. That team is pretty ridiculous.

I mean they look ridic.

no i meant a thread about cutty's racing

i should start one. race #2 is saturday.

anything cipo does is ridic, including telling michael ball he wants control of the team

lol yeah and he's got his own bike and shit.

http://www.rockracing.com/gallery/2008-02-24_ToC-Stage7/373_RRStage7.jpg

yes and telling michael ball he will only ride his own mystery bike

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2008/mar08/parisnice08/?id=results/parisnice084

Evans wins Ventoux stage in Paris-Nice, i hav stiff bonerz.

Friend of mine has made an outlook csv of all Pro cycling this year:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/b29wvo

have fun

http://beta.velonews.com/article/73493/american-team-slipstreamchipotle-gets-a-tour

also this picture rules:

http://beta.velonews.com/files/images/WATSON_00001658-047.jpg

i keep imagining that vaughters got his team into the TdF like this:

prudhomme: "monsieur vaughters, your team is not distinctive among the array of pro continental teams, and aso, we prefer to have a greater presence of ze local french riders."

v: "remember how you kicked me out the tour after that bee sting? YOU OWE ME BEYOTCH, BIG TIME!"

p: "ha, so true!"

right Cancellara won Milano Sanremo. Guy is a true fucking animal.

Also lol @ Hunt$r.

Is Cancellara going to do any of the Olympic events, do we know?

yeah his win was pretty fucking inspiring. those guys could not gain an inch on him!

I know this isn't Road but can we have a quick WOOOOOOO!!!! For Team GB at the track worlds: 9 Golds and counting.

Yeah that's awesome. The pursuit record. Australia disappointing :/

lolers at breach of contract allegation that greg lemond is sustaining himself by illegal bro-deals of his bikes. this guy = train wreck.

also at trek's site is lemonds complaint, which is equally fun trainspotting

wow. cutty, let this be a lesson. hes lucky he just vaulted instead of hitting something.

(not that youd ever do that, cutty)

i almost took a 4 person break directly into a dumpster once, but the guy behind me screamed just in time. i think my eyeballs were actually rolling back in my head from the effort or something.

yeah i saw that whilst watching the race. fucking ouch ouch.

loling at the lemond fiasco. employee pricing! hahaha

http://beta.velonews.com/files/images/LeMondArmstrong.JPG

one of my favorite pics ever

Gah.

that race is a blast to do, but it does have some sick tight descents in it. i think kent bostick broke his leg coming down from pinos altos several years ago during Gila.

yeah i read that article last night. scary, i had a 2 mile, 50mph descent last saturday and another huge one coming up this sunday :/

there is a v. popular descent used in the Carter Lake rd race that is low-mid 50s and VERY wind exposed, one of the masters women died a few years ago going off the cliff in crosswind.

cutty you should check out doing gila when make 3s. its a good 5 day race. (the 4s only do 3 days).

you've done it? nice. i plan on upgrading to 3 by end of summer, hopefully. i already have 2 points.

there's the green mountain stage race here in the northeast which i am seriously considering doing. mad points up in there.

http://www.gmsr.info/

Hey Hunter and Cutty, I don't imagine there'll be a lot of peloton riding in my ride to Paris in a couple of months, but are there lots of rules and safety considerations to learn?

(it's not a race, there won't be sprints etc., but we may well at least partly travel in a big group, for safety as much as anything, and I'd hate to ride badly or wrongly)

ride a straight line
dont dont overlap wheels

^these two things are what you rly need

stay off the brakes
dont speed up when you hit the front of the line, just hold yr speed
try to take yr pulls, make it shorter if you have to
if you can SAFELY point out a hazard well before you get there, do so
if youre in a really big scrum and flat, its nice to put yr hand up, call it, and safely drift over/back to get out of the way
if you have to spit, snotrocket or sneeze, get the hell out of line plz (in races, this is not really feasible, and in result racing can be really gross)

knowing the general rotations and which way to run the lines might help (you pull off on the windward side) (most ppl who get all bent out of shape on this matter in touring rides are total dorks ime)

if yr in line on a hill, and it looks like people are starting to stand on the pedals, give yourself a little extra space. if that guy in front of you stands, he basically moves his bike 1 foot back towards yr front wheel.

if someone doesn't look like they know what theyre doing, get far away from them. squirrelly riders usually dont improve in the course of one ride.

yelling at people, even if theyre insufferable and u r awesomes, is a speedy way to become unpopular, just like in life.

Thanks Hunter as ever.

those are all the good points. standing when the guy in front of you stands is also great. cause if he stands and cause a wheel overlap you are bound to touch his wheel

craigslist. for when yr girlfriends have got smart and dumped yr scrawny asses after realizing you love yr fantasies of cycling greatness more'n them

Belgian super star sprinter, Tom Boonen has allegedly been caught in an out of competition test for cocaine, according to Belgian newspaper HLN.be. The out of competition test allegedly occurred three days before start of the Tour of Belgium, where Boonen won the final stage.

The Belgian paper also reported that the homes of Boonen's parents and girlfriend in Postel and Lore respectively were searched last night. The non-negative test has also not yet been confirmed by the UCI. Boonen's Quick Step team was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

This is not the first time that Boonen has been linked to the drug. Last December, his good friend and cyclo-cross star, Tom Vanoppen was caught by the Flemish doping controllers with cocaine. During questioning Vanoppen allegedly named Boonen as his dealer, a claim Boonen later denied. Following the claim, Boonen's parent's house was searched.

lolz

Apparently unlikely he'll get suspended. So now McEwen won't win any stages in the tour.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZoxWl5f3I_w

apparently i have a crueller sense of lolz than you

haa

that's because you don't race anymore!

i kill on the bike path tho

maybe ill try to shoulder some granny into cherry creek then

Always wondered where they got those small cans of coke on HC mountain passes from.

Oh wait, that was Coca Cola.

The FIX isssss in...

and now the "counter" knows the score.

The reporter asked who is the biggest wheel-sucker, Leipheimer or Cadel Evans?

“Uff, mmm, the truth is, I wouldn’t know what to say …,” Contador said, leaving it with a smile.

kinda of douchey way to say thanks for the memories

Did anybody else watch the Tour of Britain? There's a young rider for the Columbia team called Edvald Boasson Hagen who looks very useful. He won three stages, the most dramatic being his first win which was oddly misreported on the site that Hunter linked to above. They said "...As the remaining nine escapes were about to be caught with around 3km to go, Boasson Hagen jumped, taking Ermeti away with him onto the uphill section leading to Potteries Way, with the peloton in hot pursuit. The two swept down the brief section of by-pass before turning on to the final few hundred meters of uphill to the finish line. As Ermeti led them to the line, Boasson Hagen came the long way round him, pipping him at the line to take his first Tour of Britain stage victory."

It was actually much more exciting than that. It was Ermeti who had leapt clear of the break of 9 with a few miles to go and Lloyd who came with him. These two opened up what looked like a winning gap over the rest of the break. Meanwhile the bunch were bearing down on the break, but were still so far behind the leading two that this wasn't being shown on TV. Ermeti got rid of Lloyd with a kilometre to go and looked absolutely certain to win alone - he had a good 100m lead over Lloyd and the rest were nowhere in sight. Right in the final few seconds Boasson Hagen (who had jumped out of the break just before the break got caught by the bunch) appeared from nowhere, went straight past Lloyd, then caught and passed Ermeti on the final bend about 10m from the line, with the bunch suddenly steaming in and leaving Lloyd in 9th.

lol it's pretty sweet that Armstrong is going to ride the Tour Down Under next year. Even though it's in fucking South Australia..

"I've been off the bike for three years and next summer it will be almost four years. With that is also the fact that I'll be almost 38 years-old at the start of the 2009 Tour, so I don't know," he said about his chances. "I will try and be as prepared as possible. I don't know if that equals victory."

sif he won't be shattered if he doesnt win

Anyone watching the worlds?

I've reading about it. They've been talking up the Australian lad who came third in the u23 tt for a while, good on him.

Emma Pooley could only manage 8th in the TT after and olympic silver and decided not to race cavendish saying he was too tired after the tour of missouri, so British hopes are not great.

Spaniards will prob own everyone again :D

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2008/09/27/NicoleCooke460
Great win for Cooke on Saturday

the only bit of it I saw was the last 10k or so of the women's race and it was awesome. I really good tactical battle with an excellent result at the end of it.

She's a total freak

she is a pro cyclist so of course she is a freak, it is in the job description.

Armstrong looks fit

http://i35.tinypic.com/dwe7fc.jpg

Schumacher pops. Like, one of the least surprising positives of the year.

Piepoli was pretty much a given as well.

Is Frank Schleck going to be next?

i already had piepoli as positive

lol

I didn't pick Schleck to be positive

O_o

Drug Testing Laws bent to allow for Armstrong's Return:

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=3632327&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

I didn't pick Schleck to be positive

well, not that particular schleck.

when they stopped schleck pere in july i figured that there had been a tip-off from the vampires regarding abnormal values of some kind.

of course no schleck has tested positive yet anyway. unless im behind in the news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/7668224.stm

Now Old King (of the Mountains) Kohl has been caught too.

wheeeeeee! lets kick cycling out of the olympics.

yeah that tt LOHL pulled was ridiculous in retrospect.

US National Team member Taylor Phinney shattered the American national record in the men's 4,000m individual pursuit on Friday at the UCI Track World Cup in Denmark. Phinney, clocked a time of 4:15.223 in the qualifying round, surpassing the previous mark of 4:19.800 set by Mariano Friedick in 1996.

Currently, the Olympic record stands at 4:15.031, set by Great Britain's Bradley Wiggins last year in Beijing, while the world record is 4:11.114 – a mark set by Great Britain's Chris Boardman in 1996 using an aerodynamic position now banned by the UCI.

how good will he be

A year ago, the kid didn't know the individual pursuit from Trivial Pursuit. But Connie explained it to him -- she's a former world champion in the discipline -- and he decided to give it a whirl. He won the U.S. national championship. In his first race. His fourth race was a World Cup event in Carson, Calif. He won. He qualified for the Olympics, then set a junior world record in the 3,000-meter pursuit.

^^^^^^ O_O

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/photos/2009/02/019590.html

lance's TT bike got stolen:

http://twitpic.com/1i8t1

http://www.velonews.com/article/87850/lance-armstrong-trek-staffers-report-that-astana-time-trial

looked pretty grim out there today

some more cool photos: http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/photos/2009/02/019642.html

^^^

HI IT'S ME LEVI... LATER BRO!

Kimmage vs Lance

cav again, apparently!

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/photos/tourracesm/tourrace16.jpg

15 mile TT today through Solvang which is like this "Little Copenhagen" of the Central Coast of California.

basso = out (knee into bar)
lance is ready to go atm

http://blog.trainingpeaks.com/2009/02/

Aw no, poor Dave (from Twitter):

dzabriskie My house was broken into while at TOC. They took everything, a lot of bikes,cars, and you name it they got it.

dzabriskie If anyone out there sees anything you think might be mine, let me know. Thanks...DZ

http://www.velonews.com/article/89159/vande-velde-wins-stage-4-chavanel-retains-overall-lead

well its the first week of march, but thats a beautiful win

any win where you are alone in the picture is beautiful

It was fantastic following that stage live on cyclingnews.com! And since I follow VDV's Twitter too it felt like a friend was winning :)

ive been waiting for a win from farrar like forever. a guy i knew who raced with farrar coming up always said he was the best he ever saw. for whatever thats worth.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2009/mar09/tirreno09/index.php?id=/photos/2009/mar09/tirreno09/tirreno093/PIC10831673

hah *corna*

http://www.steephill.tv/players/youtube/?title=ta-09-st3-last-km&id=NYZ15iIdnKM

that scream after the finish is great.

A double whammy from Eurosports: Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico. Contador was amazingly destroyed today on the final climb - dropped from the break and then caught and dropped by the bunch.

;_; (that this yank has no eurosport)

good on Contador for attacking on the last stage. he must have been ruined.

http://www.steephill.tv/2009/tirreno-adriatico/photos/stage-07/315-PIC11468696.jpg

revenge.

Cavendish has won the Milan-San Remo!

That was so exciting. I didn't think he'd have a chance. I started watching it live on Eurosport as they approached the Cipressa and was surprised to find he was still there. Then it all got a bit split up and he was still in the front bunch of about 60 with Hincapie for company. Then it stayed together on the Poggio despite a couple of little digs and he was nicely placed in about 10th spot as they came into the town. Haussler shot off the front in the sprint and looked to have it sewn up but Cavendish put in a phenomenal burst and took him right on the line (both well clear of the pack). I was jumping up and down shouting 'yes!', while the idiot Eurosport commentators were calling it for Haussler (even though Cavendish was celebrating and Haussler was lying abject on the ground).

"haaaaaaaahhhh fotofinish.....fotofinish!" loooooooooooolz

http://images.gazzetta.it/Media/Foto/2009/03/21/100-Milano-Sanremo-arrivo--346x212.jpg

Is it just me, or does Haussler appear to be twice the size of Cavendish in this photo?

"Kohl also admitted to having been a customer of Humanplasma, a Vienna blood bank."

wasnt humanplasma was a band on those 1981 comps?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/apr09/apr01news2

http://www.humanplasma.at/

Two wins for Cavendish and one for Wiggins in the 3 Days of De Panne.

pity i cant watch tour of flanders even though i've got every fucking sports channel on australian pay tv :\

can i watch it on internet anywhere?

it's on eurosport here (http://yahoo.eurosport.co.uk/tvschedule_clng2_day0.shtml), which you might be able to find on http://www.justin.tv/ while it's being broadcast.

THANKING U

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5117566087950548906&postID=1187293647335124967

wow bike riders are more fragile than i thot based on the comments.

(i raced as blake's teammate for a bunch of years when he was a junior- even when he was 15 he went through us lower cats like a hot knife through butter)

it might be my favorite race of the year tomorrow, whos it gonna be?

cancellara

http://nyvelocity.com/files/u18/flanders_flyer1.jpg
http://nyvelocity.com/files/u18/flanders_flyer2_0.jpg

looks fun

lolz at that crash, no way was first guy down making that hole given how fast that swerve was on. the whole thing was pretty sad lookin

Is Heinrich Haussler going to come second in every classic this year?

whew, that move by devolder.

whatta animal

ysi?

Some stuff here

no footage of a 'move'....yow @ that crash, tho

yeah. this is a pretty tight photo imo

http://i43.tinypic.com/154ytjd.jpg

on video you could see the precise moment quinziato dialed it back to avoid blowing up. that picture looks pretty much like that moment--he pulled over to the right as he dropped off.

(how is martijn maaskant on garmin, and for how much longer?)

too bad farrar seems always hurting

^From baot 1:30

Not road related but 2003 Kierin world champ Jobie Dajka found dead

it's a pretty fucking sad story

Ghent Wevelgem - Edvald Boasson-Hagen (who took the Tour of Britain by storm last summer) has just won it in a two-man break.

Which station carries the Tour De France in the states and do they stream it? Should be good watching it at work in the mornings.

i think the channel i watched it on was Versus?? pretty sure. it was at a bar, tho. no idea if it's streamed

it's versus and yes i believe they do stream it

This is good news although it looks like I will be in Europe for Le Grand Depart and be able to watch 3 stages in person. (Cap d'Agde-Perpignan, Girona-Barcelona and the first mountain stage). (Real number of stages may vary due to testing the patience of E w.r.t. chasing cyclists about the french and spanish countryside).

it's pictures like these that make cycling the greatest sport ever:

http://www.velonews.com/files/images/kirchenfleche_0.jpg

nah its video clips like ^^^ at 3:40. "you think YOU play hardball with me against the barriers? no, THIS is hardball!"

The reactions to the crash in the Tour of Turkey are no laughing matter. On Youtube you can see how I seem to intentionally cause a crash. Even Lance Armstrong makes it known that I should be suspended for a long time. A reaction which I fully understand after seeing the images and hearing the accompanying commentary.

Of course I also watched them myself, over and over. It is difficult to see in the view from above, it seems as though I pull him off his bike. However, I am completely boxed in there while being pushed into the barriers on the left and, as a reflex, the one thing I do is to make an ultimate attempt trying to keep him away from me. At that moment the only option, precisely to prevent the crash. I think I then hit a barrier foot with my front wheel and go crashing down immediately, together with Impey.

I feel like shit for having become headline news in this way. As a sportsman, I want to show that I am a different man. This is bugging me. I hope that there is more footage. Perhaps those videos can be viewed side by side and analysed frame by frame. I would give everything to prove that this was not my fault. It was never my intention. Not even in the heat of the battle. I will have to convince everyone that I win my sprints differently. I love this sport. Sport is on the cutting edge. Fair play is part of that in every way. It is never worth going beyond that!

yeah, the blogs are crazy about this---almost certain, myself, that it's an accident. he'd literally have to be crazy to do something like that on purpose

http://cyclocosm.com/2009/04/the-bos-impey-crash/

having handled a few asses while getting pinched, dude is mostly right ^^^^. and what usually happens when push someone away hard is that they automatically lean back to you, or even swerve back into you. so you want to push steadily and not too hard ime.

what im less clear on (and this may be a track thing and the right thing to do) was bos' first touch on impey. he puts his arm around him. ive never seen that done in that situation. he quickly changes to a shoulder snatch and the rest is clear to see.

bos has forgotten 100x more than i'll know about handling a tight sprint, but i have a harder time believing his explanation. to me it looked like he knew he was fucked and wasnt going alone. (by the way, if you ever crash on top of someone--it can be surprisingly soft and easy.)

Breaking news: Italian rider has tested positive for CERA (i.e. EPO) at last summer's olympics. Rumours that it is Rebellin.

More than rumours now. What a massive disappointment :(

and schumacher again

double jeopardy

Haha! I'm so glad Schumacher is the second one. Serves him right if he gets banned for life now, the cunt.

if you were on gsteiner and knew you needed a new k, i guess the pressure was high? or were they always cheats?

Is any US TV showing the Giro or have it online?

No worries: http://www.universalsports.com/

Spectacularly well timed launch of the sprint by Pettachi, just the right moment to block Cavendish against the barriers. However second day in Pink for him so it isn't all bad.

and Boonen gets caught on the gak again....

I think he must like having july off.

Anyone know if the Tour is doing bonus seconds for stage wins this year?

dunno - but the route sucks, they need to be going through north east France some more so we can go see it with free accomodation, they haven't been in 4 years or so.

Next year is your year then, grand depart in holland and lots of flat through belgium and luxembourg.

this is my year though, Finish in Perpignan and Barcelona on consecutive days and that's where I can get free accommodation. (Also trying to get school to pay for the flights as I am going to a conference in Barcelona on the preceding weekend).

Also for this year, Valverde out because of the one stage that passes through italy where CONI have banned him.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/landis/instantmessage.html

remember when? ha, good times yall good times.

I am eternally amused by the block of cheese riders get with their spumante for a stage win.

I loved scarponi's slow down to the line and cheeky grin as he looked behind for the chasing group.

http://www.theurbanshop.co.uk/multimedia/catalogue/images/OTHER/ynm0031.jpg

^crazy. in the wet too

http://cyclingnews.com/photos/2009/giro09/?id=/photos/2009/giro09/giro097/2_0038632_1_thumb2

lol meant that

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8053657.stm

His bike was reportedly found around 60m away as paramedics recovered him from deep in a ravine.

Bradley Wiggins is still hanging on in there.

http://cycleto.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=973

i still think this is the best anglophone rider out there for race assessment.

im interested in hearing who's better tho.

Not pro, but pretty shitty:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/8054215.stm

i love chris horner

http://www.livestrong.com/lance-armstrong/video/lance-and-levi-talk-to-dave-zabriskie/bef12e89-651a-48fb-875a-ebbfe0b03389/rms/

juan pelota has better sense of humor about it than i figgered

di luca trying to break away from menchov here on the vesuvius climb is pretty entertaining!

Menchov looked pretty chuffed at the end there.

I normally find Cadel Evans to be the Prince of Boredom in the mountains, just defensively grinding his way up at a steady pace, following wheels and limiting his losses, but he was fantastically aggressive and attacking in the last two stages of the Dauphine Libere (trying to shake off soon-to-be-banned Valverde).

Yeah he's looking good hey.

happy moncoutie got that stage, always liked him.

http://i44.tinypic.com/j5gy01.jpg

everyone is expecting moncoutie to be nailed real soon

do ur sources say millar is back on the sauce because garmin needs a gc rider?

has VDV not recovered?

ive a hard time believing he'll be ready in time, but maybe. dude sounded like a train wreck.

columbia high road is srsly unstoppable this year

serious bullshit right here:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/horner/2009/06/astanas_chris_horner_explains.html

mmm. i like horner, he's a PRO. he does as ordered and spends 100% as asked. if contador wanted the strongest team with a guy who follows management's orders, he'd demand horner. i think horner's take is right--and contador doesn't trust bruyneel. with paulinho, ac will have a guy who'll follow his own commands. and if ac jumps teams, he'll take his flunky too, anyway.

cant help but believe that if youre serious about winning gc, you take a team to back one guy 100% to win gc, no concessions.

I've started this:
Tour de France 2009
As it's the one race a year that people who don't look at this board might actually want to post about.

i'd venture to say anyone that cares about the tour, except ned, already reads and posts here!

why was dekker doping in december? is that like the auto doping layaway plan? if he were to bag blood in january, how long would it keep, doc gbx?

that's a good question, actually. i'm sure google could answer this, but: if he's banking blood, it's usually because the banked blood has a higher hematocrit (more RBCs), right? like from training at altitude or a course of EPO or something, yeah?

so basically the question is how well do RBCs age? their oxygen binding ability will degrade with time, as the hemoglobin denatures, which may be retarded by refrigeration (blood banks work, after all), but i dunno about 8 months. and freezing ~shouldn't~ work because the cells would lyse, i'm guessing. flash freezing, maybe?

basically i have no idea

getting caught aside, i can't believe these guys are ok with putting blood that's been frozen for so long back into their bodies \(O_O)/

it's just blood

yuh true. do these dodge doctors typically have "commercial" (or whatev) grade storage for these guys' blood tho?

I'm guessing that if you are providing an illicit service to professional athletes with money or sponsor's money to spend then yes you have institutional grade storage available.

yeah and i think it was Kohl amongst others who was putting up his own cash for a centrifuge

from what ive heard, the coaches will ask their riders to buy their own spinners so they can monitor easily. no facility needed for that.

serious bullshit right here:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/horner/2009/06/astanas_chris_horner_explains.html

― cutty, Friday, June 26, 2009 12:12 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

mmm. i like horner, he's a PRO. he does as ordered and spends 100% as asked. if contador wanted the strongest team with a guy who follows management's orders, he'd demand horner. i think horner's take is right--and contador doesn't trust bruyneel. with paulinho, ac will have a guy who'll follow his own commands. and if ac jumps teams, he'll take his flunky too, anyway.

cant help but believe that if youre serious about winning gc, you take a team to back one guy 100% to win gc, no concessions.

― iro with the brown bag (Hunt3r), Friday, June 26, 2009 9:31 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

can't believe that horner was dropped for a dude that probably won't finish the tour (scroll way down):

http://www.letour.fr/2009/TDF/LIVE/us/400/classement/index.html

Watching Cancellara do his TT run at the worlds and he is in a completely different league from everyone else 38s in front at the first split.

Wiggins looks done, I think he just had cancellara and Larsson come past in quick sucession.

Although that still puts him in a fight for third with Tony Martin. the fact that cancellara is a minute ahead of a guy who is a minute ahead of everyone else is staggering.

And that's it for Wiggins, bonked.

OK, not him the bike, damn the lack of commentary on the universal feed.

u watching this on eurosport ed?

On Universal Sports in the US. I expect you can get the whole phil ligget experience on eurosport.

Cancellara is amazing, he beats the guy who beta the rest of the field by a minute thirty by a whole other minute thirty. In a race that they consider it necessary to time down to 1/100th second. This guy is absolutely amazing. Looked so composed and in the groove. Roll on sunday.

Prolly on drugs :(

I am counting on his swissness to make that not true.

Famous for their scrupulous morals, the Swiss.

"He is on another planet," said Zirbel of the winner. "Second place would be a win in any other generation. That's how you have got to view it. We were all scraping for second and third."

Cycling Moves to Phase Out Use of Two-Way Radios

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Article Tools Sponsored By
By JULIET MACUR
Published: September 24, 2009

The International Cycling Union voted this week to phase out the use of two-way radios in all categories of road racing, a move that will most likely cause controversy at the top level of the sport.

Riders in the junior and under-23 categories are already barred from using the radios, but the cycling union’s management committee said in a statement Wednesday night that the use of radios at other levels “distorts the nature of cycle sport.”

Riders competed radio-free until about the mid-1990s, when they became commonplace among professional squads. Before then, riders would speak to their race director face to face during the competition, pulling beside the team car to receive directions. These days, most top-level competitors rely on the radios for race strategy.

If last summer’s Tour de France is any indication of how riders and teams will react to the ban, its implementation will not be easy. Officials tried to ban the radios on two racing days. Their motivation was to make the stages more interesting, as riders would be forced to think on their own rather than rely on cues from race directors talking to them via a headset.

The ban lasted only one day, on which some riders appeared to be pedaling slowly on purpose. By the second day, it was rescinded.

Johan Bruyneel, team director for Astana, which was Lance Armstrong’s team, led a resistance to the radio ban. He drew up a petition, and most of the teams signed it.

Those team directors and riders said that the ban was too dangerous and that the Tour was not the place to try something new. They said the safety of the riders could be in jeopardy if they were unaware of a crash ahead and not given enough notice of it.

“You could also have two days without a helmet. How about that?” Jens Voigt, a German rider on the Saxo Bank team, said during the Tour. “Or two days where we cut the cables from the brakes.”

The cycling union’s ban did not call for a specific timeframe during which the radios would be phased out.

could race organisers run a neutral radio service to alert riders of crashes?

wiggo's bane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdrBXuwID2o

Wiggins, however, says that to improve in 2010 he has to move elsewhere.

Despite improving immensely during his spell with Garmin, he used a rather unflattering football analogy to summarize his thoughts on the issue.

"It's a bit like trying to win the Champions League and to win the Champions League you go to Manchester United and I'm probably playing at Wigan at the moment.

"I'll probably have to make that step to do it," Wiggins told the BBC.

haha, class, dude. good luck with that tdf.

http://www.velonews.com/article/98562/wiggins-looking-skyward

damn they pulled that story down fast!! someone musta hated it. now its back to smoochyville.

what a ride by zirbel; cancellara is a fkn beast. he has a horse's legs

road race is on. nasty crash already, looks like one of the austrians has busted his collarbone.

cadel!!!

Well done to the moody Aussie. It's nice to see him finally win something. I thought he was unlucky not to win the Dauphine this year, and pretty unlucky in the Vuelta as well.

World Champion Cadel Evans just doesn't sound right but whatevs.

aw good on him

great ride

are there any good articles out there that explain the tactics and psychology of these kinds of road races? watching it yesterday was really interesting but I think a lot of the subtlety was lost on me. I still don't really understand fully how cancellara lost it, was it just that he made his move too early? the commentators on the BBC were saying that he was being 'ridden out of it' by the two spaniards in front of him who 'were no longer going to ride'

ha

ha it's v.complicated or ha u silly noob?

i don't think it was that he made his move too early as he was up against some pretty strong climbers. cancellera is the world's fastest man--on flat. send him up a hill everything changes.

i didn't see the entire race but i assume the "ridden out of it" part means the people in his chase group had some incentive to stop working. cancellara couldn't do all the work himself and therefore he loses.

cycling is such a tactical/psychological sport, i wouldn't know where to start. if you read krabbe's "the rider" it's kind of a primer on road racing in narrative form.

(xpost) He's not a sprinter, but he's a great time trialist and a fantastic descender, so his best chance of winning was to break away on his own near the top of a climb, lose everyone on the descent and 'time trial' his way to the finish. However, everyone knew he was likely to try this so he was being marked and when he made his move people jumped on him and didn't let him get a decent gap. When the break got past him he was left in a very difficult situation: the Spanish wouldn't help him in the chase because they had a man up ahead in the break (they weren't going to chase down their team-mate), which meant he would have to do all the work on his own to bring the break back. The problem is, if he did that then he would be knackered and one of the other Spaniards would immediately launch another break.

thanks dudes... again sorry for the ignorant qn but what kind of 'help' are you talking about? pace setting/drafting?

Yes - they were making Cancellara ride at the front and just sitting on his wheel (which is much easier). If Cancellara had hauled them back up to the break then one of the other Spaniards would have suddenly leapt out of his wheel and broken away. If Cancellara had then towed everyone back up to that break then another Spaniard would have done the same. Not necessarily just Spaniards - there were several Italians up there as well. So he was in a no-win situation.

yeah, I noticed a few times he gestured them forward (the commentator said something about him flicking his elbow being the internationally recognised signal) but some times when he did that they continued to let him ride point, which is kinda lol

thx again

(highlights are up on the iplayer btw)

we don't get iplayer here

hotspotshield is ur pal

so was this the first bike race you've watched?

ha..... um yeah. my boss tried to get me to watch the tour de france last year but no dice.

Finally watched some highlights, poor fabian, he was just a marked man and he had no one to work with, however, can't fault cadel who kept a low profile, let cancellara break the lead group up before timing his run perfectly. Can't fault the guy, he did well.

Tour 2010:

http://www.letour.fr/2010/TDF/COURSE/us/le_parcours.html

tourmalet and Aubisque on the last tuesday, then rest day and a finish on tourmalet on the final thursday, individual TT on the final saturday. All the flat is in the first week

wait, only one tt? not even a ttt?

daer lance: FU
love, aso

Just reading about the stage that finishes at Arenberg and I can't work out if they actually go over the famous 'Forest of Arenberg' cobbled stretch from the Paris-Roubaix. It says "The finish line will be located at the entrance to the notorious Arenberg Trench", which makes it sound like they stop just before it - surely not?

They are doing the big climb from liege bastogne liege backwards on day three. The Arenberg day has 7 pavé sections totalling 13.2km. Having though the first week may be boring the barrodeur and pavé stage should make it less so.

I have to be in London on July 9th, and Lisbon the weekend before. I am definitely going to Arenberg and possibly the Ardennes as well.

Giro is going to have significant dirt roads this year, sucks to be a GT rider it seems.

yeah the 5k leading up to the pave/gravel will be a dangerous misery for the gc guys. countdown to evans crying about how unfair and ridiculous it is.

Jonathan Vaughters, Garmin-Slipstream: “It’s harder than last year. On paper, that’s better for Christian (Vande Velde) because he’s always stronger in the third week.

WIGGO TO SKY ALERT!!!

Doesn't look great for Wiggins or Cavendish, really

WHAT? VDB DIED? guess i hadn't really been following the news over the last few days.

Damn :(

saw a pic on some blog of a street corner with building painted in belgian tricolour and 'RIP VDB' sprayed on a wall!

cadel has quit big pharma-lotto and is reportedly off to either sky, or - one from left-field, i must say - BMC (who've snagged ballan, hincapie and others).

lol hang on, this sez he's off to garmin, and wiggo to sky. that sounds more sensible. everybody but contador has got what they wanted for christmas!

uh wow wat

i dreamt last night that christian v4nd3velde was eaten by a crocodile.

totally serious :/

also whoever gets contador wins until the next doping freakout

to the contrary:

http://www.cadelevans.com.au/cadelsdiary.aspx

lol was just about to post that. that's the last time i trust an australian broadsheet for cycling news!

cadel's website is hilarious

that photo of him is so lol, what a ridiculous looking person

he literally has a dick coming out of the bottom part of his face

i do admire his persona, cycling needs more people like cadel, actually

the good outweighs the whininess of cadel.

i spent like a half hour with him watching a road race in the middle of nowhere when he was a teenage mtbr with diamondback.

awesome!

you were like, cadel do it this way, on a road bike

i was like, i actually know how you are, what the hell are you doing here? something to do with weins iirc. i think weins was w/ db then too.

not "how" but "who you are."

"i know how you are, with that penis chin"

gotta add, what does it say about how big mtb was pre-96 olympics that jr upcoming mtb stars were like, pretty well known in the racing world. i mean, i raced a lot of mtb then, but domestically, that's where the money was. one of my pals who was semi-pro with aspirations was all, "man, the road scene is done. it wont even exist after 2000."

pezcycling article on the 2010 giro:

"Once they hit the Zoncolan, if anyone has thoughts of Giro glory, it's here they'll have to stand up and show their cards. The first couple of kilometers are a nice 9% introduction, a warm-up if you will, then it's 5.9k at an AVERAGE of 14.9% with sections of 20 and 22%. It's mind-boggling. The final 2k ease off a bit to a measly 8% average with only an 18% bump."

seriously my respect for professional cyclists as athletes is off the chart

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=7676&status=True&catname=Latest%20News

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/fashion/05fitness.html?_r=4&ref=fashion

yeah yeah, not pro, not tour, mostly LOLZ, but still: cutty do you see this dude ever?

naw. he's only here for the length of his play. if it gets extended to the race season i'm sure i'll see him.

oh i just meant in the park or whatever

also i have touched his butt btw

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/dec/10/bradley-wiggins-team-sky-transfer

@stephenfarrand Smack my bitch up!
bradwiggins 17hrs ago from mobile web

tfg

I wonder what kind of deal they struck with Garmin. Much as I'd like to see the Sky team do well, I'm a bit concerned at the way they're going about poaching riders. The Ben Swift situation seems pretty dodgy.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/434544/vaughters-reacts-to-losing-wiggins-to-team-sky.html

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Admin/BkFill/Default_image_group/2009/12/10/1260462336746/Cycling---Team-Sky-Press--001.jpg

u just kno he is a big brit pop fan

Good to see the Style Council have got back together again.

Wiggo is the most offensively rockist tool I've ever come across when it comes to music. Makes Geir seem charming and enlightened.

I think he gets the joke, myself.

i guess there was not enough fashion room in garmin for him and vaughters together

This is a good read:
http://nyvelocity.com/content/interviews/2009/david-millar-interview

his description of barcelona was so excellent. even if youre a scrub, being off the front alone coming into a finish is magic. i cant imagine how that was for him. sometimes i just assume pros are past that.

The Ben Swift situation seems pretty dodgy.

sky have rather amusingly submitted him as one of their riders for the tour down under, despite not having done the deal yet! lol.

We might get a Sky Ladies team led by nicole cooke

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cooke-looks-to-sky-to-help-team-survive

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/sports/cycling/22iht-BIKE.html?hpw

http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/2009/12/23/astana-aurait-commis-une-infraction-penale-pendant-le-tour-2009_1284426_3242.html

would love to know the bruyneel secret - how do his riders keep dodging bullets??

preferential treatment by the UCI

blowjobs

cache of pix showing UCI staff in compromising positions

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/french-agency-targets-astana-for-illegal-transfusion-kit

Is this a bad enough infraction to result in a Schleck Wiggins Schleck podium?

(I think not, but still)

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/mens-leader-brown-loses-yellow-jersey-and-his-cool-20100104-lq3e.html

^shit gettin mad heated at the bay crits - best 'oh u bitch' moment thus far probably robbie mcewen's "brown tends to leave his best form in australia in january" diss after stage one. shame i can't get to the finale today, i'm expecting a punch-up at some point!

http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/01/news/louisville-awarded-2013-%E2%80%99cross-worlds_103288

damn, i was stoked when i saw this because i thought it was louisville colorado.

i was never mocked as hard or with such hostility for lycra as i was the week i spent training in louisville, ky, circa 1993. also, aggressive driving.

still, great to have worlds in usa

yeah this is really cool! wish I was in chi cuz ky is in striking distance

Now Ricco's other half has tested positive as well

the ricco comeback is gonna be so lolzy

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/di-luca-given-two-year-suspension-for-giro-cera-doping

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/photos/2001/apr01/parisroubaix/FSballerinifinish.shtml

merci ballerini

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/photos/2001/apr01/parisroubaix/FSballerinifinish.jpg

Ballerini at Paris-Roubaix
34th (1989)
19th (1990)
5th (1991)
11th (1992)
2nd (1993)
3rd (1994)
1st (1995)
5th (1996)
24th (1997)
1st (1998)
11th (1999)
8th (2000)
32nd (2001)

this is a new twist:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/8517006.stm

f10yd the 133t h4><0r

http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/photos/only-god-can-judge-me/106548

lol, nice to see it's only taken the UCI half a year to decide if the bike is legal or not

http://www.dutchuncle.co.uk/system/pictures/266/large/Tavis_Coburn_Hincapie.jpg?1241798038

Day one in the Criterium International sets up a nice showdown between Cadel Evans and David Millar in the time Trial with Contador having to make up a minute.

E3 Prijs - Fabian Cancellara again shows what a remarkable rider he is, dropping Boonan and Flecha in the last 2 km.

cadel looking good for that shot at the giro.

yess go Cadel!

wow Fedrigo's got some pins on him... http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/criterium-international-2-hc/stage-1/photos/112266

and a schnoz too apparently

http://www.nalair.fr/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/pierrick-fedrigo-350x450.jpg

Crikey. Russell Downing takes the second stage of Criterium International.

...and David Millar wins the time trial, 2 seconds ahead of Contador, to finish 5th overall.

Gent Wevelgem is great right now, attack and counter attack. watch with flemmish commentary

TDF: all the fancied wild card teams are in - sux 2 be vacansoleil

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-de-france-organiser-announces-22-teams-for-2010-race

and apparently rasmussen is in talks to join one of the protour teams in the next week??

dont see how they could have stiffed any of those wildcards except katusha.

Prudhomme fears this:

http://www.dancewithshadows.com/nuts/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/darth-vader-putin.jpg

David Millar wins the Three Days of De Panne. Yay!

Ronde Van Vlaanderen today, I fancy Fabian Cancellara for this. (Saxo bank running the peleton right now as well)

Cancellara is just looking so good, leading Boonen out and looking so calm on the climb. David Millar trying to bridge as well.

Enough time to show the cameraman his penis angel, pick up a swiss flag and pedal slowly over the line.

That was incredible. When Cancellara made his move on the Muur the camera shot was from the front so you couldn't tell who was leading (they were side by side) and it actually looked like Boonen was launching an attack as he was out of the saddle and giving it everything. Then we saw the side-on view and Cancellara was just smoothly riding away from him, still in the saddle, not even looking like he was making any effort. He had a gap of about 200m in no time at all.

i was riding with a small group yesterday in boulder when taylor p's dad rode up to my buddy/ride host and announced "taylor ha vinto." then his mom told us that he had crashed out of the tt while way up, so getting the road stage was a little revenge. the crash itself at the very end is pretty cool, check out his passage under the barrier--

http://www.youtube.com/user/USACyclingOrg#p/u/5/2wOEPkse_PI

yikes. both of those stages were super wet.

“To attack on the Muur and leave Boonen behind is amazing. When I get old, to be able to say to young riders, ‘At the Ronde I attacked on the Muur, left Boonen behind and won alone,’ not in a sprint, or dropped and came back, but alone … it was the perfect scenario. The gladiator won the battle.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn-oHTCgR84

teh attack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DFM14BIYmA

decent bike change!

watching boonen weaving on the muur while fabs motored away was pretty hilarious. rematch next week should be pretty epic.

srm data from one of the bikes (or both? hard to know...)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3879577&id=44610508140
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3879576&id=44610508140&fbid=379763543140

show details 10:01 AM (0 minutes ago)

he swapped bikes and then jumped back on his original bike once the repair was made to the brakes. i just dont know if he's jumping back on his original or getting off of it.

Despite finishing a creditable sixth in the Tour of Flanders, George Hincapie (BMC) cut a disappointed figure as he crossed the line and rolled to a standstill after six and a half hours in the saddle. The veteran American believed that he had the legs to follow Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) and Tom Boonen (Quick Step) when the pair attacked on the Molenberg 40 kilometres before the finish but failed to go with them.

damn ppl believin the craziest shit but dont stop believin baby

“I had good legs on the Molenberg and I hesitated when Cancellara and Boonen went.

why u afraid 2 win man

“I though, I’d better let this motorbike come by but when I turned around and looked it was Cancellara"
-Bernhard Eisel

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/eisels-big-day-at-flanders-affected-by-crashes

fabian so strong motorbikes draft HIM

http://cdn.media.cyclingnews.com/2010/04/05/2/040401ispa_0479_600.jpg

classic paint job on phil's bike there

LOL cavendish

charmer

that video of cancellara gapping boonen is ridiculous. one minute he's there and then gone

not euro, but fun pro tour (not sure how much coverage this gets outside of local markets):

The 2010 Amgen Tour of California roster includes the following 16 professional cycling teams:

* Bissell (USA)
* BMC Racing Team (USA)
* Cervélo TestTeam (SUI)
* Fly V Australia (AUS)
* Garmin-Transitions (USA)
* Jelly Belly Presented by Kenda (USA)
* Kelly Benefit Strategies (USA)
* Liquigas-Doimo (ITA)
* Quick Step (BEL)
* Rabobank (NED)
* SpiderTech Powered by Planet Energy (CAN)
* Team HTC-Columbia (USA)
* Team RadioShack (USA)
* Team Saxo Bank (DEN)
* Team Type 1 (USA)
* UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis (USA)

wow go Fly V Australia! prob the weakest team tho i assume..

http://gi177.photobucket.com/groups/w219/NFTXNYQWNX/DSCF1618.jpg

ok they have pretty de rosa bikes

fly V had parlees last year!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid28343239001?bctid=76446742001

ha

vn- disappointing for columbia-htc today (scheldprijs)?
mcewen- "THEY WIN ENOUGH MATE, THEY WIN ENOUGH!"

looking forward to watching this in the pub tomorrow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU_LM1znjPI&feature=player_embedded

the Alma in Crystal Palace is showing it as part of this:

http://www.thelondonclassic.org/

checking out tour of basque county tt live on universalsports.com. wiggo on the road.

http://img.mobypicture.com/c9cc098272dc15b7a10518ffffaa77bc_view.jpg

allegedly gesinks warmup schedule for pais vasco tt

dude is warming up w/10min of 300+ watts, jesus

dude, he's tall but skinny, probly goes no more than a buck 55. power.

there's no time to piss before the race on that warm up sheet wtf

anyone watching n00baix - it's coming to the boil, break's about to be caught with 70km to go

yup, poor Stijn Devolder, not having a good day today, Garmin a bit of a mess too.

tactical mistake there from tomeke!!

here we go

this is just amazing. he'll win this by minutes.

dud

this 'chase group' couldn't organise a fucken pissup in a brewery

well the gap comes down. i was sorta expecting him to continue to gather speed until he achieved escape velocity. just orbiting earth. thinkin baout things.

sez Hammond: "He’s on his own planet. He’s in a different league."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/apr/14/mark-cavendish-tour-de-france

i'm hoping that HTC give rogers a bit of lattitude in pursuing a good GC spot at the tour, rather than just acting as a cog in the cav lead-out train

gotta admit I really like cavendish

if i had to be a kind of asshole, he is the kind of asshole i would be.

Cadel Evans wins the Fleche Wallone, powering past Alberto Contador on the final stretch of the Mur de Huy. Nice. He seems to have been reborn as an aggressive rider, starting in the Dauphine last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-kNDQuiIo

compared to the stress-head he's been the last couple of years, it's like a totally different rider.

yuh pretty awesome. My challopy prediction: he'll win giro, get cained in the tour?

vino wins LBL, the rest of the podium also named alex in some form or another

so, forgive vino? before he popped i kinda figgered he was dirty, but as with diluca, really liked his racing.

also, saw this:

The fact Vinokourov that trained recently in Tenerife, a reputed hideout for professional athletes looking to cheat, has not helped quell suspicion.

and then:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/30159615

unhappy coincidences right

garmin don't have the rice snax on hand any more, they need all the help they can get!!

the testers would be all over vino, surely? i was trying to think of the last (not lance) guy of that age to be competitive and could only think of ...rebellin, heh.

Yeah, he claims to have been tested countless times since coming back:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/452251/vinokourov-i-don-t-understand-persecution-against-me.html
Personally I was gutted that he won and glad to hear he was booed.

no, he wrote that hes been tested more than 30 times.

i hate it when dopers lie about how many times they get tested, as if we believe them anymore. come clean vino, how many times have you REALLY been tested?

obv im being a churl here

lol @ vandevelde garmin file

eh, dont work too hard just stick at 300 watts for that last climb. that 5500 foot one. that lasts for 90 minutes.

easy!

I'm not ure if this advert is shown in the states but is certainly a frequent one on Eurosport. Transitions Lenses transition Tyler Farrar into the boring junior accountant he would have been if he'd never found cycling. Not alarming like naked Fillipo Pozzato hawking sidi shoes but hardly the most effective advert for photochromatic lenses which don't exactly come with a cool image to start with.

pozzato is gross

ive actually had a set of the transitions "drivewear" lenses for a couple of years and will strongly rep the optics for riding. and great for skiing, they are polarized and get xxx dark on bright cold days.

COLORADOIANS

we have sun here

http://bits.mistersquid.com/assets/2009/12/09/deal_with_it.gif

http://cdn.media.cyclingnews.com//2010/04/29/2/000_par3206406_600.jpg

lol was that today at romandie?

yup.

haha

pulled

Ace sprinter Mark Cavendish admitted he let emotions get the best of him Thursday when he gave an Italian version of a two-finger salute as he crossed the line victorious in the second stage at the Tour de Romandie.

Eh? That's the British version.

What would the Italian version be? Flicking the teeth with the thumb?

wotta wanker

why i love bike racing:

http://velonews.competitor.com/files/2010/05/phinneyembed.jpg

mini phinney is a mutant u know

also, wtf woman (?) in background in marvel action pose about to spring from rooftop

ya phinney is obv a freak

i am reliably informed that w/out the shoecovers, he is ordinary

skinsuits - c/d?

classic, when used properly. crits, time trials, and CX races.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/453100/pellizotti-out-of-the-giro-due-to-biological-passport-findings.html

love skinsuits, everything just so. pinups are sorta a pain the ass tho.

yep, you gotta find a friend to do it while you bend over in front of them, suggestively

O_o

pinups?

http://velonews.competitor.com/files/2010/04/DowsettpodGila1_410-203.jpg

VN: What is your strongest quality?
Greipel: I think it’s just the power. I had a good sprint today. I had 1820 watts in the final sprint.

that is insanity

sweet mother

D-:

makes me nauseous... he must have a reinforced bottom bracket.

wait are we talking about hunter's link or Ed's pic?

(looks kinda like the dead dead bird afaic)

we are talking about ~1800+ watts

on pinups-- as i dealt with my skinsuit tonight i looked more closely at it-- i guess in 2003 i had made 6 tiny dots on with a sharpie on it to show where i should pin in the event i was solo and shy to ask for pinup. luckily, they were on the correct side. i gave it a shot, put on the suit and...perfection! not a ripple, not a flap.

pics please

of you in skinsuit

lets just say its less pretty now than ever

fat mantis suit

Bradley Wiggins in pink :-)

Nice positioning for Greg Henderson there as well.

In much less good news:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/may/07/british-cyclists-injured-belgium-crash

5 British women injured

vino: rabid?

the crashes were fuckin nuts today!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXyn2Prb49k#watch-video-container

Blimey, it's all go today. Wind, 45km/h average speed, evans and wiggins (again) in crashes, splits all over the place, Vandevelde out with a broken collarbone. Looks good for Griepel right now.

LOL Griepel fucked it up.

"Will passenger Andy Schleck please make his way to gate 19. This is the final call for Mr Andy Schleck."

That’s me. Shit. I can’t believe that after thirty hours of sitting in Frankfurt airport I’m going to be late for my flight. Gate 19? Gate 19? Okay, I see it.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/andy-schleck/la-vuelta-a-aeropuerto

Chapeau to the Escapees today, Yukio Arashiro especially, saved the breakaway i think.

Lots of riders seen around town last few days. My bro chatted up Lars Boom at a coffee shop.

Fucking brilliant stage of the Giro today: torrential rain turning the Strade Bianche into lethal mudlsick roads from hell. There was a crash on a descent before they even made it to that section which took out pink jersey Nibali and Basso and several others. It was caused by Gerdeman (sp?) - not because he was there, but because he'd divebombed off the front in extremely dangerous conditions and the chasing pack just overcooked it. Garzelli, Cunego, Vinokourov, Gerdeman and someone else ended up out in front after the crash, with the favourites initially not working as it would breach etiquette. But they soon hit the mudtracks and a chasing pack (including Evans) made it back to them and then the race was on. Vino and Evans kept attacking and Cunego looked pretty handy. In the end Evans led over the cobbles and then led out the sprint and just powered away from Cunego. Nibali put in a massive effort to limit his losses to about a minute and a half - he was hampered in the chasing by having to keep waiting for Basso. Sastre lost a tonne of time. Millar is improbably up to third in the GC. If you get the chance to watch this, do so - this is epic suffering. The riders are just caked in mud and shaking their heads in disbelief most of the time.

god it was brilliant. i hope the tour's first week is as good as this!!

epic

just watching the last k, was everyone too fucked to attack Evans for the win i guess?

that was pretty brutal.

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/ba/fullj.cac0f5df1b2204a6ed037f807b819e8a/cac0f5df1b2204a6ed037f807b819e8a-getty-95689688cg021_tour_of_calif.jpg

manx missile takes stage 1, Haedo looked good though and appeared to briefly overtake Cav in the sprint, but he pulled a little something extra at the finish.

Cav is the only HTC rider not running Dura-Ace Di2, still preferring the manual operation of Dura-Ace 7900.

his teeth _do_ look better

hahahaha

cf. Saturday's finish in the Giro. ToC riders are pussies

http://cdn.media.cyclingnews.com//2010/05/15/1/bettiniphoto_0052609_1_full_600.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jd6bDxaaCw

So glad I'm watching this on Eurosport

Oh Ed, you must have missed last year's race when the ToC was wet and snowy in the mtn. passes. Weather is not restricted to Europe imho.

Cav averaged 26+mph for 4 hours.... including 2 mtn passes... D-:

Tour of California Stage 1: Nevada City to Sacramento

ROUTE DETAILS
Day: Sun, May 16
Start: Nevada City
Finish: Sacramento
Miles: 104.2
KM: 167.7

Total Time: 4:04
Stage placing: 47th
GC placing after Stage 1: 47th
Body Weight: 154lbs ( 70kg)
Average speed: 25.7mph
Average heart rate: 122
Max heart rate: 176
Average cadence: 89
Average watts: 200 (278 normalized)
Max watts: 1008
TSS: 226

Jakob took today fairly easy. He knows the tough stages are yet to come and today was going to be a day for the sprinters. The day certainly started off fast as smaller domestic teams tried to establish a breakaway in the opening miles. All the pressure was on HTC today as they have the best sprinter in the race with Mark Cavendish and in the end he proved he certainly was the fastest man.

As the race entered the final finishing circuits around the state capital in Sacramento the race was well under control by the sprinters teams. This is where Jakob sprung to life and helped his team sprinter, Juan Jose Haedo, move up to the front. Jakob recorded his highest CP20 value in the final 20 minutes of racing at 327w (348w normalized).

http://www.trainingpeaks.com/sw/BMSLOALT7VKLQBWIMZKPRTRM7U

Amusing to see Evans and Vinokourov in the sprint finish today

Jakob took today fairly easy.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_OvfK9eklqkw/S_C9X_4ZIgI/AAAAAAAAAEY/QEnEC3SNevU/s1280/Podium%20Look%20TOC%20Stage%201%20037.JPG

jakob OTM

Ogling The Mammaries?

Gila>>>>>>California in this regard

3:56 Dave Z. at the front now. Levi next. Then Rogers. Tuesday May 18, 2010 3:56 Patrick O'Grady
3:57 We're getting conflicting info - race radio says 5km to go. Tuesday May 18, 2010 3:57 Patrick O'Grady
3:57 Twenty seconds still. Tuesday May 18, 2010 3:57 Patrick O'Grady
3:58 Rogers seems to be having trouble holding the wheels as Zabriskie hammers. Tuesday May 18, 2010 3:58 Patrick O'Grady
3:59 Three kilometers to go.

a normal break would be toast, but that is some tt shit right there

I rode the 113 mile stage 3 of the ToC and let me tell you... a pro tour stage is much harder than you can imagine. Aside from having to make 2x10minute stops (pee-pee, + replenish water bottles and food), I hustled my ass off to finish in 6h26m. Winner David Zabriskie beat me by 2 hours = T_T

Having to climb 3 miles @ 10% after 100 miles is some next level suffering ime.

C.Sörensen, Didier, Porte (Saxo Bank)
Gerdemann, Russ (Milram)
Wiggins, Barry, Cummings, Possoni (SKY)
Goss (HTC-Columbia )
Caruso, Horrach (Katusha)
Bookwalter (BMC)
Codol, Donati (Aqua e Sapone)
Dupont, Efimkin (Ag2r)
Bertogliati, Ochoa, Serpa, Wurf (Androni Giocattoli )
Jufre, Stangelj (Astana)
Voeckler, Gaudin, Trofimov (BBox)
Amador, Arroyo, Jeannesson, Kiryienka, Losada (Caisse d'Epargne)
Sastre, Gustov, Wyss, Tondo (Cervelo TestTeam)
Moncoutié, Fouchard (Cofidis)
Pozzovivo (CSF-Colnago)
Cheula, Mayoz (Footon-Servetto)
Millar, Martin (Garmin)
Bono (Lampre)
Agnoli, Dall'Antonia, Kiserlovski, Vanotti (Liquigas)
Bakelandts, De Greef, Lloyd (Omega Pharma)
Cataldo, Pineau (Quick Step)
Kruijswijk, Ardila (Rabobank)

^^this lot currently have a 15-minute break on the pink jersey group. who let them get away??

This is immense, watching this with Italian commentary for added realism.

sastre, wiggo back in the game, who'd have thunk it!

porte in pink?

Definitely.

Watching Vino being interviewed on his bike on Rai. He is utter battered, can barely string words together. (Tbf only seconds over the line but he didn't look happy)

What a crazy day. That must have been awful for the likes of Evans and Basso: the longest stage of the race, non-stop pouring rain, and knowing that you're about to drop right down GC and there's nothing you can do about it.

that was a great stage - TDF is going to have to go some to beat this. (will be at stage 4 this year - Cambrai to Reims)

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/imageBank/g/giro_2010_st_11_EVANS_FINISH.jpg

that's a broken man right there - great photo btw

ok that photo is hilarious and amazing

looks like a dude that ~seen thru time~

srsly just lookin at his stupid face is making me lol here in the library

loooooooool aw be nice to him

The difference between that and the strade bianche one upthread is incredible.

Saw the highlight of ToC in the bar this evening and I can't get over how wide the roads are and it seems to change the sprints a lot. So much more room to work with. I think Cav was tricked into going to early.

so Floyd Landis huh

oh boy

just came here to post that

criminy

2002: I was instructed on how to use Testosterone patches by Johan Bruyneel
during the During the Dauphine Libere in June, after which I flew on a
helicopter with Mr Armstrong from the finish, I believe Grenoble, to San
Mauritz Switzerland at which point I was personally handed a box of 2.5 mg
patches in front of his wife who witnessed the exchange. About a week
later, Dr Ferrari performed an extraction of half a liter of blood to be
transfused back into me during the Tour de France. Mr Armstrong was not
witness to the extraction but he and I had lengthy discussions about it on
our training rides during which time he also explained to me the evolution
of EPO testing and how transfusions were now necessary due to the
inconvenience of the new test. He also divulged to me at that time that in
the first year that the EPO test was used he had been told by Mr Ferrari,
who had access to the new test, that he should not use EPO anymore but he
did not believe Mr Farrari and contin
ued to use it. He later, while winning the Tour de Swiss, the month before
the Tour de France, tested positive for EPO at which point he and Mr
Bruyneel flew to the UCI headquarters and made a financial agreement with
Mr. Vrubrugen to keep the positive test hidden.

2003: After a broken hip in the winter, I flew to Gerona Spain where this
time two units (half a liter each) were extracted three weeks apart. This
took place in the apartment in which Mr. Armstrong lived and in which I was
asked to stay and check the blood temperature every day. It was kept in a
small refrigerator in the closet allong with the blood of Mr Armstrong and
George Hincapie and since Mr. Armstrong was planning on being gone for a few
weeks to train he asked me to stay in his place and make sure the
electricity didn't turn off or something go wrong with the referigerator.
Then during the Tour de France the entire team, on two different occasions
went to the room that we were told and the doctor met us there to do the
transfusions. During that Tour de France I personally witnessed George
Hincapie, Lance Armstrong, Chechu Rubiera, and myself receiving blood
transfusions. Also during that Tour de France the team doctor would give my
room mate, George Hincapie an
d I a small syringe of olive oil in which was disolved andriol, a form of
ingestible testosterone on two out of three nights throughout the duration.

I was asked to ride the Vuelta a Espana that year in support of Roberto
Heras and in August, between the Tour and the Vuelta, was told to take EPO
to raise my hematocrit back up so more blood transfusions could be
performed. I was instructed to go to Lances place by Johan Bruyneel and get
some EPO from him. The first EPO I ever used was then handed to me in the
entry way to his building in full view of his then wife. It was Eprex by
brand and it came in six pre measured syringes. I used it intravenously for
several weeks before the next blood draw and had no problems with the tests
during the Vuelta. Also during this time it was explained to me how to use
Human Growth Hormone by Johan Bruyneel and I bought what I needed from Pepe
the team "trainer" who lived in Valencia along with the team doctor at that
time. While training for that Vuelta I spent a good deal of time training
with Matthew White and Michael Barry and shared the testosterone and EPO
that we had and discu
ssed the use thereof while training.

Again, during the Vuelta we were given Andriol and blood transfusions by the
team doctor and had no problems with any testing.

2004: Again the team performed two seperate blood transfusions on me, but
this time Bruyneel had become more paranoid and we did the draws by flying
to Belgium and meeting at an unknown persons appartment and the blood was
brought by "Duffy" who was at that time Johans assistant of sorts. The
second of which was performed on the team bus on the ride from the finish of
a stage to the hotel during which the driver pretended to have engine
trouble and stopped on a remote mountain road for an hour or so so the
entire team could have half a liter of blood added. This was the only time
that I ever saw the entire team being transfused in plain view of all the
other riders and bus driver. That team included Lance Armstrong, George
Hincapie and I as the only Americans.

2005: I had learned at this point how to do most of the transfusion
technicals and other things on my own so I hired Allen Lim as my assistant
to help with details and logistics. He helped Levi Leipheimer and I prepare
the transfusions for Levi and I and made sure they were kept at the proper
temperature. We both did two seperate transfusions that Tour however my
hematocrit was too low at the start so I did my first one a few days before
the start so as to not start with a deficit.

2006: Well you get the idea....... One thing of great signigicance is that
I sat down with Andy Riis and explained to him what was done in the past and
what was the risk I would be taking and ask for his permission which he
granted in the form of funds to complete the operation described. John
Lelangue was also informed by me and Andy Riis consulted with Jim Ochowitz
before agreeing.

There are many many more details that I have in diaries and am in the
process of writing into an intelligible story but since the position of USA
Cycling is that there have not been enough details shared to justify calling
USADA, I am writing as many as I can reasonably put into an email and share
with you so as to ascertain what is the process which USA Cycling uses to
proceed with such allegations.

Look forward to much more detail as soon as you can demonstrate that you can
be trusted to do the right thing.

Floyd Landis

UCI president Pat McQuaid said: "What's his agenda? The guy is seeking revenge. It's sad, it's sad for cycling. It's obvious he does hold a grudge.

"He already made those accusations in the past. I have to question the guy's credibility. There is no proof of what he says. We are speaking about a guy who has been condemned for doping before a court."

Hurrah for the UCI! Pat McQuaid is the man to clean up cycling.

ha btw my teammate wrote the WSJ article

Dr Ferrari performed an extraction of half a liter of blood to be
transfused back into me during the Tour de France.

sounds like some xmen shit

a bit annoyed at ESPN taking a part in the sensationalizing of this--they don't even cover cycling

Complain! I did this when Sky Sports News covered the original Landis accusations - sent an email.... hang on, may even still have it -

How come you didn't report anything about the Tour de France this year and last year you didn't even mention Lance Armstrong's record win, but as soon as you get a nice, sensationalist story about Floyd Landis taking drugs you have a change of policy? I always thought you were Sky Sports first and news later, but you have proved me wrong.

So I sent that - and now look! They went and bought a goddam team.

http://www.cycle-smart.com/blog/2010/05/20/pretty-boy-floyd

http://nyvelocity.com/content/toto/2010/toto-turns-184#comment-75298

Cutty/Hunter/Shasta etc.
Broadly speaking, what proportion of American cycling fans believe(d) that Landis was innocent and had won the 2006 Tour clean?
And what proportion think that Armstrong was clean during his Tour wins?

bye lance

"American cycling fans"

Very few believe any cyclists are clean.

with Floyd i remember watching 06TdF on TV Landis coming back with a massive effort on stage 17 the day after bonking on stage 16 and the announcer (Ligget maybe?) just ranting and raving something like: "This man is superhuman, I have never seen such a valiant effort in my life, he has literally clawed his way back into contention" and all this other hyperbole that in retrospect is pretty lol.

with Lance, I never thought he was clean* but could see how he was given a free pass because he was a superstar and worth million$$$ to procycling and the governing body is way too corrupt for him to catch any heat. *i've heard theories that the type of testicular cancer he had very early in his career can be associated with steroid/ growth hormone abuse.

with Big George, Levi, and DZnutz it's a little harder to process (too soon)... but i always felt a little bad for LeMond but that wanes whenever he starts getting whiny like a little bitch.

if landis was only on test during stage 17 its still the greatest cycling exploit ive ever seen. otoh, if he was blood doping, its merely completely fucking astounding. otooh, what a dick.

^^^^otm

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/team-radioshack-reveal-further-emails-from-landis

Andrew,

Thank you for clarifying the position of the Tour of California on these subjects. I just wanted to be sure that I gave you the opportunity to be involved in cleaning up cycling as I have with so many in positions of power such as Steve Johnson and Jim Ochowitz but as I expected the Tour of California is interested in the status quo as were they and I wish you all luck with that. I certainly understand that my revealing that Lance Armstrong has relied on blood doping, EPO, and anabolics to win the three Tours de France in which I helped him will jeopardize your substantial investment in facilitating his appearance so from a business point of view I understand fully.

this guy is such a maroon

his prose style is... like tubgirl.

impressive dig by wiggo up monte grappa, even better was the camera busting him checking out some fitness chick by the side of the road!!

Was at the middle of the last little quick uphill at the LA TT today. Got a bunch of pictures real close of riders going by. It's amazing to me how clearly you can tell that a certain rider is going faster than others. Some people (Grabsch and Martin in particular) just looked so much faster than the others.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/470339/confusion-over-payment-armstrong-made-to-uci-for-a-sysmex-machine.html

Entertaining final stage of the Amgen tour. Their online race tracker is the business.

wow yes thankig u for the tip

Pat McQuaid is a motherfucker with some dark secrets.

That Zoncolan stage was fantastic. Basso was very impressive - I hope he's clean now. You've got to admire Evans, the way he keeps digging in and fighting on. It really should be between those two for the overall, it will be annoying if the GC gets decided by that weird 50-man break in the pouring rain last week.

RIP Wiggo T_T

Some great photos here

I wonder if Wiggins just blew up or if he deliberately took it easy. He managed to go off the front on the final climb the day before, but not by much and not for long. Maybe he just thought 'fuck it, I'm not going to be able to win this, might as well not blow my chances for the Tour by going all out to get 6th place here'.

can't remember where i read it but his target was wins in both ITTs and just looking to be competitive otherwise.

I've just failed to get any kind of online tv coverage of today's TT, and that includes Flemish audio. Anyone having better luck?

Eurosport player, £3.99 a month well spent.

Loving the helicopter shots into the arches of the Gallarie hoping to catch a fleeting glimpse of someone in Lycra.

Tour of Missouri RIP:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/05/news/tour-of-missouri-set-to-cancel-2010-race_118846

http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/06/news/cancellara-calls-motorized-bikes-claims-stupid-as-uci-looks-at-scanning-bikes_119452

tbh i almost want that story to be true from a pure lolz standpoint

The "suspicious motion" they focus on is identical to what is known as "shifting into a higher gear" on shimano dura-ace... perhaps the Italians are unfamiliar with the Shimano shifting mechanism?

"He pushes a lever near his brake and suddenly his bicycle accelerates...."

uh...

I agree w/hunter

the included video is incredible on many levels

http://www.gruberassist.com/english/product/product-description/

Product attribute #3:

• Cycling becomes fitness cycling and is thereby healthier

lolwut

healthier for fatteys

Seems the UCI have finally released the paperwork for Lance's 'donation':
http://twitpic.com/1vs2dc

http://burlesquedesign.com/mike/somuchpileup/giroditalia.jpg

Cav not only reprimanded, fined, and disciplined... but his fellow racers stage a protest(!!) for his actions:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/06/news/tour-de-suisse-riders-delay-start-to-protest-mark-cavendishs-actions_121290?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Cavendish is being sanctioned 25 points in the sprinter competition and 30 seconds on the general classification. He also is being fined 200 Swiss francs.

Read more: http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/06/news/mark-cavendish-penalized-and-fined-for-finale-crash-at-tour-de-suisse_121246#ixzz0r2CZwcj3

the protest thing is quite interesting. might not have things his own way at the TDF!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-to-allow-disc-brakes-in-cyclo-cross-competition

!!!

finally

Inspectors needed to be diverted to hunt for motors up Fabian's Seat Tube.

Either that or its a bone to thrown to Shimano when they ban Di2 on the start line of the tour.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ricco-rumoured-to-ride-vuelta-for-quick-step

kinda want this to happen, easily the best pantomime villain out there

Just in case anyone isn't following the Tour de France thread on ILE, Porkpie has set up a fantasy tour league at this site:
http://road.cc/fantasy-tour-de-france
code number 1439

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704911704575326753200584006.html?KEYWORDS=floyd+landis

Mr. Landis said he walked upstairs to find his Tour de France trophy. With the iconic purple chalice in hand, he walked onto the balcony overlooking his driveway, hoisted the trophy over his head and threw it as hard as he could. It hit the pavement and shattered into hundreds of pieces.

LOOOOOOOOOL :/

the bit about not having enough bikes because they were selling them to get more 'gear' is pretty lol

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/verbruggen-labels-landis-a-nuisance

There is some good news for the Basque Country as El Correo has also reported that the Vuelta a España will return to the region in 2011 after an absence of 33 years. According to the paper, the Basque regional government and Vuelta organizers Unipublic have reached an agreement to feature some of Basque cycling's "mythical places" on next year's route.

The last time the Basque Country featured on the Vuelta's itinerary, back in 1978, the stage into Zarautz was shortened after Basque nationalist protesters blocked the road. Subsequently, the results of the race's concluding time trial in San Sebastián were annulled after some riders were forced to stop after being pelted with objects by spectators.

In other news Euskatel is short some money to maintain proTour status and may lose Sammy Sanchez as a result

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/euskaltel-face-loss-of-protour-status

while the tour's been on, ricco got himself into a spot of bother in austria

~G~N~A~R~L~Y~

(he still won)

can i analyse ur power data why because it look inersting

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2010/07/power-from-tourmalet-6wkg-anyone.html
http://cozybeehive.blogspot.com/2010/07/tour-de-france-stage-17-col-du.html

sorensen pulled 400w+ for 11 minutes, i think i would struggle doing that for 11 seconds

http://cyclocosm.com/2010/07/rest-day-nerd-fights/

xp

I feel like puking just reading that, sorensen's face was a picture during that section; he put in a similar effort on the madeleine iirc

just watched contador on the verbier from last year's tdf

gross

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/07/2010_tour_de_france_-_part_ii.html

love the photos of the crazy fans

Contador to leave Astana at end of season. Any guesses where he ends up?

Rumoured to be teaming up with BR at whatever Saxobank becomes once the sponsor and the Schlecks have left.

Saxobank may become Team Specialized

Team SRAM

more factory teams would be good imo, they always have the cool shit

bring back team bianchi!!!!

I know ll cool shast doesn't have facebook so:

By Levi Leipheimer

I’m writing you from the other side of the Tour de France. This year’s Tour had it’s challenges and I’m not just talking about the mountains. I’m talking about the crazy corners before finishes, the crowds, the cobbles and lots of regular old crashes. I’m happy to have survived all that and make it to Paris, especially after crashing and breaking my wrist last year.

It started off deceivingly well with the prologue. Lance rode a great race and everyone else was in a good position. Then the first three stages changed the tone of this years Tour for us. Kloedi and I crashed in stage 1. Ironically, I crashed when a dog ran into the peloton. It’s ironic because my wife’s mission is to rid the planet of irresponsible pet owners. Unfortunately, she never crossed paths with that dog’s owner. (By the way, the dog was okay.) I went to the hospital expecting the worst which would be a repeat of last year’s wrist break but luckily it was just a sprain and a hematoma. Andreas Kloden was also okay.

Stage Two was laden with controversy thanks to the misunderstandings of what really happened in the stage. Here’s how we saw it. There was a crash coming down the Stockeu descent with 30km to go and it was as if a hurricane struck. There were bikes without riders, riders wandering around looking for bikes, riders disoriented in the woods, motorbikes were down everywhere, and no one knew where Kloedi was. He was totally missing. It was chaos. Like one of those video clips you see on the news after a hurricane hits a mobile home park. You see despondent people wandering around shuffling through the wreckage. That’s what
riders and camera people were doing. So all of a sudden no one knows where sixty odd bike riders went and who knows how many motorbikes.

The TV’s weren’t working in the cars, radios weren’t working and no one knew anything other than the fact that something was wrong. The Schlek brothers were among the missing so naturally Cancellara wanted the lead group to wait until they knew what happened. If they didn’t wait, Frank and Andy would have lost 4 or 5 minutes that day. All of the groups on the road ended up waiting but it was just until all the confusion was cleared up and the MIA riders were found. I think some people like to criticize the peloton when things get neutralized for reasons like this, but when so many of the riders are involved then it’s understandable that it was.

Then there was Stage Three on the cobbles. Lance flatted, Kloedi flatted and I flatted, so we all lost time. Everyone was prepared for carnage on this stage but we had more than our share of bad luck. The first day in the mountains was okay but our bad luck returned in full force on the second day. Lance crashed really hard 10 km before the biggest climb of the day. When you crash really hard like that you don’t have the same power as you did before the crash. Your body can’t recover fast enough. Sergio and the guys worked very hard to get him back to the group by the time it hit the climb but Lance was already at his limit at the bottom of the climb. His Tour ended because of this crash. Sometimes you go down too hard to recover, this was one of those days.

It became clear that Andy and Alberto were the strongest guys in the race, no one else was even close. Our strategy had to change after Lance’s crash so we decided to go for the team GC and stage wins. I guess you could say we accomplished our Tour de France plan B, because Sergio won a stage and we won the Team GC. Sergio’s stage win was definitely the highlight of the race for us. He works really hard for the team and to win a stage on top of that is pretty amazing. It was the last day in the Alps and he beat a guy who got a silver medal at the World Championships in the track points race, so he had some serious speed even after all that hard work.

On a side note, one of our mechanics, Glenn Fant, managed to escape his grueling schedule for a ride to the top of the Joux Plane on the first rest day in Morzine. He borrowed Dirk Demol’s bike and rode it in his running shorts and a t-shirt. You know you’re starving for a bike ride when…

Since I have a lot more to say about this year’s tour and all it’s drama, I’ll have to continue this blog tomorrow.
Hope to see you back here.
-Levi

{linked from his tweeter btw}

http://www.steephill.tv/2009/san-sebastian/san-seb-profile.jpg

Quick Step (QST)
(BEL)
1 BARREDO LLAMAZALES Carlos ESP
2 FACCI Mauro ITA
3 PINEAU Jérôme FRA
4 DEVENYNS Dries BEL
5 DE WEERT Kevin BEL
5 REDA Francesco ITA
6 VAN DE WALLE Jurgen BEL
8 WYNANTS Maarten BEL

Astana (AST)
(KAZ)
11 VINOKOUROV Alexandre KAZ
12 IGLINSKIY Maxim KAZ
13 NAVARRO GARCIA Daniel ESP
14 STANGELJ Gorazd SLO
15 RENEV Sergey KAZ
16 DE LA FUENTE RASILLA David ESP
17 JUFRE POU Josep ESP
18 HERNANDEZ BLAZQUEZ Jesus ESP

Katusha (KAT)
(RUS)
21 RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin ESP
22 POZZATO Filippo ITA
23 KOLOBNEV Alexandr RUS
24 CARUSO Giampaolo ITA
25 HORRACH RIPOLL Joan ESP
26 KLIMOV Serguei RUS
27 MAZZANTI Luca ITA
28 VORGANOV Eduard RUS

Liquigas - Doimo (LIQ)
(ITA)
31 WILLEMS Frederik BEL
32 KREUZIGER Roman CZE
33 NIBALI Vincenzo ITA
34 BELLOTTI Francesco ITA
35 AGNOLI Valerio ITA
36 SANTAROMITA Ivan ITA
37 KISERLOVSKI Robert CRO
38 FINETTO Mauro ITA

Saxo Bank (SAX)
(DEN)
41 SCHLECK Andy LUX
42 JÖRGENSEN Jonas Aaen DEN
43 DIDIER Laurent LUX
44 PORTE Richie AUS
45 SÖRENSEN Nicki DEN
46 SÖRENSEN Chris Anker DEN
47 STEENSEN André DEN
48 FUGLSANG Jakob DEN

HTC - Columbia (THR)
(USA)
51 ROGERS Michael AUS
52 GULDHAMMER Rasmus DEN
53 SIUTSOU Kanstantsin BLR
54 VAN GARDEREN Tejay USA
55 DOCKX Gert BEL
56 GOSS Matthew AUS
57 PINOTTI Marco ITA
58 ROULSTON Hayden NZL

OmegaPharma - Lotto (OLO)
(BEL)
61 GILBERT Philippe BEL
62 ROELANDTS Jürgen BEL
63 BRANDT Christophe BEL
64 MORENO FERNANDEZ Daniel ESP
65 BAKELANTS Jan BEL
66 DELAGE Mickael FRA
67 VANENDERT Jelle BEL
68 VAN AVERMAET Greg BEL

RadioShack (RSH)
(USA)
71 LEIPHEIMER Levi USA
72 ZUBELDIA AGIRRE Haimar ESP
73 MCCARTNEY Jason USA
75 BUSCHE Matthew USA
76 IRIZAR ARANBURU Markel ESP
77 LEQUATRE Geoffroy FRA
78 RUBIERA VIGIL Jose Luis ESP

Caisse d'Epargne (GCE)
(ESP)
81 SANCHEZ GIL Luis Leon ESP
82 ARROYO DURAN David ESP
83 ERVITI OLLO Imanol ESP
84 GUTIERREZ PALACIOS Jose Ivan ESP
85 LOPEZ GARCIA David ESP
86 GARCIA ACOSTA Jose Vicente ESP
87 PASAMONTES RODRIGUEZ Luis ESP
88 PEREZ SANCHEZ Francisco ESP

Cervélo Test Team (CTT)
(SUI)
91 SASTRE CANDIL Carlos ESP
92 GUSTOV Volodymir UKR
93 CUESTA LOPEZ DE CASTRO Iñigo ESP
94 PUJOL MUÑOZ Oscar ESP
96 FLORENCIO CABRE Xavier ESP
97 DEIGNAN Philip IRL
98 DENIFL Stefan AUT

Rabobank (RAB)
(NED)
101 KRUIJSWIJK Steven NED
102 GARATE CEPA Juan Manuel ESP
103 ARDILA CANO Mauricio Alberto COL
104 GESINK Robert NED
105 TEN DAM Laurens NED
106 LANGEVELD Sebastian NED
107 NIERMANN Grischa GER

Lampre - Farnese Vini (LAM)
(ITA)
111 CUNEGO Damiano ITA
112 GAVAZZI Francesco ITA
113 PIETROPOLLI Daniele ITA
114 BALLONI Alfredo ITA
115 MALORI Adriano ITA
116 MARZANO Marco ITA
117 SPEZIALETTI Alessandro ITA
118 KASHECHKIN Andrey KAZ

Euskaltel - Euskadi (EUS)
(ESP)
121 SANCHEZ GONZALEZ Samuel ESP
122 ISASI FLORES Iñaki ESP
123 MARTINEZ DE ESTEBAN Egoi ESP
124 ANTON HERNANDEZ Igor ESP
125 PEREZ MORENO Ruben ESP
126 URTASUN PEREZ Pablo ESP
127 PEREZ LEZAUN Alan ESP
128 VERDUGO MARCOTEGUI Gorka ESP

Garmin - Transitions (GRM)
(USA)
131 COZZA Steven USA
132 DEAN Julian NZL
133 HESJEDAL Ryder CAN
134 KESSIAKOFF Fredrik SWE
135 KREDER Michel NED
136 MAASKANT Martijn NED
137 MEIER Christian CAN
138 VANSUMMEREN Johan BEL

Sky (SKY)
(GBR)
141 FLECHA GIANNONI Juan Antonio ESP
143 PORTAL Nicolas FRA
144 CIONI Dario David ITA
145 AUGUSTYN John-Lee RSA
146 CALZATI Sylvain FRA
147 DOWNING Russell GBR
148 POSSONI Morris ITA

Ag2r - La Mondiale (ALM)
(FRA)
151 NOCENTINI Rinaldo ITA
152 ARRIETA LUJAMBIO Jose Luis ESP
153 ROCHE Nicolas IRL
154 BOUET Maxime FRA
155 ELMIGER Martin SUI
156 GADRET John FRA
157 RIBLON Christophe FRA
158 LOUBET Julien FRA

Milram (MRM)
(GER)
161 GAJEK Artur GER
162 FRÖHLINGER Johannes GER
163 KNEES Christian GER
164 RUSS Matthias GER
165 ROBERTS Luke AUS
166 ROHREGGER Thomas AUT
167 TERPSTRA Niki NED
168 WROLICH Peter AUT

Française des Jeux (FDJ)
(FRA)
171 PINOT Thibaut FRA
172 CAZAUX Pierre FRA
173 DI GREGORIO Rémy FRA
174 LE MEVEL Christophe FRA
175 ROUX Anthony FRA
176 ROY Jérémy FRA
177 SULZBERGER Wesley AUS
178 VICHOT Arthur FRA

Footon - Servetto (FOT)
(ESP)
181 CAPECCHI Eros ITA
182 FELLINE Fabio ITA
183 MERINO CRIADO Pedro ESP
184 PEREZ ARRIETA Aitor ESP
185 DURAN AROCA Arkaitz ESP
186 WALKER Johnnie AUS
187 GUTIERREZ GUTIERREZ David ESP
188 BENITEZ ROMAN Jose Alberto ESP

Xacobeo - Galicia (XAC)
(ESP)
191 MOSQUERA MIGUEZ Ezequiel ESP
192 GARCIA DAPENA David ESP
193 CESAR VELOSO Gustavo ESP
194 RABUÑAL RIOS Gonzalo ESP
195 MARTINEZ ACEVEDO Serafin ESP
196 FERNANDEZ CRUZ Delio ESP
197 GARCIA FERNANDEZ Marcos ESP
198 FERNANDEZ SAINZ Alberto ESP

Andalucia - CajaSur (ACA)
(ESP)
201 GOMEZ MARCHANTE Jose Angel ESP
202 VICIOSO ARCOS Angel ESP
203 PIEDRA PEREZ Antonio ESP
204 ORTEGA OCAÑA Manuel ESP
205 CABELLO BAENA Antonio ESP
206 RAMIREZ ABEJA Javier ESP
207 MORENO BAZAN Javier ESP
208 MONTENEGRO Jorge Martin ARG

118 KASHECHKIN Andrey KAZ

didn't realise this guy had a gig again

thats the wrong race profile-- they're doing the jaizkibel 2x this year

http://www.steephill.tv/2010/san-sebastian/course-map.png

thank you for the right profile!

Doesn't look like either of the normal US channels (VS, Universal) are showing it live?

1 luis leon sanchez
2 vino
3 carlos sastre

Hans-Michael Holczer accuses Leipheimer of blood manipulation

gerolsteiner lolz. what a cesspool that joint was. so why didnt he just hold leipy out? “I was caught between a moral obligation and a legal threat.” he felt morally obliged to help someone cheat, if that's what he truly believed liepy was doing?

what i want to know is if doping was so prevalent how did people get caught?

hypodermics hanging out their asses like darted gazelles

lol, poor levi - all that juice and yet he still faded/fades away in the third week of grand tours like a dude who wasn't on it

hope someone writes a book on all the dirrrrty teams one day

fantasy vuelta
http://road.cc/content/page/18471-fantasy-vuelta-2010

no lloyd, renshaw or mcewen for australia's worlds team. what's your take on that, haitch?

no haussler either but that's not all that surprising given his sporadic season

basically everyone down here reckons it's not going to be a sprinter's course. first 80km is basically down the highway between melbs and geelong, and it's dead flat, but at the course proper they'll have to go up two pretty steep climbs (x11) and the finishing straight is also uphill. think they've tailored the team so the 'sprinters' that are there (goss, cooke, davis) are basically going to be the cannon fodder to get cadel and simon gerrans (who the course probably suits best) to the front.

robbie would be protected if he was in, but if he's not going to be there at the end they'd just be burning matches for no reason. no sprints = no real need for a leadout either, so that's renshaw out of the picture. (they're taking him, davis, porte, hayman and chris sutton to delhi for the commonwealth games road race.)

perception is that lloyd likes the big climbs and the shorter punchier stuff doesn't suit him. maybe they're thinking of the trip down the highway too - it's pretty open, if spring weather in western victoria holds to form it'll be crosswind city.

i think they don't want to risk haussler's knee, he'd be a cert otherwise.

RIP Laurent Fignon

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/laurent-fignon-passes-away-1

Very sad. I knew he'd been battling the cancer for a while, but this was still a surprise, given that we saw and heard him doing punditry on the Tour de France just over a month ago.

Here's an interview with him from a few years ago:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/497582/laurent-fignon-my-way-or-the-fairway.html

RIP Professor. I am an American and I still begrudged LeMond those 8 seconds.

lol andy schleck booze hound

So cool
http://estaticos03.cache.el-mundo.net/elmundodeporte/imagenes/2010/09/10/

Cav hopping the line? He's a bloody star, his interview post stage yesterday was great.

Yes. Don't know why, but I seemingly can't post pictures at the moment.
http://estaticos03.cache.el-mundo.net/elmundodeporte/imagenes/2010/09/10/

poor igor anton. red jersey to skinless in about two seconds, ugh.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-britain-2-1-1/stage-1/photos/140348

Greipel's pins are very triplets of belleville

shit, meant http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-britain-2-1-1/stage-1/photos/140348

holy hell, Constitution Hill looked frikkin evil.

Yep. Don't think much of Sky's tactics yesterday: three in the decisive break which had a lead of about ten minutes over the rest, you'd have thought they'd be set up nicely for the GC. Instead they burnt off Thomas then Wiggins in keeping the pace high, so both of them lost a couple of minutes or so. OK, they got the stage win from Henderson, but that seems a strange priority.

Very interesting, i hadnt heard about papp's tweets.

Anti-doping authorities have lodged cases against as many as two-dozen domestic racers, sources tell VeloNews. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency will announce the findings in the coming weeks, the sources said.

However, (doper snitch Joe) Papp has been active on Twitter. On August 19, following stage 2 of the Tour of Utah, Papp wrote, “Jonathan Mccarty, don’t worry, you were really 5th today in Utah. Or at least you will be.”

McCarty had finished sixth on that stage, behind Levi Leipheimer, Francisco Mancebo, Ian Boswell, Darren Lill and Phil Zajicek.

On August 11, Papp wrote on Twitter, in consecutive messages, “Seriously – if you think you were on ‘my list’ I urge you turn yourself in, b/c there’s little chance of leveraging something later. Try to dissuade ADA (anti-doping agencies) from applying an increased sanction by admitting your anti-doping violation as soon as you’re confronted with it…”

Let Levi Ride (Dirty)

seems like it would be weird for a euro pro to be on papp's list tho eh?

loved the endless comments about masters doping tho

masters dopers are fucking cunts,but and the ppl complaining are too hilaire. oh, grievance!

Blooddoper [Moderator] 1 day ago
Papp Smear!!!
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18 people liked this. Like Reply

"some time in 2006"...

http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?compid=230448

Was great to be at tob stage today, didn't see much o the racing, but hanging out, checking out the bike pron and general wandering made up for it. Also had a go on a go-cycle. Those things are awesome fun, shame they're so expensive.

Great finish to the Vuelta stage today!

Does Anyone fancy an ILTRMB meet around the ToCalifornia next year? Putting a trip in my calendar for next year.

Bike madmanRIP.

The race was only 130km long and Italy fielded by far the biggest and strongest team in the race, but for Pozzato victory was an important signal to their rivals and a moral booster for everyone in the Italian team. The Italian riders rode the 70km from their hotel to the start and then rode back again, to complete a long but very successful day in the saddle.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/herald-sun-world-cycling-classic-ballarat-ne/elite-u23-men/results

ha shasta level mileage

Edward,

I am tentatively down for the SF stage and maybe an LA stage depending on work schedule.

Huntr3,

For the record: 270km is about 35km longer than I have ever ventured in one go.

still time, one more training ride left shasta

phinney, wow. never seen anyone do the aero tuck down over the top tube on a TT bike before!

watching bike racing in daylight hours is a nice change. i am gonna go down there for the l337 TT tomorrow, perhaps i'll take some 'happy snaps'

wish i was in geelong checking this out tbqh

i didnt ride in geelong, but i almost remember a better than satisfactory cellar door marathon on bellarine peninsula! (complete with accidental drunken run in w/ a penned emu)

Contador claims positive test for Clenbuterol due to food contamination. lol

Alberto Contador is affected by a doping control at the last Tour de France on July 21, where it was found the substance clenbuterol.

From the time of the first communication from the UCI, August 24, Alberto Contador alleged food contamination as the only possible explanation of what happened and has put it in the hands of the cycling authorities, in the confidence that they can clarify this very serious problem, which is now made public.

The experts consulted so far have agreed also that this is a food contamination case, especially considering the number of tests passed by Alberto Contador during the Tour de France, making it possible to define precisely both the time the emergence of the substance as the tiny amount detected, ruling out any other source or intentionality.

Alberto Contador will offer today, 30 September, at 12.00 hours, a Press Conference at Hotel Las Artes in Pinto (Paseo de las Artes, n º 15), in order to give his version of what happened to the public.

Read more: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/5836/Alberto-Contador-positive-for-clenbuterol-at-Tour-de-France-team-claiming-food-contamination.aspx#ixzz10xwgYLw6

Watching worlds TT on jp stream, commentators are horrible:

http://www.justin.tv/d/zura929#/w/428158992/2

are they austrayan commentators? If it's mike fucking tomalaris then yes it would defs be horrible..

worse, clueless jp dorks with very little cycling background apparently.

Top 10:

1 CANCELLARA
2 MILLAR
3 MARTIN
4 PORTE
5 ROGERS
6 MOERENHOUT
7 SANCHEZ
8 ZABRISKIE
9 BODNAR
10 LARSSON

awes top ten

Porte is a hero

Now Mosquera and Garcia busted for doping in the Vuelta:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/501502/mosquera-and-garcia-positive-at-vuelta.html

thought i heard someone down there saying contador had gone pos, lolol

coincidentally here is spain's ll cool sanchez, possibly my one good photo:

http://i55.tinypic.com/2usajxd.jpg

nice snap!

i got kinda caught up with cheering them all on to take properly good pics - lots of pro photographers around there in the way too.

i did get a few that aren't quite as exciting, here's dave z:

http://i52.tinypic.com/2i6yq1x.jpg

millar just leaving start ramp:

http://i52.tinypic.com/2mr787l.jpg

martin

http://i55.tinypic.com/9posgi.jpg

fabian - wish i'd clicked a fraction later, awesome to see him in full flight

http://i55.tinypic.com/28ldemt.jpg

not a fan of the sky kits, but these union jack kits are rad.

TayPhin is first racer to podium both events at worlds!?!?!

Kinda digging this bike:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/uci-road-world-championships-cm/under-23-men-road-race/photos/143683

Would look dope in white though. :-P

i thot one article said he was the 6th racer to do that? xpost

sorry, first U23 rider.

GOD OF THUNDER

!!!!

<3

v exciting finish

Just watched it. I thought Evans was fantastic.

THOR!!!

(just catching up now)

(idiot BBC commentators aided by idiot aussie OB team managed to miss Gilbert being caught)