Eisel Makes Good at DaPanne, Injury Report

So I guess maybe yesterday’s sprint just wasn’t hard enough for Bernhard Eisel, as he managed to beat 30 other guys in today’s finish (and by good margin, too). But since yesterday, today, and the remaining Day of Pain, are just an appetizer for the Ronde this weekend, the real impact of today’s stage was who got hurt. Other notables looking at a trip to the DL: Magnus Backsteadt, down with a tendon injury, Jan Ullrich, out of Sarthe with an irritated knee, and *gasp* Tom Boonen (scroll down) slightly inconvenienced with a cold?! Tom better not be sick for Tour of Flanders, otherwise no one will know what to do. The race will unfold like a dinky Cat 4 race, with everyone sucking wheels and “waiting for the sprint” because they had planned for months to simply “mark Boonen”. And if that happens, it’s gonna take a lot more than an ANSI/SNELL certified helmet to keep riders safe from the hail of empty Stella Artois bottles this Sunday. Now Rolf Sorensen’s 1997 win, that’s how you do it. Bridge up to the break, drop it, get caught, get into another move, and then finish it off with a sprinter-foiling attack at 1km to go.

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