It’s been a bad week for the UCI: the Swiss courts went over their heads to let Danilo Hondo off the hook, former convicted doper Filip Meirhaeghe won a race, and Roberto Heras, who is currently appealing his own drug suspension, successfully blocked the revised Vuelta awards presentation. Now, this series of events would make…
Month: March 2006
UCI Bans Bouyer, Americans Ride Well, Racing Heads North
*Sigh* – I knew I should have posted yesterday morning. But then I got all caught up in doing stuff and now it’s today. So I missed talking about some new Australian beating a few notables (Eeckhout, Cooke) to win some French race, where, on the start line, folks were upset that the UCI won’t…
UCI, USCF Hate Tyler Hamilton, Charity – Rant
For the rest of today’s post, I’d like to go over an interesting little story that’s been brewing stateside this past week. It seems that one Tyler Hamilton was out racing this past weekend at a local, unsanctioned criterium in Boulder, Colorado. Yeah, he’s supposed to be suspended, but the UCI has no power over…
Pippo Pozzatto Poaches San Remo
People all whining about how we “need” to change the Milan-San Remo course – please. What could you possibly ask for from a bike race that today’s event did no give you? A strong early move staying out 200k+, right up to the foot of the Cipressa, attacks flying every which way, two late moves…
Final San Remo Previews, Hondo Gets Off, Dope News
San Remo Fever: catch it! The final round of previews is up: Velochimp gives the nod to Igor Astarloa as a dark horse pick if the group sprint doesn’t come together. He also suggests that Gazzetta dello Sport‘s recent award to race favorite Tom Boonen may have been a sneaky attempt to wear the Belgian…
SRAM Lies in Press Release, More San-Remo Previews
Lemme just hold off on the continuing torrent of San Remo news to rip apart SRAM’s BS Sea Otter Press Release. Scroll down past “SRAM Force in 3-D” and you’ll discover the following passage: “So far only members of the Kodakgallery.com-Sierra Nevada and Orbea pro road teams have sampled SRAM’s Force road group but that’s…
Milan-San Remo Previews, Other Bits of News
So it occurred to me this morning, as sheets of snow and driving wind swirled about my window, that it’s only Wednesday, and that I still might get some racing in this weekend. This came as something of a surprise, for the way the cycling media’s gone MSR craaazy, you’d think it was the night…
T-A Wrap-Up, Milan-San Remo Rundown
Hard to pinpoint the top story of today; guess I’ll start with the racing, which was the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, in which Alessandro Petacchi, with a little help from 4 (and almost 5)-time winner Erik Zabel, fired the final shot in the pre-San Remo skirmishes. Tom Boonen, the bookmaker’s choice for la Primavera, has…
Paris-Nice Wrap-Up, T-A Weekend Update, News
Why does all the interesting stuff happen on the weekends? Ah well. Let’s begin with Paris-Nice where absolutely nothing happened, and save the interesting stuff for later. Floyd Landis went on to win the race pretty much uncontested; ok, yeah, a few breakaways won stages, a French director sportif pretty much said “No, I don’t…
Bethel Spring Series – Ronde de Bethel – Report
Sex or Bike Racing? It’s the eternal question. Among my race-obsessed friends, the preference is generally whichever they’ve had least recently. So, it being some 6.5 months since my last road race, it seems like a three-hour trip to Bethel would be a no-brainer. But given my history, you never really know, do you? In…