Yes, I know I promised you another How the Race was Won last night. But instead, I got tied up in another project I’ve been working on. And I know I make fun of Cyclingnews for the their party-like-it’s-1999 web design, but man, laying out a page from scratch in CSS is no fun at all. I would highly recommend letting other people do the hard stuff, and then modifying their template to your needs. Anyway, I’ll have a new video up tonight. Blogger’s honor.

Ah, a fine weekend of spring racing in Belgium at E3 Prijs and Brabantse Pijl. Impressive wins by Pipo Pozzatto, who was no doubt stinging from my jibe in last week’s How the Race was Won, and Anthony Geslin, who’s probably still in shock that he’s won anything outside the Coupe de France series. Should have another How the Race was Won up on E3 by tonight sometime.

Ah, I love twitter. Practically does my job for me. Yesterday, I posited to the Internets that Rock Racing was little more than a drain-sieve for washed up dopers. And some dude said I was crazy. Oh yeah, Rayh62? Then what about this? Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if Michael Ball went so far as to exhume the body of Marco Pantani for cloning to shore up his roster and supporting cast. And has anyone seen Richard Virenque recently?

With so many results flying around, chances are most of them are unimportant. Dwars door Vlaanderen is kind of a big deal, but you wouldn’t have gotten that impression from CN’s coverage, which had no live report. It’s a bummer, too, because it’s not every day Kevin Van Impe wins a two-up sprint, especially against a slab of beef like Nico Eeckhout. Not featured in the results: Robbie McEwen. Haven’t been seeing much of him lately.

I’ll admit it: I’ve been feeling a bit rusty lately. I was clinging to my MSR start list this weekend like a confused chemistry student to a periodic table. Cycling.TV’s cataract-inducing picture quality and a whole slew of anonymous-looking white kits—Katosha, Serramenti PVC Diquiblahblahblah, Katusha, SaxoBank, I’m looking at you—sure didn’t help things. And that Austrian doping case? Some dude I’ve never heard of.

Well I suppose I should by psyched about this. Austrian doping authorities did their best to fire up a witch hunt by investigating a mysterious 32-year-old cyclist known only as “K”, and it’s safe to say that very few pixels have gone to waste in speculation of his identity. Perhaps even more amazing is that crashes are gobbling up the headlines and the fellow on the left here isn’t in a one of them. Did I mention he’s Austrian? No?

My incisive video analysis of yesterday’s race. Apologies for the poor audio, USB mic is in the mail. Ask about any muddled parts in the comments and I will clarify.
[right click - iTunes compatible download]

Also available in a heinous Flash version on popular video-sharing site YouTube, and a marginally better version on Vimeo.

Another good finish, but man—what a stinker for the first 295k! Well, no. I suppose that’s a bit harsh, but you’ve got to admit, there was a definite lack of late-race fireworks. I counted no attacks on the Cipressa and a mere two on the Poggio: a seemingly half-hearted tug from Davide Rebellin that barely strung out the field, and a second, more convincing effort from Pippo Pozzatto that did manage to break things up a bit, but came so close to the end of the climb as to be irrelevant.

[right click - iTunes compatible download]

Milan SanRemo has gotten a bad rap as a sprinters’ race. This misconception comes from people reading results and seeing 30 people finish at or near the same time. The race invariably goes to ribbons over the final climbs, and occasionally pulls itself together for a bunch kick. It’s a race anyone can win–sprinter, rouleur, climber, or even, as this video shows, descender.