Given the problems Astana had the last time star riders were training in black jerseys in remote locations, you’d think they have a rule against this sort of thing.

(via twitpic)

“I have road rash, but I think there’s worse stuff, too. My hip and ribs hurt. Fuck, everything hurts”
-Robbie McEwen

Big crash at the Scheldeprijs today, with, in the words of Sporza’s writeup, riders going down like “dominoblokjs”. The English (sort of) translation has some great lines, with McEwen saying Van Avermaet was “drunk” with excitement at being on Petacchi’s wheel, Boonen saying something about McEwen and a “prick”, and Van Avermaet crediting his relative lack of injury to fall cross-training as a goalkeeper.


Anyone who can actually read that, instead of relying on a hilarious computer-based translation, should feel more than welcome to leave a translation in the comments section.

Not only is the 7-time Tour winner 5 years behind on movies, but apparently, he’s also a depressed, 14-year-old girl.

Now that I’ve gotten some sleep in lieu of videomaking, I’ve been trying to get my head around why I can’t get into these little baby stage races. Maybe it’s because they’re so anonymous—I mean, from Ruta del Sol onward, it’s just 5-day races with roughly three flat stages, two climbs and a time trial at the end.

This is very similar to my criticism of the Ardennes classics, at least after Amstel was revamped to have a stupid uphill finish—you’ve seen one, and you’ve (almost) seen them all. That’s what makes the Cobbles Week classics so interesting: they’ve each got their own unique character. The Ronde has those steep cobbled climbs, Wevelgem has the death-defying descent and looming threat of a group sprint if riders aren’t aggressive, and Roubaix is, well, Roubaix.

Little longer than normal this week—sorry about that, but it’s a big race. Not a particularly exciting finish this year, but still unfolded as hell-bent as a good Roubaix should.
[right-click for iTunes-compatible download]

YouTube and Vimeo will be are up tomorrow morning now.

Tommeke, Tommeke, Tommeke

The Belgian fans were blasting this when Boonen suddenly found himself alone with 24k to go. It doesn’t really get interesting until 1:50 in, but apparently this song was all the rage in the peloton back in 2006. In fact, I’d even have a video to show you if Velonews had bothered to archive their old crap. Alas.

Anyway, right-click here to download an MP3 for your listening pleasure.

Working on the video for today’s exciting Roubaix. Should be up sometime this evening.

Yeah, you wanna know why I don’t have any blog posts this week? Because I am too busy making these. Fortunately, I won’t have a three-video week again until the Ardennes, and then hopefully never again after that. On to Roubaix!
[right-click for iTunes-compatible download]

Oh yes, also—if this doesn’t work, there are copies on YouTube and Vimeo. I prefer the latter because Sox, a reader of this blog since ’06, is the bomb at design; still, you really ought to try installing Quicktime so the embed on this page will work.

Otherwise known as the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Video analysis of the 2009 race plus an iTunes compatible download. What more could you ask for?
[right-click for iTunes-compatible download]

How many more riders will build their careers on Tom Boonen’s back? Sure, Stijn Devolder is a fine cyclist in his own right, but based on his performances with Discovery Channel, I can’t imagine he’d have a pair of Flanders wins stuffed into his jersey pockets, if not for the utter unwillingness of the rest of the field to haul Tom Boonen back to the front. One might also look the suddenly increased relevance of Sylvain Chavanel, or decreased production from former Quick.Step riders Nick Nuyens and Gert Steegmans since their departures from Boonen’s squad.

Well, looks like the Three Days of Stupid is finally over. Can’t see why so many big names agree to do this event. It’s four days before Flanders, it’s hard, and it’s dangerous. See this photo: that’s a bunch sprint—on cobblestones. I suppose you could claim it’s “practice” for Sunday’s grundle-slamming parcours (like the Muur of Geraardsbergen, pictured at left), but if you ask me, if you weren’t born ready to win races on that sort of surface, you never will be.