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Pre-Race Jitters

Posted on 30 June 2010 by cosmo

Bill StricklandOh, Bill Strickland—you sir, are a troublemaker. Tweeting about RadioShack TdF exclusion rumors three days before the start of the race and giving everyone Puerto flashbacks.

While I was very glad to see your attention-grabbing release of the eff-bomb quote from the epilogue of your book—it does take the tired pre-Tour mantra of choice up a notch—I can’t say I support Twitter-mongering like that. Good luck getting that genie back in the bottle.

If the rumors aren’t true, and no one breaks a collarbone during warm-up, then this start list should be final, though everyone seems to expect Stage 4’s cobbles—which were mighty popular today—will trim things down a bit. Mighty bold of Basso to charge those stones in little more than a cap after his dismal performance on this year’s off-road Giro stage.

Honestly, though, I’m just ready to get the actual racing underway. I’m sick of the sad-music-for-Lance, evil-music-for-Contador recaps of last year, the LA vs. AC previews, and “38 BFD” storylines. For the vast majority of the viewing public, this is as deep as things will get—and frankly, I’m ok with that. What I’m not OK is having my only access to and analysis of the racing lobotomized in such a fashion.

Here’s to a first week fueled by hotly-contested sprints, aggressive riding, a nervous pack, underhanded alliances, and anything else that elbows Lance vs. Contador off the of headlines—at least until Morzine.

thoughts on “Pre-Race Jitters”

  1. Dan Gerous says:
    1 July 2010 at 1:59 am

    To Basso’s credit, he didn’t crash by his own and due to his less than stellar descending skills in the Giro offroad stage, he was taken down by teamates. Luckily, his teamates were much better when the road turned upwards…

    I was more surprised to see Andy Schleck without a helmet, he seems to crash more often than most.

    Reply
  2. CK says:
    1 July 2010 at 7:15 am

    Yo Dan, that isn’t Andy Schleck. Actually look at the face next time and you could tell it’s Frank…and frankly that is even scarier

    Reply
  3. Arjan Hulsebos says:
    1 July 2010 at 8:48 am

    Well, there’s another idiot behind Schleck. We’ve had Kessler and Reus being lucky, and Kivilev being not, do these clowns need another accident or road kill before they put a helmet on?

    Reply
  4. scott says:
    1 July 2010 at 9:22 am

    strickland is a perfect example of how to spark fires with a single match. his tweets (twats?) are great at stirring controversy. i guess when news isn’t happening for him to write about, he has to fabricate news so he can write about it.

    Reply
  5. Stanley says:
    1 July 2010 at 9:32 am

    “when Armstrong anticipated a change in headwind that Contador didn’t”

    Should read “Georgeous George gave me a tip and I didn’t tell Bertie”.

    LA’s God given right to victory is manifest destiny, damn Alberto and all other pro-cancer mongers for their conspiracies against the One.

    Reply
  6. Bill Strickland says:
    1 July 2010 at 10:13 am

    This is almost as gratifying as the time I made BikeSnob. Like many people I know who really love bikes, I’m a Cyclocosm fan.

    I admit to the weakness of always aiming to use just one match to start a fire.

    Bill

    Reply
  7. Charlie Sprocket says:
    1 July 2010 at 10:48 am

    I would be getting pre-race jitter anyway if I was racing in such a race like this.

    Cheers,
    Charlie Sprocket

    Reply
  8. Baker Shogry says:
    1 July 2010 at 7:16 pm

    You mentioned “Stage 4’s cobbles,” but while the pave will indeed be on the 4th day of racing, it’ll only be Stage 3 by name. This leads me to a question you might be able to answer: why call the first day of racing the “Prologue”? Can’t we survive one “Stage” without a yellow jersey to worship?

    Reply
  9. car racing says:
    22 July 2010 at 2:39 am

    nice racing stuff

    Reply
  10. cycling clothing says:
    7 September 2011 at 2:32 am

    troublemaker, Contador off the of headlines—at least until Morzine.

    Reply

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About the Author

a headshot of Cosmo Catalano

Best known for his How The Race Was Won® video series, Cosmo Catalano began blogging about pro cycling from a bike shop in 2005. Between then and now, he's designed cycling infographics, built cycling web apps, and supplied cycling content to print and broadcast media, all in the name of backing up his near-endless criticism with proof that it can be done better. He complains about cycling on Twitter at @Cyclocosm.

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