Month: September 2005

Well, normally, the World Championships marks the end of the season, leaving hordes of cycling fans as hungover as Tom Boonen in a Madrid hotel room wondering where the fork he left his rainbow jersey (speaking of ole’ Blackout Boonen, apparently, he “forks” on the first date). But, thanks to the ProTour, there’s more racing…

Ok, I admit it. I’ve gotten far too caught up in all this other crap like rider transfers, secret police, Robbie McEwen being out of it, etc. Time to get back to basics. How basic? How about the Tour du Senegal, a West African 10-day stage race. Like other events in the region, such as…

Aitor Gonzalez, winner of this year’s Tour de Suisse and perennial favorite for the ProTour’s non-existant “Least Consistent Rider” award, has allegedly tested positive for an unknown substance at this year’s Vuelta a Espana. Though reported only by l’Equipe, and unconfirmed as of yet through official channels, if true, this would be the third major…

EICMA is somewhat overlooked outside of Italy. After all, it’s name is a confusing and mysterious Euro acronym, where all the letters are out-of-order to us simple English-speakers. And, despite what the silver space-man riding a bike might suggest, the show isn’t particularly long on technical innovation. EICMA is where you go to revel in…

Enough of this globetrotting, baggage-losing, bum-rushing, air-horn-blowing madness! Time to get back to pre-chewing the gristly bits of cycling news so you don’t have to spend 15 minutes afterwards trying to floss them out. First item of business: Tom Boonen, World Champ on a bum stomach (perhaps not dissimilar to the twsited stomach that afflicted…

(Just to convey to you the proper Spanish flavor of the event, here’s the Official Vuelta a Espana Big Rig, parked in front of Santiago Bernabau Stadium, home of Real Madrid.) Man, I’m tired. It’s been a long day under an f-ing hot Spanish sun in long pants because that’s just how the Euros roll….

And what else is new? It’s the third time for the Aussie, who didn’t actually win in 2003, but was awarded the victory after David Millar admitted to doping before the event in early 2004. Bobby Julich was nowhere to be found, and an aging and busted-up Eki also found himself adrift at the wrong…

First day of Worlds. Men’s U23 TT, Women’s Elite TT. Winner on the Men’s side was Mikhail Ignatiev, only the cutest thing ever (I’m told…) to come out of Eastern Europe since Misha (or maybe t.A.T.u., tho neither Misha nor Ignatiev needed to pretend to be gay to be cute.) Second and third are unimportant…

So after months of everyone being all like “ch! Hell yeah, it’s a sprinter’s course,” there seem to be now some differing opinions on the topic. Most loud on the topic has been Mario Aerts who thinks it’ll be impossible for a sprint train to get things going, especially if it rains. Stijn Devolder thinks…