Hey there. I´m writing from some whack Madrillano Internet cafe, and have 21 minutes left on my Euro, so this will be brief: Kirchen won the Tour of Poland, getting a bit of revenge on ProTour leader (who beat him at Fleche-Wallone, but could muster only fifth here) and certain ProTour winner Danilo DiLuca, whose…
Month: September 2005
Pro Cycling News – The Dope Opera Continues
Dick Pound, whom I dislike profusely, and who is so hard nosed and litigious that he once sued the Premier of Quebec for calling him a “crackpot,” really seems to be out of his mind. He’s supposed to be the head of the organization concerned with fairly eliminating doping from sport. But so far, he’s…
Pro Cycling News – Tour de Boring
See what I meant by yesterday’s headline was that one major race currenty going on (the Vuelta) is like the 3rd week of the Tour, which is “boring” because it generally lacks any real GC change; and the other major race (Tour de Pologne) is like the first week of the tour in that the…
Pro Cycling News – What is this? July?
Ok, seriously. Vuelta: Quesada escapes to win. Oooooh, it’s such a big deal because he’s 5th on GC. NOT. Even after getting away, he’s still six minutes back of Sr. Heras. The only real suprise going on is that Quesada’s team, wild-card entry Communidad Valencia is beating everyone else down in the teams competition. By…
Dopers Suck? – Rant
Bike racing draws in stupidity like a vacuum. And, even though Laurent Fignon became le professeur simply because he had spent some time in college and wore funny glasses, I’m not talking about the intellectual quality of the riders, here. I’m talking about things like BioPace and performance-enhancing coffee . Or Cyclo-Zen, which suggested that…
Pro Cycling News – Bennati takes Poland Stage 2, Bettini wins in Spain
Don’t call it a comeback! Outsprinting an on-form Luca Paolini to take the first stage and the GC lead of the Tour of Poland yesterday was none other than 2003 TdF maillot vert Baden Cooke, back for his first pro win in 18 months. Though many bad journalists described yesterday’s stage as “glitch marred,” it…
Doc Reilly Memorial Road Race – Report
Y’know, I thought we were done with this bike racing nonsense. But even after a week of subsisting on nothing but nachos and logging a fat 2:30 of training between GMSR and Saturday morning, I found myself back out at the start line of yet another Cat 4/5 race. This time it was the Doc…
Pro Cycling News – Vuelta Rest Day, Trouble in Poland
Oh, sure, just because the Vuelta stops for a minute, the whole cycling world just shuts down and stops putting out new stories? Jeez, look at ProCycling; as of 10:30am EDT today, this was their lead story. “Menchov frustrates Heras” indeed. Did they even hear about Stage 15? Well, you won’t find that sort of…
Pro Cycling News – One Epic Day, More Dope News
You might have thought the Vuelta a Espana was turning into the Tour de France. A relatively unexciting leader, having grabbed the lead in the TT, was now just following his most likely rival’s wheel, letting bolder non-GC riders snare stage wins. That was before today. Now, following his fish-clad (that’s the points jersey, by…
Pro Cycling News – UCI Stance on Lance/France Dance
(Is that a good headline or what?) The UCI today made an official statement on l’affair Armstrong today. Aside from being a huge expansion on their previous statement, it also seems to be a flying leap into Armstrong’s corner, adminstering sternly-worded slaps to both l’Equipe and WADA chief Dick Pound (who I’ve been calling an…