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 the ASO’s Tour du Faso, the race is something of a time warp back to the time when riders finished in groups of twos and threes, and flatting could mean a long wait on the side of the road for the next car to pass. Sadly, Senegal is a bit remote, so results and information are incomplete and hard to come by. Much less remote, at least to the world of cycling, is Belgium, where Nico Eeckhout won the Omloop van de Vlaamse Scheldeboorden for the second time, his first win coming an astounding 12 years ago. With Davitamon-Lotto Teammate Aart Vierhouten, Eeckhout continues to ride to give hope for those who believe double vowels belong at the front of names, not at the end, as certain Eastern Europeans seem to think.
Having exhausted the available racing news for the moment, we turn now to Franco Ballerini, most definately out as Italian National Team coach. If you scroll down a bit further on that page, you’ll see a list of rider transfers thus far this season. If you see some unfamiliar names, don’t panic – despite not having been introduced yet, everyone and their mother knows that Giancarlo Ferretti’s new team (featuring Gilberto Simoni and Stuart O’Grady, amongst other notables) will have a sponsor officially announced anyday now. l’Equipe, which has an uncanny tendency of knowing things before they actually happen, thinks the sponsor will be Sony-Ericsson. Other names being tossed around as potential sponsors are IKEA and Peroni. I’m just praying they won’t have another bloody sky-blue jersey.
And ok, fine: here’s some links to Interbike stuff, though honestly, the only thing that even remotely interests me so far is the singlespeeds. It will be a while before I ride a bike with more than one gear off-road again.