Ah, you gotta love wild media speculation. You may recall that yesterday, I threw caution to the wind and published some dude’s wild tour route speculations. Well, looks like I’ve started a trend. Yup, and if they’re not guessing at the route, they’re guessing and who’s gonna ride it. Eurosport thinks Ivan Basso might skip the Giro to focus on the Tour, while everyone else is pretty much certain. Since OLN recently purchased rights to the Giro, San Remo and Lombardy, American viewers might actually get to see the Giro to find out. And while were on the subject of Italian cycling and linking madly to Velochimp, fast man Alessandro Petacchi seems to have thrown his hat in the Flanders ring for ’06. Some of you may recall that Paolo Bettini has also expressed interest in Flanders next spring, though his announcement was less of a suprise, since he’s won a few classics that don’t end in group sprints.
And then there’s Dick Pound. But first, I’m gonna show you some tech stuff because Dick Pound sucks. Why does Dick Pound suck? Here’s a brief example: “Drug use, within entire teams, continues unabated.†That’s an interesting thing for Dick Pound to say. In my country, America, one is at least expected to fabricate some sort of evidence when making accusations. The fact that Dick Pound is from Canada apparently excludes him from this expectation. Canadians must feel much the same way about Dick Pound’s nationality that I feel about Tom DeLay’s. Look, his wild accusations make the young Frenchman Jerome Pineau cynical about his future in cycling (scroll down). Don’t worry, Canadians and Jerome, I’ll see to it that Dick Pound gets his (in so far as I can see to it) later today. Until then, Daily Peloton has some nice team rundowns for 2006.