It’s not like the guy is retiring or anything, but geez, you might think so, given the rapid proliferation of stories on Erik Zabel’s deaprture (scroll down) from T-Mobile following this weekend’s Paris-Tours race. Of course, if the careers of Santiago Botero and Cadel Evans are any indication, we can expect a banner year from Erik next season on Team Milram. Still, I don’t really think that justifies all the media attention, but when industry leader Cyclingnews leads off with “Cunego Tired”, I guess there’s just not a lot out there to report on.
Even so, I find that second-tier stories like Lars Bak winning Paris-Bourges are plenty interesting, even if I haven’t heard of Baris-Bourges before. If you haven’t heard of Lars Bak before, you have only yourself to blame; the 25 year old won the Danish National Title in June before taking easily the Tour l’Avenir. It was Bjarne Riis, however, cycling’s Bill Parcells (at least in terms of player development) who heard of him before any of us, snatching him up from BankGiroLoterij when it folded last season, and adding him to CSC’s already stacked roster. But if all that still bores you, there’s apparently still no shortage of Interbike news.