It’s been a while since I gave the ol’ VeloNews cage a good grab-and-rattle. Part of it’s been that I’ve been busy, part of it’s been that I rarely read their articles anymore (I mean, with so many other options, why bother?), but at any rate, I’ve fallen off a bit in my vituperatives. Then…
Month: April 2006
Race Day DVD – Review
Ex-Postie Robbie Ventura and realRides deliver a crit-oriented intensity training DVD. 2004, Color, Approx 90min. Originality: 5. I hate training videos. But calling this “just” a training video is a kind of like calling the Poggio “just” a hill. Its main training feature is an uncut, rider’s eye view recording of a race, complete with…
There's Just No News
Yeah, folks, I would have liked to write more in the past few days, but every since that dashing young Spaniard Valverde won Liege-Bastogne-Liege, there really hasn’t been any news in the cycling world to speak of. Despite claiming the Tour de France is what “really matters”, Jan Ullrich waited practically until May to make…
The Race 2 Disgrace – Rant
So I was watching “Honey, We’re Killing the Kids” a few nights back (no, seriously…) and after a few minutes of pre-adolescant New Jersey-ites Twinkie, Coke and video-gaming away their afternoon, suddenly this commerical comes on with Lance Armstrong. Apparenlty, his other former teammates are so crappy when it comes to bike racing that Lance…
The Reagan Babies Confirm – LBL '06
(Yes, I am aware Reagan was not sworn in until 20 Jan 1981. I don’t care. Riders born after 1/1/80 are herein described as “Reagan Babies”.) Perhaps there will be no image more representative of the 2006 classics season than that provided by Alejandro Valverde and Paolo Bettini in the closing meters of today’s Liege-Bastogne…
The Cycling.TV Drinking Game
Not sure how many of you will find this useful, but here goes: alcohol has long been used to augment classics of cinema, and I have here attempted to carry that spirit over into the classics of cycling. I know that most of Cycling.TV‘s races air between 7 and 9am EDT, but that’s what they…
Now this is a crash…
I found a decently sized rock on the side of the road on a group ride earlier this week and went flying, but it had photographers been present, it would have been nowhere near as exciting as this. Piecing together exactly what went wrong here is great fun. My guess is that’s Marco Velo (who…
Valverde Adds Belgium To Countries He's Won Races In
Every time Alejandro Valverde wins a race, I think about how Velonews‘ spring preview last year complained that he’d never won a race outside of Spain. Never mind that he’d been 3rd in the ’03 Vuelta, while winning the combine classification, along with two stages, and then finished second (to his teammate) at that year’s…
The Race Organizers' Ten Commandments – Rant
I. Thy race documentation shalt be as concise, clear, and accurate as possible. II. There shalt be separate pre-registered and day-of registration areas. III. Thou shalt not organize thy race check-in by field. IV. Thou shalt not distribute thy race numbers without regard to field. V. Thy registration areas shalt be clearly delineated. VI. There…
Fortune Favors the Bold
I know this hardly seems relevant to Americans, what with Tour de Georgia starting tomorrow and all, but I thought that was a pretty good Amstel they had on Sunday. The bunch stayed together a little longer than I like to see in a classic, probably because some people think they can just wait, sit…