Well, looks like I’m 0-for-2 on the season. In my defense, as Chris points out, Oscar Freire was (in hindsight) an easy pick, and I’m not interested in cycling because it’s easy. If I wanted easy, I’d watch Olympic rifle – the event that doesn’t seem to realize it’s biathlon without the wind, cold, time pressure, elevated heart rate and – oh yeah – 5 to 50k of cross-country skiing.
But I digress. Even with the bunch sprint, MSR was not easy – a hot pace, long-lived breakaway (to the Cipressa!) and rough crashes seemed to keep the lid on attacks. Team CSC rode for O’Grady, elminating any number of breakaway threats, while even a few riders with no one to work for (Kim Kirchen, I’m looking at you) seemed content simply to pull the field back together.
That having been said, I never actually saw the race (grumble), but since I’m in a position of no accountability, I feel perfectly comfortable to declare losers anyway. Big Loser #1 – easily team Liquigas. Two of the top three from last year’s race on the start line, and neither figured all day. In fact, Paolini managed to get gapped, and Pozzatto came in even further back. Weak sauce.
Big Loser #2 – Erik Zabel. Even while leading out the sprint, the unflappable German took 6th, two spots ahead of teammate Ale-Jetlag. Despite his current inability to do, well, anything, it seems the Italo-Germanic squad is contracturally obligated to work for Petacchi. A note to Ete – as Richard Virenque and Bernard Hinault will tell you, a little backstabbing never hurt anyone.
While Zabel would never complain, Tom Boonen sure is picky. After Saturday’s event, Boonen commented he felt like an 85 year old man – not from the difficulty of the race, mind you, but from his crappy American bike. You’ll recall that in ’05, Boonen needed a beefier bike after his chain kept skipping. One wonders if less well-known riders like Stephane Auge and Wouter Weylandt (who won this weekend’s other races) would receive such treatment.
you are a fool. his back problem has been around for a while. know your stuff if you are going to be so cocky.
If you could cite that, I’d stand corrected. I was pretty much on vacation for the second half of 2006, so it’s entirely possible I missed something.
Anyway, the link I have from Cyclingnews above says Boonen’s back trouble began around the same time he switched bikes. Maybe you should send them a message, too?
1 – there is no 50k biathlon. even if you add up all 4 legs of the biathlon team relay, you still don’t get to 50k. but i see your point. rifle is mindnumbing (although my hometown university (UAF) just won NCAA’s…again…and, well, no one noticed…again).
2 – i WAS lucky enough to get to watch. however, after watching the second (horrific) crash of the guy on that “teutonic sparkly water team” i was overcome by an intense urge to vomit. you could actually SEE his shattered femur bulging up through his bibs. ugh.
I read the thing about the back problem too but it easily could have been a cover story sent from Morgan Hill. It’s hard to imagine that he had a back problem last year with the number and quality of wins he took–or the year before that, or the year before that….
Thanks Cosmo
Frankly, I think that the Tom Boonen back trouble story is bullshit. I think that he doesn’t like the bike he was supplied with, and wants to ride something custom made for him, and the only way to save Specialized’s face over this is the back story.
it seems like the Quick-Step sponsorship has been more bad press than good for Specialized. If i remember correctly, the team was already kind of pissed off that the specialized issued cranksets would drop the chain under heavy sprinting (which is why they now use the campy cranks).
good to see that you’re back to writing the column regularly.
Since we are all bashing Specialized, did everyone see the thing in VN about King Paolo sending back the frame they chose for him and asking for a smaller one? Where did Matt read about the crank issue?
I do believe Tom’s back is hurting though. Did you see him in Het Vok???? He’s not the same rider as last year. Saturday is E3 Prijs Harelbeke–we’ll find out then. How do you make a custom monocoque frame again????
boonen’s just been off the juice since puerto, nothing more, nothing less