J-P Nazon? Franco Pelizotti? Who are these clowns? Where’s Tom Boonen? Where’s Fabian Cancellara? Where’s Ivan Basso? I demand superstars! Seriously, If I’d just dropped 4k on a Specialized or a Trek or a Cervelo this spring, I’d be really miffed! I thought the peloton ran at two speeds, meaning that my bike was guaranteed to win.
In all honesty, I don’t even know what bike FdJ rides..wait, Nazon is on Ag2r now? When did that happen? And look at this: a non-Disco, non-CSC American, doing well in a Belgian race? Riding a “Felt”? What the hell kind of bike name is that? Like, it “Felt” good to ride or something? Who ever heard of a bike you couldn’t get at Competitive Cyclist doing well at an important bike race?
Ah well. As long as Lennard Zinn can still write informercials, I’ll know what trick gear to buy. And at least, after these cockamamie results and the Operation Puerto dismissal, I can be absolutely certain that none of my favorite bike racers are on drugs anymore. Sure, the media says the riders “want resolution”; but who’d they interview, David Millar and Jesus Manzano?
Please. Manzano doesn’t even ride anymore, and Millar’s new schtick is “race clean” – of course he’ll get grit in his chamois over this. When you get me Danilo Hondo screaming for further investigation, then I’ll buy it. Honestly, I’m just glad cyclists have given up performance enhancing substances and left them to the people who need them the most – aging celebrities.
One nice thing about being in Europe is getting to watch these races live. I’m going to miss this afternoon because we’re going to watch the World Cup (skiing) Spring in Drammen, but I’ve seen the last two bunch sprints. I think it’s fair to say they’ve been about the most disorganized affairs I’ve ever seen.
Monday there was a sharp left-hander with maybe 600m to go and the Quick.Step train got totally disrupted through it. Their two front guys made it through fine (but must have been going slow because they let people cut in on the inside of the corner) but Boonen fell from 4th to 10th or so, and then never recovered.
Yesterday was even more of a cluster. They were chasing down Voekler and didn’t catch him until inside 1 km. In the process they ripped the front off the bunch. Only a group of maybe 15 made it to the catch. Then, as soon as they caught him they just sat up. Spread out entirely across the road. Basically Pelizotti was the only person in the front group to keep riding hard from 500 out and he just opened up a gap. It was a slow motion attack up the right hand side of the road, while everyone was looking around trying to figure out what to do. WTF?! With half a k to go, don’t you just continue the leadout like Voekler’s not even there? That’s what the red train would have done.
I could watch the races on cycling.tv. Paris-Nice is free (I think) and at any rate, I have a subscription.
But my employer seems to have this crazy idea that I should be “working”, even when I’m just sitting in the cubicle, trying not to fall asleep.
ran across miller in a basque coast bistro during his ban. smokin and drinkin and actin all flash. he didn’t look so down and out and remorseful to me. whatever. clean just means what’s not on the list. it’s all bullshit. and off topic, sorta, the unibet thing colludes with my long standing belief that if they followed the money trail it would end in a betting parlor. probably in russia. last year as one on-line betting company they’re offered the title race sponsorship and this year as a different virtual den of vice they get barred – nope, nothin’ fishy about that. the people funding the doctors and drug development, manufacture and distribution are the ones with the most to gain. sometimes that’s a valid pharma usage, but most of the time it’s a way of giving a turbocharged fix to the ponys when they let the percentages ride in the parlor.
busting the riders chops with this petty fabricated courtroom bs is stupid – they aren’t the ones paying for and pushing the junk.