Well, two days to go until the Ronde and I’m already sick of Flanders…PSYCH! Velonews drops some coin on a Graham Watson photo history and details Leif Hoste’s plans not to be second again. Note to the Belgian – self-calling that you won’t be second on the cobblestones in April is historically not a good idea.
Speaking of history, Podium Cafe has a brief DYK on the race, as well as a previewing of potential team tactics, because everything else has been previewed to death already. But in case you’d been living under a rock in a cave on Mars with your eyes closed and your fingers in your ears, here’s the course preview from Pez.
So who’s hot? Well, Joost Postuma (man, I hope he turns out to be on drugs so I can write his name as “Juiced”) pulled out the DaPanne vic on an impressive ITT. He gives himself mega-longshot odds in service of Captain J-A Flecha, but given the weather forecast (42 degrees, rain, hail, snow, carnage) I’m guessing it won’t be a walkaway win for anyone.
The Great Tombino says he’s locked and loaded, and with God’s Own supporting cast behind him, he’s even money with the smoking hot Cancellara. Cance’s given a better shot at the podium, though, which I find inexplicable given the race conditions; correct me if I’m wrong, but Cance has yet to score a major result in anything tougher than partly cloudy. Not that I’m saying he can’t, of course – just that he hasn’t.
My pick? We’ll save that for tomorrow. And the not-so-fun stuff might just have to wait ’til Monday.
