With so many results flying around, chances are most of them are unimportant. Dwars door Vlaanderen is kind of a big deal, but you wouldn’t have gotten that impression from CN’s coverage, which had no live report. It’s a bummer, too, because it’s not every day Kevin Van Impe wins a two-up sprint, especially against a slab of beef like Nico Eeckhout. Not featured in the results: Robbie McEwen. Haven’t been seeing much of him lately.
Cyclingnews’ CyL coverage was so bad they didn’t even bother giving it a byline. I’ll link to VN (and you know how much I love doing that…) because at least they have pictures. According to the Internet, though, I should be wicked ticked off about CyL, mostly because of these dudes. Of course, if I took up the “hate-all-riders-that-ever-doped-ever” mantle I’d have to be aghast at pretty much every bike race between 1922 and 1998. At least I have dudes like Cunego, whose hematocrit is an honest 52%, that I can still ethically cheer for, right?
Anyway, as a result of these results, Podium Cafe has a new Power Poll out to tell us that Quickstep is better than anyone else at riding the cobbles, and an interesting Power Poll logo to insist the visual aesthetic of Ren and Stimpy is far from dead. I’d put Silence-Lotto even lower than 5th and you’re going to feel silly if Daniele Bennati wins Gent-Wevelgem in a few weeks, but hey—your poll, not mine. And as a parting note, if you’re organizing a race and planning to invite Johan Vansummeren (pictured above) consider procuring a longer-than-average bed. The boy is a bit lanky, you know.