I’m wondering who’s more surprised about Ricco’s move to Vacansoleil—fans, journalists, or the rider himself. Ricco seemed pretty sure about going to Quick.Step only a few short days ago, but as press agents anywhere can tell you, the great advantage to leaking information rather than making an above-board announcement is plausible deniability. That said, the…
Author: cosmo
The 2011 Cycling Broadcast Media Challenge
Do my eyes deceive me? Is there a piece critical of Lance Armstrong up on Versus.com? If it weren’t comparing him to Mel Gibson (hard to imagine the phone calls curiously absent from Armstrong’s emails with Floyd and Dr. Kay were anywhere near that bad) or erroneously claiming that Armstrong smashed Floyd’s (or Armstrong’s own…
Team RadioShack Race Radio Redub
This isn’t my best work, but considering the source material—audio from the Nike US Postal documentary The Road To Paris, an old RadioShack mobile phone ad from 1990, and a brief clip from Floyd Landis’ Nighline interview—it’s not too awful. I’d hoped to scrape some more goodies from The Lance Chronicles, but Floyd and the…
Old-Style Racing
The number one thing mentioned by Americans racing in Europe isn’t the higher level of competition, or the bigger crowds, or the greater exposure, but the races themselves. Euro Junior courses are so burley that “even the pro guys would protest” if people tried to put them on in the States, and Ted King frequently…
Not Earning His Billables
Recently-hired Armstrong defense lawyer Bryan D. Daly dropped a few jewels in yesterday’s New York Times updatae about the investigation into the seven-time Tour winner. After citing a lack of “scientific evidence” (there’s actually a bit here and there, if you’re truly curious) presented in the press thus far, Daly attempted to play up the…
Let's Call It A Market Correction
As a certain tech editor found out today at the Denver Airport, market forces are difficult to avoid. It holds true in cycling, too—yesterday’s unbridled optimism was sure to be corrected by today’s cool reality. The Giro-Tour-Vuelta Grand Slam proposed by Bjarne Riis was written off as a “translation error” by Contador’s manager—though I will…
Bjarne Riis: Subprime Lender
Is Bjarne Riis a “friend of Angelo“? It certainly isn’t an unreasonable conclusion following the Dane’s big announcement today. In January, SaxoBank was done with this whole cycling thing: “the sponsorship has not been ideal in reaching our narrow target group”, though the bank added “we couldn’t have hoped for a better collaboration with the team.”…
The Post-Tour Season Begins
After a brief post-Tour hiatus to race bikes and encounter misfortune (though it could have been worse), I have returned to a cycling news cycle driven by rumor. Transfer season is upon us in full force, and Bjarne Riis is making a special announcement tomorrow—no bonus points for guessing who the top name on everyone’s…
Tour De Lance – Review
This is—to date—the fourth book I’ve read on Lance Armstrong, and as far as I can tell, the first written by an actual cycling fan. Dan Coyle seems to have gone into Lance Armstrong’s War without too deep an understanding of the sport, and after slogging through Every Second Counts, I’m fully convinced that Sally…
Maybe It's Just The Hangover
It’s tough to argue that this latest installment of the Grande Boucle wasn’t an entertaining spectacle. The first week alone furnished more action and GC changes than the 2002 version in its entirety, and close races in all the major competitions marked much of the event. Most of the race—certainly its chaotic opening—still seem compelling;…