From Stage 2 of last week’s Tour of Romandie. Even if you’ve got the watts to jump away from a ProTour-level field on a Category 2 climb, to be a serious contender, you still need the skill, coordination and nerve to come screaming down swtichbacking, off-camber descents while negotiating the occasional pothole or motorbike. And…
Author: cosmo
Season's Underway, Time For Things To Fall Apart
So seeing as it’s the middle of the season and mere days before the second-biggest stage race of the year, what better time for drastic, sweeping changes to come out of nowhere. Let’s start at the top: the UCI wants everyone to suffer more and so has decided to enforce their utterly arbitrary 3:1 “fuselage…
Inferior Potassium
Wait, wait…a loose federation of Central European businesses/state entities—named after the the capital city of Kazakhstan so none get any actual ad exposure—is having trouble putting together the constant supply of capital needed to run a cycling team? I’m not surprised that Astana’s collapse is happening so much as I’m surprised that it took this…
What Did We Do Before Twitter?
A little back-and-forth over the Interwebs between Daryl Impey and American cycling commentator/blogger/some sort of Time rep at one point or other Smithers, related to the Theo Bos Affair:
How The Race Was Won – Tour of Romandie 2009
Video recap of the 2009 Tour of Romanide. A great win by Roman Kreuziger, making him a popular dark horse pick for a Grand Tour or two later this season. Two stage wins by Oscar Freire, a team time trial, some snow, and just a little argy-bargy. [Right-click for iTunes compatible download] Vimeo and YouTube…
Czechmate.
I knew Roman Kreuzinger could throw down. After all, he did win the Tour de Suisse and have the misfortune of being Edvald Boasson-Hagen’s breakaway buddy at E3. It was Wevelgem and Kreuziger’s teammate Kuschynski. But in yesterday’s stage at Romandie, he simply walked away from the race favorites and took the win. Maybe you…
Improper Bottle Handoff Technique
I realize it’s just Tour de Gila, and I realize you aren’t even racing as your proper Astana squad, but jeez, Johan. You’ve been around the block. Not only does Chris have none of these bottles shoved down his shirt, but you didn’t push on a single bottle! It should take *at least* two seconds…
Defying the Cycling Gods
Say what you will about Lance Armstrong, but you must admit, the man has cajones. Er, un cajone. Or something. Anyway, going over the UCI to race at Gila, donning the mysterious black kits a day after Der Speigel put a doping story on his teammate back in the headlines, and, just for kicks, smashing…
A Man with an Unhealthy Love of Chamois Cream
Dave Zabriskie, applying his favorite chamois-related product at the ToC. Words fail. (@dzabriskie, via @muddylegs.)
How is Doping Like a Pregnancy?
How is doping like a pregnancy? Because—according to the IOC, anyway—you’ve gotta wait nine months to find out whose responsible. I don’t know if they’re still sleeping in Boulder, but Velonews has yet to report that Rebellin’s positive has indeed been confirmed by IOC. Not that this means his guilty, of course, but just that…