Only hours left but it came to me in a cocaine-and-Cadbury-egg induced haze. The race will go off on muddy cobbles but under clear skies with Paoli Bettini in the early break. He’ll get clear and stay away until the Muur when the ghost of Gino Bartali will emerge from the nearby church and force…
Author: cosmo
Beanpot Criterium Report
Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? I am (or was, as I am writing his like a week later) monstrously out of shape. Not just like bad legs out of shape but all like round in the middle and gross out of shape. Any number of reasons for this, mostly because I ate out…
Too Much Flanders, DePanne Wrap, DNA
Why did I skip yesterday? Some might say it was to avoid getting fired at my real job. But other claim that’s not really a concern of mine, and insist instead that I was merely demonstrating that one doesn’t need 18 Tour of Flanders previews a day to have a truly excellent web page. Don’t…
The Passion of the Ullrich, Old Racers, Flanders Fever
Can you believe the German press? Ripping into Ullrich like a moldy piñata? Please. If they should be punching anyone in the nuts, it’s themselves. “Ohh, vee never thought Ullrich was cheating!” “Jah, he only won zee Tour de France a year before zee biggest drug bust in zee history of zee sport!” “He is…
Ullrich's DNA, DePanne, Last Bit of Fool
Yesterday, a reader named “ryan” posted a bunch of pro-Ullrich comments on this page. Today, word leaks that the big guy’s DNA actually was in those Operation Puerto baggies. Did ryan know something we didn’t? Anyway, Conspiracy theorists will be quick to point out that Ulle is an easy scapegoat, having already retired and being…
April Fool's Jokes
It’s good to see the riders and teams getting into the April Fool’s spirit. Even without the disturbingly real fake news stories, the cycling fan could have known the calendar by the weekend’s racing, as Criterium International, Brabantse Pijl and the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen were all won by the same riders – for the third…
Is Something Fishy Here?
Yes, very fast. I am pressed for time. Why is it the less you have to do, the harder it is to find time to do it in? Ah well. Coppi/Bartali Stage 4: Another newbie “breaks the duck”, to borrow Eurosport’s strangely uncomfortable phrase. The stage was shortened due to “harsh” conditions of 8C and…
Velonews' Boo-boo, Racing News
Sloppy copy editor that I am, I can sympathize with a typo or two. But a dead link on a freakin’ “Site of the Day” page – I mean, wow. Don’t worry, though; since it’s for a good cause, I sent my friends in Boulder an email informing them of the mistake. If I haven’t…
Boonen's New Bike a Winner, Other News
I think Tom Boonen likes his new bike. I mean, it could have been Mike Sinyard called him and was all like, “yo, Tom, bro – quit harshin’ on my rides”. But after Boonen’s emphatic victory celebration today at the Dwars door Vlaanderen, in which he pointed repeatedly at the top tube and grinned like…
Races Proliferate, LeBron James Buys Cannondale.
Man, I forgot how busy things got in this here “regular season”; we’ve got some race in Spain, another in Italy, and a third in France, and I don’t care about any of them! (though Pavel Brutt breaking away, in the rain, to take second, then the GC lead, over the course of a split-stage,…