Looking for a spot on the Aussie worlds team? I would say your best bet is to avoid winning a stage at the ENECO Tour. Robbie McEwen—wins stage one, not invited. Jack Bobridge—wins Stage 5, not invited. Granted, McEwen’s been having the worst season of his long career with just one other win, and that’s…
The International Advantage
There was some dispute in the comments section (#4) of the last post about whether or not nationalism was good business in cycling. While I think there’s something to be said on either side of the issue, I maintain that its influence will become increasingly detrimental in an ever-more-international sport. Consider Rabobank—though widely considered a…
Deutschland Reaps the Doping Dividend
For riders not invited to the Vuelta and unlikely to fare well at Lombardy, the World Championships are now the primary concern, and, stuck with a comparatively runty team at the event, Andreas Kloeden has gone online to voice his crankiness. Kloedi encouraged his fellow riders to “stop arguing on Internet” and earn more points…
Longer-Term Investments
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…
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.”…