I’ve been as thrilled as anyone by Philippe Gilbert’s late-season run. I think the Belgian has a great, positive style of racing that combines both tactics and straight-up guts. And like many others, I’m also thrilled to see Silence-Lotto score a couple of wins, after putting in a ton of effort and making a variety…
Making Something Useful from the TdF Presentation
I’ve never been much for Grand Tour prognostications immediately upon the release of a given event’s parcours. Aside from the fact that an infinite number of doping convictions, crashes, team developments, and vacillations in form could occur during the next 10 months, the fact is that things tend not to unfold as predicted. Is the…
The Peloton Replugged
I’ve got a lot of respect for Michael Barry. He’s one of the smartest, most introspective, eloquent riders in the peloton. He also happens to disagree with me completely on the issue of race radios in the modern peloton. Barry recently wrote an extensive, heartfelt argument against race radios in his Velonews diary. While I…
Frank Vandenbroucke – A Life In Words
Cyclingnews—at the time of his ascendency the only regularly updated online cycling resource—has a nice collection of photos cataloguing Frank Vandenbroucke’s career. Lacking a photo archive to pull from, I Wordled together this grayscale text cloud from a variety of obits—in depth, brisk, mainstream, and cycling-specific—in an effort to capture a rider whose story was…
Frank Vandenbroucke (1974-2009)
“There he goes. One of God’s own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.” See also Frank Vandenbroucke – A Life in Words.
TD Bank Could Use Some Help
Look, I appreciate the efforts of TD Bank in sponsoring the Boston Mayor’s Cup. While I’ve got some beef with the organizers over field selection (Women’s 3? No problem. Two kids race fields? No problem. Men’s 3? GFY), putting up wads of dough for bike racing can be a shaky proposition. (via Andrew Bernstein). But…
WTF Friday
That’s the theme today. The initial inspiration would have to be this award—I’d make a joke about BikeBiz being so technically backward they’re still browsing with Kermit and thus blind to the site’s design—but even then, the award makes no sense. Then there’s this, which I found in muddylegs‘ twitter: (explanation here) And finally, some…
If You Try Hard Enough, Everything Is Incongruous
With all the vigor of an ankle-biting yip-dog, the AFLD has refused to release its death grip on the boot of the UCI. After two (or possibly three) doping positives announced in cycling in the last week, the French anti-doping agency has now moved the focus of its anti-UCI tirade to “incongruous” substances found at…
Some Notes On Doping, Plain and Fancy
Good news, this morning: despite tweets of ill portent, the AFLD announced no new doping positives from their retesting of a select group of riders at the 2008 Tour de France. Of course, the Frenchman just couldn’t let a press opportunity go without dinging the UCI, blaming the lack of positives at this years Tour…
Do Not Feed The Trolls
Rule #14 of the Internet—according to one respected count—is to never argue with the trolls. Cycling, being a sport consumed and appreciated largely via the Internet, should be no exception. So I’m not going to talk about Bernard Kohl, or his recent whining in the press. If he wanted not to manage his weight, he…