All right, kiddies, buckle your safety belts. I’ve got 21 tabs open, plus the live report window, so the links will be coming fast and furious. First off: Stage 11. Races like that are why people follow this silly sport. Rabobank looked stellar, stronger than any other team in this race has so far, and…
2006 Tour de France, Stages 9 and 10 Recap; Another Idiot Sounds Off
Yeah, so, on Stage 9, there was an exciting sprint. Oscar beat Robbie. Cipo was on hand. Blah blah blah. Let’s get to some climbing! GC action, right? Uh, no. Long, dull breakaway. Ag2r’s Cyril Dessel gobbled up all the KOM points, miraculously kept pace with Agritubel’s Juan Miguel Mercado over the final climb, and…
2006 Tour de France – Stages 7, 8, and Rest Day
American cycling dilettantes, Chris Carmichael dittoheads, and MIT windtunnel geeks, stand forward and be SHAMED. Nothing like watching some old-school Eastern-Bloc stomp his unaerodynamic, head-bobbing authority all over the race at 50-60 rpms. The Stage 7 victory gave Serguei Gonchar both a piece of the fleece, and a chance to clear up the confusion surrounding…
2006 Tour de France – Stages 5 and 6 Recap
Well, it’s over 24 hours later and I am still trying to piece together how Oscar Freire won yesterday (check out the video on OLN’s webpage). Marino Basso once commented that Oscar Freire looked like he was asleep outside the month of October (implying that he only rode well at Worlds), but that’s simply not…
2006 Tour de France – Stages 2-4 Recap
You may have thought, with so many favoites under dope suspensions, and with Jimmy Casper winning Stage 1, that this was going to be an utterly out-of-the-ordinary Tour de France. Well, wrong you are. Stages 2-4 contained Robbie McEwen stage wins 9 and 10, a late flyer for victory, a GC contender crashing out, the…
2006 Tour de France, Stage 1
It was an ugly sprint won beautifully by Cofidis’ Jimmy Casper. Globs of riders bounced all across the road as Milram’s Erik Zabel (500m) and Quick.Step’s Tom Boonen (300m) found themselves unexpectedly out in the wind. The crafty German reintegrated between Davitamon’s Robbie McEwen and Liquigas’ Magnus Backsteadt, but the Flandrian tried get fancy, peeping…
Cycling's Kangaroo Court Rolls On, Tour Prologue 2006
So we’re still waiting on that evidence. Here’s (scroll down) what we’ve got so far, and (in America, at least) it couldn’t convict a sex addict in a cathouse. Thankfully, the entire world hasn’t gone mad; Tyler Hamilton’s lawyer also thinks that having nothing more than paté on pressboard to back up these suspensions is…
The Puerto Purge Continues
Though events have progressed somewhat from this morning, my Violation of Liberty Sense is still raging over this latest round of revelations in Operation Puerto. My earlier assertion, that the ASO had blocked accused riders from competing, was incorrect; their teams suspended them after a meeting (I’m guessing closed-door) of the directeurs sportif of all…
While You Were Sleeping
So, remember yesterday, when I pointed my finger at the CAS as something of a loose cannon, weilding unchecked power? Yeah…turns out I really wanted book ASO on that charge. Today, or last night (depends on where you live), they booted Jan Ullrich and some other people, then later put the sword to pretty much…
"Irony" is a French word afterall, CAS finds for Astana, Great Scott! That's not a Wilier!
I find it ironic that French hate Bush so much. And no, that’s not some bawdy dig inspired by the stereotypical French inattention to hygiene. Take a look at the ASO’s stance in this recent doping affair: according to their own rules, they can kick out anyone so much as suspected of being a doper….