I’m back, and we have much to discuss. Vuelta: Euskatel (remember them?) rider Roberto Laiseka won today, taking advantage of an ever-tightening GC battle to slip away for a mountaintop win. Denis Menchov is still in gold after taking it Saturday’s TT, and hanging with the leaders yesterday, when Paco Mancebo won his first Grand…
GMSR Race Report – Sugarbush Mad River Road Race
“When life gives you lemons…” Just to recap, if you haven’t been keeping up at home, the prologue on Friday made me a GC contender, before some cheese weasel decided it would be sweet to ride to the front and then crash on Saturday. So I went into today’s epic contest with my options pretty…
GMSR Race Report – Sugarbush Chamber Circuit Race
The course, Stage 1 of the 2005 Green Mountain Stage Race was new this year, and I wasn’t all that psyched about it. 72 miles is a long way, and things looked pretty freakin’ dull on the profile. Things unfolded pretty much the way I had expected (early break for KOM points, gruppo compatto for…
Pro Cycling News – Vuelta, Avenir, Britan, Gossip
Ok, I was wrong all the way around the other day. The Vuelta was a group sprint, but with a reduced group, won by Max van Heeswijk, who charged back to the front after flatting with 15k to go (man, what I wouldn’t do for a 20-car caravan to chase back through in Cat 4…
GMSR Race Report – Egan's Big World Prologue
What’s it like to be a doper? I think I can tell you. Not that I dope. I don’t (it costs too much). You could say I’m as clean as a the soap tray in a Mormon’s dishwasher. But after 2 month in Colorado, the air in Vermont for the 2005 Green Mountain Stage Race…
Pro Cycling News – No Results Yet
Yeah, I have to go race today, so I won’t be around to give you the exciting results of today’s Vuelta stage (but I think it’s gonna be Petacchi), or today’s installment of the Tour of Britan (I predict a group sprint as well, let’s say won Luke Roberts of CSC). Probably will be in…
Pro Cycling News – Heras in Spain, Paolini in GB
It’s like the TdF is kryptonite, because Roberto Heras flew like Superman to the top of Valdelinares today, taking the stage win and swiping the jersey from Brad McGee. When Heras is on, no one can climb anywhere near him. Denis Menchov gave it the old college try, though, ceeding only 13 seconds the scrawny…
Pro Cycling News – Non-Racing News
“If Armstrong was a Frenchman and we had seen the same data, we would do the same thing,” Claude Droussent of l’Equipe told French TV station LCI. I guess we can assume that means not a single of those urine samples from the 1999 Tour has been linked to a Frenchman. Certainly FdJ directeur sportif…
Pro Cycling News – Vuelta Was Da Bomb, Britan is Blowin' Up
Well, no. Not literally. Or figuratively. But there was a bomb threat at the finish of Stage 4 that delayed the start. Then Petacchi won. He makes it look easy. And I guess if you’re the fastest guy in the world, and you have 8 other guys determined to cart you to 150m before the…
Pro Cycling News – Vuelta St. 3: Guess Who?
After being temporarily sucked into the same post-Giro vortex that claimed Mario Cipollini in 2003, Alessandro Petacchi has retrurned to our dimension to take the thrid stage of the Vuelta a Espana. The flat, stinking hot rumble through the Spanish interior went pretty much exactly to plan for the Fassa boys, as they reeled in…