Hincrapie

Only Big George could manage to piss me off twice in one day. He finished third in the prologue-his best performance in ages! But, can he just say he's stoked not to have crashed and ridden well? NO. He manages to get a Velonews headline saying he's "disappointed". WTF? As if the headline isn't annoying enough, he drops this pearl of wisdom, "Man, Kloden must have really gone for it," No shit you tactical genius. If you want to win you have to "really" go for it. Is this an insight into why he fails to deliver the goods?
Second George item. This photo from cyclingnews.com.(who's prologue tech photo shoot should earn them some journalistic bike porn award!!). Only George would add an extra lever for a 9K TT. The idea is to go fast. Real fast. Not to worry about slowing down.
Hincapie might be out of his mind, he has failed to hit any of the major objectives he as set for himself for the past two year. This was a red letter total success of a day for him. Third Place. No crash. etc. But can he just be thankful? No. He got beat by a guy who has won Paris Roubaix and the World TT championship and by another guy who has poduim'd at the TDF. Only getting beat by them is a huge achievement for him.
Rumors abound that he will go to T-Mobile, but that move doesn't seem to benefit T-Mobile very much. To transition from a "classics leader" to a road captain or "super domestique" a la Van Petegam requires that you have some tactical sense and abilities which George seems to be lacking big time. I would guess that if T-Mobile picks him up he will be back retired or back in the US by the end of the 08 Spring Classics. Hincapie makes more sense on a US team or as a domestique on one of the Belguim classics super squads.

Wildweeds

The Wildweeds dropped this Van Morrisony soulful 45 on Cadet in 1967. Straight out of Windsor CT! "No Good to Cry" is a kicking garage number with a blue eyed soul feel that got covered by the Moving Sidewalks! Something about this almost has a Jam quality to it-must be the bass and drums breakdown. A monster tune at the cross roads of garage, soul, and pop rock. Nice. Good for a summer mixtape.
"Never Mind" on the flip is more of a straight ahead late 60s US rocker. A more garagey Creedence maybe? The Van Morrison feel is still here.
Singer/Guitarist Al Anderson went on to NRBQ so check his early brilliance here.
One of the craziest things about singles like this is a couple of keystrokes on google about a band you've never heard of brings you not only info but directs you to their website or myspace page. Check their website to see video footage. Audio too.
Nice

Pre Tour Musings

No predictions yet just some random thoughts.
No Riis at the tour. This is BS. Will Virenque be around in some ceremonial capacity? Riis absence could benefit Carlos Sastre? His relationship with Riis does not seem as tight as the Basso/Riis connection. Maybe Sastre will be more free to attack. Leiphemer/Disco without Johann would be a disaster, but CSC seems like it can pull it off.
Valverde is a longshot, I have more faith in Vladmir Karpets at this point.
Does Christophe Moreau have a chance? or will his from fade in the tough mountains of week 2? He clearly is a strong as he ever will be and like Vino, this could be his last chance.
Will Contador or Popoyvch be ready to fly if Leiphmer fumbles?
Lampre is working over Brushegin making Ol'Brontolo do back to back GTs. They seem to have two sprinters which could be a problem. I am hoping Tadej Valjavec is up to it and shows some form.
Menchov as been quieter than a "man in black" all season. Pressure must be on him for results.
Milram now have a lead out train with no Ale-Jet, good for Zabel.
Will Zabriske escpae the crash curse and get to Paris?

Check this site out it rules.

Late 4th of July thoughts

Since I have been riding bikes, I have always lusted and obsessed over Italian frames. Colnago,Pinarello,DeRosa,Fondriest, etc, etc. Willier,Daccordia,Cinelli,Casati, and on and on. But in the last few months, it's been all American frames that get me drooling. Cannondale,Specialized,Lemond, and even Trek have been innovating at a rapid rate with carbon fibre. Trek took advantage of the cycling news dead zone post-Giro to get maximum coverage for its super tech new Madone.
A lot of these are at a unreal price. Why? Euro vs Dollar going the wrong way? Economy of scale? Either way, if you can give me high performance at a low price, I will sacrifice some or all Euro-style points. So I guess I will have to change my name to CHOP(cheap hairy old grump), but price matters and some of these US frame makers are packing mega value. And I haven't even brought up the likes of Fuji or GT or Schwinn or Raleigh who are all gunning hard for your money with unreal deals.
So that's my GO USA moment for the 4th on the 5th.
Nothing will ever be as rad as throwing you leg over some obscure Euro masterpiece, but the competition is getting pretty stiff for the old masters.
Who would have thought I would be more likely to buy a Tarmac than a C-50?

National Championships Wrap UP

Christophe Moreau is having the season of a lifetime. Storming at the Dauphine and French National Champ??? All he needs now is a stage win on the 14th and he can retire fufilled. That is along way from where he was in 98.
Giovanni Visconti keeps the Italian champs jersey at Quickstep, nipping Rebellin at the line out of a group of 4. Who was happy? This guy!
Stijn Devolder beat Boonen to the line by 15 seconds in Belguim. Huge win for Stijn!
Perhaps the biggst triumph was Tadej Valjavec's win to become champion of Slovenia!
Veterans Benoit Joachim and Koos Moerenhout got the wins in Luxemborg and Holland
Magnus gets a win in Sweden! Hopefully a return to better days for the oft injured hardman.
There are a lot more champs to be named, but these are some of the big ones.