Avoiding the Argyle

I suppose the best way to ride for Slipstream is to be your nation's road race champ to avoid having to wear the arglye. Works fro Maggie and Millar
I have left Magnus of my top five, but I would be excited if he proves me wrong. I am still in awe of the way he pulled the breakaway in 05 Flanders for miles. Total strong man.

If Ballan is running a 53/46 in Roubaix what do you think Cancellara is running? 53/51? If you want to watch it on Versus you are going to have to wait. Dumb move, delayed coverage by a week? 2 thumbs down

Roubaix tech roundup

Hopefully this will expand with some more coverage tomorrow and monday, but for now this is what I've seen
Cyclingnew's has a killer photo spread on Ballan's Lampre which is a cool looking bike. Also highlights some of the differences between his main and spare bike. Do you prefer a plastic or steel chain watcher?
27mm Paves.Paves on box setion rims and Record hubs look so good-totally ready for war. Belgian knee warmers has a good wheel tech article and some Roubaix recon photos. Check out the comments on tire pressure!
Velonews has shown a couple other teams are using modified bikes as well. Silence Lotto on Ridley X-fires Although they are riding their regular roadbikes 3 days before the race. But thanks to Het Volk, you can see Hoste is testing the new bike as well.... At least Nuyens on a modified Time.
Pezcycling went retro with a spread on Museeuw's failed full suspension Bianchi.


I think Cyclingnews deserves even more props for the wheels of Ghent Wevelgem spread. Damn that is a lot of Zipps!

Roubiax Predictions

Weather looks bleak and this race more than most is a crapshoot, but this is my top five.

Cancellara
Boonen
Flecha
Gilbert
Hincapie


It would be rad if some of the young guns from Flanders are active on Sunday.

DIY Bettini Makeover

You may not ever be able to assemble the palmaares of Mr.Bettini, but thanks to modern marketing all you need is a credit card to look like him
Kit
Helmet
Shoes
Cap
Seat
Olive Oil. Good for cooking or chain lubing!
Demented poster.

In light of his crash today, this may be in poor taste, but I can only imagine that his signature road rash cream will be on the market shortly.


Although none of this as is twisted as popping you kid into this shirt.

before and afterr. the message is don't retire!

Before





After




I would ride longer and faster if he was chasing me in a team car.....

Cyclocross Magazine-Quality Reading Material

Just got 2 issues of this mag in the mail. This has all the super tech cross nerd info you could want. Good interviews that talk about training and tech rather than random fanboy bs. It has the feel of a good zine from back in the day (aka pre internet) when you really had to dig to get info and when something like this came in the mail you were stoked for weeks cause it is packed with news you can use.
Black and white photos are also cool in a throwback fashion rather than a Rapha high art style. There are some rad bike mags out there that focus more on the art side(rouleur, embrocation), but this nuts and bolts mag is my favorite out of the bunch. And as far as bang for the buck, 16 bucks will get you one issue of Rouleur or a years subscription to Cyclocross. Do some math-it's a recession, spend wisely!

Do you self a favor and get a subscription or pick it up at your local shop.

Sometimes your the hammer

And sometimes you the nail.....
That pretty much sums up the crew's weekend
Depending on where you live it was a 63-80 mile hammerfest on Saturday out to Harvard MA and back. A real mini Flanders for my longest ride of the year thus far. And as usual, the sun comes out when we are done.
Next day was off to Wells Ave. Ride over and meet Nick in Brighton and then on to Newton. Of course we are mad early so I end up with 18 miles worth of "warm up". It was dry but getting colder. Billy rolls up and it's time to race.
Wells is not technical and at 12 miles not super exciting or challenging. My legs felt good, but I couldn't really hammer for too long after the day before. 15 laps tick by and here we come to the last lap and what do you get? Crash. Some unknown kamikaze takes out a big dude on an IF, who takes out Billy and a couple other dudes. As this is unfolding in front of me I am having full on visions of riding over the big dude. Luckily all my years of stage dives come together as I manage to launch myself over the pigpile and land (sans bike) on my back. Nice.
Bike is good, I am good, adrenalin is in full effect. Billy is not so good. He got a full serving of hamburger helper and snapped his stem. Check his blog for details and carnage. Call in the sag wagon(Thanks Brad!) and it's a wrap except for watching Flanders (where I felt a lot of empathy for that Suanier Duval rider who hit the curb and did the exploding wheel cart-wheel move)
But I didn't escape unscathed. I manged to kung fu kick the road on my way down and cracked the heal of my shoe and gave myself a limp inducing heel bruise. (Maybe now I can get those limited Bettini Sidis-a silver lining???) What pisses me off, is that I was even in a position to crash-I should have been free wheeling in at the back. Contesting a sprint in the C race at Wells makes as much sense as me asking out a teenager. It is all vanity, no brains. I could have had a "season over" moment, before any of the races I am stoked to do even happen. Stupid.
Hopefully my heel still hurts next week as a reminder to be smart.

flanders

That was a Tour of Flanders that was so much better than could be expected. The last 20K had me on the edge of my seat.
Weather-so much for the Flemish hardman stuff.
Tactics- attack, catch, counter attack, Executed perfectly.
Boonen looked super strong on the Koppenberg, but played a support role to Devolder perfectly
Flecha,Gilbert, and Nuyens all showed some power attacking-especially Flecha on the Muur-until he bogged down
Young guns Sebastiaan Langeveld and Janek Tombak were super strong and impressive.
I thought that the VS coverage was a little odd-almost like they intentionally used different camera angles on the key climbs-maybe to save the good angles for WCP?
They managed to squeeze in a short Hincapie interview that makes you wonder if he really understands tactics and racing-or maybe he is a little bitchy and should just keep quiet.
It was amazing in the last 40K as it got warm, how many guys were just chucking their vests and extra layers. Side of the road was filled with good souveniers as no one was thinking about going back to the team car with clothes.
As far as my predictions? I got 3/5 right, but not in any kind of order. Flecha,Nuyens, and Ballan were all up there, but I wouldn't hav guessed(unlike some) that Devolder or Hincapie would have been up there too.
Cancellara looks strong and I don't think Flanders is a race for him. I think he will be a beast in Roubaix.
But at the end of the day, to win Flanders in the Belgian champs jersey, what a day.