Fan Cam Roubaix 2000

These fan cam clips rule. Captures the noise and chaos so much more.
The wheel change between the Telekom riders is a little odd. #17 Jan Schaffrath gives up his front wheel to #16 Daniele Nardello, but then takes Nardello's wheel and rides off?? Was it a flat, slow leak or what? Maybe Jan knew he would get no new wheel until he was off the pave. Right as he starts to ride away a Mavic Support car goes by... Either way cool clip.
Nardello finished 8th and Jan finished 51st (out of 61 finishers) 13 minutes down.
PVP won with Piero and Ekimove rounding out the podium that year.

a badger moment

an OG H.O.G

Slipstream get all the attention

So yesterday's TTT around a race track. Cool format-no TT bikes, etc. Showdown between CSC/Slipstream/Astana seems likely, High Road and Rock were my long shots.

At the end of the day, Slipstream won and got a ton of attention for their "cooling vests", Zipp 1080s, and banned "aero" helmet covers.
The thing that really got me was this photo from BKW of Dave Z, the moustache is bad, but the blue crocs really scream givin up on life! Ouch. Child Abuse!
Toyota United were the best placed domestic team. Rock finished with just 4 and dropped Botero-who was TT world champ. Maybe drugs do work?

TOG found a way to make an interesting TTT. Good job.

Fleche Predictions

This is how you define a steep hill. Fabian Wegmmen went from 5 seconds ahead of the bunch to finishing 53 seconds down in 30th place-in the last kilometer! He lost 58 seconds in less than a K up the Mur de Huy. Damn that is climb.

My winners didn't pan out so hot. Ricco is looking questionalbe for any success this spring.
21 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
78 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC
107 Riccardo Riccò (Ita) Saunier Duval - Scott



LBL should be good as a lot of guys are riding strong -Evans,Cunego,Rebellin,
Some interesting longshots coming into the frame like Barredo or Hesjedal.

Fleche Wallone

The final climb of the Mur De Huy is one of the most brutal finishes of any one day classic. Watching the slow motion pained sprint amongst those going for the gold is alway a thrill
Who will take it today? Amstel heralded some new faces coming into form. I'm calling
Valverde, Ricco, and Frank Schleck.
Interesting to watch the GT guys like Evans,Schelck,Cunego, Sastre for signs of form in the months to come.
For a real person's take on riding the Mur check here or here.

Tour of Georgia is pretty tame right now, hopefully the TTT and Brasstown liven it up. At least no one has let a break get 20+ minutes.
Giro Trentino has all the major protagonists for the Giro squaring off. Opening time trial didn't reveal much except for NGC Medical-OTC Industrial winning and showing there is some reason they should be in the Giro rather than a Pro-Tour team. It has been won the last two years by Cunego, so someone else gets a turn this year! Probably one of the old guard like DiLuca,Simoni,Garzelli, but maybe someone like Gasporatto could snatch the win and further piss of the killer!

random bike shit

So I broke my Fondriest and had to buy a new frame-should be a joyous occasion but I am on a budget, pressed for time, and this is cutting into my cross bike money (which puts me even further away than my kids four years of college from this-that is a bike!)
Got a Specialized E5 Aerotec kinda S-works "demo" frame. 05 frmame but with flat black carbon seat stays with zertz inserts. Never went into production. Looks cool, is stiff, and light. Same color as the Fondriest and the position is pretty close out of the box so not a bad deal. I still haven't gone through all the stages of grief over the Fondriest, but maybe by the end of summer I will have come to grips with it and maybe I will be back on an Italian ride before I am in diapers (Specialized get some Italo-cred via the Super Mario/Bettini connection)
New Wheels are good-despite a blowout during the Myles Standish race Sunday which reduced what should have been a nice day out to a 10 mile sub par more driving than riding frustration fest. They held up like champs on Saturday's hammerfest, but so much for trusting ultralight tubes. Michelin air lights-two thumbs down. The Myles Standish course was a five mile loop that was up and down, bumpy, curvy, and pretty fun-but not so fun to walk. Thanks to the Cyclonauts dude that let me ride in the back of his truck to the parking lot!
I have had a seasons worth of malfunctions so far this year and am not stoked.
Like tonights training ride for example. Get home and pump up my tires, back tire gives up the ghost. At this point, it's hard to tell if its the tube or the paper thin Veloflex Pave that I won't retire. The "race wheel" is sitting without a tire waiting to have the funky burr on the rim filed off. So I am forced to dig deep into the depths of my SSC service course stockpile. Back to reality. I have one last pair of Paribas and figure why not ,and on one goes. Kysriums with Paribas. Old and New together. Nice.
I used to ride these tires constantly and it's hard to believe this is the end.
More news on if they ride as well as I remember later.
So in the last 3 weeks I have demo'd a frame, my shoes, rear tire, dinged the rim on my new wheels. WTF. Never mind driving more than racing last weekend and gas costing more than I want to think about. Arghhh.
Big races coming up the next two weekends should be fun.

Tro Bro Leon

The name of this race always gave me a chuckle cause it sounded like some BC college jock talk "yo bro" or whatever. Little did I know it was considered the "little" Paris Roubaix or Enfer D'Ouest. Out in Brittany against the Atlantic in Badger country. They got wind, rain, and mud this year. If it wasn't for cyclingnews photo spread on it, I would have just assumed it was a second tier French Continental race (which I guess it is, but the dirt and cobbles aspect makes it rad). You know a race is tough when the race website shows a rider holding a flat tire yelling for a spare as the poster!
Won this year by FDJ's Frédéric Guesdon(97 winner or Roubaix by the way) with other former winners including Said Haddou(07),Baden Cooke,Jacky Durand, and Jo Plankaert.
I know I will be keeping a closer eye on this race next year and trying to track down that DVD as well!
Looking at the dirt road action started to get me pumped for my late summer revenge on the D2D Deerfield Dirt Radonee. Revenge is Sweet!
It also reminded me of a blog I ran across that was pretty rad Rough Riders -Any bike, Anywhere. Check it out!

Sour Grapes

I thought the Versus Roubaix coverage sucked. Way worse than in the past-and not because it wasn't live. They just seemed to cut away so much at key times and come back 5K later. Waiting all week and then getting that sucked. Specialized got the most for their advertising dollars and seeing Bettini and Boonen commericals on US TV was funny. I suppose I should be stoked their was any coverage, but I am not.
It was impressive that Kevin Neirynck from Landbouwkrediet(in the video up there) didn't go flying over that guy and stayed on his feet. Even more impressive was after that crash he still managed 42 place -11 minutes down!
Damn.

Possible Tour Podium?

So I went 0 for 3 on my podium picks and 1 for 5 on the top five, not so sweet. But it looks like the GT guys are waking up and the above photo looks like it could be some TDF podium in the not so distant future.......
Ricco DNS? Apparently stayed in Italy with a fever. Hopefully he can be ready for Fleche or LBL.


Wunderkid Masskant finished about 5 minutes down as did most of Slipstream. Milram's young gun Terpesta came in about 9 minutes back. Best placed Americano at 87th McCarty from Slipstream.