Monte Paschi Eroica

The only thing better than having three brothers on one team would be if they are triplets. Well Aqua Sapone at least have the brothers thing with the flying Masciarelli brother. All three will be contesting the Montepashci Eroica this weekend. I guess the DS hasn't seen Saving Private Ryan-can he really risk all three brothers on the same day?
I guess the biggest question is will Cancellara appear or not?
Some odd team selections. Rogers and Shleck for example-seems like they should be at Murcia or P/N. Maybe they will race Tirreno after this?
Canada gets heavily represented wiht both Rollin, Hesjedal and Tuft-when were there that many Canadians racing in Italy? I guess they couldn't spare Micheal Barry . But three Canadians? Reminds me of Venom's classic Canadian Assualt live lp. Hopefully they make some noise. Hesjedal was 10th last year. Outside of maybe Barry and Steve Bauer what other Canadians have raced at the pro-level in Italy?
Ballan, Pozzatto, and Visconti are the Italian heavy hitters. Pozzatto has been close but no cigar a lot and running his mouth too-so maybe he needs to put up here so McEwen and Steegmans stop making fun of him. The #3 and 4 riders from last year are both here again. Gerdemann and Masskant. So all the fixings for a good race are ready.
For some reason, I like Gadret as a long shot. Cervelo have been flying and maybe with no Thor, Hammond can get some podium time-Klier was up there at Het Volk though. The Russian element has had some success here, but with no Kolobnev, it's up to Pavell Brutt to pick up the flag and run.

So that would be my long shot podium Gadret, Hammond, and Hesjedal. Most likely Ballan, Pozzatto, and Klier.
Either way can't wait. Hopefully they can get this race on TV or video soon.

Odds and Ends

Two from Sram. Wegmann's none more white bike and some Het Volk shots. The piles of white spoked lightweights in the last Wegmann related photo is amazing. White hubs, etc. There was a definite lack of crucial photos from this years HV.Not loving the new Het Nieuwsblad layout.

New blogs. Svelte.
Another local bike builder.
Greasemonkey dropped this killer. Ditto for BKW

Racing continues with Tour of Murcia and 3 days of West Flanders( or the cooler sounding Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen) starting today.Paris-Nice (will the Astana stage race domination continue or will SaxoBank reclaim this race) kicks off this weekend as well as the new Italian epic Eroica -the white gravel Roubaix of Italy (paging Ballan-time to win one). If that wasn't enought P/N's big rival the crash fest Tirreno-Adriatico starts next week. Hopefully no one gets sidelined. I have left of a couple other races in Italy and Belguim, but the next few weeks will see both classics guys and grand tour guys starting to race in earnest. So good. Hopefully with this much racing some crucial coverage will emerge.

Cycling Odds and Ends

This company is hitting a niche hard. S&S coupler fixed gear with waxed canvas bike bag. The attention to detail on the bag may be more impressive than the frame. Leather tube protectors? Tight.

VDB brilliance from DrunkCyclist.

Handmade Bike show this weekend. Expect tons of bike porn-here is a warmup. Speedvagen track bike. Sick.

Eyes are crossing. IF carbon lugs.... must sleep. Long Ride in the morning

Belgian Kick Off

First big weekend of Belgian racing! This always gets me so stoked. Go out for a long ride and jump on the computer to read the minute by minute and search for any video. It was only a few years ago that OLN used to show Het Volk-how the times change.
Het Volk ,despite being Het Nieuwsblad (That sounds too much like News Bladder to my ears), is such an epic race-even if it is only a "semi classic". The weather is usually bad. It's got cobbled climbs, narrow roads, but is early enough in the year to provide some surpises as people are still finding their legs. 2001 win by Micheli Bartoli has always stood out to me as an amazing race.
Liquigas is sending a "done at the 1st feedzone" squad(except for Quinziatto and Franzoi) while Lampres sends no one. Ballan? I guess Sardinia and racing in short sleeves wins over Belgium in Feb! The winners of the last 4 years will all be there(Gilbertx2,Nuyens,Pozzatto). Quickstep have the firepower. I have trouble seeing a three-peat from Gilbert-would that make him the next PVP and would that be good thing? HB tips Boonen and Pozzatto, but I am picking an longshot podium Flecha,Chavanel, and Hushovd. Het Volk is shorter than Tour of Flanders so maybe some a younger rider can jump out and get it-some of my favorite young riders from last year Langeveld,Terpesta, and Maaskant will all be racing so maybe that will provide a surprise. A win here puts a lot of "next big thing" pressure on a young winner.

KBK is more of a sprinter's race and with that said Katusha and Cervelo have both been on fire and both have strong teams. I think this will come down to those two teams vs Quickstep and I give the edge to Cervelo based on their lead out peformances.
Boonen has been relatively quiet this season-and has been thwarted by the manx monkey Cavendish on a couple occasions, so he could be up to snatch a victory-or maybe he just keeps building for Roubaix and Flanders?

Death for the whole world to see CD

Death were a 3 piece ,3 brothers no less, from Detroit. This isn't the Jackson Three though. 1975. Drag City is the label. You have to grow immune to the hype that surrounds the latest "unearthed treasure" or "lost classic" and this record was getting a hype overload of MC5/Stooges garage rock blow out hyperbole.
You can tell by a lot about a band by their photos and even though their probably weren't a lot of group shot of the brothers Hackney, you can tell these guys are legit and going to rock out.
It has the odd prog/pre punk edge of say a Simply Saucer while clearly being some Detroit influence rock. Definitely grabs the energy of the stooges or MC5 but drops the hippy influence completely. You could name check Black Merda, but there is no funk influence. Definitely has the paranoid mid 70s alienation thing going on. It is melodic in the classic punk way and maybe even a touch of Thin Lizzy.
This is a killer record and you can enjoy it without having to attach a bunch of names and genres to it-so enough with the Bad Brains comparisons. I would love it if this were a Mick Collins hoax, but it it legit. How long to the

TOC-Twitter of California

Burgers and Donuts. Horner better attack on the Palomar. Twitpics are pretty good.
Basso's english is fading as he returns to Italy. Regardless this one "Im in lounge of delta with duffy and we take a coffee togheter" made me wonder which duffy? Pat? Probably not, but that would be good.