Mar 31, 2006 1
Since its reintroduction into the Tour of Flanders in 2002 the fabled Koppenburg has been tackled on dry roads. This year, the Belgian weather returned to its normal Belgianess making the Koppenburg which tops out at 25% almost unclimable.
Mar 31, 2006 0
Boonen has entered this season like Pacman eating up wins like they were pellets and leaving the chasing peloton looking like ghosts. When Boonen rides, you can almost hear the wonka-wonka sound as he is approaching yet another win.
The Flanders Hype Machine is looking at Belgian homeboy Tom Boonen to take the spoils again this year. Even Bicirace has cast aside all of the Italian favorites and jumped on the Boonen bandwagon (Actually their Italian pick is one I agree with, Alessandro Ballan, read the restof the story). But who would really dare to pick against Boonen? He has everything going for him at the moment including a win at the warmup GP E3 last Sunday.
Mar 29, 2006 0
As Ivan Basso, Alex Vinokourov, Floyd Landis and other Tour contenders already bagged ealry season victories, Jan Ullrich is delaying his racing season start yet again. This time Jan is going to start his season at the Tour de Romandie that ends a few days before the Giro is set to start. At this rate, I will be starting my racing season before Jan Ullrich, and I live in Upstate New York!
Jan’s training in Tuscany has resulted in an inflamation of his knee. This may be the same knee that kept Jan out of the 1999 and 2002 Tour de France. In 2002 his knee flared up in January and caused all sorts of problems that concluded with a mild drunk driving incident and taking Amphetamines.
This year Jan is fitter, so chances of a quick recovery in time for the Tour are still possible. The only problem for Jan would be if he missed the Giro due to this injury. Ullrich needs lots of racing miles to get into top condition. If he keeps putting off his start that may mean that Ullrich will not be in top form for the Tour and should expect another second place.
Mar 28, 2006 0
Cyclingnews’ Italia Bici mini site is up and it offers some very cool insights into some Italian bike companies. The most stunning feature is the Pirana bike that was designed and built for Roberto Visentini who won the Giro D’Italia that year. Visentini who was a climber had to contend with powerful passista Francesco Moser and the dominating Bernard Hinault. Battaglin came up with a radical design that helped shave 3 second per kilometer. The radicallly bubbled front wheel was not the only oddity. The bike was one of the first carbon fibre monocoques created. Carbon development was still in it’s infancy for bikes, so the monocoque did not have the same weight savings and was very expensive.
Unfortunately, the Pirana was never pedalled in anger since the race jury deemed that Visentini would have an unfair advantage, so they had to nix the bike.
The article says that both the frame and fork are carbon, but that fork looks like a cromoly Columbus fork to me. Carbon doesn’t usually have a chrome finish. Plus a thin carbon fork circa 1985 would act much like a wet noodle.
Mar 26, 2006 0
It has been a while since I wrote about anything related to my racing. The problem is that while most of the country has some nice weather to ride, the Northeast has been cold, cold, cold. That has not stopped me from riding my bike outside at all, but this spring is really dragging since I am looking forward to doing some racing soon.
A few teammates have been going out to the Rochester early season Giros. These are low key races where thankfully Tyler Hamilton will not be competing. Gee, that guy sure loves to race. The most recent race report of the Rochester Giros can be found here.
Matt, Jason and William have been going to races every weekend so far. They certainly have the itch to race and are getting some good experience in during these training races. If my timing works out I will join them next week and give a race report.
So, what do I do in the meantime to make sure that I am ready to race? Like many other weekend warriors, I have a family, full time job and web logs to maintain, so I do’t have endless hours to devote to training. Add to that a few pounds that I need to lose in the meantime and you have a need to focus on training done right.
My training consists of a few different activities. Spinning Class, Weight lifting (squats, leg curls etc.) Cardio work and some bike trainer work.
Bike Trainer.
I do not spend endless hours on the bike trainer. This is different than most other weekend warriors. I do not have a bike setup with a TV, and I am not sick of watching last years Tour de France. Bottom line, I do not do much riding on my trainer. There are a few sessions that I do on a trainer and rollers, but the longest session I’ve had is about 1 hour. When I do ride the rollers or trainers, I try to do interval work which varies each time. Plus, on the rollers I try to focus on smoothing out my pedal stroke to try and get smooth circles.
Mar 26, 2006 0
Floyd Landis was reay to go race the Giro this year as Tour de France preparation, but now he changed his mind. Floyd will now use the “Lance” method of Tour prep by scoping out as many stages as possible and racing the Daupine Libere. This news comes about a day or two after Jan Ullrich officially announced that he will officially ride the Giro.
Landis must have realized that he may be running his engine a bit hot at the moment. The Giro is only five-six weeks away and that may not play out well in his schedule. This is after going to Georgia where he would probably try to contend for the overall title.
As for Jan, riding the Giro for training is probably a great idea since his form is best after a three week stage race. Jan always performs well at the end of July and August. Just as Lance wouldput his bike away after winning a Tour, Jan would be coming into great form wondering to himself, what if?
Landis will take a pass on Giro
Floyd will pass on Giro as Tour prep :floydlandis.com
Mar 26, 2006 0
Sure the Classics are really ramping up with the Tour of Flanders next week, but this past week was big for Giro D’Italia contenders. Ivan Basso and Damiano Cunego came out to play and they may be sparking a reinterest in hype for a Cunego Basso Duel in the Giro. The two hyped contenders of the 2005 Giro may be setting themselves up for the match that everyone expected last year.
Damiano Cunego wrapped up the overall victory in the Settimana Internazionale Ciclistica Coppi e Bartali. The win came about from a decisive road stage win. The sprint that Cunego unleashed was enough to give him a gap of a few bike lengths. That was a sure sign that Cunego is back on form. This year the Lampre squad is working entirely for Cunego, no more Simoni split. Plus is Cunego can stay healthy and injury free to the Giro run up he should come in as a top favorite.
Read the rest of this entry »
Mar 24, 2006 0
Alex Vinokourov has been absent from many races this year choosing instead to train on the mountainous roads around Nice. He made a recent appearance at Paris-Nice while out on a training ride, but only to say hello to his teammates and other pals. Before this week Vino has not slapped a racing number on his new Liberty Seguros team kit.
This focus on training is all geared to winning the Tour de France in July, a tough task considering he is not a Time Trial specialist.
Currently there is a rare Vino sighting in Spain, where the Kazak leads the Tour of Castille and Leon. His training seems to be paing off with good form. So, with his current good form, Vino will try to carry it over to defending the Liege Bastongne Liege title that he won last year.
Vino will not have to worry about getting the glue from the racing numbers off his light blue and yellow Kazak champions kit too much this year. After Liege, Vino will only race the Daupine Libere as a tune up to the Tour. Gee, I think even Lance Armstrong did more racing leading up to the Tour than what Vino is doing this year.
Mar 23, 2006 0
Damiano Cunego took the stage win and the overall GC lead at the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi & Bartali. The stage finish in Fiorano is home to one of Ferrari Formula 1 team’s test tracks. It is also the site of Kid Cunego’s firt win of the season. Lampre have had a good run so far with Danilo Napolitano, Alessandro Balllan and Bennati chalking up early several wins already this year. Now, Cunego looks to be coming into winning form already in March.
The Lampre team helped launch Cunego to victory today by doing the pace making going into the finale. In the final sprint, “The Kid” beat out Luca Mazzanti, Massimo Giunti and Riccardo Riccò to take the win.
Mar 23, 2006 0
Gizmodo picked up the lasted review from Pez Cycling of the new BMC SLC01. The bike that weighs the equivalent of five cellphones (assuming a Razr) made the Gadget news blog because of the use of the small strands of carbon fiber.
As for Pez, he has a very extensive review of the BMC. It is a bit biased as it is for personal use.
I admit to being enamoured of BMC bikes, my personal ride for 2005 was their SLT01 Team Machine – regaled in full Phonak colors [and stolen from my garage!... Tech Ed].
Glad you got a replacement Pez! I was never near your garage… not that anyone was asking me, but just to be sure…
Seriously though, the review at Pez has some great insight into BMC’s development using Carbon fiber, and how they shaved 10 ounces off of last years model. Hint: they went to an all-carbon frame by removing the aluminum lugs.
Gizmodo: Bike Frame Uses Nanotube Technology, Light as Five Cellphones
