Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Robot Chicken has their take on Lance Armstrong.

The Japan Cup sees continental Euros head over to the far east to close out the season. Coverage of this race is minimal since it is a lower category race and is far off in Japan. Thanks to The Internets and The Google (for buying YouTube) you can now watch almost any bike race. In fact I’ve been documenting many of the races I participated in this year.

Here is the final run through of the Japan Cup.

More videos after le jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

The 2007 Tour de France Route has been unveiled in a posh ceremony in Paris. To no one’s surprise, the Tour will start in London with an 8km prologue. David Millar is licking his lips at the prospect of winning this first stage. The rest of the Tour is what is being called a classic course.

Team CSC is disappointed that the Team Time Trial is not included on the agenda this year, as they would be able to take advantage of the event much more than any other team. Team CSC: No Team Time Trial in the 2007 Tour

As with last year, the Amaury Sports Organization video team created a buzz. Last year the Tour retrospective seemed to forget the winner of the past seven editions of the Tour. This year they did show Floyd Landis on the video, but they added a “cracked glass” effect over the awards presentation. Not being able to see this video, I would imagine that the effect would be both shocking and funny. The cracked glass effect is ham fisted when compared to last year’s more subtle omission of Lance Armstrong. No journalist or cyclist in attendance needs to have the overbearing symbolism of the cracking glass over Floyd Landis in yellow be hammered over their head. The news pretty much has made its rounds all over the world so even in the farthest reaches of civilization people must have heard about the Tour scandal. But the Amaury Sports Organization is hurt and they need to vent. What better place to vent than your second biggest party of the year when you have everyone’s attention. “Hey everybody, guess what Floyd Landis tarnished our reputation! Look at the cracked glass that shows how we feel about this. Isn’t it cool?”

I can only imagine the look on the video editor’s face when they asked “could you put a cracked glass effect over that portion?” “We really need to emphasize how we feel about this situation, otherwise everyone will wonder what we think.”

I wonder if Industrial Light and Magic was involved in the video production to give a more realistic effect to the cracking glass. If they were then maybe there would be a guest appearance by Jar Jar Binks somewhere.

The 2007 Tour Poster is a bit of a dud. Last year’s poster with the six hands grabbing the Yellow Jersey to form France was brilliant. It captured the feeling of the 2006 Tour with a large number of contenders ready to take over. Perhaps the 2007 poster should be a drop of urine forming the shape of France? The globe with the land masses forming a cyclist seems a bit rushed. Why is Australia fully formed and every other land mass isn’t. North America makes the back of the cyclist. Does that mean that the US is the backbone of cycling? Who knows, but the symbolism in the globe seems rushed and not quite thought through.

Stay tuned for some further analysis into the Tour route. Just who will be the favorite next year? More importantly, which top contender who is cleared of doping charges will be invited to race next year? Basso, Ullrich, Landis?

The Inaugural Wildcat Cyclocross Race saw Andy Melchenko (Colavita-CNY) dominate the Masters Men category while Frenchman, Pierre Roussel (University of Rochester / VC Chaumontais) took an equally dominant victory in the Open Men. The new event saw a very challenging course which included a creek crossing which was wetter than usual thanks to some recent heavy rains. Check out videos from the race below.

Masters Men, Open Women and Juniors Part 1

Masters Men, Open Women and Juniors Part 2

Kids Race

Open Men Part 1

Open Men Part 2

Open Men Part 3

Open Men Part 4

Tuttobiciweb reports that Ivan Basso is seeking to rejoin the peloton very soon but not with the Discovery Channel team. The small continental squad LPR is the latest team to show interest. The Swiss based team’s DS is Davide Boifava of the legendary Carerra team of the 90s featuring Claudio Chiapucci and of course Marco Pantani.

Davide Boifava is using Basso’s name to help convince Romano Cenni, owner of Mercatone Uno, to return to cycling. Mercatone Uno was the big sponsor behind Marco Pantani in the late 90s and early 2000s. The Mercatone Uno squad were basically built around Pantani and his Tour quests. If Boifava can convince Cenni to back a new team featuring Basso then that would be a huge coup. But Basso should probably think things through before committing to such an endeavour.

Boifava will then need to sign riders who can actually support Basso in the Giro and Tour. If they can cobble together a team this late in the season there would be many other hurdles to climb. The biggest hurdle of all would be admittance into the ProTour which may not be such a big hurdle since the Grand Tour organizers are looking to reduce the number of ProTour automatic invited to 16. This would allow more flexibility to choose wildcard teams such as LPR. Basso however is on shaky ground with the A.S.O.. Relying on the generosity and compassion of Christian Prudhomme and other A.S.O. officials to allow him to race in their big event may be risky. The A.S.O. does not seem keen on letting anyone with any sort of blotch on their record even near the Tour. So if Basso is on a smaller non-ProTour team that is relying on a wildcard entry, then don’t place your bets on Ivan next year.

Here is a collection of videos from the Syracuse Grand Prix of Cyclocross. Check out Dan Timmerman (fiordifrutta) hop over the barriers and ride up the sandy hill without even putting a foot to the ground. The race is low key and is getting bigger every year. Next week is the Wildcat Cyclocross race http://wildcatcrossing.com/. Watch for more videos from that event.

Master’s Men Open Women and Juniors Pt1

More videos after the “jump”

Read the rest of this entry »

(pic from http://www.team-csc.com/)

Ivan Basso and Bjarne Riis are no longer working together. The fallout from the Operation Puerto scandal has tarnished the relationship between Riis and rising star Basso. The close working relationship took a severe blow when allegations arose over Ivan Basso’s involvement with Dr. Fuentes who is at the picenter of the Operation Puerto situation. Basso was cleared of any involvement in the Operation Puerto case due to lack of evidence. However, the case could still be revisited if new evidence became available.

“After all that has happened, especially this summer, Team CSC and Ivan Basso have agreed to part ways. It has been a very difficult decision, but both parties agree it is time to move on. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Ivan for his time with the team and for the great results he and the team have achieved together. At the same time, we wish him all the best for the future,” says Bjarne Riis. — http://www.team-csc.com/ny_news.asp?n_id=1116

Basso also needed to prove to Bjarne Riis that he was not involved with Dr. Fuentes. Riis wanted extra hard evidence which involved Basso taking a DNA test which could be tested against the bags of blood found in Dr. Fuentes lab. Ivan Basso refused to take a DNA test under advice from his lawyer. The reasoning was that the blood bags found as evidence may have not been stored properly and could provide dubious results. This refusal was probably the detail that led to the split between Riis and Basso. For Riis this split is completely understandable since Basso is damaged goods. It would be hard to get new sponsors on board with Ivan Basso having questions and allegations surrounding him over the Operation Puerto scandal. What if new evidence were to arise next June? That seems to be the time of year that cycling related drug investigation get publicity. The team would find itself in the same situation as this year.

(read more on this article)
Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a video from the Syracuse Cyclocross Grand Prix fromt his past weekend. The clip is of the hill climb.

Here is the first video from the Syracuse Cyclocross Grand Prix. This is the first part of the Open Men race which had a very large field. Dan Timmerman of Fiordifrutta dominated partly due to his mastery of the barriers. He did not dismount his bike until the race was well in hand. Scott Hannan of spokepost.com (formerly of Colavita /Spokepost.com) can also be seen jumping over the barriers.

Syracuse Cyclocross Grand Prix 2006 pt 1 on Vimeo

The Syracuse Cyclocross Grand Prix saw Dan Timmerman (Fiordifrutta) run away with the win in the Open Men Category.
Andy Melchecnko of Colavita CNY took the win in the Master’s Men race.

Dan Timmerman was impressive in the win as he jumped many of the barriers without getting off of his bike. Only later in the race when his lead looked secure did Timmerman run over some of the barriers.

More news on the race:
Velonews: http://www.velonews.com/race/cyc/articles/11033.0.html
DailyPeloton: http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=10148
SpokePost: http://spokepost.com/news/story/1581/
Syracuse Newspaper: http://www.syracuse.com/

Gallery of pics at http://onondagacyclingclub.org/gallery/cyclocross06

Thanks to Matt Howey for the links.