Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

ERIC LALMAND/AFP/Getty Images
Tom Boonen looks to be ready for the upcoming Classics. Boonen is always in contention for winning no matter what time of year it is, but his money is made in early April. The Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix are Boonen’s bread and butter races, so he needs to be on form and [...]

He is known as Mr. 60 Percent in some circles and was a member of the notriously doped up Gewiss-Bianchi teamof the 90s. It was the high flying 90s and who wasn’t on something? But the past is the past and Bjarne just wants to move on. This is just one more reason why cyclist [...]

Milan San Remo was returned to the domain of the field sprint Saturday as Oscar Friere ripped the field of top sprinters to take a convincing second overall victory. There was no photo finish and now bike throw to beat a guy who thought he won (Zabel). This time the victory was pretty clear. Friere [...]

(Alessandro Petacchi of Fassa Bortolo wins in 2005)
Scroll to the end for the full start list for Milan-San Remo from tuttobiciweb.com
Filippo Pozzato gets the number one for being defending champ. Danilo DiLuca will not be lining up at the start due to the flu. Liquigas have a strong lineup featureing Enrico Gasparotto and Franco Pellizotti.
Tom [...]

Ciclismo-online.com has some screen captures from the RAI coverage of stage 1 of Tirreno-Adriatico. Robbie McEwen won in a field sprint, but not without some controversy. On closer inspection it looks like the TV motorcycles are staying a bit too close to the action. So close in fact that they practically give Robbie McEwen a [...]

Now that Spring is here thoughts of young cyclist turn to riding outside. While most of the country has probably had very ridable weather, the Northeast is different. The winter has been unusually persistent. Only a few days of thaw were enjoyed before a return to the deep freeze. Today the weather is starting to [...]

(pic from http://www.gazzetta.it
Andreas Kloden won Tirreno-Adriatico on the penultimate stage, but the big story is the performance by several young riders. Ricardo Ricco, Vincenzo Nibali, Enrico Gasparotto, Giovanni Visconti and Matteo Bono are just a few riders who differentiated themselves in the “Race of the two seas”.
Bono won a tough stage to San Giacomo which [...]

(pic from Yahoo! News)
Another exciting Paris-Nice is in the books. This one was particularly eventful with several lead changes and a dramatic last day stage win that sealed the overall victory by the latest “Next Indurain” of the Spanish peloton. In fact Paris-Nice saw two potential “Next Indurains” with Luis Leon Sanchez getting the moniker [...]

Discovery Channel’s Alberto Contador was only six seconds behind Davide Rebellin going into the final stage 7 around Nice. The final stage was a brutal one with climbs up the Col D’Eze. Alberto Contador showing great form attacked Rebellin whose Gerolsteiner teammates were left far down the road.
More later…

—
Update: The collegiate races were canceled but the other races will go on:

Hi everyone. For those of you that were planning on attending this race in NYC, just wanted to give everyone a heads up. Because of the impending snow this evening, the collegiate portion of the program has been cancelled. So therefore, the USCF [...]