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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 ready. This is why the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen win is important. E3 Prijs Vlaanderen (say that quickly) is an important appetizer race for the action that is to come in the next few weeks.
Fabian Cancellara showed very good form, but just was beat by the sprint of Boonen. No problem since Cancellara basically rode everyone off his wheel in Paris-Roubaix last year and looks like he can do the same again this year.
Cancellara actually thought he had a chance against Boonen in te sprint as he told cyclingnews.
The Time Trial World Champion was expected to launch an attack during the final kilometres but he waited for the sprint. “I wanted to play my cards in a sprint because I noticed Boonen wasn’t pedalling like normal, we’ve known each other since 1998 so you can see if something’s different.
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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 from the 90s and any other time should get some type of amnesty.
“I have never had a particularly close relation with Jef d’Hont and he has no validation for the allegations he is making. There will always be some one out there trying to make money by talking about the past and in my opinion that is probably, what he is trying to do here,” Riis said. “This is probably not the first nor the last time these kinds of stories surface. To me, it’s all in the past and I do not wish to be held accountable every time some one finds it interesting to bring up some ten-year-old story. I truly believe the future is much more important than the past. I want to be judged on the work I’m doing with my team today, and the results we achieve – that is what’s important to me.”
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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 took advantage of the Milram sprint train and a fast fading Alessandro Petacchi. Staying on Petacchi’s wheel for the sprint down the Via Roma is probably the best spot in the peloton. Especially this year as Petacchi does not seem to have the extra speed he usually does. He is perhaps still suffering from the knee injury incurred at the Giro D’Italia last year. Petacchi has managed a few victories, but he does not have the same form that puts the Jet in AleJet.
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(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 Boonen and Paolo Bettini will be ready, but their recent form does not indicate that they will put in a spectacular performance. Bettini and Boonen are “gamer” type riders who get up for the big races. So it will not be a surprise to see these two in a good position on the Via Roma. I would not bet against the killer “B”s.
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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 leadout going into the final 300 meters when Robbie was clearly in front.
From this angle it looks like the Predictor Lotto team has a motorcycle on its team.
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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 turn with a high in the 40s and the weekend looks to have weather in the 50s. This is almost short sleeve weather for Central New York.
One other sign of Spring is that the Onondaga Cycling Club website now has the full list of rides for 2007. I run the OCC site and just loaded the full list of rides. Central New York has some of the best riding in the country with all types of terrain.
Disclaimer: I am also the web developer of the Onondaga Cycling Club Website
My club has compiled a very extensive list of cycling maps of the area thanks to club member Jeff Palmer.
The maps are painstakingly redrawn in Illustrator and the cue sheet is added. The design of these maps is very clear and easy to read. The cue maps are always diligently updated especially after a ride when a few folks miss a turn or two. Overall the maps are usually accurate. They are not drawn to scale however which can be a bit confusing when looking at the drawing on its own trying to determine a shortcut.
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(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 features some brutal 10% climbs. Ricco won two stages.
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(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 after his stage 6 win where he duped his former teammate Contador by going on a late attack that was ordered by his team management.
Both Sanchez and Contador came from the Liberty Seguros meltdown of 2006. Manolo Saiz must be waking up in a cold “Vega Vega Vega” for not being able to manage these two up-and-coming stars. If he only had someone else carry the bags of blood we wouldn’t be in this mess and these guys would both be riding for Saiz.
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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…
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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 races (Pro/1/2/3, 3/4, Women) will be moved to later in the day, with the women scheduled to start at 12pm. All registered riders will be receiving a notification from the promoter via BikeReg; but for those of you might be planning on coming down, please make note of the time changes. The order of the races will not change, Women will go at 12pm followed by the 3/4 race and then the 1/2/3.
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Winter weather does not want to shake its hold of the Northeast. Our MaxPowerCycling Series did not really get going last week since the weather was till in the 30s and no one was interested in much racing.
(winter weather from February, but still applies)
Now the Grant’s Tomb Criterium looks like it is a non-starter due to the Nor’Easter that is ravaging up and down the east coast. I was half thinking of racing there especially since some folks from the Syracuse University Cycling team are going to race there too. (more on SU Cycling later)
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