Milan San Remo is Saturday which usually happens around the Feast day of St. Joseph. It’s a big holiday in Italy as my mom reminds me by frying up some nacatoli for the occasion. We have to all wish my brother Joe a happy San Giuseppe while he basks in the glory.
Podium cafe posted this great finish of Milan San Remo from 1992 where Sean Kelly bombed down the Poggio to catch Moreno Argentin just as he passed the final kilometer to go. Argentin was crushed when he saw Kelly on his wheel and knew that he could not match Kelly’s sprinting. The crowd gasps when they hear that Kelly caught Argentin. A home boy victory was being taken away by the tough Sean Kelly. The commentary is absolutely horrible as we have to be told that there are two chain rings in the front and the commentator is excited more about the Formula One race in Mexico where Nigel Mansell set a pole position than what was unfolding in front of him.
Next up is the first Zabel victory on the Via Roma. This will be the first of six consecutive wins. Zabel had the perfect combo of sprinting ability and climbing skill to stick with the large group and win the sprint.
After all of the sprint finishes Paolo Bettini was able to get a little group away With the brilliant work of his teammate Luca Paolini, Bettini was able to easily overpower Mirko Celestino and take the win.
The Flight of the Conchords is a funny off beat show on HBO about a comedy Folk band from New Zealand. They are quite fond of their bikes going riding and in this video they are featured prominently with helmets and bikes.
The real reason Michael Rasmussen was dumped from the Tour? According to The Daily Show not only was he suspected of doping, he was also smuggling plums.
The inaugural Inner Harbor TT was setup to replace the Street Sprints from last year. The course winds through a creekwalk area and goes into a parking lot. I had someone (Wagner Construction) build a ramp for the race. The only problem is that the ramp should have been four times bigger than it was. That is why there are barriers and all types of tape leading up to the ramp, so no one misses it. Most of the TT racers did not even use the ramp, they just flew right over it.
Mario Cipollini is very passionate about bikes. On a training ride during the Domina Vacanze days he is informed that his home has been broken into and the bikes taken. Just as he rides a motor home of gypsies passes by with Mario’s beloved bikes haging off the back. Mario and his trainign partner follow them home. Cipo almost commits a crime before Italy’s version of Punk’d calls an end to the whole situation.
There is a cool list of “Underrated Sports Movies” that includes every cyclist favorite movie Breaking Away. If you don’t know, the story revolves around a boy from Indiana who gets into bike racing in the mid-70s. He idolizes cycling in Europe particularly idolizing Italians and Italian culture. He speaks Italian, shaves his legs, asks his mom to cook Zucchini and plays Opera music. The Dad gets pissed about this I-talian stuff and wants his son to get a real job.
The Amgen Tour of California site seems to always come up with very innovative ways to show the race. Last year the Tour Tracker provided real time pictures and some video to help with the race coverage. This year the Tour Tracker made a technological jump by providing live streaming video in a dashboard that overlays the course profile, GPS location and live flickr photos.
The combo is very impressive. The video is in full screen mode which makes the picture a bit pixelated, but can be accommodated by resizing the screen to a smaller size. The video feed is fairly smooth for web videos. Just about the same quality that you would get on Youtube. I am impressed with their decision to go full screen which looks very slick. (Sorry for the Bob Roll-like gushing)
