(AP Photo/Michel Spingler, File)
This year was going relatively well in terms of cycling related drug scandals. Sure there is the Alessandro Petacchi overreaction due to one too many puffs of the inhaler, but most of the big names were relatively free from drug related scandals. Now that most cyclists stay away from the performance enhancing drugs they have to let loose when not riding. So Tom Boonen gets caught with cocaine in his system. Sad that Belgium’s golden boy fresh off another Paris-Roubaix victory is facing criminal possession charges.While WADA says it is OK to have some cocaine when you are out of competition thereby not penalizing Boonen for his out-of-competition cocaine use.
Did Boonen get some South American candies from Gilberto Simoni’s Grandmother recently? Or maybe he has a really old school dentist that uses cocaine to numb the pain when doing dental work. These are ust a couple of excuses used by Gilberto Simoni years ago when he was caught with cocaine. Otherwise he will be meeting with Belgian police who want to know where he got the coke. Boonen’s alibi’s may not work so well since his house was already searched for suspected cocaine possession earlier this year.
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The Tour de France is about battles large and small. The biggest battle is for the Yellow Jersey. Then there are stage wins, then battles for other jerseys. Each of these plays out in front of the TV everyday and provides for some drama in it s own way. Today Bradley Wiggins the Londoner who “hasn’t shown much in road racing” put in a day long break that looked utterly painful. Ashame about the race radios and split times. The peloton was simply toying with Wiggins allowing him to cook in the sun as long as they absolutely needed to. The peloton was in a restful mood. This is what you get when there is no more doping, or at least not much more doping in the world of pro cycling. Speeds are slower, finishes drag out to around the noontime (6pm French time) and not a great deal of action in these transitional stages.
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Wiggins was just hoping some team would simply get on with it and catch him already. After many kilometers out front the peloton finally got down to business and dueled out a nice sprint for the fans sitting at home. The action was worth the wait with Boonen going all over the road to get a clear position and winning. Boonen looked possessed as he sprinted home. He wanted his Green Jersey back and a stage win for this Tour de France before the mountain stage on Saturday.
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Tom Boonen was the name on everyone’s lips of potential winners as the Tour hit Belgium. Boonen managed to escape a crash and had most of his team still in tact driving a sprint train to the finish. The timing was all set except for the last leadout man Geert Steegmans who was told not to sprint until the final 200 meters because of the uphill nature of the finish. The last second sprint was too much for Boonen to come around giving the domestique a rare moment to shine. Quick Step can take solace in a One-Two home soil victory. Boonen seemed just as happy for Steegman’s win as Steegman’s himself. So Quick Step should not mind too much of the last secong blunder. For a few moments it looked as if the Yellow Jersey might be up for grabs as a crash on narrow road looked to have injured several racers and held back most of the peloton. However, the whole group was marked as finishing at the same time since the last kilometer rule was used.
One by one racers limped into the finish with Alexandre Vinokourov signing the cross on himself thanking the man upstairs for saving him from getting injured. Not that God cares more about a Tour victory or Super Bowl Touchdown or any of those things. Vino is happy that he escaped one dangerous moment unscathed. In the first week of the Tour you take each day as it comes and try to stay away from crashes and try not to lose any time before you hit the mountains.
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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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(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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Filippo Pozzato’s switch from the talent laden Quick-Step team to the Liquigas team for 2007 was a sign that the 25 year old Italian was ready to be his own man in the Classics. The winner of Milan San-Remo in 2006 was a new talent in a talent rich team twhose goals all seemed to mirror his own. How can you try to win MIlan San Remo on a team win Paolo Bettini and win the Tour of Flanders on a team with Tom Boonen? Pozzato accomplished the first task by being in the right place on the Via Roma and attacking at the right time. Now he is on a new team and is the captain for the Classics such as Paris-Roubaix, and the Tour of Flanders. Pozzato’s win in the junior version of the Tour of Flanders came Saturday as he took the win from the fading O’Grady and Flecha. Once again he is in the right place at the right time.
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Tom Boonen is clearly a step ahead in the first face-off of the season winning four stages in the Tour of Qatar. Boonen took the bunch sprint over Petacchi three times and was able to get into a break and avoid cross winds for a fourth stage win. Boonen missed the podium only once when Greg Van Avermaet took the sprint win from a breakaway that managed to hold off the bunch gallop in stage five.
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(pic from letour.fr)
The sprinters battle is leaning heavily to Tom Boonen as he took his second consecutive stage win ahead of arch-rival super sprinter Alessandro Petacchi. The sprint was almost an exact repeat of yesterday’s stage win minus the brutal crash by Tom Steels which resulted in a broken collarbone.
The two wins so early in the season don’t count for much except to help size up the competition as Boonen explains:
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Boonen Congratulates Team: pic from letour.fr
The “battle of sprinters” is taking shape as Tom Boonen took the first round in the Tour of Qatar. Boonen took the overall lead after winning the stage beating Alessandro Petacchi in a mass gallup to the line.
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