VinoVelo

City loses attempt to ban Critical Mass

2006-02-16T16:14:00.000-05:00

Although, of course, an appeal will follow...

Lance Armstrong - the brand

2006-01-23T17:22:00.000-05:00

What do Apple, Google, Starbucks, Target and Lance Armstrong have in common? According to a study on Brandchannel.com http://www.brandchannel.com/start1.asp?fa_id=298, Armstrong is listed as the fifth most 'impactful' brand in the US behind those other notables - ahead of Sony, Ikea, BMW, Yahoo! - and don't forget Nike, Trek, Schering Plough, Giro, Oakley, Discovery and the rest of Lance's sponsors. While it may not be the most scientific of studies, it's still pretty phenomenal that for more than 1000 people in the US, Lance is considered a brand, and a top-five one at that...

Another great wine site

2005-12-23T15:42:00.000-05:00

Recommend one site and others seem to find you. I got an email from the guys at LocalWineEvents looking for a plug. In this case, I can actually recommend these guys. I already subscribe to their emails listing wine tastings and classes in NY (but they cover plenty of other locations).

ProTour RIP?

2005-12-09T13:13:00.000-05:00

Oh well...

What's Red Lantern or Black Jersey in Spanish?

2005-12-06T17:42:00.000-05:00

Winning a Grand Tour is nuts. Finishing one is something that most of us mere mortals hurt just thinking about. So here's a shout out to Russel van Hout, Iker Flores and Yohann Gene who 'won' this year's Maglia Nera, Lanterne Rouge and whatever they call it in Spain - while a combined 158 starters never finished the three Tours.

It seems finishing somewhere around 4 hours 20 minutes behind the winner will win you this wonderful accolade - Flores seems to have it worked out, it's his second Lanterne!

Ivan Basso - Naiive or Balls of Steel?

2005-12-05T11:06:00.000-05:00

Ivan Basso has announced that he will once again attempt to ride for the Giro/Tour double. Given his experience in both this year (he was looking like the champion-elect in the Giro until stricken with a stomach bug - which he rode through (losing 45 minutes or so) and went on to win a mountain stage and the final TT, and once again the only man to hang with Lance in the high mountains at the Tour), he could well bring a welcome return to cycling of riders that race races because they are important (the Tour) and because of their own personal passion (the Giro).

I suppose in Lance's case, that was the same thing - he was passionate only about the most important race, but I think it's great that the top riders in the post-Lance era are going back to the way things used to be and racing more of the calendar than just one or two key races.

Perhaps not the biggest victim of Heras-gate

2005-12-02T18:04:00.000-05:00

Amid all the fallout of Roberto Heras' second non-negative, one of the 'victims' is my Top 10 things worth remembering about 2005. What a strange world cycling is...

2 more Paddies in the ProTour

2005-12-02T16:30:00.000-05:00

Marc Scanlon and Philip Deignan will join (the recently re-Irished) Nicolas Roche in the ProTour ranks next year. Not too surprisingly AG2R was given the final ProTour slot (seeing as the Valencian's and Columbians couldn't cough up the funds, it was just a case of AG2R or nobody). Hopefully, we'll get to see some Irish ProTour points next year...

Appellation America

2005-12-02T16:05:00.000-05:00

Just got an email from the folks at Appelation America which looks like an interesting wine site focussed on American varietals (or rather wines grown in America since many are international varietals). Watch how you corner on a bike with a glass in your hand...

Indurain's Ullrich

2005-12-01T17:36:00.000-05:00

An interesting question thrown up by Chris on Digital Peloton about whether Indurain "had an Ullrich".
In his 5 TdF wins, no one rider was second on more than one occasion (Chiappucci and Bugno being the only two-time podium finishers during his winning era), and in the Giro, Ugmanov (a TdF runner up in '94) and Chiappucci were on the second podium steps. Big Mig's other big win - the San Sebastian classic - had Laurent Jalabert and Sean Kelly on the lower steps.

So, I suppose Chiappucci was the closest thing he had to an Ullrich, but in essence, I think the answer is no, he didn't have one...

Obviously, Anquetil and Mercx both had Poulidor, but, Hinault didn't really have a single 'one' either - did he?

Hard to disagree

2005-12-01T16:44:00.000-05:00

Whatever about Tyler Hamilton and Roberto Heras continuing to protest their innocence, I have to agree with Big Mig who was recently quoted saying cycling is in part suffering from bad press because it is more focused on cutting out doping and its anti-doping measures are tougher than other sports.

Given the joke that is Major League Baseball's approach, it's hard to disagree with Indurain who says that "Cycling wanted to be at the forefront by introducing the toughest measures and in the end it hasn't worked well for the sport. The rules and regulations should be international, totally clear and the same for every sport."

I couldn't agree more!

Bush

2005-11-23T11:40:00.000-05:00

After a fruitless trip to Asia from a political perspective, word comes out that Bush spent at least some of his time over there biking. He got to ride part of the mountain bike course for the 2008 Olympic Games in Loashan, China, and rode with six Chinese Olympic hopefuls (who all got the socks...). No reports of him falling again, and apparently there is now a permanent space on Airforce One for his bike...

I'm not a Bush fan, and could criticize everything about him and blame the time he spends riding (and falling), but in this case, I'm just jealous...

Hamilton appeal date set

2005-11-21T10:11:00.000-05:00

Tyler Hamilton's CAS appeal hearing has been pushed back further to January 10, 2006. The hearing was postponed from September because not all fo the evidence had been presented. In January, it'll be almost 18 months from the original suspension in September 2004 - if CAS fail to overturn the finding and he is found guilty, he could be back on the bike 8 months later if he gets a two year ban...

Which makes you realize how long he has been off the bike and how unfair that would be if he's innocent...

I guess I was lucky

2005-11-18T17:29:00.000-05:00

Some gobshite rolled a dolly - ladened with construction supplies - out from between two vans right into my path as I was riding to work this morning, and I rode right into it. Luckily, I was on my Strida and was able to land on my feet without having to throw the bike to get a leg over it. Luckily, I didn't have time to consider swerving since there was a line of cars right beside me. Luckily, it only cost $10 to fix. Luckily, I walked away.

That's my first accident on a bike since I was about 8 years old. Luckily.

2005, what a year!

2005-11-18T16:03:00.000-05:00

I was thinking during my morning commute about the 2005 season. To my mind, it started much stronger than it finished - I feel like the TdF has taken the wind out of the past few seasons. Anyway, I was trying to think about the best riders of 2005, and since rankings and the concept of 'best' don't make that much sense, I started thinking about 10 riders that I think made 2005 another great year in professional cycling:

10 outstanding riders in 2005

Boonen - Flanders, Roubaix and Worlds, second in the ProTour classification - not half bad!
Hincapie - KBK, 2nd at Roubaix, topping and tailing at the Dauphine, the Queen's stage at the Tour
Di Luca - inaugural ProTour, an awe-inspiring 4th in the Giro, Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallone
Vinokourov - LBL, mixing it up at the Tour - including his final day stage win
Jullich - Paris Nice, Crit International, Benelux Tour
Popovych - Catalunya and Giro (and that Dauphine break with Hincapie)
Armstrong - #7
Leipheimer - Tour of Germany, narrowly missed a top 5 at the Tour, 3rd and wore yellow at the Dauphine
Bettini (after mixing it up all season (without the results), pulled Zurich and Lombardy out of the bag)
Pettachi (Got his Milan-San Remo win, along with stages from Valencia through Romandie and the Giro (although it took 9 stages to get the first one) all the way to the Vuelta (although by his standards, he had a disappointing Worlds)

10 Notable mentions:

Zabel - Got the second place monkey off his back with the Paris-Tours win
Zabriskie (one of only three riders to wear this year's yellow jersey at the Tour)
Botero (for his Romandie win)
Flecha (like Bettini, he adds excitement to every race he's in - narrowly/unfairly pipped for a rare classics win for Spain at Gent-Wevelgem and a very solid third in Roubaix)
Voigt (wore yellow at the Tour, narrowly lost LBL to Vino, massively influential in Jullich's Paris-Nice win)
Heras (4th Vuelta win - assuming it was clean...)
Basso (stage wins despite stomach problems at the Giro and second overall at the Tour)
Chris Horner (exciting debut Tour and great Swiss Tour stage win)
Rujano (helped to light up the Giro along with his Selle Italia colleagues)
Wherry - an American winner in Philly...
Danielson - Tour de Georgia winner

5 Muted seasons - those that didn't live up to the hype (including due to injury):

Freire (injuries followed up his solid Tirreno-Adriatico win)
Rebellin (third in the ProTour standings, but in a Thor Hushovd sort of way...)
Cunego (lets hope his health holds in '06)
Landis (needs to step up to live up to the hype)
Valverde (despite his stage win at the Tour)

5 things that were not so good about the 2005 season

ProTour event quality/consistency. The Benelux Tour suffered from amazing dis-organization and did any top riders compete in the Eindhoven TTT?
Gent-Wevelgem finish
2006 TdF presentation without even a mention of Armstrong's legacy
TV coverage in the US after the TdF (Even if they don't cover live races, Cyclism Sunday was something...)
Mickael Rasmussen's TdF time trial

5 things worth remembering

Amy Gillet RIP
Cipo's late night run at the Giro prologue
American successes - Jullich, Hincapie, Zabriskie, Danielson, Wherry, oh, and Armstrong
The Giro
Armstrong overtaking Ullrich in the TdF opening time trial

Zabel's fine farewell

2005-11-16T16:23:00.000-05:00

After a frustrating couple of season's with a plethora of second place finishes, Eric Zabel has followed up his wins in Dortmund (with Ralf Aldag) two weeks ago, and his Paris-Tour win last month, with a win at the Munich Six Day with Robert Bartko. Lets hope his form continues when he gets to Milram...

Final day split stage at Giro in question

2005-11-16T16:14:00.000-05:00

The Giro route this year looks set to delight the mountain goats - so much so that Petacchi is already considering skipping it and focusing on the Tour. Several mountain finishes and the re-introduction of the TTT ensures another exciting trip around the boot this spring.

And it's not just the sprinters that are unhappy. It seems the UCI is invoking its right to prevent the final day split stage at next year's Giro - which will get a lot of support from the riders. It'll be interesting to see whether they make that a consistent rule though or whether the Basque Tour will continue to get away with it.

Ullrich's weight watching

2005-11-16T16:09:00.000-05:00

A German newspaper has clamed that Jan Ullrich's weight is being built into his contract for this season requiring him to weigh no more than 79kg at the start of the season. The team has denied the contract clause which the newspaper claims will result in the loss of financial bonuses should Ullrich miss his milestones.

San Francisco Grand Prix in trouble

2005-11-16T16:06:00.000-05:00

Seems the organizers of the San Francisco Grand Prix have neglected to pay the negotiated costs to the City for hosting the 2004 race (covering police costs in particular). Some city officials are calling for the suspension of the 2006 race as a result.

Another thought about Heras

2005-11-08T16:14:00.000-05:00

What if he's innocent?

If the B-Sample comes back negative (or worse, inconclusive), will there be any inquiry into how this news was leaked? Right now, Heras is guilty until proven innocent. And given the result of the A-Sample, there will forever more be a cloud of suspicion over a potentially innocent man. I appreciate the desire and the need to rid cycling of drugs, but why is there no repercussion for leaking this news and potentially damaging a great rider's reputation without due cause or process?

Smoke/Fire

2005-11-08T13:14:00.000-05:00

Following Tyler Hamilton's failed test at last year's Vuelta, this year's winner, Roberto Heras is now accused of having taken EPO based on the testing of his A sample from a TT stage. Heras is protesting his innocence, but as you'd expect has been suspended until the B Sample results are provided.

Given the protestations of innocence from the likes of Tyler, Heras, Lance, etc, I really do hope that they have their testing methods perfected. There are times that this seems like a witch hunt (against Lance in particular) and times when you wonder whether there can be so much smoke (on a sport-wide basis) without any fire. Only the individual riders can know for sure whether they cheat, but I really hope that people's careers aren't being destroyed based on over-zealous applications of tests or of inconclusive testing methods that are being taken as gospel.

Amgen

2005-11-08T09:25:00.000-05:00

I have to say that I don't quite get the reaction to USA Cycling teaming up with a new sponsor Amgen for the Tour of California. Amgen is a pharmaceutical company that makes drugs for medical purposes. If those drugs get used illegally, how is Amgen to blame?

By the rationale that companies associated with banned substances shouldn't be allowed to further associate with the sport of cycling, why, when caffeine was on the list of banned substances, were Saeco and Jittery Joes allowed to continue to sponsor professional teams?

2006 Tour route

2005-11-01T10:52:00.000-05:00

Commencing in Strasbourg, the anti-clockwise trip around France by bike this summer will take in such sights as LBL's Haute-Levee, Amstel Gold's Cauberg, Fleche Wallonne's Huy and Paris Roubaix's Saint Quentin. Following a sortie through Normandy and Brittany, the race will head south to a couple of Pyrenean stages which will see riders scale the heights of Col d'Osquich, Cold du Soudet, Col de Marie Blanque, Pau, Col de Tourmalet, Col d'Aspin, Col de Peyresourde, Col du Portillon and briefly into Spain for the Val d'Aran/Pla-de-Beret.

The Alpine section will include such classics as l'Alpe-d'Huez, the Col d'Izoard, the easy side of the Col du Galibier (if there's such a thing), the Col de la Croix-de-Fer, the Col du Mollard, Col des Saisies, Col des Aravis, Dol de la Colombiere, Cotes de Chatillon and Lance Armstrong's 2000 Nemisis, the Joux-Plane.

No TTT this year, but two ITT - stage 7's 52Km flat romp around Rennes, and stage 19's 56km race against the clock that may just be the deciding factor for the final yellow.

Stage 10 (to Pau), 11 (to Val d'Aran/Pla-de-Beret), 15 (l'Alpe d'Huez), 16 (to La Toussuire) and 17 (to Morzine) should be the deciding mountain stages.

ProTour road block

2005-11-01T10:35:00.000-05:00

It looks like Danilo DiLuca may end up being the only ever winner of the Pro Tour if the new boys at the UCI and ASO can't learn to get along better than their predecessors.

CSC News

2005-11-01T10:14:00.000-05:00

Following his attempt this year to tackle both the Giro and the Tour, Ivan Basso has said that he will focus solely on the Tour in '06. If Valverde and Cunego do the same thing, we could be looking at a "young gun" podium should Ullrich and Vinokourov fail to shine...

And in other CSC news, Stuart O'Grady has signed with the team for the 2006 season. He's such a professional rider and I think it's a smart move for both the rider and the team.

Basso to skip the Giro

2005-10-25T12:33:00.000-05:00

Looks like Ivan Basso is putting all his eggs in the Tour basket next season by skipping the Giro. Game on!

Roche back on the Irish team

2005-10-20T11:37:00.000-05:00

Just back from vacation to read some good news that Nicolas Roche has re-declared for Ireland having worked out some misunderstandings regarding dual citizenship.

Looks like I also missed Eric Zabel's outstanding result in Paris-Tours (I'm thrilled for him), Bettini's win in Lombardia and DiLuca's wrapping up the inaugural ProTour competition. Great timing for a vacation, eh!

Irishman Pat McQuaid is new president of UCI

2005-09-23T15:21:00.000-05:00

Fair play Paddy!

Gotta love baseball

2005-09-21T11:05:00.000-05:00

60 day suspension for a THIRD offense. Does cycling need to clean up or does it need a powerful union?

Late shout out to Levi

2005-09-15T16:05:00.000-05:00

Never got around to blogging Leipheimer's victory in the Tour of Germany - great result for him and for the water boys.

US Open - in the presence of Lance

2005-09-15T16:03:00.000-05:00

I managed to snare a ticket to this year's US Open final - it was unbelievable to be there and a great atmosphere. Lance was there too, but unfortunately our paths failed to cross. I was sort of hoping to see him cycling around Central Park on my ride the next morning - but I slept in!

The Vuelta

2005-09-15T15:59:00.000-05:00

I've been keeping up with the Vuelta as much as I can but am not particularly inspired by this one. I've never been a huge Heras fan - don't know why really, but he's never really done it for me. And he has a lead this year that makes it's like watching the TdF when Lance was dominating - it just feels like everyone's fighting for stage wins and going through the motions. Even Saturday's TT is unlikely to affect him, although it will help sort out some of the other GC positions.

Tom Danielson looks set to secure a top 10 finish which is awesome for him and bodes very well for Discovery in the years to come.

Something fishy going on

2005-09-15T15:17:00.000-05:00

With all of the UCI/WADA/L'equipe shenanigans, I can't help but get the impression that there's something very fishy going on behind the scenes. I know Dick Pound doesn't care about cycling - he just wants to see the drugs wiped out of all sports, but there just seems to be too much weird stuff going on.

And more potential drug concerns at Phonak with Gonzalez pulled by the team because he tested above the team's self-imposed limits - how much longer will this sponsor hang around...?

Armstrong v L'Equipe

2005-08-25T12:00:00.000-05:00

This is the best article that I've read on the whole thing. I couldn't have said it better myself...

Good news for Scanlon, or AG2R at least

2005-08-11T12:02:00.000-05:00

Having signed both best French GC rider at this year's tour, Christophe Moreau, as well as fourth placed Francisco Macebo, AG2R is hopeful of a ProTour spot for next year - most likely replacing the departing Fassa Bortolo. Hopefully, we'll get to see Mark Scanlon pounding away at a few ProTour events next year.

Bobby Julich continues an amazing 2005

2005-08-10T13:27:00.000-05:00

Following his great Paris-Nice and Crit International wins, Bobby Julich blew away the field on the final day TT at the inaugural Benelux Tour to win the event by 21 seconds over Eric Decker. In addition to his top 20 placing at the Tour (while helping Basso claim second place), I'd argue that this year is better than his "breakout" year in '98.

Quite a week for CSC with Basso having claimed the Tour of Denmark crown over the weekend. Bjarne Riis will have a career in motivation and leadership speaking if he ever packs in his DS role.

Things looking tough for Spain at the Worlds

2005-08-10T11:27:00.000-05:00

After owning the world championship road race for the past couple of years, things are looking grim for Spain this year on their home turf. First there was news that Freire is not going to recover from surgery on time and now Valverde looks like he'll miss it too. Unless Flecha can get in a breakaway, it looks like it'll either be an Italian (Petacchi), Australian (McEwan) or Belgian (Boonen) win this year...

Inauspicious first Tour of Benelux

2005-08-10T10:11:00.000-05:00

The inaugural Eneco Tour of Benelux has had a painful birth with a lot of riders complaining about the event organization and with the fiasco earlier in the week when the entire peloton went off the course only to be guided back to the course by local, and race leader, Rik Verbrugghe. In the mean time, the breakaway that comprised Scott Sunderland, Jason McCartney and Bart Dockx were forced to stop and wait for the peloton to catch up and were then denied two minutes that they had had on the peloton because the directionally challenged group had riden a few extra miles. I wonder if the Benelux Tour will still be a part of the ProTour next year.

Apparently the reason for the peloton getting lost was because an official left his post - most of the examples of bad turns that I can think of - especially those at the end of stages are because of officials actually sending people the wrong way - not sure I can remember another time that the peloton has had to decide which way to go because there was nobody there to guide them.

Vino escapes T-Mobile

2005-07-29T14:45:00.000-05:00

As Tim at Peleton Blog commented not so long ago, T-Mobile has been a pretty stifling team to go to work for in the past several seasons. Not too much of a surprise then that double stage, and Champs Elysee, winner Vinokourov is saying "Auf Wiedersehn" to the boys in pinkish and instead has opted to team up with Manolo Saiz's Liberty Seguros. Not sure what it means for Heras if he's considered a Tour hopeful but I'm sure both will be soothed up the Alps and Pyrenees to the sound of Manolo's "Venga, Venga!!"

Life without Lance

2005-07-29T14:11:00.000-05:00

I'm just back from the Denver/Boulder area in Colorado and feeling very fat and sluggish having not had the opportunity to do any altitude training... While I was working out there I was thinking about life without Lance and have decided to give up blogging because there's just no point any more!

OK, I'm kidding, but I was thinking about what this means and I think it's great on a number of levels:

American cycling has never been so strong. 3 in the top 10 of the Tour; 5 in the top 20; every day except one in Yellow; 3 US stage wins (not counting the TTT) and three US stage winners; even ignoring Lance, there are star riders/leaders from the US on teams from several countries - Switzerland (Landis), Germany (Leipheimer), Spain (Horner), Denmark (Julich and Zabriskie), Belgium (Rodriguez was a star lead out man for McEwan); as well as the strength of the one US team - nice timing for Discovery to take over! Lets hope it all translates into a continued interest from OLN...

Discovery - Lance will no doubt remain heavily involved in the team, but with and without him, this year has been amazing - the Giro, The Tour de Georgia, the Volta Catalunya, Kurne, the Tour and three stages from three riders as well as a host of smaller races and very significant placings (Paris-Roubaix). Bodes very, very well for the post-Lance era.

The Tour - It's hard to see anyone beating Basso give his form this year, his dedication year round and his support from a very savvy Bjarne Riis. Now that Ullrich's primary motivation is gone, I'm not convinced we'll see him on the podium again...

Ex-Mountain Bikers - some very highly placed fat tire riders this year, including some top-10 finishers - Rasmussen, Evans, Landis

Exciting riding - there are a few riders coming through that are being heralded as potential tour winners that have a great deal of all-round skill - Valverde, Cunego, DiLuca, etc. have the potential to out-Vino Vino and turn any stage race on its head, from hills to sprints these guys are just exciting to watch whether in stage races or full-on classics.

Fassa Bortolo to Fold

2005-07-22T11:53:00.000-05:00

The Fassa train will not be leaving the station in '06. Rumour is that Petacchi will trace his former rival Cipollini's footsteps and defect to Domina Vacanza dragging along Fabio Sacchi, Marco Velo and Alberto Ongarato for the ride.

Guerini saves T-Mobile's Tour

2005-07-22T11:51:00.000-05:00

A very smart win today for Giuseppe ensures T-Mobile are virtually assured of the team classification. Two stage wins and the team classification doesn't quite match their ambitions coming in to the Tour, but it ain't so bad all things considered.

Amy Gillett RIP

2005-07-20T10:09:00.000-05:00

Shayne Bannon, Australia's high-performance manager, best summed up Gillett's death and the injuries to her teammates - "It makes everything that has happened to the sport of cycling over the past two years totally insignificant"

Pass with distinction

2005-07-20T10:08:00.000-05:00

I just got the results from my wine test and managed to get the highest possible score - a pass with distinction. Will probably think about doing the next level in the new year.

Vino to depart T-Mobile

2005-07-20T10:04:00.000-05:00

Vinokourov is set to leave T-Mobile to be the captain of another team. Not surprising given the way he has been treated at this year's Tour by his own team, but he has been one of the shining stars on an underperforming T-Mobile team.

Kloden drops out

2005-07-20T10:01:00.000-05:00

Following a crash yesterday, Andreas Kloden has had to abandon. While the mainstream media are claiming that he hasn't lived up to last year's potential, he has been an amazing lietenant for Ullrich this year - keeping him in the race on more than one stage. Very hard luck for the former East German.

Catching up

2005-07-19T20:26:00.000-05:00

An absolutely crazy few weeks at work saw the company that I work for bought by a private equity firm and, since I manage communications, me flat out working on the deal. We had to cancel our vacation to Italy and are now planning on going there in October while we're in Europe (already going to Dublin). I've not had much time to do anything other than work but I have caught as many stages as I could late at night (if you don't have a DVR, get one!) and my impressions of week 2 TdF 2005 include...

Hincapie: what a humble but unbelievable guy. He won the Queen's stage and was back the next day of riding (split by the rest day) as the last Discovery rider alongside Lance. Getting a bit of flack from the Phonak boys for failing to work during his winning stage, but it's the first past the line that folks remember...

Vinokourov: doing his best to make this year's TdF as exciting as this year's Giro. While he went backwards on a couple of stages, he was very very exciting going forwards.

Fast Freddy: not only a great lead out but managed to take third on one stage to steal points for O'Grady off Hushovd - amazingly intelligent riding at 50+ miles an hour.

The other Americans: 3 Americans in the top 7. 5 Americans in the top 20. Chris Horner having an absolutely amazing first Tour - pretty good rookie, I'd say.

Cadel Evans: I thought I was pushing my luck including him in my top 5, but the seven-time-collar-bone-breaker (according to Paul Sherwen) on Stage 16 showed amazing potential for a Tour rookie - I'll include him again next year...

Eddie Mazzolini: who needs the other pair ;-)

Kloden: kept Ullrich in the running for as long as he could (even if that involved chasing down Vino)

Rasmussen: no idea where he came from, but he has done an amazing job hanging in there. It'll be very interesting to see how he does in the TT. His goal was the spotty jersey and it looks like he's done the job there, but I'd love to see him hang on for a podium place.

Basso: once again, the only man to hang with Lance in the high mountains. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't lose him.

T Mobile and Jan: Finally they realized that if they want to win, they have to attack. They have thrown everything at Armstrong and for the first time that I remember they isolated Lance on several occasions. Unfortunately for them, they weren't able to capitalize on it and usually ended up actually losing time.

Leipheimer and Landis: usually hanging on in 4th, 5th or 6th wheel in the high mountains - bodes well for the post-Lance era.

Lance Armstong: nuff said

Other thoughts:

There were only three riders to wear the yellow jersey this year. Two were American. Two dropped out.

Armstrong has never been so isolated as this year, and he's never looked as strong in my mind.

Discovery are looking good for a run at the 'triple crown' of Giro, Tour and Vuelta - if anyone has any gas left in the tank...

A phenomenal Tour for Discovery - the Yellow Jersey for the majority of the race; the TTT; a stage win for Hincapie. All that's missing is the 9th man (very hard luck) and a stage win for Armstrong (final TT maybe?).

Armstrong in control

2005-07-12T23:17:00.000-05:00

Today was just an unbelievable day of cycling. When I watched today's stage (this evening) I already knew who the top three placed riders were and even still I was on the edge of my seat for the last hour.

Today was a sort of fantasy: watching George Hincapie (followed by triki and azavedo) at the front of the peloton drop a "who's who" of riders that read like a winning lineup but they were being dropped: Mayo, Heras, Beloki, Vinokourov, etc. and then Armstong made Popovych turn the screw which saw Ullrich, Kloden and others dropped and then Armstrong dropped Basso and others to whittle the field down to Rasmussen, Mancebo and Valverde (not bad for someone who'd only won once outside of Spain)...

you have to keep on trying your luck until it gets on your side

2005-07-11T12:03:00.000-05:00

A lesson in life from Jens Voigt(who claimed the yellow jersey following a great breakaway with former teammate, Christophe Moreau), who following his great ride yesterday was quoting as saying, "you have to keep on trying your luck until it gets on your side."

Voigt, Michael Rasmussen (who consolidated a big lead in the mountains jersey and took the stage), Stuart O'Grady (who made it over the hills and sent his team to the front to contest the sprint and finished fourth to take some great sprint points in the absence of the other fast men) and Lance Armstrong (who gave up the yellow jersey to an immensely popular rider on the team of a key rival, ensuring his team don't have to defend the jersey and he'll have some help from CSC if they really want to keep hold of the jersey), and the Discovery Team (who controlled the race with the absolute perfection of a child that was reprimanded because of their behavior the day before...) were the big winners yesterday. Jan Ullrich (who crashed on one of the descents (although x-rays showed him all clear)) was probably the only real loser on the day.

Continuing the long tradition of waiting for rivals after crashes, the Armstrong group slowed yesterday to allow Ullrich (who was brought back to the group by teammates) to rejoin.

Dave Z abandons

2005-07-10T07:20:00.000-05:00

Poor Dave Zabriskie's injuries sustained during the team time triall crash have caught up with him and he abandoned during today's stage.

It's really the first bad news for any American rider since the beginning of this year's Tour. Only American riders have worn the yellow jersey. American riders have won a stage, an American team won the team time trial, 4 American riders are in the top 10 - all in all, pretty impressive.

Congratulations to Dave Z for winning a stage, wearing yellow and battling for as long as he could - see you in the Vuelta!

Will CSC get the jersey back

2005-07-10T07:14:00.000-05:00

Seeing as I've been so late in posting lately, I figured I'd write a post during a stage in an attempt to get ahead. At the moment, Michael Rasmussen and Dario Cioni are way out front with Rasmussen taking all of the mountains points in the first few climbs (including a Cat II climb). Behind them is a chase group being led by Jens Voigt, who is currently second on GC only a minute behind Armstrong. Voigt is a great rider but he won't be a long term GC threat. Could be a very smart move of Armstrong's to let Voigt take the jersey and force CSC to defend it over the next few days in the Alps (after tomorrow's rest stage).

Bush takes another tumble

2005-07-10T07:10:00.000-05:00

George Bush crashed into a policeman while riding his bike on the grounds of Gleneagles at the G8 Summit. It's his second bike crash in a year, following the crash on his Texas ranch during the presidential campaign last year. Imagine what he was like when he was drinking...

Chinks in Discovery's Armour

2005-07-10T07:02:00.000-05:00

Saturday's return to France from Germany saw the Germans (Dutch and Kazakhs) really shake things up. As expected T Mobile attacked on the final climb with Vino hitting hard three times in a row. On Vino's first attack, Savoldelli closed down the gap with Armstrong on his wheel, but that first attack blew the discovery team apart and Armstrong was left isolated to chase down the subsequent two attacks and finish the stage. Andreas Kloden took advantage of Armstrong's isolation to attack and bridge up to early breakaway Pieter Weening who beat Kloden on the line by two milimeters. Discovery have a lot of questions to answer...

Catching up

2005-07-10T06:49:00.000-05:00

Work still kicking me while I'm down so not much posting of late.

On Friday, two fairly unknown riders got much of the headlines - after a lengthy breakaway, Chris Mengin crashed within sight of the line in very slick conditions and causing a chain reaction of crashes behind, and into him. Bernucci Bravo who was chasing down Mengin managed to avoid the crash and with info being fed from Cancellara who went down, he pushed all the way to the line for the win. The big news though was second placed rider Vinokourov who was slowed down by Mengin's crash but managed to stay on his bike and steal 19 seconds from Armstrong's lead.

Friday saw Robbie McEwan bag his second stage to draw level with Boonen on wins - that dq is looking costly... Hushovd is still looking strong and could play spoiler in the green jersey competition.

London blasts

2005-07-07T09:21:00.000-05:00

I'm not at all a religious person, but it seems like one of those times that you can't help but say that our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and families of the bomb blasts in London.

Almost all of my family and friends are accounted for (bar one cousin who we're waiting to hear from) and any I've spoken to are shaken but sounding in good spirits.

Watching the BBC this morning, I was amazed by the calm and professionalism of the police, emergency services and hospital staff. Clearly, their emergency response plans are both well rehearsed and largely effective. It's also unfortunately true that London and Britain have far too much experience dealing with terrorist attacks so they are naturally equipped to deal with any occurance.

McEwan bags one

2005-07-06T10:42:00.000-05:00

Following his DQ disappointment for the Ram affair, McEwan outfoxed the bunch and came around Boonen to take his first stage in this year's TdF. He claims to have written off his chances of winning the green jersey, but Boonen is already feeling the pressure complaining to reporters that he is missing out on 50 minutes per day of rest time because of the obligations that come with the jersey. Still, if the pressure does get to him, it might be Hushovd that will capitalize and not McEwan. Big Thor is looking very consistent so far.

Armstrong back in Yellow (by force)

2005-07-06T09:12:00.000-05:00

Similar to 1991 when Greg Lemond refused to wear the yellow jersey at following Rolf Sörensen crash, Lance rolled out today in Disco gear "to honour the fact that Dave Zabriskie lost the jersey because of an accident yesterday". At the "départ réel", however, Jean-Marie Leblanc stopped the whole peloton to give Armstrong "the opportunity" to put on the jersey.

London gets the 2012 Olympics

2005-07-06T09:06:00.000-05:00

Moscow, NY, Madrid and Paris (eliminated in that order) failed in their bids to host the 2012 Olympics, being beaten out by London. I think London will do an amazing job and I'll probably think about heading over for it. It would have been nice to see the cycling events in NY though...

NY Times TdF coverage

2005-07-06T09:02:00.000-05:00

The Times is doing a whole feature on the Tour and even have a multimedia report from George Vessey (which is really him speaking and them showing scrolling photos). I get pretty annoyed with mainstream media's coverage of cycling usually (because it's so bland and aimed at such a low common denominator, it's often inaccurate), but George's report was really good until the end, when he said that nobody leaves Armstrong's team and remains his friend - and at the same time showed photos of him with Hamilton and then Zabriskie (who Vessey even remarked he liked). Because Zabriskie was never a big name on (then) Postal, that doesn't count?

Zabriskie to continue

2005-07-05T17:34:00.000-05:00

tdfblog is reporting that Dave Z has managed to avoid breaking any bones and is determined to start tomorrow. Hopefully he can fully recover before the big hills.

Tough luck for Zabriskie

2005-07-05T14:03:00.000-05:00

Dave Z - only the third American to wear the yellow jersey - somehow hit the deck in the final 2K in today's TTT and in doing so handed over the yellow jersey to Lance. By the sounds of it, he and Julich had been a big part of CSC's great time today, continuing the amazing time trialling form of the American's in the Tour.

Boonen Brace, and the ram

2005-07-05T14:01:00.000-05:00

Tom Boonen picked up where he left off earlier this season with a couple of great stage wins. Watching most of the stages on DVR in fast-forward, Lance has looked very comfortable and Boonen has looked outstanding on the flat.

Meenwhile, if Bettini is the cricket, do we need to start calling McEwan the ram?

Better late than never

2005-07-05T13:54:00.000-05:00

Why is it that when you most want to be able to sit and watch the TV for 3-4 hours a day for 21 days, every aspect of your life goes nuts so that you can hardly see any at all? I got to see the opening time trial on Saturday - but only just. My wife, son and mother-in-law were all in the car on the road waiting for me as Lance crossed the line - bear in mind that that's a manhattan street that I'd left them sitting in. Thankfully, there wasn't too much traffic for the holiday weekend ;-)

I'm not normally a fan of watching time trials but Saturday's brought me back to '89. I was on the edge of my seat and by the end, my heart was racing. I think Lance actually slowed deliberately in the home stretch to avoid any concern of defending the Yellow. Not a gift in his "no gifts" way, but it would be to his own advantage, in a way. We may never know (or he could have been asked and have already answered the question and I just haven't had time to read any news...).

Reuters: Ullrich in car crash, not seriously injured

2005-07-01T10:09:00.000-05:00

CHALLANS, France, July 1 (Reuters) - Germany's Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, was injured in a freak training accident on the eve of the Tour's start on Friday but escaped mostly unhurt.

A T-Mobile team spokesman told Reuters that Ullrich, one of Lance Armstrong's leading rivals for Tour victory, crashed into his team manager Mario Kummer's car after he was forced to brake unexpectedly.

Ullrich hit the rear windscreen, which smashed into pieces, and suffered cuts near the throat.

The spokesman said the German, a five times Tour runner-up, was treated by the team doctor, who said the bruises and cuts were only superficial.

The Tour starts with a 19-km time trial between Fromentine and Noirmoutier on Saturday.

Tour prediction

2005-06-29T13:55:00.000-05:00

Following my brutal attempt at predicting the Giro result (Cunego who? Basso who?), I'm gonna go out on a limb and try again. Here's my prediction for the 2005 Tour:

1. Armstrong
2. Vinokourov
3. Evans
4. Leipheimer
5. Basso

I've partly gone for this lineup coz I don't believe it myself. But if I were to say Armstrong/Ullrich/Basso/Leipheimer/Botero, it wouldn't be quite as interesting... We'll see if I can get better than 40% of the riders in none of the right places that I got from my Giro prediction.

When is a bike like a Japanese Garden?

2005-06-29T13:13:00.000-05:00

Johan picked up on a great little movie that portrays a locked bicycle photograped through the seasons and as it slowly disappeared.

Remember Rumsas?

2005-06-29T09:19:00.000-05:00

Remember Raimondas Rumsas? The guy that came third in the 2002 Tour de France. The one who's wife Edita was arrested (and left in jail to stew for several weeks) on her way home from that Tour de France with a campervan full of drugs for, ehm, her ailing mother.

Apparently he's still riding (for the small Italian team Parkpre-Guru-Selle Italia) and actually won the Lithuanian time trial championship last weekend.

He was also arrested today in Lucca, Italy, under a European arrest warrant issued at the request of a judge in Vonneville, France in relation to his mother-in-laws drugs...

Bruyneel: Only 3 rivals

2005-06-29T09:14:00.000-05:00

Johan Bruyneel picked Basso, Vinokourov and Ullrich as Armstrong's major rivals for this year's Tour. He downplayed Heras and Beloki (calling them threats but unlikely to affect the overall standings) and didn't seem to even mention Mayo, Leipheimer, Landis or Kloden. Armstrong himself seems more worried about the heat than any of his competitors...

Anatomy of a racer and his race

2005-06-29T09:10:00.000-05:00

TDFblog has a link to a two-page spread from the Oregonian, which is just about the best two-page overview of professional cycling I've ever seen.

I wanna go home!

2005-06-28T13:04:00.000-05:00

Enough to make me homesick!

Armstrong farted

2005-06-28T12:43:00.000-05:00

No, it was a bee sting. Or a tumble. Or a black eye. God love the man - who would want to be famous!

Cooke unable to defend Giro crown

2005-06-28T12:29:00.000-05:00

Nicole Cooke, who won the nine-day Giro Donne (considered the women's equivalent of the Tour de France) on her first attempt last season, is being denied the opportunity to defend her crown by her own team boss. Apparently Maurizio Fabretto, Cooke's team boss, is in dispute with the Italian Cycling Federation and will boycott all their races this summer, while Cooke will now turn her attention to October's World Championships in Madrid.

Scanlon to miss the tour

2005-06-28T12:26:00.000-05:00

Oh, and Simoni will too... AG2R will probably survive Sligo Mark's absence better than Lampre will survive the absence of both Cunego and now Simoni too - could make for an interesting Vuelta though...

Wine test

2005-06-24T13:01:00.000-05:00

I sat my intermediate wine test last night and think I did OK. Interestingly, I think almost all of my incorrect answers were about beer, spirits and cider... There's a reason I signed up to do a wine course! Although the organization is called the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust. Results to follow...

Mike and the bike

2005-06-24T12:47:00.000-05:00

Grammy Award-winning guitarist and songwriter, Michael Ward, has written a children's book called Mike and the Bike. Ward is an avid cyclist and riding partner of a certain Lance Armstrong, who wrote the forward to the book. The book is accompanied by a 30 minute CD with music by Ward and his son, plus a musical narration of the book by Sir "the Voice of cycling" Phil.

According to Ward, “I created Mike and the Bike as a way for parents to help introduce their children to the fun and fitness of cycling... Helping inspire children to discover the world of cycling would be a dream come true.”

Discovery's tour lineup

2005-06-23T09:28:00.000-05:00

There's going to be some fun on the hills...

Lance Armstrong
George Hincapie
Jose Azevedo
Yaroslav Popovych
Paolo Savoldelli
José Luis Rubiera
Manuel Beltran
Benjamin Noval
Pavel Padrnos

More road deaths

2005-06-23T09:01:00.000-05:00

A Long Island couple were both killed yesterday by an SUV driver who drifted onto the shoulder of a road hitting a 21 year old woman and 40 year old man. The driver, who may have been high on drugs and who has 14 prior arrests, including several felony charges for selling and possessing drugs, tried to flee the scene, until a landscaping truck blocked his exit from the highway.

While trying to flee, he "continued driving 1,000 feet with the female victim embedded in his windshield, only stopping due to a witness who blocked his effort to leave the accident scene," said Bob Clifford, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Tom Spota.

Interestingly, the driver was arraigned Tuesday for leaving the scene of an accident and operating a vehicle while on drugs. No murder or manslaughter charges then?

Ghost bike in Brooklyn

2005-06-22T13:36:00.000-05:00

In memory of Liz Padilla, a 28-year old bicyclist killed recently in Park Slope in Brooklyn, Visual Resistance members created a small and somber memorial as a reminder of the tragedy that took place on June 9 at the corner of Warren and 5th Ave.

It was inspired by Ghost Bike Pittsburgh, which was in turn inspired by a similar effort in St. Louis.

Crazy week

2005-06-22T12:46:00.000-05:00

It's been a crazy week at work, so I've fallen behind on a lot of interesting developments:

TerminAitor's win at the Swiss Tour: A simple tweak of the saddle sent Aitor on his way to an excellent win at the Swiss Tour, marking a very welcome change of fortune to Euskatel's early season, coupled with Landaluze’s victory at the Dauphiné. It seems Gonzalez is skipping the Tour in favor of the Vuelta, while one would have thought that he could have been a great ally to Mayo in France.

Leipheimer-less Gerolsteiner pipped Landis-less Phonak to win the inaugural TTT in Eindhoven. It was Gerolsteiner's first ProTour win (after all of Levi's seconds). Lance-less Discovery Channel finished fifth. Seems that the TTT is little indication of the team's TTT form for the Tour (which kind of defeats the point!).

Cunego will miss the Tour. Mononucleosis is being blamed for his absence at the Tour and his sub-par performance at the Giro.

Freire will miss the Tour and gets surgery to remove "irritated subcutaneous epidermis" caused by saddle sores.

Dave Z, Bobby J and Chris Horner join the growing number of Americans (and English speakers) at this year's Tour, while British Olympic gold medalist Bradley Wiggins will miss the Tour meaning Britain is without representation for the second year in a row (unless you count Sir Phil and Paul Sherwen) - it's the first time Britain has been absent for two years running since 1955. Still waiting to hear whether Mark Scanlon will be on the AG2R squad to represent the Irish.

Armstrong won the National Time Trial Championships in Utah. It was the Kristin variety of Armstrong - Chris Baldwin won the men's.

Paulo Bettini will skip this weekend's Italian championships due to "physical problems"

Pretty cool commencement speech

2005-06-20T13:21:00.000-05:00

They should always get a college dropout to deliver commencement speeches if they can be this good!

Sweepstakes time of year

2005-06-17T13:56:00.000-05:00

How many sweepstakes can one Tour take? Active.com has a new one (if you sign up for their tour newsletter) to win a trip to the Tour, a cervelo bike and some other stuff...

Horner confirmed for the Tour

2005-06-17T12:46:00.000-05:00

Following his stage win yesterday, Chris Horner has been confirmed as a member of the Saunier Duval Tour team.

Happy Birthday Eddy

2005-06-17T12:43:00.000-05:00

Great opportunity to re-read VeloNews' tribute from the "turn of the century" edition

Vino in NY Sun

2005-06-17T10:49:00.000-05:00

Great article about the best NY wine store

Native Italian vines explored

2005-06-17T10:44:00.000-05:00

Italian-flavor.com has just begun a new column dedicated to the 350 or so Italian native vines that are used to produce regional wines. The columns will introduce all the native vines region by region.

Discovery's 2005 TdF bikes

2005-06-16T14:52:00.000-05:00

Check out Discovery's new TTX time trial bike and the 2006 Trek Madone SSLX.

Zabel to miss the Tour

2005-06-16T12:56:00.000-05:00

Perhaps not surprisingly given the rumors and the fact that he was left off the Swiss Tour team, but Eric Zabel - 6 time green jersey winner - has been left off the T-Mobile team. Zabel is one of my favorite riders and while I'm very disappointed for him, it sends a clear signal that T-Mobile is heading to France solely focussed on the GC - whether Kloden and Vino get fully behind Ullrich is the next quesion...

Great day for English speakers in Switzerland

2005-06-16T12:53:00.000-05:00

Chris Horner recorded the 50th win of his career but his first in Europe in today's stage of the Tour of Switzerland. Aussie, Michael Rogers, who was in the same breakaway as Horner before the latter took off solo finished the day leading the GC. Ulrich is 20 seconds behind Rogers and fellow Aussie Brad McGee is a further 2 seconds back.

Eating before training rides

2005-06-15T20:23:00.000-05:00

If anyone has any eating tips for evening rides, there's a fella in Sweden who'd love to hear them...

Those were the days

2005-06-15T19:56:00.000-05:00

John Wilcockson has captured time and place and so much more once again. His article about the English speakers in the 80's peloton brings me back to when I really started to follow cycling. Despite the success of Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche and the presence of Martin Early and Paul Kimmage in the peloton in Europe, there wasn't much coverage of cycling in Ireland until Roche won the Tour in '87 (and unless you looked closely you might never have known that he matched Merckx's triple crown of the GdI, TdF and Worlds in the same year). Kelly did do quite a few Guinness ads which helped raise his profile, but my lasting memory of that period will be tuning in to watch England's Channel 4 (a new channel then that was covering less mainstream programming) who covered cycling with two commentators by the name of Phil Liggett and (in the third year that we were watching it) Paul Sherwen. Those were the days indeed...

Aussie class in France

2005-06-15T19:33:00.000-05:00

Following an exceptional Giro, where Australian riders took quite a few stages and were represented in pink over quite a few days during the first week, the Aussies are prepping for a charm offensive on the world's biggest bike stage. The Tour Down Under (I don't consider Jacob's Creek worthy of a mention ;-) will be represented in the Caravan (by some strange cycling Kangaroo) following Jean-Marie Blanc's very positive impression during his visit down under for their tour earlier this year.

But expect the Aussie riders to steal the show. McEwan looks red hot right now and ready to mix it up with the best in the business sans Petacchi and Freire. Cadel Evans will be looking to mix it up with the GC boys, O'Grady will be breaking away, Baden Cooke, Henk Vogels, Matt White (although I read somewhere that he might not be going), McGee the list goes on and on. I wonder if this year is a record for the number of English speakers in the TdF peloton.

Not only that, but even the queen is thinking of Australian's on bikes. In addition to Sir Phil's MBE, Cycling Australia President, Mike Victor, along with gold medal winning pilots at the Athens Paralympics, Robert Crowe and David Short have been awarded Order of Australia Medals (OAM).

Renting bikes in Italy

2005-06-15T19:10:00.000-05:00

I've spent a fair bit of time looking online for bike rental places in Italy. We'll only be in Umbria for 3 days and have a friend's christening to go to during that time, so I'm not expecting to be able to ride there. When we get to Castiglioncello, we'll be staying for a week though, so I'd love to be able to rent a bike and get some rides in there. Has anyone done this before? Any suggestions on how to track down a rental?

Profile picture

2005-06-15T18:01:00.000-05:00

I finally put a profile picture together. Have been meaning to take this shot for a while but have been too busy riding or drinking - and never at the same time!

Lance Armstrong's War

2005-06-15T14:21:00.000-05:00

Has anyone read Lance Armstrong's War? I'd be interested to read a biography that hasn't been commissioned but I haven't heard of any lawsuits so wondering if there's anything of interest at all in the book. Anyone read it? Worth reading?

Don't let track cycling die

2005-06-15T13:50:00.000-05:00

For anyone else unhappy at the UCI and IOC decision to scrap the Track Men's Kilometre Time Trial and the Women's 500m Time Trial, you can sign a petition here. There have been more than 6000 signatures to date, which was described by the vice-president of the UCI as "unprecedented in cycling."

LBS

2005-06-15T12:54:00.000-05:00

Could it be? A LBS that is run by friendly, competent people that are also bike riders. I wasn't aware that one existed in NYC... For those of you that don't live in NY, the LBS's here suck - the attitudes, selection, assistance... did I mention attitude? Just read a glowing review of NYC Velo on a newsgroup post by the head of the NYCMB. I just hope it's true.

If they'll convict someone in Texas, there's hope for the rest of us

2005-06-15T09:15:00.000-05:00

A law professor at Southern Methodist University in Texas was sentenced to five years of probation and two years of community service by a jury in Dallas for aggravated assault. To read the VeloNews letters to the editor, you'd think that the pick-up driving Texans that (allegedly) throw bottles out their windows at cyclists would never side with a cyclist, but the jury found that the defendant had used her car as a deadly weapon when she drove into a cyclist last May, after honking her horn while driving behind him and then hitting him, dragging him under the car. Luckily the cyclist only suffered cuts and bruises.

Napa Vino Velo

2005-06-15T08:54:00.000-05:00

Bicycling Magazine is running a sweepstakes to increase subscribers and offering a 4 day Bike and Wine trip in Napa to one lucky winner and a friend. To enter the draw without subscribing, click here

Bigot CCLXV starts to exert his influence

2005-06-14T10:48:00.000-05:00

Following a call to boycot the referendum in Italy on the repeal of its strict rules on assisted fertility, the Pope is getting the credit for the failure to generate sufficient voter turnout that saw the referendum defeated. I'm not sure if he's aware how much fear he's striking into the hearts of some of us, but Rocco Buttiglione, Italy's conservative culture minister (and a friend of Il Papa) told the NY Times, "The results of today mean that Italy is maybe more similar to Texas than to Massachusetts."

NY Times on a roll

2005-06-13T12:15:00.000-05:00

After their story on Friday about the Puma track team, the Times has a couple of bike-related articles in their travel section. One on Girona and the other on the spectator sport that is attending the TdF.