UCI WorldTour and other pro cycling nonsense 2011

nibali's lost nearly a minute over the summit of the second-last climb. he's gonna have to bomb this just to get back on.

he's pulled it back! some BIG risks through the cars and motos. awesome to watch.

magnificent scenery in this neck of the woods, i must say.

btw NBS if youre still after a recording of the zoncolan stage, cyclingtorrents.nl have it along with highlights

scarponi punches it. contador and gadret follow, contador pulls away. nibali at the head of the chase but i think this is aaaaaaaaall over. good god.

nieve with a good lead over garzelli at the front - looks like another great day for the carrots,

jeez that last km looked hard!

scarponi bringing back DUDES MASHING A BIG GEAR, excellent.

is conty planning on riding the tdf?

He will if he can, but he probably won't be able to. If you don't know the story, the short version is: he got caught with a miniscule dose of clenbuterol in his blood after the last rest day in last summer's TDF; the amount was negligible and wouldn't have had any effect, but *any* amount is considered a breach of the rules as there is no natural way the drug should be in your body; moreover the amount was so small it would have been virtually impossible to administer such a tiny dose (and there would have been no logical reason to) - which suggests he might have had a blood transfusion during the rest day and this blood contained traces of off-season doping (it's been reported that he has tested positive for plasticisers, a sign of blood stored in bags, but this test has not been ratified yet so cannot be officially used); the UCI hushed up the positive result for several weeks and seemed to be giving him time to come up with a convincing story; his story was that he had beef specially imported from Spain, which nobody else on the team ate, and which came from the only cow in Spain to have been given clenbuterol; the Spanish cycling authorities cleared him of the charges on this basis; the UCI and WADA have appealed to the CAS - the verdict is due about a week after the end of the Giro (and safely before the start of the Tour).

btw NBS if youre still after a recording of the zoncolan stage, cyclingtorrents.nl have it along with highlights

I managed to catch the last three kms yesterday watchig RAI in Italian via the Steephill website, but it's not really the same if you already know the result.

Just watched today's EPIC stage. God, that looked tough. Nibali's not really as strong as I thought he was. He reminds me a bit of Wiggins in the 2009 TDF - a steady climber, unable to put in savage attacks, good enough for a high placing but nowhere near to winning. His thing is descending, whereas with Wiggins it's time trials.

there was a guy the other day dangling a steak at the end of a fishing line in front of Contador. good times.

Sherwin and Ligget talking about where you can get to on US 101 is proof, if proof were needed, that the end of the world didn't happen yesterday.

I really like how a couple of these ToC stages end with Crit-esque finishing circuits. A nice nod IMO to American style racing, and cool for amateur racers like me to see the pros riding similar circuits to what we do.

yeah crits really aren't a thing in europe huh

For reals, sprint finishes on nice flat wide California roads are really nice, gives all the sprint trains plenty of space to do their thing and levels the playing field nicely. None of the silly road furniture in the last 1km that you see in a lot of races.

Crit racing is becoming more popular in the UK thanks to the Halfords Tour series.

I know logistics prevent it but I'd love to see crits that were less like NASCAR and more like F1. Like empty street alleycats. Monaco style.

Also are gravel centuries a thing outside the Midwest? The Almanzo 100 is huge thing here now, and it looks to be as brutal as some of the euro spring classics.

Also the amount of work that the race organizer puts into it is pretty astonishing.

http://cycleture.photoshelter.com/gallery/2011-Almanzo/G0000gJ8g8tTETok

take your filthy gran fondo talk over here:

For nary all of us can be Cat2 cutiez: the gentleperson's weekly sportif / randonnée / brevet log

Another death - did you guys see this? http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/23052011/58/tondo-killed-garage-door.html

Bloody hell

that is horrible! rip tondo.

poor guy :(

wrt grand tours, uphill time trials are stupid, redundant, and should be banned. #foodforthought

Awful about Tondo... such a well respected rider.

Part of me suspects may be a retaliation though, he blew the whistle on the Girona juniors doping program not that long ago, ya?

Didn't a garage door fall on him? Haven't read any of.the stories in full yet, but nobody suspects foul play, right?

Mafia always makes it look like an accident right, that's the point?

/dons tinfoil hat

Flashback to Vaughters' kudos article on Tondo just 3 months ago
http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/jonathan-vaughters/connecting-the-dots

yeah i thought about that as soon as i heard about his death. wow, i thought that was like a month ago.

uh-oh

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/italian-police-search-radioshack-vehicles-on-giro-ditalia-rest-day

Team boss Johan Bruyneel left the race last night and was unavailable for comment.

quelle surprise

was gonna post on that, but got all distracted by the idea of lance asking popo to submit to jurisdiction by coming to ride for the roses, lol.

w/r/t giro: *yawn*

YO DAWG! HEARD YA LIKE HILLS SO WE PUT A HC TT IN YO HILLY SR!

http://cdn.mos.bikeradar.com/images/news/2011/05/23/1306146491331-wq26aplvgz2w-670-75.jpg

swine in the news

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/verbruggen-says-armstrong-never-never-never-doped

someone stick a syringe in it, this race is done

whats wrong with hill TTs btw? just rubbish?

they encourage risky behavior, like running with atlatl-propelled hypodermics

Hill climb TTs are good equalizers if the parcours of the other stages tilt the advantage to the fat mantis TT/sprint/breakaway artists.

But in mountainous stage races like the Giro which already favor the climbers, the selection through the mountains has been made over and over again and again x7 to the tune of about 10 minutes for the leader. Why add further to that? The final results are even further cemented now than they were a stage ago.

wrt grand tours, uphill time trials are stupid, redundant, and should be banned. #foodforthought

― the entire premise of your tweet is incorrect (Hunt3r), Monday, May 23, 2011 7:08 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

is conty planning on riding the tdf?

so...

I guess he can now

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cas-postpone-contador-hearing

Although ASO might not let him ride if there is no CAS decision.

so dominant, but nice gesture. i woulda thought tiralongo had a major win before this, its not like he's totally obscure.

Today's stage make me miss living in Torino. I shall have to buy a bottle Barolo to celebrate.

just switched over from F1 qualifying - beautiful looking roads. Have had a cheeky 2 quid on Menchov, he's going to win one, and at 30-1 couldn't not.

it sure isn't protour, but 55 y/o ned overend won iron horse for the 5th time today. *bows down*

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/527272/millar-wins-giro-s-final-time-trial-overall-result-in-doubt.html

Cycling Weekly not exactly overjoyed at Contador's victory.

Yesterday was all about the football and excessive alcohol consumption. I've only just discovered that Bradley Wiggins won a time trial stage and beat Cancellara in the process, and Geraint Thomas won the overall, and David Millar won the Giro time trial today.