UCI WorldTour and other pro cycling nonsense 2011

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.

dear lazynets,

is there anywhere to catch video highlights of the US Pro Championships? or is USA cycling coverage restricted only to sketchy dopers coming out of the closet?

Have you tried steephill?

Yeah, i actually chatted with them and they said that Versus (shitty us "alt sports"? network) will be showing recaps this coming weekend. 1 week delays in the '11, good stuff.

Jealous of britishers, aussies and le euros...

lol, i remember back when the tdf was 1/2 hour first weekend, 1 hour second and third weekends on abc, and they cut away all the time to like, world lawn darts champs.

Just saw this:
http://neilbrowne.com/2011/06/opportunity-for-versus-to-increase-cyclings-ratings/

eh, dunno. i just don't see the future of pro cycling video in usa being distributed cable programming. the interests just don't align, no matter how much mr. browne wishes that an educated viewership could be created and fostered. i can think of programming/scheduling that that might help achieve that end, but...good luck finding a cable venue for it.

i don't think it would hurt to "teach the controversy" wrt cycling, esp now that ppl know how pervasive doping is. i don't mean to have guys being all cynical about doping and who's gonna pop next (that's what the internets are for), but yeah, have commentators be really real about it.

i haven't followed universal/nbc too closely, but what do ppl think of universal's model? they seemed to do web based shit in addition to cable.

looking at that, i dont mean teach the controversy, i just mean, don't gloss over it when the dude in the pink jersey could be suspended and stripped in the near future. maybe they did a good job with that on tv, i don't know- i didn't watch! ha maybe i should talk about something i know about. *crickets*

I think you're probably right (not that I see American cycling coverage, though). For quite a while I thought all coverage was pretty frank about the numerous doping controversies, but after quite a while I realised that all the frank stuff on ITV was done by Ned Boulting / Gary Imlach (the journalist/presenter types, doing their little pieces) while the commentary from Paul Sherwen and Phil Ligget barely touched on it, if at all. Which is fine: it made for a balanced programme. But then eventually I discovered that the Phil & Paul bit was syndicated to various other countries (but obviously without the Boulting/Imlach stuff), so I assume a lot of coverage does the ostrich with head in the sand trick.

the Real Peloton podcast is highly recommended for the true views of Ned and Matt Rendell, they are most definitely not pro-Lance, unlike Paul and Phil, who are great commentators, but definitely Lance-enablers. Also the Flammecaste, for even more cynicism and anti-dopig talk.

<3
http://www.leopardtrek.lu/news/jens-answers-your-questions

the downhill skills of Thor Hushovd. He’s amazing going downhill.

huh, i never knew that

He's an unmantislike 170-180+ pounds... Never hurts to have gravity on your side.

Wiggins going very well in the Dauphine: a good prologue, up near the front in the next two stages (both with uphill finishes) and second place in today's time trial at Grenoble (using the exact same course as the TT in the TDF) to Tony Martin has put him into the yellow jersey.

Not just yellow - he's in green as well!

http://www.youtube.com/v/JVsp4X7Y8VI

proper embed:
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVsp4X7Y8VI

:^O hahahahahaha

Mon dieu, vaches dangereaux.

Thought for sure Wiggins would be toast but have to give him credit for hanging in there.

Yeah, that was impressive. With about 2km to go I thought he was about to blow up, but in the end he hardly lost any time to VdB or Vino and put time into Evans. Unless he falls apart tomorrow he should get the overall.

Just watched the webcast of the Tulsa Tough, a USA NRC 3-day crit Omnium. It looks really fun! I really want to go race it some day now (they have amateur/masters fields). Who knew I'd ever want to go to Tulsa.

Great win by Wiggins. Best British stage race performance since the days of Robert Millar. I think he's looking good for a top ten in the Tour de France, maybe even top 6.

Unless he was hiding his form, I'm pretty convinced he won't podium. He can do ok with good time trials and just sticking with the contenders but I don't ever think I've seen him go out on the attack. That said, sky should be a stronger team this year, boassen-Hagen did great yesterday.

He's one of those riders who can climb well at a regular rhythm, but hates the sudden accelerations that the top climbers can do. Every time he got dropped he didn't panic, he just kept his pace and rode back to them over the course of a minute or so. Because of this, I don't think he's got an awful lot of attack in him - he's usually just clinging on. He attacked and dropped Armstrong at Verbier in 2009 and he attacked the leaders on a huge climb in the Giro last year, but basically just stayed about 20 seconds clear on his own for 2 or 3 km then got reeled in and dropped. I can't remember any other attacks.

i don't know if he's even as "dynamic" as leipheimer or evans 1.0, but def less than evans 2.0.

wow, its like a luge run that lasted 15 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7VT-cDytsE&feature=player_embedded

That was absolutely terrifying

i need a cigarette after that

Cav headed to Sky for 1.5GBP/yr

MILLION! lol

i would be mega-surprised if goss wasn't at greenedge next year too. add greipel to that and highroad've lost their three best sprinters in 12 months.