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suspension to take effect 15 Aug.

about 9 hours ago plinytheelder comment 9 comments 0 recs

Giro Donne – Opening Prologue

by Monty. on Jul 3, 2009 3:03 PM EDT Comment 10 comments

Tonight, at 19:00 local time, the 2009 Giro Donne finally began with a 2.5km prologue time trial in Scarperia, near Florence, and the last rider is expected to finish at 22:00, which suggests 1 minute intervals at first then 2 minutes for "I big." In contrast to last years’s jaunt up and down the station car park, this year the organisers are riding right through the best bits of a very pretty and historic village. Scarperia was built by the Florentines in the early 14th Century to protect their northern flank, and its dominant feature is the Palazzo dei Vicari, sited of course in the Piazza Vicari, which holds both the start and finish lines.

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Tour Only VDS: 15 MINUTES TO GO

by Sui Juris on Jul 3, 2009 2:43 PM EDT in Virtual Directeur Sportif! Comment 85 comments

Tourbecco_eye_medium Tour Only VDS teams are due by NOON PACIFIC TIME. Go here for the competition details. Please be kind to the folks running this thing and follow the directions for submission.

Reminder: Use the tourbecco@yahoo.com address for submissions. Not the usual PdC[at]Yahoo.

Also, in case you were sleeping, Boonen's in, Davis is out. And Crashdan still won't place.

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Tour Stage 1 Preview: Monaco ITT

by crashdan on Jul 3, 2009 12:32 PM EDT in News Comment 27 comments

Stage 1 :: Saturday July 4, 2009
15.5km :: Monaco

Well, that time is upon us, the first Stage Preview of the 2009 edition of Le Tour de France. We begin the July festivities in the Principality of Monaco, one of the few remaining City States left on the earth (can you name the others?) Monaco is the home of such natives as Boris Becker and Michael Rassmussen, bet you didn't know they were from Monaco!

Let's have a look at where we're goin and what we're gonna do...

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Eight Ball Goes to the Tour

by gavia on Jul 3, 2009 12:31 PM EDT in Gossip! Comment 15 comments

8ball-tom_medium

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King of the Mountains Preview: Quest for the Spotty Jersey

by ursula on Jul 3, 2009 10:21 AM EDT Comment 16 comments

What a long strange competition this is.

I won't get into the history of the maillot à pois rouges; instead I'll ask you this: last year after Bernard Kohl was disqualified, you probably knew that Christian Vandevelde moved up to 4th place in the General Classification. But who became the new KOM? Some of you know, but honestly I completely forgot. I'm sure I read about it but it was just a bit more trivia in my mind easily forgotten. And to me that says it all about this odd classification because with Kohl's downfall Carlos Sastre donned the spots and there hasn't been a winner of both the yellow and the spotty jersey since Eddy Merckx in 1970. Chapeau Carlos!

Just for the record, it's also hard to win the KOM and Overall in the same year for the Giro and Vuelta too. Denis Menchov did it in the 2007 Vuelta. Before Menchov you go back to Rominger in 93. Giro? Pantani in 98 and Hampstein in 88.

For the Tour, the winners of the KOM often win it several times in a row as you see here. So is Sastre the heavy favorite? I can see the logic in that. Said logic goes like this: The first two decisive stages in this year's Tour are the opening ITT and stage four's TTT. Both happen before any real mountains and in neither will Sastre shine. So heading into the Pyrenees, Carlos could be a couple of minutes behind a whole herd of GC guys who can TT so he's got to hit the mountains hard and often. Depending on how far he's back in the GC he might be allowed to win some stages like stage 7's mountaintop finish, thus giving him oodles of KOM points. When the race hits the Alps the same scenario might play out again if he's far enough out of the GC race. And even if he's still in competition for the GC he'll almost have to win Mt. Ventoux and all those KOM points to have a chance.

Of course if Carlos is too close to the overall lead he might not get the chance to win stages and so we'd have to look at other KOM contenders... on the flip

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Boonen sera la!!!!

by bradBordeaux on Jul 3, 2009 7:04 AM EDT Comment 61 comments

Tom Boonen will be on the start on Monaco.......

The long drama has come to an end. Take that ASO, Minister for Sport...my arse....From Eurosport as of 13.00 Today:

Selon les médias belges, Tom Boonen sera bien au départ du Tour de France samedi à Monaco. La Chambre arbitrale du sport du comité national olympique et sportif français aurait statué en faveur du coureur de l'équipe Quick Step, l'autorisant à s'aligner sur la Grande Boucle.

Boonen, Boonen, Boonen, Boonen......BatMan!!!

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Speed Sells!

by Chris... on Jul 3, 2009 12:26 AM EDT in News Comment 57 comments

I'm not a huge proponent of running ad pics, but Nike sent this to me as a preview of their forthcoming promo campaign on Cavendish's behalf, at least in the U.K., and I thought it worth sharing. First, Nike generates some great images, with minimal emphasis on commercialism. And secondly... Nike is running a promo campaign on Mark Cavendish?

To the US audience -- and by this I mean the mass-market audience, which isn't quite the same as us hardcore fans -- Cavendish has a chance of catching on. Not a great one; being British is a benefit compared to other European nationalities but a far cry from American. But a chance. Nike are keying on his mouth, and his blazing speed, sort of a trash-talking Usain Bolt on wheels. Unfortunately for Cav, the void created by Lance Armstrong's retirement is currently being filled by... Lance Armstrong. But that's a temporary fix. I suspect to the British mass-market audience this could be rather huge. For the same reason Cav can't draw Americans in like Lance, I would assume Lance never quite lit up the U.K. the way Cav could.

As for Nike, I'm curious to see what they have in mind. Their forays into cycling have been disappointingly limited to following Lance around. That said, the sport gave them plenty of reasons to fade from the scene in the years 2005-8, so perhaps their campaign signals a new confidence in the sport. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but after the last decade new sponsors, particularly of this cachet, are a big deal. I love the "Green is my Yellow" tagline to the video on the flip. After a few decades of being force-fed the yellow jersey, these mass markets might need a little educating on what the maillot vert means, lest people start scoffing at how Cavendish hasn't won on Mont Ventoux.

As a Northwesterner, I can't also help but notice that Nike and Cavendish's primary sponsor, Columbia Sportswear, are neighbors in Portland, OR. I've written in the past about the strong identity cycling has carved out in Portland, so I note with much interest the harmonic convergence here, and make a big mental note to keep an eye on where this is going. Perhaps being the world's best team and rattling off 80 wins a year will get you some love from the U.S. of A. after all. OK, enough unanswerable questions from me. On the flip, an interview with Cav.

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