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The Style Page

Wondering what the fashion-forward cyclist is wearing in France this July?

Fresh off the runways of Foix, France, Riccardo Ricco shows us what's hot!

Star-divide

Rocky_medium

To add bulk to his slim frame and give him that manly look, Riccardo chooses the horizontal stripes. Très Chic! Cooling white stripes for summer add contrast to simple black. Stripes are the new black, mais oui! Anklets are all the rage, report our spies among the gendarmerie, who are always in the know. The heavy chain, so unfinished, so industrial, so moderne! Merveilleux! The ball, now, this we do not precisely understand. So inconvenient. But bien sûr, one must suffer to be beautiful, n'est-ce pas? Coordinating accessories, the socks, the shoes, the sunglasses, and even the hat, ooh, là là, c'est parfait. We are aux anges! We can hardly wait to see who next adopts this cutting edge new style. Perhaps he will give it his own personal twist? We swoon at the thought, mes amis, absolutement bouleversé at the sight of such style, such je ne sais quoi.

Image by Veloki. All rights reserved. Please do not repost without permission. It's not nice.

2 recs  |  Comment 35 comments

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Oh yeah...

He’s going to be REAL popular in jail!

by itswells on Jul 21, 2008 2:54 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

The ball

Is the new man purse! It contains all the essentials for today’s modern man: wallet, mints, iPhone, tissues, brush, condoms, sunglasses, etc. all in a chic 80kg accessory! You never know when it will come in handy when having those “special encounters” with your fellow inmates! Word has it that Becks himself has one for every day of the week!

by ursula on Jul 21, 2008 2:55 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

bhahahahaha!

damn. i so wish i’d thought of that. man purse, ha!

by gavia on Jul 21, 2008 4:14 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I thought of giving him a coordinated musette,

but the ball as a “man purse”, oh yeah! There is probably even a secret compartment in there to hold who knows what…..

by Veloki on Jul 21, 2008 9:17 PM EDT up reply actions   1 recs

ball and chain

i just kept hearing mike ness. which made it very hard to stay in character, never mind think about man purses.

by gavia on Jul 21, 2008 11:48 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

+1

SD rules.

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum."

by Drew... on Jul 22, 2008 9:19 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Lucky!

Is Mike totally covered in ink now? Gotta be getting close.

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum."

by Drew... on Jul 22, 2008 1:50 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Si

Very inked. Voice is still good as ever. Dirty old man ;-)

Awesome show – those guys are tight. Ditto for Bad Religion, who also still tour and rock it hard.

by gavia on Jul 22, 2008 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I have to ask

why is everyone saying they “knew” Ricco was juiced before the rumors started after ‘Besse, yet at the same time another performance was being questioned and we have heard nothing (not even rumor) about a certain TT winner?

The Ricco wins were not that shocking – the TT thrashing Schoomi gave everyone still does not sit well. There, I said it.

by humbug1 on Jul 21, 2008 3:04 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

I'm not all that excited (anymore)

about kicking Ricco when he’s down. But, since you’ve asked, Ricco has been turning in suspicious tests since he was a junior. He was mentioned in some of the Italian investigations a couple of years ago and mysteriously pulled from SD’s Giro squadra without much of an explanation. While he hasn’t been full-on busted before now, he fits the profile of the “Men in Black” or folks w/ suspicous profiles that the ASO and WADA are pursuing w/ due dilligence.

As for Schumi, he’s had his share of brushes w/ the rules, but nothing, I repeat, nothing on the scale of Ricco’s. For example, his first problems were for a substance (something homeopathic, he got from his mother, a naturopathic doctor) that he wrote IN ADVANCE to his national federation for permission to use. He was granted permission, and then busted by WADA. This is the wisdom of zero tolerance laws.

Then traces of a substance were found in his system in a non-sporting test. No one could have sanctioned him for that without breaking every rule in the book. To be completely clear, nothing in Schumi’s drunk driving arrest could legally have been used to sanction him. This is just like Lance Armstrong’s so-called positive for cortisone in the 1999 tour. It is enough to make folks who don’t like him suspicious, but revealed nothing that was against the rules.

So while on the surface, Ricco and Schumi’s cases appear similar, I’d say there was real reason to doubt the integrity of Ricco’s performances, and Schumi less so. I mean, I’m not going to say I’m any more shocked if he gets busted than when say, Sinkewicz got busted, but Gerol has a good rep for self-policing and a management style that discourages the pharma advantage.

Riding fast is not evidence of doping. I guess folks can look at VAM figures to determining real “extra-terrestrial” performances from mere heroism. But as far as I know, there is no data supporting the argument that Schumi’s ITT was impossible without the aid of Pharma.

None of this is to suggest that suspicion of Schumi is not reasonable, but I don’t think it is any more reasonable to suspect Schumi than it is to suspect anyone and everyone who has ridden for managers like Saiz, Ferretti, Lefevre, Bruynll, Giannetti, Pino, Belda, etc.

Brooklyn Chewing Gum: Vlaanderens Mooiste

by Koppenberg on Jul 21, 2008 3:24 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

if you're looking for rumors and snark...

you can pretty much find it about just about any performance. seriously. plenty of rumors about the crono, also, as it happens, and schumi was asked point blank at the press conference how his case compared with boonen’s and why he was even riding the tour when boonen isn’t. plenty of questions out there about any number of the riders in this year’s tour and their performances.

judging from the reactions here, the views of ricco were pretty mixed. some believed him clean, others didn’t. pretty much what you can say about just about any rider out there. what k said is plenty true – he’s had a bad rep. for some time in italy. i do seem to recall posting that a few times over the last few months.

for me, there’s not much point in dwelling on this sort of thing. there’s always a possibility that a rider is doping, no one except him knowns the truth. either you’re willing to cheer for a particular rider or you aren’t.

by gavia on Jul 21, 2008 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Schumacher’s win wasn’t a huge surprise. He do win TT’s now and then, and he was only beaten by Bert Grabsch in the German championships just a couple of weeks ago.

Bork, bork, bork!

by TheFigurehead on Jul 21, 2008 4:36 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

yeah Ricco is more high profile

but a juiced performance robs the real winners no matter who it is.

I disagree with the riding fast assessment – rRemember Gonchar/Hochar’s win in ‘06 – really unbelievable he turned back the clock to come out of nowhere – no proof he was on the ‘PO but he was dumped by T early the next season after ACE came in. Ras-chicken’s climbing was never questioned but his wicked TT last year was questioned.

Back to Schoomi – he had irregular blood values before his bronze at Worlds last year – only to be explained away with a stomach virus/diarreha that seems so prevelent in the peleton. Or was it a toothache (another reason for dropping out of a race that seems way to prevelent, off the top of my head Tyler, Rodgers, Contador, Boonen) hmmm.

by humbug1 on Jul 21, 2008 3:51 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

abandons

just curious—i remember the tyler and rodgers abandons…

what races did contador and boonen abandon due to the stomach problems/toothache for boonen and contador?

"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind

by umwolverine on Jul 21, 2008 8:33 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I recall Contador

saying he had a toothache the last couple of days of Pais Vasco and not wanting to disclose it because he worried that his rivals would take advantage. Of course he won then had a tooth or two removed. But he made it through the race.

by ursula on Jul 21, 2008 10:50 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

yeah, contador did

and you could clearly see the swollen jaw… just wondering about the reference to an abandon by humbug1’s post…

"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind

by umwolverine on Jul 22, 2008 7:28 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Italian competition from Pozzato

href=”www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2008/tour08Restday” >

by NE Observer on Jul 21, 2008 4:03 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Nair?

“Who wears short-shorts?”

Although, I do approve of the pro men showing us more skin, pale tho it may be.

by marian on Jul 21, 2008 8:09 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

OK, I give up

It’s the 14th picture of CN’s Rest Day photos. Pozzato and Quinziato. Must be seen to be amused by.

by NE Observer on Jul 21, 2008 4:06 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Have you tried

tinyurl.com Makes it neater to cut/paste in.

"When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me."Emo Philips

by bethie on Jul 21, 2008 4:37 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Have you considered...

... giving up on the internet and just going back to a string with a pair of tin cans?

Ricco stole my marbles.

by crashdan on Jul 21, 2008 4:12 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

ha!

sometimes i think they would work better. this interwebs, so silly sometimes.

by gavia on Jul 21, 2008 4:15 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

The Next Killer App

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum."

by Drew... on Jul 21, 2008 4:36 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Only one tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny criticism...

... the sunglasses should have white frames.

Ricco stole my marbles.

by crashdan on Jul 21, 2008 7:37 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

with some sparkles

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."

by nikki on Jul 21, 2008 8:47 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

si

a banned substance, those sunglasses

by gavia on Jul 21, 2008 9:34 PM EDT up reply actions   1 recs

Maybe something like...

... Elton John’s Caribou Album?

Ricco stole my marbles.

by crashdan on Jul 22, 2008 6:54 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

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