A burst of Paris-Tours generic previews highlights today's media rundown...
- Now that internet traffic has drastically tailed off for the week, CyclingNews trots out its Paris-Tours preview, touts Voeckler, Boonen and Pozzato.
- Pez"thinks it will be a CSC guy on his own," a prediction that will almost certainly be true at some point, if not the finish.
- Meanwhile, speaking of daring predictions, Eurosport mentions Boonen a full four days after I did. They also predict Hushovd will be leading out for Jan Kirsipuu, riding his last race.
- And not to be outdone, VeloNews asks readers to guess the name of the ex-cyclist driving a backhoe. Apparently a 111-year-old race doesn't really register.
There's really very little else going on out there, except don't miss CN's blurb about a reunion ride pitting Franco Ballerini, Max Sciandri, Andrea Tafi, Silvio Martinello and Rolf Sorensen at the Manchester Velodrome. According to Ballerini, "Rolf is maybe the one - how can I put this? - with the most meat on him." And the money quote:
"Your name can be Armstrong," said Franco, "but if you stop putting the kilometres in, you'll soon become cannon-fodder. The bicycle is a nasty piece of work in that respect."
So freakin true, alas.