- It's hard to imagine anyone with this much free time, but just in case, there's a Directeur Sportif video game where apparently the objective is to guide your charges through a race-winning strategy. Free trials available, and the site gives you a quick demo. Apparently you pick the riders, select the right bike, and send them off. The site touts its lifelike features -- launch an attack that sends Rabobank into disarray! Follow Rene Haselbacher over the barriers! Somebody out there, try it and report back...
- Tom Boonen's winning streak is up to at least five, counting back to the Worlds last fall. Since then he's worn the rainbow jersey four times -- once in Curacao in November (there's no way that was fixed), and now three times in Qatar. All wins. With guys like Zabel hunting around for the line, at least we can assume the latest wins were on the up and up. Begging the question: is Boonen peaking too soon, or is the Classics season practically over for the rest of the field?
Update [2006-2-1 14:24:26 by chris]: Make that six straight... the rainbow warrior pipped Zabel again today in Qatar.
- Say what you want about the true significance of the Rainbow Jersey, but we're a long way from the days of Romans Vainsteins, um, representing.
- It kind of makes a mockery of my blogging on the need for one single lousy PCT race on US soil when in France you can get a decent showing of PCT teams to show up at a race named after the national anthem. [Baden Cooke won yesterday's GP Ouverture "La Marseillaise."] And US organizers can't top that? Here's an idea: Tour of the Springsteen Songbook. One stage for each of his first five albums. Why wouldn't this work?
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