Chock full of nutrients today, mostly from Germany...
- CN has two sets of reactions to the T-Mobile news here and here. Sounds like the team is rallying around Bob Stapleton, which is a good sign. But they're also losing Adidas, and Audi and Giant are also considering the chicken-shit pile-on move of following suit. I wasn't going to buy an Audi anyway, but I'll add Giant to the blacklist if they do this. Or maybe I'll just laugh at them when Team High Road switches to Cannondale and doubles their win total next year.
- Anyone wondering why I use the nickname "Professor Wilcockson" and whether that's a term of respect need look no further than today's article on the history of Team T-Mobile and the significance of yesterday's events. Also, not to spoil the punchline or anything, but it's nice to see some subtle digs at the German media, which has blood all over its hands today. Question: does Wilcockson even need to look any of this stuff up to write an article, or is he the walking Cycling history textbook I picture him as? This is a must-read. [editor's note, by chris] Warning! contains Hennie Kuiper worship.
- No nonsense at the D-Tour: the show goes on!. How refreshing is that?
- From the same VN notes, Danilo Hondo is headed to Diquigiovanni. Is anyone else troubled by the number of riders with shady pasts flocking to Italy these days?
On to better things...
- Could Alberto Contador be wearing as many different colors as Paolo Bettini someday? That's a tall task, but according to Eurosport he's targeting the Olympic road race -- with its six trips up a 12km climb -- along with return engagements in Paris-Nice and Le Tour.
- In the aftermath of the ~:> affair, it's time for Rabo management to shuffle some deck chairs.
- Back to the CN notes, Vladimir Putin wants to spend government resources on a Russian Pro Tour team. There's a certain symmetry with the sport being taken over by eastern European governments simultaneously with the whole doping scandal thingy. But the rules would still apply to them, and they could put together one hell of a squad tomorrow if they brought all their boys (Gusev, Efimkin, Menchov, Ignatiev, Karpets, etc.) home.
- And finally, Stuart O'Grady got some amused head nods with his "harden the fuck up" campaign inside Team CSC. This may be old news, but I've just been sent a video of a guy named Ronnie Johns, who apparently has made a nice living back in Oz spewing this phrase over and over. Watch for yourself if you dare. Frankly I think it's kind of awful: Johns is a human beer keg who contemptuously launches his pet phrase at anyone who isn't also a human beer keg. It's a short trip from here to generalized intolerance, racism, and freedom fries. Stuey's employment of the phrase is a better fit, but is this really the movement he wants to associate himself with?
Update [2007-11-28 18:29:18 by chris]: Inside-baseball fake eBay item of the day... thanks Cosmo