I can't ignore the Ullrich press, but first... some Cycling!
- On the road this morning: Daniele Bennati snags Stage 2 of De Panne in a field sprint. Relive all the action in our live thread below! Luca Paolini remains the overall leader, something likely to be determined in tomorrow's final time trial. Alessandro Ballan is six seconds back.
- VeloNews: WTF? As of 11am Pacific, their front page does not include a single mention of the Tour of Flanders. But they can run two pieces on Jan Ullrich. Sorry, but right now their website is a complete joke.
- Here's what a real Cycling website looks like: Pez runs its Flanders Viewing Guide and asks Steffen Wesemann to tell us how to win the race. The latter is a rerun, but well worth a look. Pez rocks, but I still challenge them to pick a winner this time!
- Among team sites, T-Mobile has the most to report regarding its preparations. Andreas Klier will race, but is still feeling the effects of a recent crash, so officially at least, the team leaders are Kim Kirchen and Marcus Burghardt.
- CyclingNews isn't waiting until the last minute: Gregor posts his Ronde Preview well ahead of their usual schedule.
- As for Ullrich, since this is the only matter of interest to the "Journal of Competitive Cycling," we'll listen to Andy Hood report on the fallout in Germany. It's not Andy's fault the site is in such shambles; he's a solid reporter. My $.02 on Jan is some relief... among the OP suspects, his was an especially poignant case. Last year was likely his only shot at post-Lance redemption, something a lot of us wanted to see for a good-guy champion. So when his career evaporated overnight, well, it seemed pretty sad. Unless he was guilty, which now seems more than apparent,* in which case he can fuck off.
[* I've been stumping for due process, but don't confuse due process with iron-clad evidence. Jan will have his day in court, and there are other possible explanations, but the circumstantial evidence is, IMHO, impossible to dismiss. People have control over their blood, and don't tend to make bags of it without some pretty deliberate purposes in mind.]