The rubber has met the road again, in two countries and on two Cycling.TV channels. That and other news, after these commercials.
Duvel... the King of Beers!
- Il Falco soars again! Remember the last time Paolo Savoldelli won the Tour de Romandie prologue? Well, he got sick, DNF'd, and bombed out of the Giro. But the year before that he was heroic! Anyway, he's getting old, but if Savoldelli is on form, the Giro gets 20% more interesting than it already was. Our friend Horner in third... warming up the podium for Cadel Evans? We'll see; the defending Romandie champ was definitely not in peak form last weekend.
- Back on home soil, T-Mobile's Patrik Sinkewicz won the Rund um Henninger Turm by attacking Dario Cataldo and Kurt Asle-Arvesen in the last 300 meters.
- Some non-depressing doping news: T-Mobile is launching an investigation into two of its own doctors (circa 1996) concerning allegations that they injected Telekom riders with PEDs. The reason this isn't as nauseating as your typical doping story is: when's the last time a team launched an investigation? Maybe the new T-Mobile model is for real... or maybe I shouldn't believe everything I read. We'll see.
- Pez does its usual visual feast on Liege.
- The LBL winner is not exactly basking in his victory; DiLuca is skipping Romandie to go preview the Zoncolan and Tre Cime di Lavaredo climbs of the Giro, where he says he'll be back to his 2005 level. I actually think he could be slightly better, if his peak is later. And the competition has winnowed down a bit to where he has to be a top five favorite at least.
- Speaking of the Giro, we will be kicking off our coverage in the next day or two -- you'll know it when you see it. But CyclingRevealed is off and running with theirs.