Is it just me or is the Het Volk countdown clock picking up speed?
- Before I switched to a new one, the Podium Cafe mileage poll had received 157 votes representing, at an absolute minimum, 507,000 miles ridden in 2007. The actual number is probably more like 600,000, since the calculations assumed the lowest number for each range... not a realistic assumption. Call it the sandbagging buffer. Anyway, the conclusion is you folks earned many a heavy, creamy Belgian brew in 2007.
- Speaking of the new poll, apologies for departing from cycling, but after years of media hypocrisy among the other sports, I can't resist. In some ways, I'm a very small person.
- I'm not the biggest Cadel Evans fan, but I might become one:
"I've cycled in every continent in the world, other than Antarctica, and it's incredible. Drivers in America and Australia just have attitudes. I don't necessarily say attitudes towards cyclists, but towards other road users," the 2007 ProTour champion said. "People just don't realise the danger they're causing other people."
Another way cycling is more like life than other sports: professional baseball, football, etc. players all train under the best conditions. Pro cyclists encounter just as many crap drivers as I do... times however many more hours they log. Lance and LeMond could tell stories for hours about homicidal truckers.
- Also from the same CN Notes, Marcus Burghardt is back on track for spring after a training mishap (not involving cars).
- The new High Road kit is undefeated so far, with Roger Hammond's successful debut in the Brit Cross Nats.
- Not such a Nys guy? Sven takes Belgian Cross Nats. Marco Fontana won in Italy. Not sure about other European results.
- The Spanish Cycling Federation won't pursue Iban Mayo after the UCI had his previously negative B-sample retested at Chatenay-Mabry and found it positive. From the nation that brought you Operacion Puerto comes the concern that re-examining Mayo's case in light of the re-test might constitute double-jeopardy. I'm for rider's rights, but, well, what would Werner Franke do?