Sunday, January 23, 2011

Do You Want The Good News or the Bad News - January

2008 TDF Champ
The month of January has been a busy one so far in the world of skinny tires... Geox-TMC woes continue as they have been snubbed from the TDF and Paris Nice.  The Tour organizers released the 2011 roster earlier this month and Geox was not on the list.  Wild card additions  Cofidis, Saur-Sojasun, FDJ and Team Europcar made the list and all I can say is you Frenchies better ride well as TDF organizers have put a lot of faith in you - not inviting the 2008 winner and 2010 third place finisher (Menchov) is a big gamble. You have to feel for Sastre as he is 35 and this could possibly be his last crack at the tour...here is hoping he can place well in the Giro and Vuelta and throw it back in the face of the TDF brass.


I crashed in Stage 2!
The Santos Tour Down Under is wrapping up today and I was a bit disappointed that we did not get to see the Cav vs. Greipel showdown that was brewing since their  initial beef that started last year.  With Greipel now on Omega Pharma Lotto and Cav riding on HTC-Highroad, they were set to go head to head and fans everywhere eagerly awaited the sparks to fly.  Cav ended up crashing in Stage 2 and calamity ensued as he and two other riders ended up finishing the race on an open course...Needless to say, the Manx Missile was less than happy and overall ended up finishing 33:51 behind for a stellar, bottem of the list placing of 129 overall.  As for Greipel?  He finished 7th,  0.27 seconds behind the overall winner Cameron Meyer of Garmin-Cervelo.  We will have to wait for the next installment of The Gorilla VS. The Manx Missle....


The Tour Down Under also saw the International Racing career of Lance Armstrong come to a close.  Aside from one flare up courtesy of Sports Illustrated, things were relatively quiet.  Lance  finished 6:42 behind and placed 67.  Given the allegations surrounding Lance, I think it would be a miracle for him to focus on racing enough to place well in the domestic races he has left in 2011.




Here is a good one - Pat McQuaid says Contador has tainted the image of cycling regardless if he is innocent or not.  Responding to McQuaids comments, Alberto declared the steak he ate is tarnishing the image of cows.  The gong show continues...










Sadly, the cycling world lost a good one...Carla Swart (HTC HighRoad) was killed while training  at home in South Africa...condolences to all involved, very tragic.  Be safe out there!!



On the lighter side, Floyd Landis retires from pro-racing and said the battle to clean up cycling's drug-tainted image is not his to fight..."I'm relatively sure this sport cannot be fixed, but that's not my job, that's not my fight."  As Floyd was heading out the door he did recommend that cyclists should be allowed to use performance enhancing drugs.  You can catch Floyd on his book tour as he reissues his book Positively False.
Positively Crap!
Lots more news to come - I am going for a spin down in the dungeon.  Ride safe out there and keep the rubber side down!

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