I know it has only been three days -- so what?
You need it, I need it, it's This Week in Road Cycling.
Local Racing:
Races in September: This month will close out the road racing season in AZ.
-AZ Team Time Trial Championships: Picacho, AZ- Sept 7; http://www.southwesthandcyclingteam.com/AZTT/TTT.htm
-AZ Time Trial Championships: Picacho, AZ- Sept 14; http://www.southwesthandcyclingteam.com/AZTT/ITT.htm
-Buckeye Crit: Buckeye, AZ- Sept 20; http://www.wmrc.org/buckeye/index.htm
-Sonoita TT: Sonoita, AZ- Sept 21; http://www.saguarovelo.org/infosonoita.htm
-AZ Hill Climb Championships: Mt. Graham, AZ- Sept 28; http://presteza.com/MtGrahamIndex.html
-AZ Cyclocross Race #1: Payson, AZ- Sept 28; http://www.azcross.com/content/races/september_28th2c_2008.aspx
Pro Racing:
Vuelta a Espana: The final grand tour of the year is finally here. The Tour of Spain doesn't enjoy as much popularity as the Tour de France or the Giro d'Italia, but it's always difficult. This year in particular is going to be quite difficult with the return of the climb to the top of the Angliru. Last used in 2002, Roberto Heras resorted to using a triple crankset in order to take the win. But that doesn't happen for two weeks. Here is what has been happening so far.
-Stage 1 Team Time Trial: Liquigas came through with the win, possibly upsetting the first week hopes of Alberto Contador (Astana, winner: Tour '07, Giro '08) and Carlos Sastre (CSC-Saxo Bank, winner: Tour '08). Filippo Pozzato came across the line first for the team, and took the first Maillot Oro. Normally I would take this chance to poke fun of Pozzato by mentioning his questionable style, and showing pictures like this, this, and this. Not this time though. This time I simply say to Mr. Pozzato -- respect.
-Stage 2: Alejandro Valverde (Caisse D'Epargne) won an uphill sprint, again. The profile of stage 2 looked a lot like one of the Spring classics, or stage 1 of the Tour. With the time bonus that was at the end, Valverde took over the lead from the mustachioed Pozatto. A big part of me hopes that Valverde will be able to ride strongly throughout the whole race, and possibly win. I'm not going to be as foolish as I was during the Tour though, it's silly to bet against Contador.
US Pro Championships
-Time Trial: Zabriskie (Garmin- Chipotle) won his third in a row. It's really not that surprising when this happens anymore, but it was good for the guy to win after his season was pretty much shut down by a crash in the Giro. Zirbel (Bissell) and Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle) rounded out the podium.
-Road Race: With Leipheimer over in Spain, the USPro road race started without a defending champion this year. It was a pretty hard race with a lot of guys dropping out, and it eventually came down to a photo finish between Tyler Hamilton (Rock Racing) and Blake Caldwell (Garmin-Chipotle). The 37 year old Hamilton managed to just barely beat the 24 year old Caldwell, and he did it without his twin. Hamilton's come pretty far from what he was a few years ago, so this win has got to be pretty nice. I'm just looking forward to how ridiculous Michael Ball will make the national champions kit look. Danny Pate (Garmin-Chipotle) rounds out the podium in third and Lucas Euser (Garmin-Chipotle) was fourth.
Tour of Ireland:
-When last we left the Tour of Ireland, Mark Cavendish (Columbia) had won the first two stages and was wearing the leaders jersey. Well, he won another stage and continued to maintain the lead. that was until David Millar (Garmin-Chipotle) decided to make everyone ride their bikes through a river. Fording a river proved to be too much for Cavendish, and he surrendered the lead to a guy (Russel Downing; Pinarello-CandiTV) who stole Valverde's bike. It's OK for Cavendish though, because on the final day his teammate Frantisek Rabon took the stage win, and his other teammate Marco Pinotti ended up winning the GC.
Deutschland Tour:
-Linus Gerdemann (Columbia) doesn't have a broken leg anymore, and he proved it by winning the first stage of the Tour of Germany. On the second day David de la Fuente took the win while Gerdemann remained in the lead.
Tech News:
Probably some of the biggest news this week was that Cervelo will no longer be sponsoring Bjarne Riis' team. Instead, Cervelo will be starting their own team (with all of the former CSC sponsors) that may or may not have Carlos Sastre on it. Instead of Cervelo, the new Saxo Bank team will be riding Specialized.
Here is a short list of some other changes
Team Columbia: Scott (was Giant)
Rabobank: Giant (was Colnago)
Katyusha (formerly Tinkoff): Ridley
Silence Lotto: I don't know, but they were just dumped by Ridley
American Beef (formerly Scott-American Beef, formerly Saunier-Duval): I don't know
That's all for now,
Anthony
P.S. I think Pozzato stole the whole mustache idea from Zabriskie earlier in the year.
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2 comments:
hahaha the Pozzato -- respect links have got to be the funniest set of clicks i have ever had. Thank you Euro Anthony. They just keep getting better.
hahaha, I opened a bunch of the pictures in new tabs to look at after reading the paragraph...it took me a while to find where the heck a picture of Anthony came from. You're looking more and more Euro every day, Anthony!
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