Hey Team,
Check out the new Velocity Group Cycling website: http://velocitygroupcycling.com/ It's a great place to get your local cycling news. I think Tom Lang's back is in one of pics on the homepage. See if you can find it.
-Niko
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
This Week in Road Cycling: Jan 25 - Jan 31
2009 is the year of the comeback: Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, Ivan Basso, Michele Bartoli (?), Jose Luis Rubiera (sort of). That's all fine with me, so long as Jens Voigt never retires.
Oops, I forgot the most important comeback of them all.
The triumphant return of This Week in Road Cycling.
Shazzam!!!
Local Racing:
January 2009:
-Swiss Crit; January 31 - Peoria Sports Complex (http://www.azcycling.com/09cal/FLYERS/Swiss_Crit.pdf)
February 2009:
-Avondale Crit; February 1 - Avondale, AZ (http://proconcyclingaz.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=49&Itemid=105)
-McDowell Circuit Race; February 8 - McDowell Mt Park (http://www.azcycling.com/09cal/FLYERS/McDMCR.pdf)
-VOS; February 13-15 - Various Locations (http://wmrc.org/vos/index.htm)
-Sun Devil Crit; February 22 - Tempe (http://asuctc.com/criterium.html)
Pro Racing:
Tour Down Under: The Pro Tour started early this year, with the TDU enjoying its status as an event in the highest tier of bike racing. It was a pretty sweet event, that enjoyed a lot more publicity this year than in years past, thanks to some guy.
Allan Davis (Quickstep) handily won the race this year, with three stage wins. A couple things: why would a race make the leaders jersey ochre? Also, why do Columbia's kits look so ridiculous?
Tour de San Luis: This small Argentinian stage race enjoyed a little bit more attention than it has in year past, due to the presence of a confused looking Ivan Basso (Liguigas). Honestly though, Basso rode pretty well (ninth in the TT, and sixth in the stage 5 mountaintop finish). Alfredo Lucero of Team Argentina won the overall.
Cyclocross: All you really need to know is that Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) won another world cup title. He also retained his national title and is still leading the superprestige standings. He hasn't been as dominant in years past, thanks to a batch of young riders that are challenging his dominance, but he still wins when it counts. Finally, thanks to the presence of Lars Boom, Niels Albert, Zdenek Stybar, and the ever present Bart Wellens, Erwin Vervecken and Jonathan Page, the World Championships next week in Hoogerheide should be interesting.
There you go, now you're all caught up.
Until next time,
Anthony
*all images courtesy of cyclingnews
Oops, I forgot the most important comeback of them all.
The triumphant return of This Week in Road Cycling.
Shazzam!!!
Local Racing:
January 2009:
-Swiss Crit; January 31 - Peoria Sports Complex (http://www.azcycling.com/09cal/FLYERS/Swiss_Crit.pdf)
February 2009:
-Avondale Crit; February 1 - Avondale, AZ (http://proconcyclingaz.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=49&Itemid=105)
-McDowell Circuit Race; February 8 - McDowell Mt Park (http://www.azcycling.com/09cal/FLYERS/McDMCR.pdf)
-VOS; February 13-15 - Various Locations (http://wmrc.org/vos/index.htm)
-Sun Devil Crit; February 22 - Tempe (http://asuctc.com/criterium.html)
Pro Racing:
Tour Down Under: The Pro Tour started early this year, with the TDU enjoying its status as an event in the highest tier of bike racing. It was a pretty sweet event, that enjoyed a lot more publicity this year than in years past, thanks to some guy.
Allan Davis (Quickstep) handily won the race this year, with three stage wins. A couple things: why would a race make the leaders jersey ochre? Also, why do Columbia's kits look so ridiculous?
Tour de San Luis: This small Argentinian stage race enjoyed a little bit more attention than it has in year past, due to the presence of a confused looking Ivan Basso (Liguigas). Honestly though, Basso rode pretty well (ninth in the TT, and sixth in the stage 5 mountaintop finish). Alfredo Lucero of Team Argentina won the overall.
Cyclocross: All you really need to know is that Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) won another world cup title. He also retained his national title and is still leading the superprestige standings. He hasn't been as dominant in years past, thanks to a batch of young riders that are challenging his dominance, but he still wins when it counts. Finally, thanks to the presence of Lars Boom, Niels Albert, Zdenek Stybar, and the ever present Bart Wellens, Erwin Vervecken and Jonathan Page, the World Championships next week in Hoogerheide should be interesting.
There you go, now you're all caught up.
Until next time,
Anthony
*all images courtesy of cyclingnews
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
State of the Club
Hey Team,
We did a lot of great things this semester; I want to thank all of you for making it so successful. We’ve trained, raced, and partied harder than I’ve ever seen in my 3+ years of club experience. We’ve established solid relationships with great organizations and have managed in a positive reputation in our community. We’ve raised more funds than ever before allowing us to increase your benefit package and better represent our school at the local and national level. We’ve sent our first team ever to Cross Nationals and will send our largest team ever to Triathlon Nationals. It’s clear that we’ve successfully worked towards accomplishing our mission. Our future is very promising. We have a lot to look forward to. The Sun Devil 5k and Sun Devil Criterium are almost upon us and Tri Nationals will be just around the corner. So use the holiday break as an escape from school work, not an escape from training as we’ll need you again in the coming months. If you’re in town keep your eye on the calendar as we’ll be still be training, we’ll still be racing, and we’ll still be enjoying life as part of ASUCTC.
Thanks for an amazing term.
-Niko
We did a lot of great things this semester; I want to thank all of you for making it so successful. We’ve trained, raced, and partied harder than I’ve ever seen in my 3+ years of club experience. We’ve established solid relationships with great organizations and have managed in a positive reputation in our community. We’ve raised more funds than ever before allowing us to increase your benefit package and better represent our school at the local and national level. We’ve sent our first team ever to Cross Nationals and will send our largest team ever to Triathlon Nationals. It’s clear that we’ve successfully worked towards accomplishing our mission. Our future is very promising. We have a lot to look forward to. The Sun Devil 5k and Sun Devil Criterium are almost upon us and Tri Nationals will be just around the corner. So use the holiday break as an escape from school work, not an escape from training as we’ll need you again in the coming months. If you’re in town keep your eye on the calendar as we’ll be still be training, we’ll still be racing, and we’ll still be enjoying life as part of ASUCTC.
Thanks for an amazing term.
-Niko
Monday, November 24, 2008
Last month in Road Cycling
Hey, so I don't really know what happened. One week of pushing TWIRC off turned into two, and before I knew it an entire month had passed without any updates. I know most of you rely on my blog entries, and schedule your entire life around it. I'm sorry, I hope you remembered to eat and sleep.
But here it is, back in all of its glory -- except there isn't really a whole lot of interesting stuff to discuss. There are no road races happening in Arizona, and the only pro race that happened that was of any importance was the Japan Cup.
The Japan Cup, they should really call it the "Italians Racing Each Other in Japan Cup." Twelve times in the races 17 year history the race has been won by an Italian, and the last 4 editions have been an all Italian sweep. Even the podium this year was completely Italian. Damiano Cunego (Lampre) managed to hold onto his awesome season ending form that had garnered him the win in Lombardia the week before. In second was that guy who definitely spends considerable time eyebrow shaping, Giovanni Visconti (Quickstep). But that guy in third. It took me a little while to figure out who that guy was. Turns out his name is Ivan Basso, and I guess he's kind of a big deal. The picture from Wikipedia shows me that he was on Discovery Channel, which means he's probably famous because he knows Lance.
But seriously folks, the mighty Ivan Basso is back from his suspension with a new team and a stupid looking bike. It seems he's going to be just as mighty as ever. If you don't know what he was suspended for I recommend you look it up, because I don't like discussing it -- at least not on this blog (Ask me in person and I'll discuss it at length). Anyway, with absolutely no racing in his legs for two years Basso proceeded to blow the race apart on the final climb and created the selection that consisted of him, Visconti, and Cunego. Cunego beat out Visconti in a two up sprint for the win. What happened to Basso? He was just kind of hanging out -- Ivan doesn't sprint.
Pretty uninteresting stuff I know.
Even less interesting is some of the changes that have been happening over the course of the off-season. For example, the return of Floyd Landis. It probably won't be that interesting for the one-time winner of the 2006 Tour to be racing for the team formerly known as Healthnet.
Another completely uninteresting piece of new is that Rock Racing has hired Rudy Pevenage to be their new Director Sportif. Wait, actually this is extremely interesting. Who is Rudy Pevenage? He is the former director for T-Mobile and famously regarded as the mentor of Jan Ullrich. A few years ago some stuff happened, and the guy kind of dropped off the map. His return to racing is just one more step towards what will hopefully be the return of Jan Ullrich (my apologies for the crappy music in the video).
A lot of Cyclocross has been happening too, I guess that'll probably be a little bit more interesting.
Of note so far this year is that Sven Nys is encountering quite a bit more competition from two young riders: Lars Boom, and Niels Albert. Since the last time I've written, the elite 'cross racers have ridden two more world cups and three more superprestige races. With these two young racers blocking keeping Nys from winning in the biggest races. Unfortunately for Albert though, a serious crash and ruptured his spleen, knocking him out for the rest of the year. Since then, Nys has been spending more regular time on the top step of the podium.
Oh hey, check out how crappy the weather in Belgium has been lately.
Until next time,
Anthony
P.S. If anyone has any questions on anything road racing, or would just like me to look stuff up and write about it, feel free to leave a question in the comments section. It's going to be a little boring going through the 'cross results for the next month or two.
*all images courtesy of cyclingnews
But here it is, back in all of its glory -- except there isn't really a whole lot of interesting stuff to discuss. There are no road races happening in Arizona, and the only pro race that happened that was of any importance was the Japan Cup.
The Japan Cup, they should really call it the "Italians Racing Each Other in Japan Cup." Twelve times in the races 17 year history the race has been won by an Italian, and the last 4 editions have been an all Italian sweep. Even the podium this year was completely Italian. Damiano Cunego (Lampre) managed to hold onto his awesome season ending form that had garnered him the win in Lombardia the week before. In second was that guy who definitely spends considerable time eyebrow shaping, Giovanni Visconti (Quickstep). But that guy in third. It took me a little while to figure out who that guy was. Turns out his name is Ivan Basso, and I guess he's kind of a big deal. The picture from Wikipedia shows me that he was on Discovery Channel, which means he's probably famous because he knows Lance.
But seriously folks, the mighty Ivan Basso is back from his suspension with a new team and a stupid looking bike. It seems he's going to be just as mighty as ever. If you don't know what he was suspended for I recommend you look it up, because I don't like discussing it -- at least not on this blog (Ask me in person and I'll discuss it at length). Anyway, with absolutely no racing in his legs for two years Basso proceeded to blow the race apart on the final climb and created the selection that consisted of him, Visconti, and Cunego. Cunego beat out Visconti in a two up sprint for the win. What happened to Basso? He was just kind of hanging out -- Ivan doesn't sprint.
Pretty uninteresting stuff I know.
Even less interesting is some of the changes that have been happening over the course of the off-season. For example, the return of Floyd Landis. It probably won't be that interesting for the one-time winner of the 2006 Tour to be racing for the team formerly known as Healthnet.
Another completely uninteresting piece of new is that Rock Racing has hired Rudy Pevenage to be their new Director Sportif. Wait, actually this is extremely interesting. Who is Rudy Pevenage? He is the former director for T-Mobile and famously regarded as the mentor of Jan Ullrich. A few years ago some stuff happened, and the guy kind of dropped off the map. His return to racing is just one more step towards what will hopefully be the return of Jan Ullrich (my apologies for the crappy music in the video).
A lot of Cyclocross has been happening too, I guess that'll probably be a little bit more interesting.
Of note so far this year is that Sven Nys is encountering quite a bit more competition from two young riders: Lars Boom, and Niels Albert. Since the last time I've written, the elite 'cross racers have ridden two more world cups and three more superprestige races. With these two young racers blocking keeping Nys from winning in the biggest races. Unfortunately for Albert though, a serious crash and ruptured his spleen, knocking him out for the rest of the year. Since then, Nys has been spending more regular time on the top step of the podium.
Oh hey, check out how crappy the weather in Belgium has been lately.
Until next time,
Anthony
P.S. If anyone has any questions on anything road racing, or would just like me to look stuff up and write about it, feel free to leave a question in the comments section. It's going to be a little boring going through the 'cross results for the next month or two.
*all images courtesy of cyclingnews
Sunday, October 19, 2008
This Week in Road Cycling: Oct 20 to Oct 26
After this week I might need to change the name of this weekly blog post from, "This Week in Road Cycling," to, "This Week in Cyclocross with the Occasional Road Race." We'll see though, that new name seems a little long and confusing.
Anyway...
Local Racing:
Races in October:
-AZ Cyclocross Race #4: Phoenix, AZ- Oct. 25; http://azcross.com/content/races/october_25th2c_2008.aspx
Races in November:
-AZ Cyclocross Race #5: Payson, AZ- Nov. 16; http://www.azcross.com/content/races/november_16th2c_2008.aspx
-AZ Cyclocross Race #6: Phoenix, AZ- Nov. 23; http://www.azcross.com/content/races/november_23rd2c_2008.aspx
Pro Racing:
Road:
Jayco Herald Sun Tour: CSC handed the leaders jersey around amongst themselves for the rest of the week, with Stuart O'Grady finishing off with the win.
Giro di Lombardia: Out in Italy on Saturday, the professional European road racing season came to an official end with the season ending classic the Giro di Lombardia. Also known as the, "Race of the Falling Leaves," Lombardia is a race that is full of history. A look at the hilly profile shows that the race is in the same vein of most classic races like Liege or Amstel Gold. One interesting part of the course is the climb to the Madonna del Ghisallo. The Madonna del Ghisallo is known as the patroness of cycling, and the chapel at the top of the hill is one of the most iconic places in road cycling.
Anyway, the race is the last chance of the year for the strongest riders to make their mark and clean up any unfinished business. The race was controlled by Lampre, the team of last years winner Damiano Cunego. Cunego hasn't really had a great year, with his main goal of the Tour being ruined with some crappy form, as well as a head first dive in stage 18. Needless to say, he was looking for a good ride in order to salvage his season.
Luckily for him the team's hard work payed off and Cunego was able to counterattack a solid move from Chris Horner (Astana), and soloed to the win. This was the third time Cunego has won Lombardia, and with that the season has ended.
No more road news for awhile -- sort of.
Cyclocross:
Kermiscross: 22 year old Niels Albert took an easy win over a strong field in this midweek 'cross race. American Jonathan Page was second.
Kleicross: One day before the first World Cup race of the year, and Sven Nys decided that the season wasn't going to be hard enough. Instead of completely dominating the race and striking fear into the hearts of his rivals, he decided to crash (video) and cut his face on his bike. I'm confident that this was all a strategy to more strongly intimidate his opponents for the coming year. Seriously, it has got to be pretty intimidating to line up at a race with a guy who has replaced one of his eyebrows with stitches.
Cyclo-Cross World Cup #1: I mentioned last week that the Superprestige series is one of two most important race series in the European Cyclocross calendar. Well, the World Cup is the other important series. These races always bring the best riders and result in the hardest racing. This week came down to a sprint finish between Niels Albert and Sven Nys. Nys took the win.
That's all, thanks for reading.
Anyway...
Local Racing:
Races in October:
-AZ Cyclocross Race #4: Phoenix, AZ- Oct. 25; http://azcross.com/content/races/october_25th2c_2008.aspx
Races in November:
-AZ Cyclocross Race #5: Payson, AZ- Nov. 16; http://www.azcross.com/content/races/november_16th2c_2008.aspx
-AZ Cyclocross Race #6: Phoenix, AZ- Nov. 23; http://www.azcross.com/content/races/november_23rd2c_2008.aspx
Pro Racing:
Road:
Jayco Herald Sun Tour: CSC handed the leaders jersey around amongst themselves for the rest of the week, with Stuart O'Grady finishing off with the win.
Giro di Lombardia: Out in Italy on Saturday, the professional European road racing season came to an official end with the season ending classic the Giro di Lombardia. Also known as the, "Race of the Falling Leaves," Lombardia is a race that is full of history. A look at the hilly profile shows that the race is in the same vein of most classic races like Liege or Amstel Gold. One interesting part of the course is the climb to the Madonna del Ghisallo. The Madonna del Ghisallo is known as the patroness of cycling, and the chapel at the top of the hill is one of the most iconic places in road cycling.
Anyway, the race is the last chance of the year for the strongest riders to make their mark and clean up any unfinished business. The race was controlled by Lampre, the team of last years winner Damiano Cunego. Cunego hasn't really had a great year, with his main goal of the Tour being ruined with some crappy form, as well as a head first dive in stage 18. Needless to say, he was looking for a good ride in order to salvage his season.
Luckily for him the team's hard work payed off and Cunego was able to counterattack a solid move from Chris Horner (Astana), and soloed to the win. This was the third time Cunego has won Lombardia, and with that the season has ended.
No more road news for awhile -- sort of.
Cyclocross:
Kermiscross: 22 year old Niels Albert took an easy win over a strong field in this midweek 'cross race. American Jonathan Page was second.
Kleicross: One day before the first World Cup race of the year, and Sven Nys decided that the season wasn't going to be hard enough. Instead of completely dominating the race and striking fear into the hearts of his rivals, he decided to crash (video) and cut his face on his bike. I'm confident that this was all a strategy to more strongly intimidate his opponents for the coming year. Seriously, it has got to be pretty intimidating to line up at a race with a guy who has replaced one of his eyebrows with stitches.
Cyclo-Cross World Cup #1: I mentioned last week that the Superprestige series is one of two most important race series in the European Cyclocross calendar. Well, the World Cup is the other important series. These races always bring the best riders and result in the hardest racing. This week came down to a sprint finish between Niels Albert and Sven Nys. Nys took the win.
That's all, thanks for reading.
Monday, October 13, 2008
This Week in Road Cycling: Oct 13 to Oct 19
So the ASU cyclocross was yesterday, and I think it's safe to say it was a hit. I want to thank everyone for coming out and lending a hand. It wouldn't have gone so well without your support. Thanks!
Local Racing:
Week in Review:
-AZ 'Cross Race #3: I don't remember exactly what the results were, but we had a pretty solid group of ASU racers in the men's CAT 4 race (Niko, Wilson, Tim, and Keegan). Congratulations to Niko for completely dominating the men's 4 race and taking a solid win. Congratulations also go to Keegan for completing his first 'cross race. I'll update with more complete results after they have been posted.
Races in October:
-AZ Cyclocross Race #4: Phoenix, AZ- Oct. 25; http://azcross.com/content/races/october_25th2c_2008.aspx
Pro Racing:
Road: There has been a sizable rash of road racing, so I'll try to be thorough without being too long.
-Vuelta a Chicuahua Internacional: This race was pretty much dominated by people who speak Spanish. Seriously, every stage was won by someone from Spain, Mexico, Colombia or Ecuador. I guess that makes sense though, because 12 of the 17 teams in the race were from Spanish speaking countries. Anyway, the race was won by Francisco Mancebo, and on stage 6 someone was murdered by champagne.
-Giro dell'Emilia: This race kicked off the week for the hilly "Fall Classics" They're not really as popular as the Spring Classics, but the Italians like them. Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes) took the win with a strong attack on the final climb 2k from the finish.
-Paris Tours: Sort of an anomaly among the rest of the fall races, the pancake flat Paris Tours is known as the sprinter's classic. Being a sprinter's race, you'd expect last years winner Alessandro Petacchi to be atop the list of potential winners. Too bad he wasn't invited. Francaise des Jeux's Phillipe Gilbert ended up winning the "sprinter's classic" with a late escape 6k from the line.
-GP Beghelli: Petacchi's consolation prize.
-Jayco Herald Sun Tour: Two stages into the 7 day Australian stage race, and it has been the CSC-Saxo Bank show, with Matt Goss winning both stages so far.
Cyclocross:
- GP de la Region Wallonne: The weather in Belgium doesn't suck yet, but the 'cross season went into full swing this weekend. Sven Nys used the help of his teammate Rob Peeters to distance the field, and take the top two steps on the podium. American Jonothan Page DNF'd.
-Superprestige #1: The superprestige series is one of the two most important race series in European cyclocross (the other series being the world cup). Superprestige races usually field the best riders and the most competitive races. Sven Nys usually wins them anyway, this time in a 3-up sprint between him, Klaas Vantornout and Niels Albert.
-GP of Gloucester: Back in the US, the two strongest riders on the domestic circuit were spending the weekend beating up on each other. Unfortunately for Tim Johnson, Ryan Trebon was victorious on both days.
That's it for this week. Again, thanks for all your help on Sunday.
-Anthony
*All images courtesty of Cyclingnews.com
Local Racing:
Week in Review:
-AZ 'Cross Race #3: I don't remember exactly what the results were, but we had a pretty solid group of ASU racers in the men's CAT 4 race (Niko, Wilson, Tim, and Keegan). Congratulations to Niko for completely dominating the men's 4 race and taking a solid win. Congratulations also go to Keegan for completing his first 'cross race. I'll update with more complete results after they have been posted.
Races in October:
-AZ Cyclocross Race #4: Phoenix, AZ- Oct. 25; http://azcross.com/content/races/october_25th2c_2008.aspx
Pro Racing:
Road: There has been a sizable rash of road racing, so I'll try to be thorough without being too long.
-Vuelta a Chicuahua Internacional: This race was pretty much dominated by people who speak Spanish. Seriously, every stage was won by someone from Spain, Mexico, Colombia or Ecuador. I guess that makes sense though, because 12 of the 17 teams in the race were from Spanish speaking countries. Anyway, the race was won by Francisco Mancebo, and on stage 6 someone was murdered by champagne.
-Giro dell'Emilia: This race kicked off the week for the hilly "Fall Classics" They're not really as popular as the Spring Classics, but the Italians like them. Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes) took the win with a strong attack on the final climb 2k from the finish.
-Paris Tours: Sort of an anomaly among the rest of the fall races, the pancake flat Paris Tours is known as the sprinter's classic. Being a sprinter's race, you'd expect last years winner Alessandro Petacchi to be atop the list of potential winners. Too bad he wasn't invited. Francaise des Jeux's Phillipe Gilbert ended up winning the "sprinter's classic" with a late escape 6k from the line.
-GP Beghelli: Petacchi's consolation prize.
-Jayco Herald Sun Tour: Two stages into the 7 day Australian stage race, and it has been the CSC-Saxo Bank show, with Matt Goss winning both stages so far.
Cyclocross:
- GP de la Region Wallonne: The weather in Belgium doesn't suck yet, but the 'cross season went into full swing this weekend. Sven Nys used the help of his teammate Rob Peeters to distance the field, and take the top two steps on the podium. American Jonothan Page DNF'd.
-Superprestige #1: The superprestige series is one of the two most important race series in European cyclocross (the other series being the world cup). Superprestige races usually field the best riders and the most competitive races. Sven Nys usually wins them anyway, this time in a 3-up sprint between him, Klaas Vantornout and Niels Albert.
-GP of Gloucester: Back in the US, the two strongest riders on the domestic circuit were spending the weekend beating up on each other. Unfortunately for Tim Johnson, Ryan Trebon was victorious on both days.
That's it for this week. Again, thanks for all your help on Sunday.
-Anthony
*All images courtesty of Cyclingnews.com
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