Are you as sick of daily schmalz as we are? Here’s a tour day schmalz-free respite. Since it’s a rest day perhaps he should consider actually earning a living.
Good weekend for Mengoni. Peter Salon wins the junior crit title, and Lisban and Pollo wrap up the individual and team wins at Maltese. Did the team format make the sprint hairier, with teams trying to put multiple riders in the top 20 instead of leading out one rider? What does everyone think of the format? In any case, Mike Green deserves credit for putting on another great race and trying something innovative.
There is no “I” in team, but there is a “me” if you look hard enough.
Another rider Zabel’d!
Always funny, no matter the race.
Justin Brown opens NYVC’s account! (What does that mean, anyways? Someone tell Phil to stop saying that.)
Let’s go all-clichè here shall we?
You can’t stop NYVC, only hope to contain them.
NYVC gave 110% out there.
NYVC brought their “A” game today.
NYVC wanted it more today.
NYC eyes are like lipid, blue pools of wonder that I can get lost in for days.
Molloy and Sauvayre win on Sunday, but how about that Rashad (the soft spoken assassin) Guerra? Dude is on fire and he takes a nice picture, too.
So, I guess sprinters can sprint uphill, too. Bastards.
what a good race on Sunday. it was still bascally a sprinters race but a very hard one.
Axis dominated Sunday’s race…They really run a tight ship. Nice job!
Met finish is a much better spot. Cleaner lines and much safer than the Cat’s Paw finish. I suggest we scrap Cat’s Paw altogether.
Cat’s paw is a good finish spot. The Met is good also, its just different, not neccessarily better. I think the uphill drag really decisively puts the strongest guy to the line first. Cat’s is a bit more cerebral. Knowing when to jump, who to follow, catching the right gear; I like it.
no mention/pix of the Masters race in PP?
re Maltese, it was fun ripping around the park that fast but the 20-deep format definitely dictates a field sprint.
Smaller squads and the 20-deep points format might have made the race more conservative. It seemed like teams didn’t want to burn up riders attacking when they might be needed to sprint for points later, and most teams were not going to be content with just one rider up the road. (This is conjecture on my part, since I was nowhere near the front of the race for the first 40 miles.) But also like Jon says the pace was very high. Not too many guys can do sub-13-minute laps on a road bike, and you would have had to be going at least that fast to get away.
Even though the points went 20 deep, it was heavily weighted toward the top (e.g., 4th place was worth more than 9th and 10th combined, and worth ten times as much as 20th) so it’s not surprising that the top 3 riders gave their teams the top 3 spots. The sprint didn’t seem any hairier than at individual events like the GP Mengoni. Great finish by Alejandro Guzman.
Congratulations to Mike Green and CRCA on another excellent open race.
has anyone read the nytimes story on landis? now this guy has been "playing hurt"…he’s going to win this tour…
I’d like to see how things shake out with Kloden hot on his heels. Remember the 04′ tour when Landis ripped everyones legs off except Lance Jan and Kloden? Well Klodi is still there and his TT isnt to shabby. I think Landis wins but it wont be a cake walk.
didn’t say it would be a cake walk but he’ll still win it…
ummm… cake!
Re-assessment: After seeing the footage of the Landis X-ray, I have say its doubtful that this will be floyds year. It’ll be Cadel, Levi, Kloden, and maybe Hincapie sorting things out. I’m not yet convinced that George can hang with the big dogs on the Mts. Salvodelli has better odds.
Found this today. Bobby Julich in his own words – check it out NYC!
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf2006/news/story?id=2515505
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