Wannabe Bike Girl

While the rest of the world has been focused on the Tour and then the doping scandal, there have been other races going on. Such as the 6th Brixia Tour in Italy (July 20-23) and the Tour de la Région Wallonne in Belgium (July 24-28).

What makes these races special? Well, aside from the fact that they’re bike races and inherently awesome (I know, shut up), the two final stages produced wins by two cyclists that have been my favorites. One is a former favorite who is struggling to find his good form again and the other is a current favorite who is back from a bad crash.

Paride Grillo (Ceramica Panaria-Navigare) won the final stage of the Brixia Tour. I’m so proud of him – after the incident where he ran into a parked car. I hope that he’ll eventually get a PT contract, like his soon to be former teammate, the Australian Brett Lancaster. Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) won the over all race.

And the second winner? Baden Cooke (Unibet.com) won the final stage of the Tour de la Région Wallonne. That makes me happy because he (and his Aussie teammate, Matt Wilson, another WBG favorite) have had crap seasons recently. They’ve been unable to get a PT contract for their team and missed out on the chance of racing in any of the GTs. Maybe next year! And hopefully Cooke has found his form and will win a few more races before the season’s over.

Cyclists dope. Get over it.

What, you don’t think I’m serious? I am. So what if they dope, it’s what they do. I cannot believe people are surprised. Sure it sucks, it’s the Tour winner after all. Of course, we don’t know for sure. But that’s just the way it goes.

Just move on. Get over it. Let go. Or fly over to Europe and protest. I know it won’t make a difference so I’m just going to let go and move on.

The tour and the firing of Ullrich and Sevilla are hot topics, but that’s not what I’m posting about. Instead, here are some race results from two other stage races going on right now (for those not ‘lucky’ enough to ride at Le Tour).

General classification after stage 3

1 Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus) Rabobank 15.23.11
2 Michael Barry (Can) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 0.03
3 Holger Sievers (Ger) Team Lamonta 0.04
4 Torsten Schmidt (Ger) Team Wiesenhof Akud 0.07
5 Serge Pauwels (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen
6 Tim Klinger (Ger) Team Wiesenhof Akud 0.11
7 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita) T-Mobile Team 0.16
8 Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
9 Danilo Hondo (Ger) Team Lamonta 0.28
10 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Credit Agricole 0.32

Pedro Horrillo Munoz (Rabobank) won stage one. Danilo Hondo (Team Lamonta) won stage two. And Tour de France stage winner Fränk Schleck’s brother, Andy, won stage three.

General Classification after stage 7

1 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano 24.32.28
2 Hossein Askari (IRI) Giant Asia Racing Team 0.52
3 Daniel Lloyd (GBr) Giant Asia Racing Team 0.54
4 Nacor Burgos Rojo (Spa) Relax-Gam 1.07
5 René Weissinger (Ger) Skil-Shimano 1.16
6 Francesco Failli (Ita) Liquigas 1.19
7 Ghader Mizbani Iranagh (IRI) Giant Asia Racing Team 1.51
8 Stefan Cohnen (Ned) Naturino-Sapore Di Mare 1.53
9 Garcia-Casarrubios Pintor (Spa) Relax-Gam 1.54
10 Alexandr Dymovskikh (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec 1.58

Maarten Tjallingii also won stage steven.

While the Tour de France is probably the most important bike race going on at the moment, it’s not the only one. In addition to women’s races (the Int. Thüringen-Rundfahrt in Germany), there’s a stage race going on in China, the Tour of Qinghai Lake. It runs from the 15th through the 23rd.

Dutch rider Maarten Tjallingii (Skil-Shimano) is currently leading the race. The GC after four stages:

1 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano 13.16.41
2 Hossein Askari (IRI) Giant Asia Racing Team 41.00
3 Daniel Lloyd (GBr) Giant Asia Racing Team 43.00
4 Nacor Burgos Rojo (Spa) Relax-Gam 56.00
5 René Weissinger (Ger) Skil-Shimano 1.05
6 Francesco Failli (Ita) Liquigas 1.08

UCI head Pat Mcquaid said “The top task of the UCI is to make cycling a popular sport around the world and Tour of Qinghai Lake is key for us in achieving this goal,” he said. “The Tour is important concerning the development of cycling in Asian countries and also the success of the sport in the world” (People’s Daily Online). I think that’s pretty damn cool.

I have a really long rant in my head, which I touched on here (see #9), but I don’t think I’m going to get into it now because I’m irritated about it. So I’m going to talk about two other things. Not that they make me any less pissed off, but there you go.

GAP, France (AP) — Through the picturesque countryside and the strenuous mountain climbs, suspicion rides along with the cyclists at the Tour de France.

Despite the largest anti-doping sweep in years on the eve of the fabled race’s start, there are those who still believe the sport is tainted and at least some of its athletes are cheaters.

The thing about this article is that it rings true to me. But at the same time, I’m able to step away from the doping and ignore it. Sure, some of them have to be doping — chances are that’s the case. But maybe not all of them and who cares? We have a week left and then we’ll see what happens. I know people say it’s hard to be a fan with all the doping stuff, but honestly? I don’t buy it. I mean, sure, if you’re a Basso fan or a fan of the Astana-Wurth team (like me — the latter, not the former), it hurts a hell of a lot. But at the same time, we can’t dwell on it. It’s not for us to say who dopes and who doesn’t. As fans, we’re not out there day in and day out.

Sure, we can ask for a clean sport, but I don’t know if that’ll ever be possible. It’s like Michael Rogers said in the above article, “It’s human nature to try to cheat the system. It happens in cycling, it happens in business.” He’s right and we cannot forget it. Some people do it because they think it’s the only way to survive, some people do it because they think they can beat the system. But we’ll never know the reasons why they dope. We don’t need to know. We need to accept that it happens and then go from there. If they truly want the sport to be clean, then there needs to be more effective testing for blood doping. I know that a lot of people say that cycling takes a hard stance against dopers, but is that really the case? Maybe now, but who says that the peloton is clean?

We don’t know and yet we judge anyway. I suppose that’s the way with all sports. And there’s only so much we can do. So for three weeks I’ll put it mostly out of my head. And then, come what may. It’s not sticking my head in the sand, because what can I, as a fan, really do? Except blog about it, of course.

On July 9th, 2006 there was this tournament called the World Cup. France played Italy. I, of course, was rooting for France. I was disappointed in Zidane and his behavior (and yes, he did over-react, but that doesn’t excuse Materazzi from going out of his way to bait Zidane). That being said, this isn’t exactly about the World Cup. Yes, France lost and yes I am a bit bitter (though I’m mostly over it). But something happened this week that reminded me of this whole situation.

As frequent readers of my blog know, I’m not a fan of Lance Armstrong. And it turns out, he doesn’t want me to be a fan of his. He hosted the ESPYs (in which ESPN tries to be cool and fails, as usual) this past week.

GAP, France (AFP) – Former Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will be assured of a red-hot welcome in the Alps when he joins up with his Discovery Channel team.

But this time, the 34-year-old Texan’s exploits on a bike will not be the reason.

The now retired seven-time winner hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons a few days ago when he labelled the French football team “assholes”.

Of the many things I thought Armstrong was, ungrateful never really crossed my mind. I’ve read his books, I wore the livestrong bracelet (though, no longer. Instead I wear one of the ‘Raisin Hell’ ones, more info at Saul Raisin’s site). I was a fan, though briefly (before I really understood cycling). But now? Definitely not at all. And as the years pass, I become less and less of a fan. Sure, I appreciate everything he did for the sport in America, but his lack of respect for the country that basically made him famous is astounding.

I cannot understand how he can show up at some stupid (because they all are, honestly) award show and say stuff like that. After all that’s happened with France and the World Cup. After all the doping and everything. Sure, the Tour snubbed him. But his response shouldn’t have been to call the French football team assholes. Who does that? He is living up to the stereotype that so many Europeans have of Americans. This man who supposedly overcame all of this stuff (disease, language barrier, being an American and winning so many Tours) just throws it all away with a few words.

I hope that his reception upon arriving in France was as disrespectful as his words. He deserves no better. If he hates the French, he should keep it to himself.

So, Mr. Armstrong, if you wanted my respect? You’ve lost it. You’ve done nothing to prove to me that you deserve it. Your money going to cancer research? That I can respect. But you? No. Not at all.

I’ve talked about this before and I’m going to talk about it again now. One of the things that I love about the Tour this year is that there is no dominate rider. Sure, we have cyclists who are in the top 10 and most likely one of those will win, but there’s no one leader who is going to take the jersey and keep it all the way to Paris. The other thing that I like is that there is no Armstrong.

The problem, of course, is that with American coverage there is always Armstrong. Whether it’s pointless interviews with him or looking back at his previous wins, or even the ever-so-irritating ‘what would Armstrong be doing.’ It drives me crazy because he’s NOT there and he’s not going to be there. But aside from that (which was obviously expected), the most irritating thing is the whole notion that one of these cyclists will ‘replace’ Armstrong. I don’t just mean Discovery’s lame ‘race to replace’ thing. But the idea that there will be another cyclist as dominate as Armstrong.

I don’t know why people think that, because, until Armstrong, no one had dominated the Tour like he did. Sure, there were guys who won five Tours, but they often had hard battles and they didn’t win seven (though I will forever believe that Eddy Merckx is the greatest cyclist who ever raced). Armstrong dominated the tour and now he’s gone and we should let him stay that way. Sure, ask him what he thinks about the stages, ask him his opinion on his former teammates and, hell, ask him who he thinks will win. But please, for god’s sake, stop trying to replace him.

Why? Because it will end in failure. Armstrong was something special. Even if Landis wins (and, contrary to previous years, I am rooting for an American and it definitely is Landis), he is not Armstrong. He doesn’t want to BE Armstrong. No one does. These men want to win the Tour on their own merits. Especially Landis, seeing as he was a former teammate of Armstrong’s. He wants out of the shadow of Armstrong, similar to Hamilton (but without the doping). I think he can do it, but it’s going to be hard — not just because it’s the tour, but because there is so much pressure to be like Armstrong.

It’s a wasted effort to try to replace him. I keep saying it, but no one’s listening. Armstrong cannot and will not be replaced, which is fine. But what should happen is that we should just move on. Let go and focus on the cyclists, especially the Americans, as who they are. I am tired of hearing Phil and Paul (and Bob and Al and others) talk about how the teams should be on the front like Armstrong’s. There are no other teams like Armstrong’s and whoever thinks that there is hasn’t been watching cycling.

So, I’m begging you. Just let it go. Move on. Armstrong’s reign is done, so let it stay that way. Stop trying to replace him and embrace cycling the way it should be. Where, theoretically, everyone has a chance.

CN tends to have bland interviews, but even so, I’m overly fond of Oscar Freire (and not just because he’s beaten McEwen twice) and their interview with him is actually nice. And someone amusing.

Q: Against all expectations, you’ve won two stages that were almost completely flat; have you developed into a pure sprinter?

OF: It isn’t new to me, but I still prefer a sprint after a more selective finale; for example with some climbs not too far from the finish. But in the Tour de France, those stages will probably not be finishing in a bunch sprint…

Everyone is talking about the crashes (including OLN right at this moment), but what they’re not talking about is what happened to Sandy Casar (though they mentioned him and he is still riding). My mother sent me a link to a copy of the above picture. The caption basically says Casar was felled by a mobile. But, upon a bit of research that is not quite what happened (well, there’s more to the story). The following is from cyclingnews.

Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux) finished 137th in yesterday’s third stage after being taken out by a drunken spectator at the foot of the Cauberg. The spectator then got into an argument with Casar’s DS Marc Madiot, while others tried to steal the Frenchman’s wheels.

Although Casar lost several minutes, he was credited with the time of the first group (five seconds behind winner Kessler), and therefore is just 39 seconds behind on GC.

I cannot even explain how mad that makes me. I’ve not been watching the tour long, but I thought that perhaps fans had come further than attempting to steal bikes from cyclists. Of course, I know they do it — but while the cyclist is right there? And to have the gall to fight with Marc Madiot? It disgusts me. After the wonderful fans who helped Dekker and Rodriguez after their horrible crash, it just makes me wonder about people.

And perhaps this should be talked about a bit more. Fans are great for the sport and I love them there, even if I worry they’ll cause crashes. And they have, since I was watch the tour and before. But this year it’s just blowing my mind. And especially this business with Casar. I hope that, as my father said, they know who caused him to fall and they throw them in jail for a bit. Or something so they know that what they did was wrong.

In case you were wondering where my Tour de France posts were, they’re here at my TdF Diary.

I wanted to talk about commentating. I’ve been watching a lot of what Americans (I suppose myself included) call ‘European Sports’ recently. Starting in May with Roland Garros and the Champions League semifinals and going through June with the World Cup and the first week of Wimbledon and now into July with those two tournaments plus the Tour de France. The one thing these have in common, aside from the fact that I’m fond of all three sports (football/soccer, tennis and cycling) is that they are not that big in the United States. And thus we tend to get commentating that matches, say, that of baseball or American football. Cycling and tennis have the edge, in that they employ commentators that tend to know what they’re talking about.

Sure, no one wants to hear Al Trautwig talk about Armstrong all the time or Phil and Paul tell us what the cyclists are thinking. And the tennis commentators are so obviously biased that it’s often annoying (we get that you love Agassi and Federer, we really do). But I’ve got to tell you that cycling fans especially, have no idea how lucky they are. The worst part of being an American who likes European football is that you are stuck with crappy commentators. Sure, there are a few sets that are all right — but they don’t call most matches.

So after a month of listening to John O’Brien and Marcelo Balboa irritate me, it was with some surprise that I actually welcomed OLN’s commentary. At least, no matter how dumb the things Bob, Phil, and Paul say are, at least they understand the sport. They’re not making things up (I’m not talking about telling what the athletes are thinking, that’s so common it’s sad), I’m talking about Balboa’s ability to make up words. I never once thought I’d welcome OLN’s commentary, but, man. ESPN is falling down on the job of making me like them, whereas OLN has got — well, they have people who actually understand the sport.

Throughout the coming three weeks, I’m sure I’ll talk about the shortcomings (such as Phil calling a Credit Agricole rider a Cofidis rider), but part of me will be relieved that they are commentators who are worse.

In other news, much to my relief, Thor Hushovd started the stage today. He’s spent some time at the team car, but the consensus is that he went for some pain meds. And, really, who can blame him? I’m just happy he’s riding today. I hope he makes it all three days.

Sitting here watching England and Portugal, I am reminded how cycling is so different from football/soccer. Most of the time when I watch cycling, my heart is happily hanging out where it belongs and stomach is not usually twisted in knots. Of course, the longer the stage goes and the more nervous I get. But watching England, and disparately wanting them to win after all my other hopes have been dashed, I am also reminded why I love sports so much.

There was a comment (second one) on one of my posts from yesterday that got me thinking. The commenter, Johnny, said: “I hope Hincapie and Landis can hold our interest for the next 20 days.” And I was going to respond in the comment but I realized I had more to say.

For those of you who’ve read my blog for the past couple of years, you know that I’m not the biggest Armstrong (or American cyclists) fan and I was looking forward to a Tour without him (and I’ll talk about OLN’s coverage later, when I’m not so stressed out about the World Cup). But what’s really interesting about this year is that no only are we without Armstrong, but we’ve lost Basso, Ullrich and a few other riders who had the potential to dominate the Tour. And for someone who thought the 2005 Giro d’Italia was the best thing ever, this makes me a lot happier than I thought.

I don’t care about Hincapie in the least, but I have picked Landis to be my tour favorite. I know, I should stick to Chavanel, being my favorite rider and all — but guys, I’m not that stupid. I know he won’t win. At least maybe now he’ll win a stage, but back to the point.

The point, of course, is that this Tour is wide open. Riders who didn’t have a chance at a stage win now do, cyclists who’d have settled for lower places (not even close to the podium) might even be in the running to win it. Over at Podium Cafe, there’s talk of it being Valverde’s year. And I don’t know, but at the same time, who knows. I know a lot of people expect there to be some sort of footnote in history by the results of this tour, but I don’t know. Maybe. I think that it could go either way and I’d rather see a contested tour than a blowout. So maybe, in the long run (ignoring the if these men are guilty or innocent), this will be good for the tour. Not just getting rid of dopers (if they are guilty) but by making this such a wide open field. And I like that.

I, too, hope the tour can keep our interest this year. But I don’t think there’ll be too much of a problem. Especially for those of us who like lesser known cyclists. This has suddenly become their year to shine.