Wannabe Bike Girl

Things I’m not talking about:

• Thomas Lovkvist going to T-Mobile.

Things I am talking about:

• Worlds – u23 RR (which, of course, I didn’t see)
• Worlds – Sylvain Chavanel, France and the Elite Men RR

First, the u23s. I didn’t see it because I was at work as usual, not a big deal. Mostly because my boys, Edvald Boasson Hagen, came in 56th. Not a good day for Hagen (also note, I’m not talking about his riding for T-Mobile, either — I promise to explain this thing one day).

Moving on, though. France and the Elite Men RR. France, unlike a lot of teams, have opted for … Oh wait, these are their big names. Regardless of what people think, these boys are no longer kids. Sylvain Chavanel, Thomas Voeckler and Pierrick Fedrigo are the guys the team will be working for. As I’ve said before, Chavanel is best suited for the course. Unless, of course, the sprinters manage to stick around in that case, the French selection might have made a mistake. The following quote is from cyclingnews:

“Should it be a bunch sprint finish with 70 riders, we might have selected the wrong Chavanel,” Voeckler joked in a press conference, referring to Sylvain’s brother Sébastien who is one of France’s best sprinters.

To be honest, Sébastien Chavanel is not a bad sprinter. Anyone watching the TDF this year will know that. And, honestly, it’s only a matter of time (and he is younger than Sylvain) before he starts winning bigger races. I’ve got all the faith in the world in this boy. But back to the race at hand. What’s refreshing about the French boys is how much they both want to win and want to win cleanly. I’m proud of them for this and proud of them for, as cyclingnews implied, keeping a low profile. You don’t hear a lot of shit-talking being done (about doping or whatever) within the French camp. Instead, they seem to get along and last time they kept a low profile, one Anthony Geslin (I know who he is, do you?) finished third.

I hate when people write off teams, in this case France, or riders. Some day I’ll talk about how all of this writing off of teams/players pisses me off (note to self: write about Francis Mourey). But not today. Instead, enjoy the rest of your Saturday (if there’s even any left) and look forward to tomorrow’s race. I know I am.

You want to know something that pisses me off? When people (bloggers especially) treat athletes I like with no respect. Sure, Chris, I get that you think French cycling sucks (very bottom of the post, right before the comments), but really. This?

“full of maybes but nobody who makes you think they can win”

Maybe I just have too much faith in Sylvain. I don’t expect him to win, but I think he could win and maybe if he had a better team working for him (you can’t say that Cofidis is a strong team, nor is the French National team), he’d have a better chance. The course is suited to Sylvain, which is why the team will work for him — unless, of course, something happens to him.

He won’t win, though. Why not? Because the team will be dominated by someone like Paolo Bettini (who, potentially, shouldn’t even be racing). The Italian squad is by far the strongest and I predict it will be someone from that team, probably Bettini, who will win.

But, please. Start showing a little respect for cyclists who don’t talk shit, who aren’t accused of doping and who ride day in and day out and give everything. Maybe this makes me naive or a bad fan or something else, but I don’t care. I’m not giving up on him or writing him off, and neither should you.

1 Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) 55.41.3 (48.380 km/h)
2 Laszlo Bodrogi (Hungary) 0.52.1
3 Stef Clement (Netherlands) 0.57.8
4 Bert Grabsch (Germany) 1.12.2
5 Sebastian Lang (Germany) 1.17.5
6 Vladimir Gusev (Russia) 1.47.0
7 José Gutierrez Palacios (Spain) 1.56.2
8 Andrey Mizurov (Kazakhstan) 2.02.7
9 Vasili Kiryienka (Belarus) 2.03.5
10 Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) 2.10.8

© Yahoo

The u23 ITT world championship was today. Sadly, my little Norwegian was not among the top three. By all accounts he had a really great race, but the boys behind him were on fire. Here’s the top ten.

1 Lars Boom (Netherlands) 48.58 (46.86 km/h)
2 Mikhail Ignatiev (Russia) 0.09
3 Jerome Coppel (France) 0.46
4 Michael Faerk Christensen (Denmark) 1.10
5 Adriano Malori (Italy) 1.12
6 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) 1.13
7 Tanel Kangert (Estonia) 1.14
8 Alexandr Pliuschin (Moldavia) 1.17
9 Branislau Samoilau (Belarus) 1.28
10 Francis De Greef (Belgium) 1.30

Sixth out of 70 isn’t bad at all. He should be proud, and I know he’ll only get better. Cyclingnews has a picture of Edvald at the start of his race.

Just when I thought I didn’t have anything to write about, this is from cyclingnews.

Van Goolen to CSC

Jurgen Van Goolen is the next Discovery Channel rider to find a new home. He will ride for Team CSC for the next two years, as Sportwereld.be reported that he has an oral agreement with Bjarne Riis. “I will sign the contract next weekend,” the 26 year-old Belgian said.

He finished the Vuelta a España in 31st position, 49′50″ behind winner Denis Menchov, and also finished second behind Menchov in the mountain ranking. “Of course I am disappointed that I missed out on the mountain jersey at the final podium of the Vuelta. On Thursday I came in exactly 1000 metres too short on the Cat. 1 climb. Otherwise I would definitely have won the silver jersey. I have nothing to blame myself for. I used up my whole gas tank in the Vuelta.”

“On the other hand, the world has gotten to know me here,” he added. “A month ago I had absolutely no concrete proposal for a new contract.”

Man, seriously. This is so big for him, even bigger than going to Discovery. At Disco, while it was good that someone finally recognized his talent, he wasn’t really used well. At CSC, they know how to develop people and even at 26, he still has a chance to do even better. I was really proud of his riding in the Vuelta, so hopefully this is just the start of some good results for him. I am really glad that he’ll be at CSC next year.

I completely forgot to watch the final stage of the Vuelta. So, in lieu of any content, have two pictures of Sylvain from earlier in the race.

Sometimes I’m a bad person and watch cycling when I should be doing other things. This morning was one of those days. Instead of working, I turned on the ITT stage of the Vuelta (without sound) and watched it. I didn’t pay much attention, but the best part was that sometimes I have perfect timing. I turned it on and not five minutes later, Sylvain Chavanel was starting his race. It was pretty exciting for me, because I don’t get to see him on a regular basis (even in stage races). And, even better, he rode a decent time trial. He finished in fourth, but that was before the rest of the riders came in. He eventually had to settle for 11th, which was only 38 seconds off the winning time (Samuel Sánchez (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi 22.11). He’s still 16, and he lost another minute, so he’s 22 minutes behind the lead. But I don’t care. I love it when he turns in a good ITT.

Here’s a question people ask me: why don’t you like [insert famous/big name/contendor here]?

I don’t necessarily have a good answer. There are several reasons, some of them are rather petty, but some of them, at least to me, make sense. Partly it’s a product of my upbringing. No, I wasn’t told to root against the teams/players that do well (I was a Pete Sampras fan, after all), but the teams I grew up loving were teams that tended to have (and still have — even when they’re on top) the underdog thing. Even my highly successful European soccer teams tend to be written off (Arsenal for the past two seasons — even coming off of the unbeaten season and, hell, this season as well). But if you look at the professional teams in the US I like (all three Cleveland sports teams), you’ll understand. My boys always come from behind and win when you least expect it (even Ohio State). So how does that translate into cycling? It’s a little more complicated.

At first I loved Armstrong. I was a naive cycling fan and I didn’t know any better. But as I developed into someone who was more of a cycling fan than an Armstrong fan, I realized what who it was I wanted to like. I’ve written about that before, so I’ll leave it there, but I will say that the result of the Armstrong era is that I dislike when one person dominates a sport (example: I cannot stand Roger Federer). So, I dropped Armstrong and some others and eventually this lead me to Sylvain Chavanel.

No, I don’t really believe that Sylvain could win the Tour. But it doesn’t matter. I don’t care if he wins it, I’d like him to win a stage, but in all honesty, each tour he completes is enough for me as a fan. Why? Because he wins other races. Because people count him out and he still shows up, day after day. I don’t care that he’s not the best rider in France. I don’t care that he lost three and then more places at the Vuelta. I care that he rides as hard as he can and gives everything in all his races. That is what’s important to me. Just like my baseball team never gives up, the cyclists I like don’t either.

Take this year’s Tour. Before Cofidis left the Tour, Sylvain was involved in breakaways and always pushing hard. Another example is Philippe Gilbert. He’s always in the break, always fighting hard. That’s what I look for in a cyclist I support. It’s different in other sports, of course, but when it comes down to cycling, I want to support a rider who never gives up. Someone who throws themselves on the line, regardless of what the race is. And that’s what I believe Chavanel, Gilbert and the other cyclists I support do.

To me, that’s enough.

So, besides Sylvain Chavanel, who else that I really like is going to be at Worlds? Well, here’s the list (straight from the official website).

Australia:

• Trent Lowe

Belgium:

• Jurgen van Goolen
• Philippe Gilbert

Ireland

• Nicolas Roche

Italy

• Damiano Cunego
• Daniele Bennati
• Alessandro Ballan

Netherlands

• Thomas Dekker

Norway

• Thor Hushovd

Switzerland

• Michael Schär

That’s the elite men. Not a lot and there are few people whose names are missing. Especially for Finland. There’s no Kjell Carlstöm, which is weird. Also, under Italy you can totally tell I have a thing for Lampre. It’s kind of embarrassing.

Anyway, now for the u23s. Really, the only under-23 that I care about is Edvald Boasson Hagen. Dear readers of my blog, get used to that name! I’ve been following him (loosely) for about a year, maybe a little less than that. He signed a contract with T-Mobile (ugh) next year, but I really think that it’ll be a good thing for him. He’s Norwegian and has won at least 19 races this season (yes, that’s a lot, I know). Cyclingnews has a great interview with him from August. He’s definitely going to be someone who will be called a ‘one to watch’ for a long time. Hopefully he’ll live up to everyone’s expectations. We’ll find out how good he really is (at least compared to the best of the u23s) come Worlds.

As for the US? I don’t like anyone on their elite team, but both Tom Peterson and Steven Cozza of Slipstream have gotten the call up. It’s really exciting for them and I hope they do well. Be sure to check out my friend April’s Slipstream blog over at cyclingfans.com. I’m blogging over there too (not on her blog, though), but I’ll talk about that another day.

Moreau omitted from team for Worlds

French cycling champion Christophe Moreau has been omitted from the national team announced on Tuesday to compete in the world road championships in Stuttgart, Germany, later this month..

But that’s not what I actually care about — after all, Moreau had a horrible Tour, so it’s no surprise. What I want to talk about is the following quote:

Sylvain Chavanel, Pierrick Fedrigo and Thomas Voeckler will be the main stays of nine-member team, announced by coach Frederic Moncassin and technical director Patrick Cluzaud.

I don’t have the full list, and I’m not going to look it up and analyze it because, to be honest, I don’t care about the rest of the team. I care about Chavanel and I want him to do well. Ironically, I’m listening to Eurosport and they just mentioned French’s selection, good timing on my part. They also said that the course in Stuttgart is not good for sprinters and so any argument I might have about them not picking Sebastian Chavanel is moot because he is a sprinter.

According to cyclingnews, the route is actually suited for Sylvain. I haven’t looked at it, but I assume they’re right, especially if it’s hilly.

But, as the Eurosport commentator just said, the French team isn’t strong. Why? French cycling isn’t. But, that being said, I think Sylvain has a good chance. Of course, he probably won’t win — I’m used to that. It’ll be fun to follow (or watch, depending on when it is) the race.