Wannabe Bike Girl

For the second year running, I’ve decided to play fantasy cycling at Podium Cafe. And like last year, I’ve basically picked a team of cyclists I like, instead of cyclists who are known to be good on a regular basis. This might come as a surprise to some of you, but it’s really not. I’m basically kind of lame like that and so of course my team leader is Sylvain Chavanel. You can see the full team behind the cut, but here’s what you need to know.

Somehow my team, Team Gunners (yes, named after Arsenal FC) is in third place after Paris-Nice. No, I don’t really understand it either. This is a one of a kind thing, and like I said over at Podium Cafe, it’s never going to last. But, damn, I sure am proud of my boys and my team. Mostly I threw it together one day when I was bored. I have a few regrets, too many High Road riders, but hey. You never know — you can have too many big names and I basically avoided them, except for Thor Hushovd.

I will talk more about the fantasy cycling team later, I just wanted to document this moment. Click through the cut to see who I actually picked for my team.

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Well. I said somewhere, probably LJ, that I didn’t think this would happen again. This being one of my boys doing extremely well. I was wrong. I was really really wrong and I take it back. Not all of it, because it’s still rare. But, god.

So, what happened? I wish I’d been able to watch it, but such is life. Instead, I followed along at Cyclingnews’ live ticker. I read about Sylvain’s attack and I kept saying (even though clearly he couldn’t hear me) that he could do it. Then I read about the two riders going off the front and I thought ‘god, not again.’ Because, seriously, who would have expected this? Definitely not me. Though maybe I should have, as people sometimes like to joke that I am his biggest fan. I root for him above all others.

So, it will come as a surprise to some of you that I still can’t believe he really won it. Even after I knew, after cyclingnews has posted the results, I kept checking back. And then I looked for pictures, because this wasn’t really real, was it? But look, there he is. And from the way he looks, he can’t believe it either.

I know it’s just a stage of Paris-Nice. I know it’s not the Tour or the Giro or the World Championships or whatever. But it’s something fantastic and extraordinary and I am just so proud of him. Sometimes it’s hard to be a fan, especially when it comes to cycling. You root so hard for the boys you adore and yet they’re always giving everything for someone else. Or they come up just a few seconds or bike lengths short. And then there are days like today. When everything just works and what you knew your boy could do — he does.

Sylvain, thank you. There’s nothing better than knowing that your favorite just won.

I figured I’d better write this up before I got to despondent to do it. It’s been a long time since I’ve, as a fan, had such a decent run of cyclists I like doing good things. Of course, it ended today, but for the moment I’ll remain in denial. I actually didn’t realize what had happened until Pete emailed about it.

I was so excited when I saw that Kjell Carlström had won, that I failed to scroll further down to see just exactly why Pete was emailing me. We’ll come back to that, though. For Carlström, this probably was the biggest win of his career. I’ve been following his racing for a couple of years and he’s done moderately well. He’s a breakaway guy, especially in the bigger stage races. During last year’s TDF, he spent some quality time in a nice breakaway. And in 2006, he finished second on stage 8.

The top 10 itself didn’t tell me anything and I just skimmed the cyclingnews report, I don’t even think it was completed when I got Pete’s email. A few seconds later, I was even more excited. But mostly I was totally stoked that Kjell had finally managed to win a huge race. And then, of course I scrolled down a bit more.

And that’s when I saw it. Leader of Paris-Nice after Stage 3? Sylvain Chavanel. I couldn’t believe it either. I was like, this is not real! It’s Sylvain and this is a French race. But yeah, there he was. Of course I knew it wouldn’t last (even though I wanted it to) and I knew that it was just one stage. But he made history, being the first French rider to lead the stage since 2002.

But look. Just look at him. He did it, even just for a day. I know today sucked for him, I know he ends up four minutes back. But for a day, he was leading that race. One of the more famous races in France. Sure, he’s won races and stages and I’ve accepted that he’ll probably never win the TDF and probably not even a stage of it either. But this is good, was good. It was great.

Every time I think about how cycling makes it hard for me to be a fan, something like this happens. To me, stage three was spectacular. I didn’t get to see it, and in previous years I would have been devastated, but that’s life for me. I can’t see everything, but I can read about it. I can find the pictures and I can see that someone I adore, two of them in this case, two cyclists I love, did exceptionally well.

And for me, as a fan, this is what’s important. While in many other sports I watch, it’s the team that matters to me, in cycling it’s different. I don’t care how Liquigas or Cofidis do. I care about Chavanel and Carlström. Maybe that makes me a bad fan, maybe that makes me superficial and fickle, but I can’t do it any other way. It just doesn’t work. It might get my heart broken, but I’m not going to change.

So, I will enjoy what these two boys did. I will be extremely proud of them and hope that they will do more throughout the season. It’s long, so you never know what will happen.

So, there’s a race going on. It’s nearly impossible for me to watch this because I’m working and don’t really have access to the stations it’s on. I know, I could probably find some way to buy coverage, but unless cycling.tv will only charge me $10 for a year, that’s never going to happen. I simply can’t afford it. I can barely afford my cable as it is. And now that Europsort’s live audio doesn’t really work for me, I’m shit out of luck. That doesn’t mean I’m not following Paris-Nice, because I am. It just means that I’m supremely annoyed with how things have turned out. I can watch practically any football (soccer) game I want, but not cycling. I know this is because football/soccer is the global game and more people like that sport than cycling, but it doesn’t mean I can’t be mad about it.

It also doesn’t help that the powers that be in cycling basically suck. The make it hard to even want to follow the race — any of them. I don’t know the details about what’s happening with Paris-Nice, and I’m not even sure I want to. But my boys (well, Sylvain) are there and I’m playing Podium Cafe’s fantasy cycling, so it helps to pay attention (that’s an entry for another time). But at the same time, it really bugs me that the people in charge of cycling want to alienate their fans. I get that they’re pissed off about doping, but it’s not like they’re innocent. Turning a blind eye and pleading ignorance just makes you look stupid, people.

Well just have to wait and see what happens, both with the doping in general and Paris-Nice specifically. Thor Hushovd (who happens to be on my fantasy team) won the Prologue and QS’ Gert Steegmans won the first stage. Apparently Sylvain Chavanel screwed up his attempt to win the stage (as usual) and left a bit too early. Color me surprised, only with less sarcasm then that statement implies. That’s just the way things go for a cycling fan. It’s also why Sylvain Chavanel (and yes, he is on my fantasy team) probably won’t ever win the TDF.

Omloop het volk 2008 – Philippe Gilbert
Originally uploaded by KarolusLinus

Hey look! Someone I like actually won a race. I know, it’s hard to believe. Especially after Francis Mourey’s disaster of a cyclo-cross season. I didn’t get to watch the race (I was at work, as usual), but I’m actually okay with this. Really, the only race I need to see fully is the TdF, because I blog that. But otherwise, the summaries on CN and other sites do just fine.

Anyway, Philippe Gilbert won the Het Volk and I am extremely pleased. Here’s the top ten:

63rd Omloop Het Volk

1 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux 4.55.25 (40.417 km/h)
2 Nick Nuyens (Bel) Cofidis 0.58
3 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 1.06
4 Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) Ag2r-La Mondiale
5 Aleksandr Kuschynski (Blr) Liquigas 1.12
6 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel 1.13
7 Leif Hoste (Bel) Silence-Lotto
8 Allan Johansen (Den) Team CSC 1.16
9 Jan Kuyckx (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner 1.53

Hopefully this bodes well for the rest of the season. Not just for Gilbert, but for the others I like as well.