Wannabe Bike Girl

So, okay. Sven Nys won again, big deal. Well, yeah, people like it when Sven Nys wins, and I don’t really have a problem with it. He’s fun to watch and, well, good. But, man, it’s the guy in the second place spot that matters to me. After a couple of so-so cyclo-cross results at the end of October/beginning of November, Francis Mourey managed to do what I love and come in second (best is first, of course, but when you’re up against Nys …).

Elite (40 starters)
1 Sven Nys (Bel) Rabobank
2 Francis Mourey (Fra) Française des Jeux
3 Bart Wellens (Bel) Fidea Cycling Team
4 Klaas Vantornout (Bel) Fidea Cycling Team
5 Kevin Pauwels (Bel) Fidea Cycling Team
6 Erwin Vervecken (Bel) Fidea Cycling Team
7 Niels Albert (Bel) Palmans-Cras
8 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Fidea Cycling Team
9 Richard Groenendaal (Ned) AA Sport Drinks
10 Enrico Franzoi (Ita) Lampre-Fondital

I’m pretty damn proud of him for that. I know, people will probably wonder why I’m so eager to accept a second place — because I know that Mourey is good and this proves it. He wins smaller races against pretty decent competition, and he can hold his own with the best of them. Bart Wellens was wiping the floor with Mourey a couple of years ago and now Mourey took second from him? Pretty awesome.

I didn’t get to watch it, but as always, cyclingnews has a decent race report.

Well, it looks like Pereiro is innocent, which is good news. I’m still amused at the whole thing. Speaking of doping, there’s this whole thing in today’s news at cyclingnews about doping and Quick Step’s director, but it’s based on a news story in some paper so for now, I’m just ignoring it.

Also in that news cycle are a few interesting articles. There’s one about how the UCI is using the cyclocross WC rankings will effect the start at the world championships. I have no idea what this is about and, honestly, cyclingnews doesn’t even explain the impact. All they do is tell you what the rankings are and that they’ll have an impact. Important to note is that Francis is 5th, Vanthourenhout is 6th and John is 9th. That makes me happy.

And as a partial shout out to the boys over at Podium Cafe, I’m writing about my “favorite” cyclist, René Haselbacher. He joined Astana after not being able to ride in the tour at Gerolsteiner. And, well, joined a team where he still might not ride the tour. I don’t know why I’m even talking about this, expect that it’s kind of hilarious and I like Astana.

Which reminds me, maybe tomorrow I’ll post about my favorite cycling teams. I’m a big team-loving kind of girl, but cycling makes it hard to do. So, yeah. Tomorrow!

Astana granted ProTour licence

The UCI Licence Commission announced overnight that it has awarded Kazakhstan’s Astana Team a ProTour licence for the next four years. The announcement comes after cycling’s international governing organisation revealed on Saturday it would grant the outfit additional time to prepare its application “due to difficulties in the production of the required documents,” an official statement read.

This makes me so happy.