Tendinitis keeps Tom Boonen out of the Tour de France

According to Velo News, QuickStep rider Tom Boonen will not be participating in this years Tour de France due to “patellar tendinitis in his left knee” [VeloNews].

Tom Boonen, After Stage 1 Crash, Amgen Tour of California

Boonen himself cites the injury has going back to the final sprint crash in the Tour de Suise and the crash in Stage 1 of the Amgen Tour of California.

After three days of rest, yesterday I trained for five hours on the parcour of the national championship in Leuven. The knee pain has always accompanied me. During the last hour of training I had to stop more than once because of the pain. Everything began with the crash in California and the situation became even worse after the fall in Switzerland. [VeloNews]

At the time of this writing, the official QuickStep website had not yet posted anything regarding this announcement.

Team RadioShack – There’s an app for that

Pro cycling information flows across the twitterverse – for better or for worse.  Major races give up-to-the-minute, GPS fueled race position information.  But what if you want to know every single detail of what Team RadioShack is doing at any given moment?  Well, thanks to bikereviews.com I now know – there’s an app for that.

Saxo Bank Announces TDF 2010 Lineup

Team Saxo Bank announced their lineup for the 2010 Tour de France.  No huge surprises really:

  • Fabian Cancellara
  • Andy Schleck
  • Fränk Schleck
  • Jens Voigt
  • Stuart O’Grady
  • Matti Breschel
  • Chris Anker Sørensen
  • Jakob Fuglsang
  • Nicki Sørensen
  • Gustav Larsson – on standby in case of injury

Team owner Bjarne Riis is quoted on the Team Saxo Bank website as saying:

We have ten riders on our Team of which all are ready and fit to do the race and that has made the job of selecting the line-up extremely difficult. That’s why the decision has been made of tactical reasons. It has been a problem of pure luxury but it’s not easy telling a rider to stay home when you know he would have done a great job in the race. However, we are now looking forward to a Tour de France with Team Saxo Bank in front of the race.

Using twitter to help (and hurt) your cycling enjoyment

Twitte LogoIt is unquestionable that twitter has had a huge impact on cycling.  It is probably safe to say that a lot of cyclists – both recreational and pro – would have never heard of the social media and microblogging service if it were not for the tweets of a particular American Pro Cyclist.  “Tweets” – or postings to twitter – are increasingly becoming one of the most accurate and timely sources of information on the international racing scene.

There have been many international scene races in the last year or so where numerous fans on the roads have helped to provide up to the minute race coverage.  However, perhaps the power of Twitter as a source of pro cycling news came to a head most poignantly at the 2010 Amgen Tour of California when there were folks tweeting events as they happened – from cars in the pro peloton.  I know that personally, as I was positioned at various finish lines of the race, I became a sudden celeb in the crowd of folks I happened to find myself in.  It was not because of any particular status or insight.  Rather, it was because I was able to capture these up-to-the-minute tweets right there, at the finish line, on my smartphone.  I knew where the peloton was, who was in the breaks, and how many km were left to go.

Keep reading →

Landis creates another doping scandal – without a single positive test

It is with both frustration and great satisfaction that I watch the madness unleashed by Floyd Landis’s accusations of doping.  Despite my previous post to the contrary, I do in fact have opinions on this issue.

The frustrating/satisfying part for me, however, is the sheer number of investigations that have started as a result of his allegations.  I find it frustrating that the major headlines on cycling are again broadcasting to the mainstream audiences the idea that cycling is a drug-riddled sport.  However, it is satisfying to see the ghusto with which the cycling governing bodies are moving to address the accusations – to either confirm or deny the claims being made.  As stated in a VeloNews.com posting:

For Armstrong the U.S. anti-doping agency (USADA) has been mandated to carry out a probe while McQuaid has also asked the Belgian federation to probe the claims concerning Bruyneel.

The federations of Australia, Canada and France have also been asked to investigate after Landis’ claims respectively implicated professional Matthew White, Michael Barry and John Lelangue, Landis’s former manager at the Phonak team, who now manages the BMC team.

That’s a whole lotta organizations, doing a whole lotta investigation, all without the impetus of a single positive test taken from a rider at this time.  If this doesn’t show that the cycling world is serious about stamping out PEDs (Performance Enhancing Drugs) than I’m not sure what will.

Orgy of cycle racing over. Now what?

Well, we’ve wrapped up both the Amgen Tour of California, and the Giro d’Italia.  Both had some amazing stages, with final results that could easily be thought of as surprises by some.  But now that I’ve gotten somewhat accustomed to catching the live Giro footage uber-early, and then following that up with the California events, I can’t help but feel like I just got fired and am now unemployed.  I mean, how will we all spend our days now?

Well, I’m sure we’ll adjust.  For me, it is time to ramp up the training for my wife and I’s Seattle to Portland ride in mid July.  And of course there is my real job.  I’m sure I can put an hour or two a week into that now that I’ve got more free time (Yes, coworkers, that was a sarcastic joke.)

I think more than anything, however, I’m going to begin plotting and scheming about the possibility of traveling to every stage of the Tour of California next year.  I learned a thing or two about following, capturing and writing about a major stage race.  I’ve got big ideas for next year – so we’ll have to see how things pan out.  So to all of those that enjoyed the california sun (and rain) with me this year – good times.  Hope to see you next year if not before then.

Safe riding, and keep those cow bells ringing.

Chechu Rubiera with significant road rash after crash

The evening after the crash that completely disrupted the start of Stage 5 of the Amgen Tour of California, reports were coming in about some of the other riders.  Of course, news of Lance Armstrong was quick to come to light.  In fact, Bicycling magazine even came out with video of the conversations between Lance Armstrong and Johan Buryneel – filmed from the team car – from the point of the crash to the decision for Lance Armstrong to abandon.

Unfortunately – but not surprising for the Lance-centric American media coverage of cycling – details on the other riders were few and scarce.  Sometime after 9pm, details on another Radio Shack rider that was taken out in the crash – Chechu Rubiera – appeared on twitter from the @TeamRadioShack stream:

Update: Chechu is very banged up & covered with road rash, but he was managing a smile at dinner and looked to have a good appetite!

Not long after that – Viatcheslav Ekimov posted a photo of the very much road rashed Chechu:

Chechu's road rash after Stage 5 crash.

At this point I’ve not been able to find out the status of Stuart O’Grady – another rider that abandoned – or to get a list of all the riders that were unable to complete the stage due to injuries in that crash.  Unfortunately I think the noise created by Floyd Landis and his accusations of pretty much anyone in American pro cycling that he has ever had contact with probably derailed the coverage of thiseven more than the fact that Armstrong involvement normally would have.

Chrissie Wellington to make guest appearance at Tour of California time trial

Triathlete & champion chrissie Wellington

Yup – you read that right.  According to IronMan champion Chrissie Wellington’s blog, she has secured herself a guest slot in the time trial stage of the Amgen Tour of California to be held in LA.  Very cool….

Latest news on Floyd Landis

I dug long and hard and finally came across the most fitting commentary on the entire Floyd Landis debacle:

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Is 40 the new 30 in the pro peloton?

Sure – there’s always been the older guys in the saddle of the grand tours.  But check out Team Radio Shack roster in the Amgen Tour of California.  You’ve got the guy the media as apparently labeled as “legendarily old” – Lance Armstrong (born September 18, 1971) and Levi Leipheimer (born October 24, 1973) – both into the latter-30’s “Do a beer add and start being a commentator” phase.  Oh but wait – there’s more.  Mr. Armstrong himself was nice enough to point this out in his twitter post:

I’d once again like to thank Jens Voigt for being the oldest in a race that I’m also in. Jens (9/17/71). Me (9/18/71). Hahaha!!

That’s right – my favorite rider in the Tour of California is older still.  But these guys seem to be counting off the days until the magic 40th birthday the way others count the centimeters on a Stage 3 sprint finish.

But the sprinters are still all young bucks – right?  Well, let’s look at the extremely exciting Stage 4 finish.  In third there was the 12 year old Mark Cavendish (well, actually born May 21, 1985). JJ Haedo (born January 26, 1981) pulled second wheel, and the stage win went to Francesco Chicchi (born November 27, 1980).  Hmmmm – looks like the older guys were faster to me.

Maybe bike riders are like wine.  I mean – Floyd Landis is an old guy too, and he seems to be pretty good at whining…