Sunday, April 18, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Don't Miss Amstel Gold 2010! April 18th
The Amstel gold race traditionally kick starts the Ardennes Classics season. Watch for the action to go down on the steep gradients of the Cauberg, Mur de Huy and the Côte de la Redoute. My pick for the race is Philippe Gilbert, not just because he had a good finish in Brabantse but lets be honest, he needs it the most. As they say "A desperate man is a dangerous man". Omega Pharma-Lotto will be praying to Zues,Allah, and Jesus for a good result on Sunday.I will be periodicity updating the post with live feed listing and full team rosters so you have no excuse to miss the action. Be sure to check back after for a complete rundown of the race.AG2R La Mondiale: Martin Elmiger, Alexandr Efimkin, René Mandri, Ben Gastauer, Nicolas Roche, Dimitri Champion, Maxime Bouet, Blel Kadri
Omega Pharma-Lotto: Mario Aerts, Christophe Brandt, Philippe Gilbert, Gerben Löwik, Dani Moreno, Jean-Christope Peraud, Staf Scheirlinckx and Jurgen Van den Broeck.
Vacansoleil: Wout Poels, Matteo Carrara, Michel Golas, Johnny Hoogerland, Sergey Lagutin, Björn Leukemans, Marco Marcato and Rob Ruygh.
Sebastien Rosseler for wins Brabantse Pijl
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Could Cancellara win the big one?
I’m the kind of guy that loves to go for the long shot; the guy that no one thinks is going to win. The guy who attacks and Phil Ligget says “well that boys not going to get very far”, be assured Mr.Ligget I will be the one screaming at the television till my vocal cords grow numb for that poor fool trying to beat the odds. I suppose in essence you could say I’m a dreamer. In spirit of such thought I pondered to myself what many other cycling fans across the globe pondered….Could Mr.V8 aka Mr. I Have a Engine Up My Ass aka Mr. Fabulous Cancellara better known as Fabian Cancellara win the La Grande Boucle aka Tour De France? Well for one thing his old coach seems to think so; in a recent interview Aldo Sassi said “I'm convinced he can go for the major Tours. Perhaps not the Giro d'Italia, but the Tour de France for sure”. But really... what does this guy know? I decided to do a little research of my own in which I compared Cancellara to riders like Bradly Wiggins and Miguel Indurain. As far as weight loss goes Bradley Wiggins lost about 15 pounds over a nine month time span in which he went from 171.6Ibs to 151.2Ibs. This subsequent weight loss turned this pursuit champ into a GC contender. I think its generally excepted that Cancellara has got a little bigger of a engine then Wigo, so let us for a second dream of what he could be capable of if he decided to follow in suit of his British counterpart. Another interesting prospective to take into account is comparing Cancalarra to tour legend Miguel Indurain.
“Women Lie, Men Lie, Numbers don’t lie.”
Fabian Cancalarra vs Miguel Indurain
| | Fabian Cancalarra | Miguel Indurain |
| VO2 Max | 85.0 to 90.0ml range | 88.0ml |
| Height | 6’1 (1.85m) | 6’2 (1.88m) |
| Weight | 180Ib (80kg) | 175 (75.5kg) |
| Resting Heart Rate | *Under 50 (bpm) | 28 (bpm) |
| Lung Capacity | 6.5 liters | 8 liters |
*Exact numbers not known
Cancellara has also proven himself over multi day stage races with wins in: Tour de Suisse(2009),Tirreno-Adriatico(2008),Tour of Oman(2010) Plus major support work for the shleck brothers in the Tour de France mountains.
Of course we don’t know If Cancalarra will ever be competitive at GC level of the sport, but as I said I’m a dreamer…..
Monday, April 12, 2010
Fabulous Cancellara's attack!
This is the attack that started and ended it all. Sorry its in dutch guys!! Listen closely for the dutch commentator to say "we have a problem".
Fabian Cancellara wins Paris-Roubaix 2010
I'm sure many thought that the field of star studded riders would surely give Fabian Cancellara a run for his money, at the start of the 108th disgustingly hard 'Queen of the Classics', also known as Paris-Rubaix. And to be honest, it was all looking quite good and even promising for Belgian star Tom Boonen who with 60km to go he started to attack from the peloton in order to try and split the group. These attacks, as impressive as they were, would do nothing to faze the Swiss phoneme who seemingly floated across the gaps with ease. Somewhere between sector 10 and 11 of cobbles Boonen got the message and decided to let someone else do some work while he got a drink from the back of the group. While Cancellara sat comfortably at third wheel. To describe what ensued over the next 50km I find it appropriate to use one of my favorite American proverbs...."The shit hit the fan". Almost as quickly as Boonen had gone to the back Cancellara tore off the front and opened a sizeable gap over the Mons-en-Pévèle section with 50km remaining. The Swiss national champion was quickly joined by Vacansoleil's Björn Leukemans who was quickly dropped from the pace. At this point I thought to be my self "How can one man hold off a chase by 8 of the worlds greatest classic riders for 50km? Surely he'll be caught...." I was wrong. Boonen predictably started to chase as hard as he could. Not only was Cancellara not being caught but he was opening a sizable gap. By the time Cancellara reached Mérignies à Le Prez sector he had opened his gap to 32 seconds. The Kilometers ticked away and the gap grew. By this time the field lost all motivation to chase the Olympic Champion. In the closing Kilometers there were a few desperate attacks by Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha and Norwegian fast man Thor Hushovd. But the trio never seemed to be able to close the gap under 2:30. Cancellara entered the deafening roar of the Roubaix velodrome with a 3:00 gap. After making his way around half the velodrome the returning champion began to celebrate one of the most impressive victories ever in the Paris-Roubaix history. I think cycling legend Sean Kelly summed it up quite well when he said "Cancellara has cohones to go with 50k to go the finish". Over all it was a great race. My only question is “what can’t this guy do?”
Paris-Roubaix 2010 Final:
| 1 | Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank | 6:35:10 | |
| 2 | Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team | 0:02:00 | |
| 3 | Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Sky Professional Cycling Team | | |
| 4 | Roger Hammond (GBr) Cervelo Test Team | 0:03:14 | |
| 5 | Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step | | |
| 6 | Björn Leukemans (Bel) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team | 0:03:20 | |
| 7 | Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Team Katusha | 0:03:46 | |
| 8 | Leif Hoste (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto | 0:05:16 | |
| 9 | Sébastien Hinault (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale | 0:06:27 | |
| 10 | Hayden Roulston (NZl) Team HTC - Columbia | 0:06:59 | |