Pavé’s 2010 Season Preview – Part 1 (Teams 20-16)

by Whit

In Belgium, newspapers don’t publish their official season previews until the week before the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad—the official opening day of the Belgian cycling season. I like doing it that way too—it gives a bit of time to get acclimated with the new season before attempting to sort everyone out.  So, over the next 4 days, I’ll publish my preview of the Top-20 teams of the 2010 season.I’ll start with #20 and count backwards all the way to #1. Come back daily between now and Thursday to see where your favorites fall. Enjoy!#20 – BboxIf it not for the heroics...Continue Reading

Weekend Preview – Algarve, Haut Var, the Ruta, and More

by Whit

Here’s just about everything you need to know about the next few days of racing:1. Before we preview the weekend’s festivities, we should take a minute to wrap-up the Tour of Oman, which finished today with an ITT won by—as we correctly predicted—Edvald Boassen Hagen. Unfortunately, thanks to an untimely stop to answer nature’s call during Wednesday’s Stage 4, Boassen Hagen was unable to take the overall title. Stage 6 runner-up Fabian Cancellara took his first win of the season instead—and looks to be right on track for April.So what did we learn? First, the racing in Oman was fast,...Continue Reading

Cross Report and Power Ranking

by Whit

It’s a bit later than usual, but here’s the penultimate edition of Erik’s Cross Report and Power Rankings. For more coverage, check-out Erik’s site, The Run-up. He’ll be joining Pavé at NAHBS as well, so if you’re lucky, you might catch a glimpse of our in-house cross guru!   All Photos by Tim Van Wichelen With just one race left this year, Zdenek Stybar has returned to the top step of the podium and won another major competition. The World Champion did just enough Sunday to hold-off a charging Niels Albert on a slick, icy course in Vorselaar, taking the win and...Continue Reading

Monday Musette – Valverde, Oman, Algarve, and 2 Great Videos

by Whit

1. This weekend I learned a valuable lesson: never bet against Alejandro Valverde (unless it’s July). “It’s February,” I thought. “He’s saving his best for later in the year,” I assumed. “The competition is more motivated than he is,” I predicted. I was wrong on all counts—with the lone exception being yesterday’s super-motivated stage winner, Francesco Masciarelli. My pre-race favorite, Johnny Hoogerland, finished the race in a respectable 4th-place overall—9 seconds behind the winner. The other favorites finished about where we expected: Vino, Gesink, and Danielson all finished inside the top-15. But in the end, it was Valverde who punched his victory card a...Continue Reading

Sunday Preview – Faron, Oman, and Vorselaar

by Whit

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! We’re still at a point in the season where the schedule bounces around a bit from one week to another. This weekend’s action occurs mainly on Sunday with one stage race ending, another beginning, and a Belgian cyclocross finale to the Superprestige. Let’s take a look: Fotoreporter Sirotti We begin in France where today’s Stage 4 of the Tour de Med was neutralized due to bad weather after 114km of racing with Cofidis’ Julien El Fares being declared the “winner”. Tomorrow’s showdown on the slopes of Mont Faron is threatened as well—here’s hoping the weather improves as...Continue Reading