Monday Musette – Vuelta, Garmin-Cervelo, and Metaphors

Fotoreporter Sirotti

Here’s this week’s Monday Musette.

1. The 2010 Vuelta Espana kicked-off this weekend with a midnight team time trial through the streets of Seville.  By the end of the evening, Mark Cavendish was wearing the red jersey as leader of the race, after his HTC-Columbia team took the stage victory.  For HTC-Columbia, the win was reminiscent of the 2009 Giro d’Italia, when Cavendish pulled-on the pink jersey following the team’s Venetian TTT victory.  (Garmin was the big loser that day too, if you recall.)

Fotoreporter Sirotti

On Sunday, we expected Cavendish, Garmin’s Tyler Farrar, and Lampre’s Alessandro Petacchi to rekindle their exciting sprint battle from this summer’s Tour de France—except someone forgot to tell FDJ’s Yauheni Hutarovich.  Hutarovich decisively beat his three heralded colleagues—is he this year’s Borut Bozic?

Fotoreporter Sirotti

But the real excitement came at the end of today’s Stage 3, when Philippe Gilbert sent a message to those hoping to contend at Worlds in October.  For his [team’s] efforts, he got the stage and the red jersey.  Behind, the GC saw it’s first re-shuffling, with overall favorites coming to the fore on the uphill finish in Malaga.

Fotoreporter Sirotti

While we don’t expect Gilbert to contend for the overall victory, it’s interesting to see Rodriguez and Nibali race so aggressively at the beginning of the first week.  Menchov, Mosquera, Frank Schleck, and Van Garderen all held their own as well.

Fotoreporter Sirotti

Two quick notes: watch-out for Filippo Pozatto and Grega Bole at Worlds later this year.  Pozatto’s someone we have come to expect to be at the top of his game, but Bole’s proven himself to be a very talented rider over the past months.  When Oscar Freire won his first world title, he was a relatively unknown small bunch sprinter.  Romans Vainsteins won his title in a group sprint as well—with little team support.  To make a long story short: if you’re a betting person, save at least one small wager for the young Slovenian.

What are your thoughts after the first 3 days of the Spanish grand tour?

2. This weekend’s other big news was the demise of the Cervélo TestTeam and Cervélo’s new agreement with Team Garmin.  We’ll cover this at length later in the week, but for right now it seems there’s a moral to the story: gone are the days when bike manufacturers can afford title sponsorships.  Cervélo had a great idea in bringing together a group of passionate and like-minded companies to create a sort of travelling laboratory in which to gather the best R&D data—and publicity—that money could buy.  Unfortunately, while admirable, the venture proved too costly.

Luckily for Cervélo, there just happened to be an Anglo-American team that just so happened to not have its contract renewed with its bike supplier.  (This team also happens to employ three of the world’s best Canadian cyclists.)  So after a quick bit of “Insert Bike Company Tab A into Pro Tour Team Slot B”, we have Garmin-Cervélo.  Now the real fun begins as Garmin attempts to build the best possible roster without breaking/buying-out too many current contracts.

This ought to be good.  Your thoughts?

3. And last but not least, I was quite impressed with the third and final installment of Rapha’s RSA Film Series.  Friday’s D’Acciaio offered a close look into the mind and workshop of the legendary Dario Pegoretti.  The man seems to eat, sleep, and breathe his craft.  If you missed it, I feel sorry for you.  It also offers the best use of metaphor—in Italian—since Il Postino.  (Sorry, but I couldn’t find it with subtitoli.)

Which brings me to my final question: do you or someone you know ride a Pegoretti?  If yes, drop me a line and tell me about it—I’d love to hear your opinions.  Just shoot an email to paveblog@gmail.com.  Thanks!

Enjoy your Monday!