Monday Musette – Sprinters, Specialized, & A Funeral

Here’s this week’s (mini) Monday Musette:

1. With next Sunday’s Paris-Tours looming on the horizon, several sprinters used this past weekend to put the finishing touches on their fitness. Radio Shack’s Robbie McEwen won two stages and the overall at the Circuit Franco-Belge (aka, the Tour de Wallone-Picarde), while Skil-Shimano’s Marcel Kittel took his 15th of the win of the season at Germany’s Munsterland Giro.

McEwen heads to Paris next weekend (Kittel’s not on the preliminary start list) as an outside contender for the victory, but he’ll face much tougher competition to win the autumn classic—including new world champion Mark Cavendish. My...Continue Reading

Monday Musette: The World Championships

• So, Mark Cavendish is now the road racing World Champion. Those who love to hate Cavendish might have a sour taste in their mouths, but as Fabian Cancellara pointed out in a post-race interview, it was a sprinter’s course, and the fastest sprinter in the world won the race. That is appropriate in its own way. 

• Credit Cav with being committed to winning this race, despite his Vuelta disappointment and any pre-race vaccilation or avoiding his usual bombast. Clad in a skinsuit and with some sort of prophylactic-looking helmet cover, he was geared up to make himself as fast and as...Continue Reading

Weekend Preview – Elite Men’s World Road Race Championship

This year’s World Championship is expected to be one for the sprinters. A flat course in Copenhagen practically guarantees it. But after many of the sport’s top sprinters have suffered through injury-plagued seasons, is anyone left standing to take advantage of the course? And given that many of the more veteran sprinters seem to be performing below form, could a youngster win outright?

Here’s our take:

Team Italy

Team Italy has enjoyed a decent run of success at Worlds in the last decade. After years of fractional rivalry, late coach Franco Ballerini – himself twice winner of Paris-Roubaix – united the team to...Continue Reading

Vuelta: Worlds Preparation Gone Awry

And so the Vuelta plays a crucial role for Worlds prep. However, continuing the current trend in Grand Tours stage design, there are few completely flat transfer stages earmarked for sprinters. Indeed, ten days deep into the Vuelta and there have only been two field sprints, won by Sky’s Chris Sutton and Skil-Shimano’s Marcel Kittel. All the ambitious sprinters gamely came, but who is left standing?

QuickStep’s Tom Boonen came with clearly the worst form of those considered contenders. His serious concussion at the Tour seems to have left a psychological block for him: we didn’t see him contend any sprints. The...Continue Reading

Discuss: Cavendish Abandons the Vuelta

The big news from this morning’s Stage 4 of the Vuelta is the abandon of HTC’s Mark Cavendish. Apparently he was suffering a bit too hard to go on – yesterday’s tweet hinted as much but Cavendish is no stranger to riding himself in shape over the first few days of a Grand Tour.

There are a few possible explanations for Cavendish’s abandon: This year’s Vuelta could be just a bit too challenging for him, as it’s loaded up front with some difficult days. He could be uncommitted to any further success while wearing HTC’s colors, as the team is folding...Continue Reading