Fotoreporter Sirotti
Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, January 26, 2011
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Photo Courtesy of Alberto Concejal.
With a half a week left until the World Championships, we have all the fodder for speculation that we’ll get. As always, here are Pavé’s Cyclocross Power Rankings, with each rider’s ranking from last week in parenthesis.
1. Niels Albert (1). He’s won five races in January and shows no signs of weakness. Going into the World Championships, he is the man to beat.
2. Kevin Pauwels (3). With a couple of 2nd place finishes in recent weeks, Pauwels is clearly a threat for stripes.
3. Zdenek Stybar (2). Despite eventually finishing behind Nys, Stybar showed a glimpse of his early-season form by opening up a 15 second gap early in the race at Hoogerheide. He’s spend much of this past month in Mallorca focusing on training; maybe he’s just needed a few races to top off his form.
4. Sven Nys (5). I may have called his season peaked a bit too early, as he’s still been able to dispatch Stybar in two recent races. A WC win would help make up for a bit of a topsy-turvy season, but I don’t see him creeping too high on the podium.
5. Klaas Vantornout (7) – A pair of fifth place finishes recently suggests that a run at the podium in St-Wendel isn’t too far from his grasp.
6. Tom Meeusen (9) can be counted on for a strong finish, and if the rumors of an infighting Belgian team at Worlds pan out, might be well-poised to take advantage of any chaos for a podium spot.
7. Bart Aernouts (8). His middle name might as well be Steady Freddie.
8. Steve Chainel (n/a), the great French hope, has had a few top-ten rides lately, and I wouldn’t put it past him to be the highest-placing Frenchman at Worlds.
9. Bart Wellens – has his injury from Tervuren gotten the best of him? He line in Hoogerheide. Maybe he’s spending more time filming his reality television program. His 2nd place at the Belgian Championships shows that he’s always a threat, but not much to speak of in the weeks since gives me pause.
10. Gerben De Knegt (n/a) steadily finishes in the top ten. It would be nice to see him ride himself into a top-five placing, but time is running out this season.
Dropped this week: Francis Mourey (4) – I may have been wrong about Mourey. Fast courses suit him, but when the going get rough, he falls off.
Stay tuned for Friday’s World Championship Previews.
The bike Zdenek Stybar is going to win Worlds on?
Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, January 25, 2011
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Photo courtesy of Alberto Concejal
This past weekend saw two races – on Saturday, the Kasteelcross Zonnebeke in Belgium, and on Sunday, the final race of the World Cup series in Hoogerheidi, Netherlands.
In Zonnebeke, Rob Peeters credited some unusually good legs that allowed him to respond to Dieter Vanthourenhout’s early acceleration and then respond with his own, opening a gap over a field that included Zdenek Stybar and Sven Nys but few others from the sport’s highest tier. Peeters stayed away, eventually finishing 7 seconds in front of Stybar and 11 in front of Nys.
It may have been that Stybar and Nys were leaving a bit in the tank at Zonnebeke, with their eyes on Hoogerheide the following day and the World Championships the following weekend. Or, they each may have lost a step – indeed, I’d expect Stybar, after a long block of rest and training in Mallorca, to come back to competition ready to ride away from his rivals the way he did early in the season. Is his time away from racing taking a toll on his legs that hard training can’t replace? And this is not the first time I ask: Is Nys’s strongest part of the season behind him?
For, in Hoogerheide, though Stybar showed glimpses of his early season form early in the race – opening a 15+ second gap over his chasers – Niels Albert (who had some pointed words to say to other riders about their ability to help with the chase) took the reigns and handily chased down Stybar.
At that point, Albert set about doing what he does best – riding alone several seconds in front of anybody else, eventually winning in Hoogerheide – his fourth consecutive win there, his third World Cup victory of the year, and clinching the World Cup general classification. Behind, the usual suspects did their usual thing. The chase group whittled down. Kevin Pauwels, who bested Albert last week, moved away on his own and came within about ten seconds of Albert, while Nys and Stybar battled for the final podium spot.
With just one week until the World Championships, the cards are out on the table. We have all the fodder for speculation that we’ll get. Stay tuned for this week’s Power Rankings and, on Friday, Pavé’s World Championship Preview.
Fotoreporter Sirotti
Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, January 24, 2011
Seen any cool links we missed? Share ‘em in the comments below!
Fotoreporter Sirotti
This past week saw the first racing of the season with the Tour de San Luis and the Tour Down Under crowning their 2011 champions on Sunday.
1. In Argentina, the week looked as if it were on track to be dominated by Androni Giocatolli and Movistar with Androni’s Roberto Ferrari and Jose Serpa taking Stages 1, 3 and 2 and Movistar’s Xavier Tondo staking his claim on the GC with a win in the ITT on Stage 4. Unfortunately, in what is becoming a somewhat disturbing trend for Spanish riders of late, Tondo crashed in Stage 6 while wearing the leader’s jersey, losing 15 minutes and the overall lead to the unknown Chilean, Marco Arriagada.
2. In Australia at the Tour Down Under, Matthew Goss won the first stage and appeared as if he were on his way to making me look good—but a funny thing happened on the way to Adelaide as first Robbie McEwen and then Cameron Meyer stole the leader’s jersey from the Australian’s shoulders—Meyer for good, as his breakaway win on Stage 4 gave him enough of a cushion to give Garmin it’s first big win of the season.
While Goss fulfilled our pre-race expectations, his teammate Mark Cavendish and defending champion Andre Greipel did little to live up to the hype surrounding their first race as official opponents. Cavendish crashed heavily at the end of a chaotic Stage 2 and Greipel went home winless from a race he’s owned in the past.
As for Meyer his win was especially impressive as he was one of several riders to hit the deck at the end of the Stage 2. His gutsy ride—no doubt boosted by the presence of teammate Matt Wilson in the break—seems to confirm the promise he’s displayed in the past.
But in my opinion, the most impressive performance of the race goes to Michael Matthews the reigning U23 World Champion and current Rabobank neo-pro. The rookie easily defeated Goss and Greipel in a head-to-head uphill sprint to win Stage 3. At only 20-years-old Matthews is certainly young, but as Peter Sagan showed last year with an auspicious Australian debut, talent doesn’t seem to care how old you are. (Hey Rabobank: give the kid some rainbow stripes for his jersey–after all, he earned them.)
3. Unexpectedly, the biggest news from the Tour Down Under came not from the peloton but from the caravan when it was announced that Garmin-Cervelo DS Matt White had been fired for sending former rider Trent Lowe to a Spanish doctor with a shadowy reputation. Why Vaughters waited until now to make the announcement is unknown at this time, but one wonders if a recent string of emails from Floyd Landis prompted the move—or if Matt White’s rumored involvement with the new GreenEdge project had something to do with it. Whatever the reason, Vaughters can continue to say he runs the cleanest ship in the business (despite the skeletons in his own closet). As for Matt White’s replacement, Vaughters will step behind the wheel temporarily (which if the rumors are true means bad news for every other car in the race). I’m waiting for confirmation that he’s available, but I’d hire Hendrik Redant in a second if I were JV. I’m available too if Vaughters wants someone cheap.
4. Speaking of choices, give the ASO credit for picking the right teams for the 2011 editions of Paris-Nice and the Tour de France. Saur-Sojasun deserves the call-up to July, while Bretagne-Schuller gets a week in March to show what it can do. The Tour de France is a French race—it needs French teams to maintain its character. And with French riders winning six stages in last year’s edition—more than any other country—it’s hard to make a case against more of them being invited. As for Geox-TMC, it’s hard to say you deserve an invitation when you have no kit and only one team bike.
5. And last but not least, in case you missed it, last week’s issue of Sports Illustrated caused quite a stir, with both the Steelers and Packers being picked by SI’s “experts†to advance to the Super Bowl. I mean seriously! Who in their right mind would pick a second-year quarterback from USC to find success against Dick LeBeau’s 3-4 defense at Heinz Field? And Rodgers over Culter? Duh. Even my 3-year-old niece got that one right. The next time you want to publish something provocative SI, tell us something we don’t already know. Geez.
6. A quick word to everyone waiting for us to release our 2011 kit—we haven’t forgotten about you! We’ve had some last-minute supporters jump on board and we’re finalizing the design as we speak. I promise this will happen—we’re not Geox for crying out loud.
That’s it for this week’s Monday Musette.
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