We’ve seen some pretty good racing early in the season already, but I for one am really looking forward to Milan-San Remo. For me, this is where the season really starts.
It was great to see Thor Hushovd get a win in the opening stage of the Tour du Haut Var. I never thought much of him as a rider until he did the stripes proud in the 2011 Tour, and I was bummed for him to have shitty luck last year with illnesses. It will do his team and his own confidence a great favour to get a win up ahead of the classics.
Also of note is Pozzato winning Trofeo Laigueglia, the season opener in Italy. Of note, because it will probably be his last win for the season. He needs to get back out of Italy to a team that doesn’t treat him like a don, because recently he doesn’t have the results to back up his apparent attitude.
It’s on March 17th. I’m pretty sure it’s on SBS this year, which means I’ll be taping it, then getting up early to watch the last hour before work. Won’t be the same without Irish Rolly there though.
Be interesting to see how they tolerate him this year, and by that I mean pressure from the Taiwanese - Scarponi is on internal suspension, leaving them short on leaders. That happened all very quietly, leaving me to deduce (deer-stalker hat and all) that Merida are trying to avoid bad press. Being absent from the team photo is a massive one, and very unItalian.
Cunego has tried to refashion himself into a Classics rider but as much as I love him, I think he’s missed the boat on anything that Gilbert, Boonen and Rodriguez compete in.
Agreed on Cunego, I think he got lucky winning the Giro. And by got lucky, I mean with doping controls.
Where did you hear that about Scarponi? I wondered if something like that happened, but I hadn’t heard anything to support it.
And Cunego has won Lombardia a few times yeah? And Amstel Gold. So he is / was a pretty good classics rider in the past. He was up there last year in Amstel until he fell.
yep cunego is still a threat for the 1 day races, people forget about the non cobbled classics like amstel gold etc. say ‘classics’ and everyone just thinks paris roubaix.
Good story on Cunego in the current Procycling. It puts forward the theory that he won the Giro in unclean fashion, then got off the program for whatever reason - maybe he didn’t want to push his health after the bout of glandular fever, or maybe that was a cover story so he could come back at a more realistic level.
He did go seriously close to taking out the Tour de Suisse a couple of years ago.
but i wasnt aware that they had confirmed that race numebrs will be expanded, i thought there was still a question about the # of wildcards changing. which would suck for those teams already invited to the giro.
Cunego is a chump. He got crap because he is a little girl that was scared of getting caught. You can do what you like on an Italian (or russian team) as long as you have some balls and keep your mouth shut, another one will take you back, look at scarponi, pizzato, petacchi and WTF di luca is back too. Will Lampre bring back Scarponi now that Purito will stay with Katusha? Or will the Tiawanese try to cool their balls, this is going to be good.
How will uncle Pat stamp his feet this time i’m still in charge here
“I think Katusha, because of their strength as a team, more often than not, would have ended up being a wildcard squad anyway. And so, therefore I don’t think that many races are going to be too heavily burdened by this.”
Any predictions for Het Nieuwsblad this weekend?
Niki Terpstra for me. Or someone from else from OPQS. maybe Chavanel.
I’d love as usual to see Haussler win it.
I would love to see Terpstra win, I think maybe I have a man-crush on him. I am expecting to see Offredo and Hushovd in the top ten, but I’m going to tip Lancaster or Matthews from GreenEdge for the win.
