What a weekend: in the books

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Can you believe the bike gods have blessed us thus? Must have been Jonny’s birthday. (39 comments for 38 years? What’s that, one to grow an inch? Trust me, he’d have to rebuild the doors if he got any taller.) Every once in awhile, the stars align to provide us with a full schedule of bike racing spanning 2 days. Too bad i caught a cold and spent Saturday fixing a fence and Sunday in bed.

Where to begin? How’s Houffalize? i like dirt. It rained all day Saturday in Belgium. Partly cloudy Sunday. That’s what they call a dry course. Georgia Gould rode to 5th…just ahead of the still-recovering GRDF. My friend GP likes to say that the line between ‘Cross and MTB is blurring – looking at the Houffalize course, i see why. Same climb the roadies do next weekend? huh.

Back across the pond, in Monterey, the ones who didn’t make the flight east got to play. And Sam Schultz took full advantage. First Short Track, second XC: that’s a good weekend. And Andy gets 5th in Short Track, his former nemesis discipline. Watch out for those boys. I think this is Andy’s bike here. Jealousy and Lust. Arizona made, too. Sea Otter was my first race ever – so i remain partial to it. But it’s beginning to look like they went to a tech expo and a bike race broke out.

Meanwhile, on the pavement at Laguna Seca, Flag’s JR broke through with a big one. We knew it would happen – it was just a question of when. Apparently now he has a crown.

Liege-Bastogne-Liege was run on Saturday – to little fanfare. a great event that played B-side to Amstel Gold. The big classic-racers were shown up by a tour-racer at Amstel Gold: Cunego. Fleche Wallone due up this week. It’s classic madness!

And TdG is just underway…you can get live coverage at cyclingnews.com or velonews.com. pick your poison.

At least Michael Ball’s not making any more sense:

“There are so many ways to spin this,” he told reporters. “I think it’s going to be awesome.”

Oh my.

On my end, it’s time to get ready for the Whiskey 50. It’ll be my first time – i want to go sub-4-hours. hell. i want to win the thing. [Edit: Unfortunately about 20 faster people stand between me and the top step.] Epic Rides puts on a good show. Make this the year you make it.

peace y’all…

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About the sullied cycologist

"measures, daily, just how quickly we are destroying our atmosphere. thinks riding bikes might just help this problem. tapes his middle finger to the handlebar (unsuccessfully represses rage). mountainbikes in lycra. Tomac did it. he does it. he's not Tomac." Missoula, Montana, USA

7 Replies to “What a weekend: in the books”

  1. great post… regarding the lines between MTB racing and Cross getting blurred, shits been going that way since Tomac, Frischknecht, Overend, and company protested the Hunter Mountain, NY course for being too difficult back in the early 90’s.

  2. …fleche wallonne is wednesday & liege-bastogne-liege for the big boys is sunday…

    …last saturday’s version was for the u-23’s or whatever the hell they call the semi-pros…

  3. Liege-Bastogne-Liege is the 27th, this Sunday. You might be confused with the cyclosportive of the Amstel Gold, an event that isn’t even a race but a nice ride for people who dust off their bikes once a year especially for this.

  4. …maybe i didn’t say it definitively enough…

    …on sat, april 19th, the developmental team (u-23) version of liege-bastogne-liege was run…it was a 183 km/113 mi event & was won by the belgian, jan bakelants of team beveren 2000…placing 9th overall & first american, was usa national team rider, peter stetina…stetina rides for vmg/felt, which is the u-23 squad associated w/ slipstream-chipotle…

    …& again, yes, L-B-L for the big boys is this sunday…