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Bike racing season has just started, and already, Team Sky are cracking the whip. Seems as though Greg Henderson took a win in the warm up the Tour Down Under at the Cancer Council Helpline Classic in Australia. Not too shabby, actually, they went 1-2 in the finale with Henderson’s last lead out man taking second, over the guy Henderson was hired to help out last year, Andre Greipel. Talk about sweet revenge/irony, or whatever it is you want to call it. True enough, Henderson did not win over Cavendish, who is still the best sprinter out there in my opinion, but, this bodes well for the young Team Sky, and will keep their “made a deal with the Devil” owner Rupert Murdoch happy at least for a little while. Now, I’m not going to hold Sky accountable, just because they’re owned by a raging maniacal egomaniac, just pointing out that they’re owned by such a man. Or is it his son? Anyway, what it boils down to, is Murdoch is in the driver’s seat. Also what it boils down to, they had a good opening race of the 2010 season.
Now the other thing I found amazing about this race, was the size of the crowds. I mean, seriously, check this picture out. We’re seeing 3, 4, 5, and sometimes 6 deep out there to basically watch a parking lot crit. Fucking awesome really. Then again, the Australians seem to have a better sense of these things anyway, and or, are more into it. Oh, and Lance was there too, always a big crowd draw, no matter how you feel about him. He brings it. Same for his silly “little” tweet ride the other day. 6000 people showed up? Again, amazing the drawing ability that guy has. Would I have gone and done a ride like that? Hells yeah! When would be the next time you could ride along with 6000 people (clusterfuck no doubt) with a full police escort an closed roads? For many of us, that time would be never. I’m sure, like with all other large scale rides of this nature, there was shredded skin, and carnage on the roadways, but this is the price we pay.
Anyway, all of this early season shit only gets me more excited for the main event. Yeah, you guys know what I’m talking about. Flanders – GW – and then PR in April. For me, there is no finer time of the year. The smell of mud and dog shit is in the air from everything thawing out from its winter freeze. Cobbles are hammered over. Belgians are drunk off of their asses at 0800 on a Sunday morning. Frites are being consumed in mass quantities. There isn’t any better time of the year for bike racing, and for those of you who think that there is, you’re fucking absolutely wrong. Just accept it. Those 3 Spring Classics (and 1 semi classic) are what it’s all about folks. OK, I’ll throw in LBL as well, but that week of racing can’t be beat. I’m definitely going over there for vacation some year, just to take it all in.
Anyway, it’s mid January, let the racing begin. Seems as if it were just a couple of days again when he harkened the end of the race season with Lombardy. Time to crank it up again on the roads.
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when you said sky cracking the whip, i thought you meant this:
ghost ride the whip, y’all.
where’s my imbed, dammit?
Sitting here thinking about the up coming racing season and the fact that Direct TV has cut ties with VS. Do you folks with comcast like your service?
I’m not sure what service I’ve got here, I think Comcast, but I’ve got VS, and also NBCUS, which shows lots of bike racing as well. Got same day coverage of the Vuelta and the Giro last year, so that’s not all bad, plus, they’ve been showing the shit out of some ski racing, my other favorite racing sport.
Lance was wearing white shoes too…there is a disturbance in the Force!
White shoes after Labor Day ?????
Oh the horror. The horror.
L.A. gotta beef with the socks, not the shoes.
Can Cavendish win a sprint without “Locomotive” Mark Renshaw leading out? Did you notice how Renshaw towed Cavendish away from the entire field the full last kilometer of the Tour?
kg— we get VS out of the air up here, and they are very cool. Loved the Giro and I love me some wo’cup skiing. You gotta admit, that young Ms. Vonn is Bad. Ass.
I think Cav can win without the train, he is that fast. Also, that last kilo of the Tour on the Champs last year was first set up by Georgie Hincapie, which was seeing Hincapie at his most pissed chasing down the Garmin train mostly on his own, and putting the fucking hurt screws to those guys. That was awesome to see. Love the Hincapie, dude is a class act.
Cav is a scrapper. The train is a formality for him. If Renshaw couldn’t cut the leadout, Cav would simply punk another teams efforts.
Agreed. Thing is, Cav has a great leadout train, which is WHY he wins so damn much, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s just damn fast at the finish. I actually look forward to watching him and Farrar battle out there, as I think he’s going to be #2 out on the road this year as it pertains to sprinting. Could be an interesting year in sprinting for sure.
Of course it takes more than one guy to lead out a grand tour or classics sprint, but if you look at the tape, almost every time Mr. Cavendish won, it was Mr. Renshaw who sat up at 200M and watched him go. And Mr. Renshaw is riding elsewhere this year. Superstardom is fleeting.
Oh yeah, and go, Tyler.
Tyler doesn’t do it for me. I don’t know, dude seemed out of place soft in the TdF last year. I look forward to seeing/reading how this year unfold for them all.
When you win like Cavendish has, they’ll get you a new train. No problem. There are plenty of guys that will absolutely bury themselves knowing a guy with that kind of pop is ready to uncork it in the last 200 meters. He’s going to murder people this year. Think Thor Hammerpants is going to ride off by himself to take in the scenery this year? Ah, no. No fucking way.
bike bike bike… historical reference. bike bike… race race race… doping comment…rude innuendo… bike bike bike… name of famous guy… comparison of cyclist A to cyclist B with added reference to historical rider and race… bike bike bike bike…
“Tyler doesn’t do it for me.”
Gnome— young Mr. Farrar is a local boy, straight outta Wenatchee WA. His father taught him to ride & race and was hit and killed by a motorist. So, like yay and stuff.
ok. background good. I’ll give him another chance. Just say’n. Until then, refer to BP’s comment #15 for definition of bike related conversation.
“I just bitch, bitch, bitch” – The gnome
He may be a local boy. But all these guys grew up somewhere. I’m still going with Cav for explosiveness and bravado. The kid does not disappoint.
Just look at the difference in results:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Farrar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Career_accomplishments_of_Mark_Cavendish
Cav may not have carried home the green tunic in his luggage with him when the Tour reached Paris, but he took six stages and pretty much owned. Save “Meatball” Thor’s picnic day out in front, something Cav’s team will never, ever, allow to happen again, I believe Cav would have taken the points competition.
Farrar might, what, win a stage? What can we really expect out of the kid this year?
“He may be a local boy. But all these guys grew up somewhere.”
Jonny— yeah, like FOREIGN COUNTRIES. Some of them may be socialists or communists or buddhists. We cannot tolerate the advancement of an international conspiracy. Funny, I never figured you for a commie.