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Sunday, April 2, 2006



Guide to live race coverage on the internet/web
Tom Boonen, Quick Step

Notes:
  Can defending champion Tom Boonen live up to the hype?  The hype is due to past results, genuine talent and star quality but also to the media's need for a new face to sell with the retirement of Lance Armstrong.  Boonen is on the cover of the latest Velo Magazine as well as yesterday's L'Equipe Magazine.  A.S.O. (Amaury Sport Organization), organizer of the Tour de France, next week's Paris-Roubaix, and many other races, is banking on Boonen; director of cycling Christian Prudhomme recently called Boonen "the solution".

Today's L'Equipe unsurprisingly rates Boonen a 5-star favorite.  It lists "No one" as a 4-star favorite!, a rarity if in fact they've ever done that before, then lists a handful of 3-star favorites including Erik Dekker, Alessandro Ballan, Peter Van Petegem and George Hincapie.

But clearly it takes more than talent to win a race this tough, for no one has won Flanders back-to-back since Eric Leman of Belgium did it in 1972 and 1973!  It also takes luck, or perhaps more accurately a lack of bad luck....ill-timed flat tires, mechanical problems, crashes.  It also takes great team support, which Boonen certainly has, and a lot will depend on how Boonen's rivals ride this race.

Boonen wants this race bad.  He said the other day, "If one of my teammates wins on Sunday, I'm not sure I will raise my arms like I did at San Remo."  That competitiveness is one of his strengths but it also could prove his undoing today if he makes a poor decision at a critical moment.  It's up to rivals such as Van Petegem, Dekker, Hincapie, Hoste, Klier and Ballan to put the pressure on, to isolate Boonen from his teammates, and hope he makes a mistake.  Easier said than done.
 
Tour of Flanders official site


photos Copyright © 2005, 2006 Pete Geyer

2006 Tour of Flanders
Belgium, April 2, 258km
(Ronde Van Vlaanderen)
(Tour des Flandres)

Live video coverage:

(No live video streaming found)

Live audio coverage:

Eurosport (English)
(24-hour audio feed streaming)
(13:00 CET (7:00 am U.S. EST))
(Cycling coverage will be interrupted by auto racing throughout the afternoon)
(times subject to change)
(requires Windows Media Player or equivalent)
(may not work with Firefox browser)

Check schedule


Live tickers:



Cyclingnews

Sportwereld.be dynamic graphics



Flanders flags
Flanders flags



Saturday, April 1, 2006

Breaking news: Boonen breaks foot, out of Flanders
Armstrong to race Sunday?


In a stunning development just one day before he was to defend his title in the Tour of Flanders, cycling megastar Tom Boonen broke his foot Saturday morning.  When contacted for details, Quick Step team manager Patrick Lefevere said, "I don't have all the details myself but apparently Rabobank rider Michael Boogerd's family was visiting and Tom was playing soccer in the yard with Boogerd's son.  This is a disturbing trend and the UCI needs to look into it."

Boonen, winner of both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix last year, as well as the world championships, had been looking to confirm his phenomenal 2005 season.  But the man who said last spring that his goal was to become known around the world, far from Belgium, now will miss the entire 2006 spring classics season.

Dutchman Boogerd, his own foot in a cast after breaking it recently while playing with his son, denied that his son had anything to do with Boonen's accident.  "In fact, who is Tom Boonen?," he asked.

Meanwhile, supposedly retired 7-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong is rumored to be a surprise entry for Discovery Channel in Sunday's race.  Armstrong, who raced Flanders in 2005 in support of teammate George Hincapie, reportedly has been training harder than ever and was seen a few days ago at the airport in Brussels wearing a "Boonen Busters" t-shirt and Nike "Road to Roubaix" baseball cap....

Armstrong's possible start at Flanders was not welcome news to multi-race organizer A.S.O.'s director of cycling Christian Prudhomme.  "Lance retired.  He cannot unretire.  We don't even have a word for 'unretire' in French.  In any event, we will not allow him to start at Flanders, I can guarantee you that!," he said.  When told that A.S.O. isn't the organizer for Flanders, Prudhomme responded, "We're not?  Well we should be.  Jean-Marie Leblanc told me when he retired last year that I should look to acquire more races!"  When told that Leblanc hasn't yet retired, Prudhomme responded, "He hasn't?"

The French term for "April Fool's" is "poisson d'Avril" (April fish).

We'll have the links to live coverage of tomorrow's race in the morning.


Friday, March 31, 2006

On today:
Race
Live Coverage
Route Adélie de Vitré
March 31, France
 
4th round of the Coupe de France, this race sees American Tyler Farrar in action for Cofidis, as well as 8 Americans riding for Team TIAA-CREF: Mike Creed, Mike Friedman, Taylor Tolleson, Chad Hartley, Brad Huff, Rahsaan Bahati, Nathan Mitchell and Danny Pate.
Start list
(As of 3pm Paris time, this ticker has not yet gone live.)

Though we've seen a lot of the younger Americans in action at smaller races here in France, guys such as Saul Raisin, Patrick McCarty, Tyler Farrar, Tim Duggan and Stephen Cozza, one guy we haven't yet seen who has generated some hype is Taylor Tolleson.  Sam Abt of the IHT recently wrote about him.

International Herald Tribune
(photo P. Geyer)


Thursday, March 30, 2006

Note:  Cycling.TV won't work for you?  Your pop-up ad blocker or internet security software may be preventing you from ever seeing the main Cycling.TV display.  Click on the Cycling.TV link, then see if your software allows you to easily de-activate pop-up ad blocking for that site.

On today:
Race
Live Coverage
Three Days of De Panne
March 28-30, Belgium
(KBC-Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde)
Start list (.pdf)


Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Below is a guide to live web coverage of 2006 Three Days of De Panne

Peter Van Petegem and Leif Hoste, 2003 GP Eddy Merckx
Peter Van Petegem and Leif Hoste, Brussels, Belgium 2003 GP Eddy Merckx (a two-man time trial event which unfortunately has been discontinued)
(photo Copyright © 2006 Pete Geyer)

For some cycling fans, the next 10 days or so represent the most anticipated period of the racing season, including the Tour of Flanders (Sunday) and Paris-Roubaix on consecutive weekends.  While far more fans travel to/within Europe for the Tour in July, or tune in to TV broadcasts, some do make the trip for the April classics to experience the frenzy in Belgium and/or ride the famed cobblestones themselves.  The stakes are huge for the classics riders; this is their season right here for many of them.  Some choose the end of the classics season to get off the bike for good when they do retire.  Though the Tour de France is often called the "Super Bowl of cycling," the Tour is really in a class of its own and for pure, all-or-nothing drama packed into a single day, it's hard to beat Flanders or Roubaix.  They always guarantee drama in one form or another, whether crashes on slick cobbles or untimely flat tires.  The Super Bowl guarantees big commercials.

Discovery Channel's Leif Hoste, once a teammate of classics great Peter Van Petegem (photo), won stage 1 yesterday of the Three Days of De Panne.  This is a tune up race for this Sunday's biggie, Flanders.  Hoste finished second in the 2004 Tour of Flanders, Van Petegem is a two-time winner.  They'll both be in the mix on Sunday, along with a host (no pun intended) of others, most notably defending champion Tom Boonen.

On this week:
Race
Live Coverage
Three Days of De Panne
March 28-30, Belgium
(KBC-Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde)
Start list (.pdf)


Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Note:  Have you been having problems playing Eurosport audio streams?  You are not alone.  Things do seem to be running more smoothly today, however.  But no cycling on Eurosport today.

Note:  Cycling.tv has Three Days of De Panne LIVE this week.  Their cycling coverage has been very good.  We keep expecting some Monty Python humor (sorry, humour) to break out though.  "So, Ivan Basso, what's your favourite colour?"  "Uh, blue....no!  Yellow!"

On this week:
Race
Live Coverage
Three Days of De Panne
March 28-30, Belgium
(KBC-Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde)
Start list (.pdf)


Monday, March 27, 2006

Editorial
Sleeping on the job

Franck Bouyer
Franck Bouyer in action in Paris-Nice, 2004
(photo Copyright © 2006 Pete Geyer)

Paris (cyclingfans.com) -- The ongoing "doping" case of French rider Franck Bouyer (Bouygues Telecom) ranks up there with the strangest of them all.  Bouyer takes a product, modafinil, that allows him to stay awake while training and competing in bike races.  It's not for his dog, not for his mother-in-law, not for a rare unicycling pet iguana soon to appear on the Late Show with David Letterman, or whatever the latest preferred excuse is among those in the peloton who get caught in possession of banned products.

No, Bouyer has a prescription for modafinil because he suffers from narcolepsy (excessive daytime sleepiness) and, in fact, isn't allowed a license to race unless he uses the drug.  (He has fallen asleep while training on his bike.)  Unfortunately for Bouyer, modafinil, considered a performance-enhancing drug (PED), is banned and detectable.  If he uses the product and undergoes dope testing, he'll fail the test and be banned from competition.  Talk about a catch-22.

This case has been going on for nearly two years since cycling's governing body, the UCI, ruled in 2004 that Bouyer could not compete if he took the product.  (Bouyer, who won Paris-Camembert in 2004, was left on his own to attempt to prove that modafinil, which is one of the key products at the heart of the Balco scandal in the U.S., does not give him an unfair advantage beyond, we assume, keeping him awake on the road.)  When Bouyer appealed, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), perhaps seeing an opportunity to score some political points of its own, overruled the UCI last year and said the rider could compete.  The UCI responded by appealing that decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS-TAS) which recently barred Bouyer from competing until it completes hearings on the matter.  A final decision is expected this week.

Narcolepsy is also characterized by disturbed nighttime sleep.  Now, with the recent announcement by organizers of May's Giro d'Italia that riders will have to take a night train to Italy after the race's first few days in Belgium, perhaps that will bring the peloton down to Bouyer's performance level for a day?  But seriously, when will organizers and the UCI put aside their political battles and get serious about fighting doping and being supportive of the athletes, two tasks which are not mutually-exclusive?  Whatever the outcome, and our feeling is that Bouyer should be allowed to compete while treating his illness, two years is far too long for this to be resolved.  This case, perhaps more than any other, shows that a true riders' union is needed in cycling.

It's the UCI and Grand Tour organizers that need to wake up.

Related content:

Samuel Abt
Sam Abt:
"Cycling: Narcoleptic won't rest until he races"
International Herald Tribune
(photo P. Geyer)

Also, last October we were critical of Tour de France organizer A.S.O. for playing politics:   "Playing with fire"

Tomorrow (Tuesday), start of Three Days of De Panne .  George Hincapie won this race in 2004 and Stijn Devolder won in 2005.  Discovery Channel's Viatcheslav Ekimov won the time trial last year.  All three of those riders should be on the start line tomorrow.


Sunday, March 26, 2006

Below is a guide to live web coverage of 2006 Criterium International and De Brabantse Pijl

Note:
At the moment, the Criterium International official site says the final stage time trial today begins at 4:27am.  Obviously they mean 4:27pm but we're reminded of the news last week from the Giro d'Italia organizers announcing that this year's Giro riders will have to take a night train from Belgium (where the Tour of Italy begins this year) to Italy.  Understandably, the teams are not happy about that.  The Giro organizers already had to give in to pressure to eliminate the final day double stage.  And they say that race organizers have nothing to do with a culture of doping in cycling....

Note:
Clocks in Europe advanced an hour last night.  Until the U.S. changes its clocks, there are now seven hours time difference between CET (Paris, etc.) and U.S. EST instead of six.  We made the correction below for the scheduled Eurosport start time for coverage of the final stage time trial of Criterium International.

Note:  Due to the significant reduction in competitors in the Criterium International (only 64 riders remaining after withdrawals due to crashes and riders eliminated because of time after this morning's (Sunday) hill stage), this afternoon's time trial will not begin until around 16:30 CET (9:30 am U.S. EST).

Also on this weekend:
Race
Live Coverage
E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
Saturday, March 25, Belgium
(GP Harelbeke)
Live video (Cycling.TV)
De Brabantse Pijl
Sunday, March 26, Belgium
(La Flèche Brabançonne)
(The Brabant Arrow)



Guide to live race coverage on the internet/web
Criterium International 2006 Bobby Julich on his way to winning the time trial and the overall in 2005
(photo Copyright © 2005 Pete Geyer)

Notes:   In February, Phonak's Floyd Landis won the inaugural Amgen Tour of California ahead of Team CSC's David Zabriskie and Bobby Julich.  At Paris-Nice earlier this month, CSC was two-time defending champion but Landis won again.  Now comes the Criterium International where CSC is again two-time defending champion.  Can Landis make it three for three?

To be sure, CSC has made it clear that they are focused on goals later in the season.  But so is Landis whose big target is the Tour de France.  CSC seems to be targeting both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour with Ivan Basso.  Landis reportedly is having second thoughts about riding in the Giro; a decision may be made this weekend said Phonak team manager John Lelangue in Friday's L'Equipe.  It is interesting to watch the top teams plan their own "roads to Paris" in the absence of Lance Armstrong.

There are a lot of big names in this race.

 

Critérium International 2006, France, March 25-26

Live audio coverage:

Eurosport (English)
(24-hour audio feed streaming)
(Saturday, 16:30 CET (10:30am U.S. EST))
(Sunday, 16:25 CET (9:25am U.S. EST))
(times subject to change)
(requires Windows Media Player or equivalent)
(may not work with Firefox browser)


Check schedule


Live tickers:


Official site tickers
      Stage 1 (Saturday)
      Stage 2 (Sunday morning)
      Stage 3 (Sunday afternoon)

Eurosport (English)



Bridge at Revin, French Ardennes, 2005 Criterium International
Bridge at Revin
2005 Criterium International
(click image to enlarge)

Photographer's anecdote:

After grabbing a croissant in town, I got up on the wall overlooking the bridge and waited for the peloton, due around 8:50am of this morning stage.  Renowned cycling photographer Graham Watson came over the bridge on the back of a motorcycle minutes ahead of the peloton.....
(click the image above to enlarge and to read more)


Friday, March 24, 2006

Vinokourov set for Vuelta a Castilla y Leon victory

Alexandre Vinokourov and Luis Leon Sanchez (Liberty Seguros-Wurth)
Alexandre Vinokourov and Luis Leon Sanchez (Liberty Seguros-Wurth)
Paris-Nice 2006
(photo Copyright © 2006 Pete Geyer)

Going into today's final stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, Liberty Seguros teammates Alexandre Vinokourov and Luis Leon Sanchez are sitting in first and second place, respectively, with "Vino" set to take the overall win.  Jose Luis Rubiera of Discovery Channel should round out the final podium, preventing a Liberty sweep as Michele Scarponi is 4th.  In fact, Liberty Seguros and Discovery Channel between them hold the top 6 spots in the standings, with Egoi Martinez and Jose Azevedo of Discovery Channel sitting in 5th and 6th.

Race
Live Coverage


Thursday, March 23, 2006

Decisive stage at Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, Criterium International this weekend, Thomas Dekker out

Race
Live Coverage

The 2006 Criterium International is this weekend, once again centered at Charleville-Mezieres with three stages over two days.  Saturday's stage is relatively flat with Sunday morning featuring a stage in the hills of the Ardennes followed in the afternoon by an individual time trial.

2005 Criterium International poster
2005 Criterium International poster

One of the stars of the race in 2005, Thomas Dekker of Rabobank, will not be competing as he has the flu. (L'Equipe)  Dekker won the hilly stage in 2005, grabbing the yellow jersey in the process, only to lose the overall win to American Bobby Julich in the afternoon time trial.

Thomas Dekker (Rabobank), 2005 Criterium International
Thomas Dekker (Rabobank), 2005 Criterium International
(photo Copyright © 2006 Pete Geyer)

Phonak's Floyd Landis is one of the big favorites this year following his wins at the Tour of California and Paris-Nice.  Julich will be back to defend his 2005 win and should be joined in the peloton by Ivan Basso, Jens Voigt, Denis Menchov, Michael Rasmussen, Jorg Jaksche, Alberto Contador, Andrey Kashechkin, David Moncoutie, Vladimir Karpets, Axel Merckx, Kim Kirchen, Francisco Mancebo, Igor Astarloa, Thomas Lovkvist and Bradley McGee, among others.  Not a bad start list at all.

The Criterium International is a fun, fan-friendly event, particularly the two Sunday stages.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast currently calls for a wet weekend.

We'll have the links to live coverage Saturday morning.

Criterium International Official Website
Candidates for the final start list


Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Race
Live Coverage
Dwars door Vlaanderen
March 22, Belgium

Live video (Cycling.TV)

Yesterday's stage 2 ticker for the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon wins the award for most concise ticker ever.  Here is the entire "play-by-play":

13:27 Exit of first runner J. To Lopez (91) of the Kaiku from the Museum of the Roman Almenara-Puras Villas, sky totally overcast that threatens rain.

15:50 Winner of the stage And Popovych (37) of the Discovery Chanel.
New lider To Vinokourov (47) of the Liberty Safe.


Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Race
Live Coverage


Monday, March 20, 2006

Spring is officially here!

Vuelta a Castilla y Leon starts today, Liberty Seguros to pass on Ford Tour de Georgia?

The Vuelta a Castilla y Leon gets underway today in Spain and runs through March 24.

Vuelta a Castilla y Leon official website

"Live" ticker (Google-translated)

Alexander Vinokourov is competing in this race.  However, it looks like cycling fans at next month's Tour de Georgia in the U.S. won't get to see the popular Kazahk rider in action because his Liberty Seguros-Wurth team apparently has declined its invitation, as reported in last Thursday's edition of L'Equipe.  That is not a good sign and as yet the official Tour de Georgia website has not communicated the teams confirmed for the event.

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We have new wallpaper in the Wallpaper section.  More on the way.
Paris-Nice 2006: the peloton arrives in Nice on the French Riviera
Paris-Nice 2006: the peloton arrives in Nice on the French Riviera









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