Hump Day: Fashionista edition

Dopplegangers.

Fashion! turn to the left. Fashion! turnto the right. Oooh, fashion!. A new season means a new outfit and thistime of the year always brings a bit of cycling Haute Coutureexcitement, with fans wondering what their favourite teams outfits willlook like this year. One of the first down the runway was Team Columbia High Road, with a largely yellow and white strip. Experienced cycling fashion watchers will note a striking similarityto last years Saunier-Duval colours which may not be all thatsurprising since the team is also sponsored by ex-Saunier Duval bikesupplier Scott. Still, given the baggage that comes with thatparticular colour combination you would have thought they would havelooked deeper into the Pantone colour book for inspiration, though I dolike the sublimated six pack.

Signal to noise.

The Aussie Road Titles are done and dustedand the talent confirmed, with some great results coming from thefuture of Australian road cycling. However, it was left to the localjourneyman, Sydneysider Peter McDonald, to really steal the show with a sensational boilover, outsprinting the Team Columbia duo of Michael Rogers and Adam Hansen.Yes, McDonald possesses a kick that Hansen and Rogers don't but Icouldn't help but feel there was something more to the win. Hansen andRogers both mentioned that there was a "mis-communication"betweenthem - was the signal to noise ratio was too much? As we know, Hansenand Rogers are team mates with Team Columbia, they were also riding forthemselves and they were riding for their State, supported by Qld andACT respectively so that's a lot of stuff to factor into a ridersinternal racing calculator in the last kilometre of a hard fought race.Still, McDonald rode the perfect race on the day and thoroughlydeserved the win.

Comebacks.

If 2008 is to be remembered for anything is that it quickly became the year of the announced comeback, with riders like Ivan Basso and Floyd Landis returning from doping suspensions and of course the biggie, Lance Armstrongreturning to the sport after a three year hiatus. So, it should come asno surprise to hear rumours of another old stager talking aboutthrowing his hat back into the ring. One of my all-time favourite riders, Michele Bartoli,had been been keeping fit riding with the aforementioned Basso andAlessandro Petacchi and as a result thinks that at age 39 he still hasthe legs to go the distance. If anything, 2009 will be an interestingyear, if only to see whether the old men of cycling are able turn backthe clock and relive their glory years.

Doha or don't.

The 2009 Tour de Franceis already one of the most international in it's history, taking in thesights of places like Monaco, Spain, Italy and Andorra, so whynot Doha? The Gulf Times reports that the good folks in the Gulf State of Qatarhave sent the organisers of the Tour de France, ASO, a letterexpressing a desire to host a stage of the great race within theirsandy borders. However I don't think the teams will be happy with howthis messes with their preparations. First there are the four hourtransfers and Qatar in July is a seriously hot place, with temperatures averaging 42 degrees. There is no question Qatar has theexpertise and money to host a leg of the race given their wellestablished credentials - organising the early season Tour of Qatar -but at best it would be a Prologue. So, is it worth doing? Anyway,knowing the Qatari penchant for over the top spectacle I'm sure they'llbuild a supercooled cover over the Corniche that seats hundreds ofthousands.

Lost in translation.

Lastly, there was this interesting piece in Bicycling Magazine's Boulder Report. The story is that French newspaper l'Equipehas told it's cycling journalists to go lightly when it comes todealing with stories about doping. Now this usually wouldn't benewsworthy, editorial decisions like this are made every day in thenewsrooms of the world, however l'Equipe is also owned by Amaury Sports Organization(ASO) which also happens to run the Tour de France so there will bespeculation as to it's meaning. The quote reads "They must be contentwith the bare minimum, which is only to transmitthe official announcements from the federations or anti-doping agencieswithout digging further." My take? No conspiracy, just an editorialreturn to sanity in terms of following process and avoiding crazyspeculation, and of course these guidelines only apply to l'Equipe,everyone else is free to dig as deep as they like.