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The Cavendish question
What exactly are the future plans of World Road Champion Mark Cavendish as he struggles through the mountains to complete the Giro d'Italia?
The question among commentators is this; why exactly is Cavendish so determined to make it to Milan? And how does that determination affect his plans for the Tour de France and later on at the Olympic road race, where he is a burning hot home ground favourite for the gold?
And lets not forget that with every passing day in the Giro d'Italia grupetto, Cavendish spends a few valuable chips that could be useful at the Tour de France.
Never-ending stories
If you've been around the traps for a while observing the to-ing and fro-ing of cycling discourse you'll find two kinds of stories that never seem to die.
One is the hard to take seriously big media blowhard banging on about Lycra louts on either the AM airwaves or in the pages of one of the big city tabloids.
Stepping into the breach yesterday for one of those yarns was failed shock jock Steve Price, who threw the entire bag of hammers in his head at, wait for it, “Cycle Nazis”.
Creative tension
There is only one race that can now save the season for Andy Schleck, his older brother Frank and RadioShack-Nissan, the Tour de France.
To say this season for the Schlecks and RadioShack-Nissan has been one to forget is an understatement, and the latest news coming out of the team camp suggests there are also a few internal management tensions.
Back in February, as the reality of the freshly minted RadioShack and Leopard Trek merger was starting to sink in, it was all sweetness and light. Optimism reigned and success for Andy and the team was all in front of them, with Johan Bruyneel driving the bus.
The Cobra defanged
Today Riccardo Ricco was drummed out of professional cycling by Italian authorities but I take no pleasure in seeing the “Cobra” defanged for life.
In fact sadness is the feeling. For him and the blatant double standards that exist in the sport.
Sure there may be degrees of doping. From the young first timer to the hard men that see doping as a fact of life. Ricco clearly exists at the sharp end of that spectrum but did he deserve a life sentence? The ultimate scapegoat, the treatment of whom knows no limits because he is unpopular. Most likely he has doped like many who retain status and admiration in cycling. I can’t help but feel the same. In fact that was my first thought on hearing the news this morning of a 12-year ban for Ricco (effectively a life ban) which came after the announcement of an admission of guilt by Denis Galimzyanov who was pinged this week by the anti-doping authorities for EPO use earlier this season.
Was Paris-Roubaix third-rate?
On Monday the cycling world hailed Tom Boonen’s victory in the Paris-Roubaix as one for the ages, on Wednesday the man he joined in the record books tells us that victory was third rate.
On Sunday Boonen equalled Roger de Vlaeminck's record of winning Paris-Roubaix four times. He also became the first man to win the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix double twice and the first man to win the quartet of cobbled classics in the same season: E3, Gent Wevelgem, Flanders and Roubaix.
Legendary stuff by any measure but today comes news that de Vlaeminck thinks Boonen’s Paris-Roubaix victory came against a peloton he regarded as "third-rate".
