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Archive for July, 2009

Baby, It’s Cold (and Wet) Outside. Lets Race Some Bikes.

by frank / Jul 17 2009 / 3 posts

As an objective, rational, and calculating cycling fan, I’ve never been able to get excited about any rider on the now-defunct Gerolsteiner team. This is mostly because they committed the unforgivable crime of employing teamwide, systematic ugly kit selection. Those guys looked so unbelievably ugly in those nasty, turquoise unitards that seve...

Lost Art: Mashing a Giant Gear

by frank / Jul 15 2009 / 4 posts

Cycling enthusiasts used to mash a giant gear for one, simple reason: it looked super cool.  Do you want to ride like Lucho Herrera who is always falling off his bike or Eddy Merckx who is always winning races?Even as recently as the 90′s it was a common sight to see the pros riding at a cadence well under 60rpm, with their upper bodies heav...

Tour Organizers: Follow the Giro’s Lead

by frank / Jul 14 2009 / 2 posts

In response to criticism that the Tour de France is too predictable and uninteresting, the organizers of the Tour have taken a novel approach to designing this year’s route: make the route suck so much that the biggest source of discussion and suspense about the race is who is the real leader of Astana and Saxo-Bank and are the teams going to...

Damned if you do…

by brett / Jul 12 2009 / 3 posts

It must be really getting to Cadel.  The constant calls from the media and the fans (myself included) to “have a go”.  Attack.  Stop sucking wheels.  And lo and behold, when he does, he gets pummelled from all quarters regardless.Which isn’t totally unjustified.  I mean, had he taken a shot of ‘Landis-juice’ and t...

Assembly-Line Racing

by frank / Jul 10 2009 / 1 post

I haven’t seen a Tour de France stage as uninteresting as today’s stage to Arcalis since, well, since 2005.  What was special about 2005?  The Bruyneel/Armstrong team.  Different teammates and different color jerseys, but what we got was the same uninteresting racing we endured for the 7 years between 1999 and 2005.One of the most a...

Guilt by association

by brett / Jul 9 2009 / 3 posts

Let’s get this straight; Yes, I’m an Aussie, not a Yank. Alas, it doesn’t automatically mean I’m a huge fanboy for Cadel. And if I was American, I wouldn’t be carrying the torch for Lance, either.Patriotism has never been big on my agenda. I love my birthplace, for sure, even though I have chosen to live elsewhere fo...

Andorra 2009: Frank’s Carbon Ball

by frank / Jul 9 2009 / 4 posts

Well, here we are, on the eve of the first mountain stage.   Tomorrow’s stage 7 will climb to Arcalis where we will begin to have a much clearer picture of what the Tour will bring over the next two weeks.Status Check.  Armstrong is best positioned to take the Yellow Jersey, but his ace-climber teammate sits only 19 seconds behind, with Kl...

Media Whore?

by brett / Jul 8 2009 / 4 posts

As the early kilometres of Stage 5 rolled by, with the usual early break forming, the protagonists being assessed for their chances of actually making the move stick, one name stood out from the rest; Thomas Voeckler. “He’s just a media-whore” was the expert opinion of a colleague. I begged to differ.Ever since his great ten-day a...

Jan Ullrich

by frank / Jul 6 2009 / 10 posts

I’m going to come out and say it: Jan Ullrich is my favorite rider, ever.  He had it all: class, strength, talent. On top of all that, he was also tall and he was big.  He was  Frank’s Perfect  Storm of cycling.I am not a fan of doping in sports, especially in cycling.  At the same time, I am a realist.  Cycling is the most diffic...

Manx Depression

by frank / Jul 5 2009 / 1 post

Am I the first to make this pun?  Probably, because I suffer from a condition called “Awesome”.  I could validate that assertion by doing a search on The Google, but that sounds overly complicated and likely to yield results that I’m not interested in seeing.Mark Cavendish – or “Cav”, as those for whom uttering...
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