As for Fabs – he’s still strong but FFS – hasn’t he found a new way to win yet?

I’m a huge Fab fan, but I have to agree with you. He needs to use his brains and his team–if available…

Moser rode a fucking great race. Full of cold hard effort but tempered by good timing and race smarts. Notwithstanding the solo bridge to the front group (over 12ks in 20 minutes to haul back 2.5 minutes), he played it cool enough to not go too deep into the red and sat tight while the chase group closed in. Solid climbing through town capped a very classy ride.

As for Fabs – he’s still strong but FFS – hasn’t he found a new way to win yet? He’s been getting marked heavily since the motorcus ride 3 years ago! Sags did nothing new but it was enough to shut him out totally. Again.

After he missed the Moser move at 20k (duh!) there were 10 other riders he could have worked with or used to try split Sagan out. But no. He continued with the short effort followed by an elbow flick followed by a gesture of exasperation when there’s no response. He’s got to either ride the wheelsuckers off his wheel or back himself to carry them up to the finish and slay them there. If he keeps sitting up when he feels used by the suckers he’ll never see the front of the race again.

And I’m really not a fan of Bennati’s. I was merely responding to your suggestion that Cancellara wouldn’t know what to do with a team. To @Dr C‘s point, though, he probably only needs one guy up the road. Galloping could be that guy alright. But this not a strong team anymore by any metric…

I’m kinda hoping Tony Gallopin will come to Faboos rescue – I see Maxime Monfort as leader in Paris Knees couldn’t make it the entire 3 mins 40 round Paris without falling off today…..

Bennati’s gone; who does he have this year, Monfort and Stijn Devolder?

He looked pretty convincing with Bennati up the road in last year’s edition of the Strade Bianche. Basically, it might mean that he could let the breakaway go if he had a teammate in it rather than the onus being on him to pull it back and then attack from the front. I’m worried we’re going to see a repetition of 2011: everybody watches/marks Cancellara and desperately tries to jump on his wheel when he makes a move. And then he throws his hands up in exasperation. I appreciate the strategy, but it doesn’t make for the best viewing and it’s a shame not to see the strongest man in the race get to demonstrate his power.

Yeah, Faboo is hooped with Retard-Schleck as a squad this year. Jens to do the work of entire teams. At least he has Jens

Close to Moreno Moser in September.

Stunning….you are bidding early this year for the V photo competition….just be sure you don’t peak too early!!

OK I have changed my VSP picks to test a point. The VSP appears to have been left open during the race…or the timings were wrong. I swapped my 1 and 5 around to illustrate. I had Sagan for 5th and Van Avamaert for 1st but was following the cycling weekly coverage where they are saying with 90km to go Sagan is going to win it.

@Frank please can you change back when you tot up the scores and just see if anyone took advantage of the problem that occured….?

They close at 5am Pacific, so this early in the season it doesn’t sync with the start of the races as well. I’m not that worried about it, though, as the Piti Principle would yield such a high penalty it would render a season useless for anyone trying to take advantage.

Thanks for letting us know, though; I hadn’t expected them to be open that late in the race. Might move it back a few more hours, just because.

Close to Moreno Moser in September.

Beautiful work, per usual, my friend!

Wizardry? Never really thought about it but I do ride a Cannondale.

There’s a bit of a flaw in the VSP: today’s unquestioned winner was Cannondale, but the final standings reward those who picked Spartacus to school the youngsters (@eenies excepted). This isn’t a complaint; just an observation. I’m happy to finish top ten, but do feel as though I didn’t pick this nearly as well as folks who picked Sagan to win…

I saw a couple up close at the Toronto Bike Show yesterday. They were certainly among the nicer machines there…

Cannondale’s kit looks much better this year, but you can hardly tell Sagan is national champion.

My 5 year old just had his room repainted cannondale pro cycling green and put up blue curtains……..he has a Sagan problem.

@ralph

In honor of the fact that the race is being held in Italy I’ve decided to go with an all-Italian roster. I was going to stick to the members of Team Cinzano, but after that regrettable incident with the frame pump in the spokes they are dead to me.

VSP PICKS:

1. BELLETTI Manuel
2. POZZATO Filippo
3. PAOLINI Luca
4. CUNEGO Damiano
5. GASPAROTTO Enrico

Going all Italian and you didn’t pick Moser??? Just kidding, although he is definitely a wild card chance for this race.

Damn!  Should have taken my own advice!  One point last week, two this week, at this rate I will truly be peaking in two months!

Oh Aye! Picked the winner and 3 of the top 5, it’s good to get some points on the board. Pity I’m not a betting man, could have made a few quid today.

Well, it earned you the win. Just goes to show that betting with the masses never leads to a resounding win. Your clairvoyance earned you a three-point win here, matey.

Final Race Results

1. MOSER Moreno
2. SAGAN Peter
3. NOCENTINI Rinaldo
4. CANCELLARA Fabian
5. SARAMOTINS Aleksejs
Final VSP Results

1. eenies (11 points)
2. Al__S (8 points)
3. Bat Chainpuller (7 points)
4. Chica (7 points)
5. taon24 (6 points)
6. anexetastos (6 points)
7. sgraha (6 points)
8. Steampunk (6 points)
9. sthilzy (6 points)
10. San Tonio (6 points)
11. Skip (6 points)
12. unjoursans (6 points)
13. roberto (6 points)
14. RossM (6 points)
15. RedRanger (6 points)
16. cal (6 points)
17. dancollins (6 points)
18. Two Ball Billy (6 points)
19. freddy (6 points)
20. Vernwitha_V (6 points)
21. G’phant (6 points)
22. DrewG (6 points)
23. MJ Moquin (6 points)
24. VeloVita (6 points)
25. Krishnan (6 points)
26. pakrat (6 points)
27. typevii (6 points)
28. jeyrod (6 points)
29. Gino (6 points)
30. m_demartino (6 points)
31. R00tdown (6 points)
32. frank (6 points)
33. tony macaroni (6 points)
34. seemunkee (6 points)
35. anotherdownunder (6 points)
36. Matt (6 points)
37. Heihachi (6 points)
38. EricW (6 points)
39. Gervais (5 points)
40. Bob Shannon (5 points)
41. mouse (4 points)
42. Deakus (4 points)
43. The Oracle (4 points)
44. ramenvelo (4 points)
45. Jonny (4 points)
46. Graham (3 points)
47. Mikael Liddy (3 points)
48. Ashwin.S (3 points)
49. TomC (3 points)
50. urunomad (3 points)
51. Nate (3 points)
52. Buck Rogers (2 points)
53. paolo (2 points)
54. torrefie (2 points)
55. Sauterelle (2 points)
56. Dr C (2 points)
57. strathlubnaig (2 points)
58. Fausto (2 points)
59. skagitteam (2 points)
60. Lukas (2 points)
61. Erik (2 points)
62. teleguy57 (2 points)
63. The Grande Fondue (2 points)
64. Geordi (2 points)
65. Lepidopterist (2 points)
66. Marko (2 points)
67. graham d.m. (2 points)
68. Duende (2 points)
69. Alex (2 points)
70. piwakawaka (2 points)
71. Don Amedo (2 points)
72. paul.c (2 points)
73. Jhortua (2 points)
74. TOM.NELS2120 (2 points)
75. stickyjumper (2 points)
76. CanuckChuck (2 points)
77. asyax (2 points)
78. burk (2 points)
79. Adrian (2 points)
80. simonsaunders (2 points)
81. GiantBars (2 points)
82. chrismurphy92 (2 points)
83. SimonH (2 points)
84. Tobin (2 points)
85. actor1 (2 points)
86. napolinige (2 points)
87. imakecircles (2 points)
88. matthew langley (2 points)
89. Daccordi Rider (2 points)
90. oneninefiveninesix (2 points)
91. velomihottie (2 points)
92. Barracuda (2 points)
93. el gato (2 points)
94. moondance (2 points)
95. 1aNb (2 points)
96. King Clydesdale (2 points)
97. il ciclista medio (2 points)
98. bugleboy21 (2 points)
99. motor city (2 points)
100. Harminator (2 points)
101. Anjin-san (2 points)
102. VirenqueForever (2 points)
103. Chris Adams (2 points)
104. itburns (2 points)
105. Islandbike (2 points)
106. blue (2 points)
107. Patrick (2 points)
108. Gianni (2 points)
109. Blah (2 points)
110. Roberto Marques (2 points)
111. G’rilla (2 points)
112. Facetious_Jesus (2 points)
113. JohnB (2 points)
114. Cyclops (2 points)
115. Souleur (2 points)
116. wiscot (2 points)
117. Scottymack (2 points)
118. Jay (2 points)
119. sprider (2 points)
120. starclimber (2 points)
121. xyxax (2 points)
122. Markp (2 points)
123. Noel (2 points)
124. girl (2 points)
125. LA Dave (2 points)
126. Ron (2 points)
127. Lister (2 points)
128. DaRCrider (2 points)
129. the Engine (1 points)
130. Nosyt (1 points)
131. razmaspaz (1 points)
132. Bianchi Denti (1 points)
133. Dan_R (1 points)
134. Giles (1 points)
135. Skinnyphat (1 points)
136. Russ (1 points)
137. eightzero (1 points)
138. la plaque (1 points)
139. scaler911 (1 points)
140. Tartan1749 (1 points)
141. V-olcano (1 points)
142. unversio (0 points)
143. ralph (0 points)
144. BJH (0 points)
145. brett (0 points)
146. Chris (0 points)

[vsp_gc]
[/vsp_gc]

Oh Aye! Picked the winner and 3 of the top 5, it’s good to get some points on the board. Pity I’m not a betting man, could have made a few quid today.

What wizadry is this?  A sole Moser selection from all the Faboo and Sagan sluts…Chapeau!

I certainly am coming around to those Cannondale Supersix Evo. Thems purdy.

Looky here…

Sorry, wrong sport.

Oh Aye! Picked the winner and 3 of the top 5, it’s good to get some points on the board. Pity I’m not a betting man, could have made a few quid today.

Chapeau!   Well done!!!

Would lve to see Moser hold them off even though I did not pick him!

Nice to see him win, but it screwed my VSP – picked Sagan, who won the hill sprint from the bunch, but all the Faboo fans get the points if they put Sagan 2nd, and a lot did. Boooo.

Argh. The risk of a pirated feed. Was watching from Sporza off cycling fans. Apparently they were feeding from a bar or someone’s house, because the channel selection popped up, and now soccer is on. With less than 2km left.

Sadness.

Same feed as me.  At least it is THE futbol mat h of the week!  Can NEVER go wrong watching Messi and Iniesta!

Sadness.

Quite late, I’ve been thinking for a while.

Just to spite you, he’ll power away and win.

Or not.

@Blah

@Deakus

Yep – I changed my mind and resolved to put Sagan to win when people said he was a cert… that was a week ago, though.

So what made them think with 90km to go he was suddenly a good thing?

I think he has about 7mins over the rest and is looking strong as well as his current form, having said that Faboo is still going hunt him down over the last 80kms I suspect..

Ignore that, I am following it on text and it is rather confusing, I think they just think he looks very strong on the front of the main group.  They will reel in the breakaway who are now down to 5:30 but Faboo is up there so it is still all to play for.

@Deakus

Yep – I changed my mind and resolved to put Sagan to win when people said he was a cert… that was a week ago, though.

So what made them think with 90km to go he was suddenly a good thing?

I think he has about 7mins over the rest and is looking strong as well as his current form, having said that Faboo is still going hunt him down over the last 80kms I suspect..

Yep – I changed my mind and resolved to put Sagan to win when people said he was a cert… that was a week ago, though.

So what made them think with 90km to go he was suddenly a good thing?

@Deakus

agent provocateur

Indeed….or if this was an intentional move by the Keepers check who was awake then bloody well leave my changes in!!

agent provocateur

@Frank please can you change back when you tot up the scores and just see if anyone took advantage of the problem that occured….?

1. Sagan
2. Cuddles
3. Boom Boom
4. Faboo
5. Avaermet

1. Boom
2. Phinney
3. Slagter
4. Sagan
5. Pozzato

VSP PICKS:

1. Peter Sagan
2. Thomas Dekker
3. Marco Bandiera
4. Fabian Cancellara
5. Thomas Damuseau

1. Van Avermaet
2. Spartacus
3. Sagan
4. Cummings
5. Nuyens

1. sagan
2. nocentini
3. hunter
4. pozzato
5. valverde

VSP PICKS:

1. Sagan
2. Cancellara
3. Greg van Avermaet
4. Marcato
5. Iglinsky

@brett

Cotholara will probably win, but I won’t pick him on principle.

Is ‘Velocurmudgeon’ a word? It should be. (Points for consistency, though. Eyeore wouldn’t be Eyeore if he occasionally lightened up.)

VSP PICKS:

1. Fabs
2. Sags
3. Cuddles
4. Booms
5. Minifini

VSP PICKS:

1. sagan
2. blythe
3. gatto
4. moser
5. gasparotto

VSP PICKS:

1. Sagan
2. Boom
3. Spartacus
4. Gatto
5. Evans

1. Faboo
2. Sagan
3. Valverde
4. Cuddles
5. Pozzato

1. Cancellara
2. Sagan
3. Pozzato
4. van Avermaet
5. Valverde

1. faboo
2. evans
3. phinney
4. sagan
5. valverde

1. Sagan
2. Valverde
3. Van Avermaet
4. Cancellara
5. Vanmarcke

1. Sagan
2. Cancellara
3. Phinney
4. Pozzato
5. Gatto

1. Cancellara
2. Boom
3. Van Avermaet
4. Sagan
5. Evans

VSP PICKS:

1. Sagan
2. Cancellara
3. Pozatto
4. Francesco Reda
5. Greg Van Avermaet

VSP PICKS:

1. Cancellara
2. Gasparotto
3. Sagan
4. Van Avermaet
5. Paolini

VSP PICKS:

1. Fabian Cancellara
2. Peter Sagan
3. Alejandro Valverde
4. Juan Antonio Flecha
5. Moreno Moser

1. Fabs
2. Phinney
3. Valverde
4. Sagan
5. VanAv

1. Cancellara
2. Gilbert
3. Sagan
4. Van Avermaet
5. Phinney

Nice to see someone of discernment going for Oscar the Cat too.

You must have me confused with someone else.

1. Sagan
2. Cancellara
3. Quinziato
4. Flecha
5. Pozzato

Hopefully the weather’ll be awful as a prelude to @franks wet Roubaix

VSP PICKS:

1. Iglinsky
2. Van Avermaet
3. Blythe
4. Valverde
5. Tom Slagter

I just want Fabs to have a road named after him. I’ve always deserved to have one named after me but no one has recognized it, so I’m going to pull for him on that.

VSP PICKS:

1. Faboo
2. Sagan Wagon
3. The Cat
4. Gobbles
5. Boom

And Faboo has a whole town (well village) named after him not a gazillion kilometres from Naples. It’s hillier that North Strack Street but that’s about all it appears to have going for it.

Nice to see someone of discernment going for Oscar the Cat too.

@frank

I just want Fabs to have a road named after him. I’ve always deserved to have one named after me but no one has recognized it, so I’m going to pull for him on that.

Strack Street “” does sound nice. If I redo my driveway with genuine cobblestone (seriously), then you could come to ride out of it one day. We’ll call it the Strack Secteur “” just for one day.

There is in fact a North Strack Street near Dekalb Illinois – sadly it doesn’t appear to be cobbled or indeed interesting in any way at all.

1. Cancellara
2. Sagan
3. Van Avarmaet
4. Evans
5. Paolini

1. Sagan
2. Slagter
3. Cancellara
4. Evans
5. Cunego

1. Sagan
2. Sparatcus
3. Phinney
4. Paolini
5. Moser

VSP PICKS:

1. Spartacus
2. Paolini
3. VanAvermaet
4. Sagan
5. Kolobnev

1. Cancellara
2. Sagan
3. Cadel
4. Sacha Modolo
5. Boom

1. faboo
2. sagan
3. van avermaert
4. pozzato
5. gatto

I did a year of fellowship training in Philadelphia with a guy born and bred and who lived in Sicily (he just came to the States for his Fellowship and now lives in Milan) and he was always yelling Cazzo! I picked it up and whenever I would say it he would say, “Oh Buck, you really shouldn’t say that, it is a very bad word!” Cracked me up. So I picked up three words from him: Grazie, prego, and Cazzo! Figured that you should carry me in most situations!

Reminds me of my Cuban bunkmate while I was in the Army. He taught me three or four things in Spanish. Then he and his buddies would laugh while I got into a fight for saying them to others. Of course, they always had my back. (I wasn’t too bright at 19, but was up for a good tussle)