Rick Scott's Weekly Rap: The Classics, The Injured & A Survivor
30 March 2009By Rick Scott
For numerous cycling fans, we’re entering their favorite time of year. The one-day Classics, many of which include steep, slick cobblestone climbs, will dominate the headlines over the next month. Falling stars are also making noise and not in a good way.
The Beat
The first Classic and the longest race of the season at 298 kilometers, Milan-San Remo came down to an electrifying sprint finish with the winner determined by a photo. Cervelo TestTeam’s Heinrich Haussler exploded out of the pack with 350 meters to go in an effort to propel teammate and Amgen Tour of California stage winner Thor Hushovd (send him congrats on the birth of his first child, a daughter) to the line. Haussler was way too powerful and neither Hushovd nor anyone else could grab and hold his wheel. The race looked in the bank for Haussler, who had opened an immense lead, until Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad), a back-to-back stage winner at last month’s Amgen Tour of California, responded with a dazzling display of speed to pick-pocket the win for the young Brit in his first attempt at this highly-coveted monument of cycling. We’re out of superlatives to describe Cav’s closing sprint and this victory really must put doubt and fear into the minds of the other top sprinters for the rest of the season.One of Belgium’s cobbled hors d’oeuvres to the upcoming Tour of Flanders, the Dwars door Vlaanderen witnessed five men, including three Quick Step riders – Tom Boonen, Stijn Devolder and Kevin van Impe – in the hunt for the win in the latter stages of the race. Haussler tried valiantly to getaway solo, but Quick Step vetoed that bill with gusto. Van Impe popped the bubbly on the podium after besting Niko Eeckhout (An Post Sean Kelly) in a duel to the line.
Three-time Amgen Tour of California champion Levi Leipheimer conquered Spain at the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon stage race ahead of some mighty fierce competition that included his Astana teammates Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador and opponents Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne), Denis Menchov (Rabobank) and Carlos Sastre (Cervelo TestTeam). Sadly, Armstrong crashed and broke his collarbone during a massive first stage pile-up. As he did last month in Solvang, Leipheimer won the all-important individual time trial stage and rode behind his team the rest of the way. Triple Grand Tour winner Contador proved to be a loyal teammate while finishing 2nd overall. Dave “DZ Nutz” Zabriskie (Garmin-Slipstream), 2nd to Leipheimer at the Amgen Tour of California, completed the final podium.
Diminutive Italiano Damiano Cunego (Lampre-NGC) used back-to-back stage wins to claim the overall prize at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali. The Little Prince out-climbed Cadel Evans, but the Australian got the better of Cunego in the final stage to score the first win of the season for Silence-Lotto, who was starting to feel the stress and strain of not getting into the winner’s circle.
The 208-km E3 Prijs Vlaanderen covered twelve climbs, many of which were cobbled, and is a Belgium Classic that serves as the salad course ahead of the Tour of Flanders. A power trio – Boonen, Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) and Maxim Iglinsky (Astana) – escaped with 25 kms left and held it to the line with the Italian snatching the top prize for the new Russian squad, Katusha.
The following day also in Belgium, Anthony Geslin (Francaise des Jeux) pumped his fist in victory after dusting a half-dozen riders who entered the final kilometer with a 15-second advantage at Brabantse Pijl.
Taylor Phinney was 5 years-old the last time an American male won a World Championship on the track. The prodigious 18-year-old son of 1984 Olympic road race gold medalist Connie Carpenter-Phinney and Tour de France stage winner Davis Phinney won the World Championship in the 4-km Individual Pursuit in Pruskow, Poland and set a new U.S. record time of 4:15:160. The following day, Phinney won a silver medal in the 1-km time trial while setting another new American record. Phinney will race this season on the road with the U23 (under age 23) Trek-LIVESTRONG unit.
The Flow
Snap! Crackle! Pop! No, it’s not your favorite breakfast cereal. It’s the stars of the peloton crashing in heaps and bounds, many breaking a collarbone. Some of the busted up stars just two months into the season are Oscar Freire, Kim Kirchen, Stuart O’Grady, David Millar and Tyler Farrar. However, nothing was louder than the collarbone break heard around the world. Armstrong’s crash last Monday in Spain made the national television network newscasts. Days later back at his castle in Austin, Texas, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men inserted a plate and a dozen screws to put Armstrong’s collarbone back together again. Also illin’ and missing the spring Classics are favorites Fabian Cancellara, a two-time Amgen Tour of California prologue winner, and World Road Race Champion Alessandro Ballan. Ouch…Taking a gander at the UCI season leader’s board prior to last weekend’s action, Allan Davis is still at the top of the individual rankings, his Quick Step unit is the top team and his country, Australia, is the top nation. Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) is 2nd followed by Cavendish. Columbia-Highroad is the 2nd placed team with Saxo Bank 3rd. Spain and Italy are the other leading countries…
I confess to being a long-time fan of the television series Survivor and I’ve always wondered if a cyclist would be able to outwit, outplay and outlast the other competitors. Now we’ll finally get to find out. This season’s castaways include Tyson Apostol, a professional cyclist testing his endurance by trying not to get voted off the island. Apostol’s bio claims six years of racing in Europe. He’s tall and thin so I’m betting he’s a climber…
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