Thanks to Lucybears for starting the conversation in the Fanshots, but this needs its own post, or it least it launched too many brainwaves for me not to write. Was anyone else as flabbergasted by this as I was?

An online survey targeted at Silicon Valley Professionals revealed that an astonishing 50 percent are cycling enthusiasts and follow the local scene.

This is the lede in a CN story of how Yahoo! decided to plunge into cycling. 50% is a huge number. Not quite NFL, but I would take a guess that the Oakland A's wouldn't mind of 50% of Silicon Valley tech dudes, or any other sliver of the population, cared about them. I'd bet the Giants aren't far above that figure. Anyway, in response to this local phenomenon (and probably some assumptions about how Silicon Valley isn't entirely alone), Yahoo! has plunged itself into pro cycling as the title sponsor of America's latest new team. There are a lot of interesting subplots here.

First, another American team... at some point this has to stop, right? Maybe not: nowhere in the CN piece do they utter the words "Tour de France," the ultimate choke point on big teams and sponsors. So for now, let's assume they intend to build slowly, and if circumstances allow Yahoo! Cycling to someday evolve into a Tour team, c'est la vie. By 2013 or so, who knows whether the Shack will live on, or whether Columbia will still be an American team. Anyway, if the Tour were a short-term goal I would be dubious, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Second, the tech connection... cycling and computers don't seem like the most natural fit, and yet this site is testament to the lie. Cycling's roots are in the blue-collar farming and mining worlds, but cycling fans come from all sectors of society, or at least they have. Now, since the sport is expensive and hard to access through traditional media, it's people who are at least comfortable with computers who have the greatest access to the sport, at least in the US. We use the internet to commune and watch races, but computers have a vital role to the riders as well: they analyze fitness or bike positioning or to design training plans. They share data with coaches, show terrain from tomorrow's race, or even help young North American pros stay connected to friends and family from their unfamiliar European base of operations. True, nobody needs a computer to ride a bike or even to develop into a professional cyclist, but they provide enough advantages that you're seeing at least a strong tendency for bikers to be computer savvy, and vice versa.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, the business model. A disclaimer: here's where we fans start to wander off into the intellectual deep end, and if you grab on to me, chances are we'll both drown. [h/t Tracey Jordan.] But the cyclist-as-billboard model seems to be taking another hit here. Headman Kevin Klein describes the concept thusly:

"The whole idea behind the Yahoo! Cycling Team is the recruitment of high tech professionals in the Silicon Valley and to provide a platform for partners to achieve more involvement at the community level."

So unless he intends to hire software engineers to run bottles up to the front, I assume what he means is that this huge supply of tech dudes who love cycling will be enlisted as supporters of some sort -- informal? fan club members? shareholders? I dunno. But they are aiming at some level of grassroots support to go along with the Yahoo! money dump. Presumably this will all become clear when they do their official launch in January.

Traditional business models have always called on cycling to act as the medium, not the message. I am always open to new ideas, so the idea of cycling transitioning into the message is intriguing, to say the least. It would say just as much about the sport at the pro level as it would about the growing popularity of cycling for other purposes: transportation, exercise, and dare I say it... entertainment!

Bottom line: Keep an eye on Yahoo! Cycling, as a new team and a barometer of changes in the larger cycling world.

You've probably heard that the Comcast-DirecTV death struggle has caught Versus in the middle -- Comcast bought our erstwhile Tour TV channel, and DirecTV refuses to pay exorbitant fees for their constant stream of hunting infomercials (and the world's greatest sporting event south of Oudenaarde). So DirecTV subscribers like me are faced with a choice: Comcast or... actually, I'm not sure what, which is why I am writing this post. As much as I want to watch the Tour live, and as little loyalty as I feel to DirecTV, I don't appreciate being a Comcast pawn and their prices don't look good. The internet has solved most of my problems in life (besides that nagging watts/kg issue), and I hope it'll solve this one too.

So, did you watch Le Tour on-line last year? If so, how? I know ASO is pretty proficient about shutting down illicit video streams, but are there any licit ones? Thanks. 

Use this as a live chat. Actual route details shortly. Please say there's a fashion element to this event... Update! Not to rant or anything, but what kind of a sorry-ass grand tour unveils its route without a live gathering of any consequence? Cyclists rarely get out in public for anything fun -- the odd swim shot in Curacao or another November vacation, and these route announcements. This is a precious opportunity for them to show they can don nice threads, accessorize, and gel their hair to look like an American cardinal. And I would think pretty much anywhere in Spain is a perfectly acceptable locale for just such a gala. This would also serve the Vuelta's interests by drumming up a little more attention and creating some buzz. So what does the Vuelta do? Details are sketchy, but I believe they slipped a piece of paper under the door of the Unipublic offices to a waiting AS reporter at lunchtime on a Wednesday. This paper, it was said, contained the URL that the reporter could use to look up the Vuelta route. Feel the drama as the AS reporter manually types in the address -- a situation that just begs for a typo and one of those "get bent" messages that Explorer does so well.

Morons! [audio ~nsfw]

Another UPDATE! Apparently there was a presentation. Some nice suits and whatnot. So I kinda sorta take back my rant.

Stages:

• Sevilla - Sevilla (CRE)
• Alcalá de Guadaíra - Marbella
• Marbella - Málaga
• Málaga - Valdepeñas de Jaén
• Guadix - Lorca
• Caravaca de Cruz - Murcia
• Murcia - Orihuela
• Villena - Xorret del Catí
• Calpe - Alcoy
• Descanso Traslado
• Tarragona - Vilanova i la Geltrú
• Vilanova i la Geltrú - Andorra (Vallnord / sector Pal)
• Andorra la Vella - Lleida
• Rincón de Soto - Burgos
• Burgos - Peña Cabarga
• Solares - Lagos de Covadonga
• Gijón - Cotobello
• Descanso Traslado
• Peñafiel - Peñafiel (CRI)
• Valladolid - Salamanca
• Piedrahita - Toledo
• "San Martín de Valdeiglesias -
• Bola del MundoEtapa 7 Estrellas Comunidad de Madrid"
• San Sebastián de los Reyes - Madrid

Without slipping into a full-on tribute to the eternal awesomeness of the classics, let me just briefly tick off a little of what makes them so great, and what it means about the riders who contest them, in the hopes that we can crown a Best Classician of the Aughts. First is the ability of one-day races, and all the arbitrariness that implies, to spread around the glory in often cruel and unpredictable ways. We usually agree that the best rider won, but more specifically we mean the best rider on that particular day who wasn't otherwise eliminated by illness, injury or a late puncture. Did someone wake up with better legs? Maybe, but we'll never know. So any hint of consistent excellence against such odds is a huge indicator of true class.

The other big factor to consider is that no two classics are alike. Hell, sometimes even the same race changes from year to year. But although we tend to draw a hard distinction between the Ardennes (climby classics) and the Flemish stuff (thoroughbred grinds), the reality is many more shades of gray. No rider since Merckx is suited to every type of classic, but even among the wildly varied body types, most classics champions can hack it over a pretty fair number of different courses. So while some apples-to-oranges comparisons are inevitable, if Philippe Gilbert can win Paris-Tours and Lombardia in 2009 then this exercise is worthwhile.

One last elephant in the room: doping. Any "best of the aughts" is going to capture a lot of data from both sides of Operacion Puerto, calling into question the value of plenty of results, even those from the unchecked doping era of ten years ago. [I don't subscribe to the theory that a doped win was valid if everyone else was juiced. Too messy.] Ten years from now, this column will be more fun to write. Whaddyagonna do?

So with apologies to Michele Bartoli, Nico Mattan, Alessandro Ballan, Michael Boogerd, Oscar Freire and others, here are the nominees for top Classics Studs from the Aughts. In vaguely chronological order...

Erik Zabel

For: One of the most successful cyclists of any stripe in history. As a sprinter, he naturally gravitated toward the greater glory of the Tour, whose points jersey should have a Vinoeque picture of Zabel on it. Nonetheless, the Energizer Bunny of German cycling (non-Jens! edition) racked up more than his share of one-day glories in the aughts, hitting a massive career peak from 2000-04 when he never slipped below #2 in the world rankings. And if you think he was just a sprinter, contemplate that he won the Amstel Gold Race along with two MSRs, two Paris-Tours editions, Vattenfall, Henninger Turm, Koln and the German championships

Against: Stated simply, not enough of the big events. The only monument he ever won was MSR. He became famous for just missing out on the Worlds, with a pair of silvers and a bronze medal in a five-year span. Of all the guys on this list, Zabel suffers the most from lack of diverse results, despite the fact that as sprinters go he was a terrific climber.

Bestoftheaughtsbecco Says: Does anyone dislike Erik Zabel? I mean, anywhere?

Paolo Bettini

For: Breadth and number of wins. He won in Spain, Greece, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and of course Italy. He won three of the five monuments -- best in the Aughts -- as well as two Worlds and an Olympic gold medal. He won three World Cup competitions. Of the "climbers" on the list, Bettini is the only one to break through at a significant "sprinters' race," Milano-Sanremo. Even more than the Worlds or Lombardia, he owned Zurich, with four podiums in five years.

Against: Never overwhelmingly great so much as consistently close by, poised to strike. Of the sprinty climbers, if he was ever the fastest I never saw it. Valverde, DiLuca, Rebellin and Cunego have all shown top gears superior to Bettini on most days. He also feasted on late-season stuff, when the competition is thinned out some, and on national team duty, where Italy usually gave him unreal support, possibly out of fear that he was going to go for the win regardless of what Ballerini had in mind. Also, no wins in Flanders (not for lack of effort) and curiously little in France. If it sounds like I'm nitpicking...

Bestoftheaughtsbecco Says: This entire conversation goes nowhere without the Cricket.

Davide Rebellin

For: Good to the last drop (ahem!). Rebellin's consistency was slightly different than Bettini's -- in his narrower menu of races, Tintin was pretty much always in the finale. And if Bettini's finest hours were often in Azzurri colors, Rebellin won regularly and convincingly for an otherwise pretty thin Gerolsteiner outfit. In addition to his great, unprecedented signature trio of Ardennes wins in 2004, Rebellin scored five podiums in Liege, two in Amstel, four in La Fleche and three in San Sebastian... starting in 2000 up through 2009. Talk about consistency.

Against: Unfortunately, there's a pretty good chance he was consistently doped to the gills in these races. Of the guys on this list, only DiLuca inspires less confidence in his integrity. And even if you somehow believe in him, he probably rates as the least diverse climber worth mentioning. No national team success outside of his tainted Olympic medal, but then registering for Argentinian citizenship doesn't usually endear yourself to the Azzurri management.

Bestoftheaughtsbecco Says: His doctor couldn't find anything to get him over the Poggio? Whatever.

Alejandro Valverde

For: Seeing is believing. When Valverde wins, he usually blows the competition away with a lightning-fast finish unmatched by any of the Italians. Rebellin and DiLuca each got him once, and Boonen pipped him for the World title in Madrid, but that's about it. Setting aside his grand tour success (off-topic!), Valverde covers a lot of classics ground... pretty much everything but MSR, the cobbles and the truly flat stuff. He ignores Amstel but targets La Fleche (1 win, 1 2nd) and L-B-L (2 wins, 1 2nd) regularly, along with San Sebastian. All this despite focusing mostly on the grand tours.

Against: A little of this, a little of that. He could be #1 on this list if his attention weren't elsewhere. Ultimately, he doesn't contest enough classics to own the decadal title. His integrity is a constant source of questions. I dunno... Nobody here is as much a product of both the pre- and post-Puerto worlds. Valverde belongs in both, or maybe neither. Very confusing.

Bestoftheaughtsbecco Says: Guys like him have no business blowing off MSR. Maybe he and Boasson Hagen can split the cost of a cycling history tutor.

Tom Boonen

For: Within his element, he's the most dominant cyclist of the decade. On the cobbles he has three Monument wins (Roubaix x 3, Flanders x 2) and a slew of Flemish successes in places like the E3 (four times), Scheldeprijs (twice), Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne (twice), Gent-Wevelgem, etc. His signature run in 2005 netted him Flanders, Roubaix and the world title. And with five podiums beginning in 2003, he might be the most dominant Paris-Roubaix rider ever before he's done.

Against: His top-end speed has deserted him before he could break everyone's sprint and classics records. The cocaine stuff is irrelevant to this conversation, but it doesn't help that he disappears in late April and isn't seen much afterwards, save for a couple grand tour points successes. Losing to Gilbert on the Ave du Grammont this fall cost him a shot at expanding his resume in interesting ways. And while it might be nice to see him try some of the crossover races (San Sebastian, Amstel), he probably can't win on anything climbier than de Ronde.

Bestoftheaughtsbecco Says: Is it possible to be a little too Belgian? With a few exceptions, most of his wins are at races he could have ridden to from his parents' house.

Honorable Mentions

Johan Museeuw: The Lion of Flanders had a great career, stretching into the Aughts with two more cobbles for his shelf and second at de Ronde. But about those chemicals...

Oscar Freire: How many world titles does it take to get into a conversation on classics studs? More than three, if you're acool, all-round sprinter like Freire who just misses out on the biggest prizes a bit too much.

Peter Van Petegem: Even Boonen sticks around the sport longer than Van Petegem did. Of course, it's hard not to like a guy who hopped out of the Roubaix velodrome showers and started training for the next Ronde. And his signature treble in 2003 (Flanders-Gent-Roubaix) was one for the ages. But there's more to life than cobbled classics. There, I said it. Are you happy now?

Danilo Di Luca: Nobody spent more years of the Aughts winning under a dark cloud of suspicion, which is kind of a tribute to both his on-bike success and the skill of his legal team. Launched with his Lombardia win in 2001, the Killer scored results all over Europe -- San Sebastian, Plouay, the Ardennes and at home. His finest hours were at the Giro, however, and once you start talking about the "pipi of the Angels," it's hard to carry on much further. You broke my heart, Danilo. You broke my heart!

Filippo Pozzato: Pippo obviously doesn't come close to winning the title here, but it's worth noting that he has an MSR win, two Omloops, and seconds at MSR and Paris-Roubaix. He is a consistent threat to win three of the five monuments, and could maybe eek out a crossover win at Amstel, San Seb, or the next two World Championships. When we write the 2005-2014 version of this column, Pozzato could be pretty high up the list.

Alexandre Vinokourov: Not my favorite subject, but Vino wins on instinct and aggression, the kind of skillset that could work just about anywhere. So far that's included just Amstel and Liege, plus lots of stage-race success. And I understand he's been a hit with the preparatore crowd too. Punk.

Damiano Cunego: Cunego is staking a claim on "best Lombardista ever" with three wins in a short time. He has failed in the Ardennes though, other than a single Amstel win, and sadly doesn't seem overly focused on MSR, where he could wind up that closing speed against the right crowd and set the record straight about La Primavera not being a "pure sprinters' race."

Erik Dekker: He'd have made the top half of this post easily had his career lined up with the Aughts. Dekker had a more diverse list of wins than just about any of his peers, including Paris-Tours, San Sebastian, Amstel Gold, and a handful of time trial national titles. Put him on a team with Zabel and Bettini and you've got a chance to win every classic known to man -- multiple times. But as good as he was as a rider, he can't escape his record as a Rabobank strategist for the last three seasons. Ouch!

Random observation: Is it me or does it seem like Milano-Sanremo is the race you have to have on your palmares to win this category?

THE VERDICT! Bettini... by a nose.

Photos by Doug Pensinger and Pascal Rondeau, Getty Images Sport

Cyclojournalists worldwide are flocking to Pisa, Italy, in desperation to find some news, or make it if need be, and with no better method for this than finding something to say about Alberto Contador. Sporza: Vino will work for Pistolero. L'Equipe: Contador likes his new armada. Blady blady blah.

Here's an Alberto Contador story worth contemplating: is the 2010 Tour his last great challenge? Consider this: with the backing of a great team, he has looked more or less invincible in his last four Grand Tour starts. A year from now, free-agent Contador will be gathering somewhere with a hand-picked team (Garmin? Caisse d'Epargne?) chosen to launch his assault on Lance's Tour records. That team will not merely be the one who buries him in a pile of cash; it'll almost certainly include the lure of a great support squad fully at his disposal and dedicated to his success in July (and elsewhere). Plenty of things can change over the course of that contract, such as the ascension of a more complete challenger (sorry Andy), but odds are we will see lots of pistol shots and yellow jerseys in that mix too.

The outlier is 2010. Lance is not only back, he has succeeded in putting the band back together, reassembling the aging core of his Postal/Disco/Astana teams at the Shack. He has, in effect, come back to the sport and pulled Contador's support team out from under him. Not unfairly -- Armstrong's accomplishments are unprecedented, and he made a few careers along the way (coughbruyneelcough). But from Contador's perspective, suffice it to say he's lost a lot. The reigning Tour champ now finds himself in familiar colors but with a supporting cast that ranges from familiar (Noval) to novel (de la Fuente) to bizarre (Vinokourov). I don't know who he's getting his training tips from, but suffice to say it's not a DS with fourteen grand tour wins under his belt. Worse, Contador comes off a fall/winter rife with uncertainty, if not turmoil -- the dragged out contract matter, the rush to build a team, all of which is just now being put to rest as training camp begins and the veneer of normalcy takes hold.

Everyone is out to get him -- that's what it means to be on top. And however protected he may feel, the fact is he's never been this vulnerable before, and likely never will again, not in his prime. 2010 will be interesting, indeed.

Photo by Jasper Juinen, Getty Images Sport

which one would you be? I thought that since we're making fun of this twit in another post, we can honor the nonsensicality by, you know, resembling that remark. Willj wants to be a campy 29-tooth cog. I personally would go for a 1960s era derailleur with the cool campy logo. Front or rear, whichever is simpler and cleaner. I guess that would be the front. Rear derailleurs are almost never clean. But they do have feelings.

First, the Aughts are coming to a close, and rather than pausing to contemplate the frightening speed at which time slips away, we here at the Podium Cafe will celebrate with a dazzling array of lists. Like, Best Kit or Best Doping Scandal or -- well, not best rider; the point here is to have fun. I understand that Ursula will be compiling the Team of the Decade over "the next couple days," though you could tell from the gleam in his eye (via email) that he wasn't planning on sleeping tonight til that post was done. So that's coming. The Editors have been teased with the subject, which usually means good things. And as usual, there is nothing stopping you, the reader, from jumping on this theme too.

I'm happy to kick things off with one of my favorite subjects: the ever-entertaining talent juggernaut/black hole of Team Deutsche Telekom. Nobody changed careers more dramatically, in both directions, than T-Mobile. From roughly 1996-2004, nothing said simultaneously "you've arrived" and "you're finished" like a lucrative offer from T-Mobile. Of course, T-Mob had much to celebrate, sitting astride the Cycling world most years... Godefroot and Pevenage weren't just off the turnip truck, and no amount of misfires could undo the work of Zabel and Ullrich. But oh, those misfires. Let's break it down. Here, in descending order and with apologies to Bobby Julich, Heinrich Haussler, Serguei Ivanov, and countless others, are the all time top five T-Mobile-related transfers.

5. Cadel Evans, 2002 from Mapei; 2004 to Davitamon

Cuddles was in his second year as a road pro for Mapei when he stumbled into the maglia rosa for all of a day, before Paolo Savoldelli (more in a moment) seized control. Evans was an exciting prospect at the time, the first Australian since Phil Anderson to climb with the Big Boys. But he was green, so when he went to Telekom he was hardly prepared to do... whatever it was they had in mind for him. Shepherding Ullrich around the Alps? Leading the secondary Grand Tour team? Not clear. Evans barely raced in 2003 (injured? ill? both? can't recall), highlighted only by the KOM title at the TdU. Which is a sprinters' race. Evans came out fighting in 2004, winning the Tour of Austria, which is notable only for hosting guys who didn't make their team's Tour de France roster. Fourth in Lombardia told of better days ahead. Somewhere else.

Say what you will about Davitamon/You're Pregnant/Silence!-Lotto not backing him up, but Evans found his confidence at the end of his season with the Mob, and rarely ever lost it. Once he flew the T-Mobile coop, Cuddles spread his wings, winning the Tour de Romandie right away and becoming a top Tour contender from there on out. In fairness not all of this is on the Mob, some of it was just timing. But his ranking in 2002 was 29th. Then with the Mob it was 532 and 87. Then he left, bumped up to 35, then 13, then World Number One. If this were an isolated incident, it might be dismissed. It wasn't.

4. Santiago Botero, 2002, from Kelme

Nothing calls for skepticism like "Kelme 2002" but then T-Mobile didn't end up being famous for its scruples either. So why did Botero plummet from 15th in the world overnight to 377th, as soon as he donned the magenta? A lot of the mystery lies in a lab sample someplace, but a continuing theme at the Mob was the tendency of Godefroot and Pevenage to bring in high-priced talent and get them running bottles up to Der Jan or whoever. In '02 Botero finished fourth in the Tour, won the world ITT title, and won a mountain stage at Les Deux Alpes. He joined T-Mob as Ullrich got sent out, but wound up working for Vinokourov instead. T-Mob invented the concept that you can never have too many quarterbacks.

3. Jan Ullrich, 2003, to Coast... and Back!

Getting to the heart of the matter now. Most of the time it was all about Der Jan, the shining hero of German cycling who emerged at age 23 as the next great Tour winner. But even Ullrich's T-Mobile career said more about the Mob rule than the exception. After winning the Tour, Ullrich suffered from insufficient motivation, bad injury luck, and the rise of Lance. It all came to a head in 2002, when an indiscretion involving ecstasy, a car, and some ill-placed bikes got Ullrich his pink slip. So what does an ex-Mobster do? Completely pull his act together and commence kicking ass, that's what. Luck is part of Cycling, so take this for what it is, but the Jan Ullrich who showed up at the 2003 Tour with his patchwork COAST/Bianchi team deserved to win the Centennial Tour. He never quite made up an early deficit that he incurred while battling a virus, blamed on his baby girl. [Kids are germ factories, believe me.] But for the key stages of the Tour, he was on a rampage. He had that look.

Godefroot and Pevenage fell in love all over again, lured Der Jan right back (conveniently, his Bianchi team disintegrated), and covered him with the same old T-Mob stink that smothered his career from 2000 onward. My impression of him is that he couldn't retire fast enough, and only the absurd money thrown his way kept him nominally in the game for a couple more years.

2. T-Mobile, 2007, to Bob Stapleton

Few team changes in recent cycling history have been more profound than the selling of T-Mobile to Stapleton and the evolution of Team High Road/Columbia. The Mob fell hard and fast in the wake of Operacion Puerto -- which was sad to see. This wasn't merely the team of Ullrich and Fuentes, or however you want to write that chapter. It was Zabel and a lot of other talented German kids too. Their glory days were impressive, but like the careers of the other names on this list, the T-Mobile brand lost its way. When Stapleton bought the team, he put it on the first boat to America, making a clean break from the old Mob and its screwed up history. Time and again top riders transformed their careers simply by leaving the Pev/Gode Mob, so it stands to reason that when the entire team left, they turned into a group that launched a conversation about who the best team ever was. It's not Team Columbia '08 or '09, but just being mentioned is a sign of what the post-Mob era has become. Erik Zabel would be proud. Scratch that -- he IS proud. He's one of their coaches.

1. Paolo Savoldelli, 2002 from Mapei; 2005 to Discovery

The classic example. Savoldelli was a perennial Giro contender, winning the maglia rosa in 2002 and 2005. Guess which two years he was at T-Mobile?

Here are Savoldelli's CQ points, starting in 2001: 476, 953, 42, 142, 908, 635, 515, 211. Guess which two years he was with T-Mobile?

OK, I am piling on a bit here. Sporting the magenta, Savoldelli crashed in training, crashed again into a moto, then broke his wrist, then banged his head. He simply couldn't get and stay healthy long enough to pitch in. Was it the work of a curse? Almost certainly yes. Fortunately, the Falcon got out before it took his life. 

Photo by Mike Powell, Getty Images Sport (1995)

Doing the Notice and Comment thing here. I like what the Editors and I have drawn up here, but am willing to be persuaded otherwise. The principles that apply to race selection are as follows:

• It has to have a strong field. And by this I mean in 2010, though past editions are a good indicator. But there has been some significant reshuffling, of course.
• It has to contribute to a balanced calendar. I can't just add all the Italian races, since doing so would favor Italian riders and teams over the Spanish, French, Dutch, etc. So the balance between Italy, France, Spain and Belgium is reasonably fair -- not including the grand tours, which don't favor locals exclusively, if at all.
• Watchable is better than unwatchable, but obviously we're straying well beyond those ever-shifting limitations.
• Repetitive sprints... not particularly favored, though I think there's enough regardless.

That's it. Race list on the flip.

Continue reading this post »

While Milram may not lead the way in much of anything on the road, their announcement today is something of a watershed moment: they are switching to biodegradable bottles for 2010. Let's face it, you and I may ride bikes in part to reduce stress on the environment, but pro cycling isn't exactly a green movement. There are far, far worse sports, but cycling does its best to consume (and trash) a chunk of the world's supply of rubber, steel, aluminum, carbon fiber and plastic. So it's nice to see Milram looking into ways to alleviate the issue. Most of these materials can be recycled, but plastic tends to make its way to a landfill eventually. Biodegradable plastic... I dunno, whenever I make assumptions in this space, one of you counters with actual information (like, replacing petrochemicals with corn products will cause world hunger), but my initial read is that it has to be better than the usual bidons these guys spread all over Europe. And it's more effective than Bruyneel adding some green piping to the Disco kit.