Hi all, I've been away from PdC for a long time, but when I saw this lecture pop up, I thought some of you in the NW might be interested.

Amerikanuak! Basques in the High Desert: http://www.nwcentral.org/amerikanuak-basques-high-desert?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/entry/view/basques/

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Lot's o' polemica today, so I figured a little levity would help. With that in mind, I've cast Andy and Alberto in the Coen Brother's masterpiece of dialog. The actors switch roles, as fits the story, so fair warning that Andy can be cast as the Dude in one scene and Walter in the next. I rather like Alberto as Smokey, but he plays other roles too. Vino as Donny seems perfect. No disrespect to the riders is intended, and no real explanation of the day's racing is offered, just good Lebowski-driven farcical fun.

Please add your own Lebowski tales to fit the stage 15 hijinks as well. Is Lance cast as the Big Lebowski or Jackie Treehorn? (If he's Lebowksi, then Levi has to be Brandt, doesn't he?) Denis makes a good Jesus, but who does Sammy get to play? So many questions...

One more thing before the jump, The Dude and his friends do tend to use too many swear words and they aren't into the whole brevity thing, so it's NSFW or children, or people without a healthy respect for the absurd.

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During today's Giro stage, there was some conversation about the use of nicknames for certain riders. I like nicknames, but not everyone does, so I appreciate the need to prioritize clear communication over clever insider-jokes. Perhaps we could maintain a list of nicknames, both peloton wide and PdC to help the confused.

Actual list on the jump...

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In the past I've celebrated Ronde Sunday by getting up at 4am (PST) swearing at cycling.tv until my feed started, and then cracking the first Belgian beer of the morning. 

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The money quote from Saiz is: “The day is coming soon when it will be time to settle accounts and name names.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/sports/cycling/27iht-BIKE.html?ref=global

On the whole though, It sounds like he's fishing for hush money, but oh the juicy possibilities ..

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Thinking about the Post-PR thread and the what we learned on the cobbles thread, I worked up some historical stats from Paris-Roubaix for us to mull over. I grabbed the finishing places for certain favorites from 2000-2009. Then I calculated how many times they finished, their average finish (does not include dnf/dns), and a few other things.

The riders are ranked by order of their average finish, which I think sums things up quite well. This ranking probably slights Ballan and others who would have scored better for dropping out rather than finishing w/ the main group, but you can see the number of finishes and the number of podiums to help balance that out.

What I learned: Flecha deserves more props, Guesdon and Knaven were much more impressive than I gave them credit for, and Tom really does deserve a place in history with DeVlaeminck, Van Looey, Merckx, and Museeuw. Also, Hincapie has earned a place in history, if he were Belgian, he'd be a national hero.

Alternately, view it here:

The Spreadsheet is shared here. It would be cool if more info were added for riders such as Zabel, Wesseman, Hoffman, or anyone else that I'm neglecting. I mined the data from: http://www.the-sports.org/cycling-paris-roubaix-2009-results-men-s2-c0-b0-g22-t43-u255-m59190-v1.html.

*Edit: I've added another column for podiums-per-finish which is another useful way to rank PR success. Results:

1. Johan Museeuw .6 podiums per finish
2. (tie)Tom Boonen & Peter Van Petegem .5 podiums per finish
3. Juan Antonio Flecha .4 podiums per finish
4. Fabien Cancellara .33 podiums per finish

Sadly, the former kierin WC has passed on.

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To go along w/ the beer poll above, y'all can help me choose my Flanders beers for tomorrow morning. I'm heading to Belmont Station tonight to lay in a cache, and your votes will determine (in part) what I'm drinking in the morning. This week's in-stock bottle list is available here: http://www.belmont-station.com/bottle_css.html

As Lombardia/Veulta/Worlds approach and the action switches from the road to the contract negotiations, this is when rumors start to fly.

Two really good places to keep track of who is riding where next year are:

http://www.wvcycling.com/transfers.php

and

http://www.velo-club.net/article.php?sid=32287

Apart from that, post  your transfer rumors here!

I've been way too busy to hang out on the PC lately, which is unfortunate. But because I'm a librarian and really geek out on sharing new information tools, I had to post this:

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Not to steal Scott's thunder, who posted the link to Mags' Pez diary on the stage 18 live thread, but if you haven't read it, do so. http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=5156

Anyway, call it an impulse, but I responded so positively to Mag's outburst, that I shelled out 27 bucks and change for a pound (500g) of Mags' coffee. Almost half of the $ goes to shipping, but the $ helps out young cyclists, and that is the point.

I've posted before that while I really, really want to see the sport clean itself up, I still am inspired by what riders who have cheated accomplished. I can't turn my back on heroes from past and present who have used PEDs. I don't approve of their methods or how they handle themselves in the press, but I don't want to throw them under the bus completely. Still, change in culture is happening and needs to happen. Change means what was let go last year or 10 years ago can no longer be let go.

I want the next generation to have a better chance of being able to push the envelope of their abilities and explore their physical and psychological limits without resorting to the pharma crutch. So I'm buying some expensive coffee from Mags. I encourage y'all to do the same.

Link: http://www.magnusbackstedt.com/MB/store.cfm

(I hope ads like this aren't against the PdC bylaws, apologies if my blatant shill is out of line.)

I got a good chuckle out of the PC's "I support the Chinese Wristband Industry" marketing bracelets.

But Stuart O'Grady and CSC came up with a better one.

http://velonews.com/tour2007/details/articles/12785.0.html

He had black wristbands made with the inscription "Harden the Fuck Up." I'd buy one of those, even if I am a big Yank softie.

[editor's note, by chris] In case you missed it, this was an original Podium Cafe product...

A lot of folks don't want to read the latest cycling books published. For good reason! If the Landis book or the latest Walsh book leave you cold, there is great news for fans of cycling literature!!!

Dave Shields, author of The Race and The Tour helped Raisin to write his story. They are publishing it as Tour de Life: From Coma to Competition. The book is slated for release in September, but Shields has a limited number of copies available now on his web site. Some of the copies will be autographed by Saul, and all by Dave.

They run about thirty bones, which isn't cheap, but I'm happy to pay for good writing, a great story, and hope to boot! It is especially nice to have something about cycling not related to the all-pervasive sleaze of the summer's other cycling book releases.

*edit* I noticed that the copy I bought sends some $ back to the Daily Peleton, where I read about the book being available. I wonder if the PC can swing a similar deal? Original DP Forum posting by Dave Shields.

Tomorrow is a new day. A day where the sun will rise over a 21km climb and a stage where the escape could make it all the way and the favorites are going to have to burn some matches to keep their place on the top of the ranking.
So my advice is to forget whatever ugliness that threatens to overwhelm the sport and think about the climb tomorrow. Think about the breaks, think about who will try to go early, who will work to bring the breaks back, and who will risk all by sitting on and forcing others to do the chasing.

My pick is for riders like Nibali and Ricco to go before the big climb and try to make it to the finish. Maybe opportunists like Mazzanti or Garzelli was well. Certainly somebody wearing Tinkoff yellow will go on the attack.

Anyway, they are racing in the Italian mountains tomorrow. That is what I choose to think about.

image from la gazzetta:

I haven't done one of these before, but I believe it is possible to set up a group Skype conversation. Is there interest in setting one up for the Ronde on Sunday?

More below the fold...

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Shamelessly stolen from Chris' diary:

So where do we think the winning break will be launched from? Will the quality of the field keep things together until the Bosberg, or will some attacking fool recreate Durand's 92 win and go away before the race hits the hills?

I think that the leaders will stay somewhat together, since so many have good legs and QSI will shut down the dangerous breaks. OTOH, who wants to go to the line w/ Tomeke?

Hit Entry Link to take the poll:

Watch and listen live!

video: mms://event-1-de.eurosport.com/reflector:48574#cf

Audio:http://www.eurosport.com/cycling/mcplayervideo_vid36544.shtml

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Ok, so it isn't really a new tool, but I noticed today that Google language tools has little buttons you can drag to your bookmark toolbar that will automatically translate a page for you.

So if you want to read tuttobiciweb, todociclismo, velo-club or other cycling news sites, it is now a little easier to get a bad translation.

The Google translation buttons are on this page: http://translate.google.com/translate_buttons?hl=en

They aren't really buttons, just bookmarked links that will take you from a page to a translation, but I find it makes it a bit easier to read things. I put them in a bookmark folder (in the bookmark toolbar) labeled "translate" and now it is just one click to translate a cycling report into a rough semblance of English.

More on the Flip

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Velonews is citing AFP that Unibet will be at the start of Milan - San Remo. An official release is expected this afternoon

more on the flip

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I know we can help support the Podium Cafe by subscribing to the premium channel through the link on the home page, but can we also support the PC by subscribing the the VS. channel? With Tirreno Adriatico coming up, I'm likely going to shell out some more ducats to feed my addiction. Can I help pay for bandwidth here when I do that?

<I'm putting this in a diary in case the answer is yes and you want to get the word out. If the answer is no, go ahead and delete the post and send me an email.>

Question here, can anyone turn me onto a good online database of team palmares? There are a lot of places to look for rider palmares. I like http://trap-friis.dk/indexev.html the best. cyclinghalloffame.com is another good place if you want to know who won a particular race.

What I'm looking for is a place to see victories by a team. Team sites can be pretty good, but when I'm handicapping the classics, I want to be able to see what races were won by particular teams.

Does anyone know of a good site where I can search by team and year to see results?

Liquigas is the first cobbles team profiled not hailing from Northern Europe. Can these fancy-lads from sunny Italy, led by pretty boys like Danilo Di Luca and Fillipo Pozzato compete in the mud and Cobbles?

Read on for info on the stars, gregarios, and outlook for the Green Monsters:

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Rabobank hasn't won a spring classic since Freire stole Zabel's lunch at the finish of the 2004 Milan San Remo. So why should they be the next preview, ahead of Liquigas' 2 wins and Gerolsteiner's 3 wins? Rabo deserves a preview because of the overall strength of the team, and because of the number of favorites they have for all the big races.

Contenders/Veterans/Young Guns/Outlook... on the flip:

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There has been a lot of talk about Jonathan Page getting offers after his World's Cross performance.

The first rumor with details says he's negotiating w/ Pallmans-Collstrop, if a deal is struck we should hear in a few days.

http://www.velo-club.net/article?sid=36391

The Belgian press have joined in the feeding frenzy. New reports claim that Lef was a speed freak, and had a doping system.

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I'm not just saying that I won't be traveling to Flanders in the Spring. The fabled climb, restored in 2002 will once again be removed from Flanders parcours. I am inconsolable.

http://www.wieleruitslagen.be/nieuws/nieuws.php?subaction=showfull&id=1162904302&archive=&am p;start_from=&ucat=1&

This year's transfer rumors are becoming almost as insane as last year's. Last year we had Sony-Ericksson w/ riders under contract but no sponsor or pro-tour license. This year, Astana at least has a sponsor, but will they have a license? Laurent Dufaux has turned down the job as a DS for Astana, but the UCI refused to ratify the transfer of Kazakh rider Dmitriy Muravjev, due to the team's ongoing problems.

Anyway, the rumors:

• 
  
• Velo-Club is reporting that both Gerolsteiner and Discovery are trying to sign Dave Zabriskie. I don't see any sourcing on the rumor, but it is intriguing, non? Disco want more yanks, it seems and Gerolsteiner could possibly duplicate their monster chrono duo of Michael Rich and Uwe Peschal w/ Dizzy and Lang.
  

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Eurosport & IvanBasso.net are reporting that a German newspaper has published a fax purportedly from Fuentes listing riders from the Giro. (There is a link to the original article on the ivanbasso.net.)

Not a smoking gun, but certainly something more concrete than the rumors that Birrilo was Basso's dog's name. The fax has been referred to back in July, but this is the first time it actually has been made available to the public.

I'm curious about what you all think about naming names in discussion of doping controversies in sport.

I'm in full agreement w/ folks who are outraged at the UCI for violating their protocols and leak information, especially names, before B samples are verified. Should we hold ourselves to the same standard? Is it a classless act to repeat rumors or unvalidated infomation?

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Alberto Contador was found unconscious in the middle of the road near the tour bus after yesterday's stage of the Tour of Burgos.

He was taken to a private medical facility and is now awake and alert. Docs are looking into what happened.

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