SB Nation User Blog: ursula

16 Weeks Until the Ronde van Vlaanderen

ursula — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 11:36:37 -0000

Poll

First reaction?

The Curious Case of Nick Nuyens

ursula — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:14:30 -0000

The Fifth installment in the Pro Rider Trilogy*

Let's start with some numbers from CQ:

Year	Team	CQ Points	CQ Rank	Age
2003	Quick Step	218	248	24
2004	Quick Step	716	46	25
2005	Quick Step	763	38	26
2006	Quick Step	622	64	27
2007	Cofidis	584	77	28
2008	Cofidis	581	77	29
2009	Rabobank	416	131	30

That table of numbers is one of the odder tables you'll ever see. Let's go to the jump for some wild and unfounded speculation about what they mean.

First, what's so odd about that table? After a breakthrough season in 2004, Nick Nuyens first stagnated then went downhill. That would be normal if the guy was now 34 or so but this kid did this while entering his physical prime. That's the weird part. The fact that he's done this stagnation/regression thing with three teams now seems to point more and more to him rather than any team.

My first reaction to these numbers is wondering if he's one of those sad people who have a certain level of talent but once they get some success never develop further. They keep doing the same thing year after year and inwardly or outwardly (\o/ anyone?) blame others or bad luck or whatever for their non improvement. To me that's what the changing teams thing might be about: a search for someone who understands just how good he is. But of course, it's not them; it's him.

But maybe I'm just full of it. Lets look closer at each year to see if his races tell us anything differently.

2003: His first Pro Tour year. Riding mostly second and third tier races he scores a handful of top ten placings: Picardie (9th), UNIQUA Classic (7th), Memorial Rik Van Steenburgen (6th), and GP Beghelli (7th) before winning the Nationale Slutingprijs. He entered Paris-Tours, Het Volk and a couple others of similar stature but failed to score high. Overall he shows promise; Quick Step was right to buy him.

2004: Breakthrough year: Riding the same or similar second tier races, he wins four and places well in others. Wins: Ster Electrotoer-overall and one stage; Paris-Brussels, GP de Wallonie, and GP Industria & Commercio di Prato. Other high placings: Picardie (9th), Driedaagsevan West-Vlaanderen (7th overall), Dunkirk (9th), Tour de l'Ain (6th overall), Tour of Britain (3rd overall).

Again he also rode some higher profile races (and higher profile than the year before) but didn't do so well: MSR: 176th, T-A: 105th, Gent-Wevelgem-22nd, Fleche Wallonie-54th, and LBL:129th. But with a couple of these he showed promise. Clearly he was a bright new star on his way up. A step forward from the year before, which is what you should expect with a rider his age.

2005: Total major race schedule. He steps onto the big stage. The lowest profile races are Ster Elektrotoer (2nd), Tour of Britain (won), Wallonie (won) and a couple more. Otherwise though he is in practically every major spring race: Het Volk, T-A, MSR, and the full cobbles gamut including Holy Week, before taking the Ardennes off to race the Giro (he didn't finish that one). His late season is typical of a leading Belgium one day rider.

How'd he do with this tougher schedule? Good. A great start as he won Het Volk was followed by some decent placings at T-A and top tens at Dwars door Vlaaderen-Waregem ((6th) and Brabantsee Pijl (7th) and solid but not contending places at the Holy Week races-perfectly acceptable for his first go at those. Things continue to look up. Another small step forward as he gets used to the Big Time.

2006: About the same; maybe a dip. Riding about the same major race schedule he scores about the same as the year before: He races KBK instead of Het Volk but wins it. He doesn't do well in Paris-Nice or MSR but snags a 3rd at Brabantsee Pijl. His 17th place is his Holy Week highlight. No Grand Tours this year and gets some good results in his remaining schedule with a win on stage 1 of Suisse Tour. That's his only other win. Summary: No change in results. I guess he's thinking a new team would help him out so at the end of the season he signs with Cofidis.

2007: New team; about the same results. He was hurt this year, right? He stops riding for the year at ENECO when he was leading the race so I presume injury. Before then he rides about the same schedule as in his last few Quick Step year, modified with some more French races and the Tour of course. He scored a win at the early season Etoile des Besseges and a 4th at Het Volk, then a 2nd at Brabantse Pijl (clearly that race is made for him) and a 7th place at Flanders. For Cofidis he does the Dauphine and Tour finishing well into the autobus (way over 100th place) every stage but one. Doesn't finish Vattenfall then gets hurt while leading ENECO.

So with his new team he scores about the same in CQ if you adjust for the injury taking away points. He also appears to not like high mountain stage races one little bit. Good to know- and remember.

2008: A couple great results mask definite regression. Maybe it's the team as this is his last year at Cofidis. He scores a 2nd at Het Volk and a great 2nd at Flanders (his career highlight IMO), plus an 8th at Brabantse Pijl but other than a 9th at the Worlds he races a lot in races that don"t fit him well: two Grand Tours! He only makes it through 4 stages of the Giro before quitting but he does finish the Vuelta, managing 2nd and 3rd place stage showings. In between he does little stage races to no effect. Such promise on the cobbles but no direction after P-R. Frustrating.

2009: Back to a top team again with Rabobank and a schedule much like his Quick Step schedules but he just doesn't do much. Flat. Disappointing is all you can say (right Jens?) 14th at Het Volk, 8th at KBK, 7th at E3 (no Brabantse Pijl this year), 15th at Flanders, FNF at G-W, did not enter P-R, 8th at Amstel were the highlights. They were followed by numerous nondescript races and finishes, though he did go back to his old friend Wallonie and won it. Otherwise he was just pack fodder in the peloton.

So have we learned anything but looking at each year? Let's see:

- He doesn't wave his arms but the last couple of years he's been a cobbles guy only just like \o/.

- He just s ucks at stage races. I mean awful. And he's gotten worse. I wonder if his confidence in races like ENECO is now shot. Years ago these races (Ster Electrotoer , Britain and the like) were right up his alley. But trying to compete in bigger, truly mountainous stage races (Grand Tours, Suisse, Dauphine, Paris-Nice) seems to have royally screwed him up.

So looking at his body of work I see a rider who's money in a certain range of races but who tried to do more than he could and is now messed up in the head as to what he can do. Clearly 2009 was discouraging for Nuyens-and Rabobank. He's not too old; maybe he can adjust himself with age. Rabobank is a team with a lot of younger guys who can do what he does, or will in a year or two. I wonder if he would be better served on a team like Vacansoleil. Nuyens is good, a solid cobbles guy, but not one of the current greats. Is he in the class of Gilbert, Boonen, Cancellara, Ballan, and Devolder? Or is he a small step below them, more like Quinziato, Fletcha, Posthuma, etc. In earlier seasons, his wins were more in races when the true Big Boys were tuning up for bigger races.

But clearly his career stagnated and now is going downhill at a time and age when he should be better. Given what he did at ages 25 and 26, we had every right to expect him to do better than he has. He should be stronger and smarter and with his base talent that should mean a serious palmares. But it ain't happening. Did his Cofidis sojourn screw him up? How would you handle him to best effect?

*The Pro Rider Trilogy:

Prologue: Assessing Andy Schleck's Year

Volume I: Let's Talk J-Rod and Katusha!

Volume II: '10 Tour: Cav Wants the Green, But Can he Take It?

Volume III: A Quick Peek At Radio Shack's Chances

Volume IV: Danny Moreno To *Lotto: huh?

Gert Steegmans over/under: 10 Wins???

ursula — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:16:52 -0000

In CN today we see Johan Bruyneel predicting that his new sprinter, one Gert Steegmans, will produce 10 victories this year. So let's keep this short and sweet, while waiting for Flanders: you think Gert has a chance in hell to get 10 wins for RadioShack?

Poll

Place your bets! Will Gert Steegmans 10 or more times this year?

2010 Versus TV Schedule

ursula — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:51:08 -0000

On a whim, I went to the Versus website to see if they've announced their race schedule for next year. They have!

The unexpected highlight here is the Tour of Philadelphia on June 6th. Nice.

Other highlights are every day of three stage races: Down Under (Jan 19-24), California (May16-23) and France (July 3-25)

Lowlights: nothing from Italy or Spain. No Flanders or Amstel Gold either. No Missouri in on the list either so I wonder if this is a finalized schedule. Either that or they want to see if Lance participates this year. No Ireland either.

Otherwise you have an hour of the following one day races: Paris-Roubaix (4/11), and Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Fleche Wallone (both 4/25, so La Fleche is once again a few days late).

You also get hour highlights for Paris-Nice (3/7 & 14), Criterium International (3/28), Romandie (5/2), Dauphine (6/6 & 13), and Suisse (6/13 & 20)

Seems like Versus strips down their coverage little more stripped down every year. Possibly they'll add a race or two IF Lance races it.

I checked CTV and Universal to see if their schedules are up in any form, fictitious or otherwise: not yet.

Danny Moreno to *Lotto: huh?

ursula — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:00:40 -0000

EDIT: Now with Poll Power!

Hi there. You might remember me from such transfer-related posts as RadioShack and J-Rod to Katusha. In this post I'll try to figure out the significance of Daniel Moreno transferring to *Lotto. Good? Bad? Boring? Let's get to the bottom of this.

On the surface, this is one odd transfer. Moreno says he doesn't speak the same language his new teammates speak. *Lotto is also, ahem, not known for stage racing prowess, which is Moreno's main ability. If Evans had stayed at *Lotto this might have been a good transfer as Moreno has been a good domestique for Valverde the last couple of years, but Evans flew to coop. As it stands now, *Lotto's GC hopefuls are Van den Broeck, Lloyd, De Greef, Moreno, and a whole lot of empty space. None of these guys is a top tier Grand Tour hopeful; all of them would be having a great grand Tour if they finished in the top 10.

So I guess that for Moreno, who is in the prime of his career at age 28, he finally gets a chance to ride for himself at the Vuelta and that overrides the cultural difference on his new team?

I'm fishing here obviously. But as a domestique for Valverde at Caisse d'Epargne, he's done well. He was 11th overall this year at the Vuelta and the previous few years he's finished 12th, 12th, and 36th (in his Vuelta debut). And he wasn't the main domestique for Valverde either; J-Rod was. So I can imagine that he would like a better shot at the podium than what C d'E would give him.

Looking a little deeper, one sees that he's decidedly mediocre as a chronoman. But who knows? Being a domestique in a Grand Tour can skew results. Maybe his 2nd place finish at the Chihuahua opening prologue is a glimpse of his latent ability that he hasn't shown otherwise. Probably not though; but again maybe he's never practiced it and this winter he'll try to up his time trialing skills.

As a climber, he's good, even as a domestique. For evidence I cite last year's Vuelta where he finished 10th and 13th on the lethal Angrilu/Invierno combo. Again, not quite as good as J-Rod, but pretty good.

So I end this where I started with lots of questions, and I haven't even gone into his more-mediocre-than-one-might-expect results for smaller stage races, this year;'s 2nd place @ Poland excepted. This is one odd transfer. It's hard to believe that this transfer will result in a Vuelta podium, but it's not out of the question either. Anyone care to shine some light here? Bueller? Bueller?

Poll

How good will Danny Moreno be next year?

He'll be great! Another Lotto master stroke!

2 votes

He'll be awful! Another Lotto master stroke!

8 votes

Moreno has got to be THE favorite for a win at Flanders!

3 votes

Moreno is what \o/ needs for a P-R win

2 votes

Moreno is to Lotto as Barredo is to Quick Step

37 votes

Pie

26 votes

78 votes | Poll has closed

A Quick Peek at RadioShack's Chances For 2010

ursula — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:01:01 -0000

It's all over the web: Team RadioShack's final roster. Below is my take on how they'll do. You may disagree with some of my conclusions, though why you would do that, I have no idea. ;)

Edit: That Beppu and Zubeldia are on RadioShack is news to their former teams it seems. Below I talk about the team like they are but who knows? Maybe they'll form a completely different Team Limbo with Wiggo.

At first glance you might think Disco is back. Many of these boys are Disco alumni from one year or another:

Armstrong, Beppu, Brajkovic, Leipheimer, Li, McCartney, Paulinho, Popovych, Rubiera, and Vaitkus. But that's only 10 of the 26 so to be cautious we shouldn't get too carried away with the Disco Reunion Tour 2010 meme-even if those nine represent most of the key riders for next year. Plus of course you have most of the team management back from the Disco days so maybe that ReunionTour meme is correct.

What about second glance? Bunch of geezers on this team, probably more than any other team. Riders who will be 30 or more next year with age as of the Tour de France (to pick a race totally at random) in parenthesis:

Armstrong (38), Horner (38), Irizar (30), Kloden (35), Leipheimer (36), McCartney (36), Muravyev (30), Paulinho (30), Popovych (30), Rast (30), Rubiera (37), Zubeldia (33).

That's 12 of the 26 for those keeping track at home. Oh-notice that six seven of these guys are on both lists so far.

Another way to look at the team: If you combined their VDS scores from this year (2009) you would get.... 2882 points, good enough for 13th place in the final 2009 standings, behind 12th place Euskaltel and ahead of Lampre. Their leading scorers from this year? Surprise! Andreas Kloden! 642 points. 2nd-Levi Leipheimer with 603, and 3rd Lance Armstrong with 568.

All right, enough with the team. How are they gonna do next year?

I'll do this by type of race:

1) Cobbles prospects: slim and none.

Johan Bruyneel-led teams have a well deserved reputation for underperforming in the cobbled classics and there's no reason to think that the results might change next year. Like in year's past, they have some guys who look perfect for springtime in Belgium: Rast, Vaitkus, and Steegmans all have the combination of size, strength, and speed to do well. But outside of some random race where one of them gets top five (but doesn't win) they will barely register a pulse in Belgium. When I say "random race" I truly mean it: it could be KBK or Flanders. E3 or DDP. Whatever. Some race one of them will get in the final break, purely (IMO) because they have the talent to do so, which for that race will overcome the lack of strategy or interest on Management's part.

2) Ardennes and other hilly one day races: slim but perhaps better than the cobbles.

They have a bit more of a history of success when the one day races get hilly. Janez Brajkovic has gotten 2nd at Lombardia. Chris Horner does know how to get into the final selection of races like this even if he doesn't have the finishing speed to win. But the team really has a history of not emphasizing any one day races so any wins here, hell any podiums, would be shockers.

3) Stage races-decent

We all know that this is a team built for stage races.. But there are lots of stage races so I'm breaking them down into four categories: random, targeted, California and the Tour. (Yes I put ToC and Tour in the same sentence. But that's the way it is with this team.)

3A) Random stage races-fair to good prospects

This team is crazy deep in stage racing talent so it goes that there will be stage races they find themselves in mainly for practice that they podium or even win. Like last year Chris Horner got second in the Tour de l'Ain. Or Levi won Castilla and Leon. Brajkovic snagged 2nd at Trentino. This team is filled with good climbers who are also good at time trialing so expect some decent results at lower profile stage races.

3B) Targeted stage races-also good results but probably no wins.

When I say "targeted" here I mean races from Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, The Giro and Vuelta, possibly a Spanish stage race or Pais Vasco, and Suisse, Romandie and the Dauphine. Honestly I am tempted to put the Giro in the random stage race category as I don't see who on this team is gonna make a real run at it. I can imagine in fact the Giro not inviting them as Lance will be in California.

So other than the Giro these races are important to one or another of the team leaders here. The interesting race among these though is Paris-Nice as this will be the race where RadioShack takes on Contador and Astana for the first time. Must see TV there- and I haven't even mentioned the liked of Lulu defending his crown and the other good riders who'll be there. But how they try to attack Bert will be interesting.

The other races here-like Kloden at T-A, and Suisse, are important races to gauge if these old guys have lost anything. They will put in the efforts-but will they pay off? My guess is that we'll see some podiums but no wins in the higher profile races here. Maybe Levi can pull off another win like he did at Castilla and Leon.

3C) Tour of Califiornia-great success lies ahead!

The main question here is who, besides Lance might deny Levi a fourth win? radioShack will bring most of its heavy hotter to this race and it will be interesting to see if any other team tries to contest the final result. Garmin and Saxo Bank are the most likely. Saxo? They don't race the Giro really so in theory their Schlecks, Cancellaras, Jens!, etc. will have open dates and could race here. But will they race hard? We'll have to see. That leaves Garmin as Columbia will not contest the GC. Garmin has tried to beat Levi the last two times and failed and I see no reason why that will change. At the end of the season, California will probably be the biggest success this team will have.

3D) Tour de France-ah, no. Sorry.

Unlike in the past, a Bruyneel-led team (here RadioShack) won't be the dominant team at the Tour. Saxo will be at least as strong while Astana will be strong enough along with having the best rider. On paper in mid-November, Saxo, RadioShack, Astana, Rabobank, and Liquigas all will field teams that, if one of their riders gets into the lead, they can successfully defend for several stages through the mountains to hold on for the win.

But now to Lance. Do you believe that Lance will be stronger this year, like he contends? That must mean that you believe in Santa too! Congratulations! Have a party!

The thing is, no one wins a Grand Tour at the age of 38. No one. No matter how much hype he generates. Unless he goes to Forks for some special blood work. Short of that, there will be a drumbeat of press hyping Lance as better than last year. But it won't make a difference. What I'll be interested in seeing fro this team at the Tour is what Levi will do. He too is too old to win but IMO Levi is theoretically the closest to Bert in ability. I could imagine telling Levi to stick with Bert wherever he goes, sort of a cycling equivalent of a basketball box-and-one defense. Hmmm. But I can't imagine Bruyneel and Lance having that type of subtlety. And of course Bert isn't the only rider that they need to worry about.

So to me, RadioShack will probably place two riders in the top ten, one in the top five perhaps. That's if everything falls into place. Given the age of their main guys, the likelihood of injuries will probably see them at less than full strength for the Tour. A bad case scenario is no one in the top ten, maybe one on the top 20, one of their main guys being injured for the Tour, and one crashing out. (Of course armageddon would see Lance getting injured pre-Tour and not starting. But that might free Levi at least.) They will create some excitement, especially when they see themselves falling behind.

Summary

The team will finish around 10th place in the VDS team standings next year. Best case is around 6-9. Probably 9-14. If a lot of injuries happen: 13-17.

'10 Tour: Cav Wants The Green, But Can He Take It?

ursula — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:11:05 -0000

Ever since next year's Tour route was announced and probably well before, Mark Cavendish has proclaimed his intentions of winning the Green Jersey that Thor Hushovd won last year. Of course, the God of Thunder's fashion sense has told him that Green will still be In next year so he'd like to keep it too. Then there's the like-minded Green obsessions of Ale-Jet, Benna, The Wenatchee Whippet, and several other Fast Men. All these guys want to wear Green next year! They're obsessed-like Bella Swan obsessed! And since she (Bella) lives in Forks, Washington, one of the greenest places on earth, I can just imagine these sprinters making treks this winter to Forks in hopes that one of Edward Cullen's sisters would fall MASSIVELY in love with them. (They, of course, would want nothing more than to passively love one of these stupid, stupid vampires, who, they imagine, would turn THEM into an immortal and (important!) ridiculously fast vampire so they could win the Green Jersey hundreds of times over and spend the rest of their undead existence passively obsessing over their vampire wife. The ultimate PED!)

Yeah that was one long run-on sentence. Sue me. I live in a world where millions upon millions of girls and women swoon over the Twilight books. Like there's nothing better to do in the world than to have no inner drive to do anything original at all. If that ain't heck, I don't know what is. And I am just waiting for some writer to finally capitalize upon the fact that most men fantasize a similar passive existence. "Why the hell would I want to examine my life? I just want to be... wanted!"

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I feel a little better. On the flip we'll write about Cav's chances for the Points Jersey.

So Cav wants a Green Jersey. Isn't that nice. Any chance he can earn one though? Let's figure this out. To do that we must first note what he did this year:

Cav finished 2nd this year to Thor, 270 points to 280. Along the way he won those six stages: 2,3,10,11, 19, and 21. He also finished 3rd on stage 5, 16th on stage 6, and 8th on stage 12. All together, that's serious pointage. Enough to win the Points in 08 and 07. So what happened?

Cav's fans would first point out his relegation on stage 14. Remember? What a stage! This was the stage that had the breakaway with Hincapie in it which left St's Paul's and Phil's hearts all aflutter that George might be wearing the Yellow jersey at the end of the day-until Evil Garmin helped AG2R almost chase down the break. Almost, I say, as Ivanov took a late flyer to win the thing while the other eleven riders in the breakaway also finished ahead of the peloton. When said peloton finished, Columbia's heart broke all the harder as Cavendish's 12th place finish, and first in the peloton, was judged to be the result of him not keeping his line and he was relegated to the back, thus losing 14 points all told to Thor-which is more than the final point spread in their competition.

That relegation was a heartbreaker, but it wasn't the only reason why Cav came up short. Cavendish also never contested any intermediate sprints, something Thor did a couple of times, most famously on stage 17, the mountain stage to La Grand Bornand. In retrospect, i seemed like last year Cav was mainly focused on winning stages as opposed to the Green Jersey.

But what about 2010? If he says he's going for the Green, might that mean he might look for some intermediate sprint point action? One would hope so and if so that would make his chances all the better. If so, then does he have this competition in the bag?

Not so fast my friend! There's one factor that will make it harder while another factor that will complicate the competition.

The thing that will lower his chances is the fact that there are only nine flat stages (per ASO) and only five definite winnable stages, with a possibility of three more (per Cav). So it looks like there's fewer bunch sprint wins out there for Cav. Plus there are more medium mountain stages next year than this: four as compared to one. PLUS there's two hilly stages next year while there were no such classified stages this year. PLUS PLUS, like last year's stage to Barcelona where Cab finished 16th on the uphill finish (which Thor won) we are not at all sure that Cav will be contesting a bunch sprint on the cobbled stage three. All this means that it looks like there could be fewer stages next year for Cav to pile up points by winning bunch sprints. Not good, especially considering that he won't have Hincapie to escort him to the line. (It must be said though that Columbia should be able to replace George.)

But the complicating factor might help out Cav. Simply put, next year's Points competition should be more contested then this year's two man race. Cav and Thor will be present next year, but in addition so will a) Petacchi, who should have a Lampre train dedicated to him, b) Farrar, who improved from month to month last year and so should be better next July, c) Bennati, who might rediscover his top gear now that he's a year away from his last injuries, d) Ciolek, who was sick last year and not at full strength, e) EBH who will be looking to snag any complicated (hillier) stages, and f) guys like Boonen, Haussler, and Pozzato, etc. who could well ride away with the cobbled stage.

So it looks like next year's Points competition looks more complicated. That could favor Cavendish if he takes care of business in winning the simpler flat stages while the other riders cancel each other out on the more difficult days. Part of why Hushovd won last year was because it was a two man race only and he only had to worry (much) about Cavendish. But basically a wide open Points competition could favor Cav since he has more of a chance to win more stages than any other rider. IF he has the same superior form compared to his sprinting competition like he did this year-and that's not a given.

I can't decide yet if Cavendish will win the Points competition next year. You?

Poll

How likely are Cavendish's chances?

100% guaranteed he will win

7 votes

90-100% likely

24 votes

75-90% chance. He (or Zoe or Phil) should win it.

35 votes

50-75% He's more likely than anyone else

85 votes

25-50% The competition is wiiiiiide open. But he has a good chance

38 votes

10-25% It's a toss up with several riders

7 votes

0-10% chance. Slim and none.

3 votes

199 votes | Poll has closed

Let's Talk J-Rod & Katusha!

ursula — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:47:31 -0000

Interesting team, that Katusha and an interesting pick-up on their part, picking Joaquin Rodriguez from Caisse d'Epargne. For CN today comes word on the race schedule for J-Rod next year and it's much like in previous years, with two exceptions: there's Tour de France for the first time and there's no Alejandro Valverde to support. Here's his early season (up to the Tour) schedule:

warm-up: Volta a Mallorca then Volta ao Algarve

Tirreno-Adriatico which has the Wolf Mountain stage again

Spain and the Basque Country: Volta a Catalunya then Pais Vasco

The Ardennes Trio: Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallonne, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege

Tour prep: Luxembourg and Suisse Tours

Tour de France

On the flip, a look at his new teammates and wild-eyed speculation on how he'll do.

So all speculation on how well he'l do has to take into account on what effect his new team will have on him. Look at that Katusha roster.

BUT FIRST-BREAKING NEWS!!! NEW DESIGNER SNUGGIES!!!!! WHAT COULD BE SEXIER THAN A WOMAN IN A LEOPARD PRINT SNUGGIE!!!????

Okay back to reality. Barring Robbie McEwen finding the fountain of youth and the odd Grand Tour stage win (which will come) and Pippo Pozzato's cobbles exploits (no small thing) this team is built for small stage races and the Ardennes. Adding J-Rod and Kim Kirchen to Serguei Ivanov literally screams Ardennes, plus small stage races. Those three plus the likes of Pavel Brutt, Al Botcharov, Vlad Karpets, Mikhail Ignatiev (among others) in support of the Big Three also says that they are prepared to take the repeated attacks of Saxo Bank in the Ardennes and return the favor.

On paper, that is. The question is how will J-Rod, Kirchen, and Ivanov interact? Ivanov is notorious for striking out on his own. Many of their main supporters, like Brutt, Botcharov, and Ignatiev have spent most of their careers in breakaways. Can they learn some discipline and support their leaders? Will J-Rod, a lifetime supporter, find himself pushed aside by freelancing teammates?

My guess is sort of. This team has the depth of Saxo Bank or Shack or Columbia or Liquigas to compete in the Ardennes but the urge to break out will be too much at times. But otherwise the individual abilities of these guys will bring them a win or two I think. I have a feeling that Kirchen + J-Rod will work quite well and I have them on a short list for an Ardennes title. La Fleche? L-B-L? One of 'em.

Vote For Most Improved Rider Of The Year!

ursula — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:49:56 -0000

Most Disappointing voting is the post below. Quite an assortment of riders here. We got cobbles , we got sprints, we got Grand Tour GC's, we got all-rounders. We got guys on French teams. Who do you like?

Poll

Which rider improved the most this year?

Kenny Van Hummel

2 votes

Julian El Fares

2 votes

Rein Taaramae

6 votes

Vincenzo Nibali

7 votes

Simon Gerrans

11 votes

Bradley Wiggins

107 votes

Tyler Farrar

76 votes

Matty Goss

1 votes

Andre Greipel

5 votes

Francesco Gavazzi

0 votes

Edvald Boasson Hagen

43 votes

Glorious Heinrich Haussler

108 votes

Johnny Hoogerland

31 votes

Other

1 votes

400 votes | Poll has closed

Vote For Most Disappointing Rider Of The Year!

ursula — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:41:53 -0000

Interesting assortment of nominations as you'll see below. No dopers. But injured riders still count.

Poll

Who was THE most disappointing rider of 2009?

Nick Nuyens

12 votes

Linus Gerdemann

96 votes

Svein Tuft

12 votes

Simon Spilak

0 votes

Marzio Bruseghin

5 votes

Greg Van Avermaet

15 votes

Gert Steegmans

50 votes

Igor Anton

15 votes

Levi Leipheimer

31 votes

Bauke Mollema

2 votes

Alessandro Ballan

73 votes

Rigoberto Uran

4 votes

Enrico Gasparotto

13 votes

Other?

19 votes

347 votes | Poll has closed