Monday Musette - Valverde, Oman, Algarve, and 2 Great Videos

1. This weekend I learned a valuable lesson: never bet against Alejandro Valverde (unless it's July). 

"It’s February," I thought. 

"He’s saving his best for later in the year," I assumed. 

"The competition is more motivated than he is," I predicted. 

I was wrong on all counts—with the lone exception being yesterday's super-motivated stage winner, Francesco Masciarelli. My pre-race favorite, Johnny Hoogerland, finished the race in a respectable 4th-place overall—9 seconds behind the winner. The other favorites finished about where we expected: Vino, Gesink, and Danielson all finished inside the top-15. But in the end, it was Valverde who punched his victory card a bit earlier than we might be used to, thus cementing his status as the World’s most dangerous man in every race that's not cobbled or the Tour.

2. Two stages of the Tour of Oman have come and gone, and things are running as we expected: sprinters have won the first two stages and Edvald Boassen Hagen has taken the overall lead. It was nice to see Jimmy Casper continuing Saur-Sojasun’s optimistic start to the season with a Stage 1 victory. Kudos as well to Daniele Bennati—he and Chichi seem to be one of the sport’s most-formidable sprint duos at this point the season. Here’s hoping they can keep it up once they return to Europe.

3. The early season stage races continue this week in Portugal with the Vuelta Algarve, a race with quite an interesting start list. Algarve marks the first appearance of many of the favorites for this year’s Grand Tours including Astana’s Alberto Contador, Radio Shack’s Levi Leipheimer, and Garmin’s Christian Vande Velde. Several of the sport’s best one-day men will also be using Algarve to continue their slow builds to April including Stijn Devolder, Sylvain Chavanel, Geert Steegmans, Samuel Sanchez, Sergei Ivanov, Nick Nuyens, Thor Hushovd, and Heinrich Haussler. And don’t forget the sprinters—they’re here too led by Robbie McEwan, Andre Greipel, and Julien Dean. There are also several wild cards, talented men hoping Algarve will present them with chances to take their first win of the season while the stars collect their kilometers. Of these, Geoffroy Laquatre, Ryder Hesjedal, David Zabriskie, Joaquin Rodriguez, Lars Boom, Luis Leon Sanchez, Sandy Casar, Manuel Cardoso, and Bjorn Leukemans come quickly to mind.

In the end, look for a rider talented enough to finish well in the sprints and do well in the final stage’s ITT to take the overall win. I’ll go out on a limb and pick Thor for the overall victory—he’s sure to finish well on the flatter stages and the relatively short ITT suits his strengths.  

4. There were some great cyclocross races this weekend as well—but you’ll have to come back for Erik’s Cross Report and Power Rankings to hear more about those.

Away from the racing scene we have several other goodies—including some great videos.

5. My friend Fxdwhl at lockring.not.included posted a series of excerpts from the great Merckx-era documentary, Stars and Watercarriers. Of all the scenes Fxdwl includes, this one is my favorite. It’s got it all: a funky “recovery device”, an overly demonstrative Italian soigneur, scenes from mealtime—with separate tables for riders and staff, and of course, mechanics taping bars and gluing tires. In a word, it’s perfect. (Sessa, Geert, and Kepa: I miss you, guys.)

6. Let's jump from 1973 to 2001, and scenes from the USPS team car at Paris-Roubaix (I believe this comes via the Road to Paris documentary.  I enjoy this one for many reasons, but here are 3 of the best: it’s Paris-Roubaix in rough weather; it’s the one and only year that Mercury got an invite; and it forever answers the question as to who really ran the USPS team (if there were ever any doubts).

7. And while we’re on the subject of the 2001 Paris-Roubaix, check-out this terrific picture of Wilfred Peeters and his short-lived bid for Roubaix glory. Notice the front wheel--does it look familiar? Well, let’s just say it wasn’t standard-issue for Domo back then—heck, it wasn’t even "standard-issue" for Mercury. But that’s a long story for another day…

Enjoy your week!

Monday Musette - Cadel, BMC, Ghent-Wevelgem, and More!

Here's what's on Pavé's mind this Monday:

1. The twitterati were abuzz this past weekend with news of Cadel Evans' transfer to BMC. Twitter's an interesting phenomenon as it allows you to witness the evolution of the news as it broke. First it was revealed that Evans did not re-sign with Silence-Lotto; then came the lists of teams with which he might land including SKY, Garmin, Radio Shack, Astana, and AG2R. Teams soon began taking themselves out of the running--with Garmin making a particular effort to clear its name (maybe to prevent Wiggo from growing more hostile?) from the list--until BMC was finally announced and confirmed as his destination.

It's yet another in a series of bold moves for BMC who--despite my comments a week ago--apparently has aspirations for a Tour invite in 2010. Evans gives them a strong GC-rider and man for the hillier classics. It will be interesting to see how they use him: will he shoot for smaller stage races and the Ardennes classics before heading to the Giro for the win; or will the team earn an early invitation to the Tour, allowing Cadel his traditional build-up to the race he would so dearly love to win? I know I've said it before, but I think Evans (among others) would be well-served by a change in focus; he could easily win Paris-Nice, the Ardennes classics, Romandie, and the Dauphiné if he so desired. A Tour stage win or two would be possible before making another late-season assault on the Vuelta and the fall monuments. Of course, Evans will probably again place his eggs in the Tour's basket again, but maybe BMC can convince him to do otherwise--if they want him to.

2. And while were talking transfers, SKY is announcing its complete roster this Friday. Consequently, we might finally gain some clarity regarding the future of Bradley Wiggins. If he indeed leaves, will Garmin move to have Contador take his place?

3. Following on the heels of news that Gent-Wevelgem has been moved to the Sunday before the Tour of Flanders comes the report that it's being lengthened as well--from 200 to about 250km. And why shouldn't it be longer? It's no longer sandwiched on the Wednesday between Flanders and Roubaix, thus giving the organizers the luxury of adding some distance to attract teams eager to use it as preparation for the following weekend. What remains to be seen is how the teams treat the E3 Prijs--the traditional Flanders testing ground--the day before. We'll have more on this in a future column, but for now, it's some intriguing food for thought.

4. For those that have asked, the final few pieces of Pavé kit are being finalized this week. We'll announce the rest of the designs and ordering information soon. Thanks to all for expressing interest--we're looking forward to the legions of Pavé riders hitting the road next year.

5. And speaking of hitting the road, Fxdwhl took us on another terrific ride through his neighborhood on Saturday. Falling leaves, crisp weather, and some muddy singletrack were the days main courses (along with a pile of dog s--- I just couldn't seem able to avoid). You can see for yourself over at lockring.not.included.

That's it for today. For more reading, feel free to head to Embrocation Cycling Journal for the latest from Pavé as well as terrific pieces from some like-minded souls.

Enjoy your week! And as always, share your comments below.

Monday Mustte - Worlds, UCI Tidbits, Interbike, and a Ride

1. While I can't say I told you so, I wasn't surprised to see Cadel Evans finally get the big win he's so desperately craved. It was a fantastic ride by someone not often known for taking matters into his own hands. With 4 riders in the final lead group of 9, Spain has to be wondering what went wrong after setting-up Sanchez perfectly for the win. As for Italy and Belgium, they were a bit under-represented in the final selection, with Cunego and Gilbert left to fend for themselves. But at that point in te race, if you can't handle things by yourself, you probably don't deserve to win.

But let's not take anything away from Evans' performance. The question remains: wither Evans now? Should he continue to try his luck in the Grand Tours, or should he perhaps adjust his focus to hilly Classics and short stage races? If he picks the latter, there's no reason why he couldn't have the most succesful season as World Champion in recent memory.

2. Not sure if you caught it in all the Mendrisio hoopla, but did you hear about the changes to the Worlds format for 2012? Looks like they're returning to the old model of having the Juniors, Espoirs, and Elites all competing at the same event with one key addition: a trade team TTT! The final details on this are still to be determined, but it looks likely to be run the week before the elite road race with trade teams instead of national teams competing. I'd love to see the return of the 100km distance, but that appears unlikely. No matter what, it will be an exciting event--if the teams and riders take it seriously. Will the winning team get to wear rainbow skinsuits? That sound you're hearing (off in the distance) is Jonathan Vaughters licking his lips...

3. For those of you planning your vacations now, the UCI 2010 World Calendar has been released.

4. Was anyone else shocked and bit saddened to hear that Will Frischkorn has retired? Hard to believe the guy's been a europro since before he could could legally by beer in the USA. Makes me wish now more than ever that he could have won that stage in the 2008 Tour de France. All the best, Will!

5. I hate to admit it, but I'm afraid I've not been able to live as vicariously as I had hoped via the current Interbike coverage. Pedal Strike's Kaiko has provided the best so far. Check-out her Flickr photostream, and then search for "Interbike" to enjoy scores of others. Mr. Dunn will certainly be keeping us busy this week as he sifts through his memories and photos. (Hopefully there's some photos from IF and Handspun.)

6. And on a personal note, a friend and I went for a ride with Fxdwhl from lockring.not.included on Saturday. You can read Fxdwhl's report here--he writes about such things so much better than I do. All I can say is that it was one of the best rides I've done in a long time. He's a great host, a fabulous rider, and if you haven't done so yet, the purveyor of one of the finest blogs out there. Stop-by and say hello when you have a chance.

That's it for today. What's on your mind? Thoughts from Mendrisio? Interbike?

Share your comments below.

Monday Musings - While the Tour Rides Along

While the break rides along in today’s Stage 3, here are some things for you to take a look at:

1. If you haven’t seen it yet, head to the new Red Kite Prayer. BKW’s Padraig has upped the ante with a site you need to bookmark and/or add to your RSS reader. Expect the same great content you enjoyed at BKW, plus product reviews, guest commentary, and some other surprises. Thanks, Padraig!

2. The other day I stumbled upon some photos from The Retro Ronde (link's in Flemish), a sportive ride organized by the RVV Museum in Oudenaarde. Not sure how I missed this one in the past, but it’s certainly been added to my “To Ride” list.

3. And speaking of the Ronde, here’s the newest installment of the Cervelo TestTeam's Beyond the Peloton documentary. Roubaix’s next. Great stuff!

4. If you happen to be in Austin, Texas this weekend, head over to Kealing Middle School at 6:30pm for a re-enactment of the final race scene from the cycling classic, Breaking Away. It's a Rapha event commemorating the film's 30th anniversary. After the race, you and your cutter friends can head to a shop owned by a famous Austin cyclist for an awards party and film viewing.

5. This past week The Service Course posted a two-part interview with one of the former DS's from the ill-fated Mercury-Viatel team of 2001. Given the drama that's been surrounding Astana lately, it provides a very candid inside view of one of the sport's more recent team collapses.

6. And finally, I need to give a great thank you to Chris from LockringNotIncluded for coming down for a ride and a cup of coffee last week. If you haven't been to his blog before, I think you'll quickly find it to be one of the most poetic you've ever visited. There's just something about his photography and text that cuts right to the core of why we ride. Give him a visit and share in his joy.

And now back to today's stage!