Catching Up with the Cycling Season
Being sick at home has one or two advantages, among them being able to catch up, at long last, on the hours and hours of cycling I had stored on the DVR so far this year.
In quick succession, I’ve worked my way through the Tour of California, Milan-San Remo (and Tirreno-Adriatico as a bonus), and the Criterium International. The Tour of California is a newish race (it debuted last year) with big $$$ behind it. Most amusingly, the major sponsor is Amgen, a company who lists among its premier products none other than EPO (erythropoietin), which has been the bane of cycling for nearly a decade now. At any rate, the ToC is a great race, featuring a raft of European pros mixed in with US pros combined with stunning California courses and scenery. This year was no exception, and though the sprinter to whom I have a vague connection (JJ Haedo of CSC, who is dating a rider for the team my friend sponsors, Victory Brewing) didn’t come through in the sprints as he did last year, US favorite Levi Leipheimer strutted his stuff to the field to take the win in a great race.
Milan-San Remo is the longest of the spring classics, stretching out over 183 miles! However, it’s never been a race that I’ve been all that interested in, especially viewing. After watching this year’s edition, I don’t really know what I was thinking … it was great! Exciting, unpredictable (other than that I knew who the winner was weeks before I watched it), and stuffed with late-race challenges and changes. Good stuff. In the midst of that coverage, they also tossed in a quicky highlight package of Tirreno-Adriatico, a fun early-season race that usually shows up a few people to pay attention to over the course of the season.
Finally, I caught the Criterium International, another race I’ve never paid much attention to, and another race that turned out to fun and interesting, if not very exciting, aside from the showing of a young Swedish cyclist who blew everyone away in the last-stage time trial.
Now it’s true that the Ronde van Vlaanderen was just this past weekend, but really — 12 hours of cycling coverage is enough for one week, even for me! Will catch that coverage soon, though, before Paris-Roubaix hits this weekend! It’s good, actually, to be excited about the sport again, after last year’s extravaganza of suckitude.
