Place your bets

It's Springtime. That means Milano-San Remo is here and the start of my picks for the big one day races. Like last year I will be limiting who I can select. Riders that have finished top 10 in the last 5 years are off limits.

As I often do, I will start with a few statistics.
- Thirty-five riders have finished top 10 at San Remo in the last five years.
- Of those thirty-five, five are active riders that are not on the start list.
- Another eleven riders are no longer racing.
- That leaves only 19 riders in Saturday's race that have finished top 10
- Oscar Freire would normally be an odds-on favorite if he were not injured. He has been top 10 each of the last 5 years.
- Petacchi is the next most successful rider with four top 10s, followed by Boonen and O'Grady with three top 10s

Now for the picks in no particular order.

Daniele Bennati - seems to be the pick of many
Heinrich Haussler - probably a little inexperienced but he's had a good year
Giovanni Visconti - this is a late choice by me. I figured I would take a chance on more of an all-arounder that might make an early move to outwit the sprinters.
Wildcard pick - I was going to pick Hincapie before switching to Visconti. I dont think Cavendish will be there at the end and George will be able to ride for himself. He seems to have good legs right now.

Beware the Ides of March?

Frankly, the Ides did not frighten me at all. Yesterday's Forest Park race was the kick off to my road season after being unable to attend Froze Toes and bailing out of Tues Nite because of the potential rain.

My lower back was feeling a little fatigued after helping with course setup earlier in the day but, in general, I felt well enough to do some work. After a pretty awful year last year, I just wanted to contribute a little to the team effort. Getting my old bones moving took a few laps but I gradually moved up jumped on a few wheels and closed down a couple breaks that the team had missed out on. Solid, if unspectacular, work. The downside was getting shuffled back in the pack with three to go and not lending a hand in the finale.

The backside of the course seemed strangely slow. There was a tailwind and that uphill can only be called, in the grandest terms, a false flat. The team did well with a 3rd and a 9th and a couple primes so the folks got to split a little money and nobody stabbed a teammate in the back like Brutus.

Hot racing.

A very surprising day at Tirreno-Adriatico. Not only did Tyler Farrar win but he came around Cavendish in the sprint. Maybe Cavendish started a little early but how many times has someone come around Cavendish in the sprint? Does not seem that happens often and Farrar made it look relatively easy.


Contador stamped his authority at Paris-Nice on the mountaintop finish at La Montagne de Lure. The final ascent made for some good racing that this video doesn't show because the decisive moves had already been made.

Jens Voight started the action but a small group led by Contador bridged up. Contador kept the pressure on and soon only Schleck and Sanchez could keep the pace. The amazing thing was the way Contador broke the race open. Normally, he has these incredible surges while dancing out of the saddle. Today he sat on the front, followed by Schleck and Sanchez. Then, all of a sudden, he simply rode away. He didn't even seem to attack. I'd say Schleck popped but Sanchez had nothing either and just sat on Schleck's wheel. He looked like a mini-Ullrich or Indurain.

New saddle

For the last couple years I have rideen atop a Selle San Marco Rolls. The Rolls was a saddle of, shall we say, substance. It's sides drooped down like the ears of an African elephant making it look much larger than it really was.


A few weeks ago I noticed a small tear along the side of the nose. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to experiment and try something new. The Rolls was reasonably comfortable but I figured it was time to give an anatomically cut saddle another try and I had been intrigued by the Selle SMP.


So, today I installed the new saddle. Compared to the Rolls, it looks like the saddle is missing. I spent a little time this evening trying to get the set up right and my first impressions are positive. A few hours on the road will be the true test.

Monte Paschi Eroica

I wish we could see more of this new classic. This race reeks of awesomeness. You have hills, gravel, and destruction of the peloton. What's not to like?

Here are the final 20 or so kilometers. With a few cut out along the way.

First video is 14 minutes, second video is 16 minutes.

The other day I was going through a drawer that contains a bunch of old papers, magazines, etc. Much of the contents are cycling related. I began leafing through the items and ended up taking a trip down memory lane and being reminded how much racing has changed in since I started in 1993.

Maybe the most striking fact was that there even was paperwork to sift through and reminisce. This was a time when there was no internet for the general public. You did not go to websites for race information. Online registration was non-existant. Races were publicized through snail mail and flyers in bike shops. Also, in this part of the country, when you became a member the USCF (there was no USA Cycling) you began to receive a small magazine called Midwest Flyers.

Calling Midwest Flyers a magazine is being generous, but it did not set out to be anything fancy like Architectural Digest. The first two years I raced, it consisted of approximately 20 pages of black print on white paper.


Then in 1996, the paper became more like a newspaper and color cover photos were added.

Inside was a handful of small ads but the bulk of pages were just what the name advertised... race flyers.


One of the striking things was entry fees. Most entries were around $15-$20, with some of the higher categories paying a bit more at some races. This was also the time of late fees if you did not mail your money about 1 - 1.5 weeks ahead of time. Thank goodness that indidious little $5 or $6 charge has gone the way of the Dodo bird.

Midwest Flyers was not just race flyers. Several races sent in a few pages of race results. Old race results are sometimes interesting because of the names that moved on to bigger things and reached a certain level of fame. On the other hand, you see the names of Average Joe's like me that are still see fighting the good fight on the weekends.

Then there are the guys that were just getting started like Dan Schmatz as Cat 4.


And check out these results. That's right, Steve Ward finished 5th and 10th. Just kidding. The obvious names are a couple future professionals, Saxo Bank's Jason McCartney and Garmin's Christian Vandevelde, racing as younsters. McCartney was about 19 1/2 yrs old Vandevelde was just shy of his 18th birthday.