April Fools

Rant o' the Day: You suck, Cycling.tv! I faithfully cough up $50 for your premium channel (which is still gonna hit me up for extra for the Vuelta and Giro, but I am so grateful for any scrap of play beyond crappy minimal US coverage I'm willing to suck it up, plus I digress) and conscientiously ignore any hint of other media coverage so I can happily watch the giant names swarm to the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen--and they do. So I watch O'Grady claw his way back from a monstrously ill-timed puncture all the way from the autobus to, ever so briefly, the breakaway, which is staffed by a stunning array of talent including but not limited to Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara ready to shepherd O'Grady to the sprint, and Philippe Gilbert, then Paolo Bettini smashes up the chase to nearly bridge to the leaders with a desperate then fading Oscar Friere on his wheel and O'Grady trying to pull his way back after Cancellara is obliged to leave him behind, the surging Bettini snaps his derailleur of all things in an utterly craptastic piece of luck and is suddenly gone entirely right as Boonen might've used the teammate, we're five kilometers out and what happens? Right, the coverage stops *absolutely* dead, a Zipp commercial pops up, and that's it! *5 freakin' kilometers* from the line you clowns!! Y' *think* we might've been interested in watching the outcome after two hours of surprising drama? Of course, Boonen was gonna take the sprint--but not if Cancellara was able to make a break for it and time-trial up to the finish--not that I was there to watch and wait for it, goons!

Joseba Beloki Contract Watch: no, but !@#$% Michele Scarponi of !@#$$% Liberty Seguros took the overall at Coppi e Bartali--as did @#$%^ Alberto Contador of !@$%$% Liberty Seguros the overall at Vuelta a Castilla e Leon. !@#$*!, Saiz, how can you stand yourself?!
!@#$*!!

First Scene Here: So I'm at the Beanpot Criterium today sizing up the US stars of tomorrow, and the Woman of the Day at least for sheer tenacity was the unknown (to me) rider from Williams, who fairly promptly fell well off the back of the lead group of nine then, as everyone else got lapped and pulled out, stuck it out all alone, and at a damned steady pace at that, for the 15 or 20 or so laps until, and through, the finish and her sweet top 10 spot in the stats. Right on sister, whoever you are!

Fast Track: Finally, I note that the late Isaac Galvez' partner Juan Llaneras paid a beautiful tribute to his mate by taking the points championship at the Worlds, and Olympic champ Anne Mears smoked not only the rest of the field, but also her own world record by a handsome margin, in the 500 meters. That, and in a completely unrelated road race, Jens Voigt took the GC at the Criterium International after taking a quite fine 7th in the time trial. We love Jens!