Monday, January 26, 2009

Under down under

Just for the record, here are the final five finishers in the 6-stage 2009 Tour Down Under:

Sergio De Lis (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 1.02.22119
Pablo Urtasun (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 1.02.46120
Andoni Lafuente (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 1.02.50121
Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Team Columbia - High Road 1.04.26122
Ivan Dominquez (Cub) Fuji-Servetto 1.23.14

So we have a Cuban Lanterne Rouge! I'll bet they don't get many of those in Australia.

We've seen Eisel around the back of the peloton a few times before. Good luck to all the riders this season - it promises to be a great one for us spectators!

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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Tour Down Under

Yes, of course I'll be watching too on Versus. I just looked up the schedule and thought I'd post it just in case anyone else needs it. I have no idea what time zone this refers to, however - best guess is EST. I hope the second broadcast doesn't conflict with the Obama inauguration because I don't have TiVo!

1/18/2009 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm TOUR DOWN UNDER
1/20/2009 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm TOUR DOWN UNDER
1/21/2009 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm TOUR DOWN UNDER
1/22/2009 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm TOUR DOWN UNDER
1/23/2009 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm TOUR DOWN UNDER
1/24/2009 3:30 pm - 4:00 pm TOUR DOWN UNDER
1/25/2009 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm TOUR DOWN UNDER

It's been fun following Lance's Twitter feed and photo updates of his training on the Big Island. Yes, I'm very envious!

But I won't spend much time on covering his comeback here, just as I don't cover other race leaders and celebrities (they get plenty of coverage elsewhere), unless he ends up in the Lanterne Rouge position one day this year. I'd love that, it might bring a lot of attention to this little lonely niche blog here!

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Thursday, January 08, 2009

Piepoli's regrets

Former 3-stage Lanterne Rouge, Leonardo Piepoli, has expressed his regrets at his "unconscionable" doping at the Tour de France, and calls it "one time in a career full of sacrifices".

I suppose that he answered the "WHAT WAS HE THINKING!?!??" questions as well as any of them. He didn't include the part about "I thought they couldn't detect it", though. At least he 'fessed up after being caught. Although I, like many, have lost all patience with any rationales whatsoever, particularly those bleeding with self-pity.

Did you personally apologize to the clean cyclist who finished behind you, whom you robbed of his chance for the glory of a Tour de France stage win, Mr. Piepoli?

Just for the record, to give the other riders their due, here's the order of finishers (to be revised in the record books) that fateful day Piepoli won the stage. Would Cobo Acebo have beat Frank Schleck for the day without Piepoli's doping-assisted draft? I doubt it.

2008 Stage 10, Pau to Hautacam
1.PIEPOLI L. SDV 4h 19' 27"
2.COBO ACEBO J. SDV 00' 00"
3.SCHLECK F. CSC 00' 28"
4.KOHL B. GST 01' 06"5.

Cobo Acebo will probably go on record as the stage winner. But it should certainly be noted that Schleck has also come under suspicion, and Kohl doped. It goes on and on.

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Thursday, January 01, 2009

Thanks to the tireless

Our heartfelt gratitude goes out today to the tireless folks at Trust But Verify, which closed up shop yesterday, after 2.5 years of providing and sifting mind-boggling detail on the Floyd Landis case.

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