The Broom Wagon

Cleaning up after the weekend's events.

Thus wraps up an amazing week and a half of racing, two world class stage races with all kinds of excitement.  Both races came down to the final time trial.  Wiskota Fantasy had a lot of riders racing last week with a lot of points at stake.  A few of our director sportifs came away from the races looking pretty good. 

The big winner of the week has got to be Greg.  Luis Leon Sanchez was a disappointment in GC for Gregario at Paris-Nice.  However, he did nab a stage win besting crowd favorite Jens Voigt.  Was the 6 points worth angering cycling fans everywhere?  Well a point is a point, but LL just lost some fans.  Earlier in the week Sanchez tested his mettle against Valverde on a steep finishing climb.  Sanchez was defeated, yet he limped over the line in fifth earning Greg 1 single point.  We laughed at Greg’s lil one point but by Tuesday afternoon tables had turned and in major way.  I’m talking 233 more points!  Tirreno-Adriatico!  Gregario dominated the Italian race, placing first and second with Nibali and Horner respectively.  A sneaky Scarponi came in 7^th and earned Greg 31 extra points.  Horner answered the questions about his fitness after a long break.  Also, he takes the early lead in the battle of the old little american climbers, but we'll get to Levi later.  Nibali was flat out impressive.  Winning a tough climbing stage and doing much better in the TT than expected.  Nibali will be a force in the Giro and maybe Le Tour.   Greg’s team deserves a lot of credit, but right now I am too jealous to talk about it anymore.

If it wasn’t for Greg’s epic run at Tirreno, we would be talking about Bill the Neo Pro as the big winner this week.  Bill had riders in the running for GC in both races.  Roman Kreuziger showed that he was a great late round pick coming in third at Tirreno.  It looked as though he might have had a shot at winning the whole thing, but the final TT proved to be too much for the man from Astana.  Yet he still earned Bill 78 solid points. He climbed well, look out for him later this year at the Giro.  Bill’s number one pick, Bradley Wiggins earned his money this week winning the final TT at Paris-Nice and with it the overall GC win.  Wiggo looked great earning his team a whopping 112 points.  Super-fast in TTs and able to pressure his rivals in the climbs.  If this keeps up he may truly be a tour contender.

It was an up and down week for Team Wiskota Dynamic p/b Laterne Rouge.  My team looked rather dominant for the first 5 days of Paris-Nice.  Lil Levi Leipheimer started with a good time trial and looked strong throughout.  As we came to the penultimate stage it seemed as though he just needed to ride along and then make a push on the final day TT.  A podium seemed wrapped up and being 6 seconds back, who knows maybe a win.  Well, that all went to hell on the decent into Nice.  Three crashes, the second dropping him behind and the third into a parked motorcycle ended all hope for Levi.  And with that crash 80 points went down the drain.  On the other hand the Green Bullet was amazing, snatching a stage from LL Sanch and having a surprisingly strong TT to finish 3^rd, solid points.  I came in to Tirreno thinking I could get some sprint and stage points.  JRod snuck out a 6^th place finish as well as a sweet stage win earning me an unexpected 46 points.  Peter Sagan looked like the strongest rider all week.  He won a stage and consistently finished high, yet that only gets me 9 points.  A few stage points from Levi, Greipel and Farrar and all together not a bad showing.  But I just can’t get over that crash on Saturday.

Slow week points wise for Patrick and Mike.  Patrick got a stage win early and late.  Boonen won the sprint in a super exciting stage two at Paris-Nice.  Windy, rainy day they broke the race open on the second day.  Boonen looks tough and he may be a favorite at Milan-San Remo.  Cancellera took the final TT at Tirreno earning Pat another quick 6.  Cavendish continues to get Mike points winning a stage at Tirreno before bitching out mid-week.  Thor had a high stage placing eeking out a single point.  Look for these four riders to earn big points next Saturday.