Chapeau!

Hats off to the week’s best riders.

I know all of you have been waiting for this all week but here is your midweek Chapeau!.  Now featuring the contre-performance, or disappointing performance of the week

Un coup de chapeau a Tom Boonen. This is our weekly Tom Boonen is a beast installment. Boonen is on form. ‘Nuff said. I am really pumped to watch him face off against Cancellara on Sunday. Epic and Massive!

Un coup de chapeau a Cadel Evans. Evans was great at the Criterium. He showed that he is on pace in both the TT’s and the climbs. This was huge for BMC as it was the super-team’s first win of the season. Cadel seems to know exactly how to prepare himself for the Tour and has to be with Twiggo as the favorite to win the Tour.

Un coup de chapeau a Sylvain Chavanel. (I guess) Gregario Forza’s favorite rider looked great at the Three Days of De Panne. Once a necessary training ground for the Tour of Flanders, De Panne did not feature many of the big names but Chavanel loves this race and he loves to win it. He is my pick to win Flanders this year.

Un coup de chapeau a Omega-Pharma Quickstep. This team is el fuego. Boonen, Chavanel, and Terpstra have all been recent winners and this team has already doubled their wins from last year. Amazing! Look for Chavanel to get in a sneaky break and hold on to win Flanders, while Boonen and Cancellara duke it out for the strongest man in the world award. The tactics practically set themselves up for this race.

Contre-performance.  The weeks disappointing performance goes to… drumroll…. Team Radioshak-Nissan-Trek. This team looked completely absent from the Criterium International. Frank Schleck seems to be way behind his usual form for this time of year. Jens Voight was unable to win for sixth time. Kloden? Haas anyone seen Kloden? I’m looking for Kloden. Oh and Andy Schleck still sucks.