The Broom Wagon

Blog posts have dramatically slowed with the beginning of summer break.  Normally just a diversion at work, summer blogs require a little more concerted effort.  Well, we'll keep'em coming as long as people keep reading them.
The last few weeks saw the completion of the two big Tour tune up races.  Great race's in there own right,  the Dauphine and the Tour de Suisse provided lots of high def action for our viewing pleasure.  Let's recap how our Wiskota team riders did.

Dauphine

Bill the neo pro's strategy of drafting GC riders is really starting to pay dividends.  At the time I thought his pick of Wiggins may have been a bit high.  i could not have been more wrong.  Wiggo won another stage race racking up 111 points for Bill.  If this form keeps up we may not be able to refer to Bill as the neo-pro for much longer.  Froom scored points as a high GC finisher and Tony Martin added a few with a high TT finish.  In the end Bill racked up 176 points.  The clear winner at the Dauphine.

Nipping at his heels was Team Volpe and namely, Cadel Evans who animated the race all week.  82 points from a high GC and an exciting stage win, yet the discussion was about his less than stellar TT.  Will he improve for the Tour.  Van den Broeck added points with his GC performance and Bo Haug (Bo Dogg?) even snatched a stage win.  140 points for Volpe.

Team Wiskota Dynamic saw the premier of there two new riders, Menchov and Brajkovic.  Menchov was silent without the assassin.  Brajkovic stayed in contention with a solid TT and good climbing earning the team all of their 30 points.

The Dauphine was a disapointment for both Gregario Forza and Miguelito Indurain.  Sammy Sanchez crashed early on but managed to finish the week out.  However, no points here.  Forza brought 5 riders to the race and not one managed to earn any points.  Biggest disappointment? Probably, Nibbles.  This was a forgettable race for these teams.

Suisse

Miguelito Indurain scored some much needed points at the tour de Suisse.  Frank Schleck continues to prove that he is the better Schleck attacking in the mountains and securing a 2nd place overall.  Gesink keeps improving his TT skills and his high GC finish has many, including myself, marking him as a Tour contender.  147 points for Mikey.

Gregario's recent pickup has finally started scoring points this season.  Lil Levi Leipheimer wheel sucked his way to a podium placement.  If his TT can get back to where it was he may be able to wheel suck his was back to a Tour podium.

It took three riders to for Dynamic to try to make up for the loss of Levi.  Sagan keeps kicking ass and scoring double digit points in every race he enters.  Tommy D scored a top ten finish and had a chance for a better result but apparently Frank doesn't like to work with anyone but his brother.  Valverde sacrificed a higher finish for his teammate Rui Costa's overall victory, this should be repaid at Le Tour.

Volpe welcomed new race Roche with a tenth place finish.  Unfortunatly, that is only worth 4 little points.  Cancellera came in 2nd in the TT to a suprisingly fast Peter Sagan.  12 points overall for Volpe.  Not gonna catch Dynamic with finishes like that.

A child is screaming at the library and my wife, rightly, wants to go so I will wrap up quickly.  Bill the neo-pro scored 40 with Kreuziger who was dropped on the biggest climb and then allowed to get back into the main group because riders like Levi wouldn't pull.

Great result for Rui Costa.  If I had a picture of me holding his TdF stage win trophy I would put it in now.