Monday, March 24, 2014

The Broom Wagon

...cleaning up after the weekend of racing. 

Milan-San Remo
There can be only one!
Kristoff unleashes the krakken in San Remo

An impressive Alexander Kristoff takes the biggest win of his career.  Cancellera sprints to a second place finish while WFL riders Cavendish, Stybar and Sagan round out the top ten.

Friday, March 21, 2014

On the Rivet

...who's racing hard this weekend. 

Milan - San Remo
The Sunny Italian Riviera: 2013
The first Monument of the season is here!  100 big points are on the line this Sunday.  Here's a quick list of who we should be looking for.  

WFL Favorites

Gregario Forza:  Nibbles

Team Volpe: Cancellera

Team Wiskota Dynamic:  Sagan

Mailott Jaune Guillame:  Kreuziger

Le Pacte de Loups:  Thomas

STP Greenline-Unobtanium: Van Avermaet

Taco:  Degenkolb

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

The Broom Wagon

...cleaning up after the week's racing.


La Ronca Takes Nice
It's all about the brown shorts
Pistolero Takes Tirreno
"I'm coming for you FrommeDogg"

Points, Points, Points.  Most teams (sorry Volpe) made a big jump in points last week as the WFL sent tons of riders to the all important week long stage races that mark the start of spring. 

 "The Race to the Sun", with it's new course saw "more aggressive" riders go for overall victory.  Stage wins and time bonuses were the name of the game as there was no TT or high mountain finish.  Perfect race for a climby puncheur with a finishing kick.  Carlos Betancur took advantage of a beneficial course and a strong team (that's right AG2R, a strong team) to take home the biggest win of his young career.  The sky is the limit for La Ronca.  Wondering why Betancur is nicknamed the raspy voiced woman?  Of course you were.  Click here and wonder no more.  

"The Race of the Two Seas" had a star studded lineup this year.  Froome dropped out as did Porte half way through.  However, that should not take away from Alberto Contador's dominant climbing performance.  Pistolero is back and showed some classic panache with an attack from 30 K to go, dropping the likes of Nairo Quintana on the penultimate climb.  If you haven't seen the end of this stage and it's 30% gradients you gotta check it out.  Also, Greg you should totally buy this T-Shirt.

All in all, there were plenty of points to be had.  Le Pacte de Loups was a big winner with Contador racking up huge points.  It could have been even bigger had Geraint Thomas not crashed out of Paris Nice. Team Dirty Sanchez's moved out of the basement with the help of 6 different rider's scoring including such legendary Taco rider's as Fuglsang and Degenkolb.  Wiskota Dynamic had a good week as well to retain the overall lead.  The biggest losers are Volpe, who has dropped to the bottom of the charts and Forza who just can't seem to keep the pace.  

Look for Gregario's "Chapeau" later this week as well as a preview of the first of the five Monuments, Milan-Sanremo. 

Monday, March 3, 2014

The Broom Wagon

... cleaning up after the week's events. 


The Classics Have Begun
The Season of the Strong Men

This weekend the classics got under way with the racing of the first cobbled classic of the season, the Omloop het Niewsblad.  Bill came up big with the huge Englishman Ian Stannard pulling off an impressive diesel style sprint.  He went super early and GVA just couldn't come around.  Lots of people picked up minor points here as WFL riders took the top 5 spots.  

It's recreation time!

The sprinters classic of Kuurne - Brussels - Kuurne ended with a group sprint as Quick step shredded the peloton on the few early hills and used their power to stay away until the end.  Boonen's sprint was all but a formality even with a speedy Moreno Hofland making a valiant effort.


A few crashes marked the beginning of the classics season. Most notably for BMC.  Both Thor and Phinney had injuries but both should be just fine.  Despite how bad it looks. 

Phinney continues to earn his stripes

The Classica de Almeria was also this weekend.  Only one WFL rider managed to score points here.  But it should be noted that those 5 points from Tiago Machado were enough to boost Eric the Neo-Pro past Gregario Forza into 4th place overall.