From the Commish

Transfer Period #1

Chipo won't be racing...or will he? 

It's time for the first transfer period of the season.  The classics are done and it's time for the grand tours.  The transfer window will be opening Monday, May 1st at 8 am and closes Thursday the 4th at Midnight. Get your squad set for the Giro, we'll have another transfer period again before Le Tour.  So, drop the dead weight and add some riders who are actually racing.  Not sure who's racing?  Check the startlists at cycling fever, you can use the link under "Upcoming Races".   If you want to make a transfer just state who you are dropping and who you are picking up in the comments section of this post.  The Wiskota leader board is especially close this year and it's anybody's game.  Go for it, get involved!  Wiskota!

The Broom Wagon

...cleaning up after the week's racing

Valverde Wins Everything!

Balaverde lets the arrow fly for a record fifth time

So, technically he hasn't won everything but he has dominated the early stage races and made winning in the Ardennes look easy, ringing up double digit victories in the process and its only April.  Obviously Valverde is our top Wiskota performer in the Ardennes, but a few others deserve mention.  Since winning San Remo, Kwiatkowski (The Quiet One, Kwiat1™) has earned himself two classics podiums as well as a top ten at Fleche.  He looks on pace for a career season.  Tim Wellens has attacked again and again, earning himself little to no points but the admiration of some, but not many.  GVA is still racing and managed a top ten at Liege, that's kind of nuts seeing as he ways about 30 pounds more than Valverde.  Speaking of lighter guys, Sergio Henao continues a strong season with a podium at Fleche and a high finish at Liege after animating much of the race.  Danny Boy Martin may be right that if he wants to win in the Ardennes again he may have to wait until Valverde retires, despite this truth he has some very respectable results as well.  Perhaps now he knows how Purito felt.  Bardet and Yates continue to show promise and Ion Izaguirre looks like he'll be in the mix for years to come.  Lastly, the Wiskota blog has to give a shout out to Rory Sutherland, the Chillcoot Allstar, for all of his work at Movistar.  Many of us stood inches away as he repeatedly destroyed the competition in Stillwater.  Nowadays he is routinely found first at the front of a chasing peloton and later celebrating on a victorious team bus.  

Keep pulling Rory

Next up, Romandie.  But don't forget the Giro starts May 5th and our first transfer window opens up May 1st.  WISKOTA!

The Spokes Man

...talking points from the Commish

Greips

I've got a few things to gripe about

The Commish is introducing a new segment inspired by Gregario Forza, our beautiful yet frustrating sport, and Andre Greipel.

- Will I never be able to watch races live in HD on my TV?

- NBC Sports Gold crashed during Paris-Roubaix, the worst.

- Valverde wins every race, can someone else get in the mix.

- A few of my favorite riders are on Sky, and Sky is lame.

- I gave up GVA and he leads the league in scoring

- I'm not fast enough to keep up with the rest of Team Wiskota

- Sagan whines about being good

- No Stannard results on the cobbles and Geraint doesn't even ride them anymore, thanks Sky

- I'm going to have to buy another weird streaming thing in order to watch the Giro

There it is.  The inaugural Greips post.  I would like to pair it with a similar, only positive, based post.  I am still trying to come up with a title.  If you have a suggestion, let me know.

The Broom Wagon

Classic

The cobbled classics have wrapped up and we have already begun the hillier one day races of the Ardennes.  This season has left us with no shortage of action, in fact it has been one of the better starts to the season in recent memory (more on that in a later post).  Others have won races as well, but there have been two names to dominate the classics so far:  Van Avermaet and Gilbert.  

Almost tastes as good as the Paris-Roubaix brunch

GVA kicked off the cobbled classics by destroying Sagan in an Omloop sprint finish.  Only to fully break Sagan's spirit a few weeks later in Gent.  In the mean time he out muscled his former frenemy Gilbert at E3.  A second place in Flanders foreshadowed his hugely impressive Paris-Roubaix victory.  This guy is crushing it and leads the Wiskota league with over 1300 points.

You earned that crisp european lager

It appears that Jill Bear read my pre-season post about solidifying his legacy.  He said he was going to win Flanders and then he went out and did it.  In spectacular fashion nonetheless.  High placings in several other races and most recently a win in Amstel has PhilGil as our 3rd best scorer with just over 1100 points.  Unfortunatly, we will not get to see more of him in the Ardennes as he crashed in Amstel and lacerated his liver or some crazy shit.  Yup, crashed, damaged an internal organ, got up and beat Kwiatkowski in a  sprint. Panache.