Chapeau!

Wiskota Fantasy League riders have been out if full “forza” this week. Although riders were only scoring points in Oman, many riders were representing and laying the ground work for some wicked palmares. This week the real racing begins as the cobbled classics get rolling in Flanders with the Omloop and Paris-Nice is just around a lefthander.

Here’s your weekly tip o’ the hat.

Chapeau! to Chris Froome. Froome Dog won his first major stage race in Oman versus some very good competition. Froomey finished ahead of Evans and Contador, as well as besting Nibbles and Purito to take the climbers’ mid-east tour. The English Patient won stage five, was second on the Green Mountain stage, and had to counter attacks from Contador to hang on for the overall. This win was certainly a confidence booster for Froome as he continues to prepare for le Tour.

Chapeau! to El Purito Rodriguez. El Purito smoked his fellow contenders up the Green Mountain climb. Although he was maybe the benefactor of a Nibbles and Pistolero attack, Purito proved once again that he is one of the most explosive and crafty bike riders in the peloton. The reigning UCI points leader also received news that his Katusha squad will be allowed to race within the World Tour as the CAS has ruled in favor of the Russian squad. Team Wiskota Dynamic has had a great week!

Chapeau! to Peter Sagan. I’m scared of this dude. I think Sagan will get a big win this season in the form of one of cycling’s monuments. He’s just too good in a hard race. The Incredible Hulk won two stages in Oman and gave us a peek in to the type of form he will be harnessing in this year’s classics.

Chapeau! to Oman. The Tour of Oman was a really fun race to watch. Really quite beautiful and the racing was sublime. The big guns could hardly tame their early form and gave a very early glimpse of the future bouts to come. Chapeau! to Evans, Contador, Kittel, Bouhani and to a lesser extent, Nibali for some great racing in the hillier of the mid-east tours.

Chapeau! to Sergio Henao for winning stage 3 of the Volat ao Algarve. He won out of a select group of Team Forza rider’s including Westra and Rui Costa. Hey Now took the summit finish but couldn’t hold on for the overall.

Chapeau! to Tony Martin. Der Panzer took the final stage TT and the overall at the Algarve. A pattern I expect to see more of in 2013.

Chapeau! to Thor Hushovd for taking his first win since joining BMC and putting his disappointing 2012 season in the rear view mirror. It seems the big Norwegian is finally healthy and poised to return to his form where he will be a contender for victory in the cobbled classics. BMC has chosen Thor and GVA to represent at the Omloop, leaving Gilbert (2 time winner of Het Volk) at home to train for Paris-Nice. Can Thor lay down the hammer? Can he return to his old form that earned him a World Championship? Paris-Roubaix? The God of Thunder has returned!

Chapeau! to Filippo Pozzato who won from a four-man break in the Trofeo Laigueglia, Italy’s first race of the 2013 season. I don’t know anything about this race. I do know that this is a good sign for the Lampre-Merida rider. This just may be the year that the Italian bags a monument. Wheel sucker!

The “Schleck of the Week” goes to…. drumroll… the ever disappointing, Andy Schleck for dropping out of the Tour du Haut Var to continue not racing, or “training”, in Mallorca. However, the real Schlecker was Bradley Wiggins. The reigning Tour de France champion was not seen racing hard in Oman. He was “working” for Froome some twenty-two minutes behind the eventual winner. It seems that the rest of the major GTGC guys were testing their form against each other while Wiggo was still enjoying his yellow jersey, gold medal, dream-season that was 2012. Last year the dude won everything on his way to one of the greatest seasons of all time. I wonder if the “Commander of the Order of the British Empire” can find his form by the time the Giro kicks off. I personally like the “Shark of Messina” to get his revenge.

Forza!

Panache

Grab the coffee and settle in Team Wiskota Nation. The season is in full swing, as the Tours of the Middle East are coming to close and its almost time to circle you newspapers for some Het Volk, al’ a Omloop het Nieuwsblad. That means classics season is almost here.

O’man What a Race

If you haven’t been paying attention to this race, you should have. All the Grand Tour General Classification (GTGC) guys came to play in Oman; although Wiggins is only there for vacation. Contador and Saxo-Tinkoff had seemed to be the team to beat overall, but Froome Dog and his Team Sky compatriots have had different plans. However, it was Purito Rodriguez who lit up the Green Mountain Stage. Vincenzo Nibali has been left in the desert sands as he finished behind the proverbial big 3 on Stage 4 and even lost more time on stage 5. If Froome can hold on it will be his first World Tour stage race win. That just seems weird. The revelation of Oman was Rinaldo Nocentini. Sneaky points for Forza! Team Wiskota Dynamic continues to score deliberately as he will come out with at least 3 stage victories (Sagan 2, J-Rod 1) and a spot on the podium.

Taylor Phinney Time!

The Flanders Classics start next weekend in Belgium with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. This race is spectacular. It is definitely a hard man’s race and a great indicator for the rest of the classic’s season. This Flander’s classic includes past winners like Juan Antonio Flecha, Thor Hushovd, Phillipe Gilbert (2), Nicky Nuyens, and last year, a young Sep Vanmarcke got his first big mark in his young promising career. Check out the startlist on the homepage.

Paris-Nice is Nice but…..

A lot has been said about the difficulty of this year’s Paris-Nice but it seems that most of the WCL GTGC riders are going to ride the race of the two seas, Tirreno-Adriatico. Pistolero, Purito, Froome Dog, Sanchize, Cuddles, and the Shark from Messina a.k.a. Nibbles, are all lining up in Italy. It should be awesome. That leaves a lot of points for Voekler, Westra, Costa and Team Forza in France. I should mention that TVG, Fuglsang, Gesink, Basso, Talansky, Martin, Roche, and De Gendt will also be there.

So What Else is New

Check out the Giro di Italia videos on YouTube.  This year’s edition will be a terrific battle between Nibbs and Wiggs.

Commish- Have you seen the Basque Cycling Blog? All Euskadi, all the time. Awesome stuff from the Orange Army.

Innerring had an awesome piece on the sponsorship in procycling. As well as a piece on the French hotel accomadations.

If you don’t already, check out Pez Cycling on Mondays and Thursdays. The Euro trash is a great place to read quick headlines as well as watch race video.

I feel like we should start a Team Wiskota Fantasy Podcast. In the meantime check out Speed Metal Cycling Podcast, you can find it on iTunes or at the SkullKrusher’s blog.

Forza!

Schleck Quits Before He Starts

The Luxembourgian Reaches 300 Days without Finishing a Race

The pride of Team Volpe registered for the Tour du Haut Var just long enough to quit the race before it starts.  Andy showed a new level of commitment to his DNF streak by going out of his way to quit a race before the opening stage.   L'Equipe was quick to note the massive work put in by Schleck this week.  With this epic effort by Andy Schleck one can't help but be reminded of other great feats of sporting endurance such Cal Ripken's unforgettable streak.  Is Andy the Iron Horse of cycling?  

On the Rivet

A look at who’s racing hard this week…

 Tour of Oman

The big boys come out to play

It’s always hard to pick favorites in early season races as some riders come to win but many treat them as slightly more challenging training rides.  A sprinty race that can turn into a strong man race with a bit of wind Oman would be Qatar part two were it not for one major difference: Jabal Al Akhdhar. Cue the Middle Eastern throat singing here. The Green Mountain is a game changer and always determines the overall winner.  To be fair this race has several more hills than Oman but they rarely have much impact.  With the first stage in the books we have a few clues as to how this race will pan out.  Kittel took the first stage and is obviously going for sprint points.  None of the other WFL sprinters were up there with him, however, it should be noted that Phinney (The Big Phin, Shark Phin?) placed high and is showing some excellent early season form.  The other lesson we learned is that Wiggo isn’t going to race for much until the Giro, he is already over a minute down and thoughts have turned to his vacation, I mean, “training camp” in the Canary Islands.  So who are the favorites?  Velits won here last year and he is looking to snatch another victory early this year.  This could be a Sagan or Gilbert route, but the Green Monster tends to be just too tough a climb.  Look for the real climbers to take this one. Here are our riders.

Forza: Nocentini, Gilbert, Nibali

Fujarky: Evans, Contador

Dynamic: Sagan, Rodriguez, Velits,

Volpe: Boonen, Cancellera, Kittel, Phinney

Guillaume: Terpstra, Goss, Wiggins, Froome, Porte, Breschel

Taco: Van Avermaet, Degenkolb

Wiskota Podium Predictions:

Nibali, Contador, Velits

Chapeau!

             

 

The Sands have cleared and the results are in from the Tour of Qatar. What did we learn? BMC is good in the Team TT, Cavendish is super-fast, and Qatar is a flat, sandy place. The European Tour also kicked off with Etoile-Besseges, the Challenge Mallorca Series, and the Tour of Mediterranean. So here’s your weekly “tip of the hat, wag of the finger”.

Chapeau! to Mark Cavendish. The Manx Missile dominated the Tour of Qatar. Early on it seemed as though the race belonged to Team BMC but Cav won the final four stages, took the time bonuses and eventually the overall and the Golden Jersey. The “Fastest Man on Two Wheels” showed that he is still able to win a sprint without a lead-out, however the BoDog may disagree, and that OPQS, with the Dutch Champion, Niki Terpstra, aka the Terpinator, can provide a wicked train to the finish.

Chapeau! to BMC Team Time Trial Squad. BMC, under the leadership of the young American Taylor Phinney, were the fastest team in Qatar. Phinney continues to impress with his ability to TT and his ability to be a leader in only his second year on the Pro Tour. Look for this squad, with Phinney, to be in the Pink Jersey following the stage 2 TTT at the Giro. Discussion topic: Phinney nickname? Comments in the post below.....

Chapeau! to Brent Bookwalter. The “Librarian” took the first stage of Qatar and maintained his lead through stage 2 as part of the Phinney led BMC train. I always love when an American wins in Europe, er… Asia.

Chapeau! to Alejandro Valverde. Balaverde won his first race of 2013 at the Mallorca Challenge. He showed his strength by riding away from the field; certainly a promising sign for El Imbatido, Movistar, as well as Team Dirty Sanchez p/b Taco. Balaverde talked about starting this season off more slowly than last but this win shows that The Bullet is primed for another big year.

Chapeau! to Thomas Lofkvist. The man from Gotland won his first race since 2009 by being the most consistent along the southern coast of France. He did not win a stage but he was at the front every day, TT’d well enough, and took home the yellow polka-dotted leader's Jersey and the first win for the newly founded Swiss squad, Team IAM.

Others deserving of a “tip of the hat” include Leigh Howard for winning two of the Trofeo’s at Mallorca and Bryan Coquard, the Europcar sprinter, who won two stages at the Etoile-Besseges. Look out for the former U23 World Champion. He’s a quick one!

I am changing the week’s contra-performance to the “Schleck of the Week” in honor of the pride of Volpe, Andy Schleck. This dude is a joke! Tour de France, more like Tour de Farce! (pretty sure I got that from a Lance headline) Check back to the Team Wiskota homepage to watch the ticker grow as Andy has not won a race in 572 days and has not finished a race in 296. Epically, massively bad!

Forza!

 

Phinney Needs A Nickname

I'm just saying

The Broom Wagon

Cleaning up after the week's events...

Volpe rides the Missile to the top of the leader board!

From Worst To First

Cav celebrates the 3rd of  4 straight sprint victories

Team Volpe scored big in Qatar as Cavendish took home the second stage race victory of his career.  As predicted the team time trial split the field between GC hopefuls and stage hunters early in the week.  BMC's victory in the TTT looked to position Taylor Phinney for a GC run.  While Sky riders BoDogg and the Penguin spent most of the week looking for time bonuses for their sprint man Bernie Eisel (notorious snorer, by the way).  But in the end it was only stage victory time bonuses that mattered.  The Manx Missile took  four in a row adding to his lead and adding to Volpe's bank account.  The challenge to Cav's sprint dominance promised in the "On the Rivet" failed to materialize, as Degenkolb finished no higher than 6th on any stage.  Even with "HC" points only counting at 50% this season Volpe managed to rack up 151 points, 107 from the Manx man alone.  The lesson of Qatar: it pays to win outside of the World Tour.  

Andy Schleck Quits Again

Little Andy feels he deserves a rest after not finishing even the first stage of the Tour Mediterraneen.  Keep tabs on Team Volpe's wunderkind with Wiskota Fantasy League's new Andy Schleck ticker located at the top of the page. 

Panache

Winds of Qatar

The season has started and Team Wiskota Fantasy League riders have already been seen on the roads of Australia, Argentina, and now France as Etoile de Besseges has begun and kicked off the European season. Now we turn to the Middle East to watch the classics riders and the sprinters line up in Qatar and the puncheurs and grimpeurs head to Oman. Before we know it, Paris-Nice and the classics will begin. My fever is hot and it’s not the norovirus.

My favorite part of a new season is the speculation. I love hearing about the rider’s programmes, and talk of breakout riders. As a director-sportif in the WFL I am always scouting the future of cycling. Here's a look at 13 neo-pros for 2013. I personally like lil' Joe Drombowski. That dude looks like he's 12 and he will be flanking Sir Bradley Wiggins at the Giro. 2014 dynasty picks?

I also love the team presentations. A look at the new kits, new rides, and introduction to new riders. My favorite kit for 2013 is probably Omega-Quicksteps. Clean but not plain with a nice color scheme, cool championship kits, and now, twitter account names. Also check out Team IAM's kits, Heinrich Haussler will at least look good while under performing. I do love Gilbert's rainbow jersey and bike, I also love the changes made to Timmy Duggan's US championship kit.Way better than his Liquigas version.

One of the things that I both love and hate about the sport of cycling is that I am still learning and constantly deciphering the intricacies of the World Tour and pro cycling as a whole. I have been watching cycling since 2000. Like many Americans, I was drawn to the sport by Lance Armstrong, so my initial understanding of cycling was that the Tour de France was the be all, end all of this beautiful sport. Soon I was introduced to Paris-Roubaix, and the Epic Cycle Schedule featuring the Cyclism on Sundays thanks to OLN, Versus, and now the NBC Sports Network. Now, my spring and summer weekends are spent waking up before sunrise to stream a race that many have never heard of. I am constantly explaining to my Mrs. Forza, "this is the coolest race......, it's for the......., someday we need to go to........, look how beautiful it is". However it seems that I am still learning about new races, old races, the history, the tactics, and the structure. Have you ever tried  to explain the UCI World Tour to any one? How about to yourself? And it seems that more changes are underway. Bernard Eisel is a World Tour rider for Sky and he does not fully understand the World Tour. For a closer look at the confusing World Tour, read this. 

The Wiskota Fantasy League is a doper drama free zone but I do have  to note that Gregario Forza's Tour de France plans took a hit with Frank Schleck recieving a 1 year ban for having tested for a banned substance in his system. Back to the drawing board I guess.

 

Finally, I am looking forward to picking up some points at the Tour of Qatar. Eddy Bo Hag is gonna bag Team Forza some points in this one. I like Bo Hag to win it, Fabian second, and Flecha third. My guess is that Cav will win at least 3 stages but the strongmen will get into a split caused by an echelon and Bo Hag and Flecha will enjoy a free ride via Spartacus to the line. Classic.

Forza!

Chapeau!

The most familiar sight of 2013 TdU

Chapeau! to the Tour Down Under. Now featuring the corkscrew climb, which gives the riders another stage to gain time in the GC. If we could get a TT, this race would really be something to watch. That is if we could get a decent stream around here. 22 minutes of clips just don't do it. (contra-performance NBC?)

Chapeau! to the little shit upstart, Tom-Jelte Slagter. Not only did he win the TdU, dominate the 2 climbs, but this dude has the coolest nickname in the peloton: the Butcher. The Butcher slaughtered Geraint Thomas on Old Willunga and showed why some, including Gregario Forza, believes he may be the next Purito.

Chapeau! to Andre Greipel. The Grape Ape dominated the People’s Classic as well as won three stages in the TdU. I can’t wait to see Greipel’s train go up against Omega-Quickstep and the Manx Missile in this year’s tour. It seems that there is someone who can finally match Cav in the final 200. 

Chapeau! to Geraint Thomas. The Commish was seen looking like a wise old defending champ following the Corkscrew climb. Despite losing time to the Butcher on Old Willunga, Thomas fought back and cunningly grabbed intermediate sprint points and time to finish on the 3^rd step of the podium. I can’t wait to see what the Penguin, yes that is his nickname, can bring to the classics. I am hoping he will support Eddy Bo Hag as well as the Bo Hag supported him this last week. Take that Commish!

Chapeau! to Simon Gerrans. The puncheur from Melbourne won the Old Willunga stage and showed a glimpse of the form he brought in 2012. It will be hard to repeat that success but another classics win is very likely for this crafty rider. 

Chapeau! to Tejay  van Garderen. TVG placed highest among the World Tour favorites at the Tour de San Luis. TVG kept up with the Argentinian alpinists, TT’d well, and TVG’d his way to a spot on the podium. TVG lines up for Paris-Nice next and I’m betting he will show well in the race to the sun.

The season’s first contra-performance goes to Phillipe Gilbert. Let me start by saying that I know this is a bit of unnecessary whining. However, dude got me excited by talking about how well he would do Down Under. I also understand that he crashed and lost time in an event that he had no or little control over and went out on the attack in the rainbow jersey. But, what really grinds my gears is that when asked about Old Willunga he said,  

"I cannot fight for nothing, If was top 10, my race would be different because I would be more focused, I knew I was not in the battle anymore so it's hard to concentrate on it and to make sacrifices. You have to go deep and then when you're not in the race I cannot find the motivation for this." 

C’mon man! Some random guy has you on his fantasy cycling team and could have used 6 points. Find the motivation!

Forza!