Broom Wagon

Cleaning up after the week's events...

Tour of California

TVG finally takes home a stage race win.  

I won a stuffed bear!

Team Wiskota Dynamic cleaned house with the two leading points earners at the ToC.  TVG racked up the overall GC as well as plenty of stage points along the way.  Peter Sagan only managed to win two stages but with some other high placings still brought home a pretty sizable point total.  Even Chava managed to score two 8th place finishes chipping in his 4 points.  All in all, it is pretty clear who dominated this race.  However, the efforts of the other teams should not be overlooked.  The much maligned Tyler Farrar made the Commish eat crow as he took his first stage of the season and managed to get several more podium finishes throughout the week.  Speaking of high finishes, Thor cast his hammer back into the fast man conversation with several top ten finishes.  Is this the beginning of a resurgence for Farrar and Thor?  Just in time for Le Tour?  Taco hopes so. Gregario Forza's hard to define rider, Lieuwe Westra, brought in a respectable 44 points winning stage one and finishing second in the TT.  The ToC seemed a little different this year, different lineup, different course.  What did you think?  Better or worse?

Mick Rogers came in second, scoring 92 points.
Too bad nobody drafted him...wait, what?

Almanzo 100

Team Wiskota will be represented once again in the great gravel race of southern Minnesota, the Almanzo 100.  Come on down to Preston by 11 AM to cheer team Volpe director Patrick on to victory.  Patrick looks to improve upon his impressive 7 and a half hour time from last year.  Volpe just may to be hiding some sneaky early season form, so come on down and have some fun.

This tough son of a bitch drove 40 miles
through a blizzard in order to save his town
from starving.  You can make it 100 on a bike.

UPDATE:

Patrick posted a new personal best time of 6 hours and 38 minutes.  Pretty hard core.  Slightly less hard core than the dude who rode the course on a fixie only pulling over to have a couple slugs of whiskey, but Patrick beat that guy so I guess it about evens out. 

On the Rivet

Tour of California Preview

Remember these guys?  Well they're too old now.
Neither rider will be returning to this year's ToC,
opening the door for the next generation of riders.  

It's a special time of year when pro cycling finally makes it's way across the pond onto the sunny shores of California.  Gone are the 5 in the morning start times, gone are crappy pirated feeds; to be replaced by happy hour finishes shown in crystal clear HD.  Sure the ToC still isn't the Giro or even Paris-Nice but we still get some real legitimate talent here.  It looks like another climby edition of the ToC but as we know it's only as hard as the riders want it to be.  Will they come out flying or will some of the chunkier riders be allowed to make it over the early climbs.  This year, as in the past, the race will probably be decided in two important stages; stage 6's TT and stage 7's mountain top finish.  The time trial has a wicked stinger at the end 3k straight up.  Will that climb be too long for a power TT guy like Chavanel or maybe just right for a climby TT guy like VanGarderen.  Either way the next day's stage finish on Mount Diablo (epic massive name, brah) will almost definitely determine the overall winner.  Don't miss that stage.  

Wiskota Riders to Watch

Cannondale sends their young euro duo to score some
California podium girls, I mean stage wins.   

The allure of California girls always attracts the best and brightest of the Peloton.  Cannondale looks to continue dominating stage wins with Eastern European power house Peter Sagan.  Sagan loves America and although he is not "from here" he does know how to spell in English.  This year he'll have the support of Taco's up and coming phenom Moreno Moser.  Probably to much climbing for Moser to challenge GC but you never know.

PhilGil hopes to ride triumphantly into San Francisco
in all of his rainbow glory

BMC brings one of the strongest teams to the ToC as they look to support the GC aspirations of TeeJay Van Garderen.

We are going to continue to call this guy TVG until the nickname sticks

Probably the biggest name in the fight for GC has to be Andy Schleck.  His season has been horrible, but with most of the big name climbers busy at the Giro this is a pretty good opportunity to turn it around.

I hope RadioShack ends up supporting the guy on the left.
Matt Busche has local ties as well as a sneakily impressive palmares in the States.

Not to be forgotten are Thomas DeGendt and Lieuwe Westra.  Will they be riding hard or getting practice for Le Tour.  Another story to follow is that of Tyler Farrar.  Can he win a sprint against mostly second tier sprinters.  The Commish thinks not and looks forward to mocking him.  Lastly, my favorite storyline to watch for involves a former WFL rider.  Former ToC champ Mick Rogers was recently dropped by point strapped Gregario Forza instantly making him one of the favorites to win.  

Predictions

WFL Podium:

TVG

Westra

DeGendt

Spoilers:

Busche

Rogers

Mancebo

Giro Update

Cav

Dude, your wife's watching.
Cavendish takes stage 1 and with it the Pink Jersey

Sky

SkyNet Activate
The well oiled Sky train took time out of everybody at the TTT.
Sports Science

Paolini

Luca gets away for a stage 3 victory.
This comes as no surprise to those who follow The Commish @TeamWiskota
Also, dude likes his new helmet.

Some guy I've never heard of

Live it up, Bro

Degenkolb

It's got to be the mustache. Still popular in Italy.
Taco's sprinter is starting to pay dividends with a stage 5 win.

It's been an action packed Giro so far.  The top 5 favorites are all still close together and should remain so until the first individual time trial this weekend.  Wiggo has been attacked numerous times, but was only gapped on a messy crash filled finish.  However, Nibbles and Hesjedal have made up for any time lost in the TTT already.  One of the highlights so far has been the attacks on the descents as well as the sprint efforts by GC contenders for precious bonus seconds.  Loving the race so far and would love to hear your opinion on it.

Also, this happened

Team Time Trial Recon

Ischia

In preparation for the 2013 Giro team time trial the Commish traveled to the isle of Ischia to scope the finish for Team Wiskota Dynamic.  

The route

The teams finish in the city of Forio on the far side of the Island of Ischia.  Although, time trials are usually not the most exciting of stages, this stage promises to be extremely beautiful.

The Soccorso Church, a stone's throw from the finish line

Looks like this guy could climb the Stelvio

Team Sky is the favorite for this TTT, but with many twists and turns we could see a surprise.  Look for Astana and Movistar to post good times, while Phinney may just single handedly power BMC to victory.

Giro Preview

Italia!

The Stelvio Looms

The first grand tour of the season is finally upon us.  This is where WFL points flow like Peroni and victory is as sweet as cannoli.  The mountain stages are as satisfying as lasagna and the sprint stages are as hot as penne arrabiata.    

The WFL brings all kinds of riders to the Giro including the consensus top 5 contenders.

Maillot Jaune Guilaume will be sipping Negronis as Bradley Wiggins attempts to win his first Giro d'Italia.   The overall favorite brings a strong team and is emboldened by the amount of TT miles in this year's race.  Bill may have to wash those Negronis back with some Morretti as his Italian hopeful Scarponi looks for another podium finish.

Gregario Forza is hoping to pop the Prosecco when his team leader Vincenzo Nibali takes the  Maglia Rosa in the mountains and never gives it back.  Forza made some huge moves during transfer season as he has a lot of ground to make up.  Gregario will be knocking back happy hour Martini's as he gets to watch a taped HD presentation of the race every day.   We'll keep inviting ourselves over until he let's us join n the fun.  Forza also added a Basque and a Colombian rider (Intxausti and Betancur) proving that he knows that this race is won in the mountains.

Team Fujarky will be as loaded as his Giro squad when he celebrates all of his victories with shots of Sambuca.  Returning champ Ryder Hesjedal and perennial favorite Cadel Evans lead the Fujarky squad in what promises to be a tidal wave of Italian points.  With Henao and the addition of some solid transfer moves, Fujarky may end up laughing at all of us while he sips Bellini's under the Tuscan sun.

Dirty Sanchez's team director Taco should stock up on a case of Chianti as he brings his squad's namesake,  and overall contender, Sammy Sanchez to the Giro.  The Sanchez's could have benefited from some  transfer moves but team director Taco maintains his signature machismo style, preferring to reserve his panache for the nightlife of the Peacock lounge.  Team Wiskota's resident playboy lives the Giro d'Italia life while the rest of us watch it on our laptops.  Taco will be living La Dolce Vita as he washes down his bistecca with a few lemmoncello dessert shots, all while his sprinter Degenkolb racks up the Lira.

Team Wiskota Dynamic will need to carbo load on some parpadelle in order to keep pace with all of the favorites.  Gesink and the pluthera of other GC hopefuls Dynamic picked up should probably stick to the Pelegrino if they hope to score some top ten finishes.  As for the team director, I'll be sampling some Sangiovese as I watch Cobo and Team Movistar blow the peloton apart on the hills outside of Florence.

Team Volpe better fire up the espresso machine first thing in the morning so he can get as jacked up as his sprinter extraordinaire, Mark Cavendish.  Volpe looks to get all wrapped up in a bottle of Montepulciano as he'll be seeing red in more way then one when Cav makes his push for the Maglia Rosso Passione.  The points jersey is worth 75 points this season so Volpe may be using his Bianchi mafioso ties to encourage the race referee to look the other way as Cav hitches a ride in the high mountains.  When all is said and done, if Volpe can hang on to third place as well as Cav hangs on to his team car, he'll be cracking open some well deserved Peronis.

A few teams made some moves before the Giro and there are a lot of rider's who have gone unmentioned.  Check the startlist for your riders and don't forget to tune in to the most beautiful of grand tours.  Viva Italia, Viva Il Giro!    

Transfer Period #1

Transfer period is open as of 8 A.M. Monday. To make a transfer simply leave a comment. Transfer period closes at Midnight Friday night.

From the Commish

Heads up! Transfer period #1 begins on Monday.

Transfers begin at 8 A.M. Monday morning and go until Friday at Midnight.  The Giro starts Saturday morning.  Despite Greg's complaints the  transfer rules are clearly laid out in the blog here.  Take some time to supe up your team for the Giro, unless your Bill, then this would be the time you would want to drop Wiggo and Froome.  If you have any questions just leave a comment or text me.  

Danny Boy Martin Wins in Liege!

Steven the Neo-Pro Scores Big

So many potatoes!

Team Fujarky capped off a huge week with a win in the oldest of classics, Liege -Bastogne - Liege.  With a string of high finishes in the Ardennes Steven continues to move up the leader board.  There were some highlights (Kreuziger), some lowlights (Gilbert) and some nolights (Volpe), but all in all the Ardeness was not as decisive in the WFL as it could have been.  However, it was a fun week of racing and worthy of more discussion. I for one am looking forward to Gregario's annual wrap up.  Let's get the discussion going.

La Doyenne

Liege-Bastogne-Liege

What do you see?

If you answered a young woman then your mind is in the wrong place cause this weekend it's all about "La Doyenne".  The "old lady" is back again to test the climbing legs of the WFL classics riders.  It seems like everyone is here and they are all on form.  But why wouldn't they be?  Liege can make a career.  The oldest of all Monuments, Liege has an unparalleled history.  This year's race has a slightly altered course, but one thing we are coming to learn is that courses change, people bitch, time moves on and another course will take it's place.  So, will it be a whole different race without Falcon Rock?  Probably not, but a "less selective" course can lead to a more wide open race.  But another thing we are learning is that every course is selective if they go fast enough and that the riders not the course make the race.  As I said we have lots of riders here, every team is well represented.  It's hard to say whose team is the strongest. Do you go with quantity?  Team Fujarky has 6 riders here and all of them are contenders.  Do you go with past results?  Forza, Volpe and Taco all have past winners.  Or do you go with recent form?  Kreuziger, Nibali, Valverde, Dan Martin, Gerrans and JRod have all had recent victories or high finishes.  So how will it go down?

How it could go down:
Its a climby course and most of the peloton suffer early. Most that is except for the Colombians.  Henao and Uran hook up with a streaking Betancur and quickly put two minutes into the peloton.  In a pre race agreement Uran rides for Henao who sits on until the gap is cut to one minute.  He takes off and just stays away as the rest of the breakaway are swallowed up on the final climb.  Sky takes their first Monument.

How it might go down:
Its a climby course and most of the peloton suffer early.  The new course proves to be even less selective then many had suspected.  A fairly large group make it to the bottom of the last climb.  A few attacks are reeled back in and as they approach the finish it becomes clear that it's going to be a group sprint.  Gilbert goes way early and Valverde, Gerrans and Danny Martin have to open their sprint earlier than they would have wanted too.  Gerrans shows strong mnn roots pipping Gilbert right on the line.  The Aussies take their first Ardennes Monument.

How it will go down:
Its a climby course and most of the peloton suffer early.  With so many favorites in the race several teams take up the work and it's a fast race.  Early breakaways never really pose any threat.  The favorites are all protected as expected and most make it to the penultimate climb ready to rumble.  Who needs Falcon Rock?  The Sky train ramps it up to mach one and the peloton is blown apart.  Only a hand full of riders make it to the final climb.  Nibali goes and Gilbert leads the chase.  Henao, Martin, JRod and Valverde are the riders left to claw their way back into it.  Who has saved enough for the final turn?  The man with the most experience has sat on just enough.  Valverde takes yet another Monument.