Thursday, February 15, 2007

Coming This Sunday

Wow! The starters for the Tour of California were just announced. For a stage race that is celebrating only it's second anniversary, it is an amazing line up! Although he was retired for last year's event, I do believe this is the Lance-Effect on the landscape of American bicycle racing.

The Tour of California starts this Sunday, February 18th in San Francisco with a prologue. A prologue is a short stage (This one is only 1.9 miles long, whereas stage 13, a normal individual time trial, of the Tour de France is about 33 miles long) where the racers go individually trying to get the best time. Although rarely are there large time gains established, it can be very important from a psychological standpoint. It may allow a racer to display his dominance early on.

Here are some of the highlighted riders:
  • Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricole): Won two stages at 2006 TdF
  • Jens Voigt (CSC): Won stage 13 at TdF
  • Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank): King of Mountain winner 2006 TdF
  • Ivan Basso (Discovery): Winner 2006 Giro d'Italia
  • Paolo Bettini (Quick Step): 2006 World Champion
  • Fabian Cancellara (CSC): 2006 World Time Trial Champion
  • Dave Zabriskie (CSC): 2006 World Time Trial Runner-Up
  • George Hincapie (Discovery): 2006 U.S. Champion
  • Levi Leipheimer (Discovery): 2006 ToC King of Mountain winner
  • Bobby Julich (CSC): 2006 ToC third overall
The only bummer is that Team Discovery is currently looking for a sponsor for 2008 and beyond. The new leadership at the Discovery Channel has decided to end its sponsorship of the team after 2007. That always leads to distractions as there is a small part of each rider's attention focused on whether he will be racing for the team next year.

But enough of that...let's go racing!!! The Tour of California will be presented on a delay at OLN, uh, the Versus channel...

posted by LoneCactus @ 6:20 AM Comments: 0