Somewhere under the rainbow

Rainbows mean different things to different people - pots of gold, fortune in health, better weather - in Australia the aborigines of many clans believe the rainbow is one of two totemic spirits under which you are born, maybe for Aussie pro cyclist Cadel Evans 2010 under the rainbow jersey will be his attitudinal and personal rebirth.

Honestly, I can't say he is my favorite cyclists, in fact, he is one of my least favorite; every time I see that whiny face I want to heave my GU. On a ride yesterday with a couple of friends I mentioned the Worlds and they didn't even want to talk about it they were so disappointed Evans won; I think that is a fairly universal feeling.

Evans won the Worlds last Sunday by doing the very thing that everyone has so long complained about him lacking - how to attack with intelligence. Watching him over the past few years I could never fault the man from downunder for not giving it his all when he attacked, it's just that his attacks ended up about as pathetic as an attack could be timed, launched, and/or executed. After the inevitable failure they were usually followed by a post-race whining session or tirade.

The other miracle this rainbow might help create is happiness. One can only pray this rainbow casts its spell on Mr. Evan. He is notorious for being the biggest whiner in the peloton - hell, it's rumor that even many of his own Silence Lotto teammates this year didn't like riding with him; and something was certainly amiss in the Vuelta when he needed team support; maybe he was lucky even to be there, as it was Evans himself that said he was on the chopping block the last day of the Tour de France after a milk toast 30th place - but maybe it was his 'oh woe is me' attitude, when he wasn't berating and assaulting the media.

Somewhere under this new rainbow, earned with an intelligent attack we have not previously seen, maybe the saddest little boy in the peloton will find some happiness in 2010. Maybe next time he wins he will feel enough happiness to salute the fans. Let's pray on the miracle of rainbows.

Channeling Cancellara

There are those days when you feel fast - your legs feel fast, your reactions are fast, your brain feels fast, your bike feels fast, and the guys you ride with just roll their eyes and go "oh no - it's not going to be pretty today". You love being on the bike and want to ride forever. I like to think of those days as "Channeling Cancellara". Not just because Fabian Cancellara is fast, but because he loves being fast and is a REALLY nice guy. That makes fast fun.

I've been lucky enough to be around him twice at the Tour of California, hang while he was warming up on the trainer for the Prologue once in San Francisco and last year in Sacramento. And even when the guy was cooking up a 103 degree temp with the flu, and would have to drop out the next day in the monsoon, he was still kind, gentle and accommodating - and bloody fast!

Today he scorched the field in Mendrisio, on home turf, in the UCI World TT Championships; if scorched can aptly describe that kinda fast. At the first check point of the 48.7km, three circuit course, Cancellara was already 38 secs up on the nearest rival Tony Martin and flying away. At the 25.7km mark he was 1:17 faster, and moments later he "humiliated Wiggins and Sebastien Rosseler, who had started two and four minutes ahead of him respectively, by overtaking the pair.", as VeloNews put it.

Again from the Velonews article, “I don’t know if it was the best time trial of my life, but I knew that I would be very fast today,” Cancellara said. “My legs were strong, but my head was even stronger today.”

Britain’s David Millar tagged it when he said he’d “rather race for the win in the road race than second in the time trial" - that's coming from the guy that just won the final TT in the Vuelta. And really that's the point, Cancellara defines fast. To paraphrase a line from the movie Bull Durham, it's as if the gods looked down and turned your legs into thunderbolts, you've been given a gift. The really great thing is, Fabian knows it, appreciates it, and is respectfully humble about it - how the hell can you NOT want to channel THAT?

Today, even Cancellara was channeling Cancellara, and that made fast fun, very fun!

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

TdF2010 Prologue - next weekend in Leadville??

The annual soap opera "As the Tour Turns" hadn't even finished its final circuit of the Champs, Cav was in fact still alseep behind Renshaw and Hincapie, when Bob Roll uttered, "I can't wait for 2010". And based on the diarrhea of speculation pouring out of the cyclomedia, so it appears neither can the majority of us. First, there are a few formalities that need to be delivered - a half dozen GP races and the like around Europe, reborn Tour of Soggy-clover (alias Ireland - thank god for the neutral beer zones!), stateside Tour of Mizzou, finally real racing at the Worlds in Mendrisio (cracker of a course) and my favorite Giro di Lombardia, the race of the falling leaves. But for anyone who is paying attention, the Tour's 2010 Prologue really starts next weekend with the Leadville 100 in Colorado not next July in Rotterdam.

If you haven't been watching this soap opera long you need to know that Leadville is not the archetype prologue for the Grand Boucle. Yes, since 1903 the Tour has gifted its opener to other nations nearly 20 times in all, most recently the Grand Depart 2009 was stunningly beautiful along the streets and cliffs of Monaco. So let's get back to Leadville, umm? Colorado? Isn't this August?

Cast your mind back one year, and where was Lance Armstrong? We're talk'n the old LA, before he was Twittering his every other thought. Yip, Leadville. He was there to ride the dusty Leadville 100 (as in miles) and see if he couldn't scare reigning five time champ Dave Wiens into submission. As VeloNews reported it he wasn't out to just make a showing:

"Armstrong accelerated on the Columbine climb — which tops out at over 12,000 feet elevation at the halfway point of the out-and-back race — and broke up a group of ten that had formed in the first half of the race. Wiens matched Armstrong's pace and in a few short miles the two had a five-minute gap over third place, which grew to more than 20 minutes at the 80-mile mark and more than a half hour at the finish."

It wasn't until the final 10 miles Wiens pulled away from Armstrong winning the race for the sixth time, in record time. Going into to this dirty little century LA is reportedly back to win, and destroy the 6 hour barrier.

So, Contador, Schlecks, Wiggins, and the rest, be watching. Watch very carefully. Don't look for advice from Cancellara, he won't be there, this isn't your typical Prologue, there will be only one TdF rider there, and he isn't your typical former Tour winner. Leadville isn't Rotterdam I agree, but in the thin air of Colorado this weekend an old guy is coming back to make a statement: I don't lose a race one year and forget about it the next. My guess is LA was thinking about tomorrow the last ten miles of last year's race. Just like he started thinking about TdF2010 in the last couple miles up Andorre Arcalis.

I find it hard to imagine he will crack the 6 hour barrier, but Lance has stunned us in Prologues before, and the message starting in 1999 - beware what the Prologue portends. But no one should be surprised to see him win in Leadville. Last year a victorious Wiens said, "The guy that I raced today was not the guy who won the Tours," August 15th the guy who races Tours is back, and he's looking to start the 2010 stage wins in Leadville.