On Bicycles, and.... what else is there?

I posted my predictions for Milan San Remo yesterday . I was really looking forward to this race, perhaps more than any other of the Monuments. This morning I watched Milan San Remo in two parts. First I watched a feed from steephill.tv until 34 km to go. At that point the riders had finished with Capo Berta and the Cipressa was looming. I left then do to a ride and when I returned watched first one video of the Cipressa and then another of the final 10 km including Poggio. There were small gaps between what I saw live and the first of these videos, and another gap (the Cipressa descent) between the two videos. But despite the gaps I really enjoyed watching the race. I have to say I was pleased with how my picks did. I was all over Cavendish because I thought his team support (especially Kwiatkowski, and Stybar) was so strong and he's a proven rider who has come into the early season relatively fit. Well, stuff doesn't always go as planned, and first Cavendish threw h...

Milan-San Remo is the longest of the classics, in many way a throw-back to the old days where lack of television coverage meant speed and intensity was hard to convey, and lacking that, race organizers had to impress the fans with sheer magnitude: of rugged riders riding superhuman distances over impossible terrain. The thing is until the 1960's Milan-San Remo wasn't particular long by professional standards. It's held fairly close over its history to its present distance of 293 km (1 km shorter than 2014). Here's the course distance from two sources: http://www.milansanremo.co.uk/ through 2009, and http://cyclingnews.com since 2010: The iconic Poggio was added in 1960 to reduce the finishing pack, an inland deviation which increased the distance from 281 km to 288 km. Then in 1982 the Cipressa increased the distance to 294 km to make the end game even harder. Le Manie was added to further increase the attrition in 2008. This last climb was removed in 2014 and ...

When I rode the finale of Milan San Remo I took a wrong turn approaching the Poggio, finding myself on an amazing climb winding into the hills. I eventually realized I'd gone the wrong way, but my thought at the time was "wow -- there's other climbs the organizers could add to this route if they wished". And for 2014, they decided to do so But when it was announced that the Pompeiana climb was being added to the course, it was decried by traditionalists as breaking up what was the traditional opportunity for sprinters among the monuments. The only other "sprinter's classic" is Paris-Tours, and that's more of an end-of-season consolation prize, hardly on the level of Milan San Remo, Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, or the Giro di Lombardia. I had to laugh a bit at this, because when Eric Zabel won in 1997 it was considered an enormous accomplishment that a sprinter won. He went on to win 4 out of 5 years. Then the following year Mar...

Still suffering the after-effects of oral surgery, and mourning the loss of my missing tooth, I took solace in watching a pirate feed of the Eurosport coverage of 99.7 of the final 100 km of Milan-San Remo. Unfortunately I lost the feed during the final 300 meters... So why don't I pay for cycling.tv? Because I keep telling myself I'm not going to watch these races any more. Except for this one. Special circumstances. That's it... The result : my man Cavendish didn't win Milan San Remo after all, his sprint tempered by the freezing rain, and once again I sold the remarkable Fabian Cancellara short as he finished an amazing second in a medium-group sprint. Katuscha's Alexander Kristoff took advantage of the work of his teammate, Luca Paolini, to win the sprint. Both of them pack some beef on their frames, something which likely worked to their benefits in staving off hypothermia. Cancellara's 2nd place has continued an amazing streak of podium finishes fo...

Ah, well. My running streak ended at 7, as today I decided the best approach was simply to rest. I watched 3 episodes of Sherlock, season 2 episodes 2-3, and season 3 episodes 0 and 1 (0 doesn't count). Oral surgery just left me totally drained. Tomorrow: Milan San Remo. My prediction: Mark Cavendish. Headwind finish makes it very hard for a break to stay away. Cavendish has a strong team, he has the experience, and he has the acceleration and timing needed to take it. He just needs to get over the Cipressa.

I have a soft spot for Milan-San Remo since I rode the final portion of the course in 2010. My picks this year, in order of probability of winning: Thomas: Sky's been preparing in Tenerife. Traditionally preparation has demanded that riders do either Paris-Nice or Tirreno Adriatico. The only question is which. But Sky's shown remarkable success in their training on Tenerife, doing specific training in an isolated controlled environment. Sagan: The guy's amazing. It's very tempting to put him first: do I go with the amazing team or the amazing rider? I went with the team. Haussler: He was a very close second in 2009 and claims he's feeling good. Bassen-Hagen: Sky's back-up man. Gilbert: Has been slow getting out of the blocks this year and last but he's a proven candidate for this race. He just needs to control his aggression. Cavendish: Cavendish came into last year's race as a favorite and Liquigas sacrificed themselves to drop him. Liquigas i...

This Saturday was Milan-San Remo, the "Prima Vera", a race considered by Italians to be their world championship. Like all of the "monuments" of cycling, it is an epic race, a grand journey which covers an enormous amount of terrain. And no professional race covers more: 298 km from Milan, to the Adriatic coast, then westward to San Remo. When I was at Lake Como last September I had two days before my flight to Milan. I'd been thinking of going north to the Dolomites: the Stelvio, the Gavia. But there was snow in the hills, and no sign of the temperature poking its nose above zero. I needed an alternate plan. On the bike car, toward Genoa So I decided to head southward. After some snafus at the train station, where I ended up buying two tickets by accident, then lost the relevant ticket and had to beg the stern conductor for forgiveness (funny: I take the train to work almost every day and have never forgotten my ticket there), I arrived in Genoa. ...