Wildcards

Bjorn Leukemans' solo performance ended 6 km from the finish today, depriving victory-starved Belgium of yet another win in the early season. The GP Samyn is the season opener for Wallonia. The race was won by 24 yr old Dominic Klemme from Germany. It also marks the first victory for the LAY-o-par Trek Team. Belgian Kevin Ista found the race "three hundred meters too long." Last year's edition was won by neo-pro Jens Keukeleire, who also won the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, and Nokere Koerse.

In much anticipated news, Flanders Classics gave out seven wildcards for the Ronde (4/3). The wildcards also apply to Dwars door Vlaanderen (3/23), Gent-Wevelgem (3/27), Scheldeprijs (4/6) and Brabantse Pijl (4/13). Three went to Belgian teams, Landbouwkrediet, Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator and Veranda's Willems-Accent. The others went to Dutch team Skil-Shimano, and the French Teams Cofidis, Europcar and Française des Jeux.

And speaking of wildcards, Alberto Contador announced that he will ride the Giro. That is, of course, if UCI will let him. Matti Breschel on the other hand is suffering from knee pain and the Danish rider from Rabobank is likely to miss all the classics.

Vacansoleil canceled Flavio Mongiardo's contract. Flavio was Riccardo Ricco's personal trainer. Flavio, who calls Ricco a personal friend, denies all wrongdoing.

Of course the biggest wildcard of them all is whether Steve Jobs will appear at the iPad2 event in San Francisco. I can tell you that this matter is now resolved, and Steve has appeared, not looking any skinnier or worse than he looked at previous events. His enthusiasm is every bit as infectious as it was before. Now we can only wait and see if the iPad2 will live up to its hype?