A quiet day

While the rest of the country is busy shoveling snow and digging itself out of one more monster storm, we in Northern California are enjoying another week of dry warm weather. The only drawback, apart from the increased risk of drought later in the year, are the constant high winds. Last night I once again had to get up and go out to retrieve a toppled garbage can and tons of debris blowing down the front steps.

The warm temperatures are certainly a boon to cyclists and runners alike. They are out in droves and many have already accumulated extensive mileage despite the early season. One rider posted he had ridden close to a 1,000 miles in January alone. He is not alone. With the advent of recording gadgetry we now see evidence of great accomplishments posted on a nearly daily basis.

Next weekend the Northern California road racing season starts with the traditional Cherry Pie criterium in Napa. Although sunny and dry conditions are expected, the absence of cloud cover also means a chilly -say frosty- early morning start. As most races in California take place in remote areas and before normal humans get out of bed on weekends, that will surely mean winter clothing for most cyclists. Once the races are over though, it should be T-shirt time again.

The Europeans are also getting ready. Now that the cyclocross world championships are over, most roadies are heading to (or are already riding in) Spain for spring training. The cyclocrossers meanwhile are finishing up the season, and Sven Nys did so by winning in Maldegem before Vanthourenhout and Stybar, who was fifth.

Although Nys had to settle for silver in Sankt Wendel, he is now topping the UCI list ahead of Albert. He also leads the Gazet van Antwerpen (GvA) ranking and the Superprestige Cup. Albert meanwhile holds on to the Worldcup.

The Belgians have mixed feelings about the cyclocross season. They would have preferred to win the world championships and although there is some finger pointing going on, overall people seem happy and content. Belgium can't complain since both Nys and Albert have had fantastic seasons. So the main topic in cyclocross news is the lack of leadership in the U23 category. Despite what you might think, U23 racing rarely becomes national news in Belgium, except in situations like these.

Although Belgian U23's captured several top 10 finishes -a feat that would surely warrant multiple press releases at USACycling had it happened to Americans- the fact that nobody got a medal has led former world champion and pro rider Bart Wellens to decry a "weak draft" and add, "there is no talent in the U23's."

In America on the other hand, all is quiet. The best performance here was a silver in the women's cyclocross, something nobody -except true aficionados- noticed. Our hero Lance retired without much fanfare and the little news we have is dominated by doping allegations that won't go away. In the latter category NY Velocity just published a transcript of the entire, 7 hour, Landis interview by Paul Kimmage. Not too many people took notice as neither the pro-Lance camp nor the much smaller anti-Lance camp seems very interested.

Paul Kimmage is not that well known over here, except for this 2009 Tour of California incident with Lance. On the European continent however, the man is blacklisted for his book Rough Ride: Behind the Wheel With a Pro Cyclist, where he came out and pointed fingers long before any doping scandal surfaced. The book won many awards but it did not endear him to the cycling public. Kimmage is now a reporter for the Times.



The Landis interview is fascinating reading though. Even if most of it were made up, or -more likely- heavily embellished, it would mean that doping is very widespread in pro cycling. That is not what anyone wants to hear right now. Least of all those who feel that we should leave the matter be, since the problem is now going away on its own due to better enforcement.


If you believe that you probably also believe in Santa Claus.

Aftermath

I heard it was sunny for the cyclocross world championships in Sankt Wendel, Germany. Not so in Northern California. After a glorious, dry and warm January, we suddenly got hit by a storm and the weather turned cold, wet and overcast. I kept my fingers crossed because we have had this new weather pattern the last four or five years where a record setting January is followed by two or three cold and wet months. Fortunately, it appears we are entering another warm and dry spell today so maybe we can avoid it altogether.

It was a mixed weekend for the Belgians. First in tennis, Kim Clijsters won the Australian open and another Belgian An-Sophie Mestach won the juniors and is currently the world's number one. That was excellent news after the shock announcement that Justine Henin was calling it quits.

Kim's win made everyone hopeful that the men would sweep the cross championships. Expectations (and tensions) were high in a team with seven top riders. Although there had been some words, coach De Bie did what he could to calm the waters and on Saturday, all looked good for the day ahead.

Niels Albert was the clear favorite. The course suited the former world champion and he has been on a winning streak throughout the season. But Niels had a bad day and some bad luck and he was out before the racing started. He ended in 24th, a world away from the winners and appeared to have fallen off the planet as far as the Belgian media was concerned.

Niels' problems left Stybar, who will ride for Quick-step next season and Sven Nys alone to battle it out. Although Nys fought hard, he could not stop Stybar from riding away from him with four laps to go. Behind the leaders Pauwels fought French and German riders for third. The podium was Stybar, Nys and Pauwels. A Belgian victory of sorts, as Stybar lives in Belgium, speaks Dutch, and rides for a Belgian team. He is an adopted (Flandrien) Belgian.

An estimated 1.2 million Belgians watched the event on TV. Pretty good for a sport that is decidedly not tops during soccer season.

Stybar, Nys and Pauwels

This weekend's results and news coverage highlight another Belgian idiosyncrasy: despite being a cycle-crazy country, there is very little interest in women's cycling in Belgium. Although nearly all girls and many women ride bikes in Belgium, cycling is not traditionally seen as a desirable sport for women. Belgians may not want to admit it, but the feeling runs quite deep in some areas and it is only recently that women's cycling has received a little bit of attention. I am willing to bet that most Belgian cyclocross fans could not name one woman on the Belgian team.

Kim Clijsters down under

Women's cycling races have (relatively) few competitors, a very sparse race calendar (by Belgian standards) and hardly any news coverage. That is true for all five cycling disciplines. Somewhat ironically, women's cycling is (relatively) popular in countries such as Britain and the US, where men's cycling is a minor sport.

Tennis on the other hand, is a very popular sport for Belgian women. And that is not just because Belgium had some success there in the past. As a matter of fact, it is precisely because tennis is so desirable and popular among girls that Belgium has these tremendous successes. Women's tennis is one of the few women's sports that gets top billing -on par with men's sports- in Belgium. It is also a sport where Belgium has a deep line-up of top players, which is all the more amazing given how small the country is.

In other news, Spanish rider David Etxebarria has made some waves by lashing out at former team mate Alberto Contador. Etxebarria is accusing Contador of being hypocritical and remaining silent when others were accused of doping. He twittered, "Don't shout out when previously you stayed silent." Etxebarria was a team mate of Contador in 2005 and 2006 at Liberty Seguros. Clearly there is some bad blood here.

And finally, I was able to sleep on left shoulder for the first time since my crash on December 8. I did not follow the advice of my orthopedist (to inject cortisone) but rather opted to leave things alone. The shoulder still hurts a bit from time to time, but overall it is healing well and I am hopeful that it will continue to do so.

Cross purposes

The Belgian cyclocross selection for Sankt Wendel is off to a bad start. First Vantornout complained about Sven Nys' behavior last year. Then Nys replied essentially saying he did nothing wrong by going after his teammate and bringing (the eventual champion) Stybar along. Nys added he did not want to give up his chances in lap 2. Now Niels Albert threw some more oil on the fire by saying, "I will ride my own race."

Favorite Niels Albert, there is apparently an I in team after all

Finally national coach Rudy De Bie had to step in to calm the waters. "We will have to sit the team down together this week," he said, "but not to preach, that is pointless." Instead De Bie, who says he understands the realities of sponsorship wants to remind the team members that it is the Belgian public that is ultimately paying their bills. Without the massive public support of Belgian fans, who show up in droves week after week, there would be no cyclocross.

Rudy De Bie: more headaches?

And in more high profile news, Lance made a rather low profile exit this week. He finished the Tour Down Under in the middle of the pack. One day Lance was part of a breakaway but he was outsprinted at the end. Although he clearly tried, he did not manage to capture much headlines, other than the new Sports Illustrated allegations regarding doping. He did woo the Australian public by going on an impromptu "Twitter" ride in Brisbane to benefit the flood victims.

All this bad publicity put Lance in a subdued mood. He refused to address the press after the final stage in Adelaide, where he was sure to be confronted with more doping questions. He did attend the closing ceremony though, where he was given a pair of walking boots.

Armstrong also bailed out of Ironman and the chances of seeing him compete in Kona this year appear slim to nil. In a brief chat with cyclingnews the former Tour de France winner conceded that he does not know what he will do next.

No more wetsuit for me..

Meanwhile the weather here in the San Francisco bay area continues to be spectacular. With temperatures in the mid to high sixties (some areas well into the seventies) and plenty of sunshine there is no better place to be for spring training. While the rest of the country and much of Europe continues to shovel snow, we are enjoying our new weather pattern tremendously-- although it may wreak havoc on our ongoing water supplies. Bike riders and runners are out in force this year. Hopefully the weather will stay good and we will not see a repeat of previous year's Tour of California weather.

The only two deciduous trees close to our house

The trees are as confused with this new pattern as we are. Of the only two deciduous trees near my house, one is full Fall colors while the other is nearing the end of winter and getting ready for Spring.