So, thanks to a piano recital by Sebastien, I’ll be able to do the Murrysville ‘cross race. This should be, umm, interesting, but fun. I am not in race shape. It could probably be argued that I am not at all in cycling shape. My dismounting/re-mounting skills are a bit rusty. And the bike isn’t configured for ‘cross. But, hey, it’ll be fun, at least. I’m (hopefully) going to drop to the cat 4 race (mostly because of time constraints), but if they won’t let me sandbag, I’m off to the old fartsMasters race, which should essentially guarantee a last place.

In other cycling news, Silence-Lotto have salvaged their season. First, Cadel Evans wins the worlds, then Phillipe Gilbert has a three race win streak going into Lombardia. The Fifth Monument should be interesting, as both Evans and Gilbert have indicated they are looking for the win. Evans rode hard in support of Gilbert at the Coppa Sabatini, and one wonders if Evans will expect that in return. Some people have speculated that perhaps Evans should focus on one day races next season, but I see two issues:

1. Gilbert is Lotto’s man for the classics. We know that Evans doesn’t play nicely when not The Man for a particular race that he wants to win.
2. Thanks to the 2010 Tour de France parcours, Evans is not at an immediate disadvantage, thanks to the lack of a team time trial. Lotto still likely needs a strong climber to support Evans (their attempt at landing a super-domestique ended badly with Bernard Kohl’s CERA suspension).

The UCI has given Lance Armstrong’s new RadioShack squad a ProTour license for 2010. One has to wonder if Garmin’s Jonathan Vaughter’s ire will shift from Team High Road to RadioShack, seeing as his team had to wait a year and prove itself to acquire a ProTour license. And related, I wonder what the UCI will do with Astana? Alberto Contador seems mired there, unless, of course, the UCI decides to revoke their license, which likely leaves Contador free to pursue a transfer. The question is, do the UCI brass like Armstrong? Or will they attempt to tip the balance in Armstrong’s favor by sticking Contador with the clearly weaker (and unstable) Astana squad?

Always a soap opera….

Posted on 16 October 2009