Man has it been awhile..........

Soooo,

The Tour is in full swing, World's Greatest Rider Damiano Cunego is impressing everyone with his determination and perseverance. Otherwise, it has been some pretty uneventful racing. I guess if you kick out the guys on drugs, these long races aren't too entertaining. We can always watch Pantani and Armstrong ride Ventoux like they're going downhill.

The big races are, for the most part, over. Twilight crit would be the only big one coming up.

CMG had their annual implosion. From an outsider's view, it seems that Seth, Chris, Donald, et al spent a good part of the spring setting things up so Jacob (and the other youngsters) could knock them down. When Seth ended up in the leader's jersey at Elkhorn, his team's defense was, how should I say this, less than inspired. As a very large group rolled away with CMG very under-represented. Though HB also missed out big time. Bob's Bikes was the big winners out of the 25 man lead-group, though the Symmetrics kid won, and it's pretty safe to say that he was the strongest rider there.

*Tactical Note - When a break has more than 20 guys in it, or contains more than 20% of the number of riders in the field, it is in fact not a break. It is a split in the field. Large teams generally try and avoid splits in the field unless they've got A LOT of riders in it. Bob's had plenty of riders. Every other team should have chased like hell to shut down the move early.

PIR is really the only regular race now. And it is interesting watching how hard certain teams will bang their heads into the wall over and over again. Take last night:

Strong break gets away.

Countless unorganized chase groups form to no avail.

Rubicon realizes they could use another guy in the break, launches some sharp, well coordinated attacks.

Break gets close, Rubicon bridges up their strongest guy.

Everyone else sits around saying "oh man, they were so close, we almost got 'em."

Fresh Rubicon guy wins race.

So first of all, WE (meaning the field) did not (almost)catch them. Rubicon almost caught them, then they bridged up their strongest guy, once he was up there the break got a bunch more time. Coincidence? Probably not.

Finishing off a chase is really the most important part of the chase,anyone can start a chase, and most folks can get about half way. But finishing, now that's a real chase. And there was none of that. Rubicon wasn't trying to chase the break back, they were trying to bridge their guy up. And it worked, and he won, and that's how it should be. Smart moves and hard riding tend win bike races.

Wow, that turned into a long one.

Four more days until Damiano Cunego rides into Paris, after an inspirational display of perseverance and determination. Clearly displaying the virtues we look for in all of sport, and society.