Nuyens wrestles win from favorites

Sunday saw the running a thrilling editions of a classic sporting event with a long history. At the start there were many possible contenders, but come the finish there could only be one winner. Yes, it was Wrestlemania XXVI here in Atlanta at the weekend. Although I didn't actually watch any of it, I did see that excellent film "The Wrestler", so I think I can say with some confidence that the "good" oiled-up 'roid-head, beat the "bad" oiled-up 'roid-head after a lot of poncing about.

While cycling may have its fair share of oil and 'roids, it's not always quite so easy to predict who will win. Such was the case with the Ronde Van Vlaanderen. Or if you prefer, the Tour of Flanders.

Prior to the race, everyone (including me), thought Fabian Cancellara would ride away with the win. But it was not to be for Spartacus. I managed to catch a bit of the race thanks to a stream of questionable legality over at CyclingFans, but I had to leave when they were still 30km from the finish. I thought I'd seen the race-winning move when Cancellara went with 45km to go, but it seems the chasers reeled-in him and breakaway companion Sylvain Chavanel. More attacks came and went, but come the finish it was Nic Nuyens who proved to be maybe not the strongest, but definitely the smartest rider of the day, when he out-sprinted Chavanel and Cancellara for a well-deserved win.

All of the action has led to a shake-up in the mini-league. Much to my annoyance, Evil Dr Chan is now heading up the table, while the Bile Beans are down to second spot.

There's not much in it though, and we've only had 3 of the 7 Classics races so far, so it's still wide-open. It's everyone's favorite one-day race on Sunday, Paris-Roubaix, or the Hell of the North. Just in case you didn't know it's a flat one, but the fun comes from all the sections of cobbled road. It's a proper hard-man's race, especially if it rains, (fingers crossed it will). Check out the race back in 1985, when men were men.



After missing out at Flanders, Cancellara should be super-motivated to repeat his win of last year. I hope so as he cost me plenty of Velocredits.

I'm also hoping that my Garmin boys might actually do something for once. With the demise of the Cervelo Test Team and the creation of Garmin-Cervelo, word on the street was they'd be the team to beat in the Classics - but they've been shite so far this season - it's high time they got a result. I won't be getting a result with Taylor Phinney though, as the talented youngster won't be riding.