Sagan Soars at Gistel-Wevelgem

Sometimes I miss the cold winters of Northern Europe, which seem to be all the fashion since I moved to the Atlanta.  Maybe it’s the romantic notions of hard-as-nails riders, fighting it out against the elements.  Or maybe it’s just because I want a fat-bike.

So this weekend I decided to take a break from such Southern US pass-times as:

·         Driving my pick-up truck

·         Sitting on the veranda drinking mint juleps

·         Oppressing people of color 

And headed up to Boston.  Not the crappy Boston in Lincolnshire mind, but that Boston out of Cheers.  I was rewarded with chilly winds.  And some real snow.

Anyhooze, the point of my rambling, is that once again, it was a chilly bike race for the Pros on Sunday.  My new signing for the day, Heinrich Haussler wasn’t impressed, “This isn’t sport any more, it’s bullshit. It’s not a race in these conditions because with the wind it’s minus 10.”  Maybe Heinrich could take some comfort from the fact that the event was shortened by 45km, or the fact that he started the race-winning break.

The bad news for Heinrich though, was that Slovak-Superstar and Wheelieing-Wonder-Kid Peter Sagan was along for the ride too.

Also bad news for Heinrich, was that many of his break-away companions were not doing their share of the work, "The bloody wankers just sit on and go: ‘no, no, we've got a guy at the back and all this bullshit.’"  You tell ‘em Heinrich!. A few more quotes like that and you’ll be up there with Bradley Wiggins and the famous “cuntgate” incident.

Still Heinrich bagged fourth, and Sagan won, which helped give me a healthy score for the day, along with Rouleurs. 

Bile Beans	71
Rouleurs	71
Mungo Cycling	55
Evil Chanbots	53
Caffe Americano	44
ENRICO 666	40
KLOEFEKAPPERS	40
Fulgas	36
vicarious victors	30
Bodged blaggards!	29
synergy	2

And I’m on top in the league again.

Rank		Team	Directeur	Score
1		Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	306
2		KLOEFEKAPPERS	Jan Van Belleghem	279
3		Rouleurs	tdm911	261
4		ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	255
5		Evil Chanbots	Danny Chan	253
6		Fulgas	Vincent Lavallee	195
7		Mungo Cycling	Mungo	168
8		Caffe Americano	Sherwood	168
9		synergy	Adrian Leggett	163
10		vicarious victors	eddy wu	161
11		Bodged blaggards!	Warwick Anderson	111

So Sagan finally got himself a Classics win.  It’s only Gent-Wevelgem though, and everybody knows that the cool one’s to win are the Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix, which just happen to be the next two races coming up.  By the way, although I love George Chapman to death, it is worth noting that his “next race” widget is not always on the money, check out the startlists at CyclingFever for a better guide. It should be a Sagan-Cancellara showdown, but who knows?  You need luck as well as talent to win the big races.