My man Andrew Hood over at the other place — you know where it is — hints via Twitter that the long-awaited, oft-delayed decision in Albuterol Clenbutador’s doping case could be postponed yet again.
Thousands of Spanish beeves have been conceived, born, raised, fattened, slaughtered, eaten and excreted since he rang the Dope-O-Meter® back in 2010. Teams have arisen and fallen, sponsorships sold and expired. Lance Armstrong has gotten pissed off and pissed on.
Can you imagine the expressions on the faces of Clenbutador’s grandchildren when the deal finally goes down? Well, you won’t have to. Your clone can be there in holographic form as the kiddies get the news from Sirius telepathic TV in their flying car.
Thanks to one and all for playing VeloNoise on Sunday. It was an interesting experiment in what may well be modern journalism’s ultimate corporate goal — one unpaid staffer using his own tools to transform free resources into paying copy.
The only downsides, from management’s vulturine perspective, is that (a) there was no paying copy, since WordPress does not permit advertising on its free blogs; and (2) the enterprise lacked the customary seven layers of senior executive vice presidents farting through silk and issuing contradictory edicts to the pixel-pusher at the keyboard.
I slapped the website together for less than a hundred smacks, most of it spent to nail down the domain names and the rest to point those names here (this blog uses the same template as Mad Dog Media for simplicity’s sake. The banner I built in Photoshop Elements 8. The only thing left to do was digest video and excrete words.
Where’s it all leading, you ask? Beats the hell out of me. I basically did it for laughs, a bit of performance art directed at Pharaoh as I fled Egypt. “How’s this for bricks without straw, bitch!”
With that accomplished, VeloNoise could become many things — a blog, a column title, a T-shirt. As usual, I’m just making it up as I go along. Whatever happens as a consequence is liable to be a surprise to all of us.
Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus) proved the strongest of a tough five-man group on Sunday, biding his time, surviving the attacks and then making his own successful bid for victory in the elite men’s U.S. cyclo-cross championship in Madison, Wisconsin.
“This is one of the best days of my life,” said Powers after taking the win ahead of Ryan Trebon (LTS-Felt) and Jonathan Page (Planet Bike). “It’s been a long time coming. I’m on top of the world. I can’t describe how I feel right now.”
Runner-up Trebon said he was “actually pretty happy with second today.”
“I was never comfortable out there,” he said. “Jeremy went and I tried to go with him and I just didn’t have it. Hats off to Jeremy.”
Defending champion Katie Compton (Rabobank-Giant) exploded away from the women’s field on the first lap of Sunday’s U.S. cyclo-cross championship in Wisconsin, soloing to her eighth consecutive national title in commanding fashion.
Meredith Miller (California Giant-Specialized) led the bunch off the starting grid and into the softening 2-mile course at Badger Prairie State Park. But Compton wasn’t interested in seeing anyone else at the front of the national-championship race — she lit it up and quickly set about building her advantage.
At mid-lap Compton already had 11 seconds over Miller and Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com teammates Nicole Duke and Kaitlin Antonneau. Then Miller laid it down and the two Cannondale riders got away from her.
But they were already 19 seconds down on Compton, and as the defending champ hit the line to begin her second lap she was 26 seconds ahead of Duke, who briefly found herself chasing alone after Antonneau hit the deck and snapped the derailleur off her main bike.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (MDM) — USA Cycling is offering live streaming video of Sunday’s elite men’s and women’s races at the U.S. cyclo-cross championships in Madison, Wis.
Back when I worked at the other joint we routinely embedded streaming video into the website the way a vulture capitalist buries his beak in your fiscal entrails. But I’ve never tried plunking it into a free WordPress account.
So, if for some reason the YouTube widget below doesn’t work for you, you can try again at the USA Cycling hookup. Women’s coverage is slated to begin around 10:50 a.m. Mountain time; men’s coverage should kick off about 1:15 p.m. The weather? 36 and fair.
If the video proves serviceable I’ll also pop round afterward with a brief recap of each race for the video-challenged. So you’ve got that going for you. Meanwhile, read what the civilians have to say about our sport at the Wisconsin State Journal.
Niels Albert launched a spirited defense of his Belgian cyclo-cross championship on Sunday, but it wasn’t to be — Sven Nys proved unstoppable on a strongman’s course in Hooglede-Gits.
Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) started strong, taking the lead just past the second staircase on the heavy circuit, which featured seemingly endless stretches of sticky mud, two staircases and plenty of running.
Sven Nys, victorious in the Belgian cyclo-cross championships.
But Nys (Landbouwkrediet) emerged from a six-man chase on the second lap, and when the defending champ nearly slid out on a slick ramp Nys was quickly on him. Behind, Rob Peeters and Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea) led the chase with Dieter Vanthourenout (BKCP-Powerplus).
The two had 15 seconds over the chase as the lap ended. But when Nys found himself with a slight advantage following the descent of the second staircase, he glanced over one shoulder at Albert and gave it the gas.
It was the beginning of the end.
With five laps to race Nys had nine seconds over the defending champ, and Albert would get no closer as the Landbouwkrediet rider attacked the mud with a vengeance.
Two laps from the finish Nys had nearly 40 seconds on his rival, who was clearly spent and making mistakes, while Peeters took charge of third place.
Going into the final lap Nys had an insurmountable advantage — Albert was completely out of sight, 49 seconds down, and the Landbouwkrediet rider dialed his pace back a notch and concentrated on riding a flawless finale.
Nys had plenty of time to enjoy his victory, raising both arms in triumph before slipping into the final pit for a clean machine. One last trip up the last staircase and Nys celebrated all the way to the line.
He finished in 1:02:21, 50 seconds ahead of a glum Albert, who waved resignedly at the crowd as he coasted across the line. Peeters rounded out the podium in third at 1:15.
• Coming next: Coverage of the elite men’s and women’s races from the USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships in Madison, Wis. Streaming video of the women’s race begins at 10:50 a.m. Mountain time. Video of the men’s race starts at 1:15 p.m.
It’s a cyclo-cross Sunday at VeloNoise, and we’re gonna get things rolling (and running) with the Belgian national championships.
Here’s how this works: From the comfort of my home office I watch the race live via streaming video beginning at 7 a.m Mountain time — you can too — then jot down a few notes and write a short report for anyone who hasn’t got a fast Innertubes connection or just plain likes to read.
Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) is the defending champ, but he was sidelined for a spell with a broken bone in his hand and now reportedly is suffering with what he told Het Niewsblad on Tuesday “is the beginning of pneumonia.”
He’s kitted up and ready to race, though, as are usual suspects Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet), Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea) and Sunweb-Revor teammates Kevin Pauwels and Klaas Vantornout. The smart money has to be on Nys, but there’s a reason they hold the race — to see who wins.
Meanwhile, Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step) reportedly has won the Czech title. Surprise, surprise.
A blast from the past: My cartoon for the 1997 U.S. cyclo-cross nationals in Colorado.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo (MDM) — The folks at USA Cycling advise that they will provide live streaming video of the elite men’s and women’s races on Sunday during the 2012 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships in Madison, Wis.
We’ll embed the streaming-video code here at VeloNoise for anyone who’s interested, mostly to see whether we can blow up our free WordPress account. And as Sunday looks like a slow day — as in “snow day” — check back post-race for a brief recap of the day’s action, at a deep discount straight from the back of the VeloNoise Forester with the serial numbers filed off.
Depending upon conditions technological, physiological and meteorological we may also chime in with a word or two about the Belgian national cyclo-cross championships, which you can also watch via streaming video, thanks to CyclingFans.com, if you’re not sleeping off a Stella Artois bender or riding your own damn’ bike.
And finally, if you’re out and about with a better view of the action than we have, feel free to chime in via email (velonoise (at) gmail (dot) com. We’ll be happy to throw it against the wall and see if it sticks.
VeloNoise 