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Usually I love the winter (snow freshness, vin chaud and tartiflette); but this one is pissing me off.
Minus 10 - 20 is not very exciting to go out cycling (well not for long), and even going out running usually ends me cutting that short.
Even ski de fond is dangerous as it is all ice here, and no fresh snow for ages.

And I've put my name down for three days in June doing L'Ardechoise, so I had better start getting fit.
The guys I am doing it with have some serious ambitions, and I don't want to be the sad brit being swept up everyday.

Come on weather get a bit warmer.

I've even dusted off the the old Trax stand and been peddling indoors - is there a more boring past time than cycling in doors? I have yet to find it.
I avoid at any gym in hotels , if I am travelling for work, the cycle things - the running, or eliptic things seems ome how less boring.

Music, TV, arghhhh - I want the open road.

90 km left in the Milan-San Remo, and Cavendish looks to be bonking.

Simon Gerrans takes it, sprinting out from behind Cancellarra.

So Boonen wins , again the bouncy double.
I also noticed, he doesn't wear gloves.

I am always a bit wary of early season form, and the one day classics. They seem to give no actual indication to how the grandes boucles are going to pan out, and should just be enjoyed for what they are.

It was almost like he wanted to win it Cancellara-style, in Cancellara's absence.

Very impressive win, and loved the way Turgot got back in time to sprint for 2nd.

Top quality Liege-Bastogne-Liege yesterday.

Nibali's attack on the last descent was near-perfect, but a super-strong Iglinsky caught him in the last couple of km.

Tommy Voeckler continued his excellent early-season form to finish 4th.

Roll on the Giro!

Boonen's victory was almost uniformly celebrated in Belgium except for one bloke called de Vlaemink who made some sour grape remarks about the victory not being significant since Boonen didn't have much opposition


Meanwhile LBL = l'Equipe gave the victor a limp welcome, noting how impressive it was for someone with his record to win such a prestigious race...

I know prologues are usually short; but 8,7km for the Danish Giro, seems a bit sparce.

Anyway, second day on the Giro, and Cav leads in a sprint from the usual suspects, Goss, Farrer etc.

I feel OK when Tours wander into neighbouring countries for a start or the odd etape; but Denmark isn't really that "next door" to Italy.

Better than New York though,.....

Did anyone see the Cavendish crash yesterday? He was brought down by Roberto Ferrari and it could have been a lot nastier than it was.

The crash.

No, I read about it afterwards, that must have smarted.

Dopy guy doing that manouvre; but I think we are going to see some more of these incidents as the year unfolds.

Imagining going down at full pelt like that really makes me cringe inside.

Peoloton magazine have done a free online issue entirely about the Giro and Italy, if anyone's interested: Italiano. There's some excellent stuff in there.

kugelrund wrote:
Peoloton magazine have done a free online issue entirely about the Giro and Italy, if anyone's interested: Italiano. There's some excellent stuff in there.

Cheers, it's a downloadable PDF too.

Cavendish wins another sprint, this time the nasty crash happens before the end.

Some interesting stages at the weekend, including a bit of jockeying for position amongst the faves (Scarponi, Rodriguez).

If you get a chance to see a pic of Domenico Pozzovivo, of Colnago, who won well in a solo break yesterday: he looks about 12.

Pozzovivo looked like he was riding a bike that was too big for him.

Even more confusingly, today's stage appears to have been won by Phil Silvers.

I put some each way money* at the beginning of the Giro on both Rodriguez at 14-1 and Hesjedal at 50-1.

Before I get my hopes up any more, can someone please put me out of my misery now and tell me exactly why neither will finish on the podium.

Thanks in advance.

*£1 on each of them, but still...

Rodriguez has ridden really well so far, supported by a strong team. BUT...he will lose at least 2 minutes to others on the time trial, so he needs another great day in the mountains before that.

Hejsedal is the opposite- if he can hang in around a minute down on any of the climber-favourites (even Basso) he has every chance of overtaking them in the TT. The fear (for someone with £50 riding on it!) is that he'll lose more than that on one or other of the big climbing days.

So you're in with 2 good shouts, but Basso is undoubtedly still bookies' favourite, and for good reasons.

General thoughts: I'm a bit disappointed with this Giro. It's been a bit flat, pun half-intended.

The teams complained about the route being too dangerous/difficult over the last few years, so as a result a new supremo has flattened it and made it more steadily increasing in difficulty rather than big climbs hitting them early.

I honestly don't think Weylandt's death could be attributed to the route that day or even cumulative fatigue- it was a chance crash on a tricky (but not essentially deadly) descent, so in some ways they've overreacted against that happening last year and caved in to the teams' demands, leaving us with an interesting but relatively drama-free spectating experience.

Anyone else watching it...?

I am watching it and feel the same, it has yet to take off.

Cavendish is in a class of his own as a sprinter and Sky seem to be after two jerseys, his and the young rider's one. A practice for their Tour de France tactics I guess.