Feel I should write something after the break for the new year. The end of the year reviews in all the major magazines and websites were essentially the same. The only interesting and unique things were VeloNews giving Landis its North American rider of the year resulting in some interesting conversation, and Cycle Sport in it’s ranking of all the ProTour races of 2006 showed guts (stupidity) by ranking Paris-Tours as the 5th best race of the year, while giving the exciting Vuelta 14th just ahead of the Eindhoven TTT. The ending of Paris-Tours was as dramatic as Demol winning the ’88 Paris-Roubaix by beating a guy that had a plastic bag stuck in his derailleur in a sprint. Still Paris-Tours and most office park criteriums were better then the Race2Replace thing.
The UCI and Grand Tour race organizers are still fighting. UCI even said teams could drop down to 8 riders to get more teams in, and gave Astana a ProTour license in their attempts to maintain control. Landis has started a fund to help his defense against doping charges. I guess people can view it like a pay-per-view opportunity to see him race again. Valverde who previously has kept out of any controversy the past few years has been in the news a lot with rumors of going to T-Mobile as well as being linked to Dr. Feuntes of Operation Puerto fame.
There is real racing going on with the cyclocross season wrapping up in 2 weeks with the world champs. I am betting on some good American performances there from Danny, Katie, and others! Pro road racing gets going with the Tour Down Under next week, and followed by racing in Qatar and Langkawi. For those of us that think of more the more traditional opening of the season the Etoile de Bessèges starts the 2nd week of February.
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