Have you had a chance to watch any of the OLN coverage of the start of the 2006 cycling season? Each Sunday OLN features about 90 minutes of cycling coverage, last Sunday they aired the last hour or so of the spring classic Milan - San Remo (the longest one day classic which is nearly 185 miles and takes the riders close to 7 hours to complete).
I have really enjoyed the start of this years season which has already been marked by American cyclists like Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer and Bobby Julich. However their has yet to be a race this year with all of the big guns (possible tour contenders) riding together. That won’t happen until the first of the grand tours the Giro which will start in early May and will feature many of the big riders like Jan Ullrich (who has not competed in the event in several years). However don’t look to the Giro to be a “Tour de France” set in in Italy in the month of May. While the race will include many of the great riders of today most of them will be using the Giro as a spring board (preparation) for the Tour de France which is considered the biggest race in the world.
I do however look forward to seeing Jan riding in May, so often he seams to get started so dam late in the season. I think his mind set has been that he will use the first week of the Tour to come into shape. This years tour seams to focus more on individual time trials and less on the mountain stages. Only time will really tell.
I am sure it is going to be the most interesting tour in several years, last year (while it was great to cheer Lance on to number 7) was pretty boring really.
Tour Guy ~
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