Boonen!!!

I have to say, I'm quite happy that Tom "The Tornado" Boonen took the World Championships this year. He's the man, OK, aside from Ekimov he's the man. Boonen has been on a tear this year, and I have a good feeling that if he had not crashed out in the Tour and injured himself, he would have almost easily taken the green sprinter's jersey as well. He got shnooked in the spurts at la Vuelta this year, but I think he was biding his time, getting back some lost form, and getting ready to rip it in the World Championships this past weekend. I'm with my friend Graham, I enjoy seeing the World Championship race ripped apart, and just seeing shreds of people coming across the line at the end, but this was more of a sprint finish, although not a mass gallop this year like it was for Cippolini in Zolder in 2002 when he took out McEwen and Zabel in the sprint. No, this was more of a hard man's finish this year. A small group had torn away from the main field near the end of the race, and Boonen put his very strong Belgian team on the front to chase it down. The pace of the Belgians (most of his teammates being some of the top one day riders in the world) splint the group again, and with 600 meters to go to the line, Boonen was back in control. From there, it was really just a matter of who was going to take 2nd this year, of course, it was a Spainard. The Spainards man, they come with their game faces on for World Championships every year. They do bring their "A" game, and they bring their best one day riders. And it was no different this year, except for the fact that Oscar Gomez Freire wasn't able to ride the race this year. He's been sidelined with an ass problem this year, he's had some bad saddle sores, but don't count him out, he'll be back. He has won World's a few times already, and I can see another one in his future somewhere down the line. This year, all Boonen. Although I have a feeling that if Freire were there this past weekend, there is a good chance he would have been in the hunt at the end. Instead it was Alejandro Valverde taking a well deserved 2nd place. The 2 big names that were being kicked around as the favorites for this weekend, Alessandro Pettachi and Robbie McEwen were 20 some odd seconds behind the winner in the 2nd group on the road. When it got really hard, those 2 couldn't hang.

Let me tell you about Boonen. As far as races go this year, he has won what every young Flemish man dreams of winning. That's the Paris-Roubaix / Tour of Flanders double. He has proven himself as a hard man, as a classics man, and the Belgian people, they dig him, and I don't see his popularity with those guys dying down anytime soon, as long as he doesn't get busted for doping. He's what Frank Vandebroucke was supposed to be, and then some. And he's still young, he's still got a lot of time to go on the bike, and I can see a bright future for him down the road. Some don't like him because they say he's got an attitude, and to that, I say, I'd have one as well if I was as strong on the bike as he is. Damn straight. It ain't bragging if you've done it. The man could retire now, and still be considered a legend in Belgium. I like how he wins races. He can win from a sprint. He can win in a breakaway group. And most importantly, he can win solo by himself just throwing it down. He's done all of the above this year. A Tour de France he'll never win, but in the big one day races, the classics, and World Championships, count on it people, it's money in the bank, along with what I'm sure will be many stage victories in the grand tours held in Italy, Spain, and of course France. And, and most importantly of all, chicks dig him. He's got a Euro Hawk (the hot new look in European circles this year), and has been known to kick the mullet for fashion's sake, and he dates a Belgian model (are there such things?? I guess that there are). He's coolness personified, or at least he thinks so, and hey, he's got a good first name, I can't begrudge him too much.

The thing I can't stand with guys in the pro peloton though is when they "change countries" so that they can race World Championships. For instance, last year, Rebellin tried "defecting" to Argentina when the Italian national coach wasn't going to give him a place on the team. This year, Stefan Weseman has "defected" over to Switzerland so that he can ride World's. What the Hell guys? If you don't get selected, suck it up, come back and maybe get a spot next year. I can say this being American, because our best guys don't give a shit about World's for the most part, most of our best riders are done and sitting on the beach at this time of the year. I can't blame them for this, it's a long ass season, but damn, wouldn't it be nice to get another World Championship title back in the good old USA? Hell yeah it would be. We've had Lemond and Armstrong both win it, now who is going to do it now? Fred Rod was supposed to be in the mix this year, but he got spit out the back best I can see from the results. America's best finisher again this year was Guido Trenti, who is for all intents and purposes an Italian who rides for the US every year because one of his parents is an American, and he has dual citizenship, but actually races on a US license. At least he didn't "defect" to do this. He's always held an American racing license, and American citizenship, and damn, it's a good thing we have him, because our other guys haven't done jack shit. Our best one day rider hasn't gone to World's for a couple of years now. Now George "I need a sandwich" Hincapie, I love you man, but damn, get out there and ride World's for crying out loud, and go into it healthy for once. Damn son, you could do it. But anyway, I digress. It's just too bad that it's not a point of honor for a lot of these guys anymore to win World Championships like it was in the old days. Eddy and the boys, and others, they'd kill each other to win this one race of the year. Oh well, it ain't the old days anymore, no matter what Jason "The Fart Sniffer" Darden wants.