Anything But Dull

The Tour de France is cycling’s biggest event and there is a little bit of sadness every year when it ends.  All of the compelling storylines, the almost 24-hours-a-day TV coverage … it all goes away in an instant.  You could be forgiven for mistaking the Tour’s final stage as the last day of racing on the pro calendar.

But this year really is different.  There’s good racing to be had this week.  Each morning I watch streaming coverage of the Eneco Tour.  In the afternoons I watch the stream from the Tour of Utah and at night I watch the highlights on Fox Sports (AT&T Uverse channel 744 in West Bend).  And the news coming out of the world of professional cycling is fascinating.  HTC Highroad—the winningest team in the peloton—will fold at the end of the season because it cannot find a new title sponsor.  All of the Highroad guys—Mark Cavendish, Matt Goss, Tony Martin, Tejay Van Garderen and others—have found or still need to find new teams for 2012.  Thor Hushovd—reigning World Champion and winner of 10 Tour de France stages during a brilliant career—has been left off the Vuelta roster by his current team and may not get to ride next year’s Tour for his new team.  The teams of Quick Step and Omega Pharma-Lotto will join forces in 2012 to form a Belgian super team … with or without Philippe Gilbert, who likely will finish this season as the world’s No. 1-ranked rider.

This is great stuff!  If I have one complaint, though, it’s this: allowing riders to negotiate transfers to other teams during the current season is a horrible idea.  There’s enough time to work out contracts after the Giro di Lombardia (Oct. 15) and before the Tour Down Under (Jan. 15).  Because Hushovd is leaving Garmin-Cervélo we now have to deal with the ugly question of whether Jonathan Vaughters is leaving him off the Vuelta roster out of spite, though the most sensible reason to exclude him is to keep him from earning points that due to a ridiculous UCI rule would benefit his new team next season.  At cycling’s highest level, no one succeeds without support from his team and during transfer season you really have to wonder how race dynamics are affected.

But anyway, it continues to be a great year to be a cycling fan.  And the Vuelta starts just one week from tomorrow.  It’s a Grand Tour without the high drama of the Giro d’Italia or the Tour de France, but this year the behind-the-scenes storylines should be very compelling indeed.