Since this year’s Tour de France will be contested on the narrow, wind-swept, and cobblestone streets of Belgium during its first week, many of the top GC contenders have started making some noise about spending some time in that country to brush up on their cobblestone riding skills. Lance Armstrong, for one, is set to ride the race most consider the most difficult of the “flat” classics, the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Alberto Contador, has also indicated that he’ll be spending some time on the Belgian stones, in order to acclimate to the feel, so to speak. Other GC men will surely follow suit, since a rookie mistake on the cobbles during the fast first week of the Tour could take a rider out of contention in a heartbeat.

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Yesterday, a Flemish priest by the name of Joost de Waele died. Father de Waele was in charge of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges on Alpe d’Huez. Normally, I would afford a priest, or any other member of the clergy, only about as much attention as I would anyone else, meaning that unless I knew the person, I probably wouldn't take time to stop and think about his life or death. I’ll go ahead and proceed in this case, though, since Father de Waele was a Flemish person presiding over one of the most famous bike race climbs in the entire world. I also would like to bring this up simply to point out the meaning of bicycle racing in Europe.

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For those of you who follow international cyclocross, the sordid event that took place in the Belgian national cyclocross championships this past weekend isn’t news. For those of you who don’t pore over the international results, let me just recap the situation for a second – it seems that a drunken supporter of 2009 Belgian cyclocross champion Sven Nys reached out and grabbed the arm of reigning World Champion, Niels Albert, causing him to crash, and breaking a rib in the process. Not only did Albert lose any chance of winning the race as a result of the crash, but with a broken rib, he now has a difficult time with hard accelerations and any sort of climbing.

I have personally endured my share of broken ribs and am here to say that there really isn’t any possibility that Albert will be defending his rainbow jersey this time around at the Worlds. That, my friends, is a terrible thing. I really would like to write something harsher here, but am consciously making an effort to abide by my own rule of keeping this at least a PG -13 rated site.

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Andy Pulford - Luton, England

Thanks for the kind words. I've actually not had a chance to go pick up the new ProCycling yet and need to go grab a copy.

I remember back when I was a little kid watching tennis on television with my mom and dad; my dad would ramble on about how he really didn’t like Jimmy Connors all that much. The details are vague, but I seem to recall that what he didn’t like about Connors was the fact that he wasn’t old, tried and true. By the time John McEnroe had established himself on the scene, Connors was a bit more of an “old man” of tennis, so my dad warmed up to him and even cheered for him to win – it seems to me that by the time this happened, Jimmy Connors, he was all of 35 years old. Now it seems it is my turn to cheer for the old guys.

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Quite a few months ago I received an email message from the stepfather of my friend Devon. It seems that she had given him a copy of my book, which he enjoyed thoroughly. The fact that an artist would like the thing (as opposed to a cycling fan) was extremely flattering, and is something I have been thinking about fondly over the past couple of days as I nurse a few wounds caused by having an opinion.

The message itself was overflowing with life. It was clear to me that this guy, Willem van Es, was someone I wanted to know. We proceeded beyond email within a couple of days to phone conversations. His accent was clearly Dutch, which made me feel at home. His wit and sense of humor were absolutely world class, causing me to smile for hours after hanging up.

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Dave - Shropshire, England

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the kind words. I am happy you found the book entertaining.

The Bradley Wiggins transfer to Sky is interesting to me because so many people (in this country at least) are having a hard time with it. As a former (underpaid) pro, I really don’t have too much trouble with his desire to make more money or ride for a major team that’s based in his home country. I am not suggesting in any way that he was underpaid by his former employer, but if a guy can find a better paycheck and/or situation, and the rules make it possible for him to leave, well, good for him, I guess. I broke my contract with Transvemij (later TVM) to go to another team in the silly season of 1987/88, but it wasn’t for more money. It is certain that young Mr. Wiggins is making a deservedly large amount more than the young Mr. Parkin did, too.

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