If you are a cycling fan, ESPN.com may not be the first site you visit when you are looking for great cycling content, but recently I have been impressed by some of the columns from ESPN’s Bonnie DeSimone. She has written some excellent stories on Floyd Landis, and now a great piece on Saul Raisin.
Slow is not Saul Raisin’s preferred speed right now. He thinks of himself as a professional cyclist, a potentially great one. He doesn’t remember the crash that almost killed him in spring of 2006. He never saw himself the way his mother and father saw him, rigid and unresponsive in a hospital bed.
I don’t know what it is about American cyclists and near death experiences, but I hope Saul Raisin can someday do what Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong did in coming back from near fatal life experiences, but most of all I hope he can just live a normal life free of the effect of his head injury.
Saul has a Raisin’ Hope ride in a few days on March 31st. You can still donate or bid on some auction items before the event.
BikeRide.com photo of Raisin racing in the 2003 World Championships.
NBA superstar LeBron James has acquired minority ownership of Cannondale according to USA Today. Don’t look for James to be the suiting up for the Tour de France, but he says he does use a bike for cross training.
Cannondale is one of the premier cycling companies in the industry,” James said Monday in a statement. “Biking is an extremely important part of my training routine, and I like to invest in what I know.”
The deal came a day after the world’s second richest man Warren Buffett came to see James play. Maybe there is a connection there? I don’t know if I will be investing in Cannondale, but I was considering buying one of their tandems.
The Tour of Connecticut, a pro cycling race that was scheduled for May 19 and 20 has been canceled. The race had been on the USA Cycling National Race Calendar. Race director John Eustice tried to pull the race together again this year after having to cancel the race in 2006, but couldn’t get the financial backing to pull it off.
I’m sorry that the race isn’t happening. I sure enjoyed seeing a local pro race while it lasted. The circuit race in Waterbury was a great course for spectators, and the road race in northwest Connecticut traveled over some of my favorite local roads for riding. I hope the race can come back again someday, but with two years in a row of the race being canceled, I’m not optimistic.
The inaugural US Open Cycling Championship slated for April 7 in central Virginia will be a unique event in American cycling. This is really a made for TV event that will be aired on NBC, so it will be one of the the few times during the year that cycling is broadcast nationally on a major network. It’s date on the calendar will be a nice warm up for the Tour de Georgia that starts a week later.
The UCI-sanctioned men’s race, part of the USA Cycling Pro Tour, will start in Williamsburg After a circuit around the colonial area, the course heads past Jamestown and then heads up the Virginia Route 5 corridor toward Richmond. Along the way the cyclists will pass the James River Plantations, the Charles City County Courthouse, and the Malvern Hill Battlefield.
Upon entering Richmond at about 10:30 a.m., the racers will begin a 7.1 mile circuit, including a steep climb over cobblestones in Libby Hill Park, and passage through both Jackson Ward and Shockoe Bottom. The men will finish around 12:00 noon in front of The Library of Virginia. Live Jumbotrons will be set up both at the finish line and in Libby Hill Park.
The women’s invitational circuit race starts at 9:00 a.m. in Richmond in front of The Library of Virginia, and will finish at about 10:15 a.m.
After watching the race in person, you can watch it in a same-day national broadcast on NBC Sports, from 2:30-5:00 p.m. ET. Visit usopencycling.com for more information.
The Tour de Georgia announced the teams that have accepted invitation to the race April 16-22. The field includes ProTour teams CSC, Discovery Channel, Saunier Duval-Prodir, Quick Step-Innergetic and Predictor-Lotto.
After breaking his arm in the Tour of California, George Hincapie is expected to make his return in Georgia. As in California the Discovery team is expected to be lead by Levi Leipheimer.
Tyler Hamilton is expected to lead his new team Tinkoff Credit System as he returns to racing in the U.S. after his suspension. It will be interesting to see the reception he gets from fans. I seems like cycling fans are pretty easy to forgive their heroes, and Hamilton maintains he never did anything wrong.
Hamilton’s name did come up in the Operation Puerto scandal, and today WADA announced it will seek civil action in the Puerto case. In my opinion, if the evidence in the Puerto case is substantiated, it would only be related to his doping offense that he has already served a suspension for, so I don’t see how he could be suspended again.
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