Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Signs of Life?
Not from me so much. I guess I’m still on hiatus – just taking a break from studying for tomorrow morning’s penultimate final exam. Ok, so truth be told, taking a break from procrastinating about studying for the exam.
Rather the post is about Jan Ullrich. His ride in the Giro is inexplicably being celebrated in the German press as the return of the Prodigal Son. Ullrich’s daily progress is being hailed as the latest miracle worked by the new German-born Pope, to the extent that his Giro – which he truthfully did “enter without ambition regarding the overall classification” – is being considered “fully successful.” After all, he is regarded as a favorite for tomorrow’s only long-distance time trial.
With the exception of teammate Michael Rogers, though, where is his competition? Ivan Basso is widely expected to pad his lead as well because most of the participants in the year’s Giro ride about as well against the clock as I do. Fortunately for them, this year’s race will be won and lost in the mountains of the final week, not in the contre le montre mañana. More significantly for Ullrich as well, if he is to win Le Tour he will have to take the fight to Basso, Alejandro Valverde, and Damiano Cunego in the mountains – if not to take time away from them, then at least to manage his losses.
In that regard, from the pre-season Ullrich’s ride in the Giro seemed to make since. Although pros supposedly don’t follow the dictum of race your strengths, train your weaknesses, Ullrich certainly needs to find his form in the mountains if he wants to duplicate his last Tour victory of nearly a decade past.
Granted, this is only the second week of racing that Ullrich has in his legs this season, but time is not on his side. His own goals, those of his team, and largely those of his country, are focused solely on those three weeks in France. Bearing this in mind, much like the real Giro – the one for the maglia rosa – Ullrich’s Giro won’t really begin until the final week. If Ullrich somehow manages to haul his hump over the summits of the Dolomites, he emerges from the Giro, he emerges from Italy as something of a legitimate contender at Le Tour. But if he continues to stuggle mightly every time the asphalt inches oh so slightly upward, than it will take a comeback unlike any seen since the time of Lazarus to put Ullrich back on top of the heap.
(And since I’ve apparently become an evangelical, I suppose in the finance exam tomorrow, I should just copy out the tale of the money changers in the Temple…)
Rather the post is about Jan Ullrich. His ride in the Giro is inexplicably being celebrated in the German press as the return of the Prodigal Son. Ullrich’s daily progress is being hailed as the latest miracle worked by the new German-born Pope, to the extent that his Giro – which he truthfully did “enter without ambition regarding the overall classification” – is being considered “fully successful.” After all, he is regarded as a favorite for tomorrow’s only long-distance time trial.
With the exception of teammate Michael Rogers, though, where is his competition? Ivan Basso is widely expected to pad his lead as well because most of the participants in the year’s Giro ride about as well against the clock as I do. Fortunately for them, this year’s race will be won and lost in the mountains of the final week, not in the contre le montre mañana. More significantly for Ullrich as well, if he is to win Le Tour he will have to take the fight to Basso, Alejandro Valverde, and Damiano Cunego in the mountains – if not to take time away from them, then at least to manage his losses.
In that regard, from the pre-season Ullrich’s ride in the Giro seemed to make since. Although pros supposedly don’t follow the dictum of race your strengths, train your weaknesses, Ullrich certainly needs to find his form in the mountains if he wants to duplicate his last Tour victory of nearly a decade past.
Granted, this is only the second week of racing that Ullrich has in his legs this season, but time is not on his side. His own goals, those of his team, and largely those of his country, are focused solely on those three weeks in France. Bearing this in mind, much like the real Giro – the one for the maglia rosa – Ullrich’s Giro won’t really begin until the final week. If Ullrich somehow manages to haul his hump over the summits of the Dolomites, he emerges from the Giro, he emerges from Italy as something of a legitimate contender at Le Tour. But if he continues to stuggle mightly every time the asphalt inches oh so slightly upward, than it will take a comeback unlike any seen since the time of Lazarus to put Ullrich back on top of the heap.
(And since I’ve apparently become an evangelical, I suppose in the finance exam tomorrow, I should just copy out the tale of the money changers in the Temple…)
