The Cycliste Moderne, July 21, 2005

Go Paolo Go

Paolo Salvoldelli of Discovery Channel and winner of the Giro d’Italia rolled to his first Tour stage win. Of course it came as part of a breakaway that gained over 20 minutes on the peleton. Typical stage of the third week of the Tour de France, big break with a lot of guys hours behind the leaders and ultimately the French riders make a mess of the breakaway and fail to win. Today it was Francaise de Jeux who had two riders in the breakaway and when it split with 30km to go, they were both left looking at each other while Salvoldelli, Arvesen and Sevilla among others rolled off the front.

Action Behind

Interestingly over the last climb of the day T-Mobile attacked in attempt to have Ullrich gain time on Rabobank’s Michael Rassmusen. They did not gain any time on him but Floyd Landis got dropped as did Christophe Moreau. At that point Discovery went to the front and worked with T-Mobile to keep the split away. Ultimately, Lance Armstrong was taking hard pulls to the finish. Why? Well it appears that Lance took umbrage with comments Floyd Landis made to L’Equipe that were published on Tuesday. Who says that the greatest Tour de France rider in history is above getting into the occasional catfight.

Final Word on Sitting On.

Here is an excellent analysis of the ethics of sitting on from Thomas Prehn at Velonews.com.

Fashion Flury

I realized that we really just have one more work day for posts for the Cycliste Moderne and I have a bunch of teams left to review so here we go:

Domina Vacanze

This Italian outfit sponsored a team that over the last few years had zebra stripes and Mario Cippolini. The sponsor, an Italian resort company moved its entire sponsorship to a different team this year that is based upon the small Italian professional team DiNardi-Colpak.

The colors have improved and the resort motif is ok, but the jersey is still a jumble of small secondary sponsors. It looks a lot like something you would see at the weeknight office park criterium. Domina Vacanze has done nothing in the Tour and their colorful jerseys and shorts are the team’s best showing at the Tour.

They get a C+.

Liquigas-Bianchi

Liquigas-Binanchi takes the classic Bianchi green of their bike sponsor and manages to come out with something that cannot really be explained. Taking the Bianchi green and mixing that timid lime color is a crime. You may not like Bianchi green but it is distinctive and classic. My respect for Bianchi is all that keeps the team from an F.

Liquigas gets a D.

Lampre

I provided criticism of Lampre during the Giro. I don’t see any reason to change my opinion so here is what I wrote before:

Lampre-Caffita’s kit requires some comment. For a team outfitted by sportswear manufacturer Kappa, their uniforms leave a lot to be desired. The black seat pad insert in the shorts is ugly and distracting. The Lampre blue is flat and unappealing and is even worse with the pink highlighting stitching. The Kappa logos on the front hips are too big and there are too many other sponsor logos. The old Lampre blue and pink jerseys were certainly distinctive and identifiable. The new Lampre kit just makes you scratch your head. You would expect a better design from Kappa; the Saeco team kit they put together the last few years was classic and classy. Additionally, thei Rudy Project helmets with the Elvis muttonchop ear fairings are about the ugliest time trial helmet in the peleton.

Lampre gets a D.

Quick.Step
Davitamon-Lotto

Belgian Fashion. Now there is an oxymoron. Neither team likes the other. Quick.Step emerged from the Belgian portion of the old Mapei team when it withdrew its sponosorship. For awhile it was Quick.Step-Davitamon. But there was a nasty split last year, lawsuits ensued, damages were awarded and Davitamon took its various sponsorships to the former Lotto-Domo team. Lotto, the Belgian lottery, has had various cosponsors over the years and has been in the peleton for ten plus years. The Davitamon-Lotto kit has the color schemes of each cosponsor. Not too busy, not to bizarre, nothing wrong with red, white, blue and yellow. Solidly Belgian.

Quick.Step, the Belgian modular laminate floor company has a cosponsor this year to replace Davitamon, Innergetic. But who really cares. The team’s kit has followed Quick.Step’s color scheme since its intial development. The blue and grey is simple and classic. Commercially functional gets you a B. With a flooring company and a mattress company as sponsors you wonder if the Quick.Step guys get free product. Better than mortgages I tell you or German bolts and screws.

The two Belgian squads both get B’s for Belgium.