tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923Thu, 09 May 2013 17:52:04 +0000RamblingTour 2009domesticLandis 2010AmateurMemory LaneWord of the DayArdennesU23InterntionalInterviewsVuelta 2009Tour de FranceHistoryDopingAmstelObitsMonumentsReviewsOlympicsSix DaysFlecheClassicsPredictionsGiro 2010Navel-GazingTechTeamsCyclocrossRulesinternationalindustryBusinessLiegeService CoursesArtifactsRoubaixSpeculationCultural LearningsRidersTour 2010ScheldeprijsFleche WallonneGiro d'ItaliaPhilly WeekRondeJust Being MeanUCIGiro d' ItaliaUnivestMediaBeverageshttp://www.theservicecourse.com/noreply@blogger.com (Ryan)Blogger191125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-7364452307997327407Fri, 06 Jul 2012 02:07:00 +00002012-07-20T13:39:10.489-04:00 You may be wondering how, during the biggest bike race on the planet, the Service Course has remained so silent. The truth is, I've been pumping out a decent word count, but it's all been posted over on velonews.com. As many of you know, I've done online and print work for them on a freelance basis for quite a while, and when the chance came to contribute to Tour de France coverage over there, Ihttp://www.theservicecourse.com/2012/07/vacation-home-in-boulder.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-6875122914197852295Thu, 03 May 2012 17:01:00 +00002012-05-03T21:23:09.627-04:00Memory LaneRondeUnivestGiro d'Italia One time, after nobody had said anything for awhile, Michele Pollentier flicked four fingers outward over the top of the steering wheel and asked me why Americans don’t know how to ride their bikes through a race caravan. I strung together some sort of response that felt diplomatic enough, maybe even accurate. About how a lot of the races over here are criteriums, so we have plenty of pits andhttp://www.theservicecourse.com/2012/05/quick-lesson.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-2999396217403448542Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:50:00 +00002012-05-01T15:58:30.394-04:00FlecheClassicsRidersOlympicsLiegeArdennesHistoryAmstelThe Schlecks are off form, so is Gilbert, and Fleche Wallonne as currently structured is doomed to three minutes of sincere action. Among other things, that’s what the 2012 Ardennes classics revealed, though none of that was really news. But what the three Ardennes winners and their teams did highlight is just how much one aspect of cycling, driven by external political and economic forces, has http://www.theservicecourse.com/2012/04/great-migrations.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-2854737376123338615Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:26:00 +00002012-04-16T16:58:45.417-04:00ClassicsLiegeArdennesFleche WallonneAmstelThe Ardennes classics, which kick off this year with the Amstel Gold on Sunday,* are the third stage in understanding professional road cycling. The grand tours, and the Tour de France in particular, are cycling’s window dressing, the defacto gateways to the sport.** They're what makes the papers and sometimes TV, even in those non-traditional cycling countries the UCI's always making eyes at. http://www.theservicecourse.com/2012/04/triangulation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-2634263232604347217Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:14:00 +00002012-04-05T16:27:44.054-04:00ScheldeprijsClassicsMediaAt the conclusion of Wednesday’s rain-soaked Grote Scheldeprijs race outside Antwerp, several riders hit the slick pavement just beyond the finish line. Saxo Bank's Jonathan Cantwell collided with photographer Taz Darling of Rouleur magazine, who suffered, at last report, a fractured eye socket, ruptured spleen, and a broken collarbone. Cantwell suffered a punctured lung, while the other riders http://www.theservicecourse.com/2012/04/adapt.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-2926534052198530675Sat, 31 Mar 2012 04:54:00 +00002012-04-02T12:31:46.281-04:00RondeClassicsMonumentsIf we put aside the hand-wringing over the loss of the Muur and Bosberg, there’s a more significant change evident in this year’s Ronde van Vlaanderen parcours. Hilltops and cobbled sectors have always come and gone, and come back again: witness the legendary Koppenberg’s lengthy layoff and eventual return. The Muur and the Bosberg will be back someday, too, maybe not in the crucial final hour http://www.theservicecourse.com/2012/03/monumental-shift.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-5634982002450195704Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:51:00 +00002012-03-30T09:47:52.519-04:00UCIBut Not in the Usual WayMuch has been made of the UCI’s artfully titled “Check of the equipment and position in competition,” the recent set of new rules, reiterations, and clarifications that, among other things, famously requires professional teams to retain the factory lawyer tabs on their forks and limits the height of riders’ socks. Most observers seem to agree that the latter rule, which http://www.theservicecourse.com/2012/03/uci-leaving-womens-cycling-unsupported.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-5305984754648640955Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:32:00 +00002012-03-23T16:06:18.448-04:00UCIRamblingThere was an old lady who swallowed a dog,Oh what a hog, to swallow a dog!She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,I don't know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps she'll die.-Traditional Children’s SongIn the wake of the UCI’s http://www.theservicecourse.com/2012/03/there-was-old-lady.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-8004448786379941474Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:50:00 +00002012-03-21T16:57:20.393-04:00I apparently missed a rash of front wheels falling from the forks of the pro peloton lately. I don’t really understand how. I read the news, and though I admit being a little dismissive of the tech-related yammering, I'd surely have noticed the individual and collective rider whining over this apparent epidemic. It wouldn’t be the first problem I’ve been ignorant of, though, and apparently http://www.theservicecourse.com/2012/03/lawyer-lips-sink-ships.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-1827808914181431477Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:00:00 +00002011-12-11T23:17:08.933-05:00This week’s popular diversion for those who consider themselves crusty old cycling fans is to loudly pooh-pooh the broader cycling community’s feelings of shock or outrage at the whole Vinokourov-Kolobnev race-fixing allegation. I get that. I have those tendencies, too. To seasoned ears, newer followers of the sport – those who haven’t read all the same books, heard all the same stories, or http://www.theservicecourse.com/2011/12/notes-from-rocking-chair.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-8640036879113065766Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:34:00 +00002013-05-09T13:52:04.060-04:00 Today, the Belgian federation strongly expressed its opinion that race number 108, which Wouter Weylandt wore at the time of his death in the 2011 Giro d’ Italia, should not be taken out of circulation in tribute as some have suggested. Thank goodness someone spoke up, and thank goodness it’s the KBWB that’s putting a foot down. Since Weylandt was one of its own, its voice should carry some http://www.theservicecourse.com/2011/06/numbers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-3986424588985177635Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:35:00 +00002011-04-05T10:04:15.049-04:00RondeClassicsUCIMediaI’ve been accused, as recently as that last post, of not being a very good conspiracy theorist. It’s true. I admit to the possibility that I lack a certain degree of insight, or that I am possessed of only limited imagination. Or maybe I just look terrible in tin foil hats. Regardless, I believe it’s important to show some effort, to rise to refute the accusations of your critics, and, in this http://www.theservicecourse.com/2011/04/we-want-airwaves.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-4011246366947153211Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:20:00 +00002011-03-29T15:10:11.818-04:00DopingMediaSince it hit the internet on Friday afternoon, I’ve seen a variety of reactions to Bill Strickland’s Bicycling piece about Lance Armstrong and dope. Many of them, I think it’s fair to say, have been negative. That was expected given the subject at hand, Strickland’s longtime support of Armstrong, and his connections to Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel via authorship of several books. And as expected,http://www.theservicecourse.com/2011/03/raising-awareness.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-2259315839727894429Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:26:00 +00002011-03-25T15:46:21.128-04:00ClassicsinternationalSporza is reporting this morning that the organizers of the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen believe that tomorrow's edition of the race is likely to be its last. If true, the impending death of the E3 it is the predictable outcome of moving Gent-Wevelgem from the Wednesday between the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix to E3's traditional weekend before Flanders. It took all of two years.The sad irony, http://www.theservicecourse.com/2011/03/e3-ko.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-1067267798751748124Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:42:00 +00002011-03-24T14:19:15.714-04:00ClassicsinternationalNavel-GazingThe Service Course has had a difficult time summoning much enthusiasm for professional cycling lately, an affliction I gather is not uncommon these days. After all, the sport is beset by maladies at every level, from frame stickers to radios to doping to poor governance to outright corruption.Distasteful as the whole mess seems at times, that's not the reason I've skipped more than two months http://www.theservicecourse.com/2011/03/pangs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-422974717239065744Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:09:00 +00002011-01-25T16:08:27.119-05:00DopingBusinessTeamsinternationalIn the wake of Matt White’s sudden dismissal as Garmin-Cervelo’s director sportif, there’s been a lot of debate surrounding the “real reason” for the firing. Was it, as team chief Jonathan Vaughters maintains, because White sent former team rider Trent Lowe to highly suspect doctor Luis del Moral for blood tests in 2009? Or was it really because of White’s rumored links to the new Australian http://www.theservicecourse.com/2011/01/no-check-mate.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-5925762000986612886Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:36:00 +00002011-01-20T17:11:48.321-05:00DopingBusinessinternationalThoughts on the SI ArticleIf you’re some hack with a website about professional cycling, then you’re kind of obligated to offer up some commentary about the highly anticipated Sports Illustrated Armstrong article by Selena Roberts and David Epstein. So here are my quick thoughts, bearing in mind that much of the article's content was previously known, and that much of the remaining intrigue comeshttp://www.theservicecourse.com/2011/01/ifthen.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-3047477041189979177Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:04:00 +00002011-01-20T14:11:36.876-05:00BusinessTeamsinternationalMediaWith the Pegasus ProTour effort not even cold in the grave, the next great Australian ProTour bid has already shot through the birth canal and now lies screaming on the scale, waiting to be weighed. Circle of life, I suppose. Going by the name GreenEDGE (which sounds suspiciously like a Billy Mays cleaning product), the new effort is headed, as predicted, by former Australian track cycling boss http://www.theservicecourse.com/2011/01/when-national-team-is-not-national-team.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-6653893157722611246Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:21:00 +00002011-01-14T09:49:12.437-05:00BusinessSometime in the first two months of this season, Leopard-Trek will score its first victory on the road. When it happens, at least one headline will read, “Leopard Pounces.”Sometime in the run-up to the Tour de France, in May or maybe even June, Leopard-Trek will sign a title sponsor, necessitating a hasty revision of all the team’s kit and materials. When it happens, at least one headline will http://www.theservicecourse.com/2011/01/predictive-text.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-77033836107066750Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:46:00 +00002012-02-27T22:47:46.222-05:00TechCyclocrossinternationalRamblingMediaThe fear, anticipation, and difficulty of doing things – no matter how benign those things may be – tends to increase the longer you put them off. As a lifelong procrastinator, I’ve learned this lesson well, though it’s worth noting that I have not adjusted my habits much as a result of that knowledge.Over the holiday break (judging by the timestamp on the last post, I’ve generously defined that http://www.theservicecourse.com/2011/01/clearing-decks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-5549803421597844960Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:36:00 +00002010-11-03T13:03:09.667-04:00Cultural LearningsCyclocrossinternationalIt was the cowbells that got me thinking. The incessant clanging I've experienced over the last several 'cross races first had me considering how you shouldn't give your three-year-old a cowbell if you want to keep your friends or your sanity. But once I recovered from that fundamental error, I started thinking about how cowbells are a sort of a universally accepted cultural anomaly in American ‘http://www.theservicecourse.com/2010/10/fondue-and-alpenhorns.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-7350757965703203599Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:21:00 +00002010-10-15T22:28:17.528-04:00ReviewsMediaIn A Moveable Feast, his memoir of his génération perdue days in inter-war Paris, Ernest Hemingway suggests to a talentless, advice-seeking writer that he become a literary critic instead of foisting his own questionable prose on an innocent public. While I hope criticism never becomes my primary written product (at least not for that reason), I thought a quick review of Paved, the newest U.S. http://www.theservicecourse.com/2010/10/paved-perceptions.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-5300066442043111557Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:10:00 +00002010-08-19T16:26:57.321-04:00DopinginternationalRamblingAs I wrote in an earlier post, I tend to find non-riders' involvment in cycling’s myriad dope scandals more interesting than that of the riders themselves. The doctors, the directors, the sponsors, the officials, the fixers and what they knew, when they knew it, what role they played, and why – all hold more intrigue for me than rattling on about why some 26-year-old bike racer chose to be the http://www.theservicecourse.com/2010/08/killing-davey-moore.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-2263631525064165853Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:54:00 +00002010-10-15T13:01:40.518-04:00Tour de FranceRamblingArtifactsLooking back, there are a few pivotal instances that I can say with some certainty either created or drastically altered my cycling life. Like waiting in the checkout line at Farm Fresh with my mom around 1989, seeing the issue of Mountain Bike Action with the white Nishiki Alien on the cover, and thinking that maybe bike racing was something worth checking out. Or the afternoon a few months http://www.theservicecourse.com/2010/08/20-years.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370923.post-3270633804975810712Tue, 27 Jul 2010 03:28:00 +00002010-07-28T10:56:42.098-04:00Tour de FranceTour 2010internationalEducators have a concept they call “teachable moments” –when classroom discussion takes an unexpected turn that the teacher can use to teach students about something they’re genuinely interested in. By definition, teachable moments aren’t a part of the lesson plan, and they’re not an everyday thing, but they’re an important, flexible element of an educational system that’s become increasingly http://www.theservicecourse.com/2010/07/raceable-moments.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ryan)6