Brought back to life by reader demand, the Broken Chain Award is considered for any person or thing that protrudes above the surface of cycling’s bad behavior and bad ideas.
Yours in Cycling, Gianni
The obvious first choice, the easy choice, was the French TV driver who put Juan Antonio Flecha down on the road and Johnny Hoogerland into the barbed wire on Stage 9 of the Tour de France. The driver, rumored to be an ex-pro, was trying to get ahead of the break, passing them where there wasn’t room. Hit a tree or hit some riders, he went right and now might be in the witness protection program in Latvia. But can this guy be the biggest idiot of the year in cycling? Passing a group of racers who are already using both lanes, driving fast to get around them, keeping eyes on the cyclists and a tree runs out into the road. This is inexcusable driving but there is an even bigger tool in the bin.
The vitriol I distill in my heart for the cheaters in cycling has somehow decreased this year. Less doping or better cheaters – I’m not sure. The lack of busted, denying dumb-asses has had a good effect on my health. The two-time loser brigade which should, by all reasonable calculations still be paying the price, seems to have found teams corrupt enough to pay them to ride. OK, Di Luca is riding but not getting paid. Tchmil should break him like a twig and toss him in a Russian potato field. Stefan Schumacher is back riding for Christina Watches, the Rock Racing of Europe.
Having a high VO2 max has no correlation with intelligence. Some riders even have the perfect amount of dumb. But Ricardo Ricco has much more than his fair share. He had already served a ban for his CERA-EPO busting during the 2008 Tour. In February of this year he ended up in the emergency room with kidney failure. He told the ER staff he gave himself a blood transfusion from blood stored in his own refrigerator. Giving oneself an IV can’t be easy but rummaging around your refrigerator for some stored blood, looking in the lettuce drawer, where did I put that old blood? Oh, here it is, is that mayo on there? Shouldn’t this be colder? It boggles the mind.
This award is not exclusively for cheaters but I tend to see them as most deserving. Ricco has earned mention in the past for cheating and being a prick but for this prank I have to nominate him for the 2011 Broken Chain Award.
I don’t really know what to say about Ricco, he is looking at a lifetime ban and possible prison time. The Italians won’t drag this out like the Spanish. Everyone must dislike him and feel sorry for him in nearly equal amounts. I would be insane to think we have seen the last of him but at least we won’t see him racing unless Tchmil steps in.
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@VeloVita
Hein Verbrugge - a Dutchman, so take my words in the light of how favorably I see the Dutch - is one of the most manipulative, egotistical assholes the world has ever managed to produce. I am completely convinced that he not only turned a blind eye to what was happening in Cycling in the 90's, but actively supported and encouraged it. Why? It was good business.
Most of the problems we have in Cycling today can probably be tied back to him in one manner or another. He mentored Pat McQuaid and it wasn't until he left the board that the stalemate between the UCI and the Grand Tour organizers let up.
Pat is a whole order of magnitude better than Hein. Pats just incompetent and has not idea how to lead his organization from conspiring with the dopers to effectively getting rid of them. Admittedly, change management in that environment is not easy, but I think he's particularly bad at it.
This stuff they've been doing lately just reeks of an organization that's trying really hard to have relevance in an environment where they know they lack it...
@Buck Rogers
The V and Anti-V moments happened simultaneously...Faboo sitting up when they were 11 seconds from the break and Thor not pulling through to help was the Anti-V; Van Summeren taking one for the domestiques on a flat tire was the V moment.
I know every antipode will call Cuddles on the Galibier, and Schelck's Hail Mary was another good one. Nibbles being the only class rider during the season who consistently was willing to go for a long shot rather than always waiting for the finale as is the style these days was also great to see. I think he's shaping up to be my favorite rider these days...
@Souleur
They do, but that'll have to be for 2012? Wankers. Class wankers.
@G'phant
Well, enough about Brett...
@Rob
Me too, tears in my eyes reading this. @Gianni - Ricco - it's brilliant. How long ago did you break the lever of the Genius Switch? That thing is set if permanent ON.@sgt
Combination of factors, but we may do them after all, as this was a fun read. But no Australians and no Luxemburgers will be nominated for any awards, we'll tell you that much!
Didn't Jonny H already win the Rule 5 this year?
@G'phant
You are totally correct, I should have kept him off this site.
Someone you know? Brilliant stuff right there. Damn it man, you need to make the Belgian Keepers Tour. We need you to talk the police out the trouble Bretto will get us into.
@RedRanger
He won the TDF Rule #5 Award, which is different from the seasonal V-Moment of the year...
Because i'm hanging out to watch some racing, i've been watching the 2007 & 2008 TdF DVD's produced here in Aus by SBS. It's pretty interesting to watch the cast of charactors involved:
Vino (2007)
Schumacher
Kohl
Ricco
Piepoli
Valverde
and a few more that got wiped out for doping whose names escape me.
Lots of shady charactors doing spectacular things. Schumacher's decimation of Faboo in the Cholet(?) Time Trial drew some interesting remarks in the commentary from Paul Sherwin and Uncle Phil like "surprising" and "extraordinary". I wonder if they knew something was amiss?
Also, after the TT in Albi in 2007 where Vino beat Cuddles by a long margin, Cuddles himself remarked how surprising it was that Vino could come back the way he did after losing 30 mins the day before.
The point of my rambling, and there is a point, is that I find it a bit difficult to enjoy the racing as I know for a fact that Ricco, Schumacher and Vino in 2007 were juiced.
I wonder if the days where GC riders lose a huge amount of time on one stage in the mountains, to gain it back with a "bold" attack the next day (a la Floyd and Vino) are no longer with us as it appears that it may be the result of some "special recovery".
And yes, I must admit that I don't particularly like Ricardo Ricco; He's got a huge ego that must have grown like a tumour as the result of all of the epo in his body, and he's said some pretty stupid things publically, but I will stop short of charactor assasination and name calling. That's just me.
Gianni- Ricco is a perfect choice for this award. Well done.
@ Mouse: I believe that Ricco assassinates his own character just about every time he opens his mouth or throws a leg over the top tube. Do you recall the comments he made in the press just before his "clean comeback"? All that "I have learned the error of my ways" bullshit, just as he was putting a pint in the freezer for later use. If anyone in the last 12 months of professional cycling deserves character assassination it is Ricardo "The Douchebag" Ricco. McQuaid gets a very close second/honorable mention in my book, although Cuntador doesn't need to do much to be on the list.
@Gianni
Still giggling.
I always see possible nominees & possible winners. It can be hard to pick the winner!
I did watch "Senna" today & that was pretty crazy. I'm not an F-1 fan, but that was interesting. Senna vs. Prost, the French chairman vs. Senna. I could pick out a winner or two in that circus...
Nice one, Gianni!