On Tap...

With all the madness, March Madness, occurring around me its easy to forget that Paris-Nice concludes this weekend. The Race to the Sun has always been used to officially kick off the cycling season, and with good reason. Although there are plenty of races on the calendar that precede it, the parcours are indicative of the cycling season's reawakening. From the cold and dreary Winter like conditions of Paris, the riders are ushered into Spring by the milder temperatures and sun drenched beaches of Nice. If you aren't as lucky to watch it live or through Cycling.tv, the recap of the race and its final stage can be seen on Versus.

Flight of the Contador
The surprise of P-N, and the early season, has been the form of Discovery Channel's Alberto Contador. Once a part of the powerful Liberty Seguros cycling team, and the other half of a young and exciting pair of Spanish riders, the other half being former teammate Luis Leon Sanchez, Contador seems to be one of Discovery's men for the future. It will definitely be interesting to see how the rise of Contador affects the development of Tom Danielson as a GC rider. Danielson, who isn't up to form this early in the season, has essentially buried himself for Contador's and Leipheimer's chances in this race. He can however, be buttressed by the fact that he has already been selected to take part of Discovery's Tour de France team.

Boob Tube
For those of you who haven't been infected by cabin fever and decide that it's still too cold to ride outside this weekend, Oude Granny suggest the movie American Flyers. A full review by ROLL Film can be found here.

Borzo Says:
"Tesich's love and knowledge of bicycle racing is embodied in the movie's two main characters, who are over-the-top bicycle aficionados: Marcus (Kevin Costner), a type-A sports doctor with professional racing credentials; and his underachieving younger brother, David (David Marshall Grant), a drifter who likes to bike. They dither between fraternal rivalry and brotherly love as they train for and then ride in the "Hell of the West."

Strauss Says:
" The only thing preventing American Flyers from becoming a total disaster is the dedicated effort of the cast to make an actual movie out of this jumble."

Granny's Take:
Although I would best describe this film as campy, several things leap out at me. For those too young to remember, the race in the movie provides you a glimpse of what was once the Red Zinger/Coors Classic. It also shows some beautiful scenery of the Colorado Monument in Grand Junction, CO. In addition, although her acting skills aren't as polished as when she would later run around with David Hasselhoff on Baywatch, Alexandra Paul (Stephanie Holden on Baywatch) certainly holds her own in this film. Plus her presence seems to make the premise of the film somewhat more credible (even though she plays the love interest and not the athlete), as she ended up being quite the triathlete, completing Ironman Hawaii in the late 90's.