Bobby Julich: The Other White Meat

jstraw said:

Today Bobby Julich followed his recent victory at Paris Nice with the overall win at the Criterium International capping it with the stage victory in the stage 3 time trial.

He's clearly the hottest American on the UCI this season so far and well on his way to wiping away thoughts of Tyler Hamilton as the U.S.' number two man in the sport.

Call it a quarterback controversy in the works but with a little more of this sort of success, it will become an open question as to whether Bjarne Riis will make Bobby work for Ivan Basso in the TdF.

http://velonews.com/race/int/articles/7754.0.html

Yeah, awesome win for Julich. What a great early season!

However, I'll eat my shorts before I expect to see Julich riding for the top spot at the Tour.

Aside from Julich, awesome day for the young Dekker. I thought his position on the bike during the TT looked incredible. I really thought he had a good chance to podium.

tcklyde said:

Yeah, awesome win for Julich. What a great early season!

However, I'll eat my shorts before I expect to see Julich riding for the top spot at the Tour.

Aside from Julich, awesome day for the young Dekker. I thought his position on the bike during the TT looked incredible. I really thought he had a good chance to podium.

Agree about Dekker. He's not done building muscle. He's going to be a force.

Another great race for CSC! Tactics in stage 2 were excellent! Basso and Julich together in 4-man (at the end) escape and first three places in time trial! CSC is definitively the best team at the moment regarding their budget.

tcklyde said:

Yeah, awesome win for Julich. What a great early season!

However, I'll eat my shorts before I expect to see Julich riding for the top spot at the Tour.

Aside from Julich, awesome day for the young Dekker. I thought his position on the bike during the TT looked incredible. I really thought he had a good chance to podium.

He came damn close in 1998 (or was it 1999?)
Broke his collarbone and wrist when he clipped a curb in the time trial at 50+ kph.

I fully expect him to contend for the yellow unless Riis tells him to ride for Basso.

3rensho said:

He came damn close in 1998 (or was it 1999?)
Broke his collarbone and wrist when he clipped a curb in the time trial at 50+ kph.

I fully expect him to contend for the yellow unless Riis tells him to ride for Basso.

Yes, Julich finished 3rd in 1998, though the Tour was rocked by scandal and only 96 riders finished. In 97, he finished 17th, over an hour down. He crashed out in 1999, finished 58th and 1 hour, 45 min down in 2000. He was 18th and 48 min down in 2001, 37th and 1 hour 13 mins in 2002, didn't start 2003, and 40th at 1 hour 12 min in 2004. Julich can be a great time trialist, but outside of his banner year in 1998, hasn't really shown the potential to compete at the top level at the Tour.

If Julich isn't riding for Basso (if Basso flops, or is injured, or whatever), he'll be riding for Sastre, who has shown himself to have more Tour potential in recent years.

Julich is going well at the moment.
He even piped Jens Voigt to win the Criterium International !

Julich's form before he joined CSC was very patchy to say the least.
He seems to have improved a lot since joining CSC.

limerickman said:

Julich is going well at the moment.
He even piped Jens Voigt to win the Criterium International !

Julich's form before he joined CSC was very patchy to say the least.
He seems to have improved a lot since joining CSC.

It seems like nearly every page of the March issue of ProCycling is about CSC. They are definitely a team to watch this year.

It is going to be a great season!

strummer_fan said:

It seems like nearly every page of the March issue of ProCycling is about CSC. They are definitely a team to watch this year.

It is going to be a great season!

Being an American, I don't get too much access to high quality European cycling mags, but I do have to say that Procycling has been way behind CycleSport America on quality thus far this year. CycleSport had a great sprinters issue, with good interviews with a lot of sprinters and classics men. Procycling? Just another Lance/Ullrich/Cunego cover. Come on man! The Tour isn't for months! And their (Procycling's) Petacchi interview was terrible compared to CycleSport's interview.

tcklyde said:

Being an American, I don't get too much access to high quality European cycling mags, but I do have to say that Procycling has been way behind CycleSport America on quality thus far this year. CycleSport had a great sprinters issue, with good interviews with a lot of sprinters and classics men. Procycling? Just another Lance/Ullrich/Cunego cover. Come on man! The Tour isn't for months! And their (Procycling's) Petacchi interview was terrible compared to CycleSport's interview.

I agree with you wholeheartedly.

CS seems to me a more "in depth" publication - the interviews are a lot better.
PC seems to be obsessed with Armstrong/Ullrich.
Practically every cover is Armstrong this or Armstrong that.
I don't mind reading about LA but the sport has a lot more going on in it.

The results section in CS alone, is worth the cover price.
It details all of the major pro races with placings/times.

limerickman said:

I agree with you wholeheartedly.

CS seems to me a more "in depth" publication - the interviews are a lot better.
PC seems to be obsessed with Armstrong/Ullrich.
Practically every cover is Armstrong this or Armstrong that.
I don't mind reading about LA but the sport has a lot more going on in it.

The results section in CS alone, is worth the cover price.
It details all of the major pro races with placings/times.

I too subscribe to both and agree that the quality of the content is superior in CS but man, CS did a redesign last year and they're guilty of some of the WORST transgressions in graphic design now. Take a look at page 123 of the March issue. They are also rife with copyediting errors and someone needs to take all of their feature photographers' ring lights away from them.

jstraw said:

I too subscribe to both and agree that the quality of the content is superior in CS but man, CS did a redesign last year and they're guilty of some of the WORST transgressions in graphic design now. Take a look at page 123 of the March issue. They are also rife with copyediting errors and someone needs to take all of their feature photographers' ring lights away from them.

I've seen plenty of typos, but their reporters write pretty well. Last year's procycling Tour preview (it was something like "Armstrong vs. Ullrich -- TT showdown"😉 was absymally written. And they didn't even compare the right equipment: LA's Alp TT bike vs. Ullrich's flat TT bike. What the hell?