Rate it!

4 votes

Cadel Evans must be pleased with his team's season preparations: rather than focus on signing the Australian an able lieutenant to prevent him falling over in the mountains, Silence-Lotto are making sure their riders all get new cutting-edge haircuts.

The Belgian team, sponsored by both the national lottery and a kind of snoring preventative system, are so keen their riders look the part and play the part ahead of the spring classics that they have made an agreement with Belgium's top hairdressing salon 'Le Client'.

According to sporza.be, all the team's riders are being encouraged to drop in for "een moderne snit gratis naar de kapper" - that's a free trendy snip at the barbers to you and me.

Making this arrangement slightly less credible is a picture in the article of a grinning Johan Vansummeren getting what can only be described as a 'fashionable-in-the-80s' cut: short sides, long fringe, whispy back.

Betraying incredible linguistic acumen, a team statement then read: "An athlete's image begins with how he looks." Poor Johan! It continued, bizarrely: "This year we have two particularly good looking riders in Greg Van Avermaet and Thomas Dekker."

Now Blazin' Saddles is not in the habit of playing devil's advocate, but he was intrigued to see that the head of communications at Silence-Lotto is none other than a Marianne Vansummeren. Let's just hope she's Johan's sister.

In Marianne's defence, she has a point. Pretty boy Van Avermaet was recently photographed in a naked cycling pose for Belgian lifestyle magazine Humo. Along with other Belgian sports eye candy, the young sprinter was taking part in a male "schoonheidsconcours" (beauty competition) to find "De Gouden Stud" (hint: gouden = golden).

And by the looks of things on the readers' comment page of Humo's website, Greg did Silence-Lotto proud.

'Mieke' praises Greg for his "beautiful body and OK bulb" (excuse the Babelfish Flemish translation) while 'Sarah' says suggestively "Greg is most sexy by a bike's length". A giddy 'Ingrid' says Greg's body looks both "beautiful and promising" while 'Biebel' cannot contain herself, gushing: "Greg has the most beautiful face - I just wish the camera could bring something else into the picture".

And it seems even clouds have silver linings after one blogger, Springbal, wrote: "His picture is so sweet. His calves are not really that muscular, but his thigh is quite beautiful."

California dreaming

Mark Cavendish was quick to say how his two victories in Qatar showed what fine fettle he was in ahead of the season's big races, the Manxman happy to wax his own trumpet.

"Two wins, my performance is mainly good because I've beaten top class sprinters here."

Someone should mention to Cav that his first win came after overall winner Tom Boonen pulled up way ahead of the line, and his second came against Robert Forster after Boonen had - understandably given the sad situation of compatriot Frederick Nolf - lost any will to compete.

Qatar may have promised a great showdown between the sport's fastest men, but we'll have to wait until the forthcoming Tour of California and beyond to see who's shaping up well.

A big farewell

Sweden's Magnus Backstedt has called it a day at the age of 34 after a 12-year professional career which saw him win Paris-Roubaix and one Tour de France stage.

A pivotal man in the peloton, Backstedt - all 6' 4 of him - will be sadly missed. His retirement will mean the number of riders whose names are habitually prefixed with the moniker 'Big' has dropped by 33 per cent. Those that remain? Big Thor Hushovd and, of course, Big George Hincapie.

Day-bike robbery

Riders on the Team Barloworld training camp in Italy were left po-faced after robbers broke into a store room at their Tuscan hotel and stole 21 of the 32 team bikes.

Well, if the thieves ride those bikes in any way like the Barloworld riders did last year, they'll be on the deck, down ravines, in ditches and generally all over the place so quickly that it should hardly be difficult to locate them.

Wish you where here

In an article in the travel section of a UK broadsheet over the weekend, British Olympic cycling legend Bradley "nine-month bender" Wiggins talked about his favourite holiday retreat.

"The things I like about **** ** ******** are that the weather's usually great, it's easy to get to, it's relaxing any time of the year and, being in the north east of the island, it has very few lads partying - the last thing you want if you're after a quiet family holiday."

This is, of course, the opposite side of a rider who told another UK broadsheet that, after winning his gold medals in Beijing, he "downed a couple of beers straight away [and] proceeded to get blind drunk with my wife and friends".

But can you name the place and the island he was talking about? A clue: it's not Newcastle, which is indubitably the last place you want if you're after a quiet family holiday.

Yes, Newcastle may be "in the north east of the island" (ie Britain), but lads (and scantily-clad lasses) party with alarming regularity, the weather's never great, it's not relaxing in the slightest and, sadly, it's only too easy to get to. Answers below and the winner will be announced next week.

Quote of the week

New managing editor of French sports paper Fabrice Jouhaud (a follower of the 'work hard, play hard' ethic?) told Cyclismag: "We will give less space to doping issues because this is not the priority of our publication. It is time for the cycling department to lay down its arms and take a breather."

And on that note, so will Blazin' Saddles. (Take a breather that is.)

Felix Lowe / Eurosport