Thursday Anouncements

Ok, so there's a few things you should know:

1: Starting tomorrow, the Collegiate National Championships will be taking place in Fort Collins, Colorado. Whitman is showing up with undoubtedly the best men's squad its ever had, and a team capable of vying for the overall team title. Best of luck to the entire Whitman team!

The Hagens Berman Elite team is also going to be represented (although not officially) by our star racer Adrian Hegyvary. For those who don't know, when Adrian isn't crushing local races, or placing in the top three of NRC crits, he's also a full time law student at the University of Washington. Best of luck to Adrian!

Supposedly you can watch the Collegiate Nationals action here: http://sites.google.com/site/bicycleracingtv/

2: In a recent development, the newest member of the cable TV family, Universal Sports, has decided to get serious about cycling (finally!). They already brought us the Tour of the Basque Country, and are now able to bring us the Giro de Italia, twice a day, for the entire twenty-one stages. I'm so psyched.

First off, Universal Sports is everything that Versus isn't. It highlights lesser known (but all equally serious) sports, and presents them in an entertaining fashion. It basically brings us the sports we normally only see televised during the Olympics (downhill skiing, gymnastics, track and field, etc.), and does so with nearly the same level of professionalism. Versus on the other hand takes a bunch of fringe sports and wraps them all with the same schlocky extreme packaging. Clearly, to Versus producers, there is no difference between the ultimate fighting audience, the bull riding audience, and the cycling audience -- each sport receives the same hard-hitting montages and promos. I'm so grateful that Universal Sports shows cycling for what it really is: an amazingly complex, unique, and beautiful sport -- without trying to make it something it's not: a cheap, simple, excuse to see people hurt themselves (ahem -- hockey).

Another reason I'm excited to see the Giro on Universal Sports is that my good friend and mentor Todd Gogulski landed the incredibly sweet position of Universal's on-air cycling analyst. Todd has been my friend since 2005 when we raced together on the same team in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He's a retired pro, and back in his day, he was a total badass, winning almost every race in the country at one point or another. He quit racing a long time ago, and has taken up the fine art of announcing professional bike races. Todd worked a good chunk of the NRC calender last year, but this Universal Sports gig is by far his biggest opportunity to date. Wish him luck, and enjoy his insight into this year's Giro.