Moreno Argentin goes ape-shit. Today’s riders “spineless.”

Understandable that riders protest against 24 hour, round the clock testing.

But when are they going to band together and tell the old italian geezers at the Retirement Home to knock off the lame criticism and keep their mouths shut?

First, it was aging Lion King in a sad lament (and calculated PR move) about the loss of machismo in the peloton. All the gladiators and warriors were gone, replaced by metrosexuals, hotel waiters and boy scouts. He practically called Andy a pansy.

Then Moreno Argentin launched his own broadside, claiming riders were spineless robots lacking fire and originality. He also said they were overpaid and lacking hunger — hunger in the metaphorical sense, not the pasta intake sense.

The news story said “Argentin told Gazzetta dello Sport” but we figure it really should have read “told Gazzetta dello Sport after two bottles of red wine and a few shots of Frangelico.” Nobody drops that many insults without alcoholic encouragement.

Argentin’s birthday is December 17th and something tells us the reporters intentionally nailed him after a celebration. (Or maybe he was just doing his Bernard Hinault imitation for friends.)

We’re waiting for Alberto Contador to go into full snarl mode and deal with Argentin. The Spaniard is already taking head shots from everybody — plus he’s losing his hair — and now some boozed up old Italian rider calls him a robot. Enough already.

And when are we going to hear from Andy about Cipollini’s machismo comments? We figure Cipo has more hair on his chest than the skinny Luxembourger but what about sperm count? It’s time to go mano-a-mano with the Lion King. It’s time for someone to drop the hammer on Mario and Moreno — or is that Moron?

Who’s up to the task?