LeMond for Pres - Or Not?

So the sinking Armstrong ship has gone down and now it’s the turn of the ship’s pilot to come under scrutiny. Suffice to say, it’s not going well. Pat McQuaid, Captain UCI himself, is now having his ability to run the sport questioned. In fact, public opinion has already written his resignation letter and started looking for his replacement.

And it seems the world has found it in Greg LeMond, anti-doping poster child, ex-rider and general all-around good guy. LeMond has three Tour de France titles to his name along with years of experience in the cycling industry, and earlier this month the 51-year-old put his hand up to be the ‘interim’ president of the UCI until a long-term replacement can be elected. Fans love the idea. He’s a perfect, noble choice. It’s a great ending and we’ll all live happily ever after like Cinderella. Right. For me, the problem is that LeMond has never been caught doping.

Yes, I said ‘has never been caught’.

LeMond rode during a time when – as we now know – there was a serious doping subculture and more than one of LeMond’s contemporaries tested positive. The Armstrong affair has shown us pretty clearly that the only way to beat doping is with more doping. The astute fan will acknowledge that there’s a possibility that LeMond was doping. There’s never been a positive test or an admission of doping – but again, Lance Armstrong proved that you can be the most successful doper in the history of cycling without a single admission or ‘official’ positive test.

Yes, there’s an equal chance that LeMond might be innocent, that his absence of confession and staunch anti-doping stance are because he’s never used performance-enhancing drugs. But if we’re honest with ourselves, how many of us believed Armstrong, and got burnt? Imagine this – Greg LeMond is made president of the UCI. The post-Armstrong anti-doping arrangements are well underway, everything’s going fine, and then suddenly LeMond is busted for doping as a rider. It could be a retested sample, the testimony of a teammate or even a confession from LeMond himself, but either way the results are the same. We get burnt again. The fallout would be huge. Do we really want to risk that possibility; take that chance? Do we really want a UCI president who will always leave us wondering if he’s telling the truth; always leave us in fear of the announcement that he’s not?

But more than that, the UCI presidency for the next 10 years will be about doping. It’s inevitable – how it started, how to stop it, what measures will be effective. If, as in the hypothetical above, LeMond has doped and lied about it, then we have another lying, cheating rider. We’re getting used to having our hearts broken by these guys. After we get past the denial stage, we kick him out of the house/UCI and never want to hear from him again. And then, of course, we’re back to square one – being alone/needing a new UCI president.

But if, on the other hand, Greg LeMond is one of the seemingly rare ‘clean’ riders who has never doped, how will he be effective as the ‘doping-era president’? If LeMond never engaged in a team doping system, how will he know how riders become a part of a team system, what would discourage them, how a team doping system works and how to take it down? Where is the virtue in promoting a clean rider to the top of the sport when his entire job description for his entire term will be the one thing in which he has no expert knowledge, no experience? Aren’t we just setting ourselves up to fail yet again?

There is, of course, an easy answer to these problems. Instead of choosing LeMond, why not bring in a confessed ex-doper? It sounds crazy and completely counter-intuitive, sure, but think about it. You never need to worry about Jorg Jaksche’s reputation being ruined on the job, and you can guarantee that Tyler Hamilton knows what he’s talking about when it comes to how to dismantle organised doping systems. Counter-intuitive perhaps, but the intuitive measures have been working just great so far, haven’t they? These guys have done their crime, they’ve done their time, and now they could be the key to healing a diseased system that was led astray by the purportedly ‘anti-doping’ guys.

So why not run in the complete opposite direction to the Verbruggen/McQuaid presidencies? Instead of picking another clean, eligible willing candidate, why not choose a reluctant, gritty former doper who has a genuine vested interest in eradicating the doping culture? After all, it was a wise man in Albus Dumbledore who said, “Perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”

Is anyone else beginning to wonder why LeMond wants the job at all?

An Open Letter by Jeremy Roy (English Translation)

Another rider has joined the ranks of those speaking out against doping in the wake of the Armstrong affair. FDJ-Bigmat’s Jérémy Roy posted an open letter on his website on November 5th, talking about the current state of cycling and of doping in the sport. Below is an English version of this letter, translated by myself.  You can read the original French letter on his website here.

Following recent events in the world of cycling, reactions and admissions from certain riders, and different movements launched to save cycling and to respond to certain people, I want to express my thoughts today through this open letter.

Of course I won’t say that cycling is moving in the best of worlds, but we need to stop stigmatising it and accusing every cyclist. Yes, there are cheats, and there always will be (in sport and in life), but the noose is tightening little by little thanks to the work of the UCI, of WADA (and its national counterparts) and of the police.

Today everyone is talking about the Armstrong affair (which hasn’t yet finished shedding light on certain shadowy areas regarding the transfer of funds), tomorrow I hope that the Padova affair in Italy will come good and that the Puerto affair in Spain, which will reopen in January, will also reveal its secrets.

I discovered the USADA report just like all of you, and yes, I was shocked by this quasi-collective doping system. No, fortunately not all teams work like that. I’m not stonewalling or influenced by omerta, as has been suggested by some journalists who’ve reproached me for the fact that I discovered the story through the media like any man in the street. I turned professional at the end of 2003 and even though I mix with other riders for a quarter of the year (90 days of racing), that doesn’t mean that I know what’s done away from prying eyes. And even if I speak from time to time to other riders, do you think that the cheaters are going to boast of their chemical prowess? The latest confessions (which, in passing, have been revealed only thanks to the inquiry and thus under oath) attest to that; not even their wife or their family was aware (I think that you share more with your loved ones than with your cyclist colleagues or opponents). It’s too easy today to ask forgiveness, to cleanse the conscience. No, I don’t forgive them.

They have stolen (results, glory, income, contracts…). But on the other hand I would say to them nevertheless, “Thanks for having confessed”, if it can contribute to stopping the scourge by taking into account their methods and by trying to find a solution.

And speaking of solutions, it’s worth knowing that the UCI has indeed put in place some tools, though certainly not perfect, but which have the merit of existing. The Whereabouts system: a location system where a cyclist in the target group (World Tour teams, ProContinental teams applying for WildCards and certain riders chosen by a group of experts) must provide their activities and place of residence for every day with a one-hour time slot in which a control can be performed. (A control can also be performed outside of the hourly slot but will not be counted as a no-show if the rider is not present).

There’s the implementation of the biological passport, more accurately haematological for the time being, because the steroid aspect hasn’t yet been taken into account. This profiling of haematological values allows, in conjunction with a classic antidoping control, to target suspect riders, to suspend and to sanction a rider should the case arise, following a meeting of an expert commission. There have been some riders suspended by the passport but legal restrictions greatly limit the actions of the UCI.

Since June 2011 (unfortunately not retroactively), those convicted of violating the Anti-Doping Code cannot occupy a position as a manager, directeur sportif, coach, doctor or medical assistant, mechanic, driver or rider’s agent. This provision will allow us to gradually clean up the environment of cycling. I encourage teams to apply this sanction without delay.

As a suggestion, in addition to increasing the length of sanctions, I can only support antidoping research to improve the tests further and further. Too often the cheaters are a step ahead. The problem which presents itself on top of the cost of the research is the volume of the sample, which is far from infinite. It’s necessary to understand that a sample can’t be tested for all known substances, meaning a choice has to be made (and you can only find what you look for!). That’s how some riders pass a control one day, but not necessarily another.

Preservation of the B-sample for subsequent tests when research has progressed has been mentioned, but I don’t know when that will be. It still has a cost: storage, analysis, which test to apply?

The economic problem is therefore very much present in the fight against doping. Part of the “prize money” is already withdrawn, so what more can be done? As has been suggested by the President of Française des Jeux, Mr Blanchard Dignac (since 2009), an association of cycling team sponsors needs to be created to support the UCI in its fight against doping. In theory a year’s salary must be paid by an offender. I hope that these funds are intended for the fight against doping.

It would also be desirable for WADA to change its attitude regarding the “liberalised” use of corticosteroids. A work stoppage should be mandatory in the case of its use to avoid risking the health of the rider (due to the risk of falling cortisol levels). Only the member teams of the MPCC (Movement for Credible Cycling) apply a work stoppage internally in the case of an injection to treat an illness.

The personalised power profile (PPP), notably suggested by F. Grappe and which follows the example of the haematological profile, allows a rider to know their physical limits. This then poses the problem of the reliability of the measure, the consideration of fatigue and the recurrent stresses during a stage, the margin of error (it’s not forbidden to beat records…it’s actually the point of training).

Developing the biological passport with the activation of the steroid profile.

I also join Taylor Phinney in his stance against the painkillers that certain riders take during a race. When there is a problem which requires a painkiller I doubt that participating in competitive cycling will help the problem!

Holding a “States General” bringing together WADA and the UCI would also allow progress.

The creation of a commission independent of the UCI to organise controls seems like a necessity to restore faith in the UCI: we will no longer be able to criticise them for being both judge and jury.

Finally, having the police and Customs reviewing general intelligence should continue to help us in the struggle (the fight against doping, trafficking, suspicious monetary transfers (corruption)…). A number of cases have been uncovered through them.

Despite the storms we’ve weathered and the blows we’ve received, I believe and I still want to believe in the sport that I love. I’ve accepted that I’m not as strong as the others but that doesn’t prevent me from achieving good results with my resources and winning races. Admittedly I’ll certainly never win the Tour de France or the World Championships with my abilities but I always hope that it’s in me, the hope of improving, of giving the best of myself and of never having regrets because I’ve put in everything to get there. I’ve made so many sacrifices, as has my family when I’m away 180 days a year, that I don’t want to give up now. It would be a (another) failure in the face of cheaters.

I’ve wanted to write this open letter for some time, but I haven’t wanted to be seen as a whiner, or to receive the usual criticisms (he has no results because he doesn’t know how to train, he’s too big, he’s stonewalling, he’s being idealistic…).

For those who want to continue bad-mouthing cycling, just keep walking…me, I still want to believe in it. For nearly 10 years I’ve been among the pros and for nearly 10 years I’ve heard at the start-of-year briefings, “Boys, don’t lose hope, things change, the cheaters will be caught sooner or later, things are heading in the right direction.” My improvement and the rise of young riders are certainly not due to coincidence. Since the implementation of geolocation and the passport, the room for movement is decreasing.

Finally, a little soapboxing to finish, because I’ve had enough of seeing certain media only talking about cycling in relation to doping scandals. I’m sorry, dear journalists and spectators, that the flat stages at the start of the Tour bore you (and you make it very clear)…yes, there are stages for the sprinters and there always will be; where is the harm in saving a little with three weeks of racing in mind? You need to stop playing CyclingManager!

For those who are frightened by the average speeds of the peloton (and who also complain when the peloton dawdles a little – yes, often they’re the same people), have they ever ridden competitively? What about in a group? Aspiration effect and relay, does that sound familiar? You can’t compare races or eras, as so many factors can influence a performance (weather, wind, condition of the road, profiles of preceding stages…). We are professional cyclists, our job is to be the fastest on a bike and we train every day for that, so don’t compare your Sunday ride or your local hill climb with a professional race.

I’m not the only one to think this. Lots of riders suffer in silence from this insidious disease which eats away from within and is considered as the “system”. Some no longer even dare to say that they’re cyclists, all because of the transgressions of certain riders. And I maintain that the majority of the peloton rides fairly.

I could elaborate further on certain ideas and tackle other subjects that are equally important for the future of cycling (sustainable development, the modernisation of cycling, the format of races…) but I’m afraid I’d lose you along the way (if I haven’t already).

Thank you for reading and thank you for your support. Cycling needs you too.

Cleaning House

My mum always loved old musical films. So I guess it was no surprise that I immediately thought of the house-cleaning duet from Calamity Jane when I heard that the UCI was establishing an external commission to investigate the UCI in the wake of the Armstrong affair. They’re actually finally doing it. The UCI is cleaning house.

It’s been bruited around for a while, though never more so than now, that the UCI were in Armstrong’s pocket when it came to his literally unbelievable career, and more than one ex-rider has pointed the finger at the UCI when it came to laying blame for cycling’s doping culture. With USADA shining the world’s biggest spotlight into every corner of Lance Armstrong and US Postal, the pressure has been growing for a while now for the UCI to take the same steps and sweep out their own dusty corners too. Unfortunately, with the UCI the highest body in cycling, there was no-one to ensure that they actually would, but it seems they’ve been listening to the voices on the street at last.

It’s a gesture of good faith, certainly, but let’s hope it becomes more than just a gesture. As part of the investigation the UCI has also halted the controversial lawsuit against Irish journalist and ex-rider Paul Kimmage. This gives no guarantee that they won’t relaunch it again either after the conclusion of the commission’s investigation or even before then, but it’s a start, and a much-needed one. Even with all the whisking and mopping that USADA have been doing over in the US, cycling could never start over and be ‘clean’ with such a dark cloud hanging over the sport’s governing body. Scrubbing all the cyclists’ pasts raw would make little difference if the administration wasn’t equally squeaky.

Thankfully, despite all the denials and professions of non-culpability over recent months, the UCI seems to have recognised this fact as well, and they’re taking steps. What we have to wait and see now is whether they’re serious about those steps. Will the UCI give the external commission carte blanche to dig as deep as they need for as long as they need to in order to polish up every single dirty ‘winder’? Will the ‘appropriate terms of reference’ to be negotiated with the committee omit all the key concerns such as alleged cover-ups in the Armstrong era and the culpability of ex-UCI president Hein Verbrugghe and his successor, Pat McQuaid? And will the UCI give due credit to and implement any or all of the recommendations made by the committee at the end of their investigation?

Let us hope that the instigation of the investigation means they will. Maybe, with a completely exposed and absolved past and a clear vision for a clean future, we will finally get to see cycling as the ‘shiny castle’ of which Doris Day and Allyn McLerie sang all those years ago.

Not All Sunshine and Rainbow Stripes - An Interview with Alex Morgan

By September of Year 12, most 18-year-olds are focussing on exams, university applications and celebrating the end of high school. But Mitcham teenager Alex Morgan had other things on his mind. The 18-year-old cyclist had been selected as part of the Australian team for the UCI Road World Championships in Limburg, Holland, where he would be challenging for the rainbow jersey of the best time triallist in the world under the age of 19.

For someone who has been racing competitively for only four years, Alex acquitted himself well, finishing in a time of 35:47.35, just one second off third place. Just three months earlier Alex had done a similarly close ride, coming in second at the U19 Australian National Road Championships Time Trial by just 3.6 seconds. Though disappointed, Alex feels that these near misses have been amongst the best things that have happened to him in his cycling career. “From them I have learnt many things both physically and mentally,” he says. “They have especially made me hungrier to win than ever.”

But it wasn’t destined to be an easy year, as Alex was hampered by sickness in the latter half of the season. “It was hard both physically and mentally but I was very happy with how I dealt with it and I learnt many things for the years ahead,” he says. It was a setback nonetheless, especially in the lead-up to the Junior Track World Championships in New Zealand during August, where the Australian men’s team would be defending their world title in the team pursuit. With good training times behind them, Alex and his teammates Jack Cummings, Evan Hull, Miles Scotson and Tirian McManus were confident they would retain their rainbow jerseys.

“The belief that we would win was certainly there so I had to really focus hard on not becoming over-confident and complacent because the hard work still needed to be done,” Alex says. But the team were in for a shock after the qualifying round. “We really got a scare when we barely made the final,” Alex recalls. “I believe it was the best thing that could have happened for the team as it made us hungrier to win than ever.”

That hunger would serve Alex well in days to come, as the individual pursuit was held three days later. With his preparation for the IP also disrupted by sickness, he was ‘quite happy’ with his result, coming in third behind Switzerland’s Tom Bohli and New Zealand’s Dylan Kennett to take the bronze medal. “It would have been nice to have gone better in the IP but I rode as well as I could on the day,” he reflects.

“Overall it was a very successful season. Domestically I was very happy with how I rode on both the track and road,” Alex says. “It would have been nice to have gone faster in the Junior World TT and IP.” But he’s certainly not dismissing the effort that he and his team put into their races. “To come home a successful defending Team Pursuit Junior World Champion was pretty special. A 1st, 3rd and 4th in the world still isn’t too bad.”

So, where to next for the young road time triallist and track rider? Alex says that school is still a priority. “I’m currently completing Year 12 over two years so I’m doing two subjects per year, this year the first of the two. It’s not too hard to combine cycling and school as long as you are organised and disciplined,” he explains. “It was definitely hard going away for two months and coming back just before exams but my school, Vermont Secondary College, are fantastic and have got me right back on track.”

But he has big dreams for his cycling career too, focussing on the track and the road time trial in the near future and following the likes of Cameron Meyer and Luke Durbridge into full-time road racing later on. “My goals are to go to the [Glasgow 2014] Commonwealth Games and [Rio 2016] Olympics on the track in the Team Pursuit, and IP if it’s brought back. So the next four years I want to focus on the track and the road time trial, then after the Olympics move onto the road full-time. That’s the ideal plan at the moment,” Alex says.  “We’ll see how it goes!”

What Is There To Say?

It’s the news that cycling has been waiting for. The next step in the Armstrong case that has kept not just cycling but the whole world on the edge of their seats, waiting to see how the chips will fall. Every day seems to bring another admission, another revelation, something else to make you stop and weep at just where all this is going. It’s like riding the rollercoaster of Bad News that you can’t step off, your heart in your throat every time you hit another loop-the-loop.

And it feels like something ought to be said, but, really, what is there to say? The evidence is out there. USADA’s decision has been made. It’s hard to argue with the proof. Hard to dispute the verdict. Hard to believe the truth. Hard to know what to think. It’s a black day in the history of cycling. What is there to say?

Yet the circus still goes on, name after name crumbling like a wall of bricks without mortar. Vande Velde, Zabriskie, Danielson. Leipheimer, Vaughters. Hincapie. Bruyneel. Will no one escape the purges?

And now there’s news of one of our own. Matt White has now been touched, now been tainted. Our Australian ‘purity’ on the doping front has crumbled into dust, our belief and faith in our cyclists shaken, the trust gone.

It’s disheartening to see another great of the sport laid low, like the pillars of Stonehenge falling to the earth. Those who are well-acquainted with cycling are well-acquainted with its chequered past, too, and it says a lot that so many can still love it knowing full well the scandals in its history. But we can still be saddened that this is the situation in cycling. Disappointed that cycling has been reduced to salacious headlines in the tabloids. Angry that cycling has changed from how well you ride to how well you dope.

But it can’t go on like this. If we look hard enough we will always find another doping scandal, another ‘drug cheat’ to be vilified and torn down from his pedestal. Such is the history of cycling. At some point we need to draw a line and declare an amnesty. Someone has to suggest that from now on we let the dead past bury its dead and focus on the future of cycling. It’s been suggested before. Someone has to say that we need to forgive, though not forget, the old culture of cycling that allowed, nay, condoned, such widespread doping as the Armstrong case, and instead construct a new future in which doping is rejected from the level of the fans right up to the UCI, and that embraces those spectacular feats of plain old guts and endurance that make this sport great.

Let’s make this cycling’s turning point. Let’s make this the time when things could go back to the way they were or they could change for the better, and we gave them a push in the right direction. At risk of sounding like a motivational speaker on a sugar high, fans are an important part of cycling, and they do play a part in the pro cycling scene. All the sponsorship, advertising, marketing and money that gets thrown around at races like the Tour de France is aimed at the fans – fans who are sick of the riders they worshipped in July being kicked to the kerb by December. Fans who can use that advertising and marketing to push for a cleaner, safer sport, more entertaining in its purity and its natural ability to surprise.

So, what is there to say? Well, let’s start by echoing the words of Lance Armstrong and saying, “Enough is enough.”

Paris-Tours Photo Gallery

 

Tours With Orica-GreenEDGE

It’s 9:00am on a nippy autumn Sunday in the town of Chateauneuf-en-Thymerais. Most of France is asleep. Not here. Not this Sunday. It may be cold and grey, but Chateauneuf is a town coming to life.

Paris-Tours is today.

The team buses line the road into town, a colourful array against the cloudy sky. It’s chaos on the street, fans crowding the buses for glimpses of their heroes. Orica-GreenEDGE is one of the 25 sets of cars and buses among the throng, the Australian team almost anomalous amongst all the European entrants. The fans love them nonetheless. Baden Cooke and Jens Keukeleire are stopped and asked for photos and autographs as they mount their bikes to sign on. Another French fan is waiting for the riders as they return to the team bus. No, she’s not a fan of GreenEDGE, she just likes ‘all good riders’. She gets a signature from Julian Dean and takes her search elsewhere..

The GreenEDGE support staff are standing and chatting outside the team bus as they wait for the day to get started. DS Lionel Marie will be following the race in the first team car with the mechanics. The other team car will be heading for the feed zone. I climb into the second car with two of the soigneurs, Joachim and Thomas, where I have a ‘back-seat pass’ for the day. The race hasn’t started yet, but it’s 10:00am and time for us to leave.

Someone’s iPod is plugged into the stereo, Madonna playing over the speakers as the car heads out of Chateauneuf-en-Thymerais towards the feed zone, and then Tours. Joachim and Thomas are chatting as we head out of town and into the countryside about the end of the season, plans and life at home – normal topics of conversation between co-workers. They share a joke about the gendarmes we pass at the entrance to every road that crosses the race route. “The ones at the end of the race have to stand there all day,” Joachim laughs.

A wrong turn with the GPS puts us temporarily off track, but Joachim and Thomas are quick to notice and turn the car around. “We always fuck everything up,” Joachim comments.

“Not always,” Thomas corrects him.

“But most of the time,” Joachim notes sagely. We do another lap of the roundabout and re-join the convoy of team cars heading for the feed zone. The drivers are all joshing one another, waving or flipping the finger with a grin on their face. There’s an exclusive sort of fraternity among the support staff that transcends the team boundaries. Nothing is sacred to these guys, and the humour and language is irreverent, almost crude, but it’s tempered by a mutual understanding and respect between those in a very hectic, demanding line of work.

We reach the edge of the houses around Chateauneuf and enter the French countryside, where the hunting season has already begun. We pass a few hunters walking the fields with their rifles, some waving as the race cars pass. There are a few cycling fans and locals out for an early morning walk or ride, but otherwise the landscape is devoid of life, just us and the road. We stop in one of the many small, nameless towns between Chateauneuf-en-Thymerais and the feed zone for a few minutes. “Something interesting happen?” Joachim asks as he climbs back into the car.

“Nothing,” Thomas replies. It’s a good word to describe what fills most of the day – driving, waiting…nothing.

The fields and woods, so very European in their greenery, seem never-ending. Joachim pushes the speed limit around every corner of the winding French roads as cannily as the riders take the corners of the narrow streets in the towns. As we drive, we constantly drop in and out of the groups of team cars, vans and trucks that fill the roads between Chateauneuf and the feedzone, and we start to look for a petrol station to fill up along the way. By now it’s almost lunchtime, so we pull into the nearest Macca’s for something to eat while we can. Joachim uses the iPad on our table at Macca’s to show Thomas the trailers for some Australian movies and TV shows, commenting on how crazy all the characters in Underbelly are. We’re back on the road soon after. We slip through the road blocks to find the race route yet again, the gendarmes always waving us through.

Passing through the small town of Santenay, we head into the feed zone and pull over on the side of the road. The riders are maybe half an hour behind us. Thomas opens the Eski and begins preparing the musettes for the riders, hanging them off the side of the car. The little knot at the top of the musette strap, he tells me, is to stop the strap sliding through the rider’s hand when he grabs it from the soigneur. As he fills the musettes with various small foods wrapped in tin foil, he talks a little about what it’s like being a soigneur. The majority of them are ex-riders, just like the team managers and sports directors. Most soigneurs leave after a few years, though; it’s not the easy, glamorous work it might seem. It’s a job, like any other. There’s a lot of time spent away from home, and a lot of long hours on the road driving from the start to the finish of a race. Paris-Tours is 183 kilometres. It takes us nearly five hours.

With the musettes ready, there’s not much to do until the peloton arrives. Thomas plays a game on his phone while Joachim tries to set up the race radio in the car and figure out how far away the race is. The breakaway of 11 is still preceding the peloton, and Orica-GreenEDGE’s Michael Hepburn is in it. “Can you imagine if he wins it?” Joachim asks.

“It will be perfect,” Thomas replies. There’s a moment of silence in the car as they think about a GreenEGDE win. Though to an outsider they might seem totally disinterested in the race for most of the day, they still want the team victory. Then the moment is gone and it’s back to business. The riders are on their way and there’s work to be done.

Joachim pulls an Orica-GreenEDGE vest out of his backpack, while Thomas dons a cap, unable to find the other vests in the car boot. They organise how many musettes each of them will carry. Joachim will hand Michael his bag as the breakaway rides past. They take up positions on the right-hand side of the road – Joachim lower down with the most musettes and Thomas a hundred metres further up to catch any riders that Joachim misses.

We can see the breakaway at the bottom of the hill. Michael spots Joachim and tries to veer right, but there’s another rider in the way. The other rider ducks as Joachim hands Michael a musette over the rider’s back. The peloton appears shortly after, and it’s hard to make out individual riders in the mass. The riders know to look for the soigneurs, and Baden Cooke heads right towards Joachim, holding out his hand. The baton relay doesn’t come off, though, and Baden manages to grab a bag from Thomas instead. Joachim hands a musette to Fumiyuki Beppu, and then the peloton is gone, with no sign of the other GreenEDGE riders. We wait until the race convoy passes, jump in the car and continue on.

It’s another 90 kilometres to Tours. Thomas takes over the driving while Joachim naps in the passenger seat. Foo Fighters are playing over the stereo just a little too loudly. As far as the eye can see is nothing but farmland and woods and little hamlets in between. We can’t see Tours until we reach the city’s outskirts. We still haven’t gone past a petrol station, and Thomas is adamant that we need to fill up before we head to the race finish. Joachim types in the finish co-ordinates as we leave the petrol station, but really the neon signs saying ‘Paris-Tours’ guide us into the city centre.

It’s 2:30pm by the time we join the GreenEDGE bus in Tours where the third team car is waiting for us. The soigneurs and team physio, Manuel, unpack up everything from the cars and pile all the bags of the riders going to the airport in the second car. Other teams’ support staff drop by to say hello. Until the riders get here, we’re playing the waiting game again.

There’s a small flurry of excitement as the under-23 race finishes. All the GreenEDGE soigneurs wander over to the fence to have a look too. They start swapping stories of their own careers as riders, laughing as they point out where in the stragglers they’d have finished. Most of the time it might be just a job to them, full of organising, driving and waiting, but the sparkle of cycling is still there for all of them, especially at moments like this. As the race convoy rolls past we return to the team cars. Back to waiting.

It’s 3:30pm, just as Joachim predicted, when the riders finally sprint past us with 400 metres to go. There’s a GreenEDGE rider in the first 10 riders, and we assume it’s Michael Hepburn and the rest of the breakaway, since we haven’t heard anything of the race since the feed zone. Joachim heads to the finish line to meet the riders while the rest of us wait at the team bus. The riders roll in one by one, leaning their bikes again the team truck for the soigneurs to pack away while the riders go and shower on the team bus. We eventually hear that it was Jens Keukeleire, not Michael Hepburn, who was up the front in the sprint and managed to take 9th place. Lionel Marie certainly seems happy with it, smiling and talking to each one of the riders. Everything is almost packed and the riders and staff are preparing to leave. Some are bound for the airport, others have another long drive ahead of them to get home.

It’s been the end to a very long season.

Circuit Franco-Belge, Stage 4

Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Belisol)

A sunny Sunday afternoon in Belgium can mean only one thing – the perfect day for a bike race! Today marked the final stage of the four-day Circuit Franco-Belge, a stage race throughout Wallonie in southern Belgium. The ultimate stage went from Mons in the southeast to Tournai, a small town on Belgium’s French border near the city of Lille.

The preparations being made for the race’s arrival in Tournai were every bit as elaborate as for a Grand Tour, and fans certainly didn’t seem to notice any difference, team buses from all the World Tour teams squeezing through Tournai’s narrow backstreets. Race jerseys from every team and country were available to eager spectators, BMC fans able to buy direct from the source thanks to the team van parked alongside the race route. Belgian French and Flemish commentary mingled with police sirens and cheering of fans to provide the classic auditory backdrop to a European race.

The day’s breakaway held a slim lead over the peloton as they approached the finish line to begin the first of seven laps around Tournai, but the lead had been reduced to barely a hundred metres by the end of the first lap. This didn’t suit the breakaway riders, clearly hoping for an underdog victory, and the septet kicked again in the third lap, building up a massive lead of more than 3’30” over the peloton again. They were reeled in with plenty of time to spare, and a second breakaway of around nine riders had no more success in escaping the hungering peloton.

The whole race was together and the atmosphere at the finish very, very tense as the big screen counted down the final few kilometres of the stage. Various teams were jostling for position and it was still any man’s race as they reached the final 1000 metres of the race. An unexpected crash carved a hole in the middle of the peloton and left the watching audience in Tournai gasping, unsure who was down and who was still pelting for the finish.

It became evident a moment later as a black-and-red streak and a blue-white-and-red-striped streak raced across the finish line, French national champion Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ-Bigmat) just edging out BMC’s Adam Blythe to take the final stage win. The riders involved in the day’s late crash rolled slowly over the line a few minutes later tailed by British national champion Ian Stannard. Lotto Belisol team leader Jurgen Roelandts managed to hang onto his race lead and yellow jersey, as well as taking home the green points jersey. Topsport Vlaanderen Mercator’s Stijn Neirynck took out the mountains classification, while crowd favourite Guillaume Van Keirsbulck donned the best young rider’s white jersey and Lithuanian national champion Gediminas Bagdonas claimed the honours in combativity.

More Special By Comparison

I know that, thanks to Lance Armstrong, it’s hard to look at cycling these days without thinking, “Doping.” It’s hard to look at a Tour de France winner without thinking, “Drugs.” In fact, it’s hard to look at any amazing victory in cycling anymore without thinking, “Dirty.”

But just because Lance Armstrong, Tom Boonen, Eddy Merckx and so many other big names in the cycling world have tested positive to banned substances or confessed to doping, it’s no reason to visit that reputation on the rest of the peloton. Though admittedly there aren’t a lot of Tour de France winners who have a completely clean record when it comes to doping, that’s something that has definitely changed in the past few years. Take Cadel Evans, for example. I challenge anyone to refute the immaculate reputation of Australia’s own Tour de France winner. Evans is undoubtedly one of the cleanest riders in the peloton – nary a whisper of scandal, doping or otherwise. Even Brad Wiggins, despite all the controversy he likes to generate, is as unimpeachable as Evans on the doping front.

And in a way, cycling’s doping culture only lends greater import to their victories. After all, consider what ‘dirty’ riders in the past have done, compared to the exploits of Wiggins and Evans. Yes, Armstrong won the Tour de France seven times, and there’s not a lot you can say to that, but Evans is the oldest winner since 1923. 1923. In all those 88 years of ‘doping’, no-one over the age of 34 was good enough to win the Tour de France until Evans came along. In fact, doping was still an accepted part of cycling in 1923. You could say that Evans is the oldest clean rider ever to have won the Tour de France. Doesn’t that make his victory even more special, knowing that even the cheats couldn’t do what he did?

Brad Wiggins’ hero, Tom Simpson, was the most successful cyclist in British history, at least until Wiggins came along. Yet Wiggins was able to win the Tour de France, a victory which eluded Simpson right up until his death from a drug-and-alcohol-induced heart attack during the 1967 Tour. If Simpson constitutes a ‘successful’ cyclist, then is there an adjective in the English language sufficiently superlative to describe Wiggins?

By no means am I saying that doping is in any way a good thing. On the contrary, it’s one of the most horrible phenomena that exist in professional cycling. But given it does exist, can’t we look at the bigger picture here and notice how every attempt to win by doping just makes the clean winners look even more brilliant by comparison? Yes, Armstrong may be dirtier than unwashed laundry, but that doesn’t mean that every other rider is dirty by association and that all their hard work is worthless. I for one can’t help but regard those clean riders with so much more awe and respect knowing that even the ‘great’ Armstrong or the ‘successful’ Simpson couldn’t do what they do – win because they’re simply the best.

Paris - Brussels 2012

The small town of Soissons in Picardie, northern France, is just like any other little French town – that is to say, they love their cycling. The host town of a stage of this year’s Route de France, the women’s Tour de France, on Saturday the attention turned to men’s road racing as Soissons hosted the départ of the 2012 Paris-Brussels.

A mix of both ProContinental and WorldTour teams made their way to Picardie to contest the race through the stunning French countryside. The summer sun promised a beautiful day and warm temperatures ahead for riders and spectators alike. Those lucky enough to have a race pass sipped beverages in the shade of the pavilion as they watched the team presentations, while others jostled for the best positions to watch from the side.

For some it was the chance to meet the riders that had people turning out in their hundreds. FDJ-Bigmat and their young rider Arnaud Démare and Omega Pharma-Quickstep with the Classics rider of the moment, Tom Boonen, were particularly popular, fans swamping the team buses to get autographs or photos with their heroes. Even the promising Danish youngster Jonas Aaen Jörgensen was more than happy to smile for photos as he strapped on his helmet and headed for the starting banner.

Despite their smiling faces for the fans, the riders were still focused on the race to come. I spoke with one of Team Rabobank’s Australian riders before the race got underway, and Graeme Brown had a very pithy description of what lay ahead. “Long day,” he put it simply. Brown was part of the leadout for Rabobank’s other Australian rider, sprinter Mark Renshaw. “Absolutely, I think Mark could be on the podium today. We’ve put everything on him, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Unfortunately it wasn’t going to be Rabobank’s day. The five-man breakaway was brought back in time for the sprint, but Omega-Pharma Quickstep’s train proved too strong for Rabobank, and Renshaw was left to sprint against Boonen in the final few metres. There was nothing the Australian could do to prevent the Belgian superstar taking his 13th victory for the season, adding a Paris-Brussels win to his Classics repertoire. With the World Championships on the way, Boonen has certainly shown himself to be the rider to beat.

Enough is Enough

It’s taken long enough, but Lance Armstrong finally seems to have realised that fighting the doping charges against him is doing no-one any favours. Like a fly caught in a spider’s web, Armstrong finally seems to have recognised that the longer he struggles, the more he tangles himself in the ever-tightening web of brutal public opinion.

He was the golden boy of world cycling. The poster child of the UCI. An angel of charity work. A hero to cancer sufferers worldwide. In short, Lance Armstrong from Plano, Texas, was an all-around good guy on a bike.

So when the drug rumours came knocking, as they seem to have done for every high-profile cyclist throughout time, Armstrong thought that he could beat them. Truth and innocence aside, a reputation as tall as the Texan himself and seven Tour de France titles to boot would surely be currency in dispelling the ugly tales and restoring his good name.

But the problem with drug rumours is that they seem to follow Grisham’s law of economics – ‘Bad money drives out good’. No matter how squeaky his reputation, the tiniest whisper of scandal was enough to taint it in an instant. As soon as the rumours began circulating that those seven Tour titles weren’t as cleanly earned as previously thought, the first cracks began appearing in the armour. No matter whether Armstrong’s lawyering up was a sign of a fight to protect his innocence or a fight to hide his guilt, the implication was clear. Armstrong was taking this seriously. And suddenly every news story featuring Armstrong in the title had ‘doping’ right there with it.

And there lies the point of no return. Once Armstrong’s name was tied to drug allegations, they were tied forever. No amount of fighting to clear his name would ever do that. Had Armstrong succeeded in beating the charges, he would simply have become the seven-time Tour de France winner who was cleared of drug charges. Goodbye, innocent until proven guilty. Drug charges don’t play by those rules.

Armstrong has put his faith in the idea that the truth will out. The truth is no longer what’s at stake. The heart of the matter is that even if the UCI, USADA, WADA and the Plano Cycling Club were all to declare the drug charges baseless and Armstrong a clean man, he has already been tarnished. What he has been fighting so hard to save is just a speck on a distant horizon. His reputation is down the drain, dragging the reputation of world cycling down right along with it.

Armstrong finally seems to have realised that in this case, no news really is good news. The longer he protests his innocence, the longer he drags his own name, and that of cycling, through the Spring Classics-deep mud. With no hope of redemption in sight, the biggest favour Lance Armstrong can do anyone now is to bow out quietly and pray that public opinion will be more lenient towards cycling than it has been towards him.

All Work And No Gain?

It’s always been a part of professional cycling, but it’s a phenomenon that’s come under fire lately – the question of who chases versus who wins.

It’s very much a question of the sprinters. Traditionally, when a team has a sprinter that they believe can win the stage, the onus is on their team to chase down the breakaway as they’re the team who’ll benefit. When a team does it well, the rewards are obvious – a stage win for the sprinter and a morale boost for the whole team.

But what about when they don’t win the stage? It was an ever-present concern for Australian outfit Orica-GreenEDGE during the Tour de France. The team often spent more than 100 kilometres leading the peloton in an attempt to reel in the day’s breakaway to set up a stage win for sprinter Matt Goss. Belgian outfit Lotto Belisol would jump on the front with 10 kilometres to go, still fresh after the day’s stage, and lead German sprinter André Greipel out for the win. It happened more than once. So is that good strategy and clever riding from the Belgian team, or are the others teams taking advantage of Orica-GreenEDGE?

Peter Sagan is another recent example of the issue. The Slovakian doesn’t have a leadout train – at least, nothing on the scale of Orica-GreenEDGE, Lotto Belisol or at times even Team Sky – yet the 22-year-old still claimed three stages of the Tour de France ahead of Greipel and Goss, as well as almost every stage of the Tour of California. Sagan usually tacks onto the end of the nearest sprinter being towed to the line and jumps out when everyone is least expecting it, using the work of Goss, Greipel or Cavendish’s teams. Again, is this a remarkably canny move on the part of the youngster, or are Sky, Lotto and GreenEDGE being deprived of their just rewards?

Cavendish certainly seems to think so. The ‘world’s fastest man’, a title verified by his stripey rainbow jersey of the reigning World Champion, recently hit out at Australia over the lack of effort they put into the chase during the Olympic road race – despite the fact that Australia had a rider in the breakaway, six-time Olympian Stuart O’Grady. Cavendish was highly critical of the other teams for failing to help pull back the breakaway, conveniently forgetting that, like Australia, almost every other country capable of helping had a rider ahead of the peloton with a chance at the gold medal. There was another reason Great Britain was on their own – everyone knew that if it came down to a sprint finish, there was no-one who could beat the Manx Missile, Mark Cavendish. If Great Britain wanted the win, Great Britain had to do all the work – and even then, they knew everyone else would be racing them to the finish. It really was them versus the world.

So are the times changing? Is it now professionally acceptable to let another team or rider do all the work so you can take the win? Has the sport of cycling abandoned the ‘no guts, no glory’ ideal that brought about some of the greatest cycling victories we’ve seen in favour of a ‘end justifies the means’ approach to racing? What remains to be seen is this: who will do the work if they know there’s nothing to gain?

Play Sport, Not Politics

Our sporting rivalry with the Brits is famous. The Ashes, on the track, the road…whenever we can, we go up to bat against the Mother Country in the hopes of returning home victorious.

So it seems odd that the Australian Olympic Committee has knowingly handicapped the Australian cycling team’s chances of a gold medal, in either the time trial or the road race. The road race course is billed as a sprinter’s course, and the best sprinter in the world is, of course, Britain’s Mark Cavendish. The race for second is always heated, but Australia’s Matt Goss is always up there giving it his best shot. The obvious choice for the road race would therefore be Goss, and the obvious choice to lead him out would be Mark Renshaw, billed as the best leadout man in the world – and conveniently Australian.

Well, the selectors got Goss right, but it seems to have somehow slipped their minds that Renshaw was available to take ‘Gossy’ to the finishing line. Renshaw was left out of the Australian World Championships team for 2011 as well, sparking speculation that Renshaw is being deliberately shunned. The 29-year-old is known for being a bit explosive and controversial – he was sent home from the 2010 Tour de France after a well-publicised headbutting incident with Kiwi Julian Dean. It has also been posited that Renshaw’s signing with the Dutch team Rabobank rather than the new Australian team Orica-GreenEDGE is the reason the sprinter has been left out of the Worlds and Olympic teams. Interestingly enough, of the five riders selected for the Olympic team, Stuart O’Grady, Matt Goss and Simon Gerrans all ride for Orica-GreenEDGE, Cadel Evans is the first Australian winner of the Tour de France, and Michael Rogers is an all-around Australian favourite. In saying that, almost half of the Australian pros are signed to GreenEDGE, so a certain amount of GreenEDGE-domination is to be expected.

But there’s another glaring omission in the Australian roster – and a GreenEDGE one at that. Luke Durbridge is the reigning Australian time trial champion, and in particular the only Australian to have beaten Bradley Wiggins in a time trial while Wiggins has been in his current brilliant form. 21-year-old Durbridge won the time trial prologue of the Critérium du Dauphiné just prior to the Tour de France ahead of riders like Wiggins, World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin, French National Time Trial Champion Sylvain Chavanel and, yes, Cadel Evans. Granted, Durbridge is young, but his time-trialling abilities speak for themselves, and he’s proven himself as a domestique throughout his debut season with GreenEDGE.

So why aren’t Renshaw and Durbridge on the team, then? In fact, why is there only one pure sprinter on the team – Gossy – when Australia boasts a pretty good arsenal of sprinters like Heinrich Haussler or Adam Hansen who could help Gossy give Mark Cavendish a run for his money? Australia’s team is simply not geared towards winning a gold medal; rather, each appointment to the team was a political move to pacify and acknowledge Australian cycling’s heads of state. It’s a noble intention, certainly, but someone needs to tell the AOC and Cycling Australia that the Olympic Games is the wrong place for playing politics.

Stage 20: Rambouillet - Paris Champs-Élysées

Paris. Capital of France. One of the paramount cities of Europe. Home of the final Tour de France stage since 1975. The heralded ‘city of love’ provided a stunning backdrop for the finish of the historic 99th edition of Le Tour, truly a grand finale for this most prestigious of races.

Stage 20 went from Rambouillet to the Champs-Élysées of Paris, the flat road stage that rounds out every Tour de France. As usual the stage was more of a tradition than an actual race for most, a longstanding gentleman’s agreement in the peloton meaning that Bradley Wiggins would not be challenged for his yellow jersey on the final stage. Instead the peloton took an easy morning with Sky arranging themselves for the usual team photograph, spread across the road with their arms on their teammates’ shoulders.

The jovial mood was clear in the decorations of the riders for day. Each of the leaders of the four classifications - Bradley Wiggins in GC, Peter Sagan in sprints, Tejay van Garderen (BMC) in young rider and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) in the mountains – was riding a bike that matched their jerseys as the leader of their respective classification. Team Sky had also made some changes to their wallpaper, the characteristic blue stripe on their black uniforms magically turning to yellow overnight, even on the team cars, in celebration of Wiggins’ impending victory.

The first 50 kilometres passed without incident, the highest forms of excitement a puncture in the peloton and six riders forming an ‘escape’ 50 metres ahead of the peloton. The race passed by Versailles, the palatial residence of the last French king, Louis XIV, located in huge grounds on the outskirts of Paris. By now the landmark synonymous with the French city was visible, the Eiffel Tower reaching up in front of the riders like a homing beacon.

Team Sky and its leader, Bradley Wiggins, were staying close to the front of the peloton as George Hincapie (BMC) and Chris Horner (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) led the race over the finish line to begin eight laps of the 6.5 kilometre Champs-Élysées circuit. That was the signal for the attacks to commence, Jerome Pineau (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) happily obliging. He was soon joined by a number of other riders, but it was Jens Voigt (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) and Danilo Hondo (Lampre-ISD) who made the cut, taking it in turns to ride on the front. The race began cycling between the landmarks of Paris, the Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde and golden statue of young French martyr Joan of Arc dominating the visions of passing riders.

It was probably the only flat stage in which the intermediate sprint was uncontested, Team Sky following the now three-strong breakaway over the line with 35 kilometres left in the race. Another eight riders rode out to join the leaders, the 11 having less than 30” advantage on the Liquigas-led peloton. An attack from Jens Voigt at 13 kilometres to go shattered the escape group, most being quickly collected by the chase group while Voigt and two companions continued pushing the pedals up the front.

The second-to-final lap was when riders started hearing commands from their sports director to catch the breakaway in their earpieces, ready to set the stage up for a sprint finish. That proved easier said than done, though, Voigt and his companions holding onto enough seconds to stay off the front of the peloton. Only half a lap remained in the Tour de France by the time the Sky-controlled peloton finally caught the leading trio. The chase was now on.

The teams of the sprinters were now visible at the front, each trying to do something for their man to take the most coveted stage victory in professional road racing. Yellow jersey wearer Bradley Wiggins was setting the pace on the front of the peloton, swinging off just past the flamme rouge to make way for Mark Cavendish’s leadout train. Despite launching from the 350 metre mark once again, Cavendish reaffirmed his title as the ‘Manx Missile’, holding off Peter Sagan and Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE) to take his third stage win of the 2012 Tour.

Bradley Wiggins ascended the podium as the first-ever British winner of the Tour de France, Sky teammate Chris Froome and Liquigas-Cannondale’s Vincenzo Nibali standing beside him in second and third places. Tejay van Garderen retained his hold on the white jersey, as did Peter Sagan his green and Thomas Voeckler his polka-dots, while Radioshack-Nissan-Trek took out the teams’ classification and Chris Anker Sorenson claimed the SuperCombativity Prize for the most spirited rider. All should be back next year to defend their titles in the 100th edition of the world’s oldest and most famous Grand Tour, which will be a showdown not to be missed.

Stage 19: Bonneval - Chartres

The most interesting thing about today’s time trial was the absence of the favourites. With riders like Fabian Cancellara, Tony Martin and Sylvain Chavanel out, we got to see some of the riders who are usually only second-best stepping up to the plate on the second-last stage before the Tour reaches Paris.

A much-reduced field began Stage 19 from Bonneval to Chartres, only 153 men left in the race from the 198 who started in Liège. As always the lanterne rouge left the starting house first, Saur-Sojasun’s Jimmy Engoulvent once again holding the unenviable title. The next 44 riders started one minute apart, 45th-placed Rubén Plaza Molina (Movistar) the first rider to start after a two-minute interval. Argos-Shimano’s Patrick Gretsch claimed the early lead, leading through both time checks at the 14 kilometre and 30.5 kilometre marks to finish in a time of 1h06’41”.

Gretsch continued to lead after American time trial Dave Zabriskie finished, the man known as ‘Captain America’ coming in 44” behind Gretsch to claim second place. The German’s reign wouldn’t last much longer, though. Despite Gretsch having bested the American champion in Zabriskie, Spanish national time trial champion Luis Léon Sánchez posted a time three seconds better than that of Gretsch at the first time check, following this up with a time 16 seconds faster at the second time check. An average speed of 48.6km/h helped Sánchez to finish in the leading time of 1h06’03”.

Sánchez was destined to spend quite some time in the ‘hot seat’ of the time trial’s leading rider, none of those following quite able to dislodge the Spaniard. Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) finished just 12 seconds behind, and Team Sky’s Richie Porte also slotted into third place, just ahead of early leader Gretsch. The big guns were yet to come out to play, though, the day’s fastest times expected from the GC contenders who would be the last out of the blocks.

The final 14 riders of the day began their time trials three minutes apart. Young BMC rocket Tejay van Garderen had all eyes on him as he set out after his unexpected impressive fourth place performance in the Stage 9 time trial. The 23-year-old American was the first to knock Sánchez down to second place at the first time check, but the youngster had started too fast, three places down from Sánchez after 30 kilometres, finally finishing almost three minutes down from the Spaniard.

By this point the big names were out on the course, riders like Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) making one last attempt to move up in the general classification. The weeks of racing seemed to have taken their toll, however, and in the end only two riders mattered – Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, Sky’s deadly duo.

Froome left the starting house first, topping the times at every checkpoint and finally displacing Sánchez from the hot seat by 34 seconds. History was repeating itself; thus far the stage mimicked the earlier time trial in Besancon, and that wasn’t about to change. Following the example set by his teammate, Wiggins became the first rider to pass inside 17’ at the first time check and 37’ at the second. It came as no surprise to anyone that he topped the leaderboard on his arrival in Chartres, 1’16” ahead of Froome in a time of 1h04’13”. The yellow jersey wearer showed the first signs of emotion in this year’s Tour, pumping his fist in the air as his Tour de France victory was assured.

Wiggins remains in the yellow jersey for tomorrow’s stage into Paris, his lead now 3’21” over Froome in the general classification, the stage set for the first British winner of the Tour de France. Thomas Voeckler will keep the King of the Mountains jersey in the absence of any more points in the classification, while Peter Sagan has an unassailable lead in the green jersey competition, regardless of the outcome of the Champs-Élysées sprint. Radioshack has also retained its lead over Sky in the teams classification, while Tejay van Garderen has a secure lead over Thibaut Pinot in the young riders’ classification that doesn’t look to be disturbed on Stage 20. Tomorrow, the final stage of the Tour, will arrive in Paris with a sprint finish. Mark Cavendish will be looking to claim a third victory for Sky, and Matt Goss will be seeking Orica-GreenEDGE’s elusive stage win one last time, while Andre Greipel and Peter Sagan will be hoping to add to their Tour stage totals as well. Whichever way the sprint goes, it’s guaranteed to be one worthy of the occasion of rounding out the 99th Tour de France.

Stage 18: Blagnac - Brive-la-Gaillarde

Stage 18 was a classic Tour de France stage. Breakaways, excitement, and plenty of plain good riding carried the Tour from Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde as the race returns to Paris for the homecoming of the 99th edition of Le Tour.

Once again it took some time for the day’s breakaway to be established. Six riders jumped off the front of the peloton at the 23 kilometre mark, but were brought back to the peloton just 26 kilometres later. It wasn’t for another 10 kilometres that anyone tried again, 14 riders eventually bridging the gap to two escapees ahead to form the day’s successful break after 70 kilometres of racing. The two instigators, Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) and Nick Nuyens (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank), had already claimed two sets of King of the Mountain points as they led their pursuers over the Category 3 Cote de Saint-Georges.

The peloton was 3’10” behind the 16 riders as they passed through the feedzone, and though that dipped to 2’45” a short while later due to the pace-making of BMC, the gap began ticking back upwards to 3’30” as the leaders neared the intermediate sprint. With no-one in the breakaway involved in the green jersey competition, and indeed the jersey securely ensconced on the shoulders of Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), there was no serious contest for the intermediate sprint. The mountains were of more concern to them in ensuring the break stayed away from the peloton, Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEDGE) leading the his 15 breakmates over the next Category 4 climb.

The peloton was having yet another idiot fan moment just two minutes behind. An errant dog in the peloton had unseated 10 or so riders and dumped them unceremoniously on the ground. An involuntarily displaced Philippe Gilbert (BMC) felt the need to have several choice words with the miscreant pooch’s owner before remounting and riding on. Gilbert and the other crashed riders soon caught up with the peloton, which was riding at just over 40km/h in pursuit of the breakaway 2’40” ahead.

As a long, relatively flat stage the drama was chiefly in the stage win and, in a smaller way, the movements of the day’s breakaway. Both peloton and escapees continued to race along through south-eastern France at 45km/h, a little faster than the trio of donkeys dressed in yellow, green and polka-dot coats that watched them race by. Ahead in the breakaway the co-operation was beginning to fray, attacks starting and being pulled back in by the chasing group. As the gap reached 1’30”, the attacks were beginning to have an effect, the group starting to lose riders.

With 25 kilometres to go, that gap was down to just one minute, the heralded breakaway win looking ever less likely. An attack from the Australian Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol) finally did the job, imploding the escape group as breakaway specialist Jérémy Roy (FDJ-Bigmat) latched onto his wheel for the trip to the finish line. Two chase groups of three each formed behind them, the six riders a thin buffer between the leaders and the peloton 40 seconds behind. As the rearmost group was caught by the peloton, the middle group on the road caught the two in front, five riders now leading the stage by just a handful of seconds.

The breakaway imploded a second time, Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) pulling Luca Paolini (Katusha) and Hansen away from the other two riders, who were quickly caught by the racing peloton. With just 12 kilometres left in the day’s race, a chase group of three which launched from the peloton caught the three stage leaders who were barely 10 seconds ahead, the six of whom were still trying to stay away for the victory. The chase continued through the final few kilometres, the peloton not quite able to catch the six stage leaders who were never more than 10 or 12 seconds away. The sprinters’ teams began rallying anyway, Orica-GreenEDGE, Liquigas-Cannondale and Sky manoeuvring their riders into position.

The six were still there with just 500 metres to go, Irishman Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) and Spaniard Luis Léon Sánchez (Rabobank) trying a desperate sprint for home. At 300 metres to go, the sprint teams had to take a risk. Edvald Boasson Hagen dropped Manx Missile Mark Cavendish off as the sprinters caught the break, leaving Cavendish much further to sprint than usual against the still-racing breakaway. Cavendish proved more convincingly than ever why he’s known as the fastest man in the world, sprinting almost double his usual distance to still come out on top over a bike length ahead of his rivals.

Tomorrow is Stage 19, the final time trial that precedes the last stage into Paris. In the absence of World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin and former World Time Trial Champion Fabian Cancellara, both of whom have withdrawn, expect another 1-2 double from Sky teammates Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome. Keep an eye out also for BMC’s Tejay van Garderen, who may just be able to repeat his astounding and unexpected performance of Stage 9.

Stage 17: Bagnere-de-Luchon - Peyragudes

Today was what can only be termed an interest day. Perhaps ‘interesting’ is a little mild, but it covers a stage in which there were surprises, no drama, and nothing shocking, but merely interesting. It seems fairly safe to say that the Tour de France is now effectively over, and the days to come nothing more than filler until the race arrives in Paris.

Stage 17 was the final day of mountains for the Tour, traversing the Pyrénées from Bagnère-de-Luchon to Peyragudes. This Tour seems to have been characterised by breakaways, even in the mountains, for the attacks began as soon as the stage did yet again. It wasn’t until the 24 kilometre mark that a group managed to stay away, another large group containing around 20 riders including a few strong riders. The group held a slim lead over the peloton as they approached the top of the first climb for the day, the Category 1 Col du Mente.

Pierre Rolland (Europcar) sprinted away from the group as they approached the col’s King of the Mountain point, but he was chased down and caught by the two rivals for the polka-dot jersey, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), Voeckler managing to outsprint the Swede for the 10 points. There was a lot of shuffling of the breakaway on the way down the Col du Mente, which eventually left seven riders with a 40’ advantage over the Sky-led peloton. A counter-attack soon formed, 10 riders sitting 30’ ahead of the peloton and one 1’00” behind the leading seven.

The positions on the road hadn’t changed as the leaders reached the second climb of the day. Voeckler sprinted out from behind Kessiakoff to lead the race over the second category climb around the 55 kilometre mark of the stage. Chasing them over the top were the 10 poursuivants, 40 seconds behind, with the pursuing peloton another 50 seconds behind them. It wasn’t long before the race referees called all the cars out from between the first two groups on the road, their premonition being fulfilled 68 kilometres in, swelling the leading group to 17.

The number of riders made no difference to Voeckler and Kessiakoff, still locked in their silent battle for polka-dot points. Kessiakoff began the sprint for the points on offer atop the Cote des Burs, but Voeckler surprised him from behind and outsprinted him again. The peloton passed over the top a solid 3’00” behind the leaders, but that advantage was down to 2’15” as they approached the intermediate sprint. The breakaway was disinterested in the sprint points, sweeping through without any fuss and cleaning up all the points on offer, leaving the peloton nothing to sprint for when they swept through two minutes later.

The feed zone five kilometres on caused some trouble, World Champion Mark Cavendish and Sky teammate Richie Porte taking a tumble. Neither was seriously hurt and, mechanical troubles solved, both rejoined the race quickly without incident. The race was already beginning the ascent of the hors catégorie Port de Balés, the climb splintering the leading group into a fluid group of two or three riders leading two smaller chases further on down the climb.

Then Rui Costa (Movistar) leapt into a solo ride at the front of the stage, sitting a few hundred metres ahead of the next group on the road. The reason soon became clear: teammate Alejandro Valverde similarly leapt off the front and easily bridged the gap to Costa, leaving his teammate behind when Costa could no longer pace him onwards up the mountain. With a 2’20” lead over the peloton, Valverde scooped up the 25 points at the top of the Port de Balés and began racing the 32 kilometres towards the stage finish.

The peloton continued bearing down on the remainder of the breakaway, slowly picking up riders one by one as the yellow jersey group continued towards Peyragudes. Soon it was just Valverde in his time trial up the front, followed by Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) at 2’00” and Costa at 2’18” ahead of the peloton, with only 20 or so kilometres to go in the stage. Costa was the next to go, the peloton sweeping past with riders dropping out the back, unable to keep up with Team Sky and Liquigas-Cannondale’s pacemaking.

One of those soon to go was defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC). The 35-year-old was unable to keep up with the pace in the mountains yesterday due to stomach problems and still seemed to be unwell today, disappearing discreetly to leave young teammate Tejay van Garderen to continue on without him.

An attack from Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) got a response from Bradley Wiggins (Sky), the yellow jersey wearer stepping up the pace so much that the leading group was reduced to just eight riders. Chris Froome (Sky) kept the pace so high that everyone was dropped except for his team leader, the only rider ahead of them on the road being Valverde, one minute ahead with three kilometres to go. Froome seemed to be feeling in excellent form, because he appeared to be wanting to leave Wiggins and chase down Valverde for the stage win. Whether Wiggins denied permission or Froome decided against it, the two Britons finished the stage together, just 19 seconds behind the Spaniard.

Stage 18 is a medium mountains stage, with a few Category 4 climbs breaking up the flats. This could be a stage for a breakaway (think Albasini, Scarponi and even Pinot or Rolland) or it could equally be pulled in by Lotto Belisol to allow for another Greipel-Sagan showdown.

Stage 16: Pau - Bagneres-de-Luchon

The Col d’Aspin, the Col d’Aubisque, the Col du Tourmalet. The grandes dames of the Tour de France; the elder statesmen of the hills as Eddy Merckx is of the riders. Today was the day for the riders to pay their respects to the peaks that have shaped the Tour de France, and one or two chose to respect the peaks with a mountain race that left those watching wanting to stand and applaud in awe.

Stage 16 from Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon was always going to be interesting, being one of the high Pyrénéan stages of this year’s Tour – and the Pyrenees, as anyone who watches the Tour regularly knows, are always exciting. The stage began with a move that was more unusual than exciting – after 20 kilometres of trying, the day’s breakaway was established, 38 riders being considerably more than are usually allowed in a breakaway. Despite the presence of several very strong riders, there was clearly no-one in the group high enough on the general classification to concern the peloton, and the break was allowed to leave the bunch.

The breakaway had a lead of 3’45” as they began the climb of the Col d’Aubisque around the 40 kilometre mark. While polka-dot jersey wearer Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) was in the break, it was Thomas Voeckler’s Europcar teammate, Yukiya Arashiro, who led out Voeckler over the climb to take the maximum 25 points available, helping the Frenchman encroach on Kessiakoff’s lead. Sky was leading the peloton as the main group passed over the climb, BMC Racing Team moving forward as they reached the top.

A crash in the peloton that sent two riders flying into barbed wire on the descent ended badly for one of them. Vladimir Gusev (Katusha) reduced the number of riders in the Tour to just 154 after abandoning the race with a broken collarbone, courtesy of the fence. Up ahead, the blissfully unaware breakaway was passing through the feed zone, preparing for the start of the Tourmalet, the highest pass of the Pyrénées. As the gradient started going up, though, the size of the breakaway began going down as riders fell off the back of the escape now being strongly led by Danilo Hondo (Lampre-ISD). With an extra push by Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) the breakaway began to reduce further, shattering on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet.

Of the 38 riders who began the stage in the lead, only two could follow Martin when he attacked again: one being eternal favourite Voeckler and the other being Brice Feillu (Soar-Sojasun), who spent much of the past two weeks off the back of the peloton with illness. The two caught and passed Martin on the climb and continued on, launching themselves into the stage lead. As Martin continued trying to chase down the pair, a group of poursuivants was forming further down from the remnants of the breakaway that Martin had shattered not long before.

The leading duo having reached the top of the Tourmalet, Voeckler took another 25 points to bolster his second place in the King of the Mountains classification as they continued racing along the stage, the two Frenchman co-operating to maintain their lead. Behind them, Sky was still leading the peloton, Christian Knees now responsible for inflicting the pain as he hauled the bunch up the Tourmalet much faster than many would have liked. Between the leaders and the main group were the chasing groups, several pairs or small collections of riders from the old breakaway bearing down on Voeckler and Feillu in the lead, 10’25” ahead of the peloton.

It really was chaos on the road as the Pyrénées continued to inflict their damage on the riders, some dropping back and some surging forward between the myriad tiny groups of riders chasing down the lead. The riders were inflicting the damage too, three Liquigas-Cannondale riders coming forward to dramatically increase the tempo of the peloton and shelling off a lot of riders in the process. The results were maybe not what they’d expected, Cadel Evans (BMC) disappearing from yet another mountain stage as he fell off the peloton. The other major contenders reached the top of the Col d’Aspin with a 45” advantage on Evans, but after some sterling riding from his team, Evans reappeared in the main peloton on the way down the far side of the Aspin, avoiding losing more time to his rivals.

Now on the final climb of the day, the Category 1 Col du Peyresoude, Voeckler managed to drop his breakmate Feillu and continued on ahead alone, Feillu soon being passed by the distinctive bobbing motion of Chris Anker Sorenson (Saobank-Tinkoff Bank). Voeckler was riding with his usual persistent style, however, claiming more mountain points as he topped the Col de Peyresoude, a minute ahead of the chasing Sorenson.

But back in the peloton drama was afoot, as Evans looked to be in trouble again while Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) attacked the yellow jersey group. Chris Froome (Sky) was once again responsible for bridging the gap to Bradley Wiggins (Sky), leaving the three top-ranked riders in the Tour de France on their own behind the various breakaways. Nibali was dissatisfied with his first attempt and attacked again, trying to gain some time on the yellow jersey, but the British duo bridged the gap once again, the trio still together as they crested the Col du Peyresoude.

Out in the lead, Voeckler was in the final five kilometres of the stage with almost a two minute lead over Sorenson. The stage win was inevitable for the former 2011 yellow jersey wearer, Voeckler’s arms going over his head in the classic victory salute. Sorenson rolled in just over a minute and a half behind him, Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Feillu rounding out the top five over a five-minute period.

It was the first major shake-up in the GC, Evans out of the overall top five long before he crossed the line, instead dropping into seventh place at eight minutes down behind sixth-placed teammate Tejay van Garderen. Tomorrow is the final mountain stage of the Tour, as well as being a mountaintop finish, so look out for Nibali to attack again, Voeckler to defend his newfound mountains lead as well as other opportune breakaways looking for their own stage win.

Stage 15: Samatan - Pau

It’s taken two weeks, but today was the first unremarkable stage of this year’s Tour de France. Though unremarkable is never as fun and exciting as remarkable, a stage in which there are no crashes, no sabotage, no drama and which is characterised only by a couple of abandons and an unexpected finish is definitely a good stage. Stage 15 from Samatan to Pau was – finally – that stage.

Once again the attacks began as soon as the race left the neutral zone, groups struggling to stay off the front of the peloton. One or two breakaways seemed to be strong enough to last the distance, but they were inevitably pulled in by Team Sky sooner or later – usually sooner. When yet another break formed at the 60 kilometre mark Sky seemed happy with the composition, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Bernhard Eisel in turn each signalling for the peloton to stop chasing, but the team’s newfound authority of yesterday was shortlived. The enthusiasm of the peloton had no effect, however, the five holding strong and building up a lead ahead of the bunch.

With a 1’30” lead the peloton finally tired of being on the defensive and slowed down, leaving Nicki Sorenson (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank) floating between to eventually chase down and join the leading group of five. As they passed through the feedzone in Marciac, 60 kilometres from the stage finish, the sextet had a lead of almost six minutes over the peloton, still being led by Team Sky. The next excitement for the day was the breakaway passing the intermediate sprint, but the six chose not to contest the sprint, none of them being in the running for the green jersey, and even the peloton failed to create a stir, Sagan slipping quietly forward to take the next highest points as the peloton rolled through.

The abandons became coming through a little more thickly after that, Giovanni Bernardeau (Europcar) and Kenny van Hummel (Vacansoleil-DCM) on the list with Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) as victims of Stage 15 of the Tour. The breakaway already up and over the first categorised climb of the day, a small Cat 4, the peloton slowed as they passed an oil patch on the descent, trying to avoid a repeat of yesterday’s carnage. The six out front continued extending their lead as the peloton took a rest day on the road, calm and unconcerned about the leaders 8’20” ahead of them on the road.

Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) continued to lead the breakaway over the next two climbs of the day, garnering another five points towards his polka-dot jersey total in all. As their lead reached 10’30” with just 25 kilometres to go, it became obvious that the break would stay away til the finish in Pau, and German André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) would have to forgo the chance at taking a stage win on his 30th birthday. Though the peloton was still rolling along, as cool as a cucumber, the breakaway were preparing for the inevitable attacks to split the group for a chance at the stage.

They began just outside of 10 kilometres to go, Sorenson leaping off the front to be quickly chased down by the other five riders. The next attack was more serious. Pierrick Fedrigo went off the front with seven kilometres left in the stage, quickly followed by Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp). The two began working together to maintain their lead over the chasing riders, not wanting to bring the Cofidis sprinter, Samuel Dumoulin, to the line with them. Voeckler, obviously feeling the same way, launched a solo pursuit of the duo, hovering somewhere in between the groups on his own.

But the duo up ahead had made too much of a gap, and the stage win was down to the Frenchman and the American. Fedrigo continued glancing back at Vande Velde as Fedrigo led the way into the final straight, waiting for the move. Perceiving a twitch, Fedrigo went for the sprint, Vande Velde not even moving out of the Frenchman’s wheel as they crossed the line, Fedrigo taking his second Tour de France stage victory in the town of Pau. The peloton arrived en masse nearly 12 minutes later, Greipel leading the sprint to take seventh on the stage, while the overall classification and jerseys remain unchanged.

Tomorrow is a rest day, but Stage 16 reaches the high Pyrénées mountains. This is where the big names – think Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali –will have to make their move if they want to have any chance of unseating Bradley Wiggins. Wiggins and Sky will be defending the yellow vigourously, though, so this could be the battle royale we’ve all been waiting for.