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.