It’s 30-something degrees in the Adelaide Hills. Two cyclists are battling their way to the top of a climb. The crowd is cheering both as they struggle to get the advantage, one rider just nudging the other out for the victory as they cross the line. Alejandro Valverde has just made a triumphant return from a two-year doping suspension.
The crowd certainly doesn’t seem to mind his history, applauding him as much as his Australian opponent, Simon Gerrans. The Spanish fans love him too, holding him with the likes of Luis Léon Sánchez and Alberto Contador. In truth, it hardly seems fair. After his actions, does Valverde actually deserve to be applauded? It’s hard to say. And this begs another, more serious question:
If we applaud after they cheat, are we applauding the cheating, too?
Are we unreasonable for wanting to applaud? Is it wrong to admire David Millar for his strict anti-doping stance, wrong to worship Dave Zabriskie for daring to be a vegan pro-cyclist when no-one thought he could? Is it wrong to esteem George Hincapie as one of the heads of state of the peloton, a loyal, capable rider? Or should we be shaking our heads and saying that everything that we love and believe about these guys has been washed away with the flood of guilt? That the moral high ground should take precedence over everything; that their right to be applauded was stripped the moment they admitted to doping?
I hold all of these riders among my favourites for these reasons, but I feel guilty in saying that now. I feel as though I should wash my hands of them to set a good example for other fans and riders; to show that we, the fans and the media, will not condone doping either. But I just can’t shake the desire to thank George Hincapie for being the capable lieutenant and road captain that led Cadel Evans to victory. I can’t shake that desire, and yet I can’t shake the question: does he still deserve our thanks? Or did he resign the right to that kind of admiration when he said yes to the drugs?
Should knowledge of redemption and the chance of returning to the fold form part of the doping culture in cycling? If riders admit, or repent, should their mistake be acknowledged and they be embraced upon their return? Or should complete ostracision by the cycling community and rescission of all respect and status be the unwavering punishment for doping? I’m not sure. I don’t think anyone is.
It’s not just the riders, either. Half of the support staff of the pro peloton is made up of former riders. Some are former dopers. What about Matt White, Bjaarne Riis, Jonathan Vaughters? Do we lump them in the same group as the riders, too – and what group is that, exactly? Can we admire their work as team managers and trainers without admiring their decision to dope? Is that even possible? I don’t know. It’s cycling’s version of a rock and a hard place – either we clap every good achievement, and provide no further disincentive from doping, or we draw a line and only clap clean riders and staff, and therefore clap far less often.
I really do feel guilty for saying it, but I think that, at least for now, I’m going to keep applauding. As much as I despise doping and think that desperate times call for desperate anti-doping measures, I still want to applaud these riders, even knowing their doping history. Despite everything they’ve done wrong, I keep finding that I can’t ignore everything they’ve done right, either. But I’d feel so much better if I could applaud them for their clean pasts as well. And I bet they feel that way, too.
Showing posts with label Alejandro Valverde. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alejandro Valverde. Show all posts
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Thursday, 19 July 2012
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 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.
Monday, 9 July 2012
Stage 8: Belfort – Porrentruy
When it comes to exciting in the Tour de France, it’s the mountains that
deliver, and we’ve only just seen the beginning of the hills in the Grande Boucle.
Today’s stage from Belfort to Porrentruy was gripping, exciting and
tantalising, and this was only a taste of what’s to come once the Tour
reaches the Alps and the Pyrenees.
Today was tipped as a day for the breakaways and that certainly turned out to be the case. The race moved east under sunny skies towards the French-Swiss border, 11 riders from various teams jumping off the front of the peloton a few kilometres in. They hovered 20 to 30 seconds off the front of the peloton for almost 10 kilometres, until the peloton managed to reel them in.
Jens Voigt (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), however, pre-empting the breakaway’s capture, attacked on his own and began a solo breakaway up and over the first climb of the day. The oldest man in the Tour de France was sitting 30” ahead of the bunch as various groups of riders tried to bridge the gap to the super-domestique. A group of eight and a group of four managed to stay away from the peloton long enough to join forces and begin attempting Voigt’s capture. Before they could achieve it, though, the peloton surged forward to swallow them up, and instead Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Chris Anker Sorenson (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank) had a try.
The theme of fluid breakaways would continue over the course of the day, as a stubborn Jens Voigt refused to be caught. The feat was eventually achieved by a group of six riders that soon swelled to a breakaway of 11, but as the peloton once again threatened to catch them Voigt took off on his own again. Steven Kruijswijk of Rabobank decided to join him, and the pair led a field that was split into four or five groups with riders constantly being tailed off the back. The first few groups on the road amalgamated to form a super-breakaway of 24, still only a handful of seconds ahead of the peloton.
That was when Jérémy Roy, SuperCombative rider of the 2011 Tour, decided the day just wasn’t interesting enough and bridged the gap to the breakaway and passed them, beginning a solo time trial in the lead. The main peloton was having its own kind of excitement, as yet another crash of the kind that has defined this year’s Tour forced Euskaltel-Euskadi’s main man Samuel Sanchez to retire with a broken collarbone and hand. Alejandro Valverde of Movistar also took another tumble, adding to his list of bad luck in this year’s Tour.
Meanwhile Roy had left France behind him altogether and entered Switzerland, leading Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar) and their group of 20 chasers over the fourth climb and into the trilingual country. Roy was soon joined by Fredrik Kessiakoff, who had leapfrogged Kiryienka to take the lead, 3’40” ahead of the peloton. The duo were quickly caught by four other riders, including Roy’s FDJ-Bigmat teammate Thibaut Pinot, as they made their way over the fifth climb of the day, the Category 2 Cote de Saulcy. Having taken maximum points, Kessiakoff decided to go it alone, vaulting off the front of the leading sextet and building up almost a minute’s lead for himself.
The peloton was taking the day off, the number of escapees meaning there were no points up for grabs at the intermediate sprint. The teams kept the pace high, though, continuing to shell riders off the back as they went up and down the Jura mountains. The action was still on out the front, the chase on for lone leader Kessiakoff by the Frenchmen Pinot and Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek). Pinot soon dropped Gallopin and started coming for Kessiakoff, less than a minute ahead, as the peloton fractured and died, the only group on the road a small collection of the top GC contenders, including yellow jersey wearer Bradley Wiggins (Sky), Cadel Evans (BMC) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale).
Three minutes ahead, Pinot was bolting for the finish line, FDJ-Bigmat sports director Marc Madiot bellowing at him from the team car with more and more enthusiasm as Pinot raced closer and closer to home. Though he was being chased by the elite group of GC riders and climbers who were coming ever closer, the 22-year-old Frenchman held off the hordes long enough to raise his arms in tired but exultant triumph as he crossed the line in Porrentruy, the first French victory of the Tour. Behind him Evans and Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) were playing mind games with their enemies, Wiggins marking Evans carefully to avoid losing time to his rival. Despite Evans’ attacks, the group crossed the line as one, Evans taking second and the previously dropped Gallopin hanging in for third.
The general classification received another good shake-up today, though nothing has changed between top contenders Wiggins and Evans. Tomorrow’s time trial will certainly keep things interesting, and it’s hard to go past Wiggins or Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek). Omega Pharma-Quickstep’s Tony Martin may or may not be in the mix, depending on how well his wrist has healed up. Watch out, too, for Cadel Evans. Though not as good a time triallist as the other three, Evans is in superlative form and he may prove a surprise in his attempt to claim the yellow.
Today was tipped as a day for the breakaways and that certainly turned out to be the case. The race moved east under sunny skies towards the French-Swiss border, 11 riders from various teams jumping off the front of the peloton a few kilometres in. They hovered 20 to 30 seconds off the front of the peloton for almost 10 kilometres, until the peloton managed to reel them in.
Jens Voigt (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), however, pre-empting the breakaway’s capture, attacked on his own and began a solo breakaway up and over the first climb of the day. The oldest man in the Tour de France was sitting 30” ahead of the bunch as various groups of riders tried to bridge the gap to the super-domestique. A group of eight and a group of four managed to stay away from the peloton long enough to join forces and begin attempting Voigt’s capture. Before they could achieve it, though, the peloton surged forward to swallow them up, and instead Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Chris Anker Sorenson (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank) had a try.
The theme of fluid breakaways would continue over the course of the day, as a stubborn Jens Voigt refused to be caught. The feat was eventually achieved by a group of six riders that soon swelled to a breakaway of 11, but as the peloton once again threatened to catch them Voigt took off on his own again. Steven Kruijswijk of Rabobank decided to join him, and the pair led a field that was split into four or five groups with riders constantly being tailed off the back. The first few groups on the road amalgamated to form a super-breakaway of 24, still only a handful of seconds ahead of the peloton.
That was when Jérémy Roy, SuperCombative rider of the 2011 Tour, decided the day just wasn’t interesting enough and bridged the gap to the breakaway and passed them, beginning a solo time trial in the lead. The main peloton was having its own kind of excitement, as yet another crash of the kind that has defined this year’s Tour forced Euskaltel-Euskadi’s main man Samuel Sanchez to retire with a broken collarbone and hand. Alejandro Valverde of Movistar also took another tumble, adding to his list of bad luck in this year’s Tour.
Meanwhile Roy had left France behind him altogether and entered Switzerland, leading Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar) and their group of 20 chasers over the fourth climb and into the trilingual country. Roy was soon joined by Fredrik Kessiakoff, who had leapfrogged Kiryienka to take the lead, 3’40” ahead of the peloton. The duo were quickly caught by four other riders, including Roy’s FDJ-Bigmat teammate Thibaut Pinot, as they made their way over the fifth climb of the day, the Category 2 Cote de Saulcy. Having taken maximum points, Kessiakoff decided to go it alone, vaulting off the front of the leading sextet and building up almost a minute’s lead for himself.
The peloton was taking the day off, the number of escapees meaning there were no points up for grabs at the intermediate sprint. The teams kept the pace high, though, continuing to shell riders off the back as they went up and down the Jura mountains. The action was still on out the front, the chase on for lone leader Kessiakoff by the Frenchmen Pinot and Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek). Pinot soon dropped Gallopin and started coming for Kessiakoff, less than a minute ahead, as the peloton fractured and died, the only group on the road a small collection of the top GC contenders, including yellow jersey wearer Bradley Wiggins (Sky), Cadel Evans (BMC) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale).
Three minutes ahead, Pinot was bolting for the finish line, FDJ-Bigmat sports director Marc Madiot bellowing at him from the team car with more and more enthusiasm as Pinot raced closer and closer to home. Though he was being chased by the elite group of GC riders and climbers who were coming ever closer, the 22-year-old Frenchman held off the hordes long enough to raise his arms in tired but exultant triumph as he crossed the line in Porrentruy, the first French victory of the Tour. Behind him Evans and Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) were playing mind games with their enemies, Wiggins marking Evans carefully to avoid losing time to his rival. Despite Evans’ attacks, the group crossed the line as one, Evans taking second and the previously dropped Gallopin hanging in for third.
The general classification received another good shake-up today, though nothing has changed between top contenders Wiggins and Evans. Tomorrow’s time trial will certainly keep things interesting, and it’s hard to go past Wiggins or Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek). Omega Pharma-Quickstep’s Tony Martin may or may not be in the mix, depending on how well his wrist has healed up. Watch out, too, for Cadel Evans. Though not as good a time triallist as the other three, Evans is in superlative form and he may prove a surprise in his attempt to claim the yellow.
Saturday, 7 July 2012
Stage 6: Épernay – Metz
The Tour de France
ended today. For a lot of riders, it did, in one way or another.
Stage 6 from Épernay to Metz takes the Drama Award for the Tour de
France so far – and maybe the Decisive Stage Award as well, mixing up
the race in a way that really wasn’t expected and could be telling in
the days to come.
The day started before it started, so to speak. A crash in the neutral zone took out Lotto Belisol’s Jurgen van den Broeck and Sky’s Richie Porte. With no serious injuries, everyone was soon back on their bikes and heading towards the official start of the stage. Today’s ‘eager beaver’, hovering off the front of the peloton, was the American David Zabriskie, famously the first man to ride the Tour de France on a vegan diet. He was soon joined David Malacarne (Europcar), Romain Zingle (Cofidis) and Karsten Kroon (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank), the quartet making slow but steady progress into the distance.
The peloton was not destined to have a good day. Though the time of the breakaway only seemed to concern the leading Radioshack-Nissan-Trek team, the four-minute lead of the escapees putting Malacarne in virtual yellow, what concerned the other riders far more was the crash at 35 kilometres from the start. André Greipel headlined a short list of names that hit the tarmac at the very beginning of the stage, none too damaged to continue riding, though the race doctor was forced to ply his trade on a few bleeding knees and elbows. The crash took the pressure off the chase for a while, allowing the breakaway to stretch their gap to a peak of 6’50”.
The weather seemed content to play along as the peloton rode along at a leisurely 42km/h, no sun, but only a few spots of rain to disturb the day’s ride. Lotto Belisol and Orica-GreenEDGE were leading the chase, promising another exciting showdown between Lotto Belisol’s sprinter Greipel and the Australian, Matthew Goss. The average pace of the peloton slowly increased as they passed through the feed zone, the approach of the intermediate sprint clearly enforcing that they wanted to catch the breakaway before the final kilometre this time.
For once the intermediate sprint brought some surprises. The teams set up as usual, Sky providing a small train for Mark Cavendish. As the final Sky leadout man swung off, Matt Goss launched himself into the sprint from behind Cavendish. The green colours of Liquigas-Cannondale’s Peter Sagan were visible behind the pair, but the real battle was just between Goss and Cavendish, Goss holding half a wheel’s advantage on Cavendish as they crossed the line.
Today’s King of the Mountain point passed without incident, ‘Captain America’ of the time trial, Dave Zabriskie, taking the single point on offer as they rode under the trees. It wasn’t so uneventful for the peloton, who seemed to have learnt nothing from the crashes of the past few days. Another crash sent André Greipel to the ground for the second time today, along with Garmin-Sharp sprinter Tyler Farrar. As a result of his injuries, Lotto Belisol team manager Herman Frison said Greipel wouldn’t sprint for the stage race, as the German was still trying to rejoin the peloton. Things were definitely looking up for Matt Goss, itching for the stage win.
The focus was on a few riders beginning to drop off the back of the peloton, notably Katusha fastman Oscar Freire, when the big drama of the day occurred. Yet another crash rocked the peloton, but this one looked to be a lot more decisive than the previous ones. Only 50 or so riders escaped the carnage just 26 kilometres from the end of the stage, and if you weren’t part of Orica-GreenEDGE, BMC Racing Team, Euskaltel-Euskadi or Team Sky then chances were you weren’t one of the lucky ones. A number of the big names faltered, including Frank Schleck (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp), Robert Gesink (Rabobank), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Mark Cavendish, and ended up losing between two and eight minutes to the front peloton. Some riders were destined never to see the front peloton again, riders like Tom Danielson of Garmin-Sharp, Davide Viganò of Lampre-ISD and Mikel Astarloza of Euskaltel-Euskadi pulling out of the race for good.
Meanwhile the front group were oblivious to the drama they’d avoided, all concentration on catching the renegades ahead of them in time for the sprint finish. Simon Gerrans, pulling for GreenEDGE on the front, was having a hard time recouping those last 15 seconds as the breakaway and its chasers raced under the banner of 10 kilometres to go. As soon as Lotto Belisol stepped up to help the pacemaking, however, the numbers began ticking down and heartrates began ticking up. Was Lotto Belisol lining up for Greipel’s leadout man Greg Henderson to take a shot at the victory, or was the effort for Greipel himself?
Lampre-ISD also jumped on the front and lent a hand with the pulling, hauling in two of the three riders, Zingle having dropped off long ago after a flat tyre. Zabriskie, on the other hand, apparently wanted to be the hero of the day, and with two kilometres to go he was attempting a solo time trial 150 metres ahead of the bunch. A racing peloton, however, is as inevitable as karma, and Zabriskie was caught with a kilometre left for the sprinters. Lotto Belisol were powering down the straight as usual, Peter Sagan’s green jersey on Greipel’s wheel and Goss on the end of his own train. For a moment or two it looked like it was between Goss and Greipel, but just as Goss fell behind Greipel’s wheel, a green bullet shot up the side and across the line before anybody could say ‘Sagan’, leaving Greipel with another second and Goss with another third.
The rest of the riders filtered through over the next hour, in varying spirits and states of shabbiness with assorted amounts of skin still attached to elbows and backsides. The jersey wearers remain the same, with Zabriskie claiming the red number for Fighting Spirit, but the GC has certainly received a shake-up today, one which will likely decide the Tour de France. As for tomorrow, we’ve left the sprinters’ stages behind, but with Stage 7 finishing on the never-before-seen climb to La Planche des Belles Filles, we’ve entered the stages of medium mountains, where breakaways have the chance to succeed. Orica-GreenEDGE are becoming desperate for a stage win, so keep an eye out for Simon Gerrans or Michael Albasini, who’ll be looking to join any moves that form, as well as climbers like Alejandro Valverde, who lost a lot of time today that he’ll be looking to get back.
The day started before it started, so to speak. A crash in the neutral zone took out Lotto Belisol’s Jurgen van den Broeck and Sky’s Richie Porte. With no serious injuries, everyone was soon back on their bikes and heading towards the official start of the stage. Today’s ‘eager beaver’, hovering off the front of the peloton, was the American David Zabriskie, famously the first man to ride the Tour de France on a vegan diet. He was soon joined David Malacarne (Europcar), Romain Zingle (Cofidis) and Karsten Kroon (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank), the quartet making slow but steady progress into the distance.
The peloton was not destined to have a good day. Though the time of the breakaway only seemed to concern the leading Radioshack-Nissan-Trek team, the four-minute lead of the escapees putting Malacarne in virtual yellow, what concerned the other riders far more was the crash at 35 kilometres from the start. André Greipel headlined a short list of names that hit the tarmac at the very beginning of the stage, none too damaged to continue riding, though the race doctor was forced to ply his trade on a few bleeding knees and elbows. The crash took the pressure off the chase for a while, allowing the breakaway to stretch their gap to a peak of 6’50”.
The weather seemed content to play along as the peloton rode along at a leisurely 42km/h, no sun, but only a few spots of rain to disturb the day’s ride. Lotto Belisol and Orica-GreenEDGE were leading the chase, promising another exciting showdown between Lotto Belisol’s sprinter Greipel and the Australian, Matthew Goss. The average pace of the peloton slowly increased as they passed through the feed zone, the approach of the intermediate sprint clearly enforcing that they wanted to catch the breakaway before the final kilometre this time.
For once the intermediate sprint brought some surprises. The teams set up as usual, Sky providing a small train for Mark Cavendish. As the final Sky leadout man swung off, Matt Goss launched himself into the sprint from behind Cavendish. The green colours of Liquigas-Cannondale’s Peter Sagan were visible behind the pair, but the real battle was just between Goss and Cavendish, Goss holding half a wheel’s advantage on Cavendish as they crossed the line.
Today’s King of the Mountain point passed without incident, ‘Captain America’ of the time trial, Dave Zabriskie, taking the single point on offer as they rode under the trees. It wasn’t so uneventful for the peloton, who seemed to have learnt nothing from the crashes of the past few days. Another crash sent André Greipel to the ground for the second time today, along with Garmin-Sharp sprinter Tyler Farrar. As a result of his injuries, Lotto Belisol team manager Herman Frison said Greipel wouldn’t sprint for the stage race, as the German was still trying to rejoin the peloton. Things were definitely looking up for Matt Goss, itching for the stage win.
The focus was on a few riders beginning to drop off the back of the peloton, notably Katusha fastman Oscar Freire, when the big drama of the day occurred. Yet another crash rocked the peloton, but this one looked to be a lot more decisive than the previous ones. Only 50 or so riders escaped the carnage just 26 kilometres from the end of the stage, and if you weren’t part of Orica-GreenEDGE, BMC Racing Team, Euskaltel-Euskadi or Team Sky then chances were you weren’t one of the lucky ones. A number of the big names faltered, including Frank Schleck (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp), Robert Gesink (Rabobank), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Mark Cavendish, and ended up losing between two and eight minutes to the front peloton. Some riders were destined never to see the front peloton again, riders like Tom Danielson of Garmin-Sharp, Davide Viganò of Lampre-ISD and Mikel Astarloza of Euskaltel-Euskadi pulling out of the race for good.
Meanwhile the front group were oblivious to the drama they’d avoided, all concentration on catching the renegades ahead of them in time for the sprint finish. Simon Gerrans, pulling for GreenEDGE on the front, was having a hard time recouping those last 15 seconds as the breakaway and its chasers raced under the banner of 10 kilometres to go. As soon as Lotto Belisol stepped up to help the pacemaking, however, the numbers began ticking down and heartrates began ticking up. Was Lotto Belisol lining up for Greipel’s leadout man Greg Henderson to take a shot at the victory, or was the effort for Greipel himself?
Lampre-ISD also jumped on the front and lent a hand with the pulling, hauling in two of the three riders, Zingle having dropped off long ago after a flat tyre. Zabriskie, on the other hand, apparently wanted to be the hero of the day, and with two kilometres to go he was attempting a solo time trial 150 metres ahead of the bunch. A racing peloton, however, is as inevitable as karma, and Zabriskie was caught with a kilometre left for the sprinters. Lotto Belisol were powering down the straight as usual, Peter Sagan’s green jersey on Greipel’s wheel and Goss on the end of his own train. For a moment or two it looked like it was between Goss and Greipel, but just as Goss fell behind Greipel’s wheel, a green bullet shot up the side and across the line before anybody could say ‘Sagan’, leaving Greipel with another second and Goss with another third.
The rest of the riders filtered through over the next hour, in varying spirits and states of shabbiness with assorted amounts of skin still attached to elbows and backsides. The jersey wearers remain the same, with Zabriskie claiming the red number for Fighting Spirit, but the GC has certainly received a shake-up today, one which will likely decide the Tour de France. As for tomorrow, we’ve left the sprinters’ stages behind, but with Stage 7 finishing on the never-before-seen climb to La Planche des Belles Filles, we’ve entered the stages of medium mountains, where breakaways have the chance to succeed. Orica-GreenEDGE are becoming desperate for a stage win, so keep an eye out for Simon Gerrans or Michael Albasini, who’ll be looking to join any moves that form, as well as climbers like Alejandro Valverde, who lost a lot of time today that he’ll be looking to get back.
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Tour Down Under - Stage 5
This was it - the queen stage. The one all the riders had been waiting for. The one everyone said would be the decider - Willunga Hill.
Meanwhile, the leaders were reaching the first sprint point, but no-one was particularly interested in taking the points, Goddaert leading the break across the line to take first place with Fenn and O'Grady filling out the top three. Despite the lack of sprinting at the sprint point, the gap to the peloton was still increasing, by now eight minutes ahead. The peloton let it get out to almost 8:30 before they finally put the pedal down and started bringing the break in, Team Sky also joining the work at the front of the peloton, and by the time the leaders reached the feedzone in Willunga on lap three the gap had come down to around six minutes.
There were only five in the break by the time they reached the second sprint point, Goddaert having fallen off the back with a mechanical problem, and this time it was Thomas de Gendt who rolled over the line first, again no-one in the break interested in contesting. As O'Grady and Fenn agained clean up the top three points on offer, the gap continued going down, the only respite when the peloton swept through the feed station. It was down to about 2:30 as the breakaway started up Willunga Hill for the first time, the race finally getting exciting as the peloton tried to catch them in time to set up the showdown that everyone was anticipating between the major GC contenders.
It was Nathan Haas who made the first move, attacking the break on the way up the hill and holding a lead of a couple of hundred metres as the peloton entered Willunga for the first ascent of the hill. Thanks to the high pace-making from teams like BMC and Rabobank the peloton was now in two with a gap between and Steele von Hoff in no man's land between thanks to a crash. On the front of the peloton Movistar's David Lopez attacked, taking GreenEDGE's Simon Gerrans and Lampre's Matty Lloyd, amongst others, with him as he tried to bridge the gap to the breakaway.
Lopez and entourage managed to catch the four poursuivants, Haas remaining defiant off the front of the bunch and claiming the maximum points for cresting the first King of the Mountain point in the lead, his chasers 50 seconds behind. Still refusing to give up as the peloton rippled and shifted into groups behind him, Haas kept fighting until the nearest group of 30 riders, including Gerrans, race leader Martin Kohler and other favourites for the stage finally swamped him.
Then it was back around to Willunga for the final race up the hill, UniSA's Rohan Dennis making a storm as he escaped from the front group in a breakaway with Sky's Danny Pate, Radioshack Nissan Trek's Hayden Roulston and Movistar's Jose Ivan Gutierrez. The breakaway soon dissipating on the slope, it was Dennis and Radioshack's Tiago Machado leading the way on the final climb up Willunga, before the front group of eager stage contenders caught them just as Simon Gerrans made his move, shadowed by Movistar's Valverde.
The two were neck and neck as they turned the final corner, the home crowd cheering enthusiastically for National Champion Gerro, only to have their hopes disappointed as Spanish sprinter Valverde's bike wheel pipped Gerro's by half a length. Sky's Michael Rogers, trailing the pair since they left the group, chased them across the line for third.
But the real enigma of the win was the times of Gerrans and Valverde. While Gerrans began the day four seconds ahead of Valverde in the GC, Gerrans only received a time bonus on the finish of six seconds, four seconds less than Valverde. As such the two were on equal time at the end of the day's stage, but the ochre leader's jersey will go to Gerrans, as Gerrans placed higher than Valverde within the bunch on the previous days' stages, and Valverde must outplace Gerrans to take the jersey. So the question rests for tomorrow's final stage at the crit in Adelaide: will Valverde attack in the hopes of gaining a few more seconds tomorrow, or will GreenEDGE's defence of Gerran's ochre prove too strong?
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