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.

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 2: Visé – Tournai

It was a stage of injuries, of sprinters, of chateaux and long breakaways, and a stage of rising above.  Stage 2 of the 2012 Tour de France from Visé to Tournai saw all the things we’ve come to expect from the paramount race of the world – pain, triumph, inhuman achievement and a gripping finish to keep us all guessing.

After the crashes and dramatic finish of yesterday’s stage into Seraing, the peloton started off slowly, savouring the beautiful panoramas and elegant cathedrals of central Belgium.  It was 22 kilometres into the stage before Anthony Roux of FDJ-BigMat attempted a breakaway and was quickly joined by Europcar’s Christophe Kern and Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank’s Michael Morkov, wearer of the polka-dot jersey after his participation in yesterday’s breakaway.   The three rode rapidly away from the peloton to build up a lead that reached around eight minutes, Roux leaning on his handlebars as though for a time trial to avoid using his broken left hand, the result of one of yesterday’s crashes.

The young Frenchman wasn’t the only rider putting on a brave face for the stage.  World time trial champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) was also in considerable pain from a fractured scaphoid in his left hand which had caused temporary doubt as to whether he would start the stage.   The German’s Tour de France certainly hadn’t improved, with a puncture in the prologue time trial preceding the Stage 1 crash which left him in a plastic brace.

The breakaway trio’s lead had dropped down to 6’15” as they passed through the city of Namur and began the climb up to the King of the Mountains point at the Côte de la Citadelle de Namur, a Roman-era fortress sitting at the top of the winding cobbles.  Morkov dashed ahead of Kern and Roux to take the single point on offer, extending his lead over the polka-dot jersey competition to three points.  Objective achieved, Morkov assumed a position at the back of the leading group and let the French pair do the work for the rest of the stage.

The gap quickly receding, the idle peloton realised they’d left it too late to catch the breakaway before the sprint point at Soignies, allowing Kern, Roux and Morkov respectively to take top points, and instead prepared to sprint for 4th place.  The teams of the sprinters, already with a rider each at the front to do the pacemaking, sent up their leadout trains to contend for the vital green jersey points.  Liquigas-Cannondale’s train was pulling for Peter Sagan, but Australian outfit Orica-GreenEDGE once again slipped sprinter Matthew Goss up the side to take the win ahead of Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) and Mark Cavendish (Sky).

Intermediate sprint aside, the race continued west across Belgium as the lead group’s advantage slowly ticked down.  As the peloton loomed behind, Roux decided that the attitude of the day was ‘never say die’ and attacked again with 31 kilometres to go, an action that earned him the Combative Rider award for the day, while Kern and Morkov were swallowed up by the quickly-moving peloton and promptly spat out at the back end.  As the pace increased, the hopeful teams of the sprinters moved to the front of the peloton for a second time and began preparing their sprint trains for the battle royale that was to be the stage finish.

At the rear of the peloton, though, Argos-Shimano’s sprinter Marcel Kittel was having trouble.  While his team led the peloton charging towards Tournai, Kittel was falling off the back of the main field, his expression strained.  Despite the help of teammates Kittel was unable to keep in touch any longer and dropped off, victim of a stomach bug, surrendering his chance at the day’s stage win.

The front of the peloton barely noticed his absence, flying towards the finish at nearly 70kph, scooping up the still-fighting Roux along the way.  The key sprint teams of Liquigas-Cannondale, Lotto Belisol, Orica-GreenEDGE and Sky Procycling were jostling for position as King Albert II of Belgium, as keen a cycling fan as his countrymen, waited for the riders at the finish.  Though Lotto Belisol appeared to have the win lined up neatly for Andre Greipel, Liquigas-Cannondale’s Peter Sagan clinging to his back wheel, the aptly-named ‘Manx Missile’ of Mark Cavendish shot past Greipel to take his 21^st Tour de France stage win, Orica-GreenEDGE’s Matt Goss again slipping up the side to take third.

The win has done little for the overall standings, Peter Sagan taking the green sprinter’s jersey the only change in the classifications.  Tomorrow the Tour heads into northern France and more medium mountains, a newfound battleground for Sagan which may enable him to consolidate his lead on the maillot vert.

Tour Down Under - Touring the Village

There is a red BMC jersey hanging out the window of the Hilton Hotel. The owner probably just wants to air it before tomorrow, but for those who notice it it’s a reminder that their heroes are not far away.

The Santos Tour Down Under Tour Village sits in the shadow of the Hilton in the late afternoon sun. Outside in the small grassy area, the sponsors are spruiking their wares, offering freebies and competitions to the hundreds of fans who pass by, while inside the main tent the team mechanics are preparing the bikes for the following day’s stage, the curious public watching as they clean the bikes, change wheels and lubricate chains. Across the road is the bike expo, all the bicycle, helmet and clothing sponsors showcasing their goods to the avid cyclists, as well as the GreenEDGE caravan where Robbie McEwen will hold a book-signing later.

The Tour Village is often one of the best places to meet the riders - the team buses and cars pull up into the field behind the village, the riders cutting through the village to the team-only gate leading to the pedestrian crossing outside the Hilton. As we wander the tents, Mark Renshaw walks past in his orange Rabobank jersey carrying a large bag of ice; he is evidently repeating his ice-bath recovery of the day before.

Nathan Haas also wanders past with a coffee in hand and stops for a chat. His day was not as good as he had hoped, his form just not what he needed it to be this early in the season. When we asked how it felt riding at a ProTour level for the first time, he also made the interesting comment the ProTour cyclists don’t necessarily ride at a higher level than the Continental teams, but they ride more days a year at that same level. We wish him luck for the Tour and the year and he heads back to the hotel.

Inside the village pavilion I stand and stare at the mechanics working on the bikes, picking the numbers on the frames to know it’s Gerro’s or Robbie McEwen’s or Blel Kadri’s ride they’re working on. They have a routine for each bike – first cleaning away the grit with a compressed air gun, then checking all the brakes and moving parts, preparing and attaching the wheels and finally lubricating the chain and gears to ensure maximum response on the road. It’s fascinating how intricate the work is – and how well the mechanics know the bikes.

I talk to some of the GreenEDGE soigneurs and mechanics as I watch. Of all the mechanics, soigneurs and other helpers on the road, only one is close to home: all of them are European except for one New Zealander. While GreenEDGE ideally wants an Australian support team for their Australian riders, the quality of soigneurs and mechanics hasn’t yet reached that of the riders. Instead the two Basque mechanics methodically prepare all the team’s bikes in turn before refitting a few punctured wheels for tomorrow’s stage. Only one of these mechanics will be in the team car once the race starts, ready to assist riders with problems on the road.

Back outside the grass is full of seated people, watching a replay of the day’s stage up on the big screen. Many of those who watched the stage from the roadside haven’t seen anything else of the race. Up in the back corner in the radio station’s tent, 5AA are broadcasting their Santos Tour Down Under show live, the presenters giving me a smile as I stand and watch them for a while. At 7:30pm a live band steps onstage, entertaining the crowd while the Hilton’s food stall does a roaring trade in cones of chips and plastic cups of beer. We leave for the train station.

As we leave, we notice the figure of Lotto-Belisol’s injured rider Jürgen Roelandts talking to a couple of friends in one of the inside stalls. Apparently we are not the only ones, as a couple of other cyclists stop to say hello. As he leaves, we walk over and wish Jürgen all the best for his recovery and the coming season, and he thanks us in his lovely Belgian accent. We smile at each other, exit the pavilion and leave the village with all its noise and colour behind us.

We didn’t make the train.

Tour Down Under - Stage 3

The rolling road blocks were certainly in effect today, as the peloton rode south-bound from Unley down to Victor Harbour.  As Mike Turtur waved the red flag at the end of the neutral zone outside Flinder's Hospital, hundreds of fans cheered the peloton onto the Southern Expressway to begin the journey south.  They were moving fast, too, as the traffic was completely stopped barely 25 minutes later as the riders made their way from the Expressway onto the main road southbound.

Following a few abortive attempts, the breakaway of the day had already formed, four riders already four minutes ahead of the peloton - Matt Brammeier, Omega Pharma - Quickstep; Eduard Vorganov, Katusha; Jan Bakelants, Radioshack Nissan Trek; and Thomas de Gendt, Vacansoleil.  The teams of sprinters and GC contenders didn't like that, Lotto-Belisol, Rabobank and GreenEDGE keeping and pace high and the time gap steady to ensure a catch before the finish.  The renegade four hit the second KOM together, De Gendt, Brammeier and Bakelants taking the top three allocations of points with Vorganov coming across fourth for two.  They were still four minutes ahead when they reached the first sprint point in Mt. Compass, De Gendt stepping up to maximum points in front of the crowd.

But despite the increase in speed, the time gap was dropping.  As the breakaway passed the feed station, restocking their jerseys with food and water bottles, the peloton was only a couple of minutes behind, bottles and bananas flying everywhere as they raced through in hot pursuit.  They were gaining, too, the gap barely one minute as Radioshack Nissan Trek drove the peloton to the second sprint point, just a kilometre behind the leaders.  De Gendt, Bakelants and Vorganov again raced up to take the sprint points, before sitting up and returning to the peloton, clearly having acheived their aims for the day.

Matt Brammeier, meanwhile, was still trying to stay away from the peloton 200 metres behind, but unsurprisingly Brammeier couldn't hold them off for long, the race coming back together with just under 43 kilometres left to ride.  The more ambitious ProTeams then took over the peloton, BMC and Sky picking up the pace and starting to string out the peloton, nine riders at the back managing to keep contact in the increasing crosswinds.

As the peloton hit 55k/h the attacks began again, as did the punctures.  The attackers reeled in and the flat tyres catching up, GreenEDGE began driving the reunited peloton towards the stage finish in Victor Harbour on the scenic Fleurieu Peninsula.  Although 10 minutes behind the predicted race times, the riders stormed down into the township on the descent, Rabobank doing the work out front for sprinters Michael Matthews and Mark Renshaw.  Other teams tried attacking as the finish line loomed, the blue and orange colours of Rabobank not letting anyone get away.

The race altogether as it reached the final metres, bar a few unfortunate punctures, it was down to a bunch sprint finish, Greipel edging out all other contenders to take his third victory in Adelaide and an impressive 10th TDU stage win.  FDJ-Big Mat's Yauheni Hutarovich also got up to claim second, with Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen finally making the podium in third.  Rabobank's efforts let Renshaw in fourth, and GreenEDGE was happy with Robbie McEwen placing fifth on the stage, while Simon Gerrans moved into fifth overall in the GC.  Stage 3 over, the riders are now another day closer to their nemesis stage - Stage 5's long climb to the top of Old Willunga Hill.

The 2012 Australian National Championships - Crits

Crits are a lovely way to start the National Championships and get all the locals hyped about the sporting legends in their midst.  Names like Robbie McEwen, Mark Renshaw and defending champion Jonathan Cantwell were enough to have Ballarat residents out and about in the main street for the first races of the 2012 Australian National Championships, which culminate with the time trials on Tuesday.

The U23 men took the 1.1km circuit in their stride, defending champion Ben Grenda joining with the peloton in the one-minute laps of Ballarat's Sturt St.  With the usual contention for points at the intermediate sprints, the 33-kilometre race passed without incident; Aaron Donnelly's breakaway being reeled in just in time for a bunch sprint at the finish.  19-year-old Scott Law of New South Wales already had the winner's salute down pat, arms outstretched to the sky as he led Jay McCarthy and Ben Grenda over the line.  “These criteriums suit me very well,” he commented on the podium after receiving his national champion’s jersey.  “I’m usually good on the track.”

Due credit to the other medallists, too.  As he left the podium area, instead of handing it to his girlfriend or mother, Jay McCarthy passed his flower bouquet to the nearest female spectator, which appreciative recipient happened to be my mother/photographer waiting nearby (thank you, Jay, they look lovely on our fireplace!).  ACT cyclist Mitchell Lovelock-Fay’s mother just got a kiss on the cheek, but it was easy to see her pride in her son.  The sprint classification winner’s career has made huge progress in the past 18 months, hinting at a bright future for the track/road rider, who turns 20 next week.

 Alexis Rhodes was the golden girl of the day, making an early break in her new GreenEDGE kit and never looking back.  Her GreenEDGE teammates sat on the front and kept the pace as low as possible, allowing Alexis to build up a lead that hovered between 10 and 15 seconds for the final half of the race.  She stated afterward that her win was due largely to her confidence in her teammates to keep the peloton off her back.

To the encouragement of the crowd she came home in just under 50 minutes to take the gold medal, her teammates crossing the line behind her.   South Australia’s Annette Edmondson took out the bronze medal with Rhodes’ GreenEDGE compatriot Melissa Hoskins rounding out the top three for silver.  At 21, Hoskins also took out the under-23 title, shivering, “I’m cold now,” as she waited for the under-23 medal ceremony, soaked in champagne from the elite women’s presentation.  Edmondson, who rode the entire race with her mobile phone in her back pocket after choosing not to stop mid-race to remove it, also claimed U23 silver, while defending elite and U23 champion Lauren Kitchen took U23 bronze.  GreenEDGE fans were also pleased to see Tiffany Cromwell on the platform as the winner of the criterium sprint jersey.

But as always, it was the elite men’s race that everyone was waiting to see.  The presence of triple Tour de France green jersey-winner Robbie McEwen was enough to have spectators spellbound, myself notwithstanding.  Add in the best lead-out man in the world, Mark Renshaw, and a goodly portion of Australia’s new ProTour cycling team and the atmosphere was electric.  Ballarat boy Pat Shaw put on a good show for his hometown crowd, joining in or initiating every breakaway effort and stubbornly refusing to die, in an effort reminiscent of FDJ’s Jeremy Roy in the 2011 Tour de France.  The crowd cheer of ‘Go, Pat!’ can’t have hurt either.

But finally tuckered out, Shaw was reeled in to allow for a bunch sprint, the green and orange jerseys of Robbie McEwen and Mark Renshaw respectively creeping up from the middle of the peloton towards the front.  Though McEwen was out of shape with food poisoning all through the race, Renshaw saw his chance at the end and went for it, only to be pipped across the line by a flying orange form.  Genesys Wealth Advisers’ Anthony Giacoppo had been perfectly placed by his omnipresent team to race up behind the world-class sprinter and take gold, with teammate Steele von Hoff following him across to claim bronze.  Giacoppo referenced the number of Genesys riders as a strategy for Sunday’s road race, mildly stating that there’s “…quite a few of us.” 

But the prize for the biggest team would have to go to GreenEDGE, with 16 riders entered in the Elite Men’s Road Race, including several popular favourites like defending champion Jack Bobridge and Milan-San-Remo winner Matt Goss.  The competition will no doubt be fierce on the hills of Buninyong, but will the numbers be enough for the Australian team to achieve their dream of claiming an Australian jersey?

The Team with the EDGE

The more I hear, the more I'm convinced: this is certainly Australia's year in cycling.  Despite being all the way "Down Under", we're following up a maiden Tour de France win with our own first-ever ProTour cycling team - and what a bloody good team it's shaping up to be!

Despite the transfer season still not having opened, news is filtering through the cognoscenti of the line-up of the new Aussie team, which since the last update seems to include every Australian rider on the ProTour circuit.

Rumours were floating about the two big Aussie names the team was looking to sign - Robbie McEwen and Stuey O'Grady.  While not a peep has been heard from the Radioshack sprinter, Leopard Trek's O'Grady has indeed signed to GreenEDGE and is probably looking forward to riding in his national team for the first time ever.  As suspected, young Tassie rider Richie Porte has re-signed with Team Saxobank Sungard, and as expected BMC's Cadel Evans has also renewed his contract there.

But almost every other Aussie in the professional peloton seems to be jumping on board.  Two of my three top picks of the young Aussies were announced as being headhunted by GreenEDGE, and to my utter delight all three of them have been signed!  Jack Bobridge and brother team Cameron and Travis Meyer, who have more world titles between them than I can remember anymore (four, I think - two to Cameron and one to each of the others) have all jumped ship from Team Garmin-Cervelo to GreenEDGE, where I'm hopeful at least one of them will be given the chance to make their debut in a grand tour.

While all these signings were foreshadowed if not expected, a new name has appeared on the radar - Simon Gerrans!  Team Sky's 'Gerro' is returning to home soil with his national team.  As for the other Aussies, Mark Renshaw has left the folding HTC-Highroad team to join Dutch team Rabobank but there is no word on the rest, meaning riders like Matty Goss are still up for grabs.

There are of course a few international riders who've also been signed.  Promising young Eritrean neo Daniel Teklehaymanot was the very first rider to join the team, while Dutch talents Pieter Weening and Sebastian Langeveld have both left their national team to help boost GreenEDGE's Spring Classics profile.

Ironically enough, in their guide to rider transfers for this season, Cycling News had to retrospectively add GreenEDGE to the list of teams signing riders due to the large number of riders they were pinching from the other teams.  All bar one of these teams are ProTour teams who rode the Tour de France this year.  Is it just me, or is this a very promising omen for EDGE?