Showing posts with label Michael Hepburn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Hepburn. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Where Do We Draw The Line?
It's been pointed out to me recently that we often hold our sports heroes to a much higher standard of morals and behaviour than we do our everyday heroes, like friends or parents. They also suffer far more public consequences for their lapses than do their everyday counterparts, and sometimes far more severe consequences too. But where do we draw the line? When is too much?
The event that brought about this train of thought was, of course, the drink-driving incident involving rising stars of cycling, Jack Bobridge and Michael Hepburn. When you become a professional Australian sportsman, a world champion or an Olympic athlete, you must expect that you're about to become something of a celebrity, and with celebrity of course comes the admiration, the hero-worship, the esteem of the viewing public. On some level these riders must have known they were signing up to become public figures with the expectations of many riding on their shoulders. On some level they've agreed to this, whether consciously or not.
But is it fair of us to place these high expectations on our sportsmen? Jack Bobridge is just 22 years old, Michael Hepburn only 20. How many of us know a 20-year-old male who could live up to the expectations we hold of the young men mentioned above? Conversely, how many of us know a 20-year-old who's made a mistake or a bad decision - or several - along the path to maturity? As someone who's been through university, I can promise that the intelligence to be accepted to one of the top universities in Australia does not necessarily bestow any of the above qualities. In fact, I can regale you with any number of epic stories, many featuring 20-year-old boys, that would thoroughly convince you otherwise. Unless we believe that signing a professional athlete's contract bestows magical powers of self-control, wise judgement and keen understanding, it can't be reasonable of us to have different standards for pro cyclists than we do for everyone else.
So where do we draw the line? Do we acknowledge that most 20-year-old boys we know have made their own mistakes, and that it's part of the process of growing up? Do we take into account that this is the first scratch on a pair of squeaky records that shine with accolades, and dole out a pair of second chances? Or should we reiterate the standard of behaviour expected of Australian role models and hand down a severe penalty as a deterrent from a repetition?
Somehow it seems a little harsh to me to tell a couple of 20-year-olds that the rules have changed just because they're very good at their jobs. After all, they're still human.
The event that brought about this train of thought was, of course, the drink-driving incident involving rising stars of cycling, Jack Bobridge and Michael Hepburn. When you become a professional Australian sportsman, a world champion or an Olympic athlete, you must expect that you're about to become something of a celebrity, and with celebrity of course comes the admiration, the hero-worship, the esteem of the viewing public. On some level these riders must have known they were signing up to become public figures with the expectations of many riding on their shoulders. On some level they've agreed to this, whether consciously or not.
But is it fair of us to place these high expectations on our sportsmen? Jack Bobridge is just 22 years old, Michael Hepburn only 20. How many of us know a 20-year-old male who could live up to the expectations we hold of the young men mentioned above? Conversely, how many of us know a 20-year-old who's made a mistake or a bad decision - or several - along the path to maturity? As someone who's been through university, I can promise that the intelligence to be accepted to one of the top universities in Australia does not necessarily bestow any of the above qualities. In fact, I can regale you with any number of epic stories, many featuring 20-year-old boys, that would thoroughly convince you otherwise. Unless we believe that signing a professional athlete's contract bestows magical powers of self-control, wise judgement and keen understanding, it can't be reasonable of us to have different standards for pro cyclists than we do for everyone else.
So where do we draw the line? Do we acknowledge that most 20-year-old boys we know have made their own mistakes, and that it's part of the process of growing up? Do we take into account that this is the first scratch on a pair of squeaky records that shine with accolades, and dole out a pair of second chances? Or should we reiterate the standard of behaviour expected of Australian role models and hand down a severe penalty as a deterrent from a repetition?
Somehow it seems a little harsh to me to tell a couple of 20-year-olds that the rules have changed just because they're very good at their jobs. After all, they're still human.
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
Balancing the Scales of Justice
It wasn't exactly what the clean and untarnished world of Australian cycling hoped to wake up to on June 20th. Stars of the track, professional road cyclists and Olympic gold medal hopefuls Jack Bobridge and Michael Hepburn were involved in what's being described by the media as a 'drink-driving incident' in northern Spain. Involved in a 'minor' car park collision while under the influence of alcohol, though no other cars were involved and no-one was hurt, Bobridge was fined $2,500 by Cycling Australia, $2,000 of which is suspended, and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond, as well as being fined 700 euros ($880) by a Spanish court, while Hepburn received a 12-month good behaviour bond and $1,000 suspended fine. Without being sanctioned by the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), both riders will compete as usual in the team pursuit in London, where Australia and Great Britain will once again take up their fierce rivalry for gold.
But is the penalty too light? The AOC recently handed down a much harsher penalty to so-called 'bad-boy' swimmers Nick D'Arcy and Kenrick Monk, which will force the troublesome duo to fly home directly after competing in their Olympic events, missing the Closing Ceremony and the celebrations that ensue. Granted, both swimmers have been in trouble with the police before - D'Arcy was actually excluded from the 2008 Beijing Olympics for beating a fellow swimmer in a bar brawl - but most people would suggest that the punishment should be proportional to the crime. D'Arcy and Monk posting pictures on Facebook of themselves posing with high-powered guns in an arms shop during a training camp in America shows them to be guilty of bad taste, certainly, but guilty of breaking no laws in either Australia or America - except for those of decency. Drink-driving, however, is not only illegal in both Australia and Spain but also endangers the lives of the driver, passengers and any other road users. Of all road users, cyclists should be the most aware of the consequences of poor driving.
One has to wonder what was taken into consideration when the AOC chose not to impose their own penalty on top of the one handed down by Cycling Australia. Did they consider that without Bobridge and Hepburn, Australia's 50/50 chance at a gold medal in the team pursuit goes down the drain? Did they take into account the otherwise squeaky clean records covered in wins, deem it a mistake and decide to give them a second chance? Did they ponder the penitence of the pair, now training hard for the Olympics at the national training camp? How about the serious nature of the offence, and the fact that committing a criminal offence violates Cycling Australia's disciplinary code? And did anyone mention the sanctions of D'Arcy and Monk as a barometer?
It must be confessed that cycling's administration isn't known for its consistency - the stringent enforcing of usually lax rules at the 2012 Track World Championships, or the controversial banning of Alberto Contador for doping while other riders were let off on technicalities - but there are likely some shaking heads amongst the rest of the Australian Olympic team, as well as the general public. It seems a little hard to believe - and more than a little unfair - that D'Arcy and Monk will have to board a plane during the Olympics afterparty for a bad use of social media, while their teammate with a drink-driving conviction joins in all the festivities - albeit without the alcohol, which the cyclist pair are now forbidden from drinking while with the national team. The AOC declined to penalise Bobridge and Hepburn following their court sanctions and the Cycling Australia verdict, deciding they'd been punished enough, but now would be a great time for them to step in and play Lady Justice, balancing the scales to ensure that the penalties handed down to our Olympic athletes have been delivered with consistency.
But is the penalty too light? The AOC recently handed down a much harsher penalty to so-called 'bad-boy' swimmers Nick D'Arcy and Kenrick Monk, which will force the troublesome duo to fly home directly after competing in their Olympic events, missing the Closing Ceremony and the celebrations that ensue. Granted, both swimmers have been in trouble with the police before - D'Arcy was actually excluded from the 2008 Beijing Olympics for beating a fellow swimmer in a bar brawl - but most people would suggest that the punishment should be proportional to the crime. D'Arcy and Monk posting pictures on Facebook of themselves posing with high-powered guns in an arms shop during a training camp in America shows them to be guilty of bad taste, certainly, but guilty of breaking no laws in either Australia or America - except for those of decency. Drink-driving, however, is not only illegal in both Australia and Spain but also endangers the lives of the driver, passengers and any other road users. Of all road users, cyclists should be the most aware of the consequences of poor driving.
One has to wonder what was taken into consideration when the AOC chose not to impose their own penalty on top of the one handed down by Cycling Australia. Did they consider that without Bobridge and Hepburn, Australia's 50/50 chance at a gold medal in the team pursuit goes down the drain? Did they take into account the otherwise squeaky clean records covered in wins, deem it a mistake and decide to give them a second chance? Did they ponder the penitence of the pair, now training hard for the Olympics at the national training camp? How about the serious nature of the offence, and the fact that committing a criminal offence violates Cycling Australia's disciplinary code? And did anyone mention the sanctions of D'Arcy and Monk as a barometer?
It must be confessed that cycling's administration isn't known for its consistency - the stringent enforcing of usually lax rules at the 2012 Track World Championships, or the controversial banning of Alberto Contador for doping while other riders were let off on technicalities - but there are likely some shaking heads amongst the rest of the Australian Olympic team, as well as the general public. It seems a little hard to believe - and more than a little unfair - that D'Arcy and Monk will have to board a plane during the Olympics afterparty for a bad use of social media, while their teammate with a drink-driving conviction joins in all the festivities - albeit without the alcohol, which the cyclist pair are now forbidden from drinking while with the national team. The AOC declined to penalise Bobridge and Hepburn following their court sanctions and the Cycling Australia verdict, deciding they'd been punished enough, but now would be a great time for them to step in and play Lady Justice, balancing the scales to ensure that the penalties handed down to our Olympic athletes have been delivered with consistency.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Les Championnats du Monde: Copenhague 2011 (Course en Ligne)
Le contre-la-montre n’est pas une course. C’est une bataille entre les volontés des coureurs, entre la volonté et les pieds de chaque coureur. C’est une opportunité à voir qui peut se motiver le meilleur. Mais un contre-la-montre est court, et c’est individuel. Bien que j’aime la contre-la-montre, je préfère voir les tactiques et la rivalité directe de la course en ligne. Et quand c’est les meilleurs coureurs du monde qui rivalisent pour le prix du maillot arc-en-ciel, c’est la plus meilleure rivalité du monde.
En la première année de la catégorie «Junior», rien spectaculaire n’est venu de la course des femmes juniors. Peut-être l’année prochaine, vainqueur Lucy Garner de Grande-Bretagne rivalisera dans la course des femmes élites ou gagnera une course pro, mais à ce moment-là, les noms de ces femmes ne sont pas familiers. Ce n’est pas vrai pour les femmes élites. En effet, ils sont très familiers, car Georgia Bronzini, d’Italie, et Marianne Vos, du Pays-Bas, se sont placées première et deuxième l’année dernière aussi! Cette année, Ina Teutenberg, d’Allemagne, a complété le trio sur le podium. Un résultat un peu étrange, peut-être, mais c’est très clair qui est la meilleur coureuse dans le peloton féminin.
Les hommes juniors n’ont pas des noms familiers. Ces hommes ont moins de 18 ans, et bien que les hommes ne fassent rien remarquable maintenant, ils sont le futur des courses comme le Tour de France. Donc, sur cette note, faire le guet pour Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier, Martijn Degreve et Steven Lammertink, qui ont gagné les trois places premières avec trois seconds sur les autres coureurs. Et, de façon intéressante, malgré ses bons résultats dans les contre-la-montres, les australiens ne font pas très bien dans les courses en ligne. Même dans les hommes moins de 23 ans, australien Michael Hepburn s’est placé 21ème, et France a gagné les deux places premières et Grande-Bretagne le troisième.
«Garder le meilleur pour la fin» est le proverbe, et l’UCI le fait certainement dans les Championnats du Monde. La course plus intéressante, la plus fortement disputé, c’est la course en ligne des hommes élites, qui est toujours en le dernier jour des Championnats. La course cette année a été décrit par les coureurs comme totalement plat avec plusieurs tours et pas de cols, les conditions parfaites pour un sprint du groupe.
Mais malgré le type de course, il y avait une échappée, quand Lars Boom de Pays-Bas a échappé du peloton et fait la course seulement pour beaucoup de kilomètres. Mais les pays qui ont des bons sprinteurs ne l’a pas permis. En les derniers tours de piste le peloton a attrapé Boom pour avoir une possibilité d’un sprint à la fin. Et bien sûr, il y avait un bon sprint, avec l’équipe australien faisant beaucoup de travail pour son sprinteur, Matt Goss. Même les Brits avec son sprinteur, le porteur du maillot vert du Tour de France, Mark Cavendish, ne peuvent pas préparer son train de sprint. Mais quand «le missile Manx» a les pieds, le missile Manx a les pieds, et personne ne peut l’arrêter. Il a sprinté de la roue arrière de Goss, qui s’est placé deuxième, et gagné son premier titre mondial.
En la première année de la catégorie «Junior», rien spectaculaire n’est venu de la course des femmes juniors. Peut-être l’année prochaine, vainqueur Lucy Garner de Grande-Bretagne rivalisera dans la course des femmes élites ou gagnera une course pro, mais à ce moment-là, les noms de ces femmes ne sont pas familiers. Ce n’est pas vrai pour les femmes élites. En effet, ils sont très familiers, car Georgia Bronzini, d’Italie, et Marianne Vos, du Pays-Bas, se sont placées première et deuxième l’année dernière aussi! Cette année, Ina Teutenberg, d’Allemagne, a complété le trio sur le podium. Un résultat un peu étrange, peut-être, mais c’est très clair qui est la meilleur coureuse dans le peloton féminin.
Les hommes juniors n’ont pas des noms familiers. Ces hommes ont moins de 18 ans, et bien que les hommes ne fassent rien remarquable maintenant, ils sont le futur des courses comme le Tour de France. Donc, sur cette note, faire le guet pour Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier, Martijn Degreve et Steven Lammertink, qui ont gagné les trois places premières avec trois seconds sur les autres coureurs. Et, de façon intéressante, malgré ses bons résultats dans les contre-la-montres, les australiens ne font pas très bien dans les courses en ligne. Même dans les hommes moins de 23 ans, australien Michael Hepburn s’est placé 21ème, et France a gagné les deux places premières et Grande-Bretagne le troisième.
«Garder le meilleur pour la fin» est le proverbe, et l’UCI le fait certainement dans les Championnats du Monde. La course plus intéressante, la plus fortement disputé, c’est la course en ligne des hommes élites, qui est toujours en le dernier jour des Championnats. La course cette année a été décrit par les coureurs comme totalement plat avec plusieurs tours et pas de cols, les conditions parfaites pour un sprint du groupe.
Mais malgré le type de course, il y avait une échappée, quand Lars Boom de Pays-Bas a échappé du peloton et fait la course seulement pour beaucoup de kilomètres. Mais les pays qui ont des bons sprinteurs ne l’a pas permis. En les derniers tours de piste le peloton a attrapé Boom pour avoir une possibilité d’un sprint à la fin. Et bien sûr, il y avait un bon sprint, avec l’équipe australien faisant beaucoup de travail pour son sprinteur, Matt Goss. Même les Brits avec son sprinteur, le porteur du maillot vert du Tour de France, Mark Cavendish, ne peuvent pas préparer son train de sprint. Mais quand «le missile Manx» a les pieds, le missile Manx a les pieds, et personne ne peut l’arrêter. Il a sprinté de la roue arrière de Goss, qui s’est placé deuxième, et gagné son premier titre mondial.
Mais le drame n’a pas terminé là. Il y avait une égalité pour troisieme place! Fabian Cancellara, champion suisse en ligne, et Andre Greipel, le sprinteur allemand, ont traversé l’arrivée au même temps exactement! Après quelques minutes, le médaille bronze a été attribué à Andre Greipel, et Cancellara s’est placé quatrième. Avec cette fin du Championnats, j’attends avec impatience les Championnats 2012 à Limburg, Pays-Bas!
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Les Championnats du Monde: Copenhague 2011 (Contre-la-Montre)
À ce moment-là, j’espère que je sois à Copenhague. Après allant aux Championnats du Monde sur route à Geelong l’année dernière, cette année pendant les Championnats, Danemark est le lieu auquel être.
Cette année l’UCI a introduit une autre catégorie dans les Championnats – «Junior», plus cadet de l’âge de 18 ans. Et la première année est une bonne année pour Australie – Jessica Allen de l’Australie a gagné la médaille d’or, dans un temps de 8:56:00 (Grande-Bretagne et Allemagne se sont placés deuxième et troisième). Le contre-la-montre des femmes élites était intéressant – les vainqueurs n’ont pas changé de l’année dernière! Allemande Judith Arndt, qui s’est placée deuxième l’année dernière, a gagné la course, et Nouvelle-Zélandaise Linda Melanie Villumsen et Britannique Emma Pooley (troisième et première respectivement l’année dernière) se sont placées deuxième et troisième cette année.
Les résultats des hommes juniors n’étaient pas très révélateur, mais un autre bon résultat pour les antipodes – James Oram de Nouvelle-Zélande s’est placé deuxième et David Edwards d’Australie s’est placé troisième. Les hommes moins de 23 ans aussi – Michael Hepburn de Brisbane, Australie, a gagné le bronze, mais le nom plus fameux est celui du vainqueur, Luke Durbridge. Le porteur de la médaille d’or a gagné l’argent l’année dernière. Mais il y a une surprise pour les fans danois aussi: Rasmus Christian Quaade de Valby, sud-ouest Danemark, s’est placé deuxième (et a gagné le médaille d’argent).
Bien sûr, la course la plus intéressante (et la plus prévisible) était les hommes élites. En effet, les premiers huit coureurs ont couru le Tour de France cette année, et la plupart de ceux sont connus pour les contre-la-montres. Britannique coureur contre-la-montre Bradley Wiggins a fait la course avec un temps de 54:59:68. Mais ce n’était pas assez pour gagner l’or, après Tony Martin (d’Allemagne) s’est placé première à tout les splits intermédiaire et a fini avec un temps de 53:42:85, 1:15 plus vite que Brad Wiggins. Même Fabian Cancellara, championnat du monde contre-la-montre quatre fois, n’a pas pu le battre, se plaçant troisième. Ce n’était pas une surprise, car Cancellara n’avait pas été très fort récemment et Martin est devenu très bien en les deux ou trois ans précédant. Regarde-le dans l’avenir!
Cette année l’UCI a introduit une autre catégorie dans les Championnats – «Junior», plus cadet de l’âge de 18 ans. Et la première année est une bonne année pour Australie – Jessica Allen de l’Australie a gagné la médaille d’or, dans un temps de 8:56:00 (Grande-Bretagne et Allemagne se sont placés deuxième et troisième). Le contre-la-montre des femmes élites était intéressant – les vainqueurs n’ont pas changé de l’année dernière! Allemande Judith Arndt, qui s’est placée deuxième l’année dernière, a gagné la course, et Nouvelle-Zélandaise Linda Melanie Villumsen et Britannique Emma Pooley (troisième et première respectivement l’année dernière) se sont placées deuxième et troisième cette année.
Les résultats des hommes juniors n’étaient pas très révélateur, mais un autre bon résultat pour les antipodes – James Oram de Nouvelle-Zélande s’est placé deuxième et David Edwards d’Australie s’est placé troisième. Les hommes moins de 23 ans aussi – Michael Hepburn de Brisbane, Australie, a gagné le bronze, mais le nom plus fameux est celui du vainqueur, Luke Durbridge. Le porteur de la médaille d’or a gagné l’argent l’année dernière. Mais il y a une surprise pour les fans danois aussi: Rasmus Christian Quaade de Valby, sud-ouest Danemark, s’est placé deuxième (et a gagné le médaille d’argent).
Bien sûr, la course la plus intéressante (et la plus prévisible) était les hommes élites. En effet, les premiers huit coureurs ont couru le Tour de France cette année, et la plupart de ceux sont connus pour les contre-la-montres. Britannique coureur contre-la-montre Bradley Wiggins a fait la course avec un temps de 54:59:68. Mais ce n’était pas assez pour gagner l’or, après Tony Martin (d’Allemagne) s’est placé première à tout les splits intermédiaire et a fini avec un temps de 53:42:85, 1:15 plus vite que Brad Wiggins. Même Fabian Cancellara, championnat du monde contre-la-montre quatre fois, n’a pas pu le battre, se plaçant troisième. Ce n’était pas une surprise, car Cancellara n’avait pas été très fort récemment et Martin est devenu très bien en les deux ou trois ans précédant. Regarde-le dans l’avenir!
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