More Special By Comparison

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

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

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

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

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

Paris - Brussels 2012

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

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

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

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

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

Stage 7 - Le Mans => Chateauroux

What was meant to be another normal, easy day in the Tour has once again turned into tragedy as only the Tour can.  It's beginning to prove as it does every year that a normal day in the Tour de France is actually the most abnormal thing that can occur.

It did start off normal, at least - the customary breakaway with the peloton in no hurry to catch up.  But 90 kilometres in, after comments to his DS from other riders, numerous trips to the team car, painkillers and struggling the whole way, Tom Boonen (Quickstep) hung up the dossard (race number) for this year's Tour.  Suffering a concussion and a lot of grazes and bruises from the stage in coastal Brittany that took down numerous good riders, Boonen felt that he couldn't finish the day's stage.  "I was wondering, 'who am I pleasing by continuing?'" Boonen is quoted as saying by Cyclingnews.com.  "Not myself, that's for sure."

A few people were surprised when Jeremy Roy from FDJ launched himself off the front of the peloton, thinking that he surely couldn't be trying to bridge the seven-minute gap to the breakaway in front.  But the cognoscenti knew that the day's stage would pass by Roy's house, as he'd written in his blog the night before, and as the cameras followed him Roy stopped outside a house on the very outskirts of Saint-Armand-Longpre to hug friends and family.

The feared winds began hitting the peloton soon, and the effect was clear.  I guess it was too much to hope that a single stage of the Tour could go without a crash, especially in the first week, and the first one came at 48 kilometres to go.  No one was seriously hurt, though several strong riders including Roman Kreuziger from Astana had some hard riding to catch up.

But the worst was yet to come.  In another of the gruesome crashes like the one that took out Radioshack's Janez Brajkovic two days ago, a huge fall in the middle of the slow-moving peloton took out a number of well-known riders including Chris Horner and Levi Leipheimer from Radioshack, Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Tyler Farrar, the sprinter from Garmin-Cervelo.  But the biggest loss of the day was Sky team leader Bradley Wiggins, who also came down in the fall.  Wiggins was holding his left arm tenderly and wincing as the team doctor examined him, and it was later confirmed that Wiggins had broken his left collarbone.  He was immediately withdrawn from the race and put into a race ambulance, leaving the six-odd Sky riders waiting to pace Wiggins back into the main peloton to try and bridge the almost four-minute gap as they dealt with the huge blow to their team.  FDJ rider Remi Pauriol also broke his collarbone and did not finish the stage.  Pauriol brings the list of riders no longer competing to eight overall.

That was not the end of matters.  The massive crash in the middle of the peloton split it right down the middle.  What looked to be only 60 riders made it to the front peloton, while another 80 who had crashed or been blocked by the crash chased them three minutes behind, with many other riders individually or in small groups trying to make it back to one of the pelotons.

And after all that drama the stage had yet to be decided!  By this point, however, it was down to what front-pacing team HTC Highroad know best - a straight-out sprint.  And after a dubious first few stages the American team had their famous lead-out train in perfect working order.  All nine riders, unaffected by the crash, made a perfectly straight, even line at the front of the main peloton, with Mark Cavendish sitting in ninth place and every other sprinter in the world trying to get on his back wheel.  But there is never any point trying to compete with the entire HTC lead-out train, and Mark Renshaw and compatriots made it easy for Mark Cavendish to take his 17th Tour de France stage victory, on the same finish line where he took his first victory in 2008.  Needless to say, Cav was ecstatic, but "gutted" to hear about fellow Brit Brad Wiggins' withdrawal from the race.

Nothing to report on the top three GC contenders, but as the saying goes, at this point no news is good news. Knowing what separates GC riders from the rest is their climbing ability, it's likely Cadel Evans (BMC), Alberto Contador (Saxobank-Sungard) and Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) will sit tight until the Pyrenees, where no one can ride quite as fast as they can up the mountains.  Right now their main job is to stay at the front of the peloton and keep safe, though Cadel Evans is clearly feeling in brilliant form at the moment and may not have ruled out the possibility of another stage win, especially with Contador still giving fans no reason to believe that he is entirely the man who has won this race three times before.  Is he still that man, or has Contador peaked already?