Philippe Gilbert - Racing for Myself

For most two-year-olds, Daddy is the man in the suit who walks through the door at 6 o’clock each night. For Alan Gilbert, ‘Daddy’ is the man who wears a rainbow-striped jersey and rides a bike to work every day. What Alan can’t tell you is that Daddy’s rainbow jersey and BMC racing bike are the hallmarks of his profession – Daddy is better known as the current World Champion, Philippe Gilbert.

For father Philippe, the past two years on the bike have been as much of a rollercoaster ride as they have at home. Philippe was the rider of 2011, winning what seemed to be every single Classic in Europe in an incredible show of dominance and making himself the man to watch in 2012. Moving to BMC Racing Team at the start of the year, Philippe caused consternation when he failed to defend any one of his previous victories and added only one title to his palmarès, albeit the prestigious one of World Champion. The question on everyone’s lips is, therefore, what happened?

“My season was not that bad,” Philippe downplays the implications. “Sometimes I was a bit less than normal level, but often not that bad. I mean, I had some problems, some health problems,” he acknowledges. “I was sometimes sick with my Tours and everything and I lost a lot of power in this.”

His expression is almost hard-done-by as he explains the difficulties of his profession. “It’s never easy to keep cycling at a high level when you have some little problems.” Then his tone changes. “But now I’m lucky, everything is fine.”

Unfortunately, while Philippe’s words are telling one story, his face is telling another. There’s no hint of his trademark sense of humour in his eyes. He takes every question seriously, answers it fully. He downplays, but he doesn’t dismiss. The journalists are quick to notice and keep pressing him on the subject. Though his expression doesn’t change, Philippe’s tone becomes defensive, and his words carry a reprimand.

“I think we’re here to talk about the new season. We talked enough about this last year.”

It’s hard to say whether he’s disappointed or simply over it, but clearly, Philippe doesn’t want to talk about it. We move on.

On the topic of the new season, Philippe happily outlines his off-season and his lead-up to his first race of the year, the Tour Down Under in Adelaide.

“First, I stopped the season earlier, so I have a good base of training ‘cause I had good three months training in the winter,” he explains. “I had good endurance training behind me and now a lot of intensity of the last weeks. I’m feeling ready for this.”

“You need a good winter to make a big season, and a strong season,” he tells us emphatically. “I think I had a good winter so I can go for another nice season.”

Someone asks Philippe if he spent the whole winter in his new home base of Monaco. “Always in the sun,” Philippe replies. “I’m following the sun.” For the first time we see the characteristic grin – for that’s the only word for it – that has made him known as a real joker within the peloton. The journalists chuckle along and enjoy the lighter mood of the conversation.

Philippe’s chief focus is, as always, Ardennes Week, the brutal triplicate of Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallone and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in eight days. He’s not concerned by rumours on changes in the race route of the opening Ardennes Classic, colloquially known as just ‘Amstel Gold’. “Yeah, I mean, it’s the same,” he points out. “The big goal, it’s still the same, controlling the race until the bottom of the last time up the Cauberg, and then the strongest wins.”

The other Classics are on his radar, too, and he’ll take whichever one comes his way. “For me the Classics are all big and all important, and it’s what I’m racing for, so if I can win one of those it will be nice,” he reflects. He deliberates a bit more. “It’s not easy to say one race.”

But someone wants to know if you can actually ride all the cobbled and Ardennes Classics in one year. “It’s one race a week if you do this, so I think it’s possible,” Philippe says without any wavering. “Of course, long race, like more than six hours, but I think it’s possible to recover and to ride every weekend for weeks. I’m sure it’s possible,” he nods. “The only problem is if you do Paris-Roubaix in the rain, maybe you’re more tired.”

With Ardennes Week beginning only a week later, Philippe thinks that a rainy Paris-Roubaix might prove the undoing of a rider bound for the Ardennes, but it doesn’t cast doubt on the overall concept. “I’m still convinced that it’s possible.” The fervour with which he asserts this makes it sound almost like he wants to be the one to prove it.

To begin with, though, Philippe is focussing his attention on Milano-San Remo, despite the amount of competition he predicts he’ll face. “We will be like, maybe…15 potential winners, it’s harder to win this race,” he stresses. “In Liege, if you’re on the top level, maybe two, three guys who can win, but,” he pauses once more, “San Remo, it’s a lot of guys.”

So, when you’re racing 15 other guys for the title at Milano-San Remo, what does the Classics specialist say are the key skills needed to win? “Just having good timing and sometimes having a little bit of luck also; having a good feeling but having also the right reaction behind from the other riders.” Philippe could be summing up the entire sport. He has a model for the perfect victory too - “Like we saw Simon Gerrans,” he says, referencing the Australian’s unexpected Milano-San Remo win of 2012. “He won, perfect.”

Though he mentions one of last year’s Classics winners in Gerrans, Philippe isn’t yet ready to make a call on who are the contenders in the Classics for 2013. “It’s hard to say, I think that I should wait like one or two months, to see the level of the other guys,” he says evenly. “See who can establish a high level and who can keep it to Liege. Last year from Qatar, I was there for the first race, I could see which riders were ready or not and just like that to Roubaix or to Liege.”

He doesn’t really even want to speculate which of last year’s top-10 finishers might step it up a few rungs on the finishers list or onto the podium. “I don’t know, it’s always hard to say,” Philippe vacillates. “Maybe some young guys, like [Peter] Sagan,” he says with sudden inspiration. “No-one expected Sagan last year to be that good on the Classics, and he was there.” It sounds like Sagan took Philippe by surprise just as much as everyone else, and it’s clear that he respects the prodigal youngster. “[John] Degenkolb was there also,” Philippe notes. “Maybe they can win.”

“What about Bauke Mollema?” one of the Dutch journalists presses. There’s a long pause. “…yeah?” Philippe replies. Everyone laughs at his confused expression, unable to avoid being backed into a corner. Then someone mentions the Classics rider of 2012, Tom Boonen, and the praise is instantly genuine. “He’s a hard competitor,” Philippe says, willingly acknowledging that Boonen will be his main rival in the Classics this year. “He’s fast, he’s smart, he’s strong, hard to beat.”

An Italian journalist mentions the Italian riders who once dominated that Classics, and Philippe doesn’t even let him finish his question before he answers it. “I’m already more complete, I think,” he tells the journalist candidly. “I’ve won all the Classics, just not Roubaix, I’m minimum on the podium of each Classic, Flanders two times on the podium and San Remo two times on the podium, so that’s already something good but I can do better.”

In cycling, the word ‘better’ can only mean the Tour de France. Last year Philippe was simply a workhorse for Cadel’s defence of his yellow jersey, but in previous years he’s ridden for himself, sights set on the sprinter’s green jersey.

“I saw in 2011 the energy you need to fight for the green jersey,” he says strongly. “You need all your power on this and if I’m going in the Tour it’s to help Cadel or Tejay. When you help somebody else it’s not possible to fight for a jersey or for winning a stage or something. It’s or you give everything for the team, or you go for your own chance,” he says emphatically, punctuating his English with French grammar in his intensity. “Not both together.”

Philippe’s equally clear when it comes to his own chances in the GC. “No,” he says unequivocally. “Mentally I cannot do this, it’s too hard. I don’t think so, no.”

“I’m always ambitious and I don’t want regrets when I stop my career,” he repeats the canonical words of the peloton’s older riders. “I’m going for every race just for me, the pleasure it starts for me and for family and friends, and then it’s coming out for the public and the sponsors.” But as a new and hopefully better season dawns, Philippe remains primarily self-motivated.

“I go first for myself, and then of course for my sponsors and for the team, but first is for myself.”

Quiet Confidence

“I do.”

His voice is calm and quiet, but there is no hint of doubt in his tone. His whole demeanour affirms what he says. Cadel Evans knows he can still win the Tour de France.

“Do you think you’re losing the edge? Do you think you’re getting older?”

“No, I don’t.”

This is the world of Cadel Evans, the first Australian winner of the Tour de France. The 35-year-old radiates a quiet confidence that matches his voice. He doesn’t have to speak loudly for you to want to listen, and with his words you imbibe a little of his conviction that leaves you convinced too. Despite being among the oldest in the peloton, the 2009 Road World Champion is not to be dismissed lightly. He wants to win, and he knows he can.

But after a season marred by ill health, Cadel’s first priority is not the race podium.

“The first thing for me is to come back healthy and from what we can tell everything’s coming back towards normal,” he says with that same calm confidence. “When that comes back, of course, everything else comes with it.” He quotes the old adage as he talks. “The most important thing in our life is actually our health. You certainly realise that when you don’t have it.”

He’s very matter-of-fact with the details. “It seems that when I went to Ethiopia I contracted some kind of low-level virus and we didn’t find out about it until August,” he says simply. This is followed by a few moments of silence. No-one expected a straight answer about the ‘health issues’ that dogged the Australian favourite throughout last year, but that’s Cadel. It just is how it is. He doesn’t let it stop him.

“One thing that comes from missing out on not being at the front though is it fuels your motivation, you become hungrier and you want more, and certainly I’m not by any means the youngest rider in the peloton but I think I’m amongst the most motivated still.”

Motivation aside, even with a career as long and varied as Cadel’s, he has one or two regrets. “I think it’s my 19th full season as a professional rider,” Cadel reflects. “There’s a lot of races that I haven’t even been able to compete in which I’d like to be able to ride in. Don’t know if I’ll be able to get to all of them,” he says almost wistfully. But his trademark practicality soon kicks in. “But at the moment, focus on the Tour and of course the stage races leading on, and maybe in the years following we can look to reassess things.”

The Tour de France has always been Cadel’s target, and with his health on the mend he has his eyes on a second title. To him, getting his body back to 100% is his primary goal, and the question of which other riders might challenge him for the Tour crown is at best a secondary concern. “At this point, we’re still a bit early in the year to know,” he points out, almost critical of the pre-emptive question. “But in 2013 I’d look more for of course the performers in 2012, Bradley [Wiggins] and [Chris] Froome, as certainly the guys to beat at this point. I think those are the guys we’ll look to be watching leading into the Tour.”

“The thing that impressed me most about their season, but particularly that of Brad Wiggins, was his consistency to stay at a high level from Paris-Nice through to the Olympic Games. To hold that high, high level was really, well,” he shakes his head a little, “…to me, was bordering on what I thought was impossible, but he’s gone and done it, so it’s clearly not impossible.” He says very little about last year’s Tour winner, but from what little he says, it’s clear Cadel has a grudging respect for the Briton.

Of all riders, though, Cadel knows better than anyone how difficult it is to follow through on such a season as Team Sky has had. He’s philosophical about their chances, and speaks optimistically of his own. “Let’s see how they back up again from that, for this year,” he almost challenges. “Let’s see. That was 2012, this is 2013.”

The other elephant in the room when it comes to Cadel and the Tour is the matter of his young teammate, Tejay van Garderen. While Cadel suffered through the difficulty of riding the Tour on an average year in 2012, 24-year-old van Garderen was the revelation of the race, putting in brilliant efforts in both the time trials and outpacing his team leader on several climbs, finally finishing 5th overall ahead of Cadel’s 7th. The youngster is therefore being hailed as Cadel’s natural successor for the Grand Tours at BMC, and many have been wondering if that succession should in fact be now. There is no hint of uncertainty or forgiveness in Cadel’s expression or tone as he lays down the law for the Tour.

“I think if I’m back at my normal level it’ll be pretty clear what the team needs to focus on, and where we need to concentrate on and that’ll be to concentrate on one leader, that being me, ‘cause I’ve had the experience and I also have the results to back it up.” There is almost a kind of fervour in his voice as he talks about the paramount race of the cycling world. This is his strength. As a GC rider, this is, pure and simple, what he does. “I can win the Tour, and that’ll be important.”

“That comes back to my health in 2012,” he reiterates, a rare glimpse of what his year was like behind his public face. “I was stuck in a few moments where I didn’t know what was going on with my health, I wasn’t at my normal level.” But on the front of van Garderen, he knows exactly where the two of them stand. “In 2013, between Tejay and myself, it’s important that we’re of course honest and clear with each other, but most importantly for me it’s just to get back to my good level and if that happens, the rest is obvious.”

To him, everything is perfectly clear. Black and white. He doesn’t equivocate. When he says ‘I don’t know’, it’s not an equivocation. It just means that he hasn’t thought about the question.

“Everyone always asks me when I’m going to stop, but I don’t know. ‘I don’t know’ doesn’t stand for an answer so you have to make something up.”

The smile and the laugh that accompany this are awkward, as though he doesn’t understand why anyone would ask the question. It’s simply not relevant. The idea doesn’t feature in Cadel’s world.

“One thing about being outside of where you want to be, it motivates you,” he explains. “In 2003, 2004, I had some disappointing years, but that fuelled my motivation for years to come thereafter. That’s how I feel right now.” Cadel is far from bouncing out of his seat. This is not a man who wears his heart on his sleeve, but there is a certain quiet keenness in his voice and in his eye that can’t be mistaken. He leans forward a little and nods his head as he continues speaking.

“If someone said to me ‘Oh, I want you to stop at the end of 2014,’ I’d be like ‘Ahhhh…’ because I’m not through.” His reticence is clear in his onomatopoeia. “I love what I do, I think we have a great environment here in the team, we have a great balance in the way we work and so on. If I was thinking I was going to stop in 2013, I feel I’d be cutting myself somewhat short.”

He smiles just a little. “Easy to say at this point. Let’s see in 2014 and 2015.”

15 Minutes with Taylor & Tejay

“…all the way through, and then I go full. And I win the Worlds.”

The journalists in the room freeze for a moment. Unlike the other, older riders who walk into the room with maybe a ‘Hello’, sit down and wait for the questions, 22-year-old Taylor Phinney and 24-year-old Tejay van Garderen are already joking around the moment they walk in the door. It turns out Taylor has a bit of a reputation for Philippe Gilbert impressions. Apparently we were just on the receiving end of one.

“That was pretty much like the original,” the Dutch journalist says with a smile. BMC’s young superstar pair, two of the riders frequently hailed as ‘the future of American cycling’, are still going with their quirky two-man stand-up routine.

“Nibali…I don’t know about bikes, but there he is.”

This is clearly going to be a different sort of interview.

We settle down into some – mostly – serious questions, and Tejay leans back in his seat and stretches his legs for a few minutes while Taylor takes the heat. After his performance in the time trial at last year’s World Championships in Limburg, where Taylor came a close second in a competition that left winner Tony Martin momentarily unconscious from exhaustion, there’s a lot of interest in his time trialling ability and his relationship with the king of the discipline, Fabian Cancellara. Taylor says that his experience racing last year’s Giro d’Italia and an off-season that has been for once untouched by injury will be key in developing his skills. “I had two knee injuries in the last off-season and the off-season before that and this off-season I’ve been fine, just training and focussing on what I need to do,” the Boulder, Colorado native explains. “I think being healthy and also just a bit of extra racing and more concentrated training will get me to the place I need to be to beat [Cancellara].”

Taylor is full of warm words for the four-time world champion, who is now giving up time trialling to focus on other things. “Well, he has what, four world championships, Olympic gold medal, not much more you can do from there. I’ll see him in the Classics and I’d consider us relatively good friends already. He’s definitely been an idol and a hero in my career for a long time, ever since I started racing.”

But BMC’s youngster can’t stay serious for long.

“I kind of wouldn’t mind testing myself against somebody like that, that pedigree and that past. It’d be cool if he could focus a little bit more on time-trialling and I could…” something between innocence and mischief appears on Taylor’s face, “see how I match up against him.”

Jokes aside, Taylor’s also the first to acknowledge that he understands Cancellara’s choice to step away from their demanding discipline.

“He’s getting to a different point in his career than I am. And time trialling sucks a lot. It’s really hard, you know. It’s like an hour of pain, why would you want to do that to yourself?” he says with a totally straight face while everyone chuckles. At just 22, the American already has the power to keep his audience rapt, the roomful of journalists too busy listening to him to pose questions to Tejay. “I want to do that to myself so that I can achieve the results that Fabian has, but I can totally understand that once you get those results that you move on.”

Taylor compares Cancellara’s focus-change to his once-beloved discipline on the track, the individual pursuit, which he abandoned in favour of full-time road racing at the end of 2010. Of course, he tells the story a little differently. “I won the World Championships, they took it out of the Olympic program, and then I was like ‘Wow, this is a terrible four minutes of my life. I’m gonna go ahead and focus on something else now.’”

Tejay smiles along with the rest of the room at his younger teammate’s wisecracking, and the focus turns to the older rider and the relationship between the two – are they friends? “Not really!” he replies with a broad grin. Though more laid-back and quiet than Taylor, it seems the comedy act is not entirely one-sided. “Taylor and I are really close friends and it’s good to have a good friend to hang out with and another American to kinda, you know, do some shit-talking with,” Tejay explains with a smile.

The two are also frequent training partners when they’re both at their stateside base of Boulder. “We’re good for each other, we push each other. We have different strengths but they overlap in a coupla different areas, like in a time trial.” Tejay has a calm, earnest way of talking that makes him easy to listen to, and he’s eloquent for a 24-year-old, always able to say precisely what he means.

“Who’s better?” someone calls out. Apparently Taylor can’t resist. “You can’t ask that question!” he pretends to chastise the amused journalist, leaving Tejay to clarify the answer. “We have different strengths,” Tejay says simply. “I would never beat him on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix but I don’t think he would ever beat me up Alpe d’Huez. But if you put us in a time trial, that could be where we overlap a little bit. In a one-day time trial I think he’s a little bit better, but in a time trial at the end of a three-week stage race then I might be a bit better.”

The questions turn to the state of American cycling in the wake of the Armstrong affair, but more particularly the admission of the pair’s former BMC teammate George Hincapie that he was involved in organised doping. Taylor makes light of the situation, as always, but points out that ‘…anybody who’s tuned into the cycling world kind of knew what was coming, in a way.’ For once Tejay seems to be struggling to find a diplomatic way to express his thoughts.

“It wasn’t a shock,” he acknowledges, “but it was, it was definitely…it was definitely, uh, made a lot of headlines, but like Taylor said, we kinda knew it was coming.”

But Taylor isn’t so light-hearted when someone suggests that Americans have been the ‘bad guys’ of the peloton for the last decade. He jumps on the question with an unusual aggressiveness. “I don’t know if it’s just the American riders being the bad guys,” he replies moderately, to more laughter, but he’s quick to assert that past riders are also responsible for the present open state of cycling and not just to blame for its mistakes.

“We’re certainly proud to represent America, we’re proud to be where we’re at. Cycling had its problems in the past, but we stepped into a clean environment, and that was due to people from the past,” Taylor says strongly. “We definitely take that privilege seriously, to make sure the sport never relapses, and we’re always able to go to sleep at night knowing that none of our tests are going to show up positive and that all of our results were achieved in the correct way.” Despite this attitude, Taylor is still critical of the journalist’s original premise, and calls him out on the oblique accusation. “To say that we’re the good guys and they’re the bad guys, I don’t think that’s really fair.”

Taylor has also earned a reputation for being outspoken on the topic of doping, especially after an open interview about the use of legal medications late last year. He’s drawn a lot of interest in the wake of that interview, as it’s unusual for riders to talk so openly of doping. “It’s important for me to get my thoughts out there and my preparation for races out there,” he says of his willingness to open up on the subject. “For me that interview was just to kind of shine a light into a dark place and show how my approach is completely different than all these things that you read; Tyler Hamilton’s book and the USADA reports.”

Taylor has no compunction in being open with his views around his teammates, either. “We have a pretty strict team policy as it is, and I think a lot of people share the same sort of feelings as I do, at least on my team and in my inner circle. I’m very comfortable with what happens here at BMC and proud of what we can achieve.”

While Taylor sits back for a moment, having satisfied the journalists’ questions, the focus moves back to Tejay and in particular his 6th-placed Tour de France ride of last year, which left many wondering if BMC team leader Cadel Evans was still fit to be the Tour team leader. Tejay is quick to assure everyone that Cadel is still in charge, but he has his own ideas on what his role will be. “I think I’ll be given a bit of a free role to ride my own race,” Tejay says. “Where I’m at right now in my development is that there were climbers that were really good and I was just trying my best to follow. I was just following the best wheel I could, and sometimes that was with the leaders, sometimes it was in a group behind the leaders, like a couple of minutes back.”

To Tejay, this means that it will be his job to be Evans’ lieutenant and not his rival, but this doesn’t preclude him from having his own goals as well. “I can help [Evans] out, but that doesn’t mean that once the finish line comes that I have to hit my brakes and lose five minutes and then cross the line. That doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to get a result,” he emphasises, though he knows that riding for himself may not always be an option. “The only scenario I see would be if Cadel gets dropped and I have to wait for him, which I did in last year’s Tour. I don’t think I’m gonna be called upon to do that, so I think I’ll help Cadel as much as I can from off the front of the race.”

As we all stand and prepare to move rooms at the end of the interview, one of the European journalists feels the need to ask Tejay one last question.

“Have you already dreamed about the yellow jersey?”

Tejay smiles and replies without blinking. “I’ve dreamed about it since I was nine years old.”

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.

Enough is Enough

It’s taken long enough, but Lance Armstrong finally seems to have realised that fighting the doping charges against him is doing no-one any favours. Like a fly caught in a spider’s web, Armstrong finally seems to have recognised that the longer he struggles, the more he tangles himself in the ever-tightening web of brutal public opinion.

He was the golden boy of world cycling. The poster child of the UCI. An angel of charity work. A hero to cancer sufferers worldwide. In short, Lance Armstrong from Plano, Texas, was an all-around good guy on a bike.

So when the drug rumours came knocking, as they seem to have done for every high-profile cyclist throughout time, Armstrong thought that he could beat them. Truth and innocence aside, a reputation as tall as the Texan himself and seven Tour de France titles to boot would surely be currency in dispelling the ugly tales and restoring his good name.

But the problem with drug rumours is that they seem to follow Grisham’s law of economics – ‘Bad money drives out good’. No matter how squeaky his reputation, the tiniest whisper of scandal was enough to taint it in an instant. As soon as the rumours began circulating that those seven Tour titles weren’t as cleanly earned as previously thought, the first cracks began appearing in the armour. No matter whether Armstrong’s lawyering up was a sign of a fight to protect his innocence or a fight to hide his guilt, the implication was clear. Armstrong was taking this seriously. And suddenly every news story featuring Armstrong in the title had ‘doping’ right there with it.

And there lies the point of no return. Once Armstrong’s name was tied to drug allegations, they were tied forever. No amount of fighting to clear his name would ever do that. Had Armstrong succeeded in beating the charges, he would simply have become the seven-time Tour de France winner who was cleared of drug charges. Goodbye, innocent until proven guilty. Drug charges don’t play by those rules.

Armstrong has put his faith in the idea that the truth will out. The truth is no longer what’s at stake. The heart of the matter is that even if the UCI, USADA, WADA and the Plano Cycling Club were all to declare the drug charges baseless and Armstrong a clean man, he has already been tarnished. What he has been fighting so hard to save is just a speck on a distant horizon. His reputation is down the drain, dragging the reputation of world cycling down right along with it.

Armstrong finally seems to have realised that in this case, no news really is good news. The longer he protests his innocence, the longer he drags his own name, and that of cycling, through the Spring Classics-deep mud. With no hope of redemption in sight, the biggest favour Lance Armstrong can do anyone now is to bow out quietly and pray that public opinion will be more lenient towards cycling than it has been towards him.

Stage 11: Albertville - La Toussuire-Les Sybelles

Today was the day.  This was the stage we’d all been waiting for, the decider, the bike race to end all bike races.  It happened.  And it was spectacular – spectacularly destructive, spectacularly revealing, spectacularly tenacious.   Stage 11 reminded that this is the Tour de France, of whom only the greatest are worthy, and today we finally learnt who the worthy riders are.

It panned out almost exactly the same as the day before.  Today’s stage began with a large breakaway that formed almost as soon as the riders left the neutral zone.  The 30 or so riders moved fluidly between several breakaway groups ahead of the peloton for the first hour or more, being dropped, catching or attacking in turn.   As the group reached the top of the first climb of the day, the hors catégorie Col de la Madeleine, the 26 riders were 2’55” ahead of the Team Sky-led peloton.

Due to the pace being set by Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen, riders were dropping off the back of the peloton as the climbed the Madeleine.  Behind Boasson Hagen, four more Sky riders were waiting in line to do the pace-making, willing to lay everything on the line for their team leader, Bradley Wiggins.  Boasson Hagen’s high tempo had cut nearly a minute off the breakaway’s lead, before Christophe Kern (Europcar) took over the pace-making from teammate Davide Malacarne and began stepping up the speed of the escape group.

The King of the Mountain point was passed without incident by the breakaway, Astana’s Fredrik Kessiakoff leaping forward for second place in an attempt to regain his polka-dot jersey.  Kessiakoff continued over the top of the climb to attack the breakaway on the descent with Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), one of two groups to do so, splintering the breakaway into three.  The first two groups rejoined in time for the intermediate sprint at Saint-Etienne-de-Cuines, uncontested due to the lack of sprinters, Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) leading the second group across the line.

As the leading group began the second HC climb of the day, the Col de la Croix de Fer, the second group on the road bridged gap, forming a 22-man leading group again.  The group soon began dropping riders, as the third rider of the day dropped out of the Tour de France.  Rabobank sprinter Mark Renshaw joined Vacansoleil-DCMs Lieuwe Westra and Gustav Larsson on the list of riders withdrawn from the Tour’s 11th stage.  Riders continued to yoyo on and off the back of the breakaway as Kern continued the pace-making up front and Sky set the tempo further down.

The expected attack came partway up the Col de la Croix de Fer.  Sky made no reaction as the wearer of the best young rider’s white jersey, Tejay van Garderen, disappeared up the climb.  The reason for van Garderen’s attack was soon evident: a few minutes later, BMC team leader Cadel Evans attacked as well, racing ahead to join his young teammate.  The leading Sky rider, Australian Michael Rogers, began increasing the tempo of the peloton even more in an attempt to bridge the gap to Evans, who was by then sitting comfortably on the wheel of Tejay van Garderen.  He didn’t look comfortable for long, however, van Garderen’s accelerations dropping his team leader off his wheel far too easily.  Even with the assistance of Amael Moinard, dropping back from the breakaway, it was too much for Evans, and the Skymobile came forward to swallow all three back up again.

Thanks to Sky’s accelerations, the groupe Maillot Jaune had been reduced to just 10 riders; team leaders and the best climbers.  There were just seven men in the lead group just over two minutes ahead as the crossed the top of the Croix de Fer, led by Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) and Pierre Rolland (Europcar).  The riders began attacking each other on the way down, but it was Rolland again who led them over the third and final climb of the day before they reached the mountaintop finish.  A group of three formed at the head of the race as Rolland, Kiserlovski and Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar) began descending the Col de Mollard.  The glory was shortlived, however, Rolland crashing on the descent.  Bleeding from his elbow but otherwise unhurt, Rolland was able to remount and try to chase down the leading pair a few seconds ahead of him, catching them 23 kilometres from the end of the stage.

Back together in the lead, Rolland attacked his breakmates, trying to set himself up for a solo stage win.  There were attacks back in the main field, too,  Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) among the four riders who jumped of the front of the peloton.  Forced to chase, Sky super-domestique Chris Froome began setting a pace that dropped all bar a few riders.  Fortunately for Wiggins, one of the dropped riders was Cadel Evans, who had teammate Tejay van Garderen thoroughly confused with his inability to keep up.  Van Garderen also dropped back to pace Evans over the climb, the pair unable to rejoin the yellow jersey group and crossing the line over three minutes behind the winner of the stage.

Froome and Wiggins, meanwhile, had dropped everyone else and were forging ahead to join the breakaway of van den Broeck and Nibali just up the road.  Having managed this, Froome then went to the head of the group and accelerated so hard that Wiggins dropped off the back.  Froome was quickly instructed to stop pace-making and go back to help Wiggins, stranded behind the group of four.  Picking up Kiryienka along the way, the reformed group of seven continued their high pace towards the stage finish on La Toussuire.

But they weren’t the only ones out there.  Pierre Rolland, with a minute over his nearest pursuers, repeated his feat of last year soloed to a mountaintop stage victory, the day after the stage win of his team leader, Thomas Voeckler.  The French fans were in for a bigger surprise, because young FDJ-Bigmat star Thibaut Pinot managed to outsprint Froome to take second to make it a French 1-2, Wiggins rolling across the line two seconds later, one and a half minutes ahead of Evans.

Stage 12 is a medium mountains stage, with two Category 1 climbs close to the start and a long flat towards the finish.  This is the kind of stage that encourages breakaways, and would definitely suit the skills of a rider like Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) or maybe even Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD).  It’s unlikely to see the big GC contenders try anything one a stage with such a flat finish, but being the Tour de France, anything could happen.

Make Them Pay

Being a professional bike rider is a dangerous job, whether mountain biking, road racing or track racing. But some people just don’t seem to get this.

Every year, millions of people turn out to watch professional bike races all around the world, none more so than the Tour de France. You’d think that anyone going to watch a bike race would be smart enough to keep out of the way when the bikes go past. Apparently not.

It’s becoming more and more common that a nosy spectator puts the whole peloton at risk by standing in clearly the wrong place when the action is happening. We’ve all seen it before – the notorious ‘Yellow Woman’ who got in the way of Alexander Vinokourov during Stage 1 of the 2011 Tour de France and took out two-thirds of the peloton in the process, or the man who ran directly in front of Sebastian Langeveld during the Tour of Flanders earlier this year, causing him to crash over his handlebars and break his collarbone. There was even a well-publicised incident in the Tour de France last year, where costumed spectators ran a little too close to Alberto Contador and even tried touching the defending champion, who was forced to push them back in order to keep racing.

Though wanting a good view of the race or a chance to get up close and personal with the riders is fair enough, the middle of a race – literally – is not the right time or place to do it. While it might be cool for the fans, the riders can lose concentration or time, or they can crash and wind up with several months of painful recovery and a hold put on their career because someone didn’t have the sense to get out of the way. Nothing excuses causing that kind of carnage in the Tour de France – or any bike race, for that matter. It’s thoughtless, extremely dangerous, and the spectators involved should be made to pay for their actions.

And by pay, I mean they should be fined.

Breaching the road laws that govern the interactions of motorists and pedestrians frequently results in a hefty fine, so why not do the same for spectators who impede cyclists? The driver who critically injured New Zealand cyclist Michael Torckler in a hit-and-run late last month is facing almost 10 years in prison for a multitude of offences surrounding the incident, so fining spectators who get in the way of cyclists is far from a radical suggestion.

Rabobank’s Luis Léon Sánchez would likely welcome the idea. The Spaniard was swamped by eager fans running alongside him and touching him as he climbed the Col de Grosse Pierre on Stage 7 of this year’s Tour, the race commissaires powerless to do anything to help him. Sánchez heads a list of riders with similar experiences in this year’s Tour alone, some of the incidents more dangerous than others. The Tour de France organisers have even started appealing to the public to stay clear of the riders and respect the race. Though it’s disappointing that it’s become necessary, the message would go down a lot faster if transgressors were slapped with fines rather than just the cyclist’s free hand.

Stage 12: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne - Annonay-Davizieux

Despite the climbs at the beginning of the stage, the 208 kilometres from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Annonay-Davizieux were essentially flat, meaning a calm day. That’s not to say it didn’t have its moments of excitement – that, and the heated battle for the green jersey today became an open flame as the race heads towards Paris.

Compared to the past few days, Stage 12 was much more relaxed, the peloton having a day off as they rolled across south-eastern France. It was tipped as a stage for breakaways, and the successful one went off the front around 10 kilometres from the end of the neutral zone, another big bunch of 19. The failure of the peloton to react after the break reached one minute was the signal that they didn’t plan to and the breakaway was free to go.

They didn’t go very far, though, never quite reaching two minutes before riders began being spat out on the Col du Grand Cucheron. Soon enough there was an 11-man lead one minute ahead of a three-man chase group, which was a further 1’10” ahead of the idle peloton. Of course, it was destined not to last. By the time the lead group began the ascent of the second climb, the Col Du Granier, the chase group had collapsed and a series of attacks from the peloton meant there were riders all over the road.

There were soon fewer riders on the road than had started the day. Argos-Shimano’s leadout man-cum-secondary sprinter Tom Veelers abandoned the stage after 65 kilometres of racing, while Cofidis climber David Moncoutié was shattered at having to abandon his farewell Tour de France with a possible broken collarbone after crashing on the descent of the Col du Grand Cucheron. But the Tour de France doesn’t wait for abandons, the now-five leaders approaching the King of the Mountains point atop the Col du Grand Cucheron and sprinting for the 10 points on offer.

Behind them at the peloton a third chase group was forming, Liquigas-Cannondale sprinter Peter Sagan obviously hoping to beat the peloton to the sprint point. Orica-GreenEDGE definitely didn’t like that, chasing the green jersey for their sprinter Matt Goss, and the Australian team began leading the charge to bring in the latest breakaway. Their work paid off, Sagan and his breakaway companions returning to the main field as they reached the feed zone in Saint-Joseph-de-Rivière, 35 kilometres from the sprint point.

With 119 kilometres to go the breakaway had finally settled into a stable group of five – Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Robert Kiserlovski (Astana), Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale), Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and David Millar (Garmin-Sharp). The group began working together to build up a lead that went right out to 11 minutes as the peloton approached the intermediate sprint, making it seem unlikely that the breakaway would be caught.

The peloton had other cares at this point, the intermediate sprint dominating their thoughts. Team Sky continued to lead the peloton right into the final kilometre as the sprint trains prepared to launch their sprinters. Matt Goss decided to leap out with a few hundred metres to go and managed to hold off the ‘Tour-minator’ Peter Sagan to take sixth place, gaining three more precious points over his green rival.

Despite the wind out the front of the stage making pace-making difficult, the breakaway was holding a 12 minute lead over the peloton at 40 kilometres to the finish. They managed to maintain most of their advantage for the remainder of the stage, the gap still 10 minutes as the leaders reached the five kilometre mark and prepared themselves for the inevitable attacks. It was Peraud who finally made the serious move, bolting towards the finish with just a couple of kilometres to go, Millar quickly on his wheel. The pair worked together tentatively to stay away from the trailing trio, each waiting for the other to start the sprint. In the end Peraud leapt out from behind the wheel of the Scotsman, but though Millar took a few seconds to respond his speed soon surpassed that of Peraud and the Frenchman was pipped on the line for first place. A few moments later Martinez appeared, leading Gautier and Kiserlovski in the sprint for third.

It was a further nine minutes before the peloton arrived, the sprint trains already doing their work again out the front. The green jersey of Sagan was once again prominent next to that of Matt Goss, sprinting for sixth and seventh place. Though Goss crossed the line first, Sagan protested that the Australian had deviated from his line, and the subsequent decision from the race judges ruled in his favour, relegating Goss to the back of the group and leaving Sagan to collect the points for sixth and keep his green. The fiery rematch will likely take place tomorrow, with a dead flat Stage 13 promising some fun for sprinters such as Sagan and Goss as well as Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel.

Stage 10: Mâcon - Bellegarde-sur-Valserine

The mountains are always the most fun part of the Tour de France. It’s where you get the uplifting performances, the heart-breaking disappointments, the surprises, the shocks and the real Tour de France. Today was a day for the surprises, some unanticipated moves and an unexpected finish keeping things fresh and interesting after a day out of the saddle.

More riders failed to make the start today, as the Tour toll rose to 23. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) pulled out after the Stage 9 time trial to try and allow his broken scaphoid to heal, while Australia’s Matt Lloyd (Lampre-ISD) lost his Tour to a broken elbow. Rémy Di Gregorio (Cofidis) left under much less savoury circumstances, arrested in a doping scandal and suspended by his team during the rest day.

Stage 10 from Mâcon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine started hard and fast, green jersey wearer Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) jumping away just two kilometres in with two companions. Apparently Sagan wasn’t a popular peloton choice for the breakaway, numerous large groups trying to chase him and Andriy Grivko (Astana) down, the third member of their trio already having been dropped. In the end it took 30 kilometres before two merged chase groups comprising 23 riders finally bridged the gap to the duo, and the race was on. With enough riders to do the pace-making, the mini-peloton out the front built up a lead of 5’55” ahead of the fast-chasing peloton.

That lead was nearer seven minutes as the 25-strong breakaway reached the first climb of the day, the Category 2 Côte de Corlier. Former polka-dot jersey wearer Michael Morkov surged forward to take top points, leading out Grivko, rouleur Jens Voigt (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) and French favourite Thomas Voeckler (Europcar). As the peloton neared the top of the climb they were only 6’45” behind, Team Sky beginning to pull back the escapees.

A couple of punctures for leaders Sánchez and Voeckler didn’t stop them, each soon rejoining the breakaway after their respective technical difficulties. They were irrelevant, however, as the intermediate sprint approached, soon revealing the real reason why Sagan initiated the breakaway and why so many sprinters chose to join it. With Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) leading out team sprinter Matt Goss, Goss, Sagan and FDJ-Bigmat sprinter Yauheni Hutarovich raced each other to the line, Goss outmanoeuvring both to take the 20 points on offer for first, chipping another five points off Sagan’s lead in the green jersey competition. Shortly after both the Australian Goss and the Belarusian Hutarovich were seen dropping rapidly off the back of the breakaway, exercise done for the day.

They weren’t the only ones to go, the Europcar riders setting a tough pace that some in the breakaway couldn’t follow. It was a common theme with the peloton, too, where some of the big names were being shelled off the back from the pace set by Sky as they chased the now-16 man escape. The number kept going down until eventually Sanchez, Voeckler, Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD), Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale) and Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) had shed every one of their breakaway companions. After several minutes of attacks, escapes and catches, Sanchez, Voeckler, Scarponi and Devenyns found themselves alone in the lead on their way up the hors catégorie Col de Grand Colombier.

One could be forgiven for thinking that it was a Norwegian national holiday from all the red, blue and white flags lining the race route up the second climb of the day. Edvald Boasson Hagen’s countrymen had turned out in force to support him as he led the peloton up the HC climb in the Norwegian national jersey, working as a domestique for Sky team leader Bradley Wiggins. The slope of the climb took its toll, though, a handful of the big favourites making it over the climb in a little group, a short way ahead of the remainder of the peloton. Vincenzi Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) led the descending peloton down the other side, Bradley Wiggins and his Sky teammates hovering in constant attendance around reigning champion Cadel Evans (BMC). Without such stringent supervision, Nibali leapt off the front of the group and caught up to teammate Peter Sagan, waiting further on down the road, as the two attempted the same manoeuvre as Andy Schleck did with teammates Maxime Monfort and Joost Posthuma last year, though without Schleck’s level of success. Sky soon wound Nibali back in as the peloton regrouped for the final 30 kilometres of the stage.

Meanwhile, out the front, Voeckler had led the breakaway quartet over the final two climbs of the day, giving him enough King of the Mountain points to take the polka-dot jersey. Inside the final 20 kilometres, the four were so focussed on preparing to race each other for the stage win that they failed to notice Jens Voigt speeding up behind them, having sat in no-man’s land between the peloton and the breakaway for a large part of the day. The addition of Voigt into the mix was not a welcome one, Scarponi attacking early to try and shake the strong German off his tail before the finish line. The rest of the break caught him on the end of the descent, before being surprised as Devenyns jumped off the front. The remaining four were reluctant to chase, Voigt finally taking responsibility to allow himself a chance at the stage win.

Devenyns caught, Voeckler began coming up alongside Voigt, trying to outrace the German, but Sanchez was also coming from behind, trying to salvage a stage win after his efforts of the day. The almost comically slow sprint finish from three very tired riders ended with the combination pain-and-triumph expression so familiar on Thomas Voeckler’s face as he claimed France’s second stage win of the Tour, every effort of the victory etched in his features. As the remaining breakaway riders rolled in from no-man’s land, a black and red jersey could be seen sprinting towards the line, followed by a yellow one. Brad Wiggins refused to let Cadel Evans escape his clutches right to the finish line, chasing far more vigorously than during Jurgen van den Broeck’s (Lotto Belisol) attacks earlier in the stage to defend his yellow jersey.

Stage 11 hits the Alps, with two HC climbs as well as a Cat 1 and a Cat 2. It seems even more unlikely that a breakaway will succeed than it did today, but this is the Tour de France, and anything is possible. The most likely scenario (and a fairly exciting one at that) would have Team Sky hauling Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali, Jurgen van den Broeck and Denis Menchov, plus a few extras, through the Alps at top speed, though Evans’ and van den Broeck’s propensity for attacking will certainly keep things lively. That said, the mountain breakaway has already succeeded once, so just maybe they could pull it off again.

Has Wiggins Blinked?

It was always going to be a showdown not to be missed. Two superbly matched rivals, competing at the top of their game. Bradley Wiggins and Cadel Evans, vying for the Tour de France crown.

But with the first week of the Tour de France behind us, it begs the question: has Wiggins blinked already? In the silent psychological battle raging between the Briton and the Australian, has Wiggins inadvertently lost the advantage to the defending champion?

It began on Stage 1. As the teams raced towards the finish and the dangerous last few kilometres of the stage, Team Sky was nowhere to be seen, leaving Wiggins to fend for himself in the peloton and try and stay out of trouble. Wiggins was seriously displeased with his team’s lack of support and had words with them at the end of the day, causing them to be far more attentive on Stage 2. Already the team was in the black books.

It got worse on Stage 3. A crash took out Wiggins’ Sky teammate, Kanstantin Sivtsov, and suddenly Sky was one rider down with a team of eight – the first team to lose a man. It hasn’t helped that the World Champion, Manxman Mark Cavendish, is now racing for Team Sky and has been pressuring the team for more and more support in his quest for stage victories. Even Norwegian champion Edvald Boasson Hagen was too busy sprinting for stage placings or leading out Cavendish to look out for Wiggins. The team is slowly fracturing between the individual goals of its members. The line-up that was initially the most formidable in the Tour de France is now looking like Wiggins’ biggest weakness.

A touch-and-go team is one thing, but Wiggins himself seems to know that he’s already on the back foot strategically as well. On Stage 3 Wiggins employed a rather reprehensible tactic saved only for the desperate. He maintained his position in the GC that day after all time gaps in the front half of the peloton were neutralised due to a crash in the last few hundred metres of the stage. But here’s the kicker: Wiggins had nothing to do with the crash.

Wiggins was riding a fair way down the peloton and was going to lose time on rival Cadel Evans, who was racing for a placing behind Peter Sagan. So when a Vacansoleil rider crashed over to Wiggins’ left, instead of veering right to go around it, Wiggins turned his bike left into teammate Michael Rogers and forced both of them to stop behind the crash. It wasn’t an accident. Wiggins’s intention was clear. The road in front of him is open, but instead he leans left into Rogers, slows and puts his foot on the ground. The tactic worked. Commissaires deemed Wiggins and Rogers impeded by the crash and awarded them the same time as Evans.

Leaving aside the moral implications of such a strategy, the real question is: why was it necessary? To put it simply, they made a mistake. Wiggins and Team Sky slipped up. Sky should have done what BMC did and moved Wiggins up to the front of the peloton, clear of crashes and time losses. Sky’s failure meant that Wiggins had to get creative in order to ensure he stayed in competition and didn’t surrender any advantage to Evans.

Small potatoes, perhaps, but this year’s Tour de France was always going to be about the small stuff. Consider Cadel Evans’ Tour de France so far: he’s raced the perfect opening week, remains as calm as the proverbial eye of the storm, and in general is looking just like the Cadel Evans we remember from last year – the Cadel who won the Tour de France. It’s true that Wiggins is making up for missed time in the second week of the Tour, dominating in the Stage 9 individual time trial and gaining precious seconds over Evans. That doesn’t change the fact that Wiggins’ opening week doesn’t look nearly as sparkly, and it’s worth asking the question – has Wiggins already made a critical mistake?