The Wall of Huy

Valverde at Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2013 (from a photo by Flickr user flowizm used under a Creative Commons license)

Alejandro Valverde rode away decisively to win La Flèche Wallonne today, but since it was on the Mur de Huy, he did it very slowly (says the guy who would need mountain bike gearing to get up it at all). Bunch finishes in cycling usually mean a sprint to the line and La Flèche often has a bunch finish since it is shorter than the classics the week is bookended by. However, unlike the gallops finished off by Kittel, Greipel, and Cavendish, this one has different protagonists and happens at a more leisurely pace (leisurely might not be the right word, since the effort is not leisurely, just the pace of the result). The ramps topping out at 26% clearly make it a finish for the puncheurs, not the sprinters. Even if everyone makes to a kilometer to go together, they spread out quickly, as Valverde and his margin of victory showed.

Before the last trip of the day up the Mur, the break of the day included Preben Vav Hecke, who has now spent a lot of time on the front after riding in the break at Amstel as well (Gilbert might have lost his chance at a triple, but can Van Hecke get his own and make it into the break at Liège as well?), and Ramūnas Navardaukas, who was out taking the pressure off for Garmin and their reigning Liège-Bastogne-Liège champion Dan Martin. However, with all eyes on the Mur de Huy, the break was clearly doomed and they were reined in on the penultimate climb with around 15 k to go. After the demise of the break there were a couple short-lived attacks and a crash involving Damiano Cunego and Fränk Schleck, who can recuperate with his brother who went down at Amstel, on the run in to the Huy, but by the bottom of the climb everyone was together. After an attack by Romain Bardet of Ag2r kicked things off, the 5th place finisher at Amstel, Michal Kwiatkowski, went to the front. Dan Martin then showed that dropping out of Amstel was just for a little more rest for his sore knee and that he is on good form for his defense of Liège. Martin came around Kwiatkowski, but was quickly overcome by Valvarde, who powered around them both and had time to take his hands off the bars and celebrate before the finish.

The winner of the last two punchy races, Philippe Gilbert, will now not duplicate his annus mirabilis after being too far back at the base of the Mur de Huy. He may have been affected by the crash of Damiano Cunego and Fränk Schleck with a couple kilometers to go, but he was already a little to far back at that point, and it did not seem to be his day. He finished 10th, just behind last year’s winner Dani Moreno. Gilbert, Valverde and the rest are now looking ahead to La Doyenne on Sunday and are clearly the favorites, but Garmin has to be feeling pretty good about at least posting a good result for Martin’s defense. Not only did Martin finish second on the day, but, as mentioned, Navardaukas got into the break to take the pressure off them, and Tom Jelte Slagter was also right in the thick of things at the end, crossing the line in 5th. It should be some good racing on Sunday in Liège.

Three for Gilbert

Not today, but the same idea from his World Championship ride (photo by Flickr user Michiel Jelijs used under a creative commons license)

Well this picture, which served as a preview, will also serve as a recap, because Philippe Gilbert won this year’s Amstel Gold going up the left side of the road on the steepest bit of the Cauberg, leaving everyone else grasping for straws and gasping for breath, just as he did at the World Championships in 2012. If you picture him wearing BMC kit instead of the Belgian National team one it will be a decent approximation of the scene. Jelle Vanendert had a brave ride over the top of the main chasers into second, but there was not enough road left to catch Gilbert, who got his third victory at Amstel Gold and is starting to look like the prohibitive favorite for Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday and Liège-Bastogne-Liège next Sunday.

Today it was Orica Greenedge’s turn to have the numbers at the end, but they couldn’t overcome an excellent race by BMC capped off by an on-form Philippe Gilbert. With the day’s breakaway starting to unravel with 40k to go, the animator of Flanders, Greg Van Avermaet got into a chase group started by the always-attacking Thomas Voeckler and things were looking good for BMC. When Zdenek Stybar, Jakob Fuglsang, Pieter Weening, and Tim Wellens joined up, BMC, Omega Pharma, Astana, and Orica Greenedge were all represented leaving the other big teams to chase.

With 31k to go, the leaders lost Preben Van Hecke, leaving only Christophe Riblon and Nicola Boem on their own at the front. Meanwhile further back Katusha and Belkin improved their positions when Alexandr Kolobnev and Paul Martens joined up to the chasing group. On the penultimate climb up the Cauberg, with a bit over 20k to go, Tom Jelte Slagter tried to bridge up for Garmin, but got stuck in no-man’s land and dangled until getting reeled in by the field.

However, this was not a day for the break, and while Fuglsang and Van Avermaet were the last survivors, with 7k to go, everyone was back together. Orica Greenedge had numbers at the front leading the way to the Cauberg, where Omega-Pharma showed their strength trying to lead out for Kwiatkowski. Van Avermaet, however, was by no means BMC’s last card, and at the base of the climb Sammy Sanchez took off past the Omega-Pharmacists, followed by Kwiatkowski, Simon Gerrans, and Alejandro Valverde. They got a gap, but Sanchez was just a decoy and peeled off after his dig, with the challengers off to the right Gilbert came charging up the left side of the road past them all. Gerrans came the closest to following, but neither he nor anyone else could match Gilbert’s effort and Gilbert was off over the top leaving a disorganized chase in his wake. Kwiatkowski took a try alone and then Jelle Vanendert took off, but there was no catching Gilbert. Vanendert settled for second while Gerrans reprised his finish of last year, taking third ahead of Valverde and Kwiatkowski.

Having won Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold, it is still a long way to come close to his miraculous 2011, but things are certainly looking up for Gilbert, and the quality of him and his team bodes well for the coming days in the Ardennes. The changing of the guard will have to wait at least a few days, for now all eyes in the Ardennes will be on Phil Gil and everyone else will be trying to figure out what it will take to beat him.

Purito in the Rain

The Chapel of Madonna del Ghisallo, patron saint of cyclists (photo taken by flickr user John Spooner and used under a creative commons license)

The rain was pouring down as Rodríguez crossed the finish line alone, nine seconds ahead of an elite chase group of 11, to win the Giro di Lombardia. On the final climb, with ten kilometers to go, Rodríguez made the decising move, leaving the group containing Sammy Sánchez and Rigoberto Urán (who finished second and third respectively), last year’s winner Oliver Zaug, Bauke Mollema, Ryder Hesjedael, and Alberto Contador to a fruitless chase and eventually a battle for second. The most notable absence from the deciding moments of the race was 2009 and 2010 winner, and recently crowned World Champion, Philippe Gilbert. The favorite going in, Gilbert lost touch on the Muro di Sormano (see the red bit on the profile at the bottom of the post) and crashed out on the wet, technical descent, ending his hopes of doubling up with Lombardia after his success on the Cauberg. In the end Purito was all smiles in the rain as he finished in front of an unbroken roof of umbrellas sheltering fans on the final straight.

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In between Gilbert’s downfall on the Colma di Sormano and Purito’s decisive move on the Villa Vegrano, the race climbs the Madonna del Ghisallo, a longtime feature of the race since a cycling mad padre long ago, watching la classica delle foglie morte pass his church every fall decided to turn the church into a cycling shrine. It has become, with the blessing of a pope who made the Madonna of Ghisallo the patron saint of cyclists, a place where Italian champions from the pious Gino Bartali to the flamboyant Mario Cipollini have come to offer their jerseys and bicycles to adorn the walls of the chapel.

With his rainy victory at the Race of the Falling Leaves, Rodríguez also clinched the year-end UCI number one ranking. Going into his final UCI ranking event of the season, Joaquim Rodríguez only needed nine points to surpass Bradley Wiggins, meaning that he only needed to finish ninth or better. However, he clearly did not slink past  Wiggins for the top spot, but ratehr put an exclamation point (well at least a full-stop) on his season. In contrast to last year when Philippe Gilbert won everything in sight and it was not difficult to see who the best rider was, this year, the difficulty of having a unified ranking system for a sport with such diverse races was apparent. With three different winners of the Grand Tours and no dominating force, there were a variety of contenders who actually did little head-to-head racing against each other.

The closest thing to a dominating force was Bradley Wiggins, who won all the time trials he started andall the multi-day races he started, finishing first overall in Paris-Nice, the Tour of Romandie, the Critérium du Dauphiné, not to mention the Tour de France and taking a gold medal in the ITT at the Olympics. The other two contenders, although ending up a long way down on points, were Tom Boonen, who nearly swept the early season, including the Paris-Roubaix – Ronde van Vlaanderen double, and Vincenzo Nibali, who had a season of near misses finishing second at the Tour, third at Milan San-Remo, second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and a victory at Tirreno-Adriatico. However when it was all counted up Rodríguez’s victory capped a consistently strong season where he finished second at the Giro and won two stages and the points classification (by one point ahead of Cavendish), third at the Vuelta, including winning three stages, a victory a Flèche Wallone, and a second place at the Tour of the Basque Country, behind Sammy Sánchez. Maybe not the most dominating season ever, but his final ranking is certainly a worthy reward for a rider who animated races throughout the season and was a threat for victory nearly every time he lined up.

Phil Gil!

Philippe Gilbert leading the way on the Bemelerberg (photo by flickr user maartmeester used under a creative commons license)

Facing a course that did not suit him and the prospect of ten trips up the Cauberg, Mark Cavendish, last year’s champ gamely worked hard for Team GB at the front of the peloton, before peeling off and calling it a day on the fourth trip up the Cauberg, after some 160 kilometers of racing. Despite hard work by the Manx Missile for Team GB it was the Spanish Armada that everyone was expecting to dominate the race and they did not fail to enliven things. They placed Alberto Contador, Sammy Sánchez, and Oscar Freire in the main break of the day, putting pressure on other teams to chase, staying away until there were two laps to go. However, in the end, despite Tom Boonen’s protestations that the race would not be like Amstel Gold, because of the 1.7km flat/downhill to the finish line after the Cauberg, the race ended with the same rider atop the podium as in the 2010 and 2011 Amstel Gold Races, and in a fashion reminiscent of his 2011 season.

After the big break got reeled in, American Andrew Talansky and Brit Ian Stannard took a flier off the front on the penultimate trip up Bemelerberg (an amusing sight especially when the large Brit was drafting off the significantly smaller American), before getting caught on the ensuing trip up the Cauberg. With everyone together and the Bemelerberg too far out for a move, it all came down to the final time up the Cauberg, as the organizers were surely hoping. The Armada may have been the most talked about before the gun, but at the decisive moment it was the Belgians who were swarming the front. When Vincenzo Nibali made the first move on the Cauberg he was shadowed by four of those iconic Belgian jerseys, with Philippe Gilbert and Tom Boonen tucked in behind Bjorne Leukemans and Greg van Avermaet. Then, with a quick peek back Gilbert saw a gap behind and he was off, shooting around Nibali. At first it looked like Edvald Boasson Hagen would be able to follow the move, but with Gilbert steaming away, the race behind him quickly degenerated into a squabble for podium places, with Boasson Hagen taking second and the resurgent Alejandro Valverde settling for third, taking his fourth podium at a World Championships. With the infighting behind him, Gilbert ended up with plenty of time to celebrate, finishing four seconds clear.

Given the hard work the German team put in during the race, a notable absence from the podium was John Degenkolb for whom they had been working. However, it should be noted that while he did not get a podium place, he did make it over the Cauberg with the leaders and finished an impressive fourth. Although it may not have been the result the Germans were looking for, it was certainly a promising showing for the 23 year old German coming off his presence-announcing five victories at a Vuelta which was largely unfriendly to sprinters.

In the end, however, the race was all about the return of Gilbert to his dominating form from 2011. We will see soon whether this was a one off when Gilbert faces his final test of the season at la classica delle foglie morte on Saturday, which he won in 2009 and 2010. After that the test will be whether he can reboot himself as World Champion and have a better spring campaign this coming year than he did in 2012.

2012 World Championships, Men’s Road Race, 267 km

Well, the Cauberg has had a good week, and will finish off with the Elite Men’s Road Race on Sunday, and while Tony Martin managed to overcome the Cauberg and keep his stripes in the race of truth, it is unlikely that Mark Cavendish will do the same, although he certainly did them proud while he had them. While Cavendish may not have had his best season, he certainly did not do to shabbily. In May, he took three stages at the Giro d’Italia and finished one point behind Joaquim Rodríguez for the points classification. Then in July he won three stages at the Tour while schlepping bottles for the winner Bradley Wiggins, who returned the favor by doing lead out duty in the maillot jaune for the World Champ on the Champs Élysées for Cavendish’s fourth consecutive victory there. The only real disappointment on the season was that they were not able to replicate the feat for gold at the Olympics. In any case, while the Manx Missile will not retain the jersey, he has set the bar high for this year’s champion.

In thinking about who will cross the line first, this year’s Amstel Gold Race is probably the place to start, although the winner there, Enrico Gasparotto will not be around to double up since he broke his collar bone during the opening Team Time Trial at the Vuelta. However, despite his absence, and that of second place finisher Jelle Vanendert of Belgium, the remaining top ten give a pretty good starting point for the contenders for the World Championships:

Top Ten at the 2012 Amstel Gold Race

	Cyclist	Team	Time
1	Enrico Gasparotto (Italy)	Astana	6h 32′ 35″
2	Jelle Vanendert (Belgium)	Lotto-Belisol	s.t.
3	Peter Sagan (Slovakia)	Liquigas-Cannondale	+ 2″
4	Óscar Freire (Spain)	Team Katusha	+ 2″
5	Thomas Voeckler (France)	Team Europcar	+ 2″
6	Philippe Gilbert (Belgium)	BMC Racing Team	+ 2″
7	Samuel Sánchez (Spain)	Euskaltel-Euskadi	+ 2″
8	Fabian Wegmann (Germany)	Garmin-Barracuda	+ 4″
9	Rinaldo Nocentini (Italy)	Ag2r-La Mondiale	+ 4″
10	Bauke Mollema (Netherlands)	Rabobank	+ 4″

Despite the absence of Gasparotto, the Italians, who are trying to ride clean by banning people from the team who have past doping offenses, will have Nocentini and Lo Squalo, Vincenzo Nibali, who finished second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, anchoring a powerful team. However, despite the presence of the Shark, it is the Spanish Armada that is being touted as the power in the these waters, and with Óscar Freire and Sammy Sánchez returning to the Cauberg along with Alejandro Valverde, Joaquím Rodríguez, and Alberto Contador, who just came off dueling at the Vuelta, they will certainly have a lot of cards to play and should be able to get dangerous riders in any and every break that goes. However, they have to be hoping that Contador’s showing during the time-trial, does not bode ill for the fitness of the three who just battled all the way through the Vuelta.

While the the Spanish Armada may be the most powerful team, the most dangerous rider in the race may be the 2010 and 2011 winner of the Amstel Gold Race, Philippe Gilbert. It is somewhat questionable, since his form was a little off during the spring classics, and through much of the rest of the year. However, he did recently pick up two stages at the Vuelta, and it would not be surprising if his whole year was focused on Sunday, since it is probably his best chance to become World Champion. In 2011 he won everything in sight, and if he has recaptured some of that form as he was honing his form for this race, he will be very hard to beat. He road well as part of the second place BMC team during the Team Time Trial  and despite the absence of Jelle Vanendert, he will have a strong team behind him for the road race, including former World Champion Tom Boonen, and the 2011 winner of Paris-Roubaix, Johan Vansummeren.

To round out the other contenders, Peter Sagan, third at Amstel Gold, riding for Slovakia, will not have the strongest team, and his form seemed to peak early in the year when he nearly swept the Tour of California and put in a strong showing with three stages of the Tour de France. However, if the wunderkind is back on anything like his earlier form he will be very dangerous, even without a strong team. Finally, the home team, the Dutch are also coming with a formidable lineup, including Bauke Mollema, Robert Gesink, and former World Cylcocross champion, Lars Boom.

However, if I were a betting man, or lived in a country where one could easily be such a thing, I would put my money on Phil Gil to withstand the Spanish Armada and the Dutch home field advantage to stand on the top step, but we will see at the end who will be singing along with Johnny Cash:

2012 World Championships, Men’s Elite ITT, 45.7 km

The hilly course finishing just over the Cauberg cast some doubt before the race on the ability of the TT specialists to hold off the all rounders, but as Spartacus noted from sidelines during the race:

Looks like the TT specialist are showing how good they are again as usuall they do. #T.Martin vs. @taylorphinney

— Fabian Cancellara (@f_cancellara) September 19, 2012

and in the end Tony Martin showed that we has recovered from his crash early in the year and he just managed to fend off Taylor Phinney  and hold onto his stripes for another year. One certainly hopes that in his second year as World Champion he is spared the trials of his first year.

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It would be foolish to question the level of competition, since the reigning World Champion was challenged all the way by Phinney, who, after burying himself on Sunday to help BMC finish second in the Team Time Trial and getting gapped on the Cauberg at the end, was beaten by only 5 seconds by Martin, who had incidentally had helped Omega-Pharma win the TTT, one could say that Martin has had (he is skipping the road race) a good World Championships so far. However, it must be noted that Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, first and third respectively at the Olympic TT (Martin took second), and first and second at that little race in France in July, and the aforementioned four-time World Champion Fabian Cancellara were all absent. Fourth at the Olympics (in both the TT and the road race) was Taylor Phinney, who at only 22 Phinney should be pleased with his place on the podium, although the margin will surely prompt thoughts of what might have been. Taking over Phinney’s spot in fourth was another young American Tejay van Garderen, who at 24, was also part of the strong BMC team during the TTT. Van Garderen was one of the all rounders to do well in the time-trial and he has higher hopes for the road race on Sunday.

Rounding out the podium in third place  was three time Belarussian national time-trial champion Vasil Kiryienka, who finished 5 seconds ahead of van Garderen. Marco Pinotti was also in contention for a podium spot, but he crashed out soon after the second time check, where he was five seconds down on Kiryienka, and ahead of van Garderen. Kiryienka turned an impressive ride, but the race was really only about the top two as they finished more than a minute and a half clear of the field.

After his success at the Vuelta one of the all-rounders expected to be in the mix for the TT was Alberto Contador, however, he was a non-factor, and in fact was passed by Tony Martin who had started two minutes in arrears. We will see Sunday whether he is cooked from his effort at the Vuelta, where he was pushed hard by Joaquim Rodríguez, or whether he was saving something for the road race. So, while the time-trial specialists showed their strength on Wednesday, on Sunday we will be back for the Men’s Elite Road Race, where the TT specialists will yield, most likely to the puncheurs.

Tony Martin in last years stripes at 2012 Paris-Nice (Photo by wikipedia user Denismenchov08)