Peloton Blog

Jan Ullrich

Ullrich with his five 2^nd places in the Tour de France has been compared with the “eternal second” Raymond Poulidor, but I don’t think this is a good comparison. Poulidor came in 2^nd at the Tour three times and five times came in the 3^rd spot. He never wore the yellow jersey even for one day. He also came in 2^nd once at the World Championship. He did win the Vuelta once though and several classics as well. “Pou Pou” as he was affectionately called in France was beloved because of all his 2^nd places and he was a good contrast to the too smooth Anquetil. Much like with the Chicago Cubs baseball team it is always popular to root for the underdog.

While their list of wins is similar between Poulidor and Ullrich they are not the same. Ullrich did win the Tour and after his win in ’98 many people (including me) thought this would be the guy to win the Tour more then 5 times. With his weight problems in many years, the drug incident, and others it makes you question his commitment. So while Poulidor was viewed as an overachiever that got stuck competing against naturally superior athletes of Anquetil and Merckx; while Ullrich is viewed as very gifted athlete that has the bad luck of going against Lance, but perhaps has underachieved as well. It is hard for the public to love you if they think you are wasting some great talent.

The next 2 years are critical on how Ullrich will be remembered in cycling history. If he wins the Tour at least once then he will be remembered as a great athlete that had the misfortune of racing as the same time as Lance. If he doesn’t then he will be remembered as an underachiever who could have won more. Ullrich like Lance has put all his eggs in the Tour basket and since that one race is what he focuses on then that is how he should be expected to be judged. 

Valverde

The winner of today’s stage in the Tour de France was Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde (results). For the previous 2 years riding for the smaller Kelme team he was one of the most prolific winners with 25 wins over the previous 2 years plus top 5 overall in the Vuelta in both years. Valverde along with Cuengo look to be the top stars for the next few years.

The big disappointment of the day came with poor results from Mayo (not a surprise) and Vino (was a surprise). T-Mobile that looked so good on Saturday was no factor in the final climb today with Vino and Ullrich both finishing far back.

At this point the team that poses the biggest threat to Lance is the Illes Balears team with both Valverde and Mancebo within 4 minutes of Lance. If they get aggressive and are willing to take risks that is probably the only way Lance can get beaten. Aggressive riding is certainly a trademark of Valverde in the past, but it is not one of the Illes Balears team since perhaps the days of Delgado in the 80’s. Indurain was only aggressive at a few times.

Michel Rasmussen

Michael Rasmussen’s ride today (results) was certainly reminiscent of some of Richard Virenque’s rides that got him 7 stages in the Tour de France and 7 King of the Mountain titles. Several times in one of the first mountain stages Virenque would win and every climb and give himself a big lead in the KoM competition. There was only 1 category climb for Rasmussen, but several other category 2 and 3s today. He now has a big enough lead that he can just attack the early climbs from here on out when nobody else is.

Rasmussen is a former mountain biker rider like Cadel Evans. He had a great ride in the ’03 Vuelta winning one stage and coming in 7^th overall. It was expected for him to become a top challenger, but outside of a good Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré he did not do much in 2004. In the Giro this year he was mostly invisible, but before the Tour de France started he said the King of the Mountain was his main goal and he is certainly on track for that.

Nozal and Dauphiné

One story that came out at the start of the Dauphiné Libéré that has not gotten too much attention was and Michel Scotto D'Abusco and Isidro Nozal not being allowed to start the race because their haematocrit was too high. This is not a positive drug test, but for many teams they have to treat it as such. Nozal has left Liberty Seguros rather then be fired, and will try to clear his name. For these non-star riders this type of story is usually forgotten about and with teams risk losing their ProTour status for having riders that even have had suspicions raised against them this could mean the end of the career for a rider like Nozal.

Nozal was the surprise star of the Vuelta in 2003 when he spent 16 days as the leader of the race. It was because of one of those early breaks, and then he surprised everyone by winning the 2 flat time trials before ultimately being beaten by Heras in the uphill and final time trial. Nozal finished an amazing 2^nd place. Last year Nozal was 7^th in the Vuelta and a great worker for team leader Heras.

In better Dauphiné news Axel Merckx won today’s stage. He does not win often (12 wins now in a career that goes back to ’93), but usually does well on tough hilly stages like today. It’s his best win since a wonderful win in the 2000 Giro when he chased down a small break and then attacked to get the stage win.

Savoldelli and Giro teams

With the Giro ending on Sunday Paolo Savoldelli wrapped up his 2^nd overall victory. Paolo has been a pro since ’96 and never been what you would call a prolific winner with 3-4 wins in most of his good years. The previous 2 years have not yielded any wins as injuries from crashes have plagued him. The win in this year’s Giro is without a doubt his biggest, and not needing any asterisks next to it. In ’99 he actually got the lead when Pantani was kicked off the Giro, but he choose not wear the pink jersey and Ivan Gotti took the lead in a tough final mountains stage that day with Savoldelli getting 2^nd overall. In 2002 the other time he won the Giro the main story of that year was Simoni, Garzelli, and Casagrande all being thrown out of the race for a variety of reasons. Now in 2005 there is no other story overshadowing this fine win.

Some have argued that Savoldelli won despite having a week team made up of the 2^nd string riders of the Discovery squad. While it certainly was not the team they will have in the Tour the same can be said of almost all the other teams. Only Lampre with both Simoni and Cunego and Liquigas with Garzelli, Di Luca, and Cioni had several top riders. Maybe only Liquigas had true depth with solid riders like Noe and Wegelius. With the ProTour requiring all teams to field teams for 3 Grand Tours the teams were bound to be spread thin. Only the non-ProTour teams like Selle Italia were able to send their best squads without worrying about the rest of the year. The Spanish teams will certainly be stronger in the Vuelta and were no factor in the Giro at all. Not that the Giro was lacking in excitement, but there are several smaller teams that would have done more then the Eukaltel-Euskadi or Rabobank teams were able to do.

Ekimov and Casagrande

The news that Ekimov got injured and may miss the Tour de France, and perhaps call an end to a long career has raised an interest in this fine rider. With him off the bike for several months the chance of riding the Tour is very small.

At the other end of the spectrum the latest news has Francesco Casagrande retiring right away since his team will not be riding in the Giro. This news has not generated much interest despite a very good career with almost 50 victories that has included two wins in the San Sebastian classic, a wonderful victory at Flèche Wallonne in 2000, a overall win at the Tour of Switzerland, several stages in the Giro, and a 2nd overall in the Giro loosing the lead to Garzeli in the final time trial. I think one of the reasons that Casagrande has not been the big name that his results indicate he should be is there has always been drug suspicion with him, at least one suspension and lots of smoke over the years. Also he is one of those riders that should have been able to deliver a really big victory, but never did. In fact it was only the 2000 Giro that he went in as the big favorite that he came closest to the big win.

Cipollini retirement thoughts

Last week we Lance’s announcement of his retirement from the racing side of the sport after this year’s Tour de France. This week Mario Cipollini announced he is immediately retiring and will not be starting this years Giro. Cipo for much of his 17 years as a pro been one of the few riders that everyone has an opinion about. He has been liked and disliked for his flamboyant style, wardrobe changes, and top sprinting. I think Eric Zabel said it best: He did a lot of good for cycling and understood how to be an entertainer. He was an absolutely glorious showman, but his athletic achievements always had priority."

Cipo the entertainer would show up at the Giro in a Cesar outfit, the “muscle” skinsuit, the all yellow outfit for the Tour when he was the leader, and many others. Cipo the athlete won 189 races since turning pro in 1989. He won at least 2 races every year he raced. Perhaps his best year was 2002 when he won Milan-San Remo, Gent-Wevelgem, and the World Championship. He won stages in all 3 Grand Tours and for being someone that was supposedly afraid of the mountains won the points competition in the Giro 3 times, and these were the more mountainous Giros of the 90’s not the flat ones of the early 80’s.

With Cipollini stop racing now and Lance in a few months cycling is loosing some great personalities. Petacchi may be as good of sprinter as Cipo in his prime, Cunego or Basso may become great stage racers, Valverde may become a favorite in every race, but none of them right now appear to be as anywhere near as interesting off the bike as who we are seeing leave the sport now.

Lance to retire

Since this is such big news I feel obliged to comment on it.

So today after over a year of speculation when he would stop, Lance Armstrong announced he would retire after this years Tour de France (story on VeloNews). Maybe the biggest surprise of it was that when Discovery Channel came on as the primary sponsor of the team it was widely known that the 3-year contract was for him to do at least 1 more Tour and implied that he would race for at least 2 years. Given his backing out of the early commitment to the spring classics maybe it should not be such a surprise, and with comments in interviews like “in 4 and a half months it will all be over” also tipped his hand. Probably the main question was if he would continue after the Tour and pursue the hour record.

In recent years the true top cycling champions retired when they are still at the top, or could not be the top. Hinault retired after coming in 2^nd in the Tour and winning the Coors Classic here in America. He had announced it well in advanced. Indurain retired after he lost the Tour, and being forced by his team to ride a Vuelta that he clearly did not have his heart in. LeMond obviously had no interest in continuing when he saw that he had no shot at being a contender in the Tour any more. Many other top cyclists like Fignon, Delgado, Roche, Kelly, and Bugno continued on for a few years well after their prime and enjoyed a backup roll and delivered a few good days. It was obvious that Lance was the type that if he was not at the top he would not race.

Flanders and Tom Boonen

Today the 89^th Tour of Flanders (or the Ronde Van Vlaanderen as it is called in it’s native Flemish) was held. Tom Boonen of Belgium had his big coming out party with a solo victory for the win (results) The biggest win in a short 3-year career that has seen many field sprint victories, but he won this one after an attack 9 km out. Alessandro Ballan was another of the stars today and after the early breakaways were neutralized Ballan attacked with less then 50 km and over the next 20 km 5 more riders including Boonen, Zabel, and Van Petegem joined him. Boonen tried an attack on the final climb up the Bosberg, and several other attacks. The one that worked was right after he caught up to Van Petegem who had been marking Boonen all day. Over the final 9 km Boonen held off the chasers for a beautiful win.

Boonen’s victory was like many of the great Johan Museuuws 3 wins at the Ronde, but it reminded me most of Eric Vanderaerden in 1985. Like Boonen Vanderaerden was a top sprinter, but won the ’85 Ronde in solo style for the first major classic of his career. A book described Vanderaerden’s win this way ”We often imagine the champions speeding alone towards victory; here reality and imagination meet”. That phrase certainly describes today’s ride by Boonen. The weather in ’85 was cold and rainy, but today was a beautiful spring day. Vanderaerden would later win Paris-Roubaix and it certainly is within Boonen’s ability to win the queen of the classics if not next weekend then within the next year or two.

Viatcheslav Ekimov

This past week Viatcheslav Ekimov (Eki) won the final time trial at the KBC Driedaagse van De Panne-Koksijde. At 39 Ekimov is one of the oldest racers in the professional peloton. What makes Eki so amazing is not only his age, but how long he has been a top rider. As a member of the Russian team as a junior he was a World Champion on the track in 1984. In ’86 he was the world pursuit champ as well as the holder of the amateur hour record. He really came to the attention of the American fans in the ’89 Tour de Trump when was still an amateur and rode well getting one stage win, but no match for the more seasoned pros Lauritzen and Vanderaerden.

Ekimov was one of the early Russians to turn for a European team when he joined Peter Post’s Panasonic team in 1990. He stayed with a variety of Dutch team until he joined the US Postal team in ’97 the year they first went to the Tour, and outside of 1999 he has been with the American team since. He retired after the 2001 season, but came back midway in 2002 to help Lance win another Tour. Also the short 2002 season is note worthy as that is the only year in 16 years of racing he did not get at least one victory. Eki is also well known for trying to escape at just over 1 kilometer to go in races and use his pursuit skills to try to hold on, and it has only worked once in the Tour de France. Ekimov also has 14 starts in the Tour de France and will probably start his 15^th this year. It would not be a surprise for him to get a top 10 finish in at least one of the northern classics in the next week.