Tour de Pologne review

July 16, 2012 Sheree 2 Comments

The Tour de Pologne concluded with overall victory for promising youngster Moreno Moser (Liquigas-Cannondale) and his team’s successful defence of the title won last year by Peter Sagan. Moser had won the opening stage and taken the leader’s jersey only to temporarily concede it a couple of stages later. He retook the jersey in spectacular fashion on stage six and never looked like relinquishing it again.

Traditionally, this race has both highlighted and confirmed up and coming talent, and this year was no exception. Ben Swift (Sky) won the points classification, Adrian Kurek (Utensilnord-Named) again won the intermediate sprints jersey, Tomasz Marczynski (Vacansoleil-DCM) took home the King of the Mountains title, while runner-up Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was the best placed Polish rider. Young Colombian Sergio Henao (Sky) rounded out the podium. A quick scan of the stage podiums also reveals young burgeoning talent, as does the overall classification. For example, Giro stage winner Jon Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) in sixth place overall has picked up more valuable points for his team while want-away riders Alexandre Geniez (Argos-Shimano) and Linus Gerdemann (RadioShack-Nissan) will have added to their marketability.

When you consider what the riders who lit up 2011’s Tour de Pologne – notably Sagan, Dan Martin and Marcl Kittel – have gone on to achieve in the intervening period, just take note of the names who’ve illuminated this year’s race and rendered oblivious a field of talented and experienced sprinters, climbers and stage racers.

Moreno Moser winner of Tour de Pologne 2012 (image courtesy of official race website)

VeloVoices was keeping an eye on the wonderfully named neo-pro, Colombian on Lampre’s squad, Winner Ancona, who comes from a track background and finished 10th overall in the recent Tour of Slovenia, rode in support of his team leader and, as a consequence, finished just outside the top 100.

Stage 1: Golebiewski Karpacz to Jelenia Gora, 179.5km

Another of Liquigas’s talented youngsters, 21-year-old Moreno Moser, stole the show with a sprint victory – and the first leader’s jersey – ahead of local Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Lars Boom (Rabobank). A five-man breakaway spent most of the stage with their noses in front only to be hauled back by the sprinters’ teams with just over 20km remaining and before the final climb of the day. Two of Kwiatkowski’s team mates Niki Terpstra and Tom Boonen fell on a slippery descent, the former abandoned while the latter was able to continue in his recently acquired Belgian national champion’s kit.

Stage 2: Walbrzych to Opole, 239.4km

Not content with hogging the limelight in France, Sky’s Ben Swift timed his sprint to perfection to beat fellow track star Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Boonen by half a bike length. Sky took control of the peloton on the two final circuits, although they appeared to have ceded it to Rabobank in the last kilometre but the Dutch team was unable to hold the pace to set up their sprinter Theo Bos. Instead Sky executed the perfect lead out for Swift, dropping him off with 150m to go, from where he managed to hold off the Italian’s late surge. Overnight leader Moser came home in the main bunch to retain the leader’s jersey.

Stage 3: Kedzierzyn-Kozle to Cieszyn, 201.7km

Zdenek Stybar, winner of stage 3 (image courtesy of official race website)

Czech cyclo-cross star Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) sprinted to his first WorldTour win – his biggest victory on the road – beating Francesco Gavazzi (Astana) and Sacha Modolo (Colnago-CSF Inox), after getting into a late move in the final three circuits around Cieszyn. That, and subsequent moves, were brought back by the bunch before Stybar’s team mates set up the winning move for him on the last corner, 500 metres before the finish. The Czech rider was delighted to take a win on the stage which had a brief incursion into his home country.

Stage 4: Bedzin to Katowice, 127.8km

Lithuanian Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEDGE) recorded his maiden WorldTour win in his rookie season coming off the wheel of stage two’s victor Swift on the fast and flat run in to the finish on another largely circuit stage. Rabobank’s Bos was third.

The Polish national road race champion, Michal Golas (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) had attacked with 10km to go but was swiftly brought back into the fold by Sky, who controlled the latter portion of the race intent on setting Swift up for another win.

Local Kwiatkowski took over the race leadership from Moser after his teammate Boonen worked as his poisson pilote to ensure he took precious bonus seconds on the intermediate sprint.

Stage 5: Rabka-Zdroj to Zakopane, 163.1km

Stage 5 winner Ben Swift (image courtesy of official race website)

Swift took his second stage on the long, uphill drag to the finish, just besting Viviani, who finished second – again – with Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil-DCM) third. Swift strengthened his grip on the points jersey while race leader Kwiatkowski finished sixth to retain the jersey.

The day’s lumpy stage began with the obligatory breakaway, but they were kept largely within easy reach by the race leader’s team. Orica-GreenEDGE’s Eritrean rider Daniel Teklehaimanot used the break to his advantage setting himself up as kingpin in the mountains. The peloton was all back together with just over 3km remaining but the finish proved to be more testing than many anticipated and it was Swift who timed his surge to perfection much to the chagrin of the runner-up who indulged in a spot of handle-bar thumping.

Stage 6: Bukovina Terma Hotel Spa to Bukowina Tatrzanska, 191.8km

Moser perfectly timed his late attack to cruelly deny Sky’s Sergio Henao on the line, with time bonuses enabling him to retake the leader’s yellow jersey with a five-second advance on Kwiatkowski who fought hard to finish third, but it wasn’t enough for him to hold onto the jersey.

The day’s stage contained 15 climbs, ten of them classified. While mountains leader Teklehaimanot took the first points, he surrendered his jersey to Tomasz Marczynski (Vacansoleil-DCM), who was in the day’s breakaway which was overhauled by Henao’s initial attack at the foot of the final categorised climb. Henao attacked again as he crested the climb and soloed almost to the line where he was overtaken by Moser’s late and well-timed surge. This was where the overall was won by Moser who, as Francesco Moser’s nephew continued his family’s long and successful cycling heritage.

Stage 7: Krakow to Krakow, 131.4km

Stage 7 winner John Degenkolb (image courtesy of official race website)

The final circuit race around the historic town of Krakow saw John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) return to winning ways. In the pouring rain, his mud-splattered Argonaut team mates provided the perfect lead-out train to best Sky’s double stage winner Swift and Mathew Hayman in the sprint. A 12-man breakaway had escaped early and split into two on the last of the circuit’s seven laps before being taken back, at which point it started to rain heavily rendering the circuit treacherous. But that didn’t prevent Argos-Shimano taking charge and delivering Degenkolb to his fifth win of the season.

Moser and the other GC contenders finished safely in the peloton, thereby missing out on bonus seconds, and confirming Liquigas’s second consecutive victory in the seven-day WorldTour stage race.

General classification:

1. Moreno Moser (Liquigas-Cannondale) 30:15:49

2. Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) +0:05

3. Sergio Henao (Sky) +0:06

4. Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha) +0:26

5. Linus Gerdemann (RadioShack-Nissan) +0:28

6. Jon Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) +0:29

7. Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Nissan) same time

8. Alexandre Geniez (Argos-Shimano) s/t

9. Rigoberto Uran (Sky) s/t

10. Javier Moreno (Movistar) s/t

Links: Preview, Official website

Stage races, Tour de France

Tour de France: Stage 15 review

July 16, 2012 Sheree Leave a comment

Stage 15: Samatan to Pau, 158.5km

Pierrick Fedrigo (FDJ-BigMat) handed the French their fourth win of the Tour – and his team’s second – when he beat Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp) in a two-man sprint after the pair had distanced their four breakaway companions 6km from the finish. This was the second time in three years that Fedrigo’s won into Pau, his fourth Tour victory, but his first since 2010 and his return to competition after suffering from Lyme’s disease for most of last season.

The other four, having lost out in the inevitable game of cat-and-mouse, which started 10km from the finish, finished seconds behind, with stage 10 winner Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) rounding out the podium.

Maillot jaune Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and the main peloton, lead home by birthday boy Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol), rolled home nearly 12 minutes behind the breakaway. Indeed, it had taken over 60km for the successful break to slip away, after several had tried and failed in a fast and furious start to the race. With Fedrigo, Vande Velde and Voeckler were Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) and another Kitty favourite, Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), who were eventually joined by Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank’s Nicki Sorensen after a long solo chase.

The peloton, possibly intent on keeping their powder dry for the next two monster stages after tomorrow’s rest day, were only too happy to cruise in the last half of the stage after the frantic early pace.

VeloVoices rider of the day

VeloVoices’ rider of the day, by a nose [I see what you did there – Ed], is stage winner Pierrick Fedrigo (FDJ-BigMat), who carefully weighed up his options and eliminated his sprint opposition, the diminutive Dumoulin, on the run in to the finish line. Indeed, one might say that the last two stages, both won from breakaways, have been won by classic stage-hunters.

Observations

Today was another short punchy stage televised from the start. In theory it was a stage for the sprint teams but there were still 14 empty-handed teams so today was always going to be a battle royal to get into the breakaway. You might wonder why more didn’t try but the speed was pretty much flat out for the first 60km. With a successful break finally forming, Nicki Sorensen tried to bridge but only succeeded dangling in no man’s land until his team came to the rescue, no doubt on the orders of Saxo Bank team manager and master tactician Bjarne Riis. After 75km, the front five had built a lead of over six minutes but Sorenson was still 30 seconds adrift when his team mates hit the front of the peloton and began to drag back the leading group. Hobson’s choice, so the five-man group slowed and allowed the Dane to catch up with them. Once he’d done so, his team mates disappeared from the front of the peloton and the gap began to grow again.

Tactical analysis

Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) was allowed to roll over the line at the intermediate sprint point, a signal of the other riders’ capitulation in the face of his dominance in the points competition: game over, barring any mishaps.

Tejay Van Garderen is still comfortably leading the young riders’ competition and there’s speculation that he may be BMC’s sacrificial lamb in the Pyrenees, used to tempt Sky’s black-and-white sheep dogs into a rash move in an effort to get teammate and defending champion Cadel Evans back onto the podium.

Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) is still wearing the mountains jersey – plus matching shorts, helmet, socks and gloves – but today Thomas Voeckler made a point of taking all five points on offer to move up in the competition. Has he now set his cap at the jersey? If so, he’ll need to get into either or both of the next days’ inevitable breakaways. Even for him, this might be one break too far.

Meanwhile, Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and his team are looking unassailable. The next two stages represent the last chance saloon for anyone wanting to disturb their one-two lock on the podium. But will the others want to gamble their places and precious UCI points? I see more potential downside than upside for the challengers on terrain that’s difficult, yes, but there’s virtually no painful and unsettling changes of gradient to disturb Wiggo’s rhythm. In week one, Bradley said it’s not over until the fat lady sings, and she’s not even in the room. I would venture to suggest that she’s now in the room and warming up at the mike.

In reality, maybe there’s only Samu Sanchez’s (Euskaltel-Euskadi) successor as the winner of the mountains classification to be decided in the coming days. Not of course forgetting those 14 teams still intent on chasing a precious stage win, which will ensure places in the day’s breakaway will be hotly contested.

VeloVoices will bring you previews of each day’s stage every morning, live coverage of every stage on Twitter, reviews in the evening and in-depth analysis after selected stages.

Link: Tour de France official website

From the archives, Stage races, Tour de France

Tour de France hosts: Up pops Pau again!

July 16, 2012 Sheree Leave a comment

After Paris and Bordeaux, Pau is one of the most-visited staging posts in the Tour – it has previously hosted a start/finish 64 times – largely, it has to be said, because of its proximity to the Pyrenees. The list of riders who’ve won on Tour stages into Pau reads like a Who’s Who of cycling, so I’m going to be dipping in and out of Tours where either the Tour, or that stage, or both were won by some of the biggest names in the sport.

Pau was first visited in the 1930 Tour, which introduced a number of firsts in its 24th edition. For the first time ever, teams were organised by country, with ten riders apiece, plus there were sixty touriste-routiers (amateurs and pros not allied to a national team) organised into French regional groupings. The entire peloton raced in either approved national jerseys or plain ones – no advertising whatsoever – and they all rode on identical yellow bicycles. This proved to be a successful format for the French, six of whom placed in the top ten overall. Andre Leducq, the star of the French team, won the overall while Charles Pelissier, ninth overall, achieved a stunning eight stage wins. [An early incarnation of Peter Sagan? – Ed]

Alfredo Binda (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

This wasn’t the only piece of modernisation. 1930 also saw the introduction of the publicity caravan and the abandonment of the rule whereby cyclists had to do their own repairs. Team time trials were given the heave-ho for a few years and an overall team classification was introduced based on the times on GC of the three highest-ranked riders. The Tour was broadcast live on the radio. The organisers named the Tour’s ‘best climber’, an unofficial precursor to the current King of the Mountains competition. One of the more notable foreign cyclists taking part was Alfredo Binda who had, in recent years, dominated the Giro d’Italia with victories in 1925, 1927, 1928 and 1929. He was paid not to compete in 1930, so started the Tour instead winning stages eight and nine, which finished and started in Pau, before being forced to abandon the following day probably due to injuries sustained on stage seven where he lost over an hour, and all hope of Tour victory.

The Tour visited Pau every year thereafter up until 1939, returning post-war in 1947, 1949 and 1950. It was back in 1952 with a Tour which saw the introduction of more innovations – mountain finishes on stages 10, 11 and 21 – including the now iconic L’Alpe d’Huez and Puy de Dome. The overall was won by Il Campionissimo, Fausto Coppi, the first cycling superstar who was now managed by Binda. In 1952 he was at his zenith, winning five stages, including stage 18 into Pau, the mountains classification and was a member of the Italian winning team.

The charismatic Fausto Coppi (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Such was his dominance that the Tour organisers had to double the prize money for second and third places to retain interest. Coppi won by a margin of almost half an hour – such a margin hasn’t been seen since. Coppi’s domination aside, the 1952 Tour saw the introduction of the daily combativity award and TV coverage started.

Thereafter, the Tour stopped off in Pau every year. In 1964 it featured on stage 16, a mountainous parcours won by the 1959 Tour winner, Frederic Bahamontes – known as the Eagle of Toledo – who went on to finish third overall and win the mountains classification. Trade teams were back on the menu, after Tour organisers succumbed to financial pressure in 1962. This was the only Tour to have included a mid-stage climb to Alpe D’Huez. The race was eventually won by Jacques Anquetil, his fifth Tour victory, following an epic battle in the mountains with eternal runner-up Raymond Poulidor. Having earlier won the Giro, Anquetil emulated Coppi’s Tour-Giro double.

Bernard Hinault (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Fast forward to the late 1970s and the start of the reign of ‘The Badger’, Bernard Hinault, France’s last Tour winner. The 1979 edition started, most unusually, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, visiting Pau as early as stage three, where Hinault emerged victorious, having taken the maillot jaune on stage two. He went on to win the Tour, his second of five victories. He also won the points’ classification and his team won the overall team classification, which required them to wear yellow caps, and the team points competition. In fact, the 1979 Tour had a total of 16 competitions, each with its own sponsor!

1979’s Tour was also notable for a number of modifications and firsts. Doping tests performed in a Cologne laboratory were now able to detect anabolicals. Those found guilty of this transgression typically lost points and were given time penalties. It was the only Tour to ever visit Alpe d’Huez twice. US TV broadcasting of the Tour started, split-stages were banished and, as a consequence of the unwarranted attention given to the lanterne rouge [the last rider on general classification – Ed], a new rule was introduced for the following year whereby the last-placed cyclist was removed from the race every couple of stages.

From the 1980s onwards, the Tour halted in Pau most years and in 2005 it also became, as it is again this year, the location of one of the Tour’s precious few rest days. This was to be Lance Armstrong’s seventh consecutive Tour victory and, at the time, it was thought his final Tour appearance. This edition was notable for a number of reasons. It commemorated the death of one of Lance’s former team mates, Fabio Casartelli, who had crashed and died ten years earlier on the Col du Portet d’Aspet. Additionally, it commemorated the Tour’s first official mountain climb in the Tour, the Ballon d’Alsace, 100 years after its first inclusion in the race. For the first time, the race was part of the UCI’s recently introduced ProTour circuit and required to invite – albeit begrudgingly – all 20 ProTour teams. The Tour granted a single wild card to AG2R.

Oscar Pereiro (image courtesy of Oscar Pereiro)

As a consequence of Michael Rasmussen making a complete balls-up [is that a technical biking term? I can’t find it in the glossary – Ed] of the penultimate stage’s individual time trial while lying third – he dropped to seventh – the race jury invoked the “rain rule” for the final stage on the Champs Elysees meaning Lance won the overall the first time the race crossed the finish line, rather than the eighth and last time. Additionally, it was the first and only time since 1994 that the stage didn’t end in a bunch sprint, rather it was won by Alexandre Vinokourov after a trademark escape in the final kilometre, a move which saw him rise from eighth to fifth in the overall. During the award ceremony, the winner was for the first time allowed to address the crowds, a practice which has since continued.

The mountainous stage 16 into Pau was won by Oscar Pereiro who also took home the race’s overall combativity prize. He was belatedly awarded overall victory in the following year’s Tour after the previous winner, Floyd Landis, was convicted of doping. Pereiro suffered a serious crash in the 2008 Tour and never really recovered his nerve. He retired in 2010 and achieved a boyhood ambition playing football for Coruxo FC in the Spanish second division. He now works as a race commentator and runs his own sporting foundation.

Will Pau be the setting for some interesting stories in this year’s Tour? The rest day is preceded by stage 15’s 158.5km run from Samatan to Pau – one for the sprinters, albeit those who can cope with a slight uphill to the finish. Here’s Chris Boardman’s preview of the stage: