Eneco Tour – Where Are The Bunch Sprints?

Three days ago the way the Eneco Tour was going to develop was entirely predictable. Any person who took a quick glance over the profiles for the seven stages would have seen the following. Stages one, three and four would be bunch sprints, stage two would be an uphill sprint, stage five is a time trial, stage six revisits the Ardennes Classics and finally stage seven brings some cobbles and the feared Muur van Geraardsbergen. Stage two went as expected, an uphill sprint won by the impressive Arnaud Demare of FDJ. Stages one and three definitely did not as both were won by riders attacking from the peloton inside the last 1.5km and staying clear to win the stage, despite the odds of succeeding with such a move usually being very slim indeed.

It’s even harder to understand when you look at the start list, there seem to be sprinters everywhere you look. There are elite sprinters, good sprinters, average sprinters, up and coming sprinters, sprinters at the end of their careers, sprinters at the start of their careers, climbing sprinters, classics sprinters and so on. By my reckoning every single team has some kind of sprinter and some have multiple sprint options. Even if a team lacks a realistic contender to win from a bunch sprint, they have riders who can compete for a decent finish from them. In short on stages one, three and four almost every team has an interest in the race finishing in a bunch sprint, and yet that hasn’t been the case for the first two of those stages. So why didn’t we get bunch sprints?

Both stages finished in a similar manner, the breaks were caught in plenty of time and the peloton got restless as they faced the final 8-9km with no one to chase. No single team wanted to take things up that far out but pretty much every team wanted to bring their key men to the front. In some cases we saw 5-6 man trains move to the front and maybe stay there for a few hundred metres. Another train would arrive, then another, then some more, each subsequent train (long or short) was competing for the same space that the previous teams had moved into. The result was an almost hypnotic cycle of riders reaching the front with their team mates and then slowly being sucked back into the peloton and separated from their team as other riders pushed between them, it slowly descended into chaos. That chaos was a combination of factors; Firstly the sheer number of teams trying to get right to the front at the same time resulted in little space in which to maneuver, if you lost the wheel of your team mate, you weren’t getting it back. Secondly the lack of a team willing to take the responsibility for setting a high enough pace that the peloton would string out, and by virtue of that stretching more room would emerge towards the front for trains to move into. Thirdly the narrow roads with tight corners and plenty of road furniture making it even harder to fit all the sprinters and their trains at the front of the peloton. Though it’s hardly the first time these riders have raced in this part of the world so it’s hardly an excuse, but it contributes to the chaos. Fourthly the timing of the race means a fair few riders are a little off the pace and as a result teams can’t commit as many riders to setting a high pace for as long as they usually can, thus there is less control. Many riders come to the Eneco Tour working on their fitness for races in the weeks ahead.

Each day a team did eventually take up the pace setting. On stage one the Belkin Pro Cycling riders came to the front and raised the pace, other teams tried to join them, Garmin-Sharp, Cannondale, Argos-Shimao but were disrupted by riders from other teams. It resulted in a large group of individual sprinters and lead out riders milling around randomly behind the Belkin train. As the peloton went inside the final 2km a series of tight turns, combined with the lack of any organization except within the Belkin team, allowed the stage winner, Mark Renshaw, to jump clear with no immediate response. Renshaw’s team mates stopped working at the front and with no other trains in place the peloton slowed which helped Renshaw open a significant gap. The front of the peloton was now populated by individuals rather than any organized bodies. Most of those individuals were sprinters as well, they wouldn’t want to be the rider to chase down Renshaw, since it would leave them knackered and only benefit their rivals rather than themselves or their team. Instead they looked to the riders around them and watched to see who would take up the chase so they they might try and get on a wheel and save themselves for the sprint. With no chase forming and Renshaws lead extending, some of those individual riders tried to kick clear themselves and chase but the gap was too great to bridge and they couldn’t close it by following as individuals rather than as an organized unit.

On stage three it was Lotto Belisol who came to the front, they looked very impressive doing so as well, the problem being they started from too far out and without a full train to begin with. I believe they hit the front around the 6km to go mark and had four riders, including Andre Greipel who was there to sprint not pull on the front. On the Eurosport commentary Brian Smith hit the nail on the head when noting that they didn’t have the man power to drive the peloton from so far out. Instead the designated lead out man, Jurgen Roelandts was on the front with 2km still to go and the pace hadn’t reached the level it should have, as presumably the Lotto Belisol riders were trying to avoid burning out and leaving Greipel alone. At the same time Lampre-Merida’s Filippo Pozzato had led Maximiliano Richeze to the front and Richeze inserted himself between Roelandts and Greipel. As Roelandts increased the pace Greipel seemed to lose Richeze’s wheel briefly, then he lost it again allowing the two riders to break free of the peloton. Zdenek Stybar of Omega Pharma-Quick Step followed them and seeing the gap form Lars Boom bridged across. It wasn’t a planned move from the Lotto riders, as while those four riders were able to contest the win between themselves, Roelandts seemed oblivious of that and instead pulled over as a lead out man would in the last 500m. The other three went on to contest the stage, which was well won by Stybar.

Both stages produced a surprise finish but it’s largely been caused by a lack of teams willing to really take control of the run in, partially because they lack enough riders with a high enough level of fitness to make the peloton suffer enough. There have been suggestions of using smaller teams, it would certainly reduce the congestion but it would also mean each team has even less riders available, should they attempt to exert control on the race finale. I think it might have helped had the breakaway riders stayed clear until the last 3-4km, leaving the whole peloton together for a shorter period of time and perhaps allowing 1-2 teams to throw everything at making a bunch sprint happen. Perhaps we will finally see one tomorrow.