I’ve taken a bit of a post-Vuelta break from writing about cycling. The cycling season is almost over now but I hope to post semi-regular articles throughout the off-season.
Racing news
We saw a number of outstanding performances at the World Championships in Florence. Tony Martin and Ellen van Dijk dominated their respective time trials, no one could match them. Matej Mohoric showed descending skills that were as impressive as they were unusual, as he won the Mens u23 road race. Marianne Vos looked amazing as she attacked and dropped all her rivals on the Via Salviati, going on to retain her title. It was the sixth time Vos had competed in the race,the second time she had been victorious and in each of the other four she finished 2nd, it’s amazing to think that she is only 26. The mens road race is generally dominated by chaos and this was no exception. Where normally that chaos is the result of frequent attacking, this time it was the weather that was to blame, with crashes galore and a final selection made through attrition. It was a less appealing spectacle than usual, yet it seemed fitting given the way the season began. At the end it came down to four riders, Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali, Portugal’s Rui Costa and the Spanish pair of Joaquim Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde. Spain were playing everything right, with Rodriguez on the offensive, forcing Nibali to work while letting Valverde lurk, waiting for his moment. That moment never came, instead Costa went in solo pursuit of Rodriguez, catching him and winning on the line. Purito looked aghast when he saw that Costa was on his wheel and with Valverde nowhere in sight. The Spanish move had been correct, let one go on the attack, if no chase appears then Rodriguez takes victory for Spain. Yet if Nibali and Costa brought it back together then Valverde would be the fastest on the line, taking victory for Spain, but Valverde fluffed his lines. There was talk afterwards that he simply didn’t have the legs to follow Costa, or that he was doing his Movistar team mate a favour, but I don’t buy either argument. Instead it looked like he made a tactical mistake, choosing to follow Nibali in the belief he would chase the move down, rather than following the fresher Costa.
Rodriguez had his revenge a week later when he won the Giro di Lombardia for the second consecutive season. Rather annoyingly the final monument of the season wasn’t shown live in the UK, with the company that owned the broadcast rights choosing to offer only highlights instead. Presumably they couldn’t be bothered showing it because the team they sponsored wasn’t going to do anything useful in the race. Well that’s my take on it anyway, perhaps they only owned the rights to show highlights and I have done them a disservice, if so I apologize.
Janier Acevedo joins Garmin-Sharp rather than Omega Pharma-Quick Step
Although it was reported that Acevedo had a verbal agreement with Omega Pharma-Quick Step, he clearly changed his mind, opting for Garmin-Sharp instead. Much of my opinions about his reported move to OPQS (see link below) hold true for this one was well, he joins a team which intends to build a stronger GC team, one that will make use of his skill set and has also shown a willingness to let riders attack. Moreover with Garmin-Sharp he will likely race in some of the same American races in which he starred this year. Perhaps most importantly we will get the chance to see his terrific descending skills on the World Tour in 2014
Omega Pharma-Quick Step sign Jan Bakelants and Thomas de Gendt
Bakelants is pretty much a direct replacement for role held by Sylvain Chavanel, the attacking jack of all trades. He is less of a time trialist but a better climber and his star has definitely been on the rise. De Gendt was signed to replace the Acevedo deal, it will likely result in weaker climbing support for Uran than they had hoped for, but if they can manage to get the chemistry right with De Gendt, they could have a very strong rider on their hands.
Mikel Nieve joins Sky Procycling
After an impressive showing in the mountains of the Tour de France, Nieve has opted to continue his career at Sky. I’m a little surprised as I thought he might have a chance as a leader on a smaller team, whereas at Sky he will likely be a very strong climbing domestique for Froome. From Sky’s point of view it’s a great signing, with Porte looking like leading their Giro offensive while Froome returns to the Tour, the team needs more strong climbing support options to compete on both fronts.
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has some biological passport difficulties
This is an unfortunate story, partly because it shouldn’t be a story at all yet, this process is supposed to be confidential. Basically the case seems to be alleging that his blood values during the 2013 season do not match those recorded when he was winning the Tour of Britain in 2012. I don’t know much about the blood values that the passport looks at, and I certainly know little about this case, so the opinion I am about to voice is pure conjecture. When Jonathan Tiernan-Locke was making his way as a young cyclist he contracted the Epstein-Barr virus and reportedly developed Chronic Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) as a result. He spent three years out of the sport while coping with this before being able to get his life back on track. This year at Sky Procycling there have been reports of him feeling tired and over worked, certainly the Sky regimen is more intense and structured than what he was used to. CFS acts upon a persons energy levels, when it is affecting you, even if it is only doing so mildly, you have less energy/greater fatigue. As someone who has suffered from CFS for the last nine years (see my other blog link in the about me section), I can sympathize with that, there have been periods where I have been very healthy again only to be knocked back by illness or over doing things, then I spend months at a level below my best. I don’t know how that would look when looking at the blood values used for the biological passport, but I suspect that if they are measures of physical performance or of energy use, then they would measure lower in someone with an illness such as CFS. If he has been more fatigued this year as a result of being over worked, then CFS may have raised it’s ugly head a little and could be the reason for any discrepancy, rather than doping. I realize that’s an awful lot of conjecture but I felt I had to put the opinion out there. I don’t know the man and have no idea whether he has done anything wrong, and while I can see a way that the dots connect to suggest his illness history is responsible rather than anything illicit, that doesn’t make it so.
Europcar apply to join the World Tour
With the demise of both Vacansoleil-DCM and Euskaltel-Euskadi, there is space for a new team on the World Tour level. Europcar are the only team that have applied to make the step up, so as long as they meet all the required criteria it looks like they will be in the World Tour for 2014. If so they will need to do some serious recruiting. Although they have been racing in a large number of World Tour events in recent seasons, they were still able to pick and choose which events they entered, enabling them to operate with a weaker overall squad than World Tour teams, but with enough cream at the top to succeed. They have already lost some of their bigger names, Damian Gaudin and Sebastien Turgot joined AG2R, so they will have to do a lot of shopping. Fortunately for them, with several teams disbanding the market is flooded with riders, they may not be able to fill the roster with stars but they should be able to be competitive.
The Week in Cycling 