Inhaltsverzeichnis für July 2016 in Procycling

Procycling|July 2016

PREFACE

No matter how much I flirt with other races, the Tour de France will always be The One. It was my original teenage crush as a cycling fan – the brilliant 1986, 1987 and 1989 races coincided with me being 13 to 16, although 1988 was an early wake-up call that bike races can be dull as well as exciting. I go through phases of preferring the Giro, for its landscape, culture and character, or the Tour of Flanders, for its intensity, connection with the local region and cobbles, or even Paris-Nice, because I’ve got a fighting chance of making dinner before the restaurants close. But I always come back to the Tour. It’s the biggest, most exciting, most incredible bike race in the world, even if its size and…

2 Min

Procycling|July 2016

PETER COSSINS

Asked last year about the oftmade description of Alpe d’Huez as the “Dutch mountain”, TV journalist Mart Smeets grunted with disdain. “A couple of Dutch riders won there, that’s all. How long is it since a Dutch rider did well there? 26 years.” Smeets could easily have been talking about his nation’s challenge in the Grand Tours, which until Steven Kruijswijk’s unexpected tilt for the Giro d’Italia’s maglia rosa has been moribund over that same period. Since the end of the 1980s when Erik Breukink, Steven Rooks and Gert-Jan Theunisse were in their pomp, Dutch cycling has barely produced a credible Tour contender. Michael Boogerd and Robert Gesink have been the pick of the bunch, but they have ultimately disappointed. However, that failure has to be seen in context. For…

1 Min

Procycling|July 2016

THREE TO WATCH

CLARA KOPPENBURG With a great name for a bike racer, this talented German is an excellent climber and TT rider with the Cervélo Bigla squad. Only been riding for two years and already has one Giro Rosa under her belt. She’s still only 20. FLOORTJE MACKAIJ The Giant-Alpecin rider is the toast of the 20-year-olds at the moment with a string of top 10s in big races. She came fifth in the prologue at last year’s Giro Rosa and ninth overall at this year’s Energiewacht Tour in the Netherlands. CHLOE DYGERT The American junior world TT and road race champion is a star in the making. She mixes road riding with cyclo-cross, although she could be slower to arrive on the European scene while she finishes studying in the States.…

1 Min

Procycling|July 2016

TOUR SEASON

1.UWT: One-day UCI WorldTour race / 1.HC: Major one-day race / 1.1: Minor one-day race / 2.UWT: UCI WorldTour stage race / 2.HC: Major stage race / 2.1: Minor stage race / WWT: Women's WorldTour race GP Kanton Aargau 9 June, 1.HC, Switzerland This is Switzerland’s biggest one-day race and traditionally a hard-fought affair. It is held on a 20km circuit centred on the village of Gippengen near the confluence of the Aare and Rhine, in the far north of the country. And though last year ended in a bunch gallop – Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff won comfortably – the lumpy parcours usually yields a small group sprint. Five of the last six editions have finished so. The race’s history stretches back to 1964 but only two riders have claimed a…

5 Min

Procycling|July 2016

#TourdeFranceWinner

Nairo Quintana. He was already close to winning last year, and now Valverde won’t have podium ambitions. Roel Hendryckx @rhendryckx Nairo Quintana, his time should be upon us and a single prong attack from his team. Vincent Bennett @vincentbennett1 Contador as he loves Le Tour and this is his last opportunity to win it. John @chorltonjohn7 Quintana – altitude camps now & not racing? Q’s all for TdF. Remember Alpe d’Huez last year taking 80secs off CF. Neal Trotter @NealTrotter Thibaut Pinot. ‘T nieuwe wielrennen @nieuwwielrennen Pinot is my dark horse. So Pinot Noir it is… RobertvWilligenburg @rovanwil Alberto Contador by the power of my screaming at the TV. I desperately want to see him in the maillot jaune. Julie Peers @beeranbooks EDWARD PICKERING Procycling editor Nairo Quintana. I was…

2 Min

Procycling|July 2016

WHEN. NOT IF.

Such is the expectation upon Nairo Quintana, so convinced are so many of his talent and durability over three weeks, that a Tour de France title is now regarded by many as inevitable. In fact, most pundits and fans would be surprised if he ended his career with only one yellow jersey. His Giro d’Italia win of 2014 was emphatic and his two second places at the Tour bore all the hallmarks of a future winner. Add in his fourth place at the Vuelta a Espana, where a day of sickness cost him a podium place, and he already has a remarkable record. He has only failed to finish one Grand Tour – the 2014 Vuelta, which he abandoned with an injury. Even the 36th place he got in his…

16 Min

Procycling|July 2016

MOVE FAST & BREAK THINGS

The ‘Big Three’ of this year’s Tour de France – Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador – are favourites each for their own reasons. Froome is a favourite because he is the best. Quintana is a favourite because he is going to be the best, one day. And Contador? He’s a favourite because he was the best. When you think about it, Contador has not been the dominant rider in the Tour de France since 2009. Arguably, he was only the dominant rider on that single occasion, even including the yellow jersey he won by default in 2007, and the yellow jersey he lost by default in 2010. In 2007, he won the Tour after being the second-best climber in the race behind Michael Rasmussen, who lost the yellow…

3 Min

Procycling|July 2016

LOW-LEVEL PRESSURE

The constitution of the French Republic dictates a strict separation of church and state, although that other great institution of French life, the Tour de France, has always flirted with the language and iconography of religion. Perhaps it is apt, then, that the Grand Départ of the 2016 edition should take place at the island monastery of Mont-St-Michel. And it’s fitting, also, that while Mont-St-Michel is designated as a religious place, the reality is that it is also a shrine to capitalism, just like the Tour. Millions of tourists, French exchange students and amateur photographers descend on the quasi-island each year to buy overpriced souvenirs, overpriced meals and overpriced coffees. The Tour will be perfectly at home here. (Any riders thinking of crossing ethical lines with doping products or electric…

15 Min

Procycling|July 2016

THE EXPERT PANEL

WHO’S GOING TO WIN? Froome. It’s the second anticlockwise course in a row – a rarity. Logic suggests we’ll see a similar pattern: shock and awe from Sky in the Pyrenees and Quintana slowly chipping away at Froome’s advantage but, alas, just falling short. WHO ELSE WILL BE ON THE PODIUM? Quintana and Pinot. The Frenchman and his team have made major strides in the last year. Pinot is also a sort of reverse Ivan Gotti or Stephen Roche: where Gotti and Roche were famous for only ever going well in odd years, Pinot seems to relish even numbers. WHO ELSE WILL BE IN THE TOP 10? The gentle, lilting diminuendo of Contador’s Tour results will continue, and he may even struggle to make the top five. Aru could squeak…

2 Min

Procycling|July 2016

ONE BAD DAY

When Tejay Van Garderen was last seen on the roads of the Tour de France, to call the American a shadow of his usual self would be an understatement. He looked more like a phantom bike rider. On the morning of the stage from Digne-Les-Bains to Pra Loup last July, the day that Van Garderen had to call it quits, L’Équipe newspaper ran a front page of a trio of favourites: Van Garderen in the middle, flanked by Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana. It was as if the then 26-yearold American, fifth in the Tour in 2012 and again in 2014, had been anointed by the Tour’s semi-official newspaper as an outstanding favourite, if not the outstanding favourite, to challenge Chris Froome. He’d certainly ridden an almost faultless race until…

12 Min

Procycling|July 2016

WISHLIST

CANNONDALE SUPERSIX EVO HI-MOD TEAM £7,499 ||| $10,660 Cannondale’s latest flagship road racer uses the firm’s ‘BallisTec’ construction method for the carbon fibre frame to achieve an exceptionally high ratio of stiffness-to-weight. And while it may not look like an aero bike, subtle ‘TAP’ (Truncated Aero Profile) tube shapes work to save precious watts against the wind. This Team spec bike is built with a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset that’s complete except for the crankset, where Cannondale use their own super-light HollowGram SiSL2 crankset with semi-compact 52/36 rings. The wheels are Mavic’s brand new Cosmic Carbone 40 clinchers which aren’t used by the team but are far more practical for use outside of racing. The contact points consist of an FSA K-Force Light carbon compact bar and a Fizik Arione…

3 Min

Procycling|July 2016

GOD'S OWN BIKE RACE

ANALYSIS • INSIGHT • DATA In his book Lance Armstrong’s War, the American sportswriter Dan Coyle had the following to say about Thomas Voeckler during the 2004 Tour de France, when the Frenchman held the yellow jersey in a temporary but tight grip for over a week of the race: “Sure, Voeckler was young and handsome and well spoken, but the next few days would show that beneath his pleasant exterior lay a true hard boy, one of the brotherhood…He may have looked ordinary, but he rode with sharp teeth.” TOUR DE YORKSHIRE 29-04-2016-01-05-2016 Armstrong had to prise Voeckler’s fingers from the race lead one by one in the course of that Tour. So when Nicolas Roche (Sky), Adam Yates (Orica) and Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL) were away with 27km to…

6 Min

Procycling|July 2016

BRYAN COQUARD

23 PROFESSIONAL WINS Bryan Coquard is a very fast sprinter, who gets pretty good results in big bunch gallops. He was second on the Champs-Élysées at last year’s Tour. But here’s the problem with Coquard – he’s a good sprinter but not yet a great one. It’s easy to see him knocking around, getting thirds and fourths behind the likes of Greipel, Kittel, and whoever comes up and replaces them as the strongest sprinter in the world in the next few years. That’s not to say he won’t occasionally beat them – he has lightning acceleration and good positioning – but on current form it will be rare. Coquard may not be a flat track bully like Kittel but he is a very modern sprinter, in the mould of Elia…

2 Min

Procycling|July 2016

LE TOUR DE FRANCE 2016 STAGES

ANALYSIS FROM Former Tour speaker, Daniel Mangeas Three–times green jersey winner, Robbie McEwen 1984 King of the Mountains, Robert Millar 1987 Tour winner, Stephen Roche 1975 & 1977 winner, Bernard Thévenet STAGE 1 SAT 2 JULY / 188KM Mont-St-Michel › Utah Beach Ste-Marie-du-Mont A flat stage starting and finishing at sea-level, taking the riders across the Cherbourg Peninsula for a likely bunch sprint After the relative exoticism, or at least novelty, of starts in Yorkshire and Utrecht, the 2016 Grand Départ is a domestic affair, though it is still ambitious and bold in scale. Le Tour has grown to the extent that the Grand Départ really has to be grand, and ASO have chosen Mont-St-Michel, one of the most iconic townscapes in the country, as the backdrop for the start…

46 Min

Procycling|July 2016

GALLERY

Giro d'Italia Stage 14, Italy 21 May 2016 And on the eighth day, God created the Dolomites. Stage 14 to Corvara had everything: stunning scenery and an exciting, topsy-turvy race Giro d'Italia Stage 11, Italy 18 May 2016 Bob Jungels rode an aggressive Giro, going into pink, then attacking off the front as the race went to Asolo. Ulissi took the stage but Jungels won the fans' hearts Tour of Romandy Stage 3, France 29 April 2016 The Capgras delusion is a condition in which sufferers are convinced that a friend or family member has been replaced by an identical impostor. We think we might have it, because it seems that fragile, highly-strung, climber Thibaut Pinot has been replaced by an invincible, confident time triallist. Pinot beat almost every Tour…

2 Min

Procycling|July 2016

JASPER STUYVEN

The best thing about riding my bike is… Being outside and doing what I love most! Do you ride by power or feel? Both. You’ve got to stick to the numbers to get step-by-step improvements but sometimes it’s important to just get out there and enjoy the scenery. The single best thing that the UCI could do to improve road racing is… Show more care for the riders. Without us the show doesn’t go on. Favourite race. It’s not an easy one, but Paris-Roubaix edges it for me. It’s got everything to interest a rider like me. Best domestique in the bunch. I would say Daniele Bennati [Tinkoff]. He’s always working, never slows down and he’s a really positive guy. Funniest team-mate. Gréggy Rast, which is just as well because…

2 Min

Procycling|July 2016

TONY MARTIN'S SPECIALIZED S-WORKS ROUBAIX SL4

While Tony Martin's S-Works Roubaix SL4 is based on a production bike, as all team-issue gear must be, market forces mean you will struggle to buy one exactly like it. For one thing, the high-end Roubaix models are now only available with disc brakes. Secondly, the team bikes use 'Pro' geometry which is more aggressive than that offered to the public. These bikes are raced as part of Specialized's 'Project Black' R&D programme in which sponsored teams provide feedback on prototype designs. We expect to see an all-new Roubaix model very soon but this isn't it. For his first Paris-Roubaix, Martin ran two cyclo-cross style levers so he could reach the brakes from the tops. The 28mm tubulars aren't part of Specialized's range but they're branded so they're likely to…

1 Min

Procycling|July 2016

GIVING BACK

Last year at the Tour of Luxembourg, I was rooming with Adrien Niyonshuti, a new team-mate at the time. We got talking about his academy in Rwanda and he showed me some photos of the kids who were part of the set-up. It hit me straight away that they had next to no kit. What they did have didn’t fit and it definitely didn’t match. The photos struck a chord, and I remembered having next to nothing myself when I started riding. In the interim, my own circumstances had changed and I had more kit than I knew what to do with. For years, it clogged up my wardrobe. It was a lightbulb moment. I realised where all those piles of unused kit could be put to perfect use. I…

3 Min

Procycling|July 2016

LIFELONG LEARNER

The anteroom to the RJ Mitchell Wind Tunnel in Southampton is a classic of British publicly funded spaces. Low blue chairs are arranged around a white coffee table. There are cream-white walls and a hard-wearing grey-flecked carpet. It could be a council meeting room, a library without the books or an open prison perhaps. The only giveaway to what this prefab holds is the scale model wind tunnel along one wall. In the model’s chamber, there’s a Lego Star Wars spaceship. Not quite a Death Star. All morning, Chris Froome has been the actual action figure in the chamber, testing and tweaking his position on the team’s new Pinarello time trial bike. It’s a final systems check before the Tour and, as the presence of several British Cycling shirts attest,…

13 Min

Procycling|July 2016

THE BOYACÁ BOYS

Paris-Roubaix might not be the race you’d expect to come to in order to find out more about Tour de France contender Nairo Quintana and his background in Colombia. But on the eve of the Queen of the Classics, I’m in the lobby of the Ibis Hotel in Compiegne, waiting for Dayer Quintana. Now in his third year with Movistar, Dayer aims to prove that he should be known as more than “Nairo’s younger brother”. It’s a tough cause to take up but one he’s known for much of his life. Dayer arrives and greets me in a warm but also overly proper manner, in keeping with the temperament of someone raised in Colombia’s Boyacá department. Boyacá, an agricultural high plain northeast of Colombia’s capital city, is home to an…

8 Min

Procycling|July 2016

POWER PLAYERS

Sprinting on a bike has little or nothing at all in common with sprinting on an athletics track, even down to the attitude of the practitioners. Track and field sprinters have learned a kind of overconfident swagger, a broad-shouldered machismo which may be a genetic hangover from earlier in the Holocene, when fights for mates were more of a life-ordeath thing. With cyclists, on the other hand, the bigger guys, the sprinters built like barn doors, are quite placid. It’s only the short guys who are chippy, and even then, Bryan Coquard is 162cm of good manners and affability. There is a far more important distinction, too. In a 100m on the track, the runners start from the same point, at the same time. Cycling sprints, more so now than…

10 Min

Procycling|July 2016

THE EXPERT PANEL

WHO’S GOING TO WIN? Nairo Quintana. He’s been getting closer and closer and he’s started this year well. WHO ELSE WILL BE ON THE PODIUM? Contador and Froome. I sense that Contador will be the big challenger. I think we will see the return of the 2014 Contador rather than the jaded 2015 version. And I remain convinced he would have won in 2014 if he hadn’t crashed out. WHO ELSE WILL BE IN THE TOP 10? Mikel Landa, Thibaut Pinot, Romain Bardet, Richie Porte, Jon Izagirre, Bauke Mollema, Mathias Frank. WHO WILL BE THE SURPRISE GC PACKAGE? Jon Izagirre (disclaimer: if he rides!), who has moved up the pecking order at Movistar and has been very consistent. Riding in support of – and as a foil for – Quintana…

2 Min

Procycling|July 2016

THE EXPERT PANEL

WHO’S GOING TO WIN? Chris Froome. The Tour may not be tailored to Sky with a blockbuster early mountain stage but I think Ventoux followed by the difficult Ardeche TT is a double whammy that will hurt the younger riders (Aru, Pinot and Quintana) and ask questions of the older (Contador) that are too searching. WHO ELSE WILL BE ON THE PODIUM? The battle behind could be immense. Pinot’s made a leap this year in his time trialling, Fabio Aru displayed great poise to win the Vuelta and Quintana is the best stage racer this year. So, Quintana second and Pinot third. WHO ELSE WILL BE IN THE TOP 10? An A-list top 10 with more than a scattering of French talent: Barguil and Bardet. And I’m backing Geraint Thomas…

2 Min

Procycling|July 2016

WOMEN’S RACING

WHY ARE WOMEN’S RACES SHORTER THAN MEN’S? Although in other endurance sports like running, swimming and triathlon, men and women race over the same courses and distances, cycling is different. Women’s races tend to be around 100km shorter than the men’s, and often more, with the women’s Olympic Road Race over 130km, compared to the men’s 256km. UCI rules limit the maximum distances of each day: 240km for a men’s WorldTour stage or one-day race (with some flexibility), compared to the women’s maximum, 140km. Furthermore, while the men’s peloton has three Grand Tours of 21 days racing, women can only race for a week, unless the UCI gives special permission, and only one ‘Grand Tour’, the Giro Rosa, is allowed to run over 10 days. The maximum average distance for…

12 Min

Procycling|July 2016

ARGON 18 NITROGEN PRO

TEAM ISSUE BIKES – TESTED BY PROCYCLING SPECIFICATION Weight: 7.2kg (no pedals) Frame: Nitrogen Pro, 8003 nanotech carbon fibre Fork: Argon 18 N7 Groupset: Shimano Ultegra Di2 Crankset: Shimano Ultegra, 50/34 Cassette: Shimano Ultegra, 11-27 Brakes: TRP V-brakes for Argon 18 Wheels: Fulcrum Racing Quattro carbon clincher Tyres: Vittoria Open Corsa CX, 25mm Handlebar/stem: Argon 18 AHB5000 integrated Seatpost: Argon 18 ASP-5100 Saddle: Prologo Zero 2 CPC Price: ￡3,499.99 | $4,499.99 (both frameset) www.argon18bike.com Aerodynamics is the rock upon which Argon 18 built its church, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s late with a wind-slicing road bike to complement its popular TT and tri bikes. The Nitrogen debuted in 2014 and was quickly followed up with this, the Nitrogen Pro, last year. Back in October we got the…

8 Min

Procycling|July 2016

WHEN IN ROMANDY

TOUR OF ROMANDY 26-04-16-01-05-16 Nairo Quintana won the Tour of Romandy first with a Chris Froome-style coup de force (as seen in Tours de France, passim), and then by holding the race by the throat and slowly asphyxiating it. The three key stages were the mountain stage to Morgins, the Sion time trial and the uphill finish at Villars-sur-Ollon. Quintana launched a very impressive attack on the Pas de Morgins climb, showing a better jump than he’s seemed to have in previous years, instantly gaining distance, and fast, on his rivals. Ilnur Zakarin was able to bridge, with a diesel effort, and the pair put 26 seconds into the next, small group. In the hilly time trial, Thibaut Pinot was the fastest rider, with Quintana in sixth, only nine seconds…

1 Min

Procycling|July 2016

RIDERS TO WATCH

1 PETER SAGAN TINKOFF He’s the ultimate Tour wildcard, and in previous years we might have lumped him in with the sprinters. But there are some trends in his career which are taking him further and further from the likes of Marcel Kittel and André Greipel. First of all, he’s slowing up in the sprints, as his body matures and he improves in other directions. His Flanders win and general domination in the Classics were built on attacking swagger and endurance, rather than lightning speed. Secondly, he was never a sprinter like Cavendish or Greipel anyway – they have zip and acceleration, while Sagan is very strong, and bludgeons his way through sprints. When you look at his Tour stage wins, they’ve all been taken on courses or finishes which…

7 Min

Procycling|July 2016

LANDA CHANGES TACK

Ian Stannard or Christian Knees? Ok, that’s an easy one. But what about Beñat Intxausti or Mikel Nieve? Leopold König or David López? Philip Deignan or Nicolas Roche? Wout Poels or Mikel Landa? And what to do with Micha¯ Kwiatkowski? Where does he fit in the Sky Tour team under Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome? If Sky’s chief David Brailsford moans about the difficulty of selecting his Tour team this year, it will be the biggest complainabrag in the sport right now. As Froome said with unnecessary equivocation, “I’d like to think we’re going in there with potentially the strongest team in the race.” If they don’t, something will have gone heinously wrong. But one selection – the squad’s most crucial choice – presents a particular conundrum. What to do…

4 Min

Procycling|July 2016

ELLIE DICKINSON

Meet the new British junior road champion who’s excelling in the senior ranks, too. Hang on, the Junior National Championships have already been held? Yes. Oddly, the Women’s Lincoln GP, as well as being an elite race, was also the Junior Nationals. The course was 100km with eight ascents of the cobbled Michaelgate climb and Ellie beat several fellow members of the BC Junior Academy, so a decent day out. “I’m a bit surprised, really,” she told us, “just really happy.” You mentioned good senior results… Ellie was 14th at the Dwars Door Vlaanderen in March, her first senior event. She was 13th at the Women’s Tour de Yorkshire against a field of motivated pros who were chasing the biggest prize purse in women’s racing. Both times she finished in…

2 Min

Procycling|July 2016

JAY MCCARTHY

I was a second year U23 when I turned professional. Looking back at it I knew I was turning pro young but I’d seen previous Aussies like Luke Durbridge, Michael Hepburn and Jack Bobridge turn pro at the same stage and they went through the same programme as I did in the U23 AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) team. I knew I was capable of doing it but the first two years were still a steep learning curve. Coming over to Europe pretty young helped me adapt to the racing here. We’ve got some good racing in Australia but it’s definitely nothing like what it is over here, so to get that, with support of the government and AIS, is the only way to get racing. My first experience of…

3 Min

Procycling|July 2016

PRO DIARIES

DAN MARTIN ETIXX-QUICK STEP Tour de France time again and it sure as anything doesn’t feel like 12 months since I took the start in Utrecht. Since the Ardennes, I took a break from the bike, gave my body time to recover from the first part of the year and hid myself in the mountains of Andorra. We have come to love the solitude brought by being surrounded by snow-capped peaks. The air where we live at 1,400m is impossibly clear and brings a sense of relaxation and wellbeing I’ve yet to find elsewhere. There is barely any flat, which suits me just fine, fitting as much climbing into my training as would be possible anywhere in Europe. Spending my afternoons watching the Etixx boys rip up the Giro has…

11 Min

Procycling|July 2016

FROOME’S CAREER, SEASON BY SEASON

2006 Representing Kenya, Froome self-funds and organises a trip to the Salzburg World Championships to ride the U23 TT and road race. His best result is 36th in the TT, 3:32 behind the winner 2007 Wins a stage of the prestigious Giro delle Regioni while riding for the UCI’s World Cycling Centre. He could have won the GC but, unused to technical European descents, crashes four times 2008 Joins Barloworld and debuts at the Tour, two months after his mother died of cancer. Has a strong last week, reaching Alpe d’Huez with the favourites and coming 14th in the stage 20 TT 2009 Comes close to a mountain stage win at the Giro on stage 14 but runs out of gas on the Colle di San Luca and finishes sixth.…

3 Min

Procycling|July 2016

FIRST AMONG EQUALS

The normal rules don’t seem to apply to Fabio Aru. Typically, when a young rider turns professional, no matter how impressive his back catalogue, he is sent to a spread of races across the calendar in his formative years, all in the name of finding his true voice. As with the Beatles’ early residence in Hamburg, the basic idea is that a neoprofessional can hone his skills and broaden his repertoire in relative tranquility at these smaller races, only making the leap to the bright lights of the Grand Tours once he is truly ready. A decade ago, Aru’s Astana team-mate Vincenzo Nibali went through just such an apprenticeship, labouring Off Broadway for three years before making his Giro d’Italia debut in 2007. By comparison, Aru enjoyed an instant elevation…

10 Min

Procycling|July 2016

MkII

Mark Cavendish was only half-joking in late March when he said that he might take a year out, on the basis that it hadn’t done Marcel Kittel any harm. He promptly added more weight to his own theory by losing to his great rival in the Scheldeprijs semi-Classic, Kittel edging it narrowly to maintain an unbeaten record against Cavendish in head-to-head sprints for the win. (Cavendish has beaten Kittel but never for first place.) Only one rider has had the better of Kittel in a bunch sprint this season: Elia Viviani on stage 2 of the Three Days of De Panne. Otherwise Kittel has won 10 races: nine more than in the whole of last season. And that defeat to the Italian in March was an aberration. Two months later,…

11 Min

Procycling|July 2016

THE EXPERT PANEL

WHO’S GOING TO WIN? Quintana, ahead of Froome, but I reserve the right to change my mind at the top of Ventoux. Or, indeed, five minutes from the end of stage 20. It’s going to be close. WHO ELSE WILL BE ON THE PODIUM? I’ve got my eye on Pinot for third. He seems to have liberated himself from his demons and is riding with huge confidence. Thibaut Pinot? Thibaut Hinault, more like. WHO ELSE WILL BE IN THE TOP 10? Contador and Rodriguez, of course. I don’t think Aru will thrive on his debut but he’ll gain confidence through the race. A posse of Dutchmen – take your pick from Mollema, Gesink and Kelderman. Van Garderen and Bardet will fight it out for fifth. Thomas? I’ll tell you after…

2 Min

Procycling|July 2016

AMERICAN PHOENIX

A decade ago, at the start of the 2006 season, American cycling was riding on the crest of a wave. Lance Armstrong had sailed into the sunset with his seventh Tour win the previous year and Floyd Landis looked like the heir apparent. American cyclists had not just arrived on the map - they had painted Europe with stars and stripes. However, within a matter of months Landis had gone from hero to zero after returning a positive for testosterone. He was made to forfeit his maillot jaune and from that moment the American dream began to unravel. It wasn’t so much Landis’s direct actions, more the ramifications of them that sparked the end for a generation of American riders. Several high-profile cyclists – including Armstrong - eventually confessed to…

9 Min

Procycling|July 2016

CRASH AND BURN

Whatever else they said about Abdou, no one could deny that he’d animated the race. Headed into the final day of this, the most attritional Tour de France for a decade, he’d finally made the world sit up and take notice. The worst, however, was to come. It had all started on the 1991 Tour’s opening road stage to Lyon. Djamolidine Abdoujaparov got in a 10-man break with Greg LeMond, Erik Breukink and Raúl Alcalá which put over a minute into everybody else, and the sprint had been easy, even with Sean Kelly there. The others hadn’t been happy with him, and they said that as a sprinter he had a responsibility to work. They probably had a point but what if he’d worked and had nothing left for the…

12 Min

Procycling|July 2016

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2 Min

Procycling|July 2016

FIRST AMONG UNEQUALS

TOUR OF CALIFORNIA 15-05-16-22-05-16 The Tour of California organisers have struck a perfect balance between time trialling and climbing. In the last few years, advantages gained in one discipline have been defended in the other, with the outcome uncertain. Julian Alaphilippe was in the position of having to defend in the 2016 edition. The young Frenchman, second last year to Peter Sagan, won the hardest climbing stage of the race on Gibraltar Road, Santa Barbara. He came out best in a late tussle with Trek rider Peter Stetina, but the more interesting GC rivals were further down the hill. BMC’s Brent Bookwalter came fourth, 27s behind Alaphilippe, and his team-mate Rohan Dennis was eighth at 48s. With the 20.3km time trial in the offing, the relative skill sets of each…

2 Min

Procycling|July 2016

JENS VOIGT

Hello dear readers! The Amgen Tour of California has just finished and I was there to commentate for NBC. What a race! The reigning world champion won the first stage and took yellow. An interesting fact for me was how some teams and sprinters told the press they were surprised by the headwind on the finishing straight. How could that be? Everybody has a weather app on their smartphone, every team had multiple people at the finish so why didn’t any of these people pick up the phone and tell the sports directors in the car about the wind. Or the other way round, why did the sports directors not call somebody at the finish line and ask about the conditions?! And nobody should say in an interview that they…

3 Min

Procycling|July 2016

LE TOUR DE FRANCE 2016 TEAMS

AG2R LA MONDIALE Ag2r have a potential Tour winner in Romain Bardet. The young Frenchman came sixth in 2014, then mistimed his challenge in 2015, coming ninth, but winning an Alpine stage. With JC Péraud, runner-up in 2014, probably too old for a GC push (and having crashed out of the Giro), the team’s focus will be on supporting Bardet, although Ag2r have had a profitable and marketable sideline in climbing stage wins in recent years, with Bardet, Blel Kadri and Alexis Vuillermoz. Cyril Gautier and Alexis Gougeard will be televisually prolific and indefatigable in the breaks. OBJECTIVES A Romain Bardet to finish in the top five overall, perhaps higher B Gougeard and Gautier for the breaks, Vuillermoz and Kadri for stage wins ASTANA There’s a long and illustrious history…

13 Min