ian dewar - circling the world on two wheels

THE FUTURE IS NOW… (OR IS IT?)

The USA Pro Challenge wrapped up yesterday in Colorado with a quarter of a million people watching the race.  Big time bike racing is definitely back in Colorado – now can the race (and the state) figure out how to pay for it… I guess we’ll find out next year since the race organizers claim they have the funding already in place for a 2012 race.

While 37 year old Levi Leipheimer beat 35 year old Christian Vandevelde in Colorado yesterday – young guns Taylor Phinney (21), Christopher Froome (26) and Tony Martin (26) battled it out at the Tour of Spain time trail.  Martin came away with the stage win and Froome is currently race leader. 

The future of cycling is knocking on the door – can they get in?  Tejay Van Garderen almost upset Levi and CVV in Colorado but just didn’t have the power on Vail’s uphill time trial to maintain his leaders jersey…

This is an interesting year for professional cycling – there are a lot of good riders still unsigned for next year – so the teams can pick the best among them – and there are a lot of vets who aren’t interested in retiring… especially the Radio Shack trio of Horner, Leipheimer and Kloden.. Taylor Phinney’s decision to not sign with Radio Shack seems a lot smarter now that the old guard refuses to move on…

There weren’t any real surprises today at the Vuelta’s time trail – just some exciting racing to come and the jersey changed hands again for the 7^th time in 10 stages this race.  Nothing was really decided in today’s time trail as there are still 16 riders within 3:30 of the race lead and 3 mountain top finishes to come and no time trails.  The climbers like Nibali, Van den Broeck and even Rodriguez are still close enough to take time back.  The only real contenders who have to be considered as totally out of final contention are Michele Scarponi (4:41 down), Dan Martin (4:58 down) and Carlos Sastre (6:48 down). 

Look for Radio Shack, Leopard Trek and Sky who all have two riders in the top 10 to start to dictate some team tactics and look for some exciting and attacking racing over the next 10 stages before the ceremonial circuit race in Madrid. 

Colorado Winners

Exciting racing in Colorado was really good for the sport and really good for cycling in the USA.  With American athletes in the top 5 GC spots and American bikes winnng every stage except one – the future of cycling looks great.  One struggle US races are going to have to start dealing with is what opportunities are out there for no Pro-Tour teams?  Look at the Colorado Results.

• All stages won by Pro Tour Riders
• Top 5 on GC by Pro Tour Riders (and 8 of top 10)
• Top 5 on Points by Pro Tour Riders
• Best Young Rider is Pro Tour Rider
• 4 of top 5 Teams are Pro Tour
• Only the Mountain classification saw 4 Columbians and a Skil-Shimano rider chase those points and win the jersey.

For the smaller teams there are fewer and fewer opportunities. This year only three  US Continental teams did the race (Jelly Belly, Bissell and Team Exergy).  The rest of the spots were filled with Pro Tour teams (8 teams), South American Pro Continental teams (2) and North American Pro Continental (3). 

Next year two of the three UCI stage races in USA are confirmed – Tour of California will return in May again and USA Pro Challenge in Colorado is also confirmed.   With Utah making a nice prelude to Colorado racing – look for more of the Pro Tour teams to include the Utah / Colorado double in next years schedule.  Three weeks of training at altitude doesn’t hurt in World Championship preparation either.

Tomorrow is a rest day at the Vuelta so look for our update on the status-of-the-teams!

THESE RACES ARE GOING DOWNHILL FAST

Some lessons are best learned the hard way.  And the lessons of yesterday’s Tour of Colorado, er USA Pro Cycling Challenge were obviously lost on the riders in Spain this morning. 

At least in Spain we got to see the textbook downhill attack that Liquigas orchestrated on the final descent of the day.  Yesterday in Colorado we got to see the finish line while the attack of the week took place and young gun Tejay van Garderen put the stick to Levi Leipheimer.  Phil Liggett gave Levi some credit saying – maybe at his age he was more cautious on the wet descent – but that certainly doesn’t explain why 38 year old George Hincapie went with Tejay’s downhill attack and easily out sprinted him and four others to win the stage.

Two examples of perfectly timed attacks on courses that weren’t supposed to be won on the downhill.  That’s why we race and that’s why a PRO needs to pay attention in every race.  The future of cycling looks very good right now – Tejay is takin’ it to the old men and Nibali and Sagan are double teaming the way-we-used-to-race.  Impressive.  The way Sagan sat back until he knew Nebali couldn’t take it and then easily accelerated around to win the stage was impressive.

Watch this perfectly timed quad-attack!

Peter Sagan Wins Vuelta Stage 6 - from Universal Sports - Click here for the funniest movie of the week

 

Tomorrow is supposed to be a sprint stage… with very few sprinters in the race it’ll probably end up being Boonen vs. Bennati  in a cluster of a finish.  I’d like to pick Boonen, but that guy doesn’t like the heat and still isn’t back to 100%  - so I’m going with Bennati for tomorrow.  A Trek rider won today in Colorado so maybe a Trek rider can win tomorrow in Spain.

Are we gonna see this tomorrow? Oh and more to the point will this jersey have more on it next year?

NOT ALL BIKES GO FAST

Check out what's going on in Chicago right now!!!!  Building bike lanes one mile at a time.

Emanuel checks bike paths off the list

But the mayor still has miles to go

by Lauren Chooljian Aug. 24, 2011

In his transition plan for the city, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he wanted to plot out two miles of protected bike lanes by his 100^th day in office. It’s part of his larger goal of making Chicago part of a "world-class" bike network--a goal he announced before he stepped into his City Hall Office.

"I announced in the campaign that we're going to do 25 miles of bike lanes a year," Emanuel said. The Mayor said he wants 100 miles of these lanes before his first term ends.

The new lanes put bikers directly between the curb and a parking lane divided by plastic barriers. The Mayor promised the city would select a pilot location--emphasis on the select--for the first two miles of the project. The transition plan outlines that locations would be selected based on "high community demand and cycling activity combined with sufficient physical room to create protected lanes."

see the rest here:  http://www.wbez.org/story/emanuel-checks-bike-paths-list-90943#

 

A TALE OF TWO RACES

Yesterday saw almost the whole top 10 of the 2011 Tour de France racing – 

Cadel Evans – Colorado Pro Challenge

Andy Schleck – Colorado Pro Challenge

Frank Schleck – Colorado Pro Challenge

Ivan Basso – Colorado Pro Challenge

Tom Danielson – Colorado Pro Challenge

Thomas Voeckler – Tour du Poitou Charentes

Jean-Christophe Peraud – Tour du Poitou Charentes

Three riders from the top 10 aren’t racing this week – Alberto Contador has ended his season and is preparing for his CAS defense for November.  Sammy Sanchez is racing in Spain this month but chose not to go to the Vuelta and Damiano Cunego is back in Italy getting ready for his own meeting with Italian doping investigators in early September.

The (lack of) Rain in Spain

But what’s obviously missing here is who’s racing the Vuelta?  With none of the Tour stars coming to the Vuelta it makes for a more open race – but without the big name recognition the race has an uphill public perception battle.   The Vuelta has a reputation as a second chance race these days – for riders who crashed out of the Tour like Wiggins, Van de Walle or Brajkovic, or riders who didn’t have the Tour they expected like Tony Martin or Nicolas Roche.  The former typically do better while the latter have to deal with the expectation that they are chasing a result to salvage their season. It’s pretty hard to have a great three week race only four weeks after ending a disappointing three week race. 

Looking at the racing the Vuelta has already had three very exciting days – a huge mountain top finish yesterday showed who’s got the legs for the overall (Dan Martin, Sorensen, Rodriguez, Wiggins, Scarponi, Nibali, Brajkovic…)  and who among the favorites are already in trouble like Igor Anton who lost 1:36 and Andreas Kloden who is clearly un-interested in racing this Vuelta and lost over 18 minutes.  I’d be surprised if he finished the race.

Then today’s double cat 2 climb and steep steep steep (up to 24%) finish saw more time gaps and another tough day for pre-race favorite Igor Anton.  Key GC favorites did well to stick close and now with only five stages done there is a clear list of race favorites including – Rodriguez, Scarponi, Van Den Broeck, Nibali, Wiggins and Nicholas Roche.  A few nice surprises so far in the are the success of Jakob Fuglsang, Sergio Pardilla and Bauke Mollema. 

The racing has been exciting, fast and already showing some variation.  One of the great things about the Vuelta is that since the teams are not as strong as they are at the Tour there are more gaps, less control of the peloton, more breakaways and ultimately more head-to-head racing rather then team-vs-team.

With the GC selection starting to shake out the Vuelta takes a bit of a break – two flat stages for Thursday and Friday before Saturday’s big climbing stage again.  This should give Sylvain Chavanel a chance to keep the leaders jersey for a couple more days and a chance for Quick Step to get some good TV time / euro-press after a very disappointing Tour de France. 

Look for Saturday’s climbing stage to show who is for real at this year’s Vuelta and who’s still riding out some summer fitness this week.  This is probably going to shape up to be the best race no one watches!

ONTO THE MAIN EVENT!!! 

Just like the post-Tour criteriums where the stars of the Tour de France ride around in a circle withstanding some impressive looking attacks, launch their own and then a pre-determined winner takes the race – the Tour of Colorado, er Quiznos Pro Challenge, er, Colorado Pro Challenge, er USA Pro Cycling Challenge kicked off this week for seven days of UCI racing in America.  This is like the revolving door of UCI races in America.  It’s not the Tour de Georgia, it’s not the Tour of Missouri, it’s not the Tour of Utah (but that does still exists if you missed it with all the Leadville 100 news).  At least this race isn’t called the Tour de whatever-state-wants-to-give-Medalist-a-million-dollars…

So the biggest athletes in the world are here in the USA to race for their major USA based bike sponsors.  We have Levi Leipheimer on Trek, Frank and Andy Schleck and Jens Voigt on Trek, Christian VandeVelde and Tommy D on Cervelo (ok Canada – USA whatever), Tejay van Gardaren on Specialized, and Laurent Didier from Saxo Bank on Specialized --- wait a second… Laurent Didier?? That’s the best Bjarne Riis can come up with for an American sponsor at a race in the USA?  Wow.  Ok so they also brought Gustav Larsson but he’s already a minute back so that’s the end of that.

After a mini-prologue and a stage that ended in a hard 3-mile steep uphill the top 15 is firmed up – 11 Pro-Tour riders, 1 US domestic rider,  2 Columbians no one has ever heard of and 1 athlete who failed a dope test a year ago and still hasn’t been sanctioned.

Now they just ride around the state for five more days and try to figure out how to keep the Columbians from winning the race.   

Today’s big stage might actually show some exciting racing – mainly because the Columbians will certainly launch a big attack and the guys from Europe will get confused when their directors make them chase… “Wait a minute – this isn’t like a Post-Tour crit where we get an envelope full of cash and chase down half-baked attacks?” 

Certainly when Sevilla and Henao head up the road on Independence pass if the team directors don’t launch a chase Medalist Sports will…  After the debacle of Jani Backovic winning (and putting nail #1 in the coffin of) the Tour de Georgia, Medalist and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge management are almost 100% dependent on a recognizable winner to keep this race going.  They must have broken out the champagne when Levi took stage 1… even with his questionable status for next year – Levi is a bankable winner and while he provides boring sound bites – at least they are in English!

What’s going on today?  Levi and RadioShack will look to keep the Columbian climbing specialists under control and the race organizers will hope at least one of the Schlecks offer up an attack they can use for their promo-video.

These downhill stages are hard to predict – but tell you what it won’t be a Schleck that wins today!  Look for Tommy D, CVV and Ryder Hesjedal to all try to get away at the end of the climb or on the descent… Garmin – Cervelo will want to win a stage today if they can.

Exciting racing is on tap for both sides of the Atlantic today.

CAN ONE TEAM HANDLE THIS MANY JERSEYS?

The BMC free-spending summer continues as Andy Rihs and Jim Ochowicz seem to sign any athlete that’s available.  Gilbert confirmed what was reported in Equipe over a month ago – a 3 year deal with BMC.  This comes on the heels of Thor Hushovd’s 3 year deal.  Rumor also says they have Tejay van Garderen already signed (presumably to another three year deal).   

The team has wisely combined some veterans with the best young talent coming out of the United States – they now have future TT and classics contender Taylor Phinney and now future GC contender Tejay both locked up for when their current crop starts to fade… But are there enough races to win to keep this crew happy?  Cadel has already complained about how Thor can’t take his support at the TdF as he want’s 100% support in his title defense…

Next year’s teams are starting to become clearer even as the third Grand Tour of the season builds to it’s start tomorrow.  With the demise of HTC there are a lot of good riders available – also as Omega Pharma and Lotto split the future of half that team is still unknown. Will they join antoher team like Leopard-Trek or Vacansoleil?  Both have been rumored to be getting some Belgian Lotto money – or will they try and run their own team?  And who controls the contracts of the riders who still have agreements?  No one knows and the UCI seems unwilling to offer any help.

Again the season has started to wind down and the future of the sport is very much unknown.  However a clear pattern of free spending billionaires with their teams is starting to become clearer.   All the top teams heading into next year will have some sort of private money or a single Super-Fan spending his companies marketing dollars to allow him to hang out with pro cyclists…

 

The Vuelta – yes it’s still important…

Does this man look like a Grant Tour winner?

So you might be excused for not knowing the Vuelta starts tomorrow…  a quick look at Velonews today has stories on Junior Track racing and a women’s stage race in Aspen as higher priority then the Vuelta preview story.  And no news today – the day before the race.  I think the US media has made their choices clear. 

So why is the Vuelta actually important – turns out if you do some research the winner of the World Championship road race for the past ten years has always ridden the Vuelts – and in almost all years has won a stage there too…  So a guy like Thor Hushovd who will miss out now as team politics boils up at the end of season will have to use races like the Tour of Britain and GP Ouest France to get ready… Not exactly optimal preparation.

Also the Vuelta is usually the first grand tour for many young racers – there are always empty slots on most teams in the 7, 8 and 9 positions… this will be Taylor Phinney’s first attempt at three weeks of racing.  I predict he won’t finish – but will issue a lot of humorous tweets about how hard the racing is and how he almost missed the time cut… again.

So if the Vuelta is the stepping stone to future grand tour success how many Vuelta winers have gone on to win other grand tours?  Actually not very many.

In the last 20 years a grand total of three winners have won Grand Tours after their Vuelta win – Tony Tominger took three Vueltas from ‘92-‘94 and won the Giro in ’95. Denis Menchov won in 2007 and won the Giro in 2009.  Alberto Contador won in 2008 and won the Tour in 09, maybe ’10 and the maybe the Giro in ’11.

More often the Vuelta is the consolation prize for riders who couldn’t get it done at the Tour.  Ulrich won in 1999 after missing the Tour.  Roberto Heras never did much at the Tour and once he signed with US Postal as a worker for Armstrong he had the Vuelta as consolation.  Menchov, Vinokourov and Valverde are all riders who never quite managed to be real contenders at the Tour but won the Vuelta.

This year three Tour potentials who crashed out; Bradley Wiggins; Jurgen Van den Broeck and Janez Brajkovic are back to try and salvage their season (and get some UCI points) with success in Spain.  Add to that a list of climbing Spaniards and climbing Italians and the race is shaping up to look like the flight for 10^th place at the Tour looked.  Exciting but ultimately missing the highest level of racing.

Tomorrow’s TTT starts the race – almost all the climbing favorites will lose time as Lampre, Euskaltel and Katusha aren’t known for their TT prowess.  Look for Wiggins and Sky to win the stages with Garmin, Radio Shack, HTC, Saxo and Rabobank rounding out the top 5.  Wiggo won’t want to keep the jersey – but should do everything he can to look good. This is going to be his best chance for race leadership – next year in the Tour he’ll be so blown out by the Schleck-mountain express that he’ll need these fond memories.

Predictions:

Vuelta Stage 1:  16km TTT in Benidorm

Winner: Team Sky

Red Leaders Jersey: Bradley Wiggins

To get ready for Vuelta here's a clip of Jan Ullrich putting the hurt (on himself) in the '99 Vuelta - plus it's got a great sound-track!