Category: Post-race Analysis

Post-year Impressions: Charting the Arrivals and Step-ups of 2013

2013 is in the books! Beñat Intxausti won the GC of the final WT race of the year, the Tour of Beijing, by taking a victory on the decisive fourth stage. Joaquim Rodriguez finishes the year as repeat WorldTour champion on the back of his GrandTour successes, a Monument victory, and a truckload of high placings in other big races.

As this site is in the business of prospective analysis, my look back at 2013 will mostly be a look forward. I hope to shed some light on what we learned about the top riders in the sport this year, and which riders to watch in the future. If you’re reading VeloHuman, you don’t need me to tell you that Chris Froome is a rider to keep an eye on next year, or that Vincenzo Nibali is shaping up to be his main rival, or that Fabian Cancellara is still a talented racer. Instead, it’d be more productive for me to focus on the riders who made vast improvements in 2013, who we might say “arrived” this year, and who have set themselves up to do big things next year, so I’ll do just that, and name some names that I think made big strides this season and look to continue to do soon in the near future.

A rather obvious duo headlines my list of the most emphatic arrivals this year. While everyone was busy wondering which Spaniard would present the best case against Chris Froome in the Tour de France, a 23-year old Colombian leg-muscled his way onto the scene, building off of early season success in the Tour of the Basque Country with a fierce display of climbing prowess on some of the Tour’s most difficult stages: Ventoux, Alpe d’Huez, Mont Semnoz. Though the early lead Froome had built up was insurmountable, Quintana’s later stage performances, matching the Sky captain’s every move uphill on his way to 2nd overall, a stage win, the polka-dot KoM jersey and the young rider’s white, he saved Movistar’s Tour after their team leader Alejandro Valverde hit some raw luck with a mechanical that dropped him out of contention. No one will overlook him next year, especially with such a climbing-oriented 2014 edition of the Tour de France on the docket. Alternatively, he could set his sights on the Giro. Quintana’s time trialing might need a bit of work, but he showed this year that he can outclimb most of the sport’s biggest names, and you have to think he can only get better, still a few years shy of his prime.

Countryman Carlos Betancur blazed onto the scene with similar brightness. Top 10s at La Fleche Wallonne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and the Tour of the Basque Country were followed by a highly successful Giro d’Italia, in which the young Colombian took 5th overall and the young rider classification. Like Quintana, he is sorely lacking in the time trialing department—his remarkable Giro was made all the more remarkable by his appearance in the top 10 after losing almost five minutes to the eventual winner of the race in the first ITT. Like Quintana, he’ll gun for future Grand Tour success in chrono-light parcours while he improves in that discipline, and while he may be a shade shy of Quintana’s level on the longer Tour style climbs, he’s more explosive than the Movistar wunderkind, and will surely be a fixture in the climber’s classics to come.

Zdenek Stybar is my other most emphatic arrival of the year. His situation is unique, in that cycling fans have heard Stybar’s name for years, but in a different discipline. Making the switch from cyclocross appears to have worked out for the Czech rider: even after a collision with a fan robbed him of a potential podium position in Paris-Roubaix, he still finished 6th in that race, and followed it up with a dominant Eneco Tour and a beautiful stage win in the Vuelta where he outsprinted none other than former World Champ Philippe Gilbert. His versatility was dazzling, and he will go into the 2014 classics season as a hot favorite across all kinds of terrain—and isn’t that the perfect expectation for a former cyclocross world champion?

Many other riders who were already well within the sights of cycling fans took leaps onto the highest level. Outside of Quintana, the most emphatic arrivals among riders who finished the year in the WorldTour top 10 were made by Dan Martin and Rui Costa. Dan Martin was already a name on the minds of observers at the start of the season, with a Grand Tour stage win in 2011 and the overall victory at the Tour de Pologne in 2010, but he took a Monument Classic, a Tour de France stage win, and the overall at the Volta a Catalunya this year, successes that vaulted him to 6th place in the final WorldTour rankings of 2013 (putting him ahead of Spartacus himself). And Rui Costa came into the year as a well-known talent as a winner of a Canadian GP, the Tour de Suisse, and a stage in the Tour de France, but his two Tour de France wins and World Championship (to go with another dominant Tour de Suisse) put him at cycling’s center stage. He goes to Lampre in 2014 as the team leader, a Tour de France GC hopeful. Another star of the Tour, Bauke Mollema was already a well-known name for many fans of the sport, having finished 4th overall and 1st in the points classification in the 2011 Vuelta, but he came into his own this year with strong performances all over the calendar, in the Ardennes Classics, the Tour de Suisse, Tour de France, Vuelta (where he won a stage to redeem a disappointing GC effort), and Clasica de San Sebastian. His emergence comes at just the right time, with teammate Robert Gesink having another disappointing year in terms of Grand Tour GC contention; however, Gesink showed strong late season form in shorter races, winning the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec and placing highly in other events, suggesting a possible change of focus to shorter races going forward. And the timing was ripe for Marcel Kittel to make an explosive entrance: after injury in 2012 robbed him of an opportunity to make his mark on that year’s tour, his 2013 outing, which earned him a quartet of stage wins, suddenly sees him in the best-of-the-best conversation with Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel.

In case you missed it, his teammate Luka Mezgec was one of a number of young up-and-coming sprinters who showed promise this year. Mezgec spent the whole year nipping at the heels of other sprinters, racking up countless top 5s without a win until he finally picked up his first of the year and his first WT level win ever on the very last day of the WorldTour calendar in Beijing. Nacer Bouhanni took a pair of wins in that race to go with the points jersey, as well as a number of other wins this year, a boon for FDJ. His squadmate Arnaud Demare took stages in the Eneco Tour and the Tour de Suisse, an armful of honors in the Four Days of Dunkirk he won, and high placings in a number of one-day races. Yet another French, Europcar’s Bryan Coquard, a former track cycling star, transitioned quite nicely onto the road, collecting honors left and right on the Continental circuit. The 21 year old will be a major force on the fast finishes in 2014 now that Europcar looks to be joining the top division of teams. Michael Matthews came into the Vuelta flying high after Continental Tour success and proceeded to establish himself as the best sprinter in that race, with a special talent for nabbing victories after tough days in the saddle. His skills nabbed him a pair of stage wins, including the victory on the final day’s sprinter battle royale.

Speaking of quick hardmen, Alexander Kristoff gets a paragraph of his own: he built on a strong 2012 (in which he took an Olympic Bronze Medal) with top 10s in three Monument Classics and his first WorldTour level win in the Tour de Suisse (besting Peter Sagan on a tough day that ended in a sprint). He has established himself as a serious contender for hardman sprinter’s races going forward.

The Vuelta gave us an opportunity to see a number of coming out parties for GC contenders. Leopold Konig landed in the top 10 and picked up a stage win at the head of a Pro Continental team, quite a feat for the 25 year old. He’ll stay with NetApp for another year and will hope his performance garners further invitations to big events, where he’s sure to continue his success. Meanwhile, Saxo-Tinkoff’s Nicolas Roche achieved some long awaited success with a top 5 finish and a stage win. His constant presence at the front of the pack on mountaintop finishes in Spain suggests that he may finally have taken the step up to the next level, a good sign for 2014.

Poland showed off a pair of riders with top level ability this year. Nico Roche’s teammate Rafal Majka didn’t win any races, but he was 7th overall in the Giro d’Italia and 2nd to Betancur for the young rider classification in that race, and he followed up with a 4th overall in his home tour to go along with his 1st place in the points classification of that race. The honors kept piling up as the year went on, when he narrowly missed out on a victory in Milano-Torino against another rising star (pictured above) and then stood on the podium in the final Monument of the year in Lombardy. By the same token (eerily), Michal Kwiatkowski may still have yet to win a pro race, but he burst onto the scene this year with a boatload of strong performances. 4th in both Tirreno-Adriatico and Amstel Gold, 5th in La Fleche Wallonne, and a heartbreaking 11th in the Tour de France after fellow up-and-comer Andrew Talansky grabbed the final top 10 spot on the last day of climbing, Majka looks to be a likely candidate for continued climbing success, and Kwiatkowski showed an incredible array of skills and looks poised to stake a claim to best all-rounder in the very near future.

A significant number of teams saw young climbing talents rising up the ladder this year. Many are Italian. 2011 Giro stage winner Diego Ulissi took a big step forward with successes on both ends of the season, nabbing a top 10 at Paris-Nice early and then a stage win in the Tour de Pologne and a string of semi-classic victories in Italy. So far, most of his quantifiable successes have been on smaller stages, but he performed at a high level in some big races this year (he was lurking in a number of stages in the Vuelta even if he didn’t come away with a win), inspiring a lot of confidence going forward. He’ll be part of an explosive one-two combination with Rui Costa at Lampre in 2014. Astana teammates Fabio Aru and Simone Ponzi look like prime candidates for success next year. Another Italian, Moreno Moser, had several standout performances this year for Cannondale; he disappeared at times when he was expected to bring his success to a bigger stage, but he showed in Strade Bianche and other races in 2013 that he certainly has the ability to turn promise into achievement in 2014.

Spaniard Jon Izagirre won’t be sweating the dissolution of his former team Euskaltel too much now that he has a new squad in Movistar, and it’s easy to see why they signed him. He nabbed the runner-up honors in the Tour de Pologne with a surprising time trial performance on the last day, and notched top 10s in the Tour Down Under and the one day Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal as well.

24 year old Arthur Vichot looks to be one of yet another up-and-comer for FDJ with strong climbing legs and a fast finish, abilities that netted him the French national championship, the runner-up honors in Quebec, and the victory in the Tour du Haut Var-matin. AG2R’s Romain Bardet, winner of the Tour de l’Ain and a high finisher in the Tour of Beijing, appears to have a bright future, and he joins teammate Carlos Betancur as part of a crop of young uphill chargers on that team.

Wilco Kelderman, a natural time trial talent, came into his own as a climber with a number of high-level successes in 2013. He picked up top 10s in Romandie, the Eneco Tour, and the Tour Down Under, and dominated the Tour of Denmark, where he won a stage, the points classification, and the overall. He’s another exciting up-and-comer for Belkin.

Argos-Shimano teammates Warren Barguil and Tom Dumoulin got themselves onto the map this year, the former nabbing a pair of breakaway victories in the Vuelta, and the latter claiming runner up honors with an impressive Eneco Tour performance. Alongside Marcel Kittel, Luka Mezgec, and John Degenkolb, the duo makes a potent quartet of Argos riders 25 and under.

Riccardo Zoidl nabbed the GC win at the Tour of Austria, and climbed at a high level in a number of other events. Darwin Atapuma moves up from Team Colombia to BMC after nabbing his first WorldTour win this year in Poland—that team desperately needs new blood, and Atapuma will be happy to oblige.

To match all these young climbers coming into their own, a few time trialists are on the rise: Adriano Malori looks to be a threat in that department, putting in a top 10 at the World Championship ITT and taking second place behind Tony Martin on a few time trial stages in WorldTour races to go along with his ITT victory and the overall in Bayern-Rundfahrt. Rohan Dennis out-time-trialed Chris Froome in the Criterium du Dauphine on his way to a top 10 there and then showed his versatility when he won a stage and the overall in the Tour of Alberta. The 23 year old has established himself as a promising member of Garmin’s youth movement.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and obviously much depends on how you define breakout success, but hopefully I’ve rattled off the names of many of tomorrow’s biggest names. And thanks to the Tour Down Under and its January start date, we won’t have too long to wait for the opening of the 2014 calendar–in just 11 weeks, the pro peloton heads to Nuriootpa, Australia to kick off the new season!

-Dane Cash

Photos by Flowizm, brassynn, and Georges Ménager.

November 16, 2013
Il Lombardia 2013 Post-race Impressions: Purito Again

The Narrative

As exciting as Purito’s second Monument win in rainy Northern Italy was, it wasn’t particularly surprising. Tommy Voeckler tried to make things interesting with one of his characteristic long distance attacks, and at one point he had a fairly decent gap, but his solo move was doomed to fail when the contenders actually decided to chase him down as they closed in on Lecco, and all his grimaces were for naught. From then it was a battle between the favorites who had survived hard climbs and tough conditions, and despite the fact that everyone knew it was coming, Joaquim Rodriguez was able to distance all of them with his own decisive late attack.

Inches away from victory in the World Championship after a nearly successful late uphill strike, Rodriguez was clearly on elite form, and primed for a major win, even if it didn’t come on the World Championship stage. He won Il Lombardia last October, and this year, the external conditions and his physical condition echoed 2012: he shot off the front of an elite group of survivors at the same time as he did last year on the Villa Vergano, and again soloed to the victory in the rain, escaping a spirited pursuit from Alejandro Valverde, Dan Martin, and Rafal Majka.

Takeaways

At 34, it seems like Rodriguez is riding at the highest level in his career, more explosive on the climbs than ever. As Chris Froome is officially out of the Tour of Beijing, the victory in Lombardy gives Joaquim Rodriguez his third WorldTour Numero Uno, and just as he did in 2012, it was a late move on an Italian ascent that nabbed him his biggest win of the year and the overall title. The rider who spent so many years coming up just short in one-day events made it look easy, and expected, on his way to another highly coveted achievement, the top of the rankings.

The other strong performers weren’t all that surprising either, though I’ll make a few brief notes to at least provide a few takeaways other than “Purito is really good, but we knew that already.” For one, Alejandro Valverde has been a hot rider all season, and, like Purito, has stood on the podium in a boatload of huge races: Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the Vuelta a España, the World Championship Road Race, and now Il Lombardia. He took the points classification at the Vuelta for his constant presence near the top of the leaderboard on stage after stage. And yet, Valverde will finish the year without a single WorldTour victory. His showings these past two weekends have typified what was all too common for the Green Bullet this year: he hung at the head of the peloton and made it onto the back of every move except the final, successful, race-winning one, and outsprinted everyone else in his pack of pursuers for 2nd or 3rd. Obviously he still has a ton of talent, but he’s come up just short so many times this year, and it makes me wonder whether he might not have benefitted from taking a few more risks trying to get into late moves or making his own.

Rafal Majka will be a name to watch in 2013. Top 10 at the Giro and on the podium in Lombardy, Majka was one of a group of four riders, the other three of whom have all won Monument classics, who were clearly the best climbers in the race. He turned 24 in September, which means he’ll be 24 almost all of next season, too, and it seems likely that by this time in 2014, he’ll have officially won his first pro race. Saxo Bank has to be excited to have such a talented young rider coming into his own just as their team leader is starting to draw questions. Right behind him, Dan Martin has had a year both immensely satisfying (victories in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the Volta a Cataluyna, and a stage in the Tour de France) and extremely frustrating (illness derailed his top 10 bid in the Tour de France and he crashed out of the Vuelta a España and the World Championship Road Race). Sunday was a bit of both for the Irish star: with only a few hundred meters to go, the Garmin rider was a sprint against Majka away from a podium spot in his second Monument of the year when a mechanical/crash ruined his shot. He settled for 4th. It was hard to predict his form coming into Lombardy because of his bad fortune in so many races leading up to this one, but he showed that he’s hot right now and goes into the Tour of Beijing as a leading candidate for victory, assuming he doesn’t have another crash or mechanical issue when it matters.

I’m most interested in mentioning the rider who finished 5th: Enrico Gasparotto. If you’re keeping score at home, you may have missed the fact that Gasparotto has now been in the top 10 in Il Lombardia, GP Montreal, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and Amstel Gold after winning Amstel Gold in 2012, and yet, he is constantly overlooked by prognosticators (like me) for teammate Vincenzo Nibali. Gasparotto obviously can sprint and attack on the slopes, and maybe next time he takes on a one-day climber’s race, he should get a little bit more respect; even if Nibali hadn’t crashed, the Shark doesn’t have much of a sprint and hasn’t shown the kind of explosive bursts of the Purito/Valverde/Moreno/Martin variety. Gasparotto, on the other hand, won a huge race (Amstel Gold) last year and has almost kept pace with these other huge names on numerous occasions since. To Nibali: he crashed out on wet Italian roads, something he managed to deftly avoid during his dominant Giro d’Italia (he did crash in the rain during the Grand Tour, but he was able to get back on the bike and keep going). He crashed and clearly burned up energy the past weekend at the Champs race as well. Obviously, he’ll be frustrated with these occurrences, but I’m not sure how great a shot he has in these sorts of races anyway. Hopefully we’ll have a few chances next year to see him at 100% and not on the deck in crunch time.

The rest of your top 10 finished together: the sprint for 6th was rather easily won by the ever present Dani Moreno (what a year for Rodriguez’s friend and lieutenant, and behind him were young Pieter Serry (watch out for him next year as a third or fourth option for OPQS in the climber’s classics after top 10s here and in San Sebastian this year), aging Franco Pellizotti, Italian champ Ivan Santaromia, and late-form-finder Robert Gesink. Ivan Basso, Thibaut Pinot, Domenico Pozzovivo, and Nairo Quintana were among the riders also finishing in Moreno’s group who didn’t make it in the sprint for the rest of the top 10 positions.

Peter Sagan couldn’t hang with the group over the early climbs and was out of the wet very early. Gilbert and Van Avermaet were both able to stay with the main contenders all the way to the final decisive climb, and they finished respectively in the top 20. Meanwhile, I wasn’t thrilled that Movistar wasted now world champion Rui Costa as a domestique once again, but perhaps he was tired after a week of photo opportunities and didn’t have the legs to contend for the victory. Diego Ulissi and Rigoberto Uran both fell off the pace when the going got tough, disappointingly, and Ulissi’s teammate Michele Scarponi abandoned due to illness.

All things considered, this year’s Il Lombardia managed to stay very exciting despite its similarity to both last week’s World Championship race and last year’s edition of Il Lombardia. Purito made the viewing experience worth it, and became a two-time Monument winner in the process.

-Dane Cash

Photo by Nico Franano.

October 10, 2013
World Championship Road Race 2013 Post-race Impressions: Costa Campeão

The Narrative

For those who have watched Rui Costa win back-to-back Tours de Suisse, three stages of the Tour de France, and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal, it was only a matter of time before the young Portuguese all-rounder took that marquee victory to make himself a cycling fan household name. Having seen him at the front of the pack in a number of big-time finishes, I named the “constant fixture in late season circuit races” a “favorite to outsprint the GC types” in my preview, and he did just that on Sunday when he hung with a very select group over the final climbs in Florence, bridged a late gap to star finisher Joaquim Rodriguez, and outran him in a drag to the line. Costa wasn’t too long of a longshot according to bookmakers, either, and a few other prominent previewers in the world of online pre-race outlooks named him as a hot rider for the championship race. However, based on fan and media response, you would think that Costa’s success came out of left field, and that Sunday’s race was a case of the Spanish duo of Valverde and Rodriguez losing, and not the Portuguese star winning. I think this sentiment is in denial of the facts, and I was thrilled to see Costa stake his claim for the world title so emphatically, beating the best in the world despite having a tiny squad of supporters compared to the full rosters of Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom. I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed for Purito, always the bridesmaid in these big events, but only one rider could come out of the race as the victor, and Costa and his combination of skill and savvy make him a more than deserving world champion.

A four-sentence recap of the race first. The grueling circuit was made all the more grueling by rotten weather, and the combined parcours and conditions led to countless crashes and abandons, which saw big name riders like Chris Froome (and the rest of the UK squad) and Dan Martin (and the rest of the Irish squad) exit the race. By the final lap, things were mostly altogether for the remaining few, which still included many favorites, but the last trip around Florence brought a succession of uphill attacks that proved too much for all but the most climbing-oriented riders left, and this small group of Grand Tour stars distanced the likes of Cancellara and Sagan. After Rigoberto Uran took a nasty fall, it was down to Joaquim Rodriguez playing keepaway from Vincenzo Nibali and Rui Costa, with Rodriguez’s teammate Alejandro Valverde hanging back with the Portuguese and Italian riders. As the finish line approached, Costa jumped across the gap and was not followed, and after he made the catch, he outsprinted Purito to the line for the rainbow jersey.

Rodriguez was, of course, despondent after the race, and his compatriot Valverde was the target of scorn and audible booing, apparently for not following Costa’s move. Nibali wasn’t happy with fourth, but the Italian team director heaped more negativity on the Spanish squad by saying he’d rather be fourth than lose the race the way the Spanish did.

Somehow, people seemed to gloss over the fact that Rui Costa, who observers should have known had a great shot at this thing, was the best rider in Florence that day. He was strong enough to hang with a group so select that every other rider in it has either won or been runner-up in a Grand Tour. He had the tank to solo across a significant gap with only a kilometer to go. And finally, he outsprinted a rider with a great finishing kick, Joaquim Rodriguez, on his way to the victory. He played his hand perfectly in the final lap, staying out the wind and letting Nibali do a good deal of chasing, making a decisive, powerful move at a bend in the road, and timing his sprint just right to pip Purito.

Many seemed to think that Valverde made some mistake by not getting on Costa’s wheel when the now-champ made his bridge, but I’m not sure there are any reasons good enough for Valverde to willfully ignore Costa’s attack other than a decision to stick with the Giro winner Vincenzo Nibali, which would have been a pragmatic choice anyway. It seems as likely to me that Valverde just couldn’t keep up with Costa, which is what the bronze medalist has said in post-race interviews. Yes, Valverde is a Grand Tour and monument winning superstar, but he’s on the wrong side of thirty and it may surprise you to know that he has yet to actually nab a WorldTour level win this year. Costa, meanwhile, has been racking up the palmares in 2013. I believe that the young and versatile Costa was just the strongest guy out there, and much fresher, having not ridden the Vuelta and being a fair bit younger than the Purito generation.

Takeaways

Purito himself has every right to be depressed, coming so close to the rainbow jersey as he has come so close to so many big wins in the past. He finally got his monument victory last year at Il Lombardia, and he will get another opportunity there this weekend, but to have such an opportunity slip through his fingers must be heartbreaking. But let’s not lose sight in all that sadness of the year Rodriguez is having at the age of 34: he won a stage at the Vuelta and was 4th overall, he was on the podium in the Tour de France, was runner up in Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Catalunya (to the same rider and in the span of less than a month, to get back to being depressing for a second), and he won a mountain stage in a Tirreno-Adriatico that featured all three of this year’s Grand Tour winners. Now, he’s runner-up in the World Championship race. Compatriot Alberto Contador seems to have lost a step in his 30th year, but Purito keeps chugging along in his 34th. If he can win again or come in 2nd in Lombardy (and if Froome isn’t hanging around the top of the leaderboard), Rodriguez can again be WorldTour champion: given the single-day explosiveness he’s shown in the past few weeks, he’s got a great shot at it.

Valverde has had a string of strong results this year, too, and Nibali has now added a World Championship top 5 to his shiny Palmares in 2013. Neither got the prize he was looking for, but there is still a lot to be said for the way they outdistanced the sprintier types and hung on ahead. Rigoberto Uran will be left wondering what might have been had he not gotten it all wrong on a wet descent; surely he could have challenged for the victory with his explosive skillset. Fortunately for Uran, he’s young and headed to a new trade team next year, just like Costa, and he will get many more chances to impress us in the future.

The unpredictable course proved just a hair too difficult for Cancellara, Sagan, and Gilbert, who finished in a group behind the winners, all three left to wonder what might have been had they been able to marshal the uphill strikes by the climbing stars. Still, it was not a bad performance from all of them (really, any rider who finished the race at all deserves praise), and despite Gilbert’s constant losing this year, keeping pace with that group is just another in a long line of results that show he’s still got plenty left in the tank. Sagan, still 23 remember, will have plenty of opportunities in the future. Cancellara might be most disappointed of the three, as this race seemed to have the right level of toughness (ultra-high) to favor his hardman attitude, and years to come may not be as selective. Finishing with or around the same time as this trio were a few surprises: Maxim Iglinskiy, Simon Clarke, and Andriy Grivko. Crossing the line with an impressive pack that also included Dani Moreno, Bauke Mollema Sergio Henao, and Michele Scarponi, they have a right to be proud of their top 10s.

What does the future hold for the winner of the race? He’s shown an incredible array of all-round ability in his young career, with results in one-day circuit races and Alpine stage races alike. VeloHuman bemoaned the tactics of his team (Movistar) in the Tour de France this year when they wasted his top 10 position in GC sending him back to Valverde on the day the latter was distanced in the crosswinds, as if a single rider was going to make a difference draging Valverde back up the front. Next year, Costa won’t need to worry about being sent back for his team leader, as he’ll be the guy for his new team Lampre-Merida. Fortunately, he’ll be able to wear the glorious rainbow jersey instead of Lampre’s garish kit. He’ll be the most prominent piece of the puzzle of Lampre’s youth movement, as that team is turning away from aging stars like Michele Scarponi and Damiano Cunego and towards some exciting new talent. Costa’s never contended for a Grand Tour GC, so it remains to be seen how well he’ll represent Portugal on the biggest stage racing stages next year, but he’s sure to continue to succeed in one-day and one-week races; he’s turning 27 tomorrow, just hitting his prime, just diving into his physical peak years. He showed the time trailing and climbing ability, he’s flashed a strong sprint when he’s needed to, he showed a sharp racing mind Sunday as he has many times before on smaller stages, and now he’ll have all the confidence in the World going forward.

-Dane Cash

Photo by Flowizm.

October 5, 2013
Vuelta a España 2013 Post-race Impressions: Ring in the Old, Ring in the New

Even More Unpredictable Than Predicted

Now that the peloton has finally ended its journey in Madrid, we can look back on a few of the storylines. The biggest storyline of the Vuelta is obviously the succcess of Christopher Horner, who improved on his previous best Grand Tour performance (a lone top 10, 9th in the Tour de France in 2010) by winning the race ahead of past winners Vincenzo Nibali and Joaquim Rodriguez. He won a stage early on and it seemed like a great feel-good story, the balding veteran outclassing the favorites for a day; then he proceeded to look stronger and stronger each day, ultimately dropping Nibali and the rest nearly whenever he set his mind to it. This was always going to be a race for a strong climber (the only individual time trial had a categorized climb right in the middle of it), and Horner was unquestioably the best climber in Spain these past three weeks. Obviously there are a lot of theories on how he managed to take everyone by surprise and dominate the ascents, but clearly fresh legs played a part, as Horner had little mileage prior to the start of the Vuelta, unlike the rest of the big favorites, who had all taken on the Giro or the Tour already. Similarly, Contador hadn’t raced a Grand Tour before his Vuelta win last year, and Juan Jose Cobo’s 2011 Vuelta was his first Grand Tour of the year as well. Future hopefuls should take note.

It’s important to note that as old as he is, it’s not like Horner came out of nowhere. His career has had an interesting arc: much of his prime was spent racing (and really dominating) the American circuit. When he did finally start to concentrate on the higher level Euro competition, he was already well into his 30s: but he had a lot of success, and didn’t really see any decline as he aged either. As recently as 2010 (the year he top 10ed in the Tour), he won Pais Vasco. He was 2nd there and 4th in Catalunya in 2011 (a year in which he also won the Tour of California), was 2nd in Tirreno-Adriatico and 9th in Pais Vasco in 2012, and was 6th at Tirreno-Adriatico this year. None of those results come close to winning the Vuelta, but they show that he’s quietly built quite a resume very late in his career: a Grand Tour win will be the perfect marquee accomplishment for the 41 year old. The question now is: where will he be next year? As explosive and resilient as he was in the Tour of Spain, he doesn’t have a team for next year. It’s only a matter of time before someone makes him an appealing offer commit his smiles and his small frame to their cause.

After losing the race he was so heavily favored to win just a week ago, Vincenzo Nibali probably isn’t smiling, but taking 1st place in a grueling Giro and then 2nd place in the Vuelta with all those Italian miles already in your legs is an unbelievable accoomplishment that deserves recognition even if it was disappointing for Nibali. A single Grand Tour podium in a year is a feat worthy enough of praise. Winning one and runnering up a second? Vincenzo Nibali will be one of a very select group of riders who will be seen as legitimate challengers to Froome in the 2014 Tour de France. Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodriguez can both come away proud; Valverde nabbed the final spot on the podium after his disappointing Tour de France, and he also won the points jersey despite not actually winning any stages. Purito wanted more, but 4th and a beautiful stage victory on Alto del Naranco will look great in his Palmares.

Nicolas Roche entered the race with a stated goal of coming in in the top 5. 5th overall and a stage win felt like a long time coming for the rider who has displayed a lot of talent in the past few years, but never come away with much to show for it. And not to take anything away from winning a stage later on during a Grand Tour, but Roche’s victory came early in the race, against his GC rivals: no gimmes there. AG2R won’t mind Carlos Betancur’s complete anonymity so much given Domenico Pozzovivo’s 6th place overall performance. He quietly notched a pair of Grand Tour top 10s this year without all that much team support.

Thibaut Pinot rolled in 7th overall, dispelling a great deal of doubt after his forgettable Tour de France. He’s definitely gotten back on track: he didn’t seem to struggle on the descents, and he hung with the likes of Nibali and Horner for a good part of many of the hardest climbs. Remember, he’s only 23, and he’s now got a pair of Grand Tour top 10s to his name. With a focused offseason, Thibaut Pinot will hope to build on this late success next year. Another young GC rider who really stood out was Leopold Konig. Nabbing a GT Top 10 at the head of a Pro Continental team against stacked squads like Astana and Movistar is quite the feat. Like Roche, his stage victory was early on in the race, meaning that he had to outclass the best in the bunch to pick it up. And Daniel Moreno (10th) nabs his 3rd Vuelta top 10 in as many year, and perhaps even more impressively, on the heels of a major one-day victory in La Fleche Wallonne, he picked up two early stage wins, and held three different jerseys for a time; he’s following in his team leader’s footsteps, making a name for himself as a killer uphill finisher with the ability to find his way into a Grand Tour leaderboard as well.

Samuel Sanchez will be disappointed with 8th, but most observers didn’t view him as much more than an outside contender coming in. He never seemed to find his form, and it’s starting to look as if his best years are behind him. At least he comes away with more than fellow old guys Michele Scarponi and Ivan Basso–Basso didn’t really look all that bad in this race, but he vacated his 7th overall spot when he abandoned on a nasty Stage 14.

The biggest disappointment of the Vuelta has to be Team Sky. Sergio Henao came into the race as one of the favorites, and Rigoberto Uran was touted as a great second option if things went awry; awry they went, as neither rider was able to keep the pace when the road went up. To his credit, Uran came so close to a victory from a breakaway on Stage 16, but was denied by Warren Bargul at the line. Vasil Kiryienka’s stage win (actually the third career Grand Tour stage victory for the Belarusian, which is the same number that his teammate Bradley Wiggins has) was some consolation, but for all Henao’s potential, he failed to deliver in a big way.

Youth Is Served Winning Stages, and So Is the Rainbow Jersey

Michael Matthews and Warren Barguil have arrived. Matthews, the 22 year old Aussie sprinter, had been having enough success in smaller races this year that I definitely saw big things for him in the Vuelta, and he did not disappoint, winning first on the 5th stage and again on the final day of festivities in Madrid. For the past few years, Orica-GreenEdge has looked to one of his teammates on the sprint stages, especially the ones with hard roads to the finish line, but it looks like the time of Michael Matthews is upon us. Meanwhile, Maximiliano Richeze racked up four top 3 stage performances but failed to come away with a victory, which must be a heartbreak: he really looked like one of the fastest riders in the peloton, and was inches away from winning on multiple occasions. In a similar boat were Tyler Farrar and Gianni Meersman, who both made a habit of lurking around the top 5 on the sprint stages (four times), without ever notching a victory. Meersman gets a pass, as he has already had a great year up to this point, but Farrar ends his year looking desperately for his old winning ways. Clearly he’s still fast, but his only victories in the past two years have come in Continental Tours; the American doesn’t have a contract for next year, and obviously a big win would have helped make his case.

23 year old Warren Barguil took a brilliant win from the breakaway in Stage 13. Then, Barguil did it again on Stage 16 ahead of the immensely talented Rigoberto Uran in a drag race to the line. Taking a victory like that ahead of the explosive Giro and Olympic Road Race runner-up marks Barguil as a name to watch for the future. For his Argos-Shimano squad, it was “No Kittel or Degenkolb, no problem” in Spain this year. FDJ’s Alexandre Geniez and Kenny Elissonde both won mountain stages as breakaway survivors. And in stage after stage, 25 year old Nicolas Edet of Cofidis was constantly leading the breakers over the KOMs: he earned himself the title of King of the Mountains in the process. Seeing a pattern? All in all, France’s 25 and under crowd of Barguil, Geniez, Elissonde, Edet, and Pinot took between them four stage victories, the polka dot jersey, and 7th overall in GC; quite a haul for les Francois after they came up short of expectations in the Tour de France.

Another impressive young breaker was Daniele Ratto, who won a grueling 14th stage that saw mass abandons all by himself on a mountaintop finish.

Zdenek Stybar isn’t exactly young (27), but he’s young to road racing, and the former CX world champ added to his amazing year jumping ahead late with Philippe Gilbert and beating him a photo finish to steal the 7th stage from the sprinters at Mairena de Aljafare.

Fortunately, Gilbert’s long, demoralizing drought of victories in the rainbow jersey ended in the following week when he outsprinted Edvald Boasson Hagen and Maximiliano Richeze to win stage 12. He’s come very close time and time again this year, but a win has eluded him. Outsprinting some of the fastest men in this race to get it meant that he ended his wait in grand style.

Three weeks of racing have finally come to a close, and in the end, the Vuelta was full of surprises for riders both young and old. We were treated to visions of riders who could be around for years to come (riders like Matthews, Stybar, Barguil, Konig, and Pinot), and of riders who finally took long awaited victories (Horner and Gilbert). Up next? The race that so many of these big names were preparing for when they decided to make the trip to Spain: the 2013 UCI World Championships.

-Dane Cash

Photo by Esteban Lamas

September 17, 2013
Tour de France 2013 Post-race Impressions: Froome Lightyears Ahead and a Youth Movement on the Rise

Brief Recap

After Chris Froome crested stage 8’s Ax-3 Domaines way ahead of everyone else in contention, many were worried that the remaining two weeks of competition would be boring. While Team Sky’s 28-year old leader held onto the jersey tightly all the way to Paris, even increasing his lead on the rest of the bunch, this year’s two was anything but boring, even after Froome’s dominant first high mountain stage.

Froome increased his lead with a predictably awesome time trial on Stage 11. He lost around one minute when Saxo-Tinkoff and Belkin broke away on a windy flat stage, but gained it right back climbing up Mont Ventoux. He put in another masterful performance in the mountain time trial, though this time his rivals kept their time losses to a minimum. The pressure was high heading into the double ascent of Alpe d’Huez on stage 18, the first of three grueling Alpine stages, but Froome never cracked. Breakaways took stages 18 and 19, though the GC contenders duked it out when they reached the slopes, and stage 20 saw a showdown between all top climbers in the peloton, but despite the best effort of Joaquim Rodriguez, and stacked teams like Movistar and Saxo-Tinkoff, Froome’s lead barely shrunk. The high uphill tempos across the last few days were too much for Contador, who tumbled down to 4th place by the time all was said and done in the mountains, unable to keep up with Froome, Quintana, and Rodriguez on the steep summits: the relentless assaults by the young Colombian Quintana and seasoned veteran Rodriguez nabbed them spots on the podium beside the man who dominated the Tour almost from start to finish, Chris Froome. The final results looked like this:

1. Christopher Froome (UK) Sky Procycling | 83:56:40

2. Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team | +0:04:20

3. Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha | +0:05:04

4. Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Team Saxo-Tinkoff | +0:06:27

5. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Team Saxo-Tinkoff | +0:07:27

6. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team| +0:11:42

7. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team | +0:12:17

8. Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team | +0:15:26

9. Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits | +0:15:52

10. Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin-Sharp | +0:17:39

Peter Sagan won the Points Classification, and Nairo Quintana won both the King of the Mountains polka dots and the white jersey of the best young rider.

Froome Dominates and Young Guns Step Up

Starting with the obvious, Froome was simply head and shoulders above the competition. The 100th edition of the Tour de France was very exciting to watch, but the fiercest competition was for the other two spots on the podium: Froome’s hold on the top was basically unassailable. He jumped well ahead early in the Pyrenees, solidified his position with stellar time trialing, and held on through the Alps despite vicious assaults from Nairo Quintana and Joaquim Rodriguez. His teammate Richie Porte showed rare talent as well, and together they were able to overpower the competition on the summit finishes. Porte gave everything he had for Froome’s victory, gladly sacrificing his own top 10 aspirations for the cause, and I fully believe he could have been on the podium had he not done so: he went so hard leading Froome up stage 8’s climb that he was exhausted on stage 9, and he chose not to contest stage 17’s time trial so as to save energy to lead Froome through the Alps. The word is that he’ll be given team leadership at one of the other two Grand Tours, and I believe that if he focuses on his position rather than a teammate’s, he’s more than capable of a Grand Tour win.

While Froome’s lead was never really in doubt, a number of young riders achieved other immense successes at the 100th Tour de France. The festivities started and ended with Marcel Kittel winning stages. His final tally was four stage wins, and he beat Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel in flat sprints more than once. After years of dominance from the Manx Missile, who had never been beaten on the Tour’s final day, Kittel’s emergence at age 25 promises to give cycling fans a real show of speed for the next several years. At age 23, Peter Sagan dominated the points competition in a manner similar to Froome’s dominance of the general classification. And of course, Colombian prodigy Nairo Quintana arrived loudly and clearly, adding a stage win, 2nd overall, the young rider’s jersey, and the King of the Mountains jersey to his resume. What a year he has had, winning the Tour of the Basque Country in style (beating the likes of Alberto Contador and Richie Porte in the final day’s time trial to take the win) and now this. His team gave most of its support to Alejandro Valverde for the first two weeks of the race; with full support, if Quintana can improve his time trial and his attacking strategy, he is more than capable of repeating or even bettering this performance in the future, as he isn’t even close to hitting his prime. Andrew Talansky clawed his way back after a day of suffering in the heat of the Pyrenees early on and found himself in the General Classification Top 10 when the peloton finally rolled over the finish line in Paris, good enough for second in the young rider’s competition. Michal Kwiatkowski finished in the top 10 of six separate stages with varying profiles, and he managed to nab 11th place overall in the Tour. Surely, in a few years, he could be a top 10 favorite here, or a favorite for the points classifications of the Vuelta or Giro, where points aren’t split up to favor the sprinters over other riders. He was one of the most complete riders in the Tour de France, with a rare combination of climbing, sprinting, and time trialing ability.

There were many other great storylines to follow as well. For all the success Nairo Quintana had, his team struggled in the middle of the Tour. Alejandro Valverde fell out of contention for the podium on stage 13 due to mechanical problems on a windy day, and Rui Costa plummmeted, too, when Movistar sent him back to help Valverde. Undeterred, the team fought tooth and nail for glory over the last several days: Costa won not one but two stages, and Valverde powered his way back into the top 10 overall.

Much was made of the contenders’ form heading into the first days of the Tour in Corsia. Of the four biggest favorites (Froome, Contador, Rodriguez, Valverde), only Froome seemed to be in impeccable form, having won every stage race he attempted this year except for Tirreno-Adriatico, in which he placed second to Giro winner Vincenzo Nibali. Contador, on the other hand was only so-so all year long, prompting questions about his ability to peak in time. Rodriguez had a strong spring and then struggled in the Dauphine. Valverde also had a strong spring and wasn’t great in the Dauphine. As it turned out, starting on form made all the difference for Froome, as it was his first real mountain day that put him virtually out of reach. Contador, meanwhile, never did really round into old form; 4th isn’t anything to sneeze at, but he could never really keep up with the top 3 riders in the race. Joaquim Rodriguez steadily improved as the Tour went on, chipping away at an early deficit to the other contenders and improving his position in the Alps. Valverde will be left wondering what might have been had he not suffered some very bad luck on stage 13; he finished ahead of Contador on both Alpine summit finishes and his stages 8 and 11 had originally given him an impressive chunk of time on Purito and around half a minute on Contador. In any case, Froome has been dominant all year and continued his dominance into the Tour, Rodrigez and Valverde showed good form earlier in the year and were able to maintain a high level and then peak again for the Tour, and Contador never showed his old levels of ability earlier this year and was unable to round into form this July.

Other riders who impressed? Roman Kreuziger, Bauke Mollema, and Jakob Fuglsang. All 28 or younger. Kreuziger managed a 5th place despite working for his teammate Alberto Contador. Bauke Mollema was as high as 2nd as late as stage 14, but he faded a bit as the Tour crested more and more summits—still, he adds a 6th overall to a resume that already includes a 4th overall and the points classification at the Vuelta. Jakob Fuglsang was steady throughout the race despite having very little team support compared to the other riders who finished in the top 8—given the kind of help from Astana that his teammate Vincenzo Nibali gets, Fuglsang could take on the Giro or Vuelta with podium aspirations while the Shark heads to the Tour. With Rodrigez, Valverde, and Contador all on the wrong side of 30, these guys could be hanging around Grand Tour top 10s a lot in years to come.

On the other hand, it would be an oversight not to mention BMC’s terrible three weeks. Despite their massive team budget, the red and black squad managed no stage wins and didn’t place anyone in even the top 20 overall. For some reason, team management expected Cadel Evans to perform at a high level despite the fact that he entered the race only a month after finishing a grueling Giro. His Tour was a flop–he lost a lot of time on stages 8 and 11 and then faded badly after. Tejay van Garderen fell out of contention early, finishing over twelve minutes behind Froome on stage 8, apparently due to an inability to cope with heat in the Pyrenees. Philippe Gilbert proved again that if your form wasn’t good heading into the Tour, it’s probably not going to magically appear when you get there. His best finish was 5th on stage 3. In the wake of so much team failure, BMC sports director John Lelangue has just quit his job.

Edvald Boasson Hagen, Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Jean-Christophe Peraud, and others were forced to abandon after suffering various serious injuries. Peraud broke his collarbone on an early morning recon ride of stage 17’s time trial course when he was still in the top 10 overall: he started the race that day anyway, only crash and fall on the same side, one of the more cringe-worthy moments of the Tour. Hopefully they will all recover quickly.

And to end positively? Daniel Navarro went from 20th overall and more than twenty-three minutes behind Froome after stage 15 to 8th overall by the time the peloton rode into Paris, thanks to a few breakaway successes and a good ride up the Semnoz. What a climb up the leaderboard! Jens Voigt, age 41, treated us to what may have been the last Tour de France breakaway attack of his career. Peter Sagan gave chanting fans what they wanted time and again with his trademark wheelie-popping, even doing it without hands on occasion. And to showcase a little globalization, a South African, Daryl Impey, wore the yellow jersey from stage 6 to stage 8 before he handed it over to Chris Froome, who was himself, of course, born in Africa.

The Tour de France may be cycling’s biggest race, but the 2013 season still has yet to present the third Grand Tour, the Vuelta a Espana, as well as the final Monument Classic, the Giro di Lombardia, and the World Championship race, in addition to a number of other major events on the calendar. This Saturday will showcase not one but TWO WorldTour races, with the start of the Tour de Pologne, and the single-day Clasica de San Sebastian. Many of the same riders you saw in the Tour de France will be targetting these races to come, as will some of the sports biggest names who skipped the Tour this year, names like Bradley Wiggins, Vincenzo Nibali, and Fabian Cancellara. To summarize: keep watching! There are a number of big events right around the corner!

-Dane Cash

Photos by Natalie Marchant and Tom Ducat-White.

July 22, 2013
Tour de Suisse 2013 Post-race Impressions: Costa Takes Yellow on the Final Day, Sagan Versatile as Ever

Brief Recap

Mathias Frank might have spent the majority of the week in yellow, but Rui Costa’s final day victory to take the jersey from the Swiss rider came with an air of inevitability. After Cameron Meyer won a whacky opening time trial of just 8.1 kilometers in which conditions changed dramatically over the course of the afternoon, Mathias Frank took the lead in the third stage after back to back days of climbing (though Meyer, to his credit, never gave up his pursuit of GC). Over the next few days of flats and gentle hills, Costa was always lurking, watching sprinters and rouleurs racking up the points and waiting for his moment. In the race’s seventh and queen stage, Costa mastered a selective climb and won the day with Bauke Mollema and Tejay van Garderen in tow. By the end of the following and penultimate stage, Frank’s lead on GC had dwindled to just 13 seconds over Costa, and with a difficult time trial to cap off the race, it was clearly going to be too much to ask of Frank to hold onto the yellow jersey. He finished a disappointing 19th in the time trial. Meanwhile, Costa dominated the course, finishing 21 seconds ahead of Tanel Kangert and 29 seconds ahead of Bauke Mollema, and sliding easily into the overall win.

Peter Sagan took the points classification after two impressive stage wins, first managing to hang on to the group of GC contenders over a tough climb in the race’s third stage and then outsprinting Daniele Bennati in the eighth stage.

The final general classification standings looked like this:

1. Rui Alberto Faria da Costa (Por) Movistar Team | 31:08:11

2. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Blanco Pro Cycling Team | +0:01:02

3. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Team Saxo-Tinkoff | +0:01:10

4. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ | +0:01:26

5. Mathias Frank (Swi) BMC Racing Team | +0:01:43

6. Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team | +0:01:51

7. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team | +0:02:23

8. Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Sharp | +0:02:42

9. Simon Spilak (Slo) Katusha | +0:02:42

10. Cameron Meyer (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge | +0:03:44

Takeaways

While their respective teammates were not living up to expectiations at the Critérium du Dauphiné (this would be a reference to Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde and Saxo-Tinkoff’s Alberto Contador), Rui Costa and Roman Kreuziger showed strong form in Switzerland. Costa was a favorite coming into the race after winning last year, and this year he was head and shoulders above the rest, finishing with more than a minute’s lead over Bauke Mollema. His performance in the final time trial was even more impressive than anyone expected. With a podium finish in Romandie and now this at the Tour de Suisse, Costa’s confidence has to be pretty high heading into the Tour de France, so it will be interesting to see how Movistar handles their trio of powerful mountaineers (along with Valverde and Costa, Pais Vasco winner Nairo Quintana makes three) in the Pyrenees and Alps.

Bauke Mollema’s terrific week in Switzerland, capped off with a stage win and second overall, earned him the nod as team leader over Giro dropout Robert Gesink in the upcoming Tour de France. After a slower-than-hoped-for experience in the first day’s strange time trial, Mollema came out fighting the next day, soloing to the stage victory and beginning a tough climb up the leaderboard that ultimately put him onto the podium. For Blanco (which will be Team Belkin by the end of the month), who has seen a lot of underperforming lately, this kind of grit is a welcome sight. Blanco/Belkin will be sending a team composed almost solely of GC contenders and domestiques to France, and Mollema has proven himself a worthy leader.

American Tejay van Garderen and Irishman Dan Martin finished one before the other, and both left Switzerland with question marks. Neither had a good opening time trial day, but Fabian Cancellara couldn’t even figure that stage out. When Frank took the leader’s jersey, van Garderen was happy to play lieutenenant for a little while in the former’s home tour. Meanwhile, Martin’s team went from strong to mediocre when 2012 Giro winner Ryder Hesjedal sustained hospitalization-level injuries in a bad stage 3 crash and was forced to pull out. Both riders managed to hang within striking distance of the podium over the next few days, but despite an uphill final day that suited both of them, Martin and van Garderen couldn’t make up any ground in the time trial either. As a favorite going into the race, van Garderen will be disappointed, but he generally hung on when the road went up and it’s tough to say how much of his time deficit to the leaders was due to his support of Frank. Martin will probably be less disappointed, managing a top 10 finish in his first WorldTour race since his Monument win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April, and without Ryder Hesjedal. Hesjedal’s injuries apparently were not too serious, but there is no word yet on whether he will be good to go for the Tour. If he is, Garmin will take a strong team to France with Talansky, Martin and Hesjedal (and likely Farrar for stage wins).

Speaking of stage wins, Peter Sagan did what he does best, wowing everyone with a pair of gutsy victories and winning the points jersey commandingly. There is no question of his being on form for France, and he showed his versatility more than ever with a win in the mountains of Switzerland. It will be tough for Cavendish, Griepel and co. to contend for green with a guy who can win stages with all but the steepest climbs. Arnaud Démare had an impressive week as well, notching a win in stage 4 and coming in third on stage 5. At just 21, he’s an exciting up-and-comer for FDJ.

FDJ’s other exciting up-and-comer managed a 4th overall. Thibaut Pinot has to feel good about that display heading into the biggest competition on everyone’s calendar, which happens to be a home race for Pinot and his team.

Simon Špilak finished in the top 10, but VeloHuman tipped him as a major podium contender—his 9th place is a bit of a disappointment. Katusha will also have been disappointed by Joaquim Rodriguez’s uninspiring Dauphiné. Fortunately, Dani Moreno picked up the slack with a podium finish there, but the team will be looking for the other two to show early in the Tour that they are, in fact, in shape this summer.

Katusha will be thrilled, however, with Alexander Kristoff, who picked up his first WorldTour win in the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse, out-sprinting guys like Sagan, Démare, and Matt Goss. At just 25, Kristoff will carry Katusha’s flat stage hopes in the Tour.

Hats off to Cameron Meyer, who won the opening time trial and tried to hang on as long as he could despite not being as strong a climber as the other GC guys. He fell out of the top 10 after stage 4 but fought to get back in, and ended the race in a respectable 10th place. It’s not easy to go from the track to a top 10 in Switzerland, and Orica-GreenEdge will be looking for more from him in the Tour in case Matthew Goss continues to ride without results.

-Dane Cash

Photo by Bruno Hotz.

June 19, 2013