VeloHuman

Tag: 2015

  • VeloHuman Up-and-comer Q&A Series: BMC’s Dylan Teuns

    VeloHuman Up-and-comer Q&A Series: BMC’s Dylan Teuns

    Dylan Teuns ToB

    22-year-old Dylan Teuns joined the BMC Development Team at the start of the 2014 season and enjoyed a successful first few months of the year, taking 2nd in the U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, 2nd overall and a stage in the Tour de Bretagne, and 2nd in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Espoirs. His strong early showings led to a stagiare spot with the WorldTour squad starting in August and a pro contract with them for 2015.

    With some security for the near future in place, Teuns rattled off a string of nice results this summer, taking a stage victory in the Giro della Valle d’Aosta in his last race with the Development squad before his stagiare period and then nabbing the Young Rider Jersey in the Tour of Utah, a stage in the Tour de l’Avenir, and 10th overall in the Tour of Britain, among other fine performances.

    The Belgian neo-pro took a break from training at the BMC camp in Spain to chat with VeloHuman for the latest entry of the VH Up-and-comer Q&A Series.

    VH: You raced practically non-stop from March all the way to October, winning a few times and signing a WorldTour-level contract along the way. What’s the first thing you did to unwind after the long season?

    DT: First, I took two weeks off for recovery at home, and then one more week on holiday.

    VH: What’s it like coming back to training camp after some time off? Does it take you extra time to get power back into the legs, or are you ready to go right away?

    DT: After the three weeks of rest, I wanted to start immediately building up to the training camp. But first, I had some problems with my sinus. I had some sinusistis, and I needed to rest one more week because I was sick. So, four weeks, I could start slowly, though not on the level I wanted to be because I needed to be careful in Belgium—from the end of October to the beginning of November the weather was not so good, and it was really cold and rainy sometimes. I needed to start slowly some days on the rollers. After two weeks I started to feel better. Then it was still two more weeks to the training camp and I had two good weeks. And now I feel really okay . . . my condition is not bad. When you go in the high heart rates it’s not like in the season, but that’s normal. In the lows it’s all very good.

    VH: And you feel like now you’re back to being at full health?

    DT: Yeah I’m normal. I feel good. Here you can train so well in good weather. Today it’s such a nice day. It feels like summer. And that’s great for training. Now we go on a holiday for two weeks in Belgium. I hope the weather is not too bad! When it’s cold I have no problem with it but I don’t know if it will rain too much. But we can train in Belgium as well, not so well on the climbs but we can still do some hours on the bike and that’s good. And then we can come back in January and we can go training on some hard climbs, stuff like that, which is perfect.

    VH: Does training camp with BMC feel different than training camps you’ve done in the past?

    DT: It’s quite the same, because last year I trained on a good level to do a good season because I was really motivated for my last year at U23 and I wanted to become a pro rider. And now I’m with the BMC team but still the training is quite the same. The things I did before with my Belgian training, it’s really the same things and I like it the way we do it now. But you can do more hours here in the wheels. And you train in a big group. . . . At home you go alone or with two guys, but here we’re training with the team in a big group. . . . It’s perfect.

    VH: At home you can train with friends; now you can train with Philippe Gilbert, which seems pretty nice!

    DT: It’s great! He’s a friendly guy. I saw him already last year a couple of times but now we are on the same team. Just today was the first time we were in the same group. We train in three groups. Every day it’s changing, the groups. I also trained with Greg [Van Avermaet] and he’s also a great guy. You see everyone, when we need to do workouts . . . everyone does his own thing and it’s not a race to see who is the best. We do our own thing and that’s good to develop for the next season.

    VH: You joined the BMC Development squad for the start of 2014. You’d had plenty of nice results in the past but you took a big step forward in 2014. You’ve credited a lot of that success to [team director] Rik Verbrugghe. What did you learn this season that helped you land so many U23 podiums and a major victory in the Tour de l’Avenir?

    DT: He doesn’t give his riders pressure, and that’s one thing from the beginning that was really good. He tells you things that you need to do, but he doesn’t put pressure on you or say you need to win this race or that race. He has a lot of experience because he spent a lot of years before on the Pro Tour team, and on other Pro Tour teams. He gives a lot of feedback. Like the stage in the Giro della Valle d’Aosta—he won stages in the big Giro and Tour de France which where the same sort of style.

    VH: It was your third and final Tour de l’Avenir. What did it feel like taking a stage win at the top of a Category 1 climb?

    DT: It was a great victory. Like you said, I went there three years in a row. The two years before . . . the first year I was working but then in the middle of the week I got sick and it was going not so good. And then the next year I had a kind of a free role. I was not the real leader but I could kind of do my own thing on the climbs. We did the first mountain stage and I was completely nowhere, and I was really disappointed. For two years in a row I was really disappointed. And I know it was a big race, when you can do something there, it’s so big, every WorldTour team will see that. My two other victories, a stage in the Tour de Bretagne and the Giro della Valle d’Aosta . . . I already had those two, but I still wanted to go to the Tour de l’Avenir with big ambitions and that was my goal, to win a stage. When I was at the line I was so happy and you can see it in the pictures. It was so great. I can’t explain it but it was such a great feeling.

    VH: What was it like moving from the Development Team up to the WorldTour squad?

    DT: After my first half of the season I was really happy I could sign. I knew from the beginning of June that I was going to be a stagiare, and that in July I could sign my ProTour contract. And then you don’t have as much stress anymore. And then I went to Utah and I worked for the team . . . we needed to control the race, that was a good thing for me because I always needed to work the last couple of kilometers for Cadel [Evans] or Ben [Hermans], who was, after Powder Mountain, 2nd in the GC, but I could still do my own results. Not really good ones, but when you see them on the last two days, I was close in the GC for the young riders. And then we talked about it, the evening before the last stage, we had a meeting, and they gave me the opportunity to do my own thing the whole stage; I didn’t need to do anything. The second-to-last stage I’d worked really hard for Ben, and Cadel was in the break, and all was good. And I took one and a half minutes back on GC and then I was about 1:20 back at the end of the second-to-last stage. And then we spoke about it with the team around the table with the director and they gave me a free role to take the jersey.

    VH: Basically, you were playing a support role for a few days and then suddenly found yourself in contention for the young rider’s jersey?

    DT: Yep. And then the Tour of Britain was a great race for me. We didn’t have a real leader there. Some guys were there preparing themselves for the Worlds. I was also there to prepare for the Worlds Under-23, but I knew when I finished l’Avenir I was not tired. I went for a week to my home, I could relax a bit and train easy the whole week and then I went to Britain . . . and there you can see what I can do.

    VH: Were you, or are you, nervous at all about the promotion to the WorldTour level?

    DT: I’m not nervous for next year. Well, maybe a little bit. I want to learn the first two years, I don’t want the big results, I think that’s not for now. I need to learn now from big riders like Gilbert and other guys who can teach me something. I need to learn also how the races are, how they race when the finale starts, things like that. And we’ll see in two or three years how I can do, maybe I can do a podium or something. But not for now.

    VH: Now that you’ve been with the squad for a bit, have you been able to pick up any advice from any of the veterans like Gilbert or Van Avermaet?

    DT: I didn’t race with Gilbert in the end of the season, but I did some races with Greg and he taught me well, some small things, things that are really important to know. When you do U23 races on a big level, like l’Avenir, you knew before that you need to be in front but in pro races, it’s always important to be in the front.

    VH: Have you been surprised by the level of racing with the WorldTour team? Is it harder or maybe even easier than you expected?

    DT: Last year I think the level was quite the same in the biggest Under-23 races, there’s not a lot of difference, but the WorldTour races, I think the level there is higher. We will see. I hope it’s not so high and that I’ll finish those races in the next season. Hopefully I can help Gilbert or someone else to a big victory so that then my season is also good.

    VH: Do you have an idea of your program for 2015 yet?

    DT: I start in Oman. That’s a good race for me I think. A good marker. And I hope to do the Ardennes Classics. I’m really excited about them. That’s the parcours where I raced most of the time last year and did some good results. That’s the kind of race I like.

    In following up his strong performances at the major U23 events with a collection of good results in big races like the Tour of Britain, Teuns has seen mostly consistent progression during his young career. Now that he has taken the step up to the sport’s top division, he will have the opportunity to learn from experienced stars like Philippe Gilbert and Greg Van Avermaet, which could see Teuns ready to compete in the Ardennes and other marquee events in the not-too-distant future.

    -Dane Cash

    Photo by Katie Chan.

  • IAM Cycling In, Europcar Out, Astana Warned: A Closer Look at the WorldTour Licensing Decisions

    IAM Cycling In, Europcar Out, Astana Warned: A Closer Look at the WorldTour Licensing Decisions

    AstanaTeam

    The Annual WorldTour license distribution process is, for most teams in the top division, a formality of paperwork. Winter 2014’s licensing period, however, has proven to be a newsworthy affair: one team was promoted from the Pro Continental level to the WorldTour, one team lost its WorldTour license, and one team was awarded its license with several strings attached, including a requirement to undergo a third-party investigation. The promotion, the demotion, and the probation each merit a closer look.

    IAM Cycling Joins Cycling’s Top Division

    Starting with the feel-good news, Swiss outfit IAM Cycling was officially awarded their WorldTour license in the first week of December. The announcement wasn’t a surprise by the time it came (various outlets had reported that the promotion was likely), but it was nonetheless a confirmation of much planning and hard work paying off. IAM Cycling came into existence in 2013 and made a few key signings prior to the 2014 season that made clear their commitment to competing with the elite teams in the sport. The team’s marquee additions, Mathias Frank and Sylvain Chavanel, both turned in fine seasons, elevating IAM Cycling to the top of the pile among Pro Continental squads (no team ranking system is perfect, but they did earn the highest Cycling Quotient Ranking of any PCT team).

    With Cannondale’s exit creating a WorldTour opening for the 2015 season, IAM saw their opportunity to advance and took advantage of it. The team may not have the abundance of race-winners of Movistar or Tinkoff-Saxo, but the collection of established talents and up-and-comers (including newly signed Clément Chevrier and Sondre Holst Enger) should prove sufficient for IAM to stay relevant even on a tougher schedule, a sentiment shared by team GC leader Mathias Frank. Frank is a bona fide contender in the stage races, especially the one-weekers, Sylvain Chavanel is a deadly one-day racer, time trialist, and stagehunter, and Matteo Pelucchi and Heinrich Haussler are capable of delivering results on flatter profiles. In other words, the squad may not have the depth of talent to support a Grand Tour winner, but strong riders in key roles give them the firepower to take a few wins at the WorldTour level.

    Europcar Denied WorldTour License

    As IAM joins cycling’s top division, Europcar will leave it behind. It’s one and done for the French team, who earned a promotion for the 2014 season only to find themselves facing a budget shortfall for 2015, a shortfall that ultimately led the License Commission to deny the team’s WorldTour application. From a business standpoint, things are dire for the squad right now (Europcar will be pulling out as a sponsor after 2015), but, all things considered, a demotion to the Pro Continental ranks may be for the best. Europcar was the WorldTour’s weakest link in 2014; to return to Cycling Quotient for further guidance, the French outfit was dead last among WorldTour teams in CQ Rankings this season, and not far ahead of PCT squads IAM Cycling and Cofidis, despite receiving automatic invites to all WorldTour events. Pierre Rolland was an admirable 4th in the Giro d’Italia, but beyond that the WorldTour spoils were thin for Europcar. As a French team composed almost exclusively of French riders, Europcar is likely to get invited to the major French races regardless of whether they are at the WorldTour level, and for a French team composed almost exclusively of French riders, that’s what matters. Given the squad’s struggle to deliver results when stretched thin across the WorldTour calendar this year, dropping to the second division might not be the worst thing in the world for Europcar.

    Astana Rides On

    The biggest news item of WorldTour licensing system was not a promotion or demotion, but, oddly enough, a renewal. Having racked up two doping positives in their WorldTour squad and a total of five across their whole organization in 2014, along with other reported misdeeds (alleged collaboration with doping doctor/cycling persona non grata Michele Ferrari) to boot, Astana’s 2015 WorldTour spot was not guaranteed. However, after a review period, the UCI announced Wednesday that Astana would, in fact, receive their license. For many fans, awarding the Kazakh outfit with a ticket to ride at the top division was tantamount to old-fashioned complacency with a broken system, but from a legal perspective, the UCI was in a difficult spot. The last time the UCI’s License Commission (an entity that operates independently) attempted to take action against a team that had racked up too many positives (Katusha), the team appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and ultimately won the case, setting a precedent for future attempts to use the licensing process in a punitive fashion. Though repeated doping offenses within their organization and allegations of collusion with Michele Ferrari make it difficult to ignore the signs of potential systematic problems, in point of fact, the Astana WorldTour squad only notched two positive tests this season. A denied license probably would not have held up under CAS scrutiny with the current body of evidence, at least the body of evidence that exists publicly.

    Instead of setting up a costly and potentially embarrassing CAS battle, the License Commission gave Astana their WorldTour license but attached a few important probational strings to the decision; among them, a stipulation that Astana be subject to an independent audit with the understanding that should further evidence of rule-breaking come to light, the WorldTour license could be withdrawn. In short, this might not be the end of the story for Astana’s WorldTour ride in 2015, especially with evidence from the Padova investigation on Michele Ferrari still to be released. For now, the team’s big stars Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru will have their guaranteed invites to the Giro and Tour lined up, but that could change in an instant if the UCI uncovers further signs of operational “deficiencies” at Astana. The decision did not play very well on the Twitterverse, but it will give the governing body time to gather more information and potentially make a better case for taking Astana’s license in the future.

    -Dane Cash

    Photo by Don Barrett.

  • Mathias Frank Almost Back to Full Strength, Preparing for Another Run at a Tour de France Top 10 and the (Potential) “Big Challenge” of a WorldTour Promotion

    Mathias Frank Almost Back to Full Strength, Preparing for Another Run at a Tour de France Top 10 and the (Potential) “Big Challenge” of a WorldTour Promotion

    Mathias Frank

    After a busy season that left him with a much-improved résumé but also a broken femur and second career Tour de France DNF, Mathias Frank is enjoying some time off. Earlier this year, his first with IAM Cycling, Frank landed in the GC Top 10 of five straight stage races, claiming runner-up honors in the Critérium International, Bayern Rundfahrt, and Tour de Suisse, and also racking up a few stage wins as well during the excellent run of performances from March to late June. The 27-year-old seemed primed for a successful return to the Tour de France, a race he’d abandoned in his 2010 debut due to a broken thumb and torn thigh muscle sustained in a crash in the prologue. However, Frank’s 2014 Tour campaign went awry on Stage 7, when he was one of a hapless bunch of riders who hit the deck hard inside the final kilometer. The crash left him with a broken left femur, an appointment with a surgeon, and another DNF in the world’s biggest race. Frank spent two months away from competition recovering before returning for a few one-day races to close out his 2014 racing program while getting a bit of strength back in his legs. Now one month removed from the season, he is (finally) nearly back to full health.

    “From the femur, I don’t feel anything anymore. I don’t have any pain or anything. There was a little imbalance at the last test I did, so I’m still working with the physio on it, but I’m sure I will be at 100% pretty soon again,” he told VeloHuman in a phone interview this week.

    As he takes those last few steps towards full recovery, Frank is able to look back on his season in a positive light. As frustrating as his Tour de France journey was, he still managed to put together an excellent first half of the year, which Frank acknowledges was “definitely” the best spring in his career. “Normally it always took me a bit longer to get into good shape. This year I was really happy to open the account early in the Critérium [International] and from then on, I did some pretty good racing the whole spring. So it was the best first part of the season for me,” he said.

    Frank joined IAM Cycling this season after several years in the red and black of BMC. Coming off a fine 2013, the Swiss rider was a promising addition to the Swiss team that was making several big improvements at the time, also bringing in star all-rounder Sylvain Chavanel. One might expect the season’s high hopes to have come with high pressure, but Frank says that he did not feel pressured to perform, at least not by anyone other than himself. “It’s something you always put on yourself, the pressure. I don’t feel any pressure from the team, it’s more my expectations that I have. . . . I think the expectations that I have are more than what the team has! The team really doesn’t put any pressure on me,” he said.

    Frank’s own motivation and the low-pressure team atmosphere contributed to a major step forward in results. Frank attributed his early season success to a “combination of different things,” among them, a new role in a new team: “The environment, the role that I have, that I can go for myself. I think I already felt in BMC the last couple of years, 2012 and 2011, I could see that I was always a competitor. I couldn’t really turn that into results but from the numbers from training I knew that I was quite close to being where I was this year. So it wasn’t really a surprise—I think that there were a lot of things coming into place.”

    The multiple podium performances in the spring raised Frank’s expectations even higher for the Tour, but when his run at the main goal of his season came to a sudden end in a heap of riders and mangled bikes near the finish line in Nancy, it was a psychological blow. Still, Frank seems to have already put the frustrating Tour behind him. “For sure, I was super disappointed,” he said. “I had a big chance going for the Tour in the really good shape that I had after the Tour of Switzerland, but at the end . . . that’s how it is. Crashes, they happen. You can’t do anything but get up and try it again next year. What also helped me this year was that I became a father in June, during the Tour de Suisse, so when I was home, there was something else, there was some distraction, with my daughter. I didn’t really think too much about it. I think I just took it as destiny, as a ‘try it next year’ again.”

    After crash-marred races that resulted in DNFs in both of his two career Tour appearances, Frank is hoping (in fact, he seems confident) that the third time will be the charm. “After two bad experiences, the third time it’s really going to work out. I really believe in this and that’s how I see it. That’s two bad crashes in my whole career, and they were at the Tour de France. So for sure, I’d say it’s sad, but it could happen anywhere. I’ll just have to try it again and at one point it will work,” he explained.

    Frank and his squad are currently awaiting word from the UCI License Commission regarding their application to join the WorldTour in 2015, but various sources have reported that the team will likely make the cut. Thanks to strong seasons by Frank and Sylvain Chavanel, IAM Cycling was among the best of the Pro Continental squads in the peloton in terms of results this season, but joining the WorldTour ranks is no small step up. A commitment to a full calendar of top-level races, including all three Grand Tours and all five grueling Monuments, is quite an effort for any squad, and many teams have struggled in their first year at the highest level. Frank acknowledges that if IAM Cycling is, in fact, given a WorldTour bid for the 2015 season, it will not be easy. At the moment, he is realistic about what the promotion might mean, but also hopeful that rider development will pay off. “I think it will be a big challenge for sure. It’s a tough schedule now with all these race days, with three Grand Tours. But I think it was good last year to do two Grand Tours, for the team. We still have a lot of young guys and I think for them, they’re developing and next year if we go WorldTour, the team should be ready for it,” he said. “It’s a big challenge, and maybe it takes another one or two years for some guys to adapt but in general I think we have a good squad with all the new guys that are coming at the end here, and we should be ready, if we move up to the WorldTour, to perform well there.”

    IAM Cycling added a few more “young guys” this transfer season, with up-and-comers Clément Chevrier and Sondre Holst Enger among a list of new arrivals that also includes climber Jarlinson Pantano and time trialing talent Stef Clement. On the other hand, the team lost experienced riders Thomas Löfkvist, Johann Tschopp, and Gustav Larsson. Frank knows that the veteran presence will not be easy to replace, but he likes what he sees in the team’s signings. “We lost some experienced guys . . . some pretty good pros. But I’m positive that the young guys will step up, the guys that we’re going to get. We’ll have to see, but I think in general we’ll be at least as good as this year,” he said.

    Mathias Frank’s own plans for 2015 are not yet set in stone, but he has his sights on the one-week stage races (like the Tours de Romandie and Suisse in which he’s had recent success) and especially the Tour de France, with a third run at cycling’s main event as his central target this upcoming season. “Next year, it will be all about the Tour. I really want to go to France in good shape again and try to get a Top 10, so I think we’re going to build the program around the Tour and start from there, but it’s not really decided yet so I can’t really give details. I think it will be less racing than this year for sure, but focusing on the Tour de France,” Frank said. “The Tour is going to be the biggest goal. . . . At the end it’s the Tour de France that really counts.”

    Frank has plenty of reasons to be optimistic about his major goal for next season, given the way he performed at several WorldTour and 2.HC races in 2014. On the other hand, he wouldn’t have to look very hard to find reasons to be cautious about targeting a race that has given him a broken femur and broken thumb in his two career appearances—but Frank seems to have put those unpleasant experiences behind him. That’s good news for IAM Cycling. With a WorldTour promotion (and its requirement to ride all three Grand Tours) a very real possibility, the Swiss team will be counting on their Swiss GC leader to deliver in 2015.

    -Dane Cash

    Photo by Georges Ménager.

  • 2015 Road World Champs Courses Revealed

    2015 Road World Champs Courses Revealed

    RIchmondbyRiver

    The routes of the 2015 UCI Road World Championship races were announced yesterday. As someone who has lived almost his whole life within an hour or two of Richmond, Virginia, every piece of news involving the 2014 championships reignites my amazement that the first USA-hosted champs race in decades will be taking place in this small Southern city.

    The geography of central Virginia might not initially strike an observer as likely to provide an interesting race profile, but the wonderful thing about a circuit race is that it allows otherwise small challenges to become serious obstacles over repeated visits. Richmond is not in a mountainous region of the state. Its streets are not paved with an abundance of cobbles. But the few steep slopes and the few sections of cobbled roadway, taken on time after time over the course of a day’s racing: that can make for quite a demanding showdown. That’s what the Richmond road race promises to be, now that its course has been revealed.

    Another important aspect of this road race will be its technicality. The circuit contains one complete 180 around a skinny median, and a number of other very sharp turns as it cuts back and forth through city blocks. Richmond is not a massive city with miles of sprawl, but this race is taking place right at its urban center. It is going to be hotly contested and it could get hairy. The last four kilometers of each lap are going to include three steep inclines, basically guaranteeing an abundance of attacks to thrill everyone making the trip.

    And the best part? Virginia has a sizeable contingent of cyclists and cycling fans, but I’d expect the majority of people coming to these events are going to be new to live bike racing. This is a country that, especially in the last year or so, has simply not been a place where interest in the sport has run particularly high. Bringing this race to this place offers a chance to show a group of people who might never have tuned into NBC Sports just how thrilling bike racing can be. That’s what’s so exciting about the course unveiled today: I think the Richmond World Champs will offer an excellent opportunity for the sport to reach out to a new fanbase, and what I”m seeing with this new course looks like a great start.

    The time trial course looks like it will offer a nice challenge as well. 53 kilometers of road with a few small bumps and some twists and turns toward the finish line will provide a good balance; the technical challenges will be there, the elevation will change enough that it will at least mean a few seconds here and there, but overall it looks like a good old-fashioned race of truth.

    And American coverage being what it is, I am even more excited with both the location and the specific courses as they’ve been laid out: as much time as media outlets broadcasting in the home country will focus on local culture and history (and they will, because that’s how cycling coverage works in this country), Richmond, and these roads, will offer plenty for viewers to enjoy. Fans here and abroad will surely be treated to an abundance of riverside shots and a thorough rundown of the rich history of this place when the peloton comes to Virginia in 2015.

    For now, Omloop het Nieuwsblad awaits, with WorldTour stage races Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico right round the corner. Check back in soon for previews of both!

    -Dane Cash

    Photo by Bill Dickinson.