Sagan Strategy Succeeds!

   As the exciting conclusion to Sunday's 75th edition of Ghent-Wevelgem unfolded, I was reminded why I enjoy professional cycling so much - team strategy and how one athlete's individual effort can completely mess it up! Granted Peter Sagan was a big favorite going into the race, but as a small group (pictured below), including the talented Cannondale rider, broke away with over 50 kilometers remaining, one had to wonder if there was just too much distance remaining for him to be able to pull off the win.

   Ghent-Wevelgem is probably considered the least prestigious of the spring classics, and a cyclists' will-to-win was tested by weather that was anything but spring-like, with snow still on the sides of the roads and temperatures near freezing. Teams wore their full winter training kits to combat the elements, which created the unusual sight of pro cyclists racing in long sleeve jackets and full-length tights over the roads of Belgium.
   The route through the Flanders region contains two climbs of the famous Kemmelberg (check out the cool '80s photo below of Sean Kelly climbing it). Its steep, cobbled road becomes treacherous in rainy weather, often requiring riders to dismount and walk their bikes. However, the race often features a sprint finish because the climbing ends a good distance from the line. For this reason it wasn't too surprising to find men like Heinrich Haussler and Bernard Eisel, who are known more for their finishing kick, among the group of a dozen who tried their luck to get away.

   Quality riders like Juan Antonio Flecha, Greg Van Avermaet and Borut Bozic, were also there to push the break along at a high pace. Sagan, however, is an amazing blend of punchy climbing ability and raw speed, leaving no doubt who the "marked man" was in this selective group. Surely teams weren't going to let such a strong threat slip away easily, and with many of the pure sprinters left in the main bunch, it seemed this break was doomed to fail.
   The interesting dynamic was that with just enough riders from different teams involved in the break, not everyone in the peloton was eager to make the catch, wanting to see if maybe their rider could get clear. For a while the gap hovered at around a minute, what was thought a controllable distance, and urgency never really set in.
   Sagan was fortunate to have Maciej Bodnar available to help out, but as it became clear the Cannondale teammates were determined to make this break stick, one had to wonder if Sagan was doing too much work. Would he have enough left to beat Eisel or Haussler, who were both noticeably conserving energy by taking fewer pulls at the front, if this group stayed away?
   With about 10 kilometers left, the time gap began to tumble quickly, and those in the break who lacked sprint speed took turns trying to jump away. While no one was successful, the constant attacks kept the speed high at the front and the peloton was never able to close within 30 seconds.
   Usually in these situations, the speedmen up front simply cover all of the moves and then relax, keeping out of the wind as much as possible to set themselves up for the final dash, but Sagan surprised everyone. The move began with less than four kilometers remaining with Stijn Vandebergh, another of the lesser sprinters, trying one last desperate escape. Flecha quickly moved onto his wheel to shut the move down and Sagan followed, but as the rest of their breakaway mates predictably relaxed after the failed attempt, Sagan jumped hard and was gone!
   With no one wanting to do the work to catch Sagan and give someone else the opportunity for a free ride to victory, a pursuit never materialized. "Peter the Great" had plenty of time to salute the crowd along the last few hundred meters to victory, and even popped a wheelie over the line.

  

Time to get OFF the bike?

   What could be more in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day than getting up early to watch Milan-San Remo? Practically anything, I guess. However, I have Nolands and McKennas in my family tree, so I made sure to put on my Irish national team rugby shirt this morning before I sat down to view the first of cycling’s spring classics.

   I found a link to Eurosport’s coverage of the race at Steephill.tv, but I was quite surprised to find some sort of delay was going on. I went to cyclingnews.com to find a text update and saw a strange comment about what goes on during “race halftime”, so I knew something was wrong. Turns out the weather was so cold and nasty, including freezing rain and snow at some of the higher elevations, that the race directors packed up everything part way along the route and moved everyone to restart closer to the finish, where conditions were just wet.

   Among the text updates was a comment from Twitter posted by Keon De Kort, a Dutch cyclist from the Argos Shimano team, “It's snowing so much this could be biathlon. If so, can I be shot first?” Shortly after that, an ice-covered Taylor Phinney posted a photo (below) of himself aboard the BMC team bus. I really dislike riding in wet or cold weather, and I’m not being paid thousands of dollars to do so, but I certainly didn’t blame some stars, such as Tom Boonen and Vincenzo Nibali, who decided to pack it in after being exposed to those kind of conditions!

 

   Milan-San Remo has in the past been more of a sprinters race, until organizers added a couple larger hills a few years ago in an effort to make things more challenging. The weather-induced detour was going to eliminate some of these hills, and the commentators assumed a drag race for the finish line was in the cards. I suspect, however, that the earlier conditions put the hurt on the peloton more than they suspected, and the teams with sprinters interests had a hard time keeping everything together.

   The finale turned out to be quite exciting with British road champion Ian Stannard and former French champ Sylvain Chavanel gaining a late gap, and a small group that included race favorites Peter Sagan and Fabian Cancellara trying to chase them down. Gerald Ciolek, a man who once served as lead out for Mark Cavendish, was the best pure sprinter left, and the German wisely made Sagan and Cancellara do all of the work to catch the breakaway duo with just a couple kilometers left.

   Sagan has proven in the past that he can hang with the top speedsters, but, perhaps remembering Chavanel’s surprise sprint victory in a stage of Paris-Nice last week, he made a move way too early in response to the Frenchmen’s initial jump. After a quick move onto Sagan’s wheel, Ciolek took advantage of the young Cannondale rider’s slipstream and slingshotted by, just a few meters from the line to win.

 

 

   Ciolek's victory is evidence of pro cycling's current global presence as his MTN- Qhubeka squad became the first Africa-based team to win a World Tour race. Teammate Jim Songezo is the first black cyclist from an African nation to compete in the 106-year-old race. Sue and I were contemplating the economic obstacles cyclists from most African countries must overcome, let alone availability of bicycles or the lack of paved roads in some of those areas. I bet there are some places in which you would definitely not want to be "caught" wearing the jersey pictured below!

 

Tech...blech?

   While visiting my parents over the weekend, I was watching Paris-Nice, a seven stage race that is used by the pro teams as preparation for the spring classics. As Team Sky, Tour de France winner Brad Wiggin’s squad, put a few riders on the front and drove the peloton up a long mountain grade, I explained their scientific approach to race strategy. I then commented to her that Sky’s dominance has made cycling a bit boring lately.

   “Then why to you watch?” she asked. “Is it like NASCAR fans waiting for a crash?” Knowing how much time I spend out on my bike, she quickly realized the error of her statement. I have a hard time watching cycling crashes – kind of like when I watched The Exorcist for the first time, peeking through the fingers of my (then) twelve-year-old hands! Mom’s questions did make me think of auto racing and how I feel it has become a boring battle of technological advances. I definitely hate thinking of cycling going the same way.

   It’s early in the season, and I’m hoping other pro squads devise some strategy to throw a wrench into Sky’s plans, but the British team’s directors have devised a (seemingly) unbeatable strategy of calculating, through power meters and wattage readings on cycling computers, how much effort a cyclist would need to sustain a break away from the pack as they go over mountains. A rider like Wiggins, Chris Froome, or in the case of Paris-Nice, winner Richie Porte, who is a strong individual time trialist, will gain the leader’s jersey for Sky. Then, with their deep roster of capable climbers, the team will get on the front and take turns riding as hard as they can, keeping the pace up high enough to make a successful breakaway impossible, and effectively killing the race.

   During Tirreno-Adriatico, an Italian race similar to Paris-Nice, I watched Alberto Contador take off on a hopeful break late in a stage, only to have Sky’s boys (photo below) keep the same steady high pace and slowly reel the Spaniard back in. My brother-in-law will joke that he longs for the days of doped-up riders, like Marco Pantani, Jan Ulrich and Lance Armstrong, would shatter the peloton with such moves, but I definitely don’t think pro cycling wants to turn back the clock to that era!

   The inexperienced viewer of pro cycling races might think, “Well, what about trying to get away on the flat stages?” Not every team has a rider who has the ability to go for the overall victory in stage races. Teams who focus only on getting sprint victories will control these stages to keep the pack together and give their speed guys a chance to take the chaotic drag race at the finish of these types of routes.

   My wife and I were debating the idea of doing away with all of the “tech” during bike races – no team radios, computers, meters, etc. – reducing them to simple athletic contests. Sure, team’s can use that stuff during training, but with the amount of time these cyclist spend on the road, shouldn’t they learn to have a pretty good feel for the effort they are putting out during a race and gauge their efforts appropriately. We conceded that there could still be support vehicles and motorcycles with chalkboards to give time gaps, but that’s it. Hey, it’s what they did in the “old days”, and we think it would make things more unpredictable AND exciting again!

**Two last minute updates: (1) During Monday morning’s penultimate state of Tirreno-Adriatico, Sky lost control of the race, which took place in stormy conditions over terrain that featured several extremely steep, short climbs. I’d hate to think only Mother Nature or race route organizers can keep Sky from winning, though. (2) Peter Sagan is a monster! Early in the week he beat top speedsters Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel in a bunch sprint, and today jumped clear on a punchy climb along with grand tour favorites Joaquin Rodriguez and Vincenzo Nibali, with about 10 km left. The three worked well together, gaining nearly a minute on the field, putting Nibali in the leader’s jersey, with Sagan easily winning the sprint for the stage win (photo below). Look for “Peter the Great” to win one of this year’s spring classics!

Strade Bianche

   The heart of the spring classic races on the professional cycling calendar is a few weeks away, but a “new classic” is becoming a favorite of mine. The Strade Bianche is not only a great preview of the season ahead, but it features a fantastic route through beautiful country with some quirky features. The white roads race is held in the Tuscany region of Italy, on the outskirts of the majestic city of Siena. The race was first organized in October of 2007, but has found a space in early March as part of the European classics season. The race starts in Gaiole in Chianti (home of the wine, of course) and finishes in the famous Piazza del Campo in Siena (photo below), where the Palio horse races are held twice a year.

 

   The route consists of 190 kilometers through the region, including 70 kilometers of white gravel roads called sterrati. Sections of the route were originally used in a recreational race, or gran fondo – a name people in the states are getting used to hearing with such events popping up all over the place. In fact a fairly recent fondo was in the news because a participant was found to be doping, which is just so ridiculous, I’m not even going to comment any further!

   Watching the race on television is a unique event because at this period of late winter there is very little foliage on the trees and the riders are fairly unobscured during the helicopter shots that pan to catch the striking Tuscan landscape. You can really get a sense of the undulating roads (photo below) and the challenge facing the cyclists. The route builds nicely to a fantastic finish up the steep narrow roads that weave through the Romanesque-Gothic buildings into the Piazza del Campo.

 

   In the past, strategy in this race has been interesting, particularly because of the event’s presence in the cycling calendar, when fitness levels were all over the place within the pro peloton. However, as the prestige of Stade Bianche has grown, riders have used it as a springboard into the classics season, with more teams showing up near top condition with their top single-day racers.

   Saturday’s race featured an early break with a large group of hard chasing riders that included 2012 winner Fabian Cancellara and strong contenders such Rinaldo Nocentini, Greg Van Avermaet and Alejandro Valverde. With Moreno Moser and pre-race favorite Peter Sagan, the Cannondale team had the advantage of two strong riders present, and while the others were busy marking each other, Moser jumped clear late to reach the breakaway. Sagan could just relax, counter any moves, and let the others do the work to catch his teammate, knowing that he would then be fresh for the finish.

   In fact, the chasing group nearly caught Moser, but he had enough left to hold them off, jumping clear of his breakaway companions up the steep finish into the Piazza del Campo (photo below). As reward for being a faithful teammate, Sagan crossed the line in second place, blowing by the remaining riders as they weaved in exhaustion all over the final climb, and Nocentini claimed the third podium spot.