Category VII Cycling

Forget the Race to Replace. Forget Popovych. Discovery Channel needs to recognize the other winner of a major tour in their ranks, Il Falco, Paolo Savoldelli. Riding an impressive prologue, he barely edged out Alejandro Valverde – who had arguably the more impressive ride, given his relative abilities in the race against the clock.

While the difference between Savoldelli and Valverde was measured in the hundredths of a second, both put an impressive 4 seconds into Brad McGee, usually a man for the prologues. And McGee had earlier put four seconds between himself and the rest of the peloton... Impressive, indeed.

Savoldelli’s win underscores his ambitions to defend his Giro title, and Valverde’s effort will severely undermine team management’s efforts to quell expectations in Spain of an attempt at the overall in Spain. Salvodelli’s real test, of course, will come when he defends the maglia rosa, and sees whether or not Discovery Channel has enough confidence in him to support him fully in this year's attempt. Valverde for his part will not only need to confirm his abilities against the clock in a longer time trial, but he’ll also need to demonstrate an improvement in his climbing on Friday and Saturday’s stages. While he had a good Basque Tour, he was notably absent from the head of affairs on the tougher stages.

The prologue was also too short for the celebrated (at least by the throngs of German fans), if long-delayed, return to competitive cycling of Jan Ullrich. The once Tour favorite rolled through with a middling time, but like the others the real indication of his form will come later in the week. Unlike Savoldelli and Valverde, he won’t be testing his mettle against the best, hoping to be able to dictate the pace from the front. Instead, the challenge with Jan will be to roll with the group over the flat stages – and not humiliate himself by being beaten by the sprinters over the mountain passes.

Alejandro Valverde put paid to some criticisms that, like Hincapies, he’s good over 200 kms, but no more, winning Liege-Bastogne-Liege from a lead group of some 17 to roll into Ans. Liege is indeed La Doyenne, and in the past was always my favorite of the spring Classics. But it seems to be catching the bug that has infected Milan-San Remo, with the finishes increasingly seeming like a bunch sprint. Granted, the likes of Pettachi won’t soon be booming in at the front of the Liege “peloton,” but seemingly gone are the days when the selection was made a La Redoute, and the winning attacks were put in at the last on the climbs of Sart-Tilman or St. Nicholas.

Also seemingly gone are the days when the “Ardennes Double” (Fleche and Liege) was considered a rare achievement. The curiosity these days is of course when a rider wins one, but not the other…

Not to take anything away from Valverde’s win. An historic one at that: Alejandro was the first Spanish rider to claim the world’s oldest cycling race. Valverde has been progressing steadily over the few years of his young career, and looks now not only to fill the promise of Oscar Friere in producing an Iberian Classics winner, but perhaps more importantly for the Spanish cycling public, also looks to have what it takes to be a successful GC contender.

Indeed, immediately after the race, his team management was trying to quell what was expected to be a wildfire of speculation in the Spanish cycling press regarding Valverde’s chances in Paris. After all, Miguel Indurain and Pedor Delgado had only managed fourth in Liege. So today’s victory must be a portent of future success in Paris.

Certainly it would be sweet revenge for the runner up at the Madrid World’s to push the reigning champ out from cycling’s brightest limelight. While Boonen and Pettachi will certainly light up the opening week by rejoining swoards, Valverde could steal the attention when the real racing starts once Le Tour heads uphill. But the powers that be at Caisse d’Espargne are pooh-poohing such dreams – at least publicly and at least for now.

But then again, Valverde in the finale did handily beat Damiano Cunego, who only two years ago looked to be the archtype for the post-Armstrong generation. If not this year, the future does look to be open for Valverde’s ambitions. Indeed, to the extent that Liege is used as a barometer of the form of the major tour contenders, Valverde easily outclassed riders like Cunego and Basso. While the two arguably did more to animate the race proceedings, like his win earlier in Liege, Valverde controlled matter by not going with every break, keeping confidence in his finishing touch. He handed Cunego’s lunch to him, while Basso didn’t figure in the end…

On Tuesday the real “second season” – to borrow a phrase from the concurrent NHL playoffs – begins as the Tour of Romandie ushers in the season of the big stage races – and Jan Ullrich’s introduction to the 2006 season, period. Perhaps the greatest excitement this weekend from the pro peloton was not the racing in Belgium, but Bjarne Riis’s criticism of Ullrich in the Danish press. After meeting with his former lieutenant, Riis stated he was overweight and unmotivated. For his part, Udo Bölts, the D.S. at Gerolsteiner, and Ullrich’s top man in the mountains of the 1997 Tour who dispatched his captain to victory with the phrase “Qual Dich, du Sau!” (Dig deep, you sow) – and who gave the same title to his recently published memoir – dismissed Riis’s charges as a form of psychological warfare on behalf of Basso. While Bölts was perhaps more sympathetic to Ullrich, he was equally concerned that his tour preparations are wildly amiss. Noting that it was not only important for a Tour contender to have early season wins under his belt for self-confidence, but also that a team manager needs to see his Tour team tested under various conditions of the year – something that T-Mobile have not yet managed this season.

Defusing attention from Riis himself, but also sharpening the focus of the general criticism, Bölts notes, “it doesn’t matter if you ask Bjarne Riis, Patrick Lefèvere or me. We would all ask, why hasn’t he yet raced a single event?”

Alejandro Valverde took the his first Classics win today, with an impressive sprint at the top of the Mur de Huy to capture the Fleche Wallone. Oddly, most of the commentary has commented on the apparent ease with which he one, easily pulling away from Samuel Sanchez – the main protagonist at the Basque Country Tour – and CSC’s on-form Karsten Kroon. In the race I saw, though, Valverde’s sprint was anything but easy or undramatic. In fact, after making an initial move, he added a second, strong kick as it appeared that Kroon and Sanchez were actually coming up even with the Madrilleno.

The Fleche isn’t what it used to be – 250 kms and on the day before Liege – but it is still an impressive race (even if the organizers decided to include a detour through what appeared to be downtown Beirut before hitting the foot of the Mur) and an impressive win for the talented Valverde.

In a more general point in response to Cosmo’s criticism of Tom Boonen’s palmares, it’s worth pointing out that Valverde is another impressive representative of the emerging generation of cycling heroes. (It’s also worth pointing out that The Cyclocosm is one of the best cycling blogs out there and the points Cosmo raises aren’t petty, but deserving of a response.)

In the first instance, dismissing Boonen’s accomplishments so early in his career seems foolhardy at best. It is easy to forget that the amiable (that’s twice now I’ve called him that) Belgian is only 25 – after all, he rides the cobbles with the savvy of a much more grizzled veteran.

And each day that his contemporaries win another big race, it does improve Boonen’s stock, using Cosmo’s Thevenet Rule.

But in my view, the most impressive aspect of the Boonens and Valverdes is their challenge of the specialization of the pro peloton. Given that such specialization is in large part a by-product of the infusion of money into the sport – and hence the pressure for teams and riders to succeed – targeting more than a few weeks’ worth of races is dangerous. The jack-of-all trades is a master of none, and the master of no race finds himself without a contract, just as the team with no wins finds itself losing sponsorship.

Tour champions no longer contest Classics. (In fact, similarly viewed in the context of Merckx’s accomplishments outside of the Tour during his five victories, Lance’s seven wins still seem somewhat thin. But just as Lance cannot be criticized for competing at the top level of the sport in his day, neither should Boonen.)

Boonen has challenged specialization to a degree. In addition to the Classics, he’s one of the very few that can take on Alessandro Pettachi in a straight-up sprint. While he’s not likely to “make a run at the Giro,” at least not for the maglia rosa, he is a sure fire bet to win stages and take some points jerseys should he ride the grand tours to the end. Moreover, Boonen is a man for all seasons, if not yet for all road gradients. Known now for his dominance in the Spring, his World’s title came in September, following stage wins in France and Spain.

More impressive in this regard, however, is Alejandro Valverde. A true all-around talent – approaching the master of all – Valverde has shown he can sprint, climb, and now deliver that extra type of punch that the Classics demand. Courchevel, too, showed his promise for the general classification – and certainly a top placing in Paris figures largely in his planning for the season. (Thus, for the first time in an epoch, Liege on Sunday will see two hopefuls for Le Tour – Valverde and Basso – also hoping to emerge victorious at La Doyenne.)

Some riders in the course of their careers come to change their major focus. Zabel shifted from field sprints to the Classics. Basso was originally a man for one-day racing. Now he has in mind 23. Di Luca, too, may be thinking more about the general classification than stage wins after his flirtation with the pink jersey last season. And of course Lance made a major shift in his cycling goals.

But what distinguishes these riders from the likes of Boonen, Vlaverde, and – should he confirm his promise after a disappointing 2005 sophomore season – Damiano Cunego, is that the young guns from the beginning of their careers have no placed limitations on their ambitions.

We can continue to look at these riders with the pantheon of the past in the forefront of our mind, discounting their accomplishments in the modern era. Or instead, we can look at them recognizing that while their careers are only just dawning, they hold the promise not only of the modern peloton, but also of raising the bar for the riders that will come after them.

Similar to the Quick Step squad, whose perennial dominance in the Classics seems to be a by-product of the team’s discipline, CSC’s more recent runs along victory lane seem to be similarly fueled by a well-functioning team spirit. The two teams formulate this chemistry in very different fashions. For Quick Step, the marching orders come from the top down – seemingly the consummate professional organization, the riders know the objectives, and their role in the organization. As far as the Classics are concerned, they are the Yankees.

In many respects, then, the CSC boys represent the Idiots that were the Red Sox. The team gels in a much more relaxed environment, where, by the accounts of the riders, their friendship is the most important motivating factor. In the post-race interview, Schleck tells that Riis was screaming in his earpiece “Go! Go! Go! I believe in you!” So much for the thought that his attack was a feint for Kroon… But also standing in pretty stark contrast to what words of encouragement one might expect from the Quick Step team car.

Perhaps its not surprising that CSC should have a more easy-going atmosphere. One normally reserved for the autobus, where the sprinters can enjoy the scenery and a few jokes as they make their way across the Alps just avoiding the time cutoff. This time from the front of the peloton, CSC is apparently a team intent on defying all of cycling’s conventions. The top prize in the sport is of course the final yellow jersey of the Tour de France. But Ivan Basso is audaciously throwing caution to the win by training for the Tour by attempting to bag the maglia rosa of the Giro. And next Sunday he’ll attempt to go old school by trying to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege in the same year as the Tour. As of late, it has seemed that Emily Post ruled that Tour contenders were not to sully themselves in such vulgar pursuits as contesting the Classics.

CSC has created such lofty goals for themselves they seem destined to fail. Yet the team stands in sharp relief to others who seem unable to deal effectively with pressure to perform (for Exhibit 1, please see Jan Ullrich and the T-Mobile Squad, for Exhibit 2, VDB, for Exhibit 3, George Hincapie. Ok, so this time it wasn’t really his fault, and it is a bit unseemly to kick a man when he’s down. So we’ll put Exhibit 3 on ice until he’s mended and then start the criticisms again).

Certainly the dynamic will begin to change for the team on Sunday, when they provide one of the favorites for the race, and will be looked upon to take a larger role in controlling the state of affairs. But an easy going attitude – coupled with a pair of classy wins in the ProTour this week – will help smooth out any bumps along the ride, and should help the squad arrive in July ready to tackle their most important objective of the season.

Apparently domination is overrated. Rabobank controlled the peloton and much of the race for the day, and T-Mobile not only created the winning break, but ensured they had a numerical advantage in the move as well. Still, Frank Schleck was able to show them both to the lower rungs of the final podium, reserving the top spot for himself on the day after his birthday. And the win marked the second consecutive ProTour Classic to go to the CSC squad, which is becoming adept at controlling races without dominating them.

Schleck read the sometimes puzzling Amstel race perfectly. Not an easy task, given that the apparent motivation behind the course is to tour every retail outlet for Amstel Beer in southern Holland. Thus we get 250 kms of racing crammed into about 10 square kms of the Low Countries. The need to showcase the various bars and taverns of the Limburg region also created something less than stability in the race course – in recent practice, the course was more or less laid out by a trained chimp with an etch-a-sketch.

But in the last few runnings, the finish has been moved to the top of the Cauberg in Valkenberg (which is also ascended twice), and the 22% Keutenberg has been moved from its previous spot about half-way through the race to the penultimate climb – just 11 kms before the finish.

The result has been an assured selection (if the grade of the Keutenberg doesn’t thin out the peloton, the narrowness of the road will), and a more “classic” finish in Valkenberg, compared with the bunch sprints that were becoming more common at the end of the 1990’s. The CSC Luxembourg national champ on passing the summit of the Keutenberg, likely noted that the leaders seemed content to fight in out on the Cauberg, and went off in dramatic style.

Steffan Weseman, who had earlier initiated the winning move, was the only rider to seriously pursue him. The group may have considered Schleck’s move a feint to set up a win for Karsten Kroon, CSC’s favorite for the day. And indeed, Kroon did dutifully mark Paolo Bettini, seemingly in anticipation of jumping away with the Olympic champ if the group reintegrated the breakaways. But Schleck, who was runner up in Lombardy last year, had to be considered a threat on his own, as certainly Weseman – who had been animating the race all day – was a real threat. Michael Boogerd, whose Rabobank squad considers Amstel its home race, looked not like a rider in a nine-man break, but very much in a no-man’s land: he had missed the move ahead, but wasn’t sure if he should wait for reinforcements from behind. The hesitation left him to fight it out for third – which he handled in impressive fashion.

CSC thus took its second ProTour Classic in the course of a week. In each case it is easy to argue that the best rider of the day won, albeit without the best team, the winner’s estimation that CSC was “the best team in the world, and I’m proud to be in it,” notwithstanding. But even without dominating the races, CSC is able to control them, perhaps a foreboding omen for those seeking to stand in their captain Ivan Basso’s way as he aims at the Giro-Tour double.

Welcome to cycling math. Perhaps in atonement for leaving their captain naked and alone in the wolfpack known as the pro peloton, Quick Step today ensured that Tom Boonen would be ensconced in a phalanx of no less than seven teammates in the close to both the Flemish Classics Season, and Boonen’s own classics campaign. The World champ did not disappoint, out-sprinting his teammate Stephen De Jongh at the end of the Sheldepreis.

Taken over the two days, giving Boonen the support of 3.5 riders doesn’t look half bad. But given that Sheldepreis is not even half the race of Roubaix, it is at best a bittersweet victory. Because in this victory is a remembrance of what might have been just three days prior: Boonen’s wooden legs likely were not from fatigue at his wildly successful early season, but rather at having to do all his own work. Granted, Sheldepreis is 50 kms shorter than Roubaix – and naturally distance isn’t the primary energy-sapping element of the Queen of the Classics – but it does seem fairly clear that Boonen would not have needed a Iron Horse of a train to help move him on to the podium in Roubaix’s velodrome.

The balance for the four days then, is one victory. Not bad perhaps, , and again, in the context of the early season, two other victories in Monuments will provide a salve. But the boys of Quick Step cannot take consolation from the result today.

Jean-Marie Leblanc’s word may not be the last word on the race, but they are the race organizer’s last words on his final Paris-Roubaix. Noting that the affair of the train crossing and the subsequent disqualifications of Leif Hoste, Vladimir Gusev, and Peter Van Petegem, had completely overshadowed the victory of Fabian Cancellara, Leblanc stated (via the Radsport-news.com interview), “more has been talked about the disqualification in the finish than over Cancellara.”

Seems somewhat surprising since the controversy seems so incredibly overblown. First of all, it is a pretty crystal clear rule: don’t cross the train tracks when the barriers are down. Even a Cat. VII rider knows that one. Second of all, the “justification” given is that Cancellara’s victory was assured, so the transgressors did not affect the race outcome. If so, then why the need to go around the barriers? If the gap over the pursuing Boonen were the issue, then I’d agree the first three should have been given the advantage, the same as if the train had impeded a breakaway. But even more fundamentally, racing is racing – and riders have to take what comes. And if a train interferes with the best laid plans, then deal with it.

But back to Cancellara. Significantly he is credited by almost all the other riders with being the best rider on the day. Not strongest as is the want after a Classic, but the BEST. Which he was. Leblanc in fact was almost gushing: “It was a beautiful win by a young rider, who reminded me of Boonen last year. He is a young man, who we already knew was a good rouleur, who relishes the risks, and who is an elegant rider. He represents the new generation of cycling.”

It is interesting that Leblanc speaks of generations, since his term as head of the Societe du Tour de France spans several cycling generations. He first directed the Tour in 1989, witnessing Lemond’s remarkable win. This year he’ll crown the successor to Armstrong’s record seven wins before heading off the scene. The race has changed from an very odd American riding peering out of Oakley Pilots atop a down-tube shifted steel bike – complete with clips and straps and an odd aerodynamic bar extension – to another dominating American gliding seemingly effortlessly atop an STI- and clipless pedal equipped carbon fiber bike, with another specially designed TT machine.

More than the bikes have changed – the focus has also changed. Lemond brought a near singular focus on the Tour which Armstrong perfected, but other riders similarly concentrated on a single race. Van Petegem on Flanders. Bartoli on Liege. Zabel on San Remo. Ballerini on Roubaix.

And now the focus has been on Boonen, and his incredible run over the past twelve months. But Leblanc’s praise also serves as a reminder that as great as Boonen’s ride has been – and as even greater his future promise is – he is only one of a new generation. Rider like Cancellara, Alejandro Valverde, and Damino Cunego, to mention only a few, will be the riders who stamp their own character on future races. Boonen and quick Step’s dominance may have served to obscure the quality of the competition, but to underestimate the other young guns of the peloton is to do them, and Boonen, and indeed, the current state of pro cycling, and extreme disservice.

The human mind searches for agency. That is, it seeks to find a larger reason behind seemingly random events. Such as why Geogre Hincapie and the Discovery Channel Team seems to always be denied their day at Paris-Roubaix.

Viewing the past seven runnings of the race, it would seem the Queen of the Classics is less the Hell of the North than a certain type of purgatory. Just like the waters of Salem would accept the righteous maidens and reject the wickedness of the witch, the paves of northern France accept those pure of heart into the velodrome of Roubaix, while summarily dismissing the others from its cobbled spine.

Stripped of the millenarian theology currently in vogue (since we’re not ones for bandwagons), the verdict, as laid down by Cosmo, is clear: Hincapie and Co. are Cursed.

It’s an old saw that a rider needs luck to win Paris-Roubaix. OF course, some luck riders manufacture for themselves – other times it is clearly up to their manufacturers alone.

George Hincapie provided an example of the latter in the tenth sector of paves in La Pascuale (though it takes place a week too early to earn its name this year). Sitting pretty with three teammates in the decisive break – though curiously all three Discovery Team riders were at the back of the group – and with Tom Boonen isolated from his Quick Step teammates, Hincapie looked to finally be able to break out of his own Roubaix doldrums an win a cobblestone of his very own for the mantle piece. Surely there was no way Disco could misplay their hand this time.

It was at this moment that Hincapie’s stem cleanly separated from the rest of his bike. The South Carolina transplant from New York threw his hands in the air in the fashion of a southern revival, calling upon the Lord to grant him the balance to ride no handed for the final 30 odd miles. No such luck – George dumped unceremoniously on the side of the road, his race done.

In contrast, Boonen’s poor fortunues in the Hell of the North were of his own making. In fact, his strength inadvertently revealed his weakness. The move he made that initiated the winning break, also served to isolate Boonen from any support – none of his teammates were able to make the break with him. And while the focus has been on Tornado Tom all season (and much of last), a key to his success has been the strength of his Quick Step team. Left to his own devices, the need to follow each acceleration, and to make a few mini-attacks of his own, left his legs wooden, and eventually unable to follow either the winning break, or even the main chase. It’s difficult to call failure to repeat the Double-Double a “failure,” but certainly Boonen would have preferred going into his break before the national tours with a little piece of history. Though he may contest the Amstel Gold Race, Boonen is showing signs of some fatique, and could probably use a reasonable break before he locks horns with Pettachi in the major tours. And if all goes well, we may see a battle royale between the peloton’s top sprinters, sparring for the green jersey through to Paris.

The man who did, in the words of Museeuw, “had the lucky” was Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara. Covering the attack by the weakest of the three Disco riders , Vladimir Gusev, and moments later dropping the Russian with nary a thought. Cancellara looked to be put into about as much stress as he was in his winning Tour prologue ride in grinding out the final kilometers of the race solo, and cruised around the velodrome for an easy win. As if any win in Roubaix is “easy.”

But the day of luck wasn’t over. The race commissioners disqualified the first pursuing trio of Gusev, Leif Hoste, and Peter Van Petegem, after the three clearly ducked train barriers to continue their pursuit of Cancellara. The decision gave Boonen second place on the podium, but a decision that provided neither consoled nor even sat well with the amiable Belgian.

For those unfortunate enough to be on Scott Coady’s e-mail list (he of “The Tour, Baby” fame or otherwise – I’d make a link, but frankly don’t want to encourage him), you received an incredible insight into the true workings of cycling.

The e-mail begins eerily enough like the annoying praise e-mails I get from evangelical relatives, asking “Hard Core Cycling Fans” to include George in our thoughts and prayers ahead of his most important Paris-Roubaix ever. Not only is this George’s favorite race, but he must stop the evil Boonen from accomplishing the Flanders-Roubaix Double-Double.

Coady tells us the strategy is damn near infallible: “IS it possible that there are more George Hincapie fans in the US and around the world than there are Belgians who root for Tom? Also, with so many Belgian riders, the Belgian fan base may be split among them where as everyone in the US can rally behind George. Let’s collectively will George to win this Sunday, just as we used to do for Lance as he charged up one of those climbs or during a long TT.”

So training be damned – literally. It wasn’t Lance’s determination, or training, or sheer will that allowed him to dominate at the Tour – IT WAS US! So stop the presses on the power of prayer, we have incontrovertible evidence of its effectiveness.

But consider for a moment the downside: if George loses on Sunday even with the spiritual support of the good ol’ U.S. of A, shouldn’t this be taken as a sure sign that he is the spawn of the devil and cast out from our midst? Possibly to be stoned? Or will the Lord call him and Jimmy Swaggert “home” if he doesn’t live up to the potential?

While Coady seems to definitely have a screw loose, if George wants to win on Sunday, he better make sure he does not. It’s Hincapie’s mental game that still remains he chief weakness. While he told Cyclingnews.com that he’s working with a mental coach now, you’d be hard-pressed to tell. Oddly enough, it is only the fiercely-criticized Leif Hoste – Hincapie’s teammate at Discovery Channel – that rides like he can beat Boonen. Certainly his Flanders ride wasn’t to perfection – far, in fact, from it. But at least he took the race to Boonen. The first part of his attack was perfect, if he botched the end.

Then again, that’s the same mistake Hincapie made last year in Roubaix, chasing down Juan Antonio Flecha’s late attacks, giving Boonen a free ride into the velodrome where he made short work of South Carolina’s professional athlete of the year. Boonen himself recognized that his own mental edge would be decisive in last year’s race. Afterwards he commented (in this German interview), “I’m always calm, and that certainly makes a difference. I knew in the finale today with Hincapie and Flecha, that I would be the least nervous. Hincapie has still not won a big race [Damn!]. Flecha, the Championship of Zurich, but for him a situation like today was nonetheless new. In such a finale, it’s absolutely critical to remain calm and cool.”

If Hincapie can enter such a Zen-like state, there is no reason that he can’t once again push Boonen to the limit or even beat the world’s most feared rider. But his mental game will have to be as much “on form” as his actual physical riding seems to be.

If his mental coach can bring that about, then perhaps she should then turn to convincing Hincapie that publishing these pictures (especially from July 26) aren’t going to do him any good either.

One of the under-appreciated aspects of Lance’s pro career was that he had so completely eclipsed other English-speaking riders that Americans would no longer be subjected to the insufferable tales of woe English racing writers and fans spun about Tom Simpson. Cycling Revealed, however, found it necessary to resuscitate the Simpson’s spectre for its monthly feature.

Then again, for riders caught in a two-man breakaway with the current champion of Flanders, the description of Simpson’s 1961 winning sprint in the Ronde should be required reading.

If yesterday’s stage helped exorcise the demons of a horrific early season start for Euskadi, today showed that the Basque Tour could well be the national celebration the squad was hoping for. Samuel Sanchez for the second day in a row outsprinted Alberto Contador (although that characterization is being generous in its description of Contador’s ability in the final few meters…) taking again the day’s honors and holding the leader’s jersey. Contador and a handful of others remains a threat for the overall, given Sanchez’s limited time trialing ability (similar to Contador’s sprinting prowess), but Sanchez has clearly salvaged Euskadi’s honor and will keep the flag waving high through the end.

Today’s stage also reminded why the Basque Tour today has a rep as a solid preparation race for Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the other Ardennes races – the end straight ascended one of those sick, short, but ultra steep freaks of nature that the Belgian and Dutch countryside seems so adept at creating. That Rebellin was hard charging up the final ascent, certainly bodes well for Gerolsteiner’s prospects at Fleche Wallone and Liege. And similarly, Cadel Evans’ strong showing has to boost morale at Davitamon-Lotto. Along with Valverde (who lost contact with the front group on the final ascent today), Ivan Basso (winner of the short TT at Sarthe today) and Paolo Bettini, these riders will likely be the core protagonists at La Doyenne in a few weeks’ time.

So perhaps there are some dents in Quick Step’s armor after all. Thor Hushovd was able to take a measure of revenge for a poor run at Flanders by winning the mid-week classic at Ghent-Wevelgem. In the final sprint, he came around the tired legs of Alessandro Pettachi to sweep past a fading Filippo Pozzato. Pozzato had tried to repeat his Milan-San Remo feat by holding off the sprinters with another late run. Going from more than a kilometer out, he also managed it – in the end he was fourth.

Overwhelming favorite for any race he enters Tom Boonen rode a comparatively quiet race, indicating he felt dead on the first climb of the Kemmelberg. Nevertheless, his weakness underscored Quick Step’s strength: realizing the Force wasn’t with him today, he released the rest of the Quick Step storm troopers to ride their own races.

And that’s a key to maintaining team discipline. Lance used to talk about the fear of seeing disappointment on his teammates’ faces at the dinner table if he failed to win after they sacrificed so much for him. Such fear motivated Armstrong to countless victories. The flip side of that is having the character to let your team know that you don’t have it – and allowing them to ride their own race (or take an easy spin along with Boonen).

Contrast that with certain other prima donnas of the peloton. Last year Paolo Bettini accused Alessandro Pettachi of letting the Squadra Azzurri know too late he wasn’t in top form, costing the Olympic gold medalist his chance at the World’s title. A similar situation went down with VDB at the Verona World’s in 1999 – he didn’t let his teammates know he was riding with a broken wrist. And then we were all also entertained with the pathetic fiction that Joseba Beloki could continue to be competitive in the Tour de France, keeping Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano by his side, dooming the chances of both men.

Quick Step is successful in the classics because they avoid these problems. They do require sacrifices from all their riders, but at the same time, their riders also know their chances will come. And they also know that on a day when the captain’s legs feel like mine, they won’t be riding in vain.

Sammy Sanchez ended Euskadi’s dubious distinction as the only ProTour team without a win this season in dramatic fashion. Sanchex bridged up to the leaders on the final climb, and attacked with panache on the descent, holding off the Valverde-led pack for the stage honors and the overall lead. In front of the home crowd at “their” race, it provided the long-delayed kick-off to Euskadi’s campaign that they desperately needed.

Although the day belonged to Euskadi, Alejandro Valverde had to be happy as well with his ride – similar to the Basque team, Valverde’s slow early season had raised some concern about his future, but he now seems set to confirm the promise shown last July. Indeed, the Basque country Tour is serving as a re-introduction to the men who will be looking to stamp their authority on Le Tour: in addition to Valverde, Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, Miguel Martin Perdiguero represent the cream of the young crop of riders, while the long-tooth crowd is represented by Michael Boogerd, Davide Rebellin, and Aitor Osa at the top of the overall standings.

In stark contrast stands the man who would be (once again) king: Jan Ullrich. With the latest setback because of a knee flare-up, the Tour of Romandie is contemplated as the Kaiser’s introduction to competitive racing in 2006. Although Jan has shown in the past remarkable form with far less than ideal preparations for the Tour, this is freakin’ ridiculous. Riders like Thomas Dekker, Iban Mayo, and Danilo DiLuca – who each lost significant time in today’s stage – can still all be reasonably said to not only have more advanced preparations for any possible assault on the Tour, but Jan’s incredible natural talent notwithstanding, ALL must be considered greater favorites than the German at this point. All these riders will assemble more racing miles – at a competitive level, no less – in the Basque Tour, than Jan is likely to complete in total before the Tour.

Certainly Jan’s position as the “number one favorite” was always something as a default position. But increasingly, his chances of ending up in Paris on top of the podium are looking to be about the same as Hincapie’s...

Preparations for the post-Boonen season started up in Spain today with the usually unheralded Tour of the Basque Country. (VeloNews in contrast with most other cycling new sites actually has a pretty good write-up of the first stage here.) Good news for the Spanish as the race shows a good return to form of Oscar Friere – skipping the cobbled classics for fear of re-tweaking his always sketchy back – and Alejandro Valverde. The former has to be pleased with being able to contest the sprint after making it over the Jaizkibel, and the latter at being able to just pip – by a single centimeter – the former world champion.

The race is usually an important barometer of who will come to the fore when the cycling calendar enters the real meat of the calendar, beginning with La Doyenne Liege-Bastogne-Liege and carrying straight through to the Tour de France. Valverde in particular has to be happy with the result, as he tries to confirm the promise he showed last year with an inspired Tour de France ride before being forced to withdraw with injuries. Targeting Liege and the Tour, there were questions regarding his form, given his lack of early season success this season – those should be put to rest now. He has already stated his intention to carry the leader’s jersey all the way through the final time trial, and an attacking ride through one of the mountainous stages will probably be in keeping not only with that ambition, but his larger season goals as well.

Friere’s ride is impressive for his being able to adjust to terrain not terribly suited to him, especially in comparison with the flatter profiles of Ghent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix. Of course, neither of those races have room for riders afraid of cobbles. But Friere does send a signal that the hills of the Ardennes – especially the slightly more forgiving hills of the Amstel Gold – should not be a formidable obstacle to the three-time winner of the rainbow jersey. And depending on where he rides, Friere is also likely to be able to throw down with the inevitable Boonen-Pettachi duels playing out in the opening stages of the national tours this year as well. Provided his back is up to the strain, an attempt at the green jersey in Paris might also be in the cards.

Not a completely happy day for Spanish cycling, though – nothing of note from the Euskadi team. Under a lot of pressure for their lack of great results the past few seasons, the squad is feeling the pinch from sponsors, but also probably a bit too the prospect of not receiving a new ProTour license, once the whole debacle on the race series is resolved. The squad was looking to make an impression in their “home” race. Probably did not go down well being overshadowed by the more prominent faces of Spanish cycling today – which just means they should be in a position to animate tomorrow’s stage as well.

A funny thing happened on the way home from the world championships: instead of being outfitted with the regular rainbow jersey complete with the Curse imbued in its very essence, Boonen apparently had one fashioned out of Kevlar, making him bullet proof. And taking a break from the storied Yankees Stadium, Mystique and Aura have taken up residence in the team car of the Quick Step squad, leading the boys on their shock and awe campaign unleashed in the one day classics against the pro peloton.

Over at Cyclocosm.com, Cosmo’s ranting about Discovery Channels’ apparent satisfaction with riding for second place against Boonen. It seems a common affliction these days – notice Ballan’s surrender without a fight in Harleberke. And Hincapie’s perfection of futility at Roubaix started off the Hincapiesta movement here (read especially the comments, and the follow-up here).

It is certainly easy to make the case that Boonen’s (and Quick Step’s) success has been infectious – that is that each successive victory simply wears down the opposition’s willingness to resist. After all, Boonen has shown he can beat you in all situations – field sprints, solo attacks, counter-attacks. And pressure is obviously not a concern, after all it is hard to imagine more pressure being put on the rider than Sunday, where even second place would have been regarded as failure to a large portion of his fan base. But for all the so-called pressure, Tommy Boy seed to actually be relishing the hard run through the Flemish countryside. Similar to Lance’s run though the Tour, finishing second to Boonen in a Classic seems accomplishment enough – a fact that seems reflected on the faces and cadences of the ranks of the also-rans.

Certainly the mental aspect of the game is huge, especially in the Classics, and certainly Boonen’s unbelieveable run of success of late is due in large part to his own mental preparations. But focusing only on this dimension sells short another crucial aspect: Quick Step is simply decimating the field. No quarter at all is given by the squad, and not the smallest vulnerability is being shown by this team. In Milan-San Remo, they made sure that Alessandro Pettachi’s Milram squad had to spend its energy chasing early breaks by ensuring that a dangerous Quick Stepper went with each one. And while Disco managed to put two of its top one-day men in the final Flanders break, Quick Step ruled that bunch with no less than four riders. Based on the pure numbers alone, it is perhaps no wonder that the American squad was content with the sloppy seconds for Hoste and the extra bonus of taking the “field” sprint with Hincapie.

Cosmo may be right that the Quick Step team riders weren’t necessarily outclassing the other riders in the field. Peter Van Petegem cannot be ruled out in Flanders, and Alessadro Ballan, Andreas Klier had to be taken seriously, and even Hincapie himself had to at least be reckoned with. But Quick Step had three additional riders policing these guys, basically negating the possibilities of a break that wouldn’t be covered.

But what else are we to expect from a super squad that has had dominance in cycling’s single day prizes as its near exclusive focus since its inception. Again, like Lance’s USPS and Discovery Channel Team’s, there was a singularity to their focus and a precision in implementation that quite simply left everyone else in their wake, scrambling for second place. If anyone is to emerge to seriously challenge Quick Step on a regular basis, they will have to similarly emulate this commitment to the perfect one day race. Because even stopped once – after all, racing is racing, and even one lapse in a one-day race and victory is lost – the same Quick Step team with the same focus and the same dedication, will be on the start line at the next event on the calendar.

And once again Erik Zabel and the rest will have a “problem.”

“Is a rider named Tom Boonen at the start?”
“Yep.”
“Then I have a problem.”

The sentiment was shared by many more than Erik Zabel at the start of the Tour of Flanders today, and the problems only grew with the miles. Consider the predicament Discovery Channel found themselves in. Leif Hoste, the newly crowned winner of the Three Days of DePanne, launched a successful attack from the lead group of riders, only to find the aforementioned Boonen stuck on his back wheel. But it was probably Disco’s best card, since a counter move from Hincapie to bring back Boonen only would have twoed up Boonen’s teammates Paolo Bettini and Filippo Pozato, not to mention other big guns like Peter Van Petegem and Alessandro Ballan. Quick Step once again had the ProTour peloton caught in a vice, and proceeded to turn the screws…

In short, Boonen is the perfect rider these days: a fast finisher, he is similarly capable of attacking, counter-attacking, and making sure he is in all the right moves. (Hey, don’t blame me if you click through.) Unlike other sprinters-turned-classics riders (read: Erik Zabel), he is not content riding a passive race, hoping to use a sprint at the end. As in Flanders last year and Harleberke this year, he is equally capable of initiating the winning break and pressing home a winning flyer. Coupled with an incredibly strong Quick Step team that holds more cards than should be legal in the one day races, Boonen has become a virtually unstoppable force.

For good reason he will once again be the odd’s on favorite next week for the Queen of the Classics – Paris-Roubaix. True enough, the winner of the Hell of the North often times has a fair bit of luck on their side. But in Boonen’s case, he is often able to fashion his own luck. Consider again the current edition of Flanders, where the Koppenberg forced three-quarters of the elite professional cyclists contesting the race were forced to dismount and push their rides, “like grandmothers on their way to the bakery,” in the description of Radsport-news.com. Knowing the potential for a logjam to force the de facto winning break, Boonen ensured that he was at the head of affairs when the race hit the fabled climb.

Perhaps the only thing that will eventually contain Boonen is geography. In a few weeks, the calendar brings us the Ardennes races with Amstel Gold, Felche Wallone, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege – complete with enough hills to clip the World Champion’s wings.

But while those races will also serve as a barometer for the men who seek to succeed Lance as the overall winners of the Tour de France, in a similar fashion, Boonen has already laid a claim for his own share of Armstrong’s vacated place at the head of cycling’s elite table. Just as in the past few years riders seemed content to be riding for second place at Le Tour, pretenders to the classics titles can only laugh at the “problem” they have when Boonen is also contesting the race. And one can only imagine the despair of the poor sap gone in a two-up break away with the rainbow jersey. As if the outcome was ever in doubt.