2011 Team-By-Team Season Preview: Quick Step

Posted on February 9, 2011 by


Fotoreporter Sirotti


Each year, Pavé previews the upcoming road season with a countdown of the top-20 teams in the sport.  Yesterday we covered teams at 15 and 16.

#14 – Quick Step

I hate to say it, but Quick Step’s not even the best team in Belgium anymore.  Thanks to Philippe Gilbert, Jurgen Van den Broeck, and the rest of Omega Pharma-Lotto, they’re now the “other guys” of Belgian Cycling.  Need further proof? Patrick Lefevere sold a majority stake in the team to two Czech millionaires in order to raise the money necessary to guarantee the team’s existence for at least another 3 years—and to buy the contract of Czech cyclocross star Zdenek Stybar.  If that’s not desperation, then I don’t know what is.

That said, despite a rough 2010 and an arguably rough transfer season for the team, there’s still a lot of firepower left in the stable.  Tom Boonen is one of the sport’s most dominant superstars when he’s on his game—Tommeke was shut out during last year’s classics after winning at least one in five of the prior six seasons.  And while Stijn Devolder left for Vacansoleil, Sylvain Chavanel could prove to be an even better replacement as he’s shown an ability to perform well in Flanders and on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix—a race in which Devolder failed to impress.

Quick Step’s offseason imports include Gerald Ciolek and Francesco Chicchi, two sprinters who will look to score stage wins in minor stage races and Grand Tours, with Ciolek an outside bet to win one at the Tour should he and Boonen get their lead-out right.  And don’t forget Niki Terpstra—the reigning Dutch champ progressed steadily during his time at Milram.  With a stronger team and at a least a slightly protected role, he could be a surprise winner of one of this spring’s semi-classics.  Last but not least, Gert Steegmans returns to Quick Step for 2011, hoping to repeat some of the success he had while riding for the team three years ago.  If he stays healthy through February and March, he’ll be yet another card for Quick Step to play in April.

As far as GC riders are concerned, there was talk of Kevin Seeldraeyers joining VDBeke to form a new generation of Belgian Grand Tour contenders, but he failed miserably in 2010—he’ll have to pull a good result at some point this year to avoid being labeled as Belgium’s Remi DiGregorio. Luckily, he’s only 24—there’s still time for a turnaround.

But in the end, the success of Quick Step’s season will again be determined by mid- April.  Should Boonen find himself on the top step at either Roubaix or Flanders (I’d prefer to see him take a third Ronde), all will be right with the wereld.  After all, yellow jerseys and Tour stages are nice, but considering how the team’s imports have been the ones earning them, they’re hollow victories to most of the team’s home fans.

Man of the Hour: Sylvain Chavanel was the darling of last year’s Tour de France, fighting valiantly to take two stages and the yellow jersey.  Chavanel’s July success underscored his talent—talent that went largely absent during the cobbled classics early in the season.  But without Stijn Devolder, Chavanel will have the support and freedom to function as Tom Boonen’s first lieutenant—a role he often lacked thanks to the presence of two talented Belgians above him on the totem pole.  Chava’s currently targeting Paris-Nice—a race in which he’s performed well in the past.  Should things go well there, expect the Frenchman to contend from Dwars door Vlaanderen through Paris-Roubaix.

On the Hot Seat: 2010 was arguably Tom Boonen’s most lackluster season since becoming a professional.  The season started well enough with second-place finishes in Milan-San Remo, the E3 Prijs, and the Tour of Flanders (and fifth in Roubaix).  But for Tom Boonen, second place isn’t good enough—especially in the classics.  With a stage win already in Qatar, Boonen looks to have shaken-off the effects of his knee injury from last year’s ATOC.  But rest assured, with powerful teams like LEOPARD TREK and Garmin-Cervelo ready to challenge Quick Step in the classics and compatriot Philippe Gilbert enjoying “most popular rider” status in Belgium, Boonen will be feeling the heat this spring.

Up-and-Comer: Should Boonen, Ciolek, and Steegmans head to this year’s Tour healthy and in-form, Quick Step will have the makings of one of the race’s most up-and-coming lead-out trains.  Boonen and Steegmans have won Tour field sprints in the past—they might be better served at this point in their careers pulling for the younger, faster Ciolek.

Best Pick-Up: My gut tells me Niki Terpstra is about to enjoy a breakout season.  At 26, the Dutchman’s entering his prime, a fact indicated by consistent performance in last year’s cobbled classics (highlighted by third-place finish in Dwars door Vlaanderen while riding for a relatively underpowered Milram squad).  This year he gets to ride for a team that knows how to win these races, while having the added benefit of a team captain who will attract most of the attention.  Dwars, Harelbeke, and the Brabantsepijl—watch for Terpstra’s red, white, and blue jersey.

Biggest Loss: Carlos Barredo and Stijn Devolder are bigger names, but Quick Step lost two valuable domestiques in Kevin Hulsmans and Maarten Wijnants this past off-season—men that will be missed in the classics.  Hulsmans is the biggest loss—one of Boonen’s most reliable assistants, the Belgian had been with Quick Step since 2000 and knows every centimeter of road in Belgium and northern France.   Wijnants is younger, but no less valuable—he finished inside the top-15 in E3, the Ronde, and Paris-Roubaix last year, results that likely caught the eye of Rabobank, his new employer.

Share your comments and predictions for Quick Step’s 2011 season below.

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Early Season Sprinting

Posted on February 9, 2011 by

If you’ve been watching the races that mark the start of the professional cycling season, you may notice a certain level of chaos that distinguishes these early season races from the more well-organized sprints that happen in later in the season. While a bunch sprint is one of the more dangerous things one can do on a bicycle, there’s a certain choreography to it – particularly during the Grand Tours. Two or three sprinters’ teams organize leadout trains in the final 5 kilometers. A few opportunists rub shoulders behind the sprinter whose train emerges dominant with a little over a kilometer remaining. In the end, the leadout is so fast that at most, only a small handful of riders are legitimately sprinting – everybody else is just too far behind.

This level of coordination, however, is absent in the early-season races. What makes early season racing so different from mid-season racing?

1. Riders are just into the early edges of their fitness. A sprint is controlled when one or two teams can control the leadout by going to the front and going very fast, stringing the field out in a long thin line. This effectively reduces the number of people able to sprint at the front. But at this time of the year, riders don’t have many races in their legs, and their winter training alone simply isn’t enough to punish the others. With nobody fast enough to control the front of the race, a lot of hopefuls start bumping and grinding trying to see the front in the final 5k.

2. Riders vary significantly in fitness level. High-level riders looking to peak for the spring classics are just turning their winter miles into race miles, but neo-pros and others looking to impress may never have stopped training after their season ended in October, in hopes of making a splash with a win against bigger names early in the season.

3. Riders forget how to race bicycles.
I’ll let you in on a secret: some pros are bad at riding their bicycles. They’re pros, yes, but there’s no need to romanticize their ability to ride bicycles. They forget how – sometimes epically.

What’s the result of these conditions of early season racing? Let’s go to the video tape and look at the sprint from Stage 2 at the Tour of Qatar.

:02 – a yellow-shouldered Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli rider swings wildly to his right, sending most of FDJ’s train off on its own tangent.
:26 – Leopard-Trek flies their colors in a well-organized effort at the front. A new team making a big splash in the leadout to a sprint early in the season is reminiscent of Sky’s efforts last year.
:40 – with Fabian Cancellara taking a hard dig, the race strings out briefly.
2:24 – an An Post/Sean Kelley rider flies his colors at the front. Who? Exactly. Good for him.
2:40 – The sprint starts from 9 wheels back by Gert Steegmans, who shows little of his explosive power as he begins clawing his way up to the sprint.
2:45 – Boonen, in the orangish leader’s jersey, finds Steegman’s wheel, bobs his head from side to side. Seconds later, Bos, in the Rabobank kit, moves over onto Boonen’s wheel.
2:50 – Steegmans makes it into the front in time to have Leopard’s final leadout man pull off into his line. Boonen, sensing the interruption from the above action, jumps a few lateral lanes to Bennati’s wheel, momentarily knocking Haussler off. He leaves Bos in the wind. Bos begins to kick around Steegmans.
2:55 – Haussler refuses to get dislodged. Bennati and Haussler open up their sprint.
2:58 – Boonen, fatigued from his wheel-jumping, sits up. Denis Galimzyanov of Katusha takes advantage of the space opened by Boonen.
3:00 – Haussler, mad at Bennati’s fairly inoccuous drift (perhaps a bit gun-shy from last year) , overtakes Bennati in the final few meters, and stares him down.
3:01 – Haussler, Bennati, Galimzyanov, and Bos hit the line shoulder-to-shoulder. Haussler knows he’s taken it.

It’s got all the hallmarks on an early-season sprint – an ineffective leadout, wheel-jumping, nobodies coming out of nowhere, riders starting their sprint from all over the place – and the result is a dense, messy sprint that’s one twitch away from a pile up.

For additional analysis into professional sprinting, take a look at Cyclocosm.com‘s Rules of the Bunch Sprint.

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Cyclocross Power Rankings, Week 20

Posted on February 9, 2011 by


Photo courtesy of Tim Van Wichelen

Two excellent races this past weekend have shaken up the Power Rankings somewhat. As always, the number in parenthesis indicates the rider’s placing from last weekend.

1. Zdenek Stybar (1) looked indisputably the strongest on Saturday, but a fast course and a tenacious Nys prevented him from slipping away for the win. Sunday’s crashfest relegated him to 6th, but make no mistake: he’s at the top of the heap right now.

2. Sven Nys (3) with two trips to the podium (3rd at Lille, 1st at Hoogstraten) last weekend, Nys looks lined up to finish the season strongly with leads in the GvA Trofee and Superprestige.

3. Kevin Pauwels (4) showed once again that he’s the man to beat in a sprint, but when conditions get rough – as in Sunday’s race at Hoogstraten – he struggles. If we see fast conditions for the final GvA race, look for him to come out on top of Nys.

4. Niels Albert (2) took home 2nd place on Sunday, but his guns seem quiet in the wake of a disappointing World Championship race.

5. Klaas Vantournout (5) seems to always finish fifth – not just in the power rankings, where he’s been entrenched for three weeks, but in the races, too. I’m sure he’d like to finish his season off with a podium finish. Can he do it?

6. Bart Wellens (9) was the man on the tail end of the whip that Stybar kept snapping Saturday at Lille, and yet, he kept dragging himself back to the lead group. Admirable grit from this savvy veteran. Never count him out for a good performance.

7. Tom Meeusen (nr) finished 7th and 11th this weekend – almost disappointing considering his two wins this season. Until his potential develops into a regular podium threat, he’ll consistently round out any big race’s top ten.

8. Philip Walsleben (7) stays on the top ten for a move that I failed to cover in the weekend wrap-up. After an early mechanical ended his hopes for a high finish, he softpedaled to open up room on the course, took a flying start at the start/finish, and clocked the fastest lap, taking home 1000Euro for the honors. A fine way to salvage a race.

9. Sven Vantourenhout (nr) took home a 5th and an 8th place this weekend – enough to place him on Pavé’s prestigious Power Rankings.

10. Gerben De Knegt (nr) dances on and off of the Power Rankings much the same way as he dances around 9th – 11th place finishes in major races.

Dropped, again: Francis Mourey (6) had two poor performances this weekend though I thought that Lille would have suited him. Must I wait another year for a big international win from the wiley Frenchman?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s Weekend Preview, and share your thoughts and comments below.

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The Sticky Bidon – February 8, 2011

Posted on February 8, 2011 by


Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, February 8, 2011


Seen any cool links we missed? Share ’em in the comments below!

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2011 Team-By-Team Season Preview: Vacansoleil-DCM

Posted on February 8, 2011 by


Fotoreporter Sirotti


Each year, Pavé previews the upcoming road season with a countdown of the top-20 teams in the sport—we started last week with 20, 19, 18, and 17.  Today we pick things up with #16.

#15 – Vacansoleil-DCM

It’s always ways a risky proposition when teams try and sign their way into the sport’s biggest races. In the last six months, Vacansoleil’s taken more than a few gambles in its bid to attain ProTeam status for 2011.  Now they’re hoping these signings haven’t caused more harm good.

With the addition of the tempestuous-yet-talented Stijn Devolder, Vacansoleil has found itself a bookend for Bjorn Leukemans, giving the team a terrific combo for the cobbled classics.  Devolder won the Ronde for Quick Step in 2008 and 2009, and the reigning Belgian Champ hopes to find similar form after a disastrous spring last year.  He’s already been seen training on the course of the new and improved Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, a sign that Devolder might not wait for April to take his first cobbled victory.

As for Leukemans, his progression in the cobbled classics has gone largely unnoticed outside of Belgium (although I know of one site that’s been singing his praises for years now).  Leukemans reminds me of Peter Van Petegem in the mid-1990’s: near the top, but not yet bubbling over.  Van Petegem’s breakthrough came when he won Het Volk in 1997 and 1998—those wins gave him the confidence to take the next step in the cobbled Monuments (he won the Ronde twice and Roubaix once).  Leukemans is at a similar stage in his career—he just needs that one big win to set him on his way.  Unlike Devolder though, Leukemans has taken a more competitive approach to his preseason, racing his way into shape in France.

It will be interesting to see what happens when these two riders come together.  Vacansoleil had some problems last year working together when Riccardo Ricco came on board; will these two headstrong Belgians prove able to race cohesively in their nation’s biggest races?

As for the rest, the imminent loss of Riccardo Ricco will certainly hurt the team’s chances for success after April, forcing the team to aggressively search for breakaway wins here and there in the Tour de France (like most French teams).  Borut Bozic is always a threat for a sprint win or two, but it’s hard to see him competing with the likes of Cavendish and Farrar come July. Vacansoleil will likely look to rouleurs such as Johnny Hoogerland, Marco Marcato, and Romain Feillu for stage wins at the Tour—Feillu has come close before and would certainly have the home crowd on his side.

Man of the Hour: Leukemans was the second-most impressive rider at last year’s Paris-Roubaix.  I’ll never forget his visible frustration (7:01) at not being able to hold Cancellara’s wheel (and the moto getting in his way).  If the team plays it’s cards right, Devolder’s presence could prevent teams from marking Leukemans out of races, perhaps giving him a bit more freedom to take his first major victory.

On the Hot Seat: First Riccardo Ricco, then Ezequiel Mosquera, now Ricco—again.  If these riders don’t somehow see their way through recent doping allegations (and the resulting failed kidneys), Vacansoleil will be left high and dry by summertime.  After all, cobbled classic victories only get a team so far—right, Quick Step?

Up-and-Comer: Remember last year’s classics when those pesky Topsport Vlaanderen riders kept finding their way into breakaways?  Well, Thomas De Gendt was one of them—he finished second to Sebastian Rosseler in the Brabantsepijl (and fifth in the Tour of Belgium), a result that likely earned him his spot with Vacansoleil.

Best Pick-Up: I’m not sure which side needed the deal more, but Ridley likely has much more resources to offer Vacansoleil than Batavus.  (Besides, Batavus is a brand associated more with commuters than racers.)  As for Ridley, they needed to do something after parting ways with Katusha—putting bikes under Leukemans and Devolder gives the brand some domestic notoriety.

Biggest Loss: With both Ricco and Mosquera looking likely to miss this year’s Grand Tours (at least), Brice Feillu would have been Vacansoleil’s lone GC hope at the Tour de France.  It’s too bad Vacansoleil couldn’t convince him to stay.

And that’s it for #15—look for #14 tomorrow.

Share your comments below.

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2011 Team-By-Team Season Preview – Team Radio Shack

Posted on February 8, 2011 by


Fotoreporter Sirotti


Each year, Pavé previews the upcoming road season with a countdown of the top-20 teams in the sport—we started last week with 20, 19, 18, and 17.  Today we pick things up with #16.

#16 – Team Radio Shack

It’s an understatement to say that 2010 didn’t quite go as planned for Team Radio Shack.  But the fact remains: crashes, sickness, a lack of race invitations, and poor performances from two of the team’s three veterans have put the team on thin ice heading into 2011.  For many—myself included—the end of Radio Shack’s sponsorship seems imminent by the end of the season.

That said, riders from two of cycling’s “fringe” countries give Team Radio Shack reason for optimism in 2011, especially if they can build on their best results from 2010.  Slovenia’s Janez Brajkovic won last year’s Criterium du Dauphiné with a potent mix of time trialing and climbing, defeating Alberto Contador in the race’s long ITT, and then staying with the Spaniard in the high Alps to protect his victory.  A last-minute call-up to the Tour, Brajkovic underwhelmed—but that was to be expected considering he spent most of the first week working for Armstrong.  This year he’ll be one of the squad’s protected riders in just about any stage race he enters—and he’s still only 27.

But Portugal’s Tiago Machado is two years younger than his Slovenian teammate and perhaps more talented too. He turned heads last year with top-10 performances in last year’s Volta ao Algarve, Criterium International, Circuit de la Sarthe, Tour de Romandie, Tour of Austria, Vuelta Castilla y Leon, and the Tour of Poland. Another climber/time trialist, he and Brajkovic could be two of the season’s most impressive Grand Tour dark horses.

As for the rest of the squad, Chris Horner enjoyed his most successful international season as a pro in 2010, winning the Tour of the Basque Country and finishing inside the top-10 at the Ardennes classics and most impressively, the Tour de France.  At 39, the American continues to defy his age—but for how long?

Overall, the success of Radio Shack’s 2011 season will rest largely on whether or not the squad can guarantee its existence for another few years.  If the team fails to make Radio Shack feel as if its investment was justified, they might all be looking elsewhere for 2012.

Man of the Hour: Janez Brajkovic’s win in last year’s Dauphiné was one of the most impressive performances of 2010—and a sure sign that the Slovenian is poised for big things.  This year, without a clear leader at Radio Shack, he’ll get a chance to test his true Grand Tour potential—most likely in France, but possibly in the Giro or Vuelta.  With a new contract a distinct possibility for 2012, it’s Jani’s ideal time to shine.

On the Hot Seat: At 37, Levi Leipheimer is nearing the end of his international career.  Last year he failed to win a single race outside of the United States, and was clearly a step below his former self in at “home” race, the Amgen Tour of California.  Barring a Grand Tour miracle, look for Levi to be the biggest commodity on this upcoming off-season’s domestic transfer market.

Up-and-Comer: At only 25 and possessing a sought-after mix of climbing and time trialing ability, Tiago Machado was one of the riders most hurt by Radio Shack’s omission from last year’s Vuelta.  He should get his chance this year to show us all what he can do in a 3-week race.

Best Pick-Up: Ben King stole the show in September’s US National Road Race Championship, escaping first with a group and then alone to add a professional national championship to the U23 title he earned earlier in the summer.  The chance to ride with veterans such as Armstrong, Horner, Kloden, and Bruyneel must have been tough to pass-up—let’s just hope he doesn’t regret it by the end of the season.

Biggest Loss: Now matter how you feel about him as a person, it’s hard to deny that Lance Armstrong was the glue that held Radio Shack together—both on and off the road.  At least year’s Tour de France, the team seemed lost once the American was out of contention.  Yes, Chris Horner finished in the top-10 overall, but the squad seemed to be more of a group of individuals riding for themselves than a team riding for a shared goal.  Trek’s support of the Schlecks and Leopard hints at the company’s quickly changing heart, and Radio Shack’s lack of a major off-season signing indicates the team’s days are numbered.  With the pending retirement of the sport’s biggest personality—especially for American fans—it’s easy to see why Radio Shack’s fortunes mirror its controversial champion’s.

That’s it for #16—come back soon for #15.  And share your comments below.

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