Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, August 19, 2011
Seen any cool links we missed? Share ’em in the comments below!
Fotoreporter Sirotti
The Vuelta a España begins on Saturday. Like last year, it opens with a short and sweet Team Time Trial – 13.5 kilometers through Benidorm. This opening TTT is not where the race can be won, but it can be lost for a GC contender if his team’s performance puts him behind the 8-ball too early. Like last year, we can expect HTC to open their account early and win it. They’ll like if Cavendish can win a stage while wearing the leader’s jersey. Of course, they won’t have it easy, as GC teams will be looking to put time into each other over even the short course. Liquigas would love to be on top again, but this year’s squad doesn’t look as strong in the Team Time Trial as last year’s – even with Peter Sagan’s presence – due to Roman Kreuziger’s absence.
On the hot seat in the Team Time Trial is Katusha, who is ostensibly supporting Joaquim Rodriguez’s GC ambitions. Last year they finished mid-pack in the team time trial, but given their luck this year, Andre Tchmil may have to be riding alongside his hapless flock with spare bikes on his hunched shoulders.
Stage 2, on Sunday, can safely be considered one for the sprinters, many of whom are here to prepare for a flat World Championship course in Denmark in late September. While Cavendish looks like the top sprinter in the world, his recent media-teasing regarding HTC may weaken his concentration and uphold his tradition of needing a few stages to properly warm up for the sprints. Maybe we’ll see a re-run of the 2010 Tour, then, with Lampre’s Alessandro Petacchi grabbing an early win. However, it’s his third GT of the year – he must be tired by now. We lean toward Garmin-Cervelo’s Tyler Farrar for Stage 2, but young flaming hot Marcel Kittel of Skil-Shimano or even Peter Sagan might come out on top.
Photo Courtesy of Garmin-Cervélo
This year’s Vuelta is ripe with young talent – some getting a shot at Grand Tour success, and others being put in in the hopes that they’ll gain a bit of experience that will aid their racing come 2012. Let’s take a look at some of the youths we’ve got our eye on:
Dan Martin: This Garmin-Cervélo rider is coming off of an impressive Tour of Poland, in which he finished 2nd in the GC with an impressive stage win during which he cracked Peter Sagan but failed to gain enough time to take over the leader’s jersey for good. This isn’t his first Grand Tour – he’s ridden a Giro and a Vuelta before – but this year, he comes in as Garmin-Cervelo’s protected rider, tipped for a top-ten placing.Â
Andrew Talansky: Also from the Garmin-Cervélo developmental files is Andrew Talansky, getting his first shot at a Grand Tour. He’s been steadily developing this year, having won the Young Rider’s Competition at Romandie, 4th overall at Tour Mediterranean, and taking respectable results on stages of Paris-Nice and Criterium International. The Vuelta is the next step of his development, but it’s more likely that it will bear fruit in 2012 than during the Vuelta itself. If Vaughters is on the hot seat for leaving Hushovd at home in favor of a younger Vuelta squad, then it’s Talansky who may benefit from the inclusion. Keep your eyes on him even if he’s quiet during the Vuelta.Â
John Degenkolb:Â As HTC folds, riders like Degenkolb – a capable sprinter with two Dauphine stage wins to his name this year – will get an opportunity to pursue success elsewhere (he’s signed with Skil-Shimano for 2012 onward). On a sprinter-packed HTC squad this Vuelta, he may not get the opportunity for a sprint win, but you’ll see him at the front in the final kilometer.
Marcel Kittel: Next year’s Skil-Shimano team is growing increasingly exciting; Degenkolb will join Marcel Kittel, who has made a name for himself this year winning four stages each at Four Days of Dunkirk and, more recently, the Tour of Poland. There, he beat riders like Peter Sagan and Heinrich Haussler. Even with Cavendish racing the Vuelta, I wouldn’t rule out Kittel for a stage win or two.
Janez Brajkovic: Like many other riders who crashed out of the Tour, RadioShack’s Brajkovic gets to test his legs in Spain. In doing so, he’ll also test RadioShack’s future. With an aging cohort of GC-maybe’s in Andreas Kloden, Levi Leipheimer, and Chris Horner, RadioShack needs to build their young blood – Brajkovic ought to be the lynchpin of their future. This Vuelta should be his time to shine.
Taylor Phinney: There’s an adage: the first step to becoming a successful bike racer is to pick good parents. If that holds true, then you could surely do worse than picking Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter-Phinney to offer their genetic material. Taylor comes off of a strong ENECO Tour and has a renewed sense of purpose to his first year as a Pro – I wouldn’t count him out for some top 5 placings in sprint stages, and he’ll be an asset to BMC in the Team Time Trial on Saturday.
Sep Vanmarcke: Readers will have to pardon us for an up-and-comers list that includes one more Garmin-Cervélo rider, but considering Vaughters’ approach to this race, we think it’s excusable. The jury is still out on Vanmarcke’s inclusion in Garmin-Cervélo’s roster, but Jonathan Vaughters’ twitter suggested that he may yet be going to Spain. Vanmarcke shone in the spring, going up the road during Paris-Roubaix in a savvy move to support the eventual bridge by Hushovd and Cancellara. Vanmarcke is young, strong, and developing nicely – like Talansky, his participation in the Vuelta will pay off in 2012.
Who are the young riders you’ll be watching during the Vuelta?
Fotoreporter Sirotti
BMC finally confirmed the transfer rumor that many people had long expected – that Cavendish has signed with Sky. Just kidding! They announced that Phillipe Gilbert has signed with BMC. He joins reigning Tour champion Cadel Evans, and reigning World Champion Thor Hushovd.Â
Is it getting a bit crowded at BMC? Evans reminded the media that BMC’s 2012 Tour team would be built around him, not around split aims. Hushovd obviously wants to be a leader for Paris-Roubaix, and Gilbert will want to win every race he enters – and just might try.Â
BMC is shaping up to be a powerhouse, but are they sowing the seeds of their own demise? Are they too crowded at the top?
Share your thoughts below.
Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, August 18, 2011
Seen any cool links we missed? Share ’em in the comments below!
Fotoreporter Sirotti
Since its move to be the last Grand Tour of the season, the Vuelta has had the perhaps-unenviable position as the GT of last resort. It’s a last chance for GC contenders, teams, sprinters, and stage-hunters alike to pull in results. Its schedule just ahead of the World Championships also serve as a springboard for preparation, and for a final showcase to convince the team selectors of the riders’ form. Who are on the hot seat as we begin the 2011 Vuelta a Espana and how might they perform? Â
Garmin-Cervélo: Huh? Given how successful their season has been, how can Garmin-Cervélo possibly be on the hot seat? For one thing, their high-profile omission of reigning world champ Thor Hushovd has generated murmurs all across the cycling world. Given that he is moving to BMC next season, and the team prefers to deploy riders whose points are staying with them for next season – this makes sense from G-C’s perspective. Further in G-C’s defense, manager Jonathan Vaughters has cited the need to give other riders room to perform, namely Dan Martin and Johan Van Summeren. However, though the Vuelta may not matter much to the North American fanbase, the expectation is still on G-C to perform well to justify their team selection.
Jurgen Van den Broeck: The Great Belgian Grand Tour Hope is another in a long line of Tour disappointments who left France prematurely in July. He’s got a 5th place in the 2010 Tour de France to his name, but a 7th place in the 2008 Giro is the only other of his slim four Grand Tours to make an impression. This year’s Vuelta could be what he needs in order to turn pressure and potential into performance; if he doesn’t, it’s a disappointment.Â
Team Geox-TMC: Despite boasting two GT GC winners and multiple stage winners in Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov, team Geox-TMC has had an uphill fight since its inception. Their TdF snub was particularly painful, coming at the heels of Denis Menchov joining the team, and they made no impression during the Giro d’Italia, even with the double-header of Sastre and Menchov. Sponsors Geox and TMC had expressed dissatisfaction last year due to the team’s failure to earn a ProTeam license, So the team is definitely on the hot seat for results in the Vuelta. How might the team perform? They are bringing both Menchov and Sastre, with the former having won 2.5 editions of the Vuelta.  Neither has performed strongly this season – will their outing to be a bust?
Nicholas Roche: The offspring of the great Stephen Roche first put in a respectable Grand Tour ride three years ago, at the 2008 Vuelta, to finish 13th in the GC with 3 top-tens on stages. Since then he has failed to improve, instead finding solace in stage top tens and middling GC results. Is that all one can expect of Roche? If the answer is no, then he’ll have to prove it at the Vuelta.
Vacansoleil: As the newer kid on the WorldTour block, Vacansoleil has invested significantly in GT resources. Unfortunately, their high-profile signing of Ezekiel Mosquera,  the revelation of the 2010 Vuelta a Espana, revealed a complicated doping case that is still unresolved. Their hiring of Ricardo Ricco further dragged their reputation through the mud. Their top team status earned them invitations to all three GTs this season, but they have little to show for it – except for Johnny Hoogerland’s heroic soldiering after his crash in the Tour de France, which earned him legions of fans, and gave a new H to HTFU. Their ProTour license is in jeopardy for 2012. If they want to stay on stable ground, they’ll need stage wins. With no GC contender to speak of, Vacansoleil is expected to launch long stage-hunting sorties with the likes of Stijn Devolder and Wouter Poels. Will they succeed? Luck will play a big role, and given the number of squads and riders with the same idea, it’s all a matter of chance.
Euskaltel: This year’s Vuelta is a very meaningful milestone for the Basque Orange Boys: it is the first time in a very long time that it enters Basque country. The last time such a crossing happened, rock boulders and trees were felled along the route, in protest of Generalissimo Franco’s oppression of the Basques.Â
Euskaltel has a squad that has grown significantly in cohesion in the last few years. No longer do we see an implosion of orange as the road tilts upwards; we now see a flotilla of orange at the front, ready to battle on the behalf of their leader instead of on behalf of each of themselves. With Igor Anton eager to make up for last year’s crash while wearing the leader’s jersey, the pressure is on Euskaltel to support him strongly on their home terrain.
Katusha: Has Katusha’s poor performance  been due to bad luck (like Pippo Pozzato’s flat coinciding with that of his team car, for example), or bad performances like botching bike changes in the TTT of the Giro and bringing an invisible all-Russian team to the Tour? Manager Andre Tchmil is prone to public pronouncements of his grand strategies and peer pressure – Tchmil, the man who upon moving to Belgium to specialize in cobbled races decided to first learn French instead of Flemish. It could be that his sense of strategy is as misled as was his understanding of history and culture. Katusha’s had a dismal season.
For the Vuelta, the team is bringing Joachim Rodriguez, who put in a blistering performance in last year’s edition only to lose minutes in the ITT. Before his 5th place in this year’s Giro, Rodriguez was perhaps the most luckless contender in this season’s spring classics. His blistering uphill attack was matched only by a superhuman Philippe Gilbert, and Rodriguez had to settle for second at Amstel Gold and La Fleche Wallone. He arrives at the Vuelta after winning the Vuelta a Burgos. However, we have seen little improvement in his ITT skills so it remains a mystery how he will do.
 What do you think? Who else are on the hot seat and how do you think they will do? Should RadioShack and QuickStep have made the list, too?Â