Monday 24 September 2012

Gilbert Delivers after Fearless Attack on the Cauberg

Philippe Gilbert had pencilled in September 23rd 2012 as the day he would win the rainbow stripes. When the parcours for the 2012 worlds was announced, Gilbert was installed as the favourite. 2009 and 2010 had been close with Gilbert in contention until the final kilometres in both those races. 2011 was the flat track that had Mark Cavendish pencilled in as the favourite just as Gilbert was for 2012.

After the stellar 2011 season the Belgian had a big move to BMC has been rather underwhelming until September. Since he turned pro in 2003 with FDJ, Gilbert had won at least a race in every season he had raced. 2012 was looking like it might be year to write off until Stage 9 of the Vuelta de España. On the roads into Barcelona Gilbert was in the company of the race leader Joaquim Rodriguez whose form suggested that the stage win was his. Gilbert launched his sprint and took the win, a very elated looking Gilbert had finally won his first race for BMC. Gilbert added Stage 19 to his palmares, letting the peloton know he was back to his best. After the Vuelta and the stage wins Gilbert was again the favourite for the worlds title, it would be his race to lose.

Backing up after the majestic year that Gilbert had was always going to prove difficult. A clean sweep of the Ardennes for a second successive proved highly evasive. Gilbert didn’t race Liège–Bastogne–Liège finished 6th at the Amstel Gold Race and finished 3rd at Flèche Wallonne. The weight of expectation to not only duplicate his results from the previous season but to do so with a new team proved too much to bear. The Tour failed to provide the highlights of 2011 as well with BMC looking like they had come of second best in their recruitment of Gilbert and Thor Hushovd. The late surge of form by Gilbert has been the crowning achievement of BMC’s season whose season highlight looked to be the Giro d’Italia stage wins and Young Riders Classification win by Tejay Van Garderen.

BMC must be the envy of the peloton. On its books for season 2012 were the World Champions from 2008 (Alessandro Ballan), 2009 (Cadel Evans) and 2010 (Thor Hushovd). With 2011 World Champion Mark Cavendish looking for a new team could BMC be looking to add a fifth former World Champion to its ranks? BMC certainly is attracting the rainbow stripes and with the young Americas Taylor Phinney and Tejay Van Garderen impressing In the ITT, BMC may soon have road race and ITT world champions in abundance. Neither Ballan nor Hushovd wore the rainbow jersey with BMC but Australian Cadel Evans wore his from the Tour Down Under till September. Gilbert’s rainbow stripes will most likely look quite similar to the kit that Evans wore as the team aesthetics has remained largely unchanged. With Gilbert’s capture of the rainbow, he shares the achievement to have worn both rainbow jersey and the yellow jersey with Evans and Hushovd.

The length of the road race had lead some to suggest that it only a rider from one of the bigger nations would be taking home the rainbow. Edvald Boasson Hagen was riding for the small Norwegian team but managed to nick second place after Gilbert left the peloton scrambling for the minor placings following his attack on the final ascent of the Cauberg. Spain had been a major protagonist throughout the race, wanting a sprint finish for Óscar Freire to take home his fourth world title. However infighting split the Spaniards who were largely disappointing. They finished with just the one medal, bronze, after an opportunistic Alejandro Valverde tried to go with Gilbert and formed a select group with Boasson Hagen and the Russian Alexandr Kolobnev. The chasing group of three would be fighting it out for two medals as Gilbert was powering ahead maintaining a lead of around 10 seconds. He may have had enough time to grab a flag from one of the many Belgian flags on his way to line as Marianne Vos had done In the Women's Race. However Gilbert didn’t look he wanted to give into chance, he had only eyes for line. He slowed in the final 100 meters to celebrate, looking back at the advancing chase group and threw his arms in the air, giving his hands a kiss and double punching the air again.

On the run into the final climb the select group still contained at least four riders for the Belgians, Germans, Italian, Spanish and Australians. Besides these big nations were several Americans, Dutch and French with Boasson Hagen, Kolobnev and Peter Sagan the biggest single man threats. Alberto Contador was clearly looking drained after his Vuelta victory but his attempts to break up the peloton meant he wouldn’t be a factor on the final climb. Headwinds between the Bemelerberg Hill and the Cauberg meant an attack would eventuate on the day’s final climb. Sitting mid pack coming up the Cauberg was the shark of the strait, Vincenzo Nibali who made the first attack. Behind him the favourites begun to scramble, trying to match the Italian before blasting past. Gilbert was sitting a few meters behind Nibali with a Belgian teammate between him and the leader on the road. Gilbert looked around and launched, he caught his rivals out and quickly built a lead as the riders behind struggled to comprehend the furious pace Gilbert was able to ride away with from nothing. Once he launched he never looked like being caught even with 1.7kms after cresting the summit.

Alejandro Valverde has become somewhat of a bridesmaid at the World Championships. Along with the bronze he won yesterday, Valverde also picked up bronze in 2006 to go with the two silver medals from 2003 and 2005. Kolobnev had also finished runner up twice, in 2007 and 2009 and it looked like both riders might have been fighting it out for a third silver medal. Kolobnev was riding for himself but that wasn’t enough it appeared as he faded to finish mid pack in the chase group. The three time World Champion winner Óscar Freire expressed anger at Valverde for riding off rather than delivering the Katusha rider to the line for what would have been his fourth title. Along with the Spanish, the Germans also helped contribute to Gilbert’s win. Both Spain and Germany were setting it up for a sprint, a scenario that could have also benefitted Alan Davis from Australia. However Gilbert proved far too strong yet the fight continues over who was really the strongest rider in the peloton.

Gilbert proved to be a worthy winner of the rainbow stripes and is surely a deserved winner who no one can begrudge. Mark Cavendish honoured the jersey by riding on the front for 100kms after he told reporters there was no chance of him winning the race. He pulled out but has shown he was highly respectful to the World Champion’s jersey and the significance of the rainbow in cycling’s history. Gilbert looks like being just as graceful in the rainbow and has the chance to show it off late in the season. Possibly even at Paris-Tour or the Giro di Lombardia. Gilbert has won both of these races in the past and could emulate Paolo Bettini in 2006 when he won the Giro di Lombardi wearing the rainbow stripes.

Full Results from the 2012 Men's Road Race World Championships

1 Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) 6:10:41 
2 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) 0:00:04 
3 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spain) 0:00:05 
4 John Degenkolb (Germany) 
5 Lars Boom (Netherlands) 
6 Allan Davis (Australia) 
7 Thomas Voeckler (France) 
8 Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania) 
9 Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Colombia) 
10 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spain) 
11 Rui Costa (Portugal) 
12 Tom Boonen (Belgium) 
13 Oscar Gatto (Italy) 
14 Peter Sagan (Slovakia) 
15 Fredrik Carl Wilhelm Kessiakoff (Sweden) 
16 Koen De Kort (Netherlands) 
17 Michael Albasini (Switzerland) 
18 Assan Bazayev (Kazakhstan) 
19 Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Great Britain) 
20 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Norway) 
21 Simon Gerrans (Australia) 
22 Stefan Denifl (Austria) 
23 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Colombia) 
24 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spain) 
25 Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) 
26 Bjorn Leukemans (Belgium) 
27 Fabian Wegmann (Germany) 
28 Alexandr Kolobnev (Russian Federation) 
29 Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) 
30 Andre Fernando S. Martins Cardoso (Portugal) 0:00:17 
31 Andriy Grivko (Ukraine) 
32 Robert Gesink (Netherlands) 
33 Daniel Martin (Ireland) 
34 Nicolas Roche (Ireland) 
35 Jurgen Roelandts (Belgium) 
36 Ian Stannard (Great Britain) 0:00:53 
37 Paul Martens (Germany) 
38 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spain) 
39 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spain) 
40 Yury Trofimov (Russian Federation) 0:01:01 
41 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spain) 0:01:37 
42 David Tanner (Australia) 
43 Andrew Talansky (United States of America) 0:01:54 
44 Rene Mandri (Estonia) 0:02:21 
45 Gustav Larsson (Sweden) 
46 Marek Rutkiewicz (Poland) 
47 Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez (Colombia) 
48 Bauke Mollema (Netherlands) 
49 Rafael Andriato (Brazil) 
50 Michael Schär (Switzerland) 
51 Gatis Smukulis (Latvia) 
52 Chris Anker Sorensen (Denmark) 
53 Jaroslaw Marycz (Poland) 
54 Takashi Miyazawa (Japan) 
55 Karsten Kroon (Netherlands) 
56 Tom Jelte Slagter (Netherlands) 
57 Sylvain Chavanel (France) 
58 Radoslav Rogina (Croatia) 
59 Jan Barta (Czech Republic) 
60 Ben Swift (Great Britain) 
61 Michal Golas (Poland) 
62 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Luxembourg) 
63 Mathias Frank (Switzerland) 
64 Alex Howes (United States of America) 
65 Vladimir Gusev (Russian Federation) 
66 Niki Terpstra (Netherlands) 
67 Steve Morabito (Switzerland) 
68 Winner Anacona Gomez (Colombia) 
69 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Colombia) 
70 Stephen Cummings (Great Britain) 
71 Sergio Paulinho PRO 
72 Simon Geschke (Germany) 
73 Heinrich Haussler (Australia) 
74 Moreno Moser (Italy) 0:02:34 
75 Luca Paolini (Italy) 0:02:46 
76 Rinaldo Nocentini (Italy) 
77 Marco Marcato (Italy) 
78 Simon Clarke (Australia) 0:02:53 
79 Johannes Frohlinger (Germany) 
80 Christian Knees (Germany) 
81 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spain) 
82 Borut Bozic (Slovenia) 
83 David Veilleux (Canada) 
84 Mickael Delage (France) 
85 Diego Ulissi (Italy) 
86 Eduard Vorganov (Russian Federation) 
87 Oleksandr Polivoda (Ukraine) 0:03:11 
88 Luke Rowe (Great Britain) 0:05:46 
89 Vladimir Isaichev (Russian Federation) 
90 Gianni Meersman (Belgium) 0:08:10 
91 Matej Jurco (Slovakia) 0:08:55 
92 Carlos Oyarzun (Chile) 
93 Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Belarus) 
94 Siarhei Papok (Belarus) 
95 Stefan Histrov (Bulgaria) 
96 Evaldas Siskevicius (Lithuania) 
97 Carlos Jose Ochoa (Venezuela) 
98 Taylor Phinney (United States of America) 
99 Peter Kusztor (Hungary) 
100 Bertjan Lindeman (Netherlands) 
101 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Poland) 
102 Jacek Morajko (Poland) 
103 Brent Bookwalter (United States of America) 
104 Frantisek Rabon (Czech Republic) 
105 Ronan Mc Laughlin (Ireland) 
106 Matthias Brandle (Austria) 
107 Milan Kadlec (Czech Republic) 
108 Ryder Hesjedal (Canada) 
109 Georgi Petrov Georgiev (Bulgaria) 
110 Francois Parisien (Canada) 
111 Marcus Burghardt (Germany) 
112 Thomas Lovkvist (Sweden) 
113 Leopold Konig (Czech Republic) 
114 Tanel Kangert (Estonia) 
115 Jure Kocjan (Slovenia) 
116 Zdenek Stybar (Czech Republic) 
117 Kristijan Durasek (Croatia) 
118 Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (South Africa) 
119 Laurens Ten Dam (Netherlands) 
120 Matteo Trentin (Italy) 0:09:44 
121 Andrey Amador Bakkazakova (Costa Rica) 0:10:23 
122 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spain) 
DNF Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) 
DNF Kristijan Koren (Slovenia) 
DNF Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia) 
DNF Grega Bole (Slovenia) 
DNF Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus) 
DNF Sergey Firsanov (Russian Federation) 
DNF Dmitriy Muravyev (Kazakhstan) 
DNF Dario Cataldo (Italy) 
DNF Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spain) 
DNF Rein Taaramae (Estonia) 
DNF Jay Robert Thomson (South Africa) 
DNF Wesley Sulzberger (Australia) 
DNF Adam Hansen (Australia) 
DNF Jerome Coppel (France) 
DNF Vincent Jerome (France) 
DNF Yukiya Arashiro (Japan) 
DNF Christopher Horner (United States of America) 
DNF Tejay van Garderen (United States of America) 
DNF Tony Gallopin (France) 
DNF Kevin De Weert (Belgium) 
DNF Ignatas Konovalovas (Lithuania) 
DNF Gabriel Rasch (Norway) 
DNF Jonathan Monsalve (Venezuela) 
DNF Maxime Bouet (France) 
DNF Martin Grashev (Bulgaria) 
DNF Gregory Rast (Switzerland) 
DNF Oliver Zaugg (Switzerland) 
DNF Bruno Pires (Portugal) 
DNF Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic) 
DNF Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez (Colombia) 
DNF Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo (Colombia) 
DNF Arthur Vichot (France) 
DNF Richie Porte (Australia) 
DNF Timothy Duggan (United States of America) 
DNF Michael Matthews (Australia) 
DNF Ying Hon Yeung (Hong Kong, China) 
DNF Johan Vansummeren (Belgium) 
DNF Matthew Busche (United States of America) 
DNF Vladimir Miholjevic (Croatia) 
DNF Marko Kump (Slovenia) 
DNF Fabricio Ferrari Barcelo (Uruguay) 
DNF Julian Dean (New Zealand) 
DNF Yaroslav Popovych (Ukraine) 
DNF Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (South Africa) 
DNF Vitaliy Buts (Ukraine) 
DNF Denys Kostyuk (Ukraine) 
DNF Daniel Schorn (Austria) 
DNF Alexsandr Dyachenko (Kazakhstan) 
DNF Luka Mezgec (Slovenia) 
DNF Hayden Roulston (New Zealand) 
DNF Fumiyuki Beppu (Japan) 
DNF Lucas Euser (United States of America) 
DNF Jorge Martin Montenegro (Argentina) 
DNF Dmytro Krivtsov (Ukraine) 
DNF Juraj Sagan (Slovakia) 
DNF Maros Kovac (Slovakia) 
DNF Tomasz Marczynski (Poland) 
DNF Alexandr Pliuschin (Republic of Moldova) 
DNF Ben Gastauer (Luxembourg) 
DNF Jeremy Roy (France) 
DNF Peter Velits (Slovakia) 
DNF Matti Breschel (Denmark) 
DNF Christopher Froome (Great Britain) 
DNF Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) 
DNF Jesse Sergent (New Zealand) 
DNF Tomas Aurelio Gil Martinez (Venezuela) 
DNF Stanislav Kozubek (Czech Republic) 
DNF Maximiliano Ariel Richeze (Argentina) 
DNF Dries Devenyns (Belgium) 
DNF Laurent Didier (Luxembourg) 
DNF Enzo Moyano (Argentina) 
DNF Shinichi Fukushima (Japan) 
DNF Yukihiro Doi (Japan) 
DNF Alex Dowsett (Great Britain) 
DNF Aleksejs Saramotins (Latvia) 
DNF Mauricio Muller (Argentina) 
DNF Hichem Chaabane (Algeria) 
DNF Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) 
DNF Yusuke Hatanaka (Japan) 
DNF Amir Rusli (Malaysia) 
DNF Svein Tuft (Canada) 
DNF Sea Keong Loh (Malaysia) 
DNF Martin Velits (Slovakia) 
DNF Nebojsa Jovanovic (Serbia) 
DNF Elchin Asadov (Azerbaijan)

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