The 2012 season will be defined by pictures of cyclists on the road as much as cyclists off the road. Bradley Wiggins became the first British rider to win the Tour de France, Alberto Contador made a winning return after his doping suspension, Philippe Gilbert won his maiden worlds rainbow jersey and Tom Boonen owned the cobbles. Yet for all the excitement and dominance of Team Sky plus individual and collective feats of the peloton, it was the USADA investigation into US Postal which lifted the lid on Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel as the masterminds behind the most organised doping practise the sport has ever seen. As the season comes to a close there are trails that seem only destined to be endlessly consumed with chasing the murky past down rabbit hole after rabbit hole. There has been no admission by Armstrong and the 1990s culture of Omerta has lessened but still exists among the peloton and with two major Italian investigations now looking like handing down their findings in 2013, this is certainly a tumultuous time for the sport. However there were brilliant rides full of bravery, panache and courage across the season. Looking back to the seasoning races in January of this year, it becomes apparent several of those rides will become timeless images of the sport, as well as part of cycling’s folklore for the years to come.
The complicated and extensive structuring of the World Tour points allocation ensure the early season stage races are raced in earnest with the early leaders in the individual and team categories important in how teams can impose their tactics upon an important and crucial moment in the one day classics and into the Grand Tours. The first World Tour stages races weren't particularly highlights but set the scene for several of the protagonists regarding how their seasons panned out. Wiggins win at Paris-Nice set the scene for Sky's dominance across stage races as well as the former track Olympic gold medallists supremacy in the aforementioned race as well as the Tour of Romandie, Critérium du Dauphiné and of course Le Tour de France. The method by which Sky controlled these races was not aesthetically what fans were crying for but the attention to the minutiae of the British team has to be admired. There was very little excitement regarding Sky's approach to cycling in 2012 with attrition the centrepiece of the team's arsenal.
The dominance of Boonen across two weeks in late March and early April was a joy to behold with the knowledge that his record equalling feats in Roubaix will be cherished in many years to come. Peter Sagan's debut performance at the Tour winning three stages and having enough time to taunt his rivals; the tenacity of Purito across the season and ability to come back from the disaster of Milan to record his maiden monument win late in the season and wrap up his second World Tour win. The first was when the competition was known as the Pro Tour but for all intents and purposes, is the same in all but name. BMC had looked like dominating everything from February till October with the acquisitions of Thor Hushovd and Philippe Gilbert. Neither had any luck in the one day classics but Gilbert's winning ride at the Worlds was superlative. When the route had been announced Gilbert was the odds on favourite to win. He had been the outright favourite to win the opening stage of the 2011 Tour and duly delivered. This win just kilometres from his home was with even more pressure heaped upon him as he had only two wins to his name for the entire season. The late attack by Gilbert had been the moment all and sundry were anticipated and his escape from a select few and solo approach to the line will become one of the sports enduring images.
Simon Gerrans had an outstanding beginning to 2012 with the new GreenEdge team as he won the Australian National road race title before winning the overall classification at the Tour Down Under. As a usual protagonist at the pointy end in the Ardennes, Milan-San Remo was a goal but a rather improbable one for the puncheur. The 2011 winner Matt Goss was looking to go back to back with Gerrans as a key domestique for his teammate in his quest. When Gerrans found himself with Fabian Cancellara and Vincenzo Nibali in the final kilometres he appeared destined for the final spot on the podium. Reserving his legs by riding in behind Cancellara, Gerro outfoxed his Swiss and Italian rivals to sprint clear and take the biggest win of his career. To many Australians this was the highlight of 2012 and any criticism levelled at the Australian champion was unwarranted. Any rider finding himself in that company coming into the final 100 meters would have conserved as much energy as possible to come around the leading rider, outfoxing their rival for the win. Gerro simply played this one better after keeping his cards close to his chest.
In 2010 Cancellara was unstoppable at both Flanders and Paris-Roubaix and was undoubtedly the strongest rider that week as he became the first rider since Boonen in 2005 to win both of the cobbled monuments in a year. In 2011 it was expected the Swiss maestro would again ride away and sweep the field with wins at Milan, Flanders and Roubaix. However he ended his spring campaign with the solitary win at E3 Prijs Vlaanderen where he powered away to solo over the line and put the fear of Fabian into his rivals. His command over his rivals was clear, this was the rider who would clean sweep the cobbles.
This early win backfired terribly for Cancellara as he had shown his cards too early and failed to produce a plan b in subsequent races. In Milan he couldn’t match the power of Goss in the final sprint and finished second after arguably being the strongest rider of the race. At de Ronde Cancellara was the favourite for everyman and his dog and couldn’t be beaten. 60 kilometres from the finish line Sylvain Chavanel was leading the race with several other escapees unable to keep up with the Frenchman who would be able to help his leader Boonen when he crossed the gap of 40 odd seconds. Cancellara was biding his time amongst his rivals and just waiting to blast them away his turn of strength on one of the climbs. On the Leberg at the steepest part he accelerated and left the peloton behind as he powered on and quickly caught Chavanel and looked to have wrapped up his second win at Flanders. Chavanel refused to work with the Swiss and simply hung onto his wheel. The tactic at E3 where Cancellara simply rode everyone else into the ground wasn’t working here.
Cancellara finished third as he and Chavanel were caught by Nick Nuyens who came around both in the sprint and won his first monument. The race was Cancellara’s for the taking but his lack of a different mode of attack had cost him and did so at Paris-Roubaix also where he finished second for his third monument podium out of three in 2011. The success at E3 had meant he was the man to watch and wasn't to be given an inch. Any move was instantly counter attacked and isolated him. No rider would work with him as they knew they were riding for second place. Second place in a monument is still an achievement and shouldn't be scoffed at.
2012 was therefore still very much going to be another year of Swiss dominance as he would have refined his tactics and be wiser for his losses in 2011. This was not to be as once again Cancellara rode his rivals into the ground at Strade Bianchi and entered Milan-San Remo as a favourite. Gerrans win was partly due to the same tactics of 2011, once again the Swiss was the strongest rider of the race but was unable to punish his rivals and therefore punished himself as he followed Gerrans to overcome him just short of the line for another second place.
Cancellara may been seen as the king of the monuments but it is Tom Boonen who rules over the current peloton. Cancellara has four monument wins; Boonen has four Paris-Roubaix’s no less and seven monuments in total. These seven are comprised of the Roubaix wins and three Ronde van Vlaanderen’s having twice done the double. Back to back Ronde’s in 2005/6 and successive Roubaix’s in 2008/9 also mean he has also been a very consistent winner on the cobbles. 2012 was to see another battle royale between the Swiss and Belgian kings of the cobbles with the peloton in a very distant third. This unfortunately was not to be as Cancellara crashed out of the Ronde breaking his right collarbone in four places after a bidon found its way under his wheel. Where Cancellara had threatened to make a mockery his rivals in 2011 before eventually just coming up short, Boonen succeeded. He was the strongest rider across the two races which was epitomised by his uncompromising destruction of the peloton at Paris-Roubaix as he won by over a minute and became just the second rider to have won four editions. Boonen huffed and he puffed, his puffing far more dangerous than his huffing as cemented his place as a champion of Roubaix.
After the surprise win by Gerrans at Milan-San Remo as an early season highlight, his feats were dwarfed by Boonen destroying the cobbles. A defining image of Boonen was him crossing the line at Paris-Roubaix, hand aloft, gloves-less no less, and thumb tucked in behind four straight fingers each one representing his wins of 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2012.
The final monument of the calendar is the race of the falling leaves in October, the Giro di Lombardia which once again had an altered start and finish. The 2012 edition was wet and dark with the recently crowned road world champion Gilbert crashing out, blooding his new white rainbow jersey; surely a collector’s item even more so now. It had been fifty years since the 2km long climb Muro di Surmano last made an appearance in the race and its reintroduction this year was welcomed by the fans but less so by the riders. At its steepest the climb reaches 27% gradient, just a little less than double the 15.3% average, with the images of wet and cold cyclists struggling to even ride up the hill while being flanked by the tightly knitted crowd a highlight of 2012. This climb can cause the best cyclists in the peloton to walk their steeds up the 27% section.
Incredibly, no Spanish cyclist had won the race till this edition when Joaquim Rodriguez took out one of the wettest rides in recent memory. He celebrated by throwing his bidon in the air clearly enjoying his first monument win which ensured he ended the years as the number one cyclist even after throwing away two Grand Tour wins.
The fourth of the monuments is the Ardennes classic Liège-Bastogne- Liège which was won by Maxim Iglinsky over Nibali who made his second monument podium of 2012 at the race. The race was exciting as Iglinsky caught Nibali with 1km to go and powered away to a solo victory 21 seconds ahead of the Liquigas rider. The race lacked a dominant ride of Cancellara, Boonen or the conquering Gilbert of 2011 but a monument win is to be cherished regardless of how it is won.
In 2011 Gilbert became only the second rider to clean sweep the Ardennes classics in an unstoppable season for the Belgian. A change in scenery, set up and componentry at the American BMC team in 2012 didn't bring about a repeat performance as he had a disappointing campaign with his third placing at La Flèche Wallonne the only podium in any of the classics. In 2012 there were three maiden victories in the Ardennes as Enrico Gasparotto won Amstel Gold, El Purito finally conquered La Flèche Wallonne and Iglinsky made it two out of three for Astana as he won Liège. The Ardennes lacked the excitement of Gilbert’s 2011 feats or the power of Boonen on the cobbles of Flanders and Roubaix but the three maiden victories where personal highlights to three riders who have all been at the pointy end of the classics for many seasons.
Coming into the Giro there were no outright favourites for the maglia rosa but there were a select few GC candidates ready to battle it out from Herning in Denmark to the Duomo in Milan. In every classification bar the Trofeo Super Team classification there were changing leaders almost daily with jerseys changing shoulders and mechanics applying flourishes of colour nightly to the bikes of the jersey wearers. Rodriguez lost the Giro in the final day ITT of the race around Milan and was consoled by winning the points classification by a solitary point over Mark Cavendish. The battle for the maglia rosa had become a mano o mano from Stage 6 as Purito and Ryder Hesjedal swapped he leaders jersey between them with the Canadian triumphing by just 16 seconds after 3 502kms.
At the Tour, Wiggins was in control from the start of the prologue. He finished seven seconds behind Cancellara and was content to let the Swiss rider hold onto yellow and avoid the nightly yellow jersey press conferences. Once Wiggins did put on yellow he didn't let it go all the way to Paris as his team ran his rivals into the ground with only his teammate Chris Froome within five minutes at the conclusion of the race.
The Vuelta would be the site of Alberto Contador’s return from his doping suspension and an action packed final Grand Tour of 2012. Contador wasn’t heavily favoured for his second Spanish Grand Tour simply due to a lack of racing in his legs. This was on show until Stage 17 as he was unable to shake Purito on the climbs or distance him in the ITT. It appeared the heartbreak of the Giro had been the impetus the Katusha rider needed to wrap up his first Grand Tour win. Instead the Spanish rider lost a second Grand Tour besides being in total control as a lapse in concentration allowed Contador to solo away to Stage 17 victory and take the roja jersey off his compatriot and wrap up a successful return to racing.
The thrilling end of the Vuelta was a reminder of the attractions of the sport which has in 2012 resembled a tragedy, or more specifically, a tragic-comedy that is nevertheless all about the bike. The central plot will hopefully surround the bike, cyclist and roads of the world next season. Inevitably, there will be distractions in the form of antagonists and a plethora of unreliable narrators and protagonists but there are enough people involved in the wide discourse of cycling to see the professional aspect of the sport wilt and die due to another doping scandal. When 2013 promises so much months out before any of the monuments the highlights reel will be a long one. That is not to take a naive approach to how riders arrive at their fortunes in 2013, but this is a new era slowly moving on from the sins of their predecessors. The young generation of Sagan et al coming through and a battle between Cancellara and Boonen should eventuate while it’s not beyond a fit Gilbert to repeat his 2011 antics. The Grand Tours look likely to be the scene of numerous GC riders challenging themselves and each other as well as ensuring the sponsorship of their teams do not cease. The best way to overcome the uncertainly that hangs like a low black cloud over cycling in 2012 is for riders to come out from January 1st and give their all. As fans and spectators that is all that can be asked of the riders who we once again thank for the joy and excitement they bring to the cycling community.
The Season Highlights
The complicated and extensive structuring of the World Tour points allocation ensure the early season stage races are raced in earnest with the early leaders in the individual and team categories important in how teams can impose their tactics upon an important and crucial moment in the one day classics and into the Grand Tours. The first World Tour stages races weren't particularly highlights but set the scene for several of the protagonists regarding how their seasons panned out. Wiggins win at Paris-Nice set the scene for Sky's dominance across stage races as well as the former track Olympic gold medallists supremacy in the aforementioned race as well as the Tour of Romandie, Critérium du Dauphiné and of course Le Tour de France. The method by which Sky controlled these races was not aesthetically what fans were crying for but the attention to the minutiae of the British team has to be admired. There was very little excitement regarding Sky's approach to cycling in 2012 with attrition the centrepiece of the team's arsenal.
The dominance of Boonen across two weeks in late March and early April was a joy to behold with the knowledge that his record equalling feats in Roubaix will be cherished in many years to come. Peter Sagan's debut performance at the Tour winning three stages and having enough time to taunt his rivals; the tenacity of Purito across the season and ability to come back from the disaster of Milan to record his maiden monument win late in the season and wrap up his second World Tour win. The first was when the competition was known as the Pro Tour but for all intents and purposes, is the same in all but name. BMC had looked like dominating everything from February till October with the acquisitions of Thor Hushovd and Philippe Gilbert. Neither had any luck in the one day classics but Gilbert's winning ride at the Worlds was superlative. When the route had been announced Gilbert was the odds on favourite to win. He had been the outright favourite to win the opening stage of the 2011 Tour and duly delivered. This win just kilometres from his home was with even more pressure heaped upon him as he had only two wins to his name for the entire season. The late attack by Gilbert had been the moment all and sundry were anticipated and his escape from a select few and solo approach to the line will become one of the sports enduring images.
The Five Monuments
Simon Gerrans had an outstanding beginning to 2012 with the new GreenEdge team as he won the Australian National road race title before winning the overall classification at the Tour Down Under. As a usual protagonist at the pointy end in the Ardennes, Milan-San Remo was a goal but a rather improbable one for the puncheur. The 2011 winner Matt Goss was looking to go back to back with Gerrans as a key domestique for his teammate in his quest. When Gerrans found himself with Fabian Cancellara and Vincenzo Nibali in the final kilometres he appeared destined for the final spot on the podium. Reserving his legs by riding in behind Cancellara, Gerro outfoxed his Swiss and Italian rivals to sprint clear and take the biggest win of his career. To many Australians this was the highlight of 2012 and any criticism levelled at the Australian champion was unwarranted. Any rider finding himself in that company coming into the final 100 meters would have conserved as much energy as possible to come around the leading rider, outfoxing their rival for the win. Gerro simply played this one better after keeping his cards close to his chest.
In 2010 Cancellara was unstoppable at both Flanders and Paris-Roubaix and was undoubtedly the strongest rider that week as he became the first rider since Boonen in 2005 to win both of the cobbled monuments in a year. In 2011 it was expected the Swiss maestro would again ride away and sweep the field with wins at Milan, Flanders and Roubaix. However he ended his spring campaign with the solitary win at E3 Prijs Vlaanderen where he powered away to solo over the line and put the fear of Fabian into his rivals. His command over his rivals was clear, this was the rider who would clean sweep the cobbles.
This early win backfired terribly for Cancellara as he had shown his cards too early and failed to produce a plan b in subsequent races. In Milan he couldn’t match the power of Goss in the final sprint and finished second after arguably being the strongest rider of the race. At de Ronde Cancellara was the favourite for everyman and his dog and couldn’t be beaten. 60 kilometres from the finish line Sylvain Chavanel was leading the race with several other escapees unable to keep up with the Frenchman who would be able to help his leader Boonen when he crossed the gap of 40 odd seconds. Cancellara was biding his time amongst his rivals and just waiting to blast them away his turn of strength on one of the climbs. On the Leberg at the steepest part he accelerated and left the peloton behind as he powered on and quickly caught Chavanel and looked to have wrapped up his second win at Flanders. Chavanel refused to work with the Swiss and simply hung onto his wheel. The tactic at E3 where Cancellara simply rode everyone else into the ground wasn’t working here.
Cancellara finished third as he and Chavanel were caught by Nick Nuyens who came around both in the sprint and won his first monument. The race was Cancellara’s for the taking but his lack of a different mode of attack had cost him and did so at Paris-Roubaix also where he finished second for his third monument podium out of three in 2011. The success at E3 had meant he was the man to watch and wasn't to be given an inch. Any move was instantly counter attacked and isolated him. No rider would work with him as they knew they were riding for second place. Second place in a monument is still an achievement and shouldn't be scoffed at.
2012 was therefore still very much going to be another year of Swiss dominance as he would have refined his tactics and be wiser for his losses in 2011. This was not to be as once again Cancellara rode his rivals into the ground at Strade Bianchi and entered Milan-San Remo as a favourite. Gerrans win was partly due to the same tactics of 2011, once again the Swiss was the strongest rider of the race but was unable to punish his rivals and therefore punished himself as he followed Gerrans to overcome him just short of the line for another second place.
Cancellara may been seen as the king of the monuments but it is Tom Boonen who rules over the current peloton. Cancellara has four monument wins; Boonen has four Paris-Roubaix’s no less and seven monuments in total. These seven are comprised of the Roubaix wins and three Ronde van Vlaanderen’s having twice done the double. Back to back Ronde’s in 2005/6 and successive Roubaix’s in 2008/9 also mean he has also been a very consistent winner on the cobbles. 2012 was to see another battle royale between the Swiss and Belgian kings of the cobbles with the peloton in a very distant third. This unfortunately was not to be as Cancellara crashed out of the Ronde breaking his right collarbone in four places after a bidon found its way under his wheel. Where Cancellara had threatened to make a mockery his rivals in 2011 before eventually just coming up short, Boonen succeeded. He was the strongest rider across the two races which was epitomised by his uncompromising destruction of the peloton at Paris-Roubaix as he won by over a minute and became just the second rider to have won four editions. Boonen huffed and he puffed, his puffing far more dangerous than his huffing as cemented his place as a champion of Roubaix.
After the surprise win by Gerrans at Milan-San Remo as an early season highlight, his feats were dwarfed by Boonen destroying the cobbles. A defining image of Boonen was him crossing the line at Paris-Roubaix, hand aloft, gloves-less no less, and thumb tucked in behind four straight fingers each one representing his wins of 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2012.
The final monument of the calendar is the race of the falling leaves in October, the Giro di Lombardia which once again had an altered start and finish. The 2012 edition was wet and dark with the recently crowned road world champion Gilbert crashing out, blooding his new white rainbow jersey; surely a collector’s item even more so now. It had been fifty years since the 2km long climb Muro di Surmano last made an appearance in the race and its reintroduction this year was welcomed by the fans but less so by the riders. At its steepest the climb reaches 27% gradient, just a little less than double the 15.3% average, with the images of wet and cold cyclists struggling to even ride up the hill while being flanked by the tightly knitted crowd a highlight of 2012. This climb can cause the best cyclists in the peloton to walk their steeds up the 27% section.
Incredibly, no Spanish cyclist had won the race till this edition when Joaquim Rodriguez took out one of the wettest rides in recent memory. He celebrated by throwing his bidon in the air clearly enjoying his first monument win which ensured he ended the years as the number one cyclist even after throwing away two Grand Tour wins.
The Ardennes
The fourth of the monuments is the Ardennes classic Liège-Bastogne- Liège which was won by Maxim Iglinsky over Nibali who made his second monument podium of 2012 at the race. The race was exciting as Iglinsky caught Nibali with 1km to go and powered away to a solo victory 21 seconds ahead of the Liquigas rider. The race lacked a dominant ride of Cancellara, Boonen or the conquering Gilbert of 2011 but a monument win is to be cherished regardless of how it is won.
In 2011 Gilbert became only the second rider to clean sweep the Ardennes classics in an unstoppable season for the Belgian. A change in scenery, set up and componentry at the American BMC team in 2012 didn't bring about a repeat performance as he had a disappointing campaign with his third placing at La Flèche Wallonne the only podium in any of the classics. In 2012 there were three maiden victories in the Ardennes as Enrico Gasparotto won Amstel Gold, El Purito finally conquered La Flèche Wallonne and Iglinsky made it two out of three for Astana as he won Liège. The Ardennes lacked the excitement of Gilbert’s 2011 feats or the power of Boonen on the cobbles of Flanders and Roubaix but the three maiden victories where personal highlights to three riders who have all been at the pointy end of the classics for many seasons.
The Grand Tours
Of the Grand Tours, the Tour is commonly the most exciting and riveting of the three. However the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta de España proved that Grand Tour racing is alive and well outside the intense media glare of France with the fight for classification wins no less passionate in Italy or Spain. At the Vuelta the roja jersey changed hands four times and at the Giro the maglia rosa saw five pairs of shoulders as the general classification lived up to its charge of top billing at both races. Compared to the Tour’s two yellow jersey wearers and a general lack of challenges to Sky and Wiggins, the Tour was to many the dullest of the Grand Tours in 2012 as fans were treated to a showcase of the philosophy of sports science and not doping science. However the GC battle petered out with no last day excitement or final climb attacks with the most drama in race taking place in the yellow jersey media conferences. Coming into the Giro there were no outright favourites for the maglia rosa but there were a select few GC candidates ready to battle it out from Herning in Denmark to the Duomo in Milan. In every classification bar the Trofeo Super Team classification there were changing leaders almost daily with jerseys changing shoulders and mechanics applying flourishes of colour nightly to the bikes of the jersey wearers. Rodriguez lost the Giro in the final day ITT of the race around Milan and was consoled by winning the points classification by a solitary point over Mark Cavendish. The battle for the maglia rosa had become a mano o mano from Stage 6 as Purito and Ryder Hesjedal swapped he leaders jersey between them with the Canadian triumphing by just 16 seconds after 3 502kms.
At the Tour, Wiggins was in control from the start of the prologue. He finished seven seconds behind Cancellara and was content to let the Swiss rider hold onto yellow and avoid the nightly yellow jersey press conferences. Once Wiggins did put on yellow he didn't let it go all the way to Paris as his team ran his rivals into the ground with only his teammate Chris Froome within five minutes at the conclusion of the race.
The Vuelta would be the site of Alberto Contador’s return from his doping suspension and an action packed final Grand Tour of 2012. Contador wasn’t heavily favoured for his second Spanish Grand Tour simply due to a lack of racing in his legs. This was on show until Stage 17 as he was unable to shake Purito on the climbs or distance him in the ITT. It appeared the heartbreak of the Giro had been the impetus the Katusha rider needed to wrap up his first Grand Tour win. Instead the Spanish rider lost a second Grand Tour besides being in total control as a lapse in concentration allowed Contador to solo away to Stage 17 victory and take the roja jersey off his compatriot and wrap up a successful return to racing.
The thrilling end of the Vuelta was a reminder of the attractions of the sport which has in 2012 resembled a tragedy, or more specifically, a tragic-comedy that is nevertheless all about the bike. The central plot will hopefully surround the bike, cyclist and roads of the world next season. Inevitably, there will be distractions in the form of antagonists and a plethora of unreliable narrators and protagonists but there are enough people involved in the wide discourse of cycling to see the professional aspect of the sport wilt and die due to another doping scandal. When 2013 promises so much months out before any of the monuments the highlights reel will be a long one. That is not to take a naive approach to how riders arrive at their fortunes in 2013, but this is a new era slowly moving on from the sins of their predecessors. The young generation of Sagan et al coming through and a battle between Cancellara and Boonen should eventuate while it’s not beyond a fit Gilbert to repeat his 2011 antics. The Grand Tours look likely to be the scene of numerous GC riders challenging themselves and each other as well as ensuring the sponsorship of their teams do not cease. The best way to overcome the uncertainly that hangs like a low black cloud over cycling in 2012 is for riders to come out from January 1st and give their all. As fans and spectators that is all that can be asked of the riders who we once again thank for the joy and excitement they bring to the cycling community.
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