Lotto’s approach to racing in 2012 was nothing new or unorthodox. Following a method they have had success with, the GC sprinter combo was again seen as the best way bringing about success for the Belgian team. This approach is no lotto as it has been refined since the Australian duo of Robbie McEwen and Cadel Evans first successes of this method in the mid 2000s. Although the combination led to both riders leaving the team, the Greipel and Van Den Broeck combo is for now, working well. With Greipel a two time winner of the Tour Down Under and with the team’s Australian connection due the amount of Australian riders the team has employed the South Australian race is treated with earnestness. It may seem Greipel’s name appears far too often in this piece but such was his contribution to the teams win’s it is unavoidable. The sprinter won the first five races in 2012 and 19 in total plus two points classifications showcasing his dominance as the most winningest rider this year.
The team and Greipel have become accustomed to coming home from Australia with a strong showing at the beginning of the season and once again nabbed several wins. Roelandts had an unfortunate parenthesis to his season in which he broke his collarbone at the beginning and end of his season. Besides the broken bones, the 2008 Belgian national champion won his first overall stage race and finished seventh in the Olympic road race. The curtain raiser to the Tour Down Under is a fast criterium around the streets of Adelaide known as the Cancer Council Helpline Classic and usually is a good measure of where the sprinters are at coming into the race. In 2011 the race was won by Greipel’s ex-teammate Matt Goss who also took out Stage 1 which was replicated by Greipel in 2012. It was the opening stage of the race and World Tour calendar when Roelandts crashed out along with several other riders after a crash within the final kilometres with a spectator. As the race awards bonus seconds on the finishing line there is all the opportunity for a sprinter to wear the leaders ochre jersey or win the race which has been a regular occurrence. With the Stage 1 win Greipel also pulled on the first leaders jersey for the team in 2012 but would loss it the next day, unable to honour his teammate with ochre.
On Stage 3 with a man down, Greipel took his tenth overall stage win at the race and his second ochre jersey for the 2012 edition. In the exact same fashion following Stage 1, the German led both the overall and points classifications but this was also to be a case of déjà vu as he would hold the led for just one day. Stage 6 was a race around the streets of Adelaide and a third win for Greipel and Lotto but was not to be accompanied by any classification jerseys this time. Greipel is now just one stage win short of McEwen’s all time stage win record and looks likely to break that in 2013.
With the first few stage races of the season tilted toward the sprinters and fast men, Lotto left Australia for the flat dry and windy roads of Oman. With races spread across the globe the team was also racing in Portugal where Gianni Meersman won his first race in a Lotto kit. The Volta ao Agave is treated as warm up race for the GC riders whose season objectives are Grand Tour wins. Meersman is off to the rival Belgian team Omega Pharma-Quick Step after just the one season with Lotto. Meersman’s Stage 1 win was sandwiched by Greipel taking out Stage 1 and 4 in Oman as he added Stage 4 of Paris-Nice to his palmares in early March as the European season begun in earnest with the race to the sun underway. The Belgian had been third on the stage before in to Lac de Vassivière but won the sprint the following day over Grega Bole for is first World Tour win.
Although there were some riders whose 2012 was rather bare regarding wins, Tosh Van der Sande impressed in his debut professional year. As a stagiaire with Lotto in 2011 the Belgian rider took out the u/23 Liège–Bastogne–Liège along with several impressive wins and rides. Although he didn’t win a race in 2012, his first win was the mountains classification at Three Days De Panne. der Sande’s first cycling wins were as a track cyclist in 2006 in which he excelled in the scratch, points race and Madison winning the scratch and points race disciplines at the novice national track championships. The next year at the older national junior championships he repeated the feat but it would be in 2008 when he posted his most impressive result as he became the junior points race world champion. He also cleaned up the junior nationals winning four titles and letting everyone know of his talents. Besides his mountain classification win, his best result would be third place at the Borsbeek Individueel in a promising debut road season.
Another young Lotto rider who took a win in their debut season was the German born Gaëtan Bille who won the GP Pino Cerami. It was his only win this season but could be the ice breaker for future sucess. Along with the two younger riders who only posted one win, the instantly recognisable Olivier Kaisen also picked up a win in 2012. It was his first since 2009 and only his third professional victory. The 1.95cm Belgian is one of the peloton’s most selfless riders who has been a crucial domestiques for the Lotto team since he joined in 2006. He would have cherished the very rare victory as his junior palmares impressively reads junior and u/23 ITT national champion alongside two third places in the u/23 race in other years. Yet his junior skills against the clock have not replicated as a professional as he has never won a professional ITT race.
2012 was always going to be difficult without the sublime Philippe Gilbert to lead the team in the Classics. After his suburb 2011 in which he won the Ardennes triple the Belgian sportsmen of the year packed his things and set off to BMC. In 2011 the little known Jelle Vanendert finished sixth at La Flèche Wallonne and rode the Tour as a key mountain domestique for Jurgen Van Den Broeck. With Van Den Broeck crashing out of the Tour, Vanendert was given the opportunity to chase stage wins and did so with gusto. He finished second on Stage 12 before soloing to Stage 14 victory and pulled on the maillot pois until Stage 19 as he finished 20th overall. In 2012 his season highlight would be in the Ardennes as he finished inside the top ten for the three races. Improving upon his sixth last season, Vanendert came in fourth place behind El Purito but it was his Amstel Gold Race performance that suggested he would recapture his Tour form. His second place at Amstel is his best performance at a Classic or Monument and would be the closest he came to victory in 2012. Tenth place at Liège-Bastogne-Liège rounded out a great week for the Belgian but it proved to an early season highlight with no other notable performances in 2012.
After the Ardennes and Classics of April where Vanendert had the most impressive results, the team turned its attention to the Grand Tours. Greipel took out another win when he won Stage 2 of the Presidential Tour of Turkey in late April as he tuned up for a big July. However at the Giro the new recruit Lars Bak won his first road Grand Tour stage. Having previously won a Giro d’Italia stage with HTC the year before in the opening day TTT he wasn’t a stranger to the podium but he certainly celebrated the solo win. Bak had also been part of the team which won the 2009 Vuelta de España TTT and now has three Grand Tour stages to his name. As this win was also his first solo success since 2009 he had an extended celebration across the line in recognition of his breakthrough. It wasn’t too long before Bak experienced more success as he won the GP de Fourmies in September to cap off a triumphant debut season at Lotto.
With the relative success of one day races and the Giro triumph, Greipel continued his dominance in stage race sprints. He won the first three stages of the Tour of Belgium and the points classification which he followed up a week later by winning the first two stages at the Tour of Luxembourg. To go with the stages was another points classification which he also led for the entirety of the race. In Luxembourg Roelandts won his first race in 2012 as he took out Stage 4. Looking a list of wins in 2012 the names of the Lotto riders besides Greipel look like aberrations as the German was so dominate in the stage races. In the lead up to the Tour the Gorilla won the ProRace Berlin then Stage 2 of the Ster ZLM Toer.
The 2011 Tour was a mixed bag for Lotto as Gilbert surprised no one by winning the first road stage and wearing yellow the next day. Gilbert had been tipped for the stage win since the finish was announced and just like the world championships in Valkenburg, he did not disappoint. Alongside Gilbert, Lotto was banking on Greipel winning the sprints and Van Den Broeck finishing atop the podium in Paris. Alas, VDB crashed out on Stage 9 breaking several bones and would have no chance to match or better his fourth place of 2010. With one top ten Grand Tour finish on his palmares from 2008 when he finished the Giro in seventh place it wouldn’t be too long before he would have top ten GC placing at all three Grand Tours. With Greipel’s three Tour stage wins the Tour was already bound to be another successful July following the three wins last year.
The first week for the team was a success indeed as Greipel narrowly lost Stage 2 to fierce rival Cavendish after his team had put the German in the ideal position. Greipel’s anger at being unable to deliver the goods spurred him onto successive wins on Stage 4 and 5 and another second place on Stage 6. Greipel won his third and final stage on the road into Cap d’Agde, a nudist beach on Bastille Day and importantly JVDB was still in GC contention. After he crashed out of the Tour, JVDB participated in his first Vuelta de España and finished eight in the only year he has won a professional road race. This is quite astonishing for a regular top ten GC rider and he will be looking for more wins in 2013 as he tried to take one more step and move up onto a Grand Tour podium. With Bradley Wiggins riding his rivals into the ground and then further annihilating them in the ITT, JVDB could only aim for second place or better. He finished fourth for a second time this year but was over 10 minutes behind Wiggins riding well but not instigating moves on the mountains or really making his rivals suffer with hard long attacks. At the Vuelta JVDB was one of the GC hopefuls but found the going tough and had lost time before his abandonment before Stage 14 along with two teammates who were suffering from a stomach bug.
There are several riders on the Lotto team who have had successful careers with very little victory. Van Den Broeck has finished top ten in all three Grand Tours but won only a handful of races. Kaisen is another rider who has had only limited success, likewise Vanendert. The Australian Adam Hansen begun his career as a MTB rider with his biggest wins the back to back Crocodile Trophy race triumph, an epic outback Australian race which tests both mind and body. Lotto is Hansen’s second road team after his time at the T-Mobile Highroad team till 2010 where he won his only overall stage race so far. In 2012 Hansen begun and completed all three Grand Tours and would be the only rider to do so this season. His efforts equate to just over 16 000 kms of racing which was the second most in the peloton this season. His feat has only been achieved once before by an Australian and 31 times in the history of the Grand Tours. He has been a key domestique for both Greipel and Van Den Broeck since his time at Lotto and his 9 weeks racing through Italy, France and Spain is equal to a minor win or two. From May the only riders to win races besides Greipel were Bak and Roelandts which suggest the team needs to find more avenues to success in 2013 after the departure of Gilbert, Matt Lloyd and a few others who contributed several wins across the past season.
In the World Tour rankings Lotto was the 11th ranked team with Van Den Broeck was the highest rated rider on 237 points, well above Greipel’s 162 points. Van Den Broeck finished the season as the 14th highest ranked rider after an impressive season of which the Tour was the centrepiece. However if he can add wins to his repertoire he’ll be moving up the rankings into the top ten at least. Greipel’s last wins in a stage race for the season came at the Danmark-Rundt as he won the first two stages of the race. Greipel wore another leaders jersey due to his early feats in the race as well as a longer stint in the points classification jersey to add even more jerseys to his collection. Greipel finished off the season by winning the GP Impanis-Van Petegem as he had previously stated that he wouldn’t be participating in the world championships as the course was not suited to his strengths. There was no repeat of Greipel’s 2009 Vuelta success as he also skipped the race nor was the Vuelta of any consequence to the team as the wins at the Giro and Tour meant there were no expectations coming into the Spanish race. And therefore the team recorded nothing of particular note in the final Grand Tour for 2012.
In Jürgen Roelandts debut professional season he became the Belgium national road race champion and showcased his one day racing skills. He has performed well in stages races with stage and classification wins since 2008 but it wasn’t till this season that he won his first overall stage race. The breakthrough occurred at the Tour de l’Eurometropole after he won the opening stage and took the points classification as well. Roelandts ended the season after the race with a second broken collarbone for the season but his bad luck with breaks will hopefully end in 2012. Roelandts may find himself with more stage race opportunities in 2013 and the chance to ride a protected role in chasing one week stage race wins. He and Van Den Broeck may be heading into the Tour as co-captains both in a protected role, supporting each other in the mountains and hilly stages. However since 2012 was the first year since 2008 that Roelandts won a stage he epitomises the current Lotto rider who performs well but often does so without crossing the line first.
Top Five Results
Giro D’Italia Stage 12 Lars Bak
Paris-Nice Stage 4 Gianni Meersman
Tour de France Stage 4, 5 & 13 André Greipel
Tour of Belgium Stages 1, 2 & 3 André Greipel
Tour Down Under Stages 1, 3 & 6 André Greipel
Breakout Riders: Gianni Meersman, Tosh Van Der Sande, Gaëtan Bille and Jurgen Roelandts all had impressive wins in 2012 but there was no particular breakout rider. Greipel’s seemingly never ending wins overshadowed the majority of the team’s performances but there was no young riders threatening Greipel as the star sprinter or rider on the team. Meersman is off to greener pastures in 2012 so the responsibility of wins falls onto Bille and Van Der Sande with Vanendert’s younger brother Dennis also expected to take it up a level next season. There are several riders under or around 25 that are reaching a point in their careers where they will need to post wins or decide to become key domestiques for the team.
Disappointing Riders: Vanendert didn’t perform to the level that was expected of him after his exploits at the 2011 Tour. His week in the Ardennes was very impressive with his three top ten finishes but this was to the springboard for his season but instead this was his season. Greg Henderson joined the team from Sky with a long list of wins on his palmares but couldn’t add a first win at Lotto in 2012. At 36 he doesn’t have the same top end speed that he did while riding on the boards and winning world championships and commonwealth games medals. He is a key component in Greipel’s sprint train but if he can ease the load a little it will be appreciated by the team.
2013? A Tour de force of three stage wins and fourth place overall was a success as were the 19 wins across the season by Greipel. A repeat of the Tour feats could be on in 2013 but with Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck set to return to the French Grand Tour it’ll be a hard task for Van Den Broeck to better fourth. Cavendish riding with a full train will also be tough for Greipel to counter but Greipel has proved that he can beat Cav head to head. With only one rider set to join the team it will be up to riders already on the team to improve upon the performances in 2012. Roelandts will be encouraged by his first overall victory and the riders who now have a year under their belts at Lotto will be encouraged to improve upon this year. Bak and Henderson will be better off after a year in the team set up with Bak’s Giro a massive confidence boost for a rider closer to the end than beginning of his career. The team also had to deal with the split last year’s team into Lotto and the Omega Pharma-Quick Step teams as well as deal with the departure of Gilbert. 2013 will be at least initially, a more settled team framework and the lack of change of personal could be of benefit as the newer and younger riders will be confident in the support they’ll be offered.
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