Omega Pharma-Quick Step: with Tom Boonen a three time winner of the Flemish monument but under an injury cloud in 2013, the Belgian team will have a few options throughout the race. Boonen seems unlikely to defend his title from last year with sub-par performances so far this season. He could provide key support to Sylvain Chavanel by launching an attack and setting up Chavanel for a counter attack if necessary. The Omega Pharma-Quick Step team is looking strong as they also have Dutch national champion Niki Terpstra up their sleeve. Boonen could decide that Paris-Roubaix is his goal this classics season and allow the other two to chase a win. A win might be too much in 2013 but a podium place is looking likely
BMC: The star team is similar to Sky in that there are several top riders but little cohesion in their racing. Philippe Gilbert won’t be lining up in Bruges but with Thor Hushovd andreg Van Avermaet the top riders for Flanders plus with Daniel Oss also racing on Sunday the team’s weakness could be its individual strengths. Alessandro Ballan was third last year but is still recovering from a broken leg with Hushovd taking his place as the ex-World Champion in the Flanders team. Van Avermaet has finished in the top ten at Flanders in 2008 and was fourth last year but due to the arrival of Hushovd and Gilbert has seen his chances diminished as the top classics rider. The team could afford for several riders to launch attacks throughout the race before the protected rider tries their luck in a counter-attack. A podium is likely but a win would be a surprise for the American Swiss team but time is running out for this squad to bring home a big win at the classics
Team Sky: with Ian Stannard, Geraint Thomas, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Matt Hayman and Bernie Eisel all racing this Sunday the team will have to decide mid-race who they choose to protect for a chance for the win. Stannard showed his form at Milan-San Remo and the team has been in Tenerife training for its March/April assault on the classics and they need to start winning some big one-day races. In general classifications Sky is killing it and has created the new template for success but this is yet to eventuate in the classics. A podium looks good but a win will have to wait with Paris-Roubaix possibly a better chance with surprise wins more common at Roubaix than Flanders.
Saturday 30 March 2013
Monday 25 March 2013
Ze Cobbles
Over the next two weeks the cobbled classics are the talk of the peloton. A mix of World Tour and …races the classification of these races is to a point arbitrary. The two big ones are Flanders and Roubaix but before these Easter treats are several important semi-classics which let the peloton know who is on form and looking dangerous.
Sunday 24 March 2013
Taking a Step Backwards for Two Steps Forward
At Milan-San Remo there was one raging favourite for the win. The Slovakian national champion Peter Sagan had millions waged on him crossing the line and performing yet another idiosyncratic victory celebration. The victor in La Primavera was, to many, an obscure winner riding for an even obscurer team. Gerald Ciolek had previously won the German national road race title and U/23 road world champions but didn’t have great opportunities at either the Columbia, Milram or Quick Step teams. When MTN-Qhubeka offered the German a contract it was as team leader and guaranteed support.
The South African team entered the first monument of 2013 happy enough to have been invited. The organisers RCS had taken a gamble on inviting the small the team to its races as they have preferred, as does the French ASO, to invite Italian wildcards then foreign teams. With the farcical Katusha saga looking likely to compromise the place of pro-continental squads at World Tour races, thankfully no team has received a withdrawal notice for races because of their inclusion into the World Tour ranks. When Ciolek signed for MTN it was considered by many to be a significant step down for the sprinter. Although results had dried up he was still a young sprinter with loads of talent and the new team seemed like the environment for him flourish in.
The decision to step down from World Tour ranks after several years would be unthinkable for many of the World Tour riders. The risk of not being invited to races and taking a pay cut being two reasons why they would resist. However as Ciolek has shown, a pro-conti team can provide support that a second string sprinter would never receive at Team Sky or BMC unless it was a smaller race. Heinrich Haussler is another example of a rider who stepped down a level after a few seasons at Garmin. He and Ciolek have both said of their teams that they have the most professional set up they have ever encountered. This is coming from seasoned riders no less and both are riding for new or only recently created teams.
In the finale of Milan-San Remo, Sagan and Fabian Cancellara were too busy watching each other to consider Ciolek’s chances for the win. These two riders have been tipped by many to dominate the podiums of the classics season and Ciolek would be just another rider chewed up and spat out by the two. However, Ciolek was slipping under the radar as a pro-conti and wasn’t seen to be any threat at all. For many of the World Tour teams there is a hunger which appears to be lacking. Sagan opened up is sprint all but certain this would be his first monument win. Alas, the young Slovakian may have been the smartest but he is still learning the tricks of the trade. Ciolek was riding for a lesser team than Sagan’s World Tour Cannondale team but he has years of experience at the higher level.
Ciolek won’t be flying under anyone’s radar no longer, nor will his team. MTN-Qhubeka were an interesting prospect as the first African team in the peloton but now their idiosyncrasies are well are truly trumped by their winning ways
The South African team entered the first monument of 2013 happy enough to have been invited. The organisers RCS had taken a gamble on inviting the small the team to its races as they have preferred, as does the French ASO, to invite Italian wildcards then foreign teams. With the farcical Katusha saga looking likely to compromise the place of pro-continental squads at World Tour races, thankfully no team has received a withdrawal notice for races because of their inclusion into the World Tour ranks. When Ciolek signed for MTN it was considered by many to be a significant step down for the sprinter. Although results had dried up he was still a young sprinter with loads of talent and the new team seemed like the environment for him flourish in.
The decision to step down from World Tour ranks after several years would be unthinkable for many of the World Tour riders. The risk of not being invited to races and taking a pay cut being two reasons why they would resist. However as Ciolek has shown, a pro-conti team can provide support that a second string sprinter would never receive at Team Sky or BMC unless it was a smaller race. Heinrich Haussler is another example of a rider who stepped down a level after a few seasons at Garmin. He and Ciolek have both said of their teams that they have the most professional set up they have ever encountered. This is coming from seasoned riders no less and both are riding for new or only recently created teams.
In the finale of Milan-San Remo, Sagan and Fabian Cancellara were too busy watching each other to consider Ciolek’s chances for the win. These two riders have been tipped by many to dominate the podiums of the classics season and Ciolek would be just another rider chewed up and spat out by the two. However, Ciolek was slipping under the radar as a pro-conti and wasn’t seen to be any threat at all. For many of the World Tour teams there is a hunger which appears to be lacking. Sagan opened up is sprint all but certain this would be his first monument win. Alas, the young Slovakian may have been the smartest but he is still learning the tricks of the trade. Ciolek was riding for a lesser team than Sagan’s World Tour Cannondale team but he has years of experience at the higher level.
Ciolek won’t be flying under anyone’s radar no longer, nor will his team. MTN-Qhubeka were an interesting prospect as the first African team in the peloton but now their idiosyncrasies are well are truly trumped by their winning ways
Friday 15 March 2013
Thursday 7 March 2013
Backing FDJ is no Gamble
The lottery backed FDJ squad looks set for a big year in which its young stars will remind the cycling world that the French are in fact a major cycling nation. In Oman the French national champion Nacer Bouhanni won a fast sprint for his first win of the year. At Paris-Nice he went one better by winning the opening stage in the first European World Tour race of 2013. He crashed out on the next stage while wearing the leaders jersey but he is one of many bright starts who look set to shine brightly in 2013 and has already set the scene for FDJ this season.
Friday 1 March 2013
The Season is back and in Full Flight
Although racing gets underway in Australia on January 1st and is followed by regualr racing, Paris-Nice is still marks the season opener for road racing. It is the second World Tour stage race on the UCI programe but the first in Europe. Several other stage races have been held and last weekend saw the first of the semi-classics, one of which was snowed out, but the race to the sun brings out a level of excitment that the Tour Down Under, Tour of Qatar and Tour of Oman just doesn't yet generate.
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