The Cycliste Moderne, April 4, 2005

My wife thinks this edition is “a little dry for the layperson” and she is probably right. However, we will save my run in Saturday with a redneck in a pickup truck while riding my tandem up Americana Boulevard as Andrew and I returned from his soccer game for another day. So on to “The Ronde van Vlaanderen Recap and Why Team Tactics do Matter.”

Ronde Recap

Today was an unusual day for the Ronde van Vlaanderen, the Super Bowl of Belgian cycling. Skies were clear, the temperature was warm and the narrow roads of Flanders were absolutely dry. Under those conditions, negative tactics could have resulted in a rather large group finishing together. Fortunately, that was not the case. Quick.Step’s Tom Boonen was the strongest man on the day and won the 89th Ronde. Throughout the race, Quick.Step kept Boonen at the front. Boonen out-maneuvered T-Mobile’s superior numbers and was stronger than the other Belgian hard man, two-time Ronde champion, Peter van Petegem.

The decisive move came 33km from the finish when Boonen went with Peter van Petegem (Davitamon-Lotto) and Andreas Klier (T-Mobile) to bridge up to Erik Zabel (T-Mobile) and Roberto Petito (Fassa Bortolo). Those five ultimately caught up with Alessandro Ballan (Lampre-Caffita) and that group proceeded to build a constant lead over the chasing group that was driven by Discovery Channel.

As the race reached the Ten Bosse with 27km to go, Discovery Channel had Lance Armstrong on the front leading the chase. However, teams that had riders up the road kept control of the pace and Discovery Channel’s efforts were for naught. In prior years, the second to last climb over the Muur in Geraardsbergen had been the decisive climb. By the time the leading group reached the Muur, 17km from the finish, the lead was almost a minute over the Discovery Channel lead chase group.

Boonen led the decisive break, Boonen worked to keep the break away, and then Boonen just rode away from two of the greatest classic riders of the last ten years, Zabel and van Petegem. With less than 10km to the finish, Boonen rolled of the front and increased his lead to more than 40 seconds by the finish. Even though T-Mobile had two men in the break, neither Klier nor Zabel made any attempt to counter Boonen’s move. That failure resulted in T-Mobile racing once again for second place in a major race.

Boonen’s win is made more impressive by the fact that he took control of the race by riding his challengers off his wheel. Boonen has developed as a very fast finisher; there are probably only a handful of professionals that can outsprint Boonen today. However, rather than leave it for a sprint and take his chances with Zabel and van Petegem, men that he could probably have out-sprinted, Boonen won with style and power.

At 24, Boonen has already shown himself as a great cyclist with more than 20 wins last year. He has already been on the podium at Paris-Roubaix and may reach it again next Sunday. Belgian cycling has needed the emergence of a new hero. Johan Museeuw and Andre Tchmil have retired, Peter van Petegem is not getting any younger, and Frank Vandenbroucke is the personification of “mercurial.” Boonen’s victory today gives him his first Classic victory and validates his nickname, “the Young Lion of Flanders.” What is even more impressive, however, is the fact that Boonen overcame injuries suffered in two crashes earlier in the week that forced him to withdraw from the Flemish stage race the “Three Days of De Panne.”

Tactics Matter

In a follow up on a prior column regarding the importance of tactics, Team T-Mobile (formerly Telekom) has been under pressure due to their poor results this spring. In a report published on www.cyclingnews.com last week, T-Mobile manager Olaf Ludwig conceded that part of the reason that T-Mobile has had no wins this season is because, "It's plain stupid to be missing the decisive breakaways each time." This is not a new problem to T-Mobile. In fact, while being the strongest team on paper, T-Mobile, and Telekom before it, has long suffered from poor tactical performances.

T-Mobile’s tactics in the Ronde remain questionable, notwithstanding the fact that T-Mobile had three riders in the top ten at the Ronde. T-Mobile manager Walter Godefroot’s contended, as reported by cyclingnews.com, that T-Mobile was “the best team in the race today” and that “Tactically we did everything right. Don't be fooled; the move by Ivanov - appearing to be chasing while Zabel and Klier were in the break - was calculated, he didn't close the gap at all. Overall we rode a great race."

T-Mobile failed to coordinate the efforts of their two men in the break, Erik Zabel and Andreas Klier. Sergei Ivanov’s attack on the Ten Bosse, with two teammates less than 30 seconds up the road could have been fatal to the breakaway had Discovery Channel been more aggressive at that point. While Boonen was clearly the strongest, T-Mobile’s failure to capitalize on its numbers resulted in yet another disappointing loss.

However, despite T-Mobile’s deficiencies at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, they still landed on the podium. Discovery Channel’s rigid adherence to their race plan, saving George Hincapie for an attack on the Muur, failed because it assumed that the leading group would still be together at that point. Discovery Channel earned Hincapie’s 7th place when they failed to cover Boonen’s move with 33 kilometers to go. At least Discovery Channel directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel did not sugarcoat the team’s performance when he conceded after the race to Belgian TV that "for the team, it was a big disappointment." Hincapie conceded in an interview with Paul Sherwen on OLN that the team had been strong to the end, that he had felt good, but that their decision to leave the effort to the climb up the Muur was too late.

Amazingly, Velonews.com did not really focus on any of the tactical errors made by Discovery Channel during the Ronde, but instead focused on Armstrong’s preparation for the Tour of Georgia and rumors swirling regarding his retirement. Sometimes it’s not all about Lance.