The Cycliste Moderne, June 13, 2005

Dauphine Surprise.

In a complete and utter surprise, Basque team Euskaltel-Euskadi rode to victory at the Criterium du Dauphine Libere. Unlike last year, when Euskaltel-Euskadi came to the Dauphine to win and did with Iban Mayo, Iñigo Landaluze and the team fell into the victory almost by accident.

In the first victory of any significance for the orange clad Basque team, Landaluze had taken the lead in the race from American Levi Leipheimer when he finished second in Friday’s mountainous Stage 5, more than seven minutes ahead of the group of the leaders including Phonak’s Santiago Botero and Floyd Landis, Discovery’s Lance Armstrong and T-Mobile’s Alexander Vinokourov.

It has been a frustrating season for the Basque-only squad which had shown major promise over the last couple of years due to the team’s climbing ability. However, this year’s poor performance had its seeds in last year’s poor performance at the Tour de France after placing two men in the top five the year before and winning the 2004 Dauphine. The team showed signs of weakness over the flat stages and team time trial during the first part of last year’s Tour. Moreover, this year’s ProTour requirement that each ProTour team compete in every ProTour race magnified the team’s lack of depth. Team policy is to sign only riders of Basque descent. The team has never contested the Spring Classics in any serious manner and thus lacked riders capable of racing in the cold, wet and rough conditions of the Northern races. Moreover, the requirement that they field teams for each race has shown the lack of experience that the team has for such races as the Giro d’Italia. Most of the ProTour teams, including the French teams, went out and signed Italians to lead their squads in the Giro. Euskaltel obviously did not and was a complete non-factor.

Landaluze happened to be in the right place at the right time and due to inertia among the leaders, was able to hold on and win the last major French race leading up to the Tour de France.

Notwithstanding Landaluze’s surprise victory, all the major teams have to be happy with their performance at this point. Phonak clearly has two riders who could finish in the top ten at the Tour with Landis and Botero. Leipheimer showed strength and could find himself top 5 at the Tour if he can overcome the poor tactics that cost him the overall victory after spending a couple of days in the leader’s jersey. Gerolsteiner is probably not strong enough to win the Tour, however, so he will have to do it himself. Vinokourov was once again solid and clearly ready for the Tour. It is not clear if his ambitions will have to be sacrificed for Jan Ullrich, although “Vino” clearly has good climbing legs as evidenced by his win on Mont Ventoux. Surprisingly, Davide Moncoutie of Cofidis had the best finish of any French rider during the Dauphine and could conceivably have an excellent Tour, something the team has been hoping for over the last few years.

Discovery Preparation.

Discovery Channel came to the Dauphine not to win but rather to test the team’s Tour preparation. Discovery has to be happy with the performance that its team put in. George Hincapie won the prologue and Sunday’s final stage in a sprint over his teammate (and Armstrong heir apparent) Yaroslav Popovych after the two broke away after 35km and managed to stay away until the end of the race.

Lance Armstrong showed good form in the time trials and in the mountains. Teammates Benjamin Noval, Hincapie, and Popovych all showed form that should make the team confident of its preparation for the Tour. The team should be the odds on favorite to win the first ever ProTour team time trial in Eindhoven, Netherlands next week.

Early Transfer Talk

There are already discussions regarding the end of season moves that will happen when riders’ contracts expire. The biggest rumor has Alexander Vinokourov joining Discovery Channel next year. The Kazakh rider is one of the few non-Germans to flourish on T-Mobile since the departure of Bjarne Riis. Most of Vinokourov’s career victories have come as a result of his own abilities and not really any support from his team. He had previously been sought by US Postal Service and with Armstrong’s retirement looming would be an excellent fit for the team.