The Cycliste Moderne, August 8, 2005

Sorry that I have not kept you up to date as to the status of pro cycling over the last week. My real job got in the way of doing what I like. That said, there was a lot of interesting action during the past week.

Tour of Denmark

The Tour of Denmark concluded Sunday with a dominating performance by Ivan Basso.
The Tour of Denmark is obviously important to Team CSC as it is based there, and they brought a strong team. However, the Benelux Tour, which is a ProTour race, is occurring simultaneously and Team CSC has also sent a strong team to the Benelux Tour with Bobby Julich as their leader. The ProTour has had an effect on some of the smaller races with fewer top pro teams contesting the smaller stage races, like the Tour of Denmark, the Volta a Portugal and the Vuelta a Burgos, which are all occurring as the same time as the Benelux Tour.

CSC is just one of three ProTour teams to be at the Tour of Denmark this year, along with T-Mobile and Rabobank. That said, Basso’s performance, even if it is over a weaker field, is impressive. Basso won the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th stages of the six stage race. Basso won just about every way you could conceive. He countered an attack at the very end of stage one to upset the field sprint, he won from a solo breakaway, he won from a two man breakaway, he won the individual time trial.

After the efforts he put in at the Giro d’Italia and at the Tour de France, Basso could be taking it easy. He has had a season that most pro’s would dream of but instead, he is showing a level of professionalism that has been lacking in the pro peleton for some time. He is racing in Denmark solely because that is what the team wants him to do. And more importantly, Basso is racing to win, every day. Basso has given a truly old school performance this week.

Volta a Portugal

This week is the 67th Volta a Portugal. This is a race with a long and underappreciated history. The Volta a Portugal has long been the focus of the domestic Portuguese teams. Very few Portuguese racers ever race outside of Portugal. That is not due to a lack of talent as evidenced by the careers of Joaquim Agostinho and Jose Azevedo. Rather, there is so much racing in Portugal and there are so many domestic teams, which have historically been affiliated with one of the major soccer teams, that a rider could make a decent living and have a significant career just racing locally.

The Volta a Portugal used to be over two weeks. However, UCI reforms have resulted in the shortening of the race to ten stages. In my book, after the grand tours and the Tour de Suisse, the Volta a Portugal and the Peace Race are the most important stage races in the world. Unfortunately, the Peace Race has been canceled and may not ever make it back.

Due to the size of Portugal, virtually every inch of the country is visited over ten stages. Moreover, due to the heat that exists in Portugal in August, it is not an easy race by any means.

The ProTour has had an effect on the field at the Volta a Portugal with Lampre Caffita and Fassa Bortolo being the only two ProTour teams competing. Fassa Bortolo has significant commercial dealings in Portugal so that is not a surprise. Lampre’s participation is a surprise and their team leader, who has naturally already promised great things at the race, is the one and only Gilberto Simoni. Simoni, however, finished the first stage in 120th place almost two and a half minutes back.

The Volta a Portugal has never been a big draw for top professional teams. However, the race is the highpoint of the Portuguese season and attracts every one of the domestic Portuguese teams as well as the usual assortment of smaller Spanish teams. The racing is usually very agitated as each of the domestic teams is trying to prove they are the top dog in Portugal.

When I lived in Portugal in 1988-1990, even though the country only had two television stations at the time, the Volta a Portugal was covered in depth each day with live coverage of the finish of each stage. In fact, in 1989, I knew more about what was transpiring at the Volta than I did about LeMond’s amazing victory at the Tour de France which were being run concurrently.

If you follow the Volta a Portugal, you may not know who most of the riders are or who sponsors the teams. Just know it is some of the most hotly contested bike racing in the world each year.

For more on the history of this great race check out http://cyclolusitano.com/ipw-web/portal/cms/index.php.

The Benelux Tour

This race is new arising from the UCI’s requirements for the ProTour. The UCI mandated the combination of the Tour of Holland and the Tour of Belgium and thus the Benelux Tour was created. Although it resulted in the destruction of two separate and truly distinct races, its inclusion in the ProTour has resulted in significantly better teams and riders than in past years.

Unfortunately, the race will not get to Luxembourg this year and the race will pass through Germany so it might be more aptly called the BeneGer Tour.

The one highlight so far is Discovery Channel’s Max Van Heeswijk breaking through for his first sprint win of the season.

However, Sunday’s stage was interrupted when the race comissars led the riders off course and had to stop the race and restart it to correct the mistake. You would think that if you are going to run a national tour, you would get the directions right.