The Cycliste Moderne, 25 de Abril 2006

Sorry for the delay. The man got in the way of getting stuff done, the wife, three kids and 25 de Abril, the celebration of the overthrow of fascism in Portugal, certainliy did not facilitate a timely post either. Now we can catch our breath and look back at the spring classics.

End to Classics

Sunday marked the end of the spring classic season. Historically, the spring classics were the most significant one-day races of the year. They had more history, significance and color than the post Tour de France one-day races. It is fitting that the spring classic ends with the oldest bike race in the world, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, which began in 1892. Wednesday was the Fleche Wallone with its three trips up the incredibly steep Mur de Huy.

Fleche Wallone

Fleche Wallone is not as long as Liege-Bastogne-Liege, not as old as Liege-Bastogne-Liege and is frequently overshadowed by its older neighbor. Fleche Wallone starts in Charleroi and winds its way to Huy for the first of three trips up the Mur de Huy and then into the rolling hillsides south of Huy. The Ardennes classics are not like the Flemish climbs that were raced over a few weeks ago. They are longer and steeper and it is much more a race for climbers and even stage race riders.

Wednesday’s Fleche Wallone was ridden very aggressively with all of the expected protagonists staying at the front. That morning, both of my boys were wide awake at various times between 3:30AM and 4:30AM. At 4:30 I announced to my wife that I was going to the office. That was fortuitous as I was able to turn on the stream and catch the last half of the race. Oscar Freire of Rabobank and Alexandre Moos of Phonak made an aggressive move with 60km to go and managed to get a lead of more than one minute before the peleton really responded.

The Freire/Moos break stayed away until about 10km when they were swallowed up by the chase. The leading group stayed together until the final trip up the Mur de Huy. All the big teams had their leaders together at the base of the Mur, with Ivan Basso of Team CSC riding to set up his teammates Frank Schleck and Karsten Kroon. It was not enough, however as former world champion and 2003 Fleche Wallone winner Igor Astarloa first attacked and got a gap only to then be passed by Euskaltel’s Samual Sanchez and Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d’Epargne and the Team CSC riders. At the end Alejandro Valverde took the win showing he remains a unique talent who is able to sprint and climb.

Liege-Bastogne-Liege

The midweek race in Huy always shows who has the form leading up to “La Doyenne” on Sunday. Although Valverde was clearly a favorite, in a unique bit of historic cycling trivia that makes you go “huh?” no Spaniard had ever won Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The race on Sunday played out very similarly to the Wednesday’s race. However, Liege-Bastogne-Liege is significantly longer and has 10 significant climbs on the way back to Liege including the uphill finish in Ans. Liege-Bastogne-Liege is a fantastic race due to the unrelenting climbs that the peleton faces town after town.

Rabobank’s Michael Boogerd got in a late break with Joaquin Rodriguez of Caisse d’Epargne that got a good lead. However, with less than 10km to go the break got caught by the leading group that had all of the potential winners you would expect: Bettini of Quick.Step, Basso and Schleck of Team CSC, Di Luca of Liquigas.

Valverde watched his opponents until 300m to the finish when he wound up and finally came around T-Mobile’s Patrick Sinkewitz’s wheel for the win. Paolo Bettini finished second and young Italian star Damiano Cunego finished third. This should have been a race where “the Cricket” Bettini would have been expected to win, but Valverde is coming into his own and showing the same skills that Bettini has used for much success over the years. If Valverde learns to time trial really well, then he has the potential to become the next great Spanish stage race champion as he can climb and he can sprint.

Interestingly, the final group of 12 included Davitamon-Lotto’s American rider Chris Horner who has had some really good results this spring and has shown he belongs at this level. He does not whine nearly as much as he did when he was racing in America and dominating the National Race Calendar.

Tour of Georgia

While Horner was finishing the hilly classics with a 20th at Amstel Gold Race, a 19th at Fleche Wallone and an 8th at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, most of the rest of the Americans in the professional peleton were racing around Georgia. As was the case at the Tour of California, it was pretty clear that the ProTour teams are significantly better than their domestic American counterparts. Floyd Landis won his third stage race of the season holding off repeated attacks by the Discovery Channel team as they raced up the final climb of Saturday’s fifth stage which finished on Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia. Alone with three Discovery Channel riders, Landis defended his four second lead over defending champion Tom Danielson of Discovery. Danielson won the stage but had to settle for second place on GC.

Landis had collapsed last year under the unrelenting pressure of his former team in the Brasstown Bald finish as Danielson took the stage and overall in 2005, beating Landis by more than a minute. Armstrong had harsh words and gestures for his former lieutenant during the stage last year. This year Landis again showed himself as a leader for Phonak and a potential Tour de France podium finisher if Phonak can provide him more support. Throughout the spring, Landis has time trialed exceedingly well and has shown incredible climbing power. However, he has frequently found himself isolated in the final climbs. Phonak could have its best Tour finish ever, as long as they give Landis the support he has proven he deserves.

Danielson and Yaroslav Popovych of Discovery Channel are both showing good form. Discovery probably cannot expect to win both the Giro and the Tour this year but they can expect to have 2-3 riders in each capable of top 10 finishes.

Moreover, Salvoldelli may have more support in the Giro this year than he did last year when he managed to hold off Gilberto Simoni for the win. Discovery will not have to commit quite as many resources to defending Armstrong’s Tour de France streak and the team has other emerging riders who can climb and work, like Jason McCartney. He probably worked harder than anyone else during this year’s Tour of Georgia as he won the KoM prize and seemed to be in every meaningful breakaway.