The Cycliste Moderne, May 30, 2006

We made the annual trek to Salt Lake City for Memorial Day this weekend. For the third straight year, we were welcomed by a weekend of rain in the valley and snow in the mountains. My 9 year old and I went to see Real Salt Lake play the Colorado Rapids to a 2-2 tie. It rained the entire game except for the last five minutes. Mrs. Cycliste Moderne and the two littlest ones did not go to the game. We saved even more as the only way to keep cold and wet kids happy is generally with hot dogs. However, the oldest discovered he stayed dry and warm if he did not move and he had a hot dog for lunch so we did not move until half-time. The hot chocolate/snow cone line was at least 50 people deep and most, if not all, were selecting hot chocolate in stead of snow cones. I guess Utahoos do have some intelligence.

Additionally, listening to Salt Lake Radio is a lot like listening to my iPod, but that is not enough yet to get me to move back. Although that is another plus.

However, as we drove out of town we heard an ad on the radio for the “Cereal Café” in Salt Lake’s Sugarhouse neighborhood. 20 kinds of cereal and 12 kinds of milk. Although your unit cost has got be fairly low, I don’t know about the long term viability of a cereal restaurant. That is a Utah minus.

Giro Recap

In the end, Team CSC proved it had the strongest team and the strongest rider. Ivan Basso put a stranglehold on the race once it went uphill much like Lance Armstrong. He was the equal of Jan Ullrich in the long flat time trial and was really unmatched in the mountains. In the end, neither Cunego, Simoni, nor Savoldelli could match Basso. The question is whether Basso spent too much to win the Giro d’Italia to win the Tour de France in July. Right now he is clearly an unmatched stage racer. Ullrich will be strong in France, but has not shown the climbing ability of Basso over the last several years.

Rather than recap the final week of the Giro, which had some of the most intense climbing that has been included in a Grand Tour in some time, it is necessary to comment upon Gilbert Simoni’s antics over the end of the race. This year’s Giro should have favored Simoni with the intense and frequent climbs over the final week. However, it did not as Basso extended his lead over the final week. Simoni showed some strength but he could not match Basso and as a result Simoni finished third, almost twelve minutes behind the winner.

Gilberto Simoni, however, should hang it up and retire because he has become nothing more than a has-been whiner. After Basso sealed his victory with a win in Saturday’s stage, where he and Simoni destroyed the field and picked up major time on the rest of the peleton, Simoni criticized Basso for asking him to wait on the descent of the Mortirolo, Simoni apparently expected Basso to gift him the stage. The two worked together until the final climb where Basso ultimately dropped Simoni.

Afterwards, Simoni asserted that he thought they had a deal and that Basso would not contest the finish. Then Simoni did the unpardonable and referred to Basso as an “extra-terrestrial” and a “phenomenon,” phrases that the French media had used to insinuate Lance Armstrong had doped. After the stage, Cyclingnews.com reported Simoni stating that “Basso offered me money to gain the stage victory” and that “he asked me for money to let me win the stage.” Simoni’s words showed him to be the bitter loser he has become. While there has long been “gentlemen’s agreements” in cycling determining the outcome of races which sometimes involve the exchange of cash or something other between riders in the lead group, that does not happen as much today as it used to. Moreover, I can never recall a cyclist being accused of both seeking to buy and offering to sell the very same stage.

Basso was clearly the stronger of the two and in wining Saturday’s stage by over a minute, it is nothing but speculation on Simoni’s part that had he dropped Basso on the descent from the Mortirolo, he would have been able to get a big enough gap to hold Basso off on the finishing climb into Aprica. Moreover, for as strong as Basso was, it is beyond belief that he would feel the need to negotiate for the stage win. The final climb was not nearly as steep or as long as the three climbs earlier in the stage including the climbs over the Passo di Gavia and Passo del Mortirolo. As the leader, Basso had shown nothing that would indicate that second placed Simoni would be able to get away from the leader of Team CSC and that Simoni would be able to stay away.

Simoni has in the past said incredibly stupid and vindictive things in defeat. His criticism of Damiano Cunego two years ago after Cunego won his first Giro caused Simoni to lose significant public support as he appeared as nothing more than a washed up whiner. After losing significant time to Armstrong in the Tour a few years ago, after Simoni had announced that Armstrong had never had to face a climber as good as himself in winning the Tour, Simoni slinked off claiming that he never liked riding the Tour anyway. Simoni has now impugned Ivan Basso. Cunego, Armstrong and Basso are all significantly more popular in Italy than Simoni.

What Simoni seems unwilling to recognize is that Basso had the best team, the best preparation and over the last two seasons has shown that he is far and away the best Italian rider in a generation. Basso has the complete package while Simoni is an aging climber who has lashed out at everyone over the last few years and has never been able to back up his strong words with action. Armstrong, Cunego and now Basso have all felt the wrath of Gilberto Simoni, although Simoni has not defeated any of these riders over the last few years. Simoni needs to decide if he is going to train and race smarter or retire. Simoni cannot win a grand tour because he lacks the team and focus of Armstrong, Basso or even Ullrich. Being a great climber is important, but it will not win you a Grand Tour. This year’s Giro should have favored Simoni over the last week. However, as the results have shown, Gilberto Simoni is not even a great climber any more.

Gilberto, it is time for you to go.

Liberty Seguros Update

If you have not been following the main cycling news outlets this last week, you probably missed Liberty Seguros/Liberty Insurance’s termination of its sponsorship of the Spanish Liberty Seguros team due to the arrest of team manager Manolo Saiz in a wide ranging doping investigation in Spain. Saiz has been released from jail but the allegations against him and the others arrested this last week are significant. There have been indications that Saiz was released because he was merely a “customer” and not a ring leader. Spanish police have arrested several medical professionals and cycling managers who were in the possession of hundreds of units of blood and other doping products. The police have reported that more than 100 athletes may be implicated in the Spanish doping scandal.

What is disconcerting is the fact that after having Roberto Heras stripped of his 2004 Vuelta a Espana title as the leader of Liberty Seguros and being fired, Saiz agreed to modify the sponsorship agreement with Liberty Insurance so that if the team were ever implicated in doping the sponsorship would be terminated immediately. Liberty Insurance has now done that and it makes you wonder what it is going to take to clean up the sport. Liberty Seguros’ results this year have been mediocre at best this spring.

This latest incident has convinced me that there should be a lifetime ban for all team managers and directors convicted of doping offenses. Sponsors do not want to buy headaches and this is definitely a headache. Although the team intends to proceed and Liberty Insurance has agreed to pay its obligation for the remainder of the season, albeit without its logo on the team’s jersey, if the UCI and the ProTour are committed to the fight against doping then the team needs to be immediately suspended and the riders given their release. Individual riders should not be punished solely for their association with the team unless and until they are convicted of doping offenses but the team should be given the death penalty as should any manager or employee convicted of doping.

Tour of Utah

The Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah has finally provided specifics of this year’s race in August. Having moved the event to August and having focused it upon professionals this year by eliminating the amateur divisions, the race has developed at least one stage that rivals anything raced in Europe. More importantly, I have changed my vacation plans this summer so I can see a portion of Stage 6, the final stage on August 12, 2006 (Okay, since Real Madrid is coming to Utah to play Real Salt Lake that day and has promised to bring Ronaldo and Beckham, it made it an easy decision to change my vacation plans to August, especially after my parents offered up their Park City timeshare).

The Tour of Utah will have two mountain top finishes, an individual time trial, two rolling to flat stages with finishing circuits favoring sprinters, and a downtown Salt Lake circuit race with a climb up Capitol Hill each lap. The race will have local television coverage on KJZZ and is being underwritten by Larry H. Miller and Zions Bank.

The final stage of the Tour of Utah is a truly epic ride. With the riders climbing over four passes before finishing at Snowbird with the finishing line at 8,300 feet, the 114 mile stage will put the hurt on a lot of domestic pros. I would expect that by the finish most of the teams will be decimated and riders will be strung out all along the Wasatch Front. I am so there.