Cycling Commentary

Tour Prologue Reveals Team Leadership Crisis

The Tour de France Prologue is for prologue specialists, right? A 7.9km romp through the streets of London merely shows who can sustain a maximum amount of V02 wattage for a short duration of time, and nothing more.

The World Time Trial Champion, Fabian Cancellera, certainly proved he is worthy of the title, but we all know his time in yellow is short-lived. Cancellera may be powerful, but his power to weight ratio simply will not hold up once the roads of France start to tilt upward. Before you know it, Cancellera will be going backwards. His place in the classification will fall, and his Yellow Jersey will be up for grabs.

So, why should we care about the Prologue if its results are perfectly meaningless in the scheme of things?

During his 7-year reign as Tour de France champion, Lance Armstrong always gave his best effort during the opening Time Trial - no matter what the distance. In large part this was to show his rivals that when it came to the Tour, he meant business. Clearly, he aimed to intimidate his rivals by showing his awesome fitness. But Armstrong also understood that every second counts when it comes to the Tour de France.

Upon seeing Discovery Channel's Levi Leipheimer finish in 26th place, 40 seconds down on Cancellara, Versus commentator Paul Sherwin said, "Leipheimer should be happy with that result." But how could he be happy? The designated leader of the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team (Lance Armstrong's team) barely showed up for the race. Worse yet, he finished 4th among his teammates behind George Hincapie, Vladimir Gusev and Alberto Contador. Given that Contador is reported to be climbing better than Leipheimer, how long will it be before Director Sportif Johan Bruyneel turns over the leadership mantle to Contador, relegating Leipheimer to the role of "super domestique?" Everyone knows that to win the Tour you have to time trial well and climb well. So, Leipheimer had been stand up and be counted on Stage 5 from Chablis to Autun as the peloton confronts 8 categorized climbs.

Discovery Channel is not the only team to be experiencing an early crisis in leadership. Recent Tour de Suisse winner Vladimir Karpets of Caisse d'Espargne outclassed his designated team leader and Pro Tour points leader, Alejandro Valverde. Karpets finished 6th in the prologue, 13 seconds ahead of Valverde in 32nd place.

Astana's Andreas Kloden finished 2nd in the Prologue, 17 seconds ahead of team leader, Alexander Vinokourov. Given that Kloden has finished on the Tour podium twice (2nd in 2004 and 3rd in 2006), Vino has to be concerned about Kloden's intentions. Kloden stormed the London course this year just like Armstrong did in 2004. (Coincidently, Armstrong also finished 2nd behind Cancellera in 2004).

Rising star, Dave Zabriskie of Team CSC, a noted TT specialist, put 24 seconds into team leader Carlos Sastre, who completed the Prologue in an embarrassing 92nd place. Interestingly, Dave Z has worked hard this spring on improving his climbing abilities. He rode reasonably well in the Giro, only to show up on form for the Criterium de Dauphine Libere, where he finished 5th overall. By comparison, Sastre finished 19th in the Tour de Suisse.

In short, the Tour de France Prologue is more than just a flashy introduction of this year's Tour riders. It's an early indicator of what might come in the days and weeks ahead as the peloton winds its way around France. Team leaders need to stand up and be counted in the early going, or they risk becoming highly paid worker-bees for up-and-comers within their respective teams.

This article was also published on Sportingo.com.

Sour Grapes at Gerolsteiner

Gerolsteiner team manager, Hans-Michael Holczer, must still be smarting from the fact that he lost his star, Levi Leipheimer, to the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. Today, he piled on Saturday's IPTC announcement that Discovery had been excluded from this association of Pro Tour teams by calling upon race organizers to exclude Discovery from upcoming Pro Tour races.

'Speaking exclusively to Cyclingnews, Holczer said: "This is a clear signal that the most important representatives of cycling are absolutely serious about the fight to make our sport believable."'

In my view, this is a clear signal that Gerolsteiner and other Pro Tour teams are concerned about the phenomenal team that Discovery has assembled. Hincapie and Devolder for the Classics. Basso, Leipheimer, Popovych and Danielson for the Grand Tours. Upstarts like Brajkovic, Martinez and Gusev doing damage elsewhere. As the French say - 'formidable.'

No wonder all the other Pro Tour teams are calling for Discovery's exclusion. Can't beat 'em, exclude 'em. I call it sour grapes. Gerolsteiner should stick with sparkling water!

(BTW, Discovery team manager, Johan Bruyneel, denies that Discovery has been excluded from the IPCT. In a press release posted on thepaceline.com today, 'Bruyneel stated, “There was no vote on Friday and we have not been expelled from the IPCT. Talk of our removal from the IPCT obviously concerns me on a variety of levels, and we intend to enter into immediate discussions with team representatives about their concerns.”')

Discovery Ostracized by IPTC

The International Pro Tour Council (IPCT), a voluntary association of European Pro Tour teams, excluded Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel from its ranks on Friday. The reason: Discovery violated its ethical rules by hiring Ivan Basso.

The specific ethical rule in question is that "a Pro Tour team should not sign a rider involved in the Puerto affair." This rule was created in the late summer of 2006 in response to the fallout from the Operacion Puerto Affair. Pro Tour teams adopted this rule as a means of protecting the sport from further damage associated with the use of PEDs and enhancing its image in the eyes of the public. Of course, given the intense media scrutiny, Pro Tour teams may have assumed that those named in the affair - Basso, Ullrich, Sevilla, Mancebo and Jasche among them - were guilty of the offenses for which they were accused.

Since that time, Spanish authorities have suspended action against any implicated riders. The Italian Olympic body has dropped charges against Basso, and the UCI has cleared Basso to race. Let's be clear, Basso has not been found guilty of any of the accusations against him. No charges are pending. He is approved to ride. What is the problem?

The problem is the ethical rule adopted by the IPTC. The tacit assumption is that if a rider was named as a suspect in the Puerto affair, he must be guilty of the offense. How fair is that to a rider like Basso who is only guilty by dint of association? Not only is the IPTC attaching guilt to Basso, but even after all charges have been dropped, Basso is also being ostracized by the IPTC.

The implications of this rule are sure to backfire or worse yet, be used strategically by competing teams to exclude the riders of other teams. Here's how it might go. Three weeks prior to the Tour of Flanders, a Pro Tour team provides circumstantial evidence to French newspaper L'Equipe that Tom Boonen is using a full regimen of PEDs. A major story is run. Boonen denies the story, but the pressure is such that the Belgian cycling federation opens an investigation. Boonen's out of Flanders under the rules of the IPTC. How fair is this? Had the same rule been in place in 2005, Lance Armstrong would not have been able to compete in the 2005 Tour, as he was under investigation for doping in France - a case that was dropped only recently.

In their zeal to "clean up the sport," the IPTC has adopted ethical rules that are unfair to riders, the teams and ultimately the fans that support them. Unless modified to a doctrine that riders are innocent until proven guilty, the rules will ultimately backfire on the Pro Tour teams that support them. The rule is bogus. It's got to go.

Vino and Astana at Risk

How is it that Alexandre Vinokourov, the winner of the 2006 Vuelta a Espagne, finds himself in a situation where his team, Astana, may not be selected as a Pro Tour Team in 2007?

CN reports that Astana, Barloworld and Unibet are all vying for the final available Pro Tour license. All have submitted the required financial information, and on November 28, each team will learn preliminarily of their fate. But wait, wasn't Astana a Pro Tour team in 2006? And if so, shouldn't it be a simple matter of renewing their existing Pro Tour license?

Come to find out, Activebay.com and Manolo Saiz actually hold that license. Saiz was initially implicated in the Operacion Puerto affair, and his team, Liberty Seguros Würth, disbanded when lead sponsor Liberty Seguros pulled the plug when widespread doping practices were reported among the team. Alexandre Vinokourov scrambled to pull together a new sponsor in advance of the Tour de France with five Kazakh companies rising to the challenge. The newly formed team was named Astana Würth and then simply Astana when Würth pulled out after four of the 9 starters for the Tour were implicated just before the Grand Boucle began, and the team was disqualified.

All of Vino's efforts appeared not to be in vain as Astana triumphed in the last grand tour of the year. The team garnered a total of five stage wins and two podium positions in the Vuelta with Vinokourov in first and Kashechkin in third. Earlier this fall, Astana added to its cache as a Pro Tour Team when T-Mobile's Andreas Klöden and Matthias Kessler signed for the team, and Il Falco, Paolo Savoldelli was rumored to have signed.

In an ironic twist of fate, Saiz has been "cleared" of wrongdoing in the Operacion Puerto affair, and Activebay's Pro Tour license has been renewed. That cruel turn of events means that Astana is left to battle it out with Barloworld and Unibet for the final Pro Tour slot. Rumor has it that Unibet will obtain the final license, and Astana will be forced to obtain a Continental license. Most likely, Astana will still be invited to participate in all the Grand Tours as a wild-card team, but this seems woefully inappropriate given the status and prestige of Astana and its individual team members. Hopefully, good sense will prevail, and Astana will receive the remaining Pro Tour license. It's the right thing to do.

Tinkoff Makes a Splash

Tyler Hamilton. Francisco Mancebo. Jan Ullrich. All of these "tarnished" professional bicycle riders have signed or are rumored to have signed for Tinkoff Credit Systems, a new continental European cycling team. In doing so, Tinkoff has made a huge splash in the world of European professional cycling - at least from a branding point of view.

Prior to the last four weeks, who had ever heard of Tinkoff Credit Systems or its predecessor, Tinkoff Brewery? The latter describes itself as a "team of young and audacious professionals who evangelize success via cutting-edge business practices." Certainly, Tinkoff has assembled a group of young audacious professionals, and in doing so, have made a name for themselves.

Tinkoff is immediately the "bad guy" of European Cycling. A band of misfits and accused PED users have come together to build an outlaw brand, the stuff of legend. And in so doing, Tinkoff Credit Systems has arisen from obscurity to international prominence, at least among those of us who follow professional cycling.

Hats off to Tinkoff for making things interesting and giving the "bad boys" of European Cycling another chance. Bravo!