Latest News in Cycling
- Message by Alastair Hamilton
The Giro d’Italia is still coming up with the excitement we love, but is it too dangerous? ”Top Story” asks the question. The Giro has been great though and we have the up to date results and video’s. More from the Tour of California, plus last Sundays Lincoln Grand Prix from England, add in some Tom Boonen info and some Gino Bartali retro and we have a full EuroTrash Thursday. Cappuccino e un biscotto Garibaldi?
Caution reigns among overall contenders as Schleck loses time
CLOVIS, California (VN) — Over the race radio, two numbers are called out as abandoned on Wednesday. Those numbers are 152 and 155.
Radio Tour, a voice that wafts though every car and motorcycle at the Amgen Tour of California, is impartial, an objective commentary on what’s transpiring during a bike race. In her best English, French and sometimes Italian, Lorrin Rhodes calls out mostly numbers, no names, no details. Just “front wheel change,” “back wheel change,” “feed” and, on this day, a few “abandoned.”
In the Exergy team car, it takes a few seconds to realize that those numbers belong to a couple of the team’s riders, Carlos Alzate and Sam Johnson.
Johnson suffered deeply for his efforts in the breakaway on stage 1 at the Amgen Tour. Alzate won the USA Crits Speed Week title earlier in May, but criteriums made up the bulk of his miles in the past month, hardly ideal training for this year’s edition of the eight-day race, which has seen four very hard stages, including Wednesday’s 210km scorcher in 90-degree heat with six categorized climbs.
It turns out to be a very hard day. Exergy’s director sportif, Tad Hamilton, says he will pass out 100 or more bottles on a day like today. Some of them are cold, some aren’t. The riders always ask for cold, and question the temperature. Such is the life of a team manager on a 95-degree day in a major stage race.
Exergy finds itself in a unique situation on this day. It has riders at the back, clawing for survival, but it also has riders at the front, as Fred Rodriguez took third in the field sprint on stage 1 and sits fourth in the general classification on Wednesday. He won’t stay there for the duration of the race, but “Fast Freddy,” as he’s known, will fight to win a sprint as long as he’s near the front.
So while Hamilton needs to tend to riders yo-yoing off the back, he also needs to stock his riders with bottles for Rodriguez and the others. It’s a sort of bike racing purgatory, this space between the front and the back.
“It’s interesting how cycling can go from peaks to valleys, valleys to peaks,” Hamilton says, just before the finish. A win at the Amgen Tour can make a season for a third-division Continental team. They find themselves up against bigger talents and bigger checkbooks. But they don’t get out of the way.
“When we come to a race like this, every single person gets a number. Every team gets two cars and we come to race,” Hamilton says. “If they think we’re going to move over and say, ‘Oh, we can’t feed in front of a big tour pro team,’… there’s no way that’s going to happen. No way.”
The guys in the team car are busy early on during stage 4. They change a double puncture about 15 minutes into the stage. Joshua Geiszler, the team’s head mechanic, says a good change takes about eight seconds. He’s constantly getting bottles ready, making sure wheels are lined up. Worrying.
There are a host of races within a bike race that viewers, and even those who consume every piece of media on the sport, don’t actually see. The cars are lined up in order, corresponding to the general classification. Exergy sits fourth. Throughout the day, the cars jostle for position while feeding riders and dropping off bottles; there are infinite subjectivities in bike racing, even if there is one thorough rulebook. Cars pace riders back to the group, and racers hold on to bottles a bit longer than they should when that bottle’s attached to a director’s hand.
Somewhere in this scrum, there’s right and wrong, though the line is difficult to see. Cars come near riders all day. On Wednesday, Hamilton lobs a few (unprintable) barbs toward Jonathan Vaughters and a mechanic in the Garmin-Barracuda car after a disagreement over an Exergy rider’s presence between cars in the motorcade. For a few moments, it’s heated, as one boss yells at another.
Soon after, Rodriguez drops back to the car.
“What’s that?” he asks Hamilton, calling attention to a creak.
We stop, and Geiszler jumps out and gives the bike a once over. The bike is good, he says, and he pushes Rodriguez away. Creaky bikes bother everyone.
Logan Loader is having difficulty keeping contact with the main field. While Loader is near the driver’s side window, Hamilton tells him, “I just lost Sam and Carlos today. I can’t lose you.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Loader tells him.
“Get your ass over the top of the climb, you’ll be all right.”
Requests come in for Cokes, for water and for rice cakes. The car doesn’t have any of the latter, and there are moments it’s low on water, before the team’s second car shows up, heroically, with ice and water.
“We’re not a traveling kitchen,” Hamilton says.
The major teams, RadioShack-Nissan, BMC Racing and others have slipped riders into a breakaway on a moderate climb, and RadioShack has gone to the front of the main field, creating difficulty. The move seems odd, and puts Hamilton on high alert. He thinks that defending champ Chris Horner will try to jump across the gap at some point, and wants his guys to chase Horner, if possible. “It’s hard to say what’s actually going on here,” Hamilton says. “There’s a couple of different possibilities.”
Those possibilities never materialize, as the peloton hits the finishing valley together after a natural break. It will again be a day for the sprinters.
I tell him I think it’s going to be Sagan again.
“I’m going with the gut,” Hamilton says. “I’m putting my money on Mr. Rodriguez.”
The cars have to deviate from the route about 800 meters from the finish. They line up and wait.
“A few minutes before it happens, you’re wondering, ‘Can we do it? Can we do it?’ We talk about that every day,” Hamilton says. “Here we go. Sagan, can he go four in a row? We’re going to see if Fred can take him.”
There is a long silence. A very long silence. Twenty seconds of black. A bird chirps.
Radio Tour comes in. “Unofficial top three: first place, rider no. 57, Peter Sagan.”
“Jesus,” Hamilton says.
“Unofficial second place, no. 13, Haussler. Third place. Rider no 44, I believe. Standing by.”
Michael Matthews (Rabobank) takes third.
It’s hard, not knowing what happened to Rodriguez for those seconds. It just hangs there in the team car, the thought.
“Who knows?” Hamilton says.
They’ll try again, most likely in Los Angeles.
“Certainly will,” Hamilton says. “Certainly will.”
Spaniard re-lives epic battle with Schleck for tv commercial
- Tom Danielson tells VeloNews that he rode through stage 4 of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California trying to stay hidden and under 300 watts
- It turned out to be a fast night for quite a few. Several set PRs, some by more than 30 seconds. Well done, all of you.
Results are posted below. Let me know on any corrected info.
Ron and Lynn, thank you both again for your help. Life is so much better with Ron helping to get riders started and Lynn helping at the finish. You guys are terrific.Attached Files
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16-May-2012-WNTT-Series-Results.pdf 40.2K
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- Timmy Duggan tells VeloNews that his move into the breakaway during stage 4 set up the perfect scenario for Liquigas-Cannondale at the 2012
* All times Pacific Standard Time
1. Wilson Marentes, Colombia-Coldeportes 13:00:00
2. Marcel Kittel, Argos-Shimano 13:01:00
3. Logan Loader, Exergy 13:02:00
4. Juan Pablo Suarez, Colombia-Coldeportes 13:03:00
5. Travis Meyer, Orica-GreenEdge 13:04:00
6. Jonathan Patrick Mccarty, Spidertech-C10 13:05:00
7. Christophe Riblon, Ag2r La Mondiale 13:06:00
8. Carter Jones, Bissell 13:07:00
9. Carlos Julian Quintero, Colombia-Coldeportes 13:08:00
10. Jacob Rathe, Garmin-Barracuda 13:09:00
11. Serghei Tvetcov, Exergy 13:10:00
12. Jason Mccartney, UnitedHealthcare 13:11:00
13. Robbie Mcewen, Orica-GreenEdge 13:12:00
14. Frantisek Rabon, Omega Pharma-Quick Step 13:13:00
15. Matt Wilson, Orica-GreenEdge 13:14:00
16. Ken Hanson, Optum 13:15:00
17. Mauro Dadalto, Liquigas-Cannondale 13:16:00
18. Nathan Haas, Garmin-Barracuda 13:17:00
19. Tom Stamsnijder, Argos-Shimano 13:18:00
20. Jonathan Clarke, UnitedHealthcare 13:19:00
21. Scott Zwizanski, Optum 13:20:00
22. Bradley White, UnitedHealthcare 13:21:00
23. Guillaume Boivin, Spidertech-C10 13:22:00
24. Sébastian Salas, Optum 13:23:00
25. Jeremy Vennell, Bissell 13:24:00
26. David Boily, Spidertech-C10 13:25:00
27. Bert Grabsch, Omega Pharma-Quick Step 13:26:00
28. Kristjan Koren, Liquigas-Cannondale 13:27:00
29. Gerald Ciolek, Omega Pharma-Quick Step 13:28:00
30. Morgan Schmitt, Exergy 13:29:00
31. Michael Creed, Optum 13:30:00
32. Gregory Rast, RadioShack-Nissan 13:31:00
33. Ryan Anderson, Spidertech-C10 13:32:00
34. Roger Kluge, Argos-Shimano 13:33:00
35. Maarten Tjallingii, Rabobank 13:34:00
36. Benjamin King, RadioShack-Nissan 13:35:00
37. Michael Rodriguez, Colombia-Coldeportes 13:36:00
38. Christopher Jones, UnitedHealthcare 13:37:00
39. Thomas Zirbel, Optum 13:38:00
40. Ryan Eastman, Bontrager-Livestrong 13:39:00
41. Thomas Peterson, Garmin-Barracuda 13:40:00
42. Lloyd Mondory, Ag2r La Mondiale 13:41:00
43. Dries Devenyns, Omega Pharma-Quick Step 13:42:00
44. Michael Matthews, Rabobank 13:43:00
45. Stijn Vandenbergh, Omega Pharma-Quick Step 13:44:00
46. Edward King, Liquigas-Cannondale 13:45:00
47. Tom Boonen, Omega Pharma-Quick Step 13:46:00
48. Leigh Howard, Orica-GreenEdge 13:47:00
49. Alexandre Geniez, Argos-Shimano 13:48:00
50. Frank Pipp, Bissell 13:49:00
51. Gavin Mannion, Bontrager-Livestrong 13:50:00
52. Lucas Euser, Spidertech-C10 13:51:00
53. Victor Hugo Pena, Colombia-Coldeportes 13:52:00
54. Hugo Houle, Spidertech-C10 13:53:00
55. Thomas Damuseau, Argos-Shimano 13:54:00
56. Jens Voigt, RadioShack-Nissan 13:55:00
57. Yukihiro Doi, Argos-Shimano 13:56:00
58. Jasper Stuyven, Bontrager-Livestrong 13:57:00
59. Koen De Kort, Argos-Shimano 13:58:00
60. Alexander Candelario, Optum 13:59:00
61. Daniel Oss, Liquigas-Cannondale 14:00:00
62. Matthew Busche, RadioShack-Nissan 14:01:00
63. Alessandro Vanotti, Liquigas-Cannondale 14:02:00
64. Andrew Bajadali, Optum 14:03:00
65. Timothy Duggan, Liquigas-Cannondale 14:04:00
66. Joseph Dombrowski, Bontrager-Livestrong 14:05:00
67. George Bennett, RadioShack-Nissan 14:06:00
68. Maxime Bouet, Ag2r La Mondiale 14:07:00
69. Bram Tankink, Rabobank 14:08:00
70. Christopher Baldwin, Bissell 14:09:00
71. Nathan Brown, Bontrager-Livestrong 14:10:00
72. Andrés DÍaz Corrales, Exergy 14:11:00
73. Ian Boswell, Bontrager-Livestrong 14:12:00
74. Timothy Roe, BMC Racing 14:13:00
75. Matt Cooke, Exergy 14:14:00
76. Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas-Cannondale 14:15:00
77. Sylvain Georges, Ag2r La Mondiale 14:16:00
78. Philip Deignan, UnitedHealthcare 14:17:00
79. Mikael Chérel, Ag2r La Mondiale 14:18:00
80. Yannick Eijssen, BMC Racing 14:19:00
81. David Zabriskie, Garmin-Barracuda 14:20:00
82. Pieter Weening, Orica-GreenEdge 14:21:00
83. Levi Leipheimer, Omega Pharma-Quick Step 14:22:00
84. Romain Bardet, Ag2r La Mondiale 14:23:00
85. Raymond Kunzli, Spidertech-C10 14:24:00
86. Paul Martens, Rabobank 14:25:00
87. Rory Sutherland, UnitedHealthcare 14:26:00
88. Nicolas Roche, Ag2r La Mondiale 14:27:00
89. Fabio Duarte Arevalo, Colombia-Coldeportes 14:28:00
90. Cameron Meyer, Orica-GreenEdge 14:29:00
91. Brian Vandborg Bach, Spidertech-C10 14:30:00
92. Wesley Sulzberger, Orica-GreenEdge 14:31:00
93. Robert Gesink, Rabobank 14:32:00
94. Luke Durbridge, Orica-GreenEdge 14:33:00
95. Laurens Ten Dam, Rabobank 14:34:00
96. Tom Danielson, Garmin-Barracuda 14:35:00
97. Jhon Atapuma, Colombia-Coldeportes 14:36:00
98. Andrew Talansky, Garmin-Barracuda 14:37:00
99. Brent Bookwalter, BMC Racing 14:38:00
100. Christopher Horner, RadioShack-Nissan 14:39:00
101. Tejay van Garderen, BMC Racing 14:40:00
102. Tiago Machado, RadioShack-Nissan 14:41:00
103. Tom Dumoulin, Argos-Shimano 14:42:00
104. Greg Van Avermaet, BMC Racing 14:44:00
105. Lawson Craddock, Bontrager-Livestrong 14:46:00
106. George Hincapie, BMC Racing 14:48:00
107. Peter Velits, Omega Pharma-Quick Step 14:50:00
108. Luis Leon Sanchez Gil, Rabobank 14:52:00
109. Josh Atkins, Bontrager-Livestrong 14:54:00
110. Wilco Kelderman, Rabobank 14:56:00
111. Marc de Maar, UnitedHealthcare 14:58:00
112. Markel Irizar Rranburu, RadioShack-Nissan 15:00:00
113. Ben Jacques-Maynes, Bissell 15:02:00
114. Fred Rodriguez, Exergy 15:04:00
115. Alex Howes, Garmin-Barracuda 15:06:00
116. Jeffry Louder, UnitedHealthcare 15:08:00
117. Heinrich Haussler, Garmin-Barracuda 15:10:00
118. Peter Sagan, Liquigas-Cannondale 15:12:00