Thursday, October 29, 2009

Second place

From today's Velonews...

"I'm tired of being the bloke who finishes second in the Tour de France" said Cadel Evans
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Personally, I thought Evans' 30th place finish this year took care of that unfortunate situation.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Crossword

Today's crossword puzzle in the Post-Dispatch is tricky. 41 Down has the clue "Tour de France need"

I can't decide if the answer is CERA or PEDS.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Thoughts of the 2010 L'Etape

Rumors of upcoming Tour de France always pique my curiosity. I like the speculation and have a certain admiration for the amount of digging people do to try and determine the routes ahead of time. Plus, it is a good excuse for me to pull up maps and look at what is being proposed, particularly the mountain stages.

An interesting subplot, to me, is what stage is chosen for L’Etape du Tour. If I had not competed in the "race" before, I doubt that the L’Etape choice would interest me. But, having done the ’05 edition and ridden quite a few other passes in France, I am often familiar with the area chosen and tend to visualize the terrain, the towns and remember how I felt going over those same roads.

The L’Etape rumors took several different forms in the weeks before the recent announcement. First, I heard rumors of a stage from Revel to Luchon. I dismissed those rumors right away. The stage would have been too long for a Tour stage and didn’t have enough climbing in my opinion.

Then, the speculation was a stage from Luchon to the top of the Col d’Aubisque and also included the Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet and Soulor. That had more than enough climbing but was a little short (~150km) for a L’Etape. That rumored stage then morphed into a finish in Pau. That made for a strong stage. The strikes against that being the L’Etape stage is the start in Luchon, a relatively small town. Also, it would have been inconvenient for the riders to get from the finish back to the start

Finally, in the final days before the announcement, rumors settled on a start in Pau and a finish atop the Tourmalet after climbing the Marie-Blanque and the Tourmalet/Soulor combo. The start and finish would be closer together for the competitors and Pau is plenty big enough to handle a start. It all made sense.

Unfortunately, that rumor was wrong. Very close, but still wrong. Instead of climbing the Aubisque, the course climbs the Soulor from the north. Personally, I like the Aubisque option but the Soulor makes sense. The Marie-Blanque and Aubisque were both used in the ’05 L’Etape so maybe they didn’t want such similar courses only four years apart

Approximately the first 50 km from Pau will be rolling to flat terrain before reaching the base of the Col de Marie-Blanque. Then the fun begins.

Riding the early slopes of the Col de Marie-Blanque


Coming from Pau, the Col de Marie-Blanque will begin with a left hand turn. The Marie-Blanque is not hard climb... to start. It is one of the worst types of climbs, in my view. It is concave. The grade is an easy 3-4% to start for 2km. Dont get lulled into a false sense of security, though. The next 3 km are a harder, but still manageable, 5-6% as it softens you up. Then, the mountain bites back. The next 4 km average a tough 11%. Any momentum you had goes away and you start to grind out each pedal stroke. There is no scenery to distract you. All you have are trees on either side of a somewhat narrow two lane road. As I recall, the road does not have many turns either. You are left pedaling upward, wanting to see the next km marker alongside the road.

This is a cheese making region and if you ride it on a normal day you are quite likely to see cows roaming the hillsides. In fact, at the top of the Marie-Blanque there is a sign saying that the road is the Route de Fromage (Route of Cheese)

Looking back down the climb of the Marie-Blanque


Looking east toward the start of the descent

Unlike the western ascent, the descent of the Marie-Blanque is rather twisty and wooded for the a few kilometers. Back in ’05, the road was a little uneven in places but I found it to be an enjoyable descent. The top of the eastern descent is gradual for several kilometers. It does get steeper for a short while before reaching the Plateau de Benou. This is a good sized plateau where we had one of our feed zones back in ’05. Given it’s location, I doubt it will be used as a feed zone next year.

After the plateau, the descent becomes much steeper than the first half with several hairpins and views of,first, the town of Bilheres and finally Bielle.

The town of Bilheres

The town of Bielle at the base of the Marie-Blanque


At the base of the climb when you will turn left on the route D934 and head north toward Louvie-Juzon, then east to the town of Asson and south again toward what is listed as the start of the Col du Soulor at Arthez d’Asson. Arthez may technically be the start of the Soulor because the road starts to go upward but you have about 10km of slight grades averaging about 2%.

My experience with the Soulor was as a descent to Asson. At the time, it seemed like a very long descent with a lot of small bends. Much longer than the 12km that makes up the heart of the climb. The road may have seemed longer because I had a bunch of people willing to take many more risks through all of the blind curves that never seemed to end.

Climbing up the Soulor will probably provide a much different experience. After reaching the town of Ferrieres, the real climbing begins. As I descended the road seemed rather steep. Looking at profiles of the mountain would seem to confirm that. Grades are consistently 7-9%. Those are not crushing percentages pretty comparable to Alpe d’Huez. It just doesn’t have the 10% grade at the very bottom like the Alpe. The Soulor should provide a good test.

If you are on a bad day, I would think you will start to realize it by the time you crest the Soulor. You will be two-thirds of the way through the race and have two good climbs in your legs. If you are starting to struggle at this point, going the even tougher Tourmalet is going to be very unpleasant.

The good news is twentry kilometers of descent to the town of Argeles-Gazost and another 20 km of basically flat road to Luz-Saint-Saveur for your legs to suddenly turn to the good. The Tourmalet is no lightweight. My only experience was climbing from the east and descending the route of L'Etape.


What I remember most of the descent were that it, too, was quite long at eighteen kilometers. Second, the pavement was very uneven near the top. To make things even more sketchy, the worst pavement was in the turns. This, of course, shouldn't be a problem when climbing the mountain up at a snail's pace. The last thing I remember is that the road was steepest at the top. That's not good news for the competitors. The final kilometer at ten and a half percent is a serious sting in the tail that will feel like five kilometers for more than a few riders that day.

The finish atop the Tourmalet is a worthy ending and should fill the finishers with a sense of accomplishment and many years of memories.


Monday, October 12, 2009

Katie Compton seemed liked a nice person when I got chat with her briefly in KC last year. Clearly she is very down to earth for a four time national champion, and nearly world champion.

Katie Compton (Planet Bike-Stevens) made it three for three on Sunday in the final round of the Cincinnati UCI3 Cyclocross Festival, while Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale) used a tight corner just before the finishing
straight to get the better of Ryan Trebon (Kona).

The women’s race followed the script that had been written over the previous two rounds. Sue Butler (Monavie-Cannondale) got the hole shot, while Compton, who did not reconnoiter the course beforehand, was content to do her inspection during the race before riding off to another dominating win.

It was an uneventful ride for the U.S. champion, other than haggling with hecklers about their choice of a beer hand-up (a canned Pilsner). When a bottle of microbrew was produced the following lap, she obligingly hit the brakes, took the hand-up and chugged a good portion before dismounting for the barriers.

“At first I wasn’t going to, since this is a UCI race and we’re not supposed to take feeds,” she said with a smile. “But I had yelled back at them, ‘How about a microbrew?’ the lap before. So when they actually had one, I felt kind of obligated.”

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

The Tour of CA route announcement was supposed to take place Tuesday Oct 6th. However, the announcement has been pushed back a couple weeks to work out final details.

This seems like a good time to comment on the interview Cyclingnews did with Andrew Messick, president of AEG. The Tour of CA race organizer.

Cyclingnews: Andrew, we have to talk about date change from February to May. Can you explain why you’ve done this and how it came about?

Andrew Messick: It takes us out of what’s generally perceived as the pre-season of cycling and puts us in a time position that's in-line with the middle of the season. From our perspective it allows us to showcase more of the Tour of California and ride into the mountains that we couldn’t get to before.
The reality is that, historically, the period from Paris-Nice to the end of the Tour de France has been perceived as the main European racing season and we’ve been out of that. (I know what you are trying to say Andrew but, uh, you are not in Europe) That’s something that we’re working our way through (I hear California has applied for entry in the European Union) and we’re optimistic that we’re going to continue to get the kind of riders and the kind of teams that we want. (more on this later) We’re also hopeful that having an important race outside of Europe at that time will be good for us and the sport of cycling.

CN: When you sat down and looked at the calendar and said ‘we’re going to move the date’ was the month of May always the optimum period for you?

Andrew Messick: We looked at the old spot for the Tour of Georgia, the beginning of May and mid-to-late May. The April spot meant competing with the Classics. The kinds of rider we want to attract are guys that take those races seriously (You want classics type riders yet you are continually striving to add more mountains to the race. Interesting. Perhaps Messick means the hilly Classics like Liege but, in the last 10 years, the top riders in these races are closer to stage race riders) and we didn’t want to compete with those races. Having to compete against the Giro is not a trivial thing. (you got that right) It’s a great race and has a lot of history.

CN: But you do see it as competition?

Andrew Messick: We hope and expect that there are enough riders for both of us. We’re going to be on Eurosport and so are they, so we’ll both have television exposure and the same goes with television networks in the US. We don’t think we’re really competing, but there’s clearly going to be some impact. Broadly speaking the Giro will have fewer Americans and our race will have fewer Italians. But we’re optimistic that we’ll have a field of riders that will be competitive as last year. (you are crossing your fingers)

CN: You mention television rights. How important is that that kind of exposure for the race?

Andrew Messick: I think part of cycling’s great strength is that it possesses enormous history, but that needs to be worked through. We’re respectful of the history and heritage, but at the same time we’re mindful that the sport that has fans and athletes from every country. Historically, in the European calendar, ever single race of substance takes place in one of five western European countries. For cycling to be truly global it can’t be that way.
There need to be important international races and there needs to be an important American race. Conceptually, everyone agrees with that. The question is how do you do it? The Tour down Under has a good position, (Apparently it is not a good position since, as you noted about your race, it is not between Paris-Nice and Le Tour) but there isn’t a slot for North America. Rightly or wrongly, (That would be wrongly. How could it rightly?) for US fans the season ends with the Tour and we feel that we need to be part of the lead up. It doesn’t make sense for us to be in August or September. (But, if you were after the Tour the season would not end with the Tour for US "fans")

CN: But you take the risk of, lets say, a team like Saxo Bank wanting to build up for the Tour by doing the Giro, then a few teams follow suit and you have squads that aren’t as strong as 2009. Therefore no Schlecks, Cancellara and so on…

Andrew Messick: We hope that doest happen, but it is a risk. Saxo Bank has had good experience at our race. They ride American bikes and we think, therefore, that they have other reasons to be in North America. (They have a reason to be in CA, but that doesn't diminish the risk of Saxo sending a weaker team) A three week race in May isn’t for everyone who is preparing for the Tour.

CN: It seemed to be the case this year. For example, Menchov, Sastre, Leipheimer, Armstrong and a few more…

Andrew Messick: That was exceptional, but I expect the American teams to field strong squads and that our sponsor Rabobank will do too. Historically they, along with Quickstep and Liquigas, have fielded strong teams. Vincezo Nibali had a great race with us. He didn’t do the Giro and had a fantastic Tour de France.

CN: How much work had to be done with the International Cycling Union (UCI) to find the new date?

Andrew Messick: It was our good fortune that Pat McQuaid came to visit the race this year after four days of rain. He had an opportunity to talk to everyone, including the riders and teams, and I think he realised that California is a great state, but it really does rain a lot in February and that’s not what we want to showcase. So we worked hard with the UCI to find a solution. [The Volta a] Catalunya wanted to move to March so it created space. With that we're also talking about becoming part of the ProTour in 2011, which will be another big step for us and will help the UCI globalise the sport.

CN: If the race hadn’t moved would it have survived?

Andrew Messick: I’m glad I didn’t have to find that out. I really don’t know. Our owner and my bosses have pretty keen sense for long term value and their view is ‘how can we grow the race when it’s always raining?’ It’s a good question.

CN: It doesn’t’ just come down to weather though, does it? It rains at the Classics. It rains in Belgium.
Andrew Messick: It does, but in the eyes of the world you don’t go to California in the winter to get rained on. So part of what we sell is California is sunshine and warm weather. (So you are selling a false bill of goods) The weather was really bad this year. We had three stages where it never stopped raining and was never above 40 degrees. The athletes don’t have fun and we want the Boonens and the Schlecks of the peloton to say it’s a great race.

CN: By taking a spot that’s close to the Tour of Georgia, do you almost resign that race to the grave?

Andrew Messick: I think the future of Georgia has little to do with us and has more to do with the state of Georgia. It was a great race, great for cycling in the United States. It was a better showcase for domestic riders than ours is. We have a stronger international scene. We hope they come back though.
The following was part of an article at Cyclingnews this morning.

At this point in time, 14 out of the top 17 teams are ProTour squads. In order of ranking, these are Astana, Caisse d’Epargne, Columbia – HTC, Saxo Bank, Liquigas, Quick Step, Silence-Lotto, Rabobank, Team Katusha, Garmin Slipstream, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Lampre-NGC, Française des Jeux and Ag2r La Mondiale.

Professional Continental teams Cervélo TeatTeam, Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli and Acqua & Sapone – Caffe Mokambo are sixth, 14th and 17th respectively, while ProTour squad Milram is a mere seven points behind Acqua & Sapone – Caffe Mokambo in 18th.

I have two comments.

1) Cervélo TeatTeam??? Is that Cervelo's pro womens team?
2) Can there be a longer team name than Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli?