Taylor Phiney won the overall classification Dubai. You feared he’d be outclassed by his hairstyle but a big time trial performance, some competent team work and his sprinting meant his overall lead was safe all the time. If he had a great race Marcel Kittel’s surely had the best week, three sprint wins and over a variety of terrain and different scenarios.
If this was supposed to be the start of the Mark Cavendish vs. Marcel Kittel it might look like 3-0 to the German. Kittel’s consistency impressed, especially on the stage to Hatta Hill where he surged to the line to surprise everyone. But Cavendish made the same group that day when many other sprinters did not and lost out another day with a mechanical.
Movistar’s Juan-José Lobato was notable too, in part for his handlebar-hitting theatrics as bashed the bars in rage at finishing behind Marcel Kittel. He might be a new name for some but was finishing in the top-10 in some Tour de France sprints last summer although still not visible despite his orange Euskaltel-Euskadi kit.
The Tour of Qatar is next and Cavendish isn’t riding, the same for Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and nor are Giant-Shimano as a whole. Instead André Greipel, Tom Boonen, Arnaud Démare and Theo Bos are some of the names to watch. It’s a sign of the diversity of the calendar that the top sprinters are rarely united in a race, often it takes the Tour de France to get a what the French call a “sprint royal” and no amount of petrodollars can solve that.
Healthy Rivalry
But as much we might want this total rivalry, the peloton is a society where it’s hard to be in permanent opposition to others, it’ll cost you at some point. We might see Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish as fierce rivals but once the race is over they’re sending each other amusing messages on Twitter.
Last evening with the Xbox One of @koendekort. Oh, I will miss it!! pic.twitter.com/InTyI2DP98
— Marcel Kittel (@marcelkittel)
@marcelkittel let me come and play. I might win something for once.
— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish)
@MarkCavendish room 2703! Tyres are already warm… 😉 But if you have a big TV then take it with you. Our’s is too small…
— Marcel Kittel (@marcelkittel)
@marcelkittel anything is small to you though… 32″ is like a cinema to me..
— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish)
@marcelkittel @MarkCavendish Guys, I am working on a 2014 sprint rivalry piece, focused on the two of you. This is ruining everything.
— Neal Rogers (@nealrogers)
Trofeo Face Palma
Now for rivalry on the road. The finish was so close in the Trofeo Palma in Mallorca. In the first photo it’s hard to separate Lampre-Merida’s Sacha Modolo, Lotto-Belisol’s Jens Debusschere and Dylan Groenewegen (Cycling Team De Rijke-Shanks).
Both Modolo and Groenewegen celebrated with a victory salute but the win was awarded to Modolo after the photofinish camera was checked.
Meanwhile in France
One sprinter who doesn’t need a photo finish camera is Bryan Coquard. The Europcar fastman has been winning stages in the Etoile de Bessèges, including the uphill finish in Laudun on Stage 4 which he won by several lengths. It’s tempting to see the Gulf races and the Tour Down Under as a novel format with one base for the week and then a stage that heads off in a different direction but that’s what happens in the Etoile de Bessèges, the “Star of Bessèges” race. But the stars are only in the name, there are few stars in the field and race lacks the budget to offer riders a five star hotel.
Giant-Shimano’s uphill riders
A mention of Tobias Ludvigsson’s win in the Etoile de Bessèges. The Swede was tippped to do well and won the time trial to take the race overall. It shows there’s far more to the squad than Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb and I don’t mean extra sprinters Luka Mezgec and Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg. No, they have the making of an excellent team for the Ardennes classics with Ludvigsson, Tom Dumoulin, Simon Geschke, and Warren Barguil. Maybe it will take time but the team has some depth for the hilly days too.
One of the best climbers in recent times is David Moncoutié. When David Millar’s Racing Through the Dark was out I wondered what it’d be like to read David Moncoutié’s account. The two turned pro with Cofidis at the same time and had very different careers. Now there is a book coming out in France, “Ma liberté de Rouler“. Whether it’s good or bad remains to be seen and a review of a French book might be a touch too exclusive for the blog but I look forward to reading it.
Merckx book winner
The random winner of the Eddy Merckx cannibal book is Jeremy. Please get in touch to claim your prize.
Alonso Team + Cannondale?
Spain’s Biciclismo reports Fernando Alonso could enter the sport via the Cannondale Team. He’s trying to build a team from scratch but the Italian team already exists only Cannondale is interested in a co-sponsor and possibly someone to take over the team. It’s pointless to keep a running commentary of Alonso’s plans, largely because they’re not set in place… But the story of Cannondale is worth watching, something is up…
Heulot Hello?
…Backroom dealings have been going on for some time. A late link-up with French team Sojasun didn’t happen but January the team announced it had signed Sojasun’s Jean-Marc Marino – new which took even Marino himself by surprise when he read in in L’Equipe but it was also an odd late signing. Former Sojasun manager Stéphane Heulot had told Marino to keep training through the winter with the promise of a job. Marino kept riding but with no news each day he found himself just going for rides rather than training for anything until he got the good news last month. What it all means is that Heulot and Cannondale are still up to something but whether it sees the light of day remains to be seen.
Giant-Shimano
Again? Yes, we should note the performances of the women’s team with Kirsten Wild winning in Qatar. She was so strong on the final day that she launched the sprint from far and Georgia Bronzini latched on to her wheel but when the Italian tried to come past it was as if she’d stepped out from behind a wall and into the face of a gale.
Would be interested to see a review of the Moncoutie book
I would be interested too. Will probably be waiting some time for an English translation and I think the contrast with Millar’s experience will be interesting.
I third this. I’ve nearly finished Racing Through The Dark and look forward to hearing about the contrast.
+1. Would love to hear from someone who was anti-doping.
I think you’ll find Cannondale Pro Cycling are riding Tour of Qatar
http://www.g4dimension.com/g4blog/coming-up-for-cannondale-in-february-tour-of-qatar/
You’re right, just without Sagan which made me think they weren’t there. I’ll fix the text above, thanks.
” a review of a French book might be a touch too exclusive for the blog”
Not at all. A review would be most welcome as I’m unlikely to learn french anytime soon and it would be interesting to get an idea of what he has to say
+1
+1
OK, promised, I can see why reviewing what he’s got to say makes as much sense as the book. Don’t get your hopes up, it’s with a small publisher and he’s a modest guy who’s unlikely to come out swinging.
If people are interested, he’ll be working with French Eurosport this year and still riding. He’s the “godfather” (in a mascot way) for a local racing team too.
I’d love to get a gist of Moncoutie’s book. A bit of a quiet legend, he is missed
Like other posters, I hope you will review Moncoutie’s book.
Cav needs some wins or he won’t be able to sell a third autobiography.
Like it. His first book was Boy Racer and his second was At Speed, will his third be Getting Slower?
Does anyone know his programme for this year? He won the points at the Giro to complete the set, is he likely to ride any classics this year? MSR seems even harder for sprinters this year.
not sure he’ll be too focused on anything except a certain date in Yorkshire in July. The maillot jaune is the one significant thing missing off his palmares (well, that and the olympic gong)
Great to see the Euskadi name on that shirt in 6th place at the Trofeo Palma. It seems rather strange not having the orange to go with it. I wonder how big the gap is between what the Euskadi foundation are currently doing and their becoming a pro team?
Moncoutie a one of the best climbers in recent times ? I think not. Winning the kom title at any given race or GT while a significant achievement does not mean you are a great climber. It means you are good at getting into the break on big mountain days, grabbing big points , and defending. He spent 90 % of his racing days at the back of the peleton because he didn’t like riding in the group. He would then join the break on the big mountain days against average climbers. The only way he could win the final climb is if he had a huge time advantage going into the final climb.
Had he raced in the 80’s or 90’s he would have been just another guy. Back then the climbers teams would control the race on the big mountain days. When they got to the bottom of the climb, the climbers would race each other to the top for the kom, then sit up and rejoin the peleton for the descent.
Moncoutie was a good kom champ in the modern era where GC teams now control the race and who gets into the break. He was better than the average dudes who were allowed alot of leash because they were 20 minutes down on GC.
TDU, you have made some relevant observations.
But GC guys rarely put their noses in the wind on the front till the last climb of the GT mountain stages. Moncoutie to my knowledge did not get that same degree of protection? Eems he was given the green light to hunt stages and he could climb well, as you note. But he had to work hard going fast up hill with “less talent” in breaks for those stage wins as you have noted.
As I recall he is not a TT guy and did not fit into the GC mold.
He was very good at taking advantage of one of his physical attributes, climbing.
I’ll hunt down a copy of the Montcoutié book and have a read. INRG, would you want me to have a go at reviewing it?
I’ve got a copy on the way already so look forward to doing it myself
INRNG, another great round-up, thanks!
But why does women’s cycling get relegated to last position on your posts, if its mentioned? Taylor Phinney winning in Dubai as first point, then Kirsten Wild’s win in Qatar should be the second point… There isn’t much about women’s racing in your posts: for example, an article a while back on Qatar: Racing 101 has 2 photos of women’s races but you haven’t written much about the racing itself. And, how about some posts on the stars of the women’s peleton (maybe other than Marianne Vos, the only women’s star that most cycling fans know)?
There’s a thread through it, from Dubai to Dubai sprinting to sprinters and their rivalry on and off the bike to the Etoile de Bessèges to climbers, to Moncoutié and then books. Putting Wild second would have interrupted this.
The bigger answer is this is only a blog and not a news agency, I can’t follow everything yet alone think/write about it. There are better sites and blogs for women’s cycling with more knowledgeable people for the topics and themes. But it’s still a subject of interest and hopefully I’ll return to it, there are some ideas to explore right now.