King of the Breakaways

I’ve long thought French site cyclismag.com’s a great source for cycling related info. And in a new article for the website, Stéphane David has calculated the total number of kilometres a rider has spent in breakaways during the 2010 season. Top of the list is Cofidis’s Stéphane Augé.

Stéphan Augé Cofidis 1820km
Johnny Hoogerland Vacansoleil 1565km
Thomas de Gendt Topsport Vlaanderen 1470
Jérôme Pineau Quick Step 1365
Jurgen Van de Walle Quick Step 1290

The data is based on “real” attacks rather than a short burst at the beginning of the race which is reeled in within no time, a move must be established for the clock to start counting.

Full marks to Augé for trying but all those miles in the wind haven’t amounted to much, his best result was third in the GP de Plumelec-Morbihan. But it’s not time in the wind, it’s airtime. Augé has been a regular attacker, he did 180km in front during the cobbled stage of the Tour de France, the previous year he accompanied David Millar on the road into Barcelona and his efforts on previous stages had let him rack up enough points to wear the King of the Mountains jersey.

Followers of cycling would expect Hoogerland to be up there. Perhaps he’s been less visible in 2010 than the previous year but he’s been racking up the miles this year, getting away in the Tour of Britain and the Tour of Poland and more.

If it’s all futile work, note that last year’s winner was Frenchman Christophe Riblon. He won the pyrenean Tour stage this year into Ax 3 Domaines after a long break in the company of others.  His experience must have counted for something although I’d add that Riblon is a clear talent with the engine to win. The full rankings list Mikhail Ignatiev and Amael Moinard in sixth and ninth place respectively and these two also have big engines, their time will surely come in 2011.

3 thoughts on “King of the Breakaways”

  1. Nice to see Thomas de Gendt on the list. He gained a lot of friends at the Tour of Britain in 2009 for his aggressive style of riding. He was constantly on the attack throughout and ended up,unusually, with both the sprints jersey and King of the Mountains. He has a cool scorpion tattoo on his leg, too.

  2. Yes, Piil's been a big specialist too. A few years ago I think Vélo Magazine had a "Jacky-meter" to track the kilometres racked up Jacky Durand.

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