This Sunday sees a new event in the UCI World Championships, the team time trial. It’s new and relatively unknown and also very different from the usual team time trials we might see in a stage race.
Here’s a quick explainer of what is involved and why there’s no rainbow jersey for the winners.
The cheerily-named French website cyclisme-dopage.com has been hosting research by engineer Frédéric Portoleau who estimates the power needed to ride with the leaders over the main mountain passes.
The estimates suggest the Vuelta saw some of the highest power-to-weight numbers of the year. Some will use this to draw conclusions but for me it’s more a tool to analyse the racing.
Ke BUFFONATA….
— Filippo Pozzato (@PippoPozzato) September 11, 2012
Che buffonata, what a farce. In two words Filippo Pozzato sums up the last three months and more.
Today saw the hearing of cyclist at the Italian National Olympic Commission (CONI) after he was charged with consulting Michele Ferrari, the infamous sports scientist. The case is both a farce and a serious issue.
Having looked at the racing and Alberto Contador’s victory yesterday, time to look at the race itself. It’s been a successful tour with big TV audiences, as you’ll see below. Were 10 summit finishes necessary? Was there a big contest for the points and mountains jersey? What can the Tour de France organisers ASO learn from this race?
I had an angel on one shoulder, saying “don’t do this, they’re going to roll you over” and a devil in the other saying “go for it”. On this occasion, I didn’t listen to the angel. It was attack or die.
Alberto Contador attacked 55km from the finish on Stage 17 and rode on to win the stage and claimed the overall lead. If three weeks of racing are reduced to one moment, it was this audacious attack that won the 2012 Vuelta.
The final stage of the 2012 Vuelta and like the Tour de France, this is a victory lap style procession into the national capital that’s only 115km and so only the shortest preview is needed. It’s still fast and furious on the finishing circuit but the overall result is not expected to change.
Ahead of tomorrow’s procession into Madrid this is the last real day of racing and it’s a giant day with several big mountain passes coming before the steep climb to the highest point of the 2012 Vuelta. If there’s still any uncertainty about the winner of the race, it will all be settled later today.
On paper a transition stage but it should offer a lively finish with an uphill climb to the line, one for the versatile sprinters but also for the puncheurs who can cope with the slope.
The longest stage of the 2012 Vuelta but it is only 204.5km, a sign that this has been a race of short and sharp stages. With no categorised climbs this looks like a sprint finish or a long range breakaway… but after yesterday’s tactical coup, who knows?
The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle
This is a guest review by a reader known as The Race Radio on Twitter, the go-to source for information on the USADA action and much more.
“The truth really will set you free“: the last sentence of Tyler Hamilton’s new book is a fit ending. For 300 pages Tyler and Dan Coyle trace Tyler’s journey through the madness of professional cycling during one of the sports most complex times. Coyle’s elegant style allows the story to flow effortlessly through Tyler’s career, capturing the ebb and flow of enablers, teammates, doctors, and DS’s.