Three mainly overlooked peloton heroes

Reading cycling magazines and websites the same names keep cropping up.  Contador, Schleck, Cavendish et al are good and deserve some of the limelight but not all of it. There are three riders who inspire me not so much because of their results but because of their attitude and style.

1) Jen Voigt: he always there and already has something insightful or funny to say after each stage. This is a man who works like a dog, sitting on the front of the peloton reeling breakaways in and never gets any of the individual glory. He also writes a great blog and there is a amusing Jens Voigt fact page. And his approach to pain...play the link!

2) David Moncoutie: like Jens he has been around for a year and always seems to be thinking about retiring but never quite gets round to it, because he simply just likes riding his bike. Also, he is one of those classic French escape artists who does not want to hide in the peloton day after day but prefers to gamble on glory in breakaways. When Cofidis were going through their dark doping years Moncoutie was always in the team but always firmly anti-drugs. Bit of a pity that he likes homeopathic options though! Oh and he just looks just so damn cool on a bike.

3) Marco Pinotti: like Moncoutie, Pinotti has been a long standing critic of drugs in cycling. He is a quiet man, but when he decides to speak he does mince his words. Just read his views about some of his colleagues in the peloton! I wish a few more were brave enough to take a stronger moral stand on some of the cheats in the sport.

La bomba, EPO and tents…

Every so often I start thinking about doping in cycling, but it never seems to get much clearer in my mind about where we should draw the line.

 

Doping in cycling was not actually made illegal until 1965. Before then it might have been a dirty word but it was hardly a secret. In the 1930s the Tour de France rule book said that the race organisers would not provide drugs for the riders! The first explicit admission of drug use was from the Pélissier brothers when they talked to a journalist about running on ‘dynamite’ (see a previous post).  But there are tales of drugs being used as far back as the 1880s with cocaine and strychnine being favourites.

Over the years the many of the stars of the sport have been either open about their drug use or been found guilty of using them. Coppi was upfront about his drug use of la bomba (amphetamines) saying it was the only way to stay competitive. Anquetil was equally frank saying that he had a backside like a pin cushion. Tommy Simpson was not quite as open about his drug use but also did not deny it. Eddy Merckx denied ever taking drugs but was kicked out of the 1969 Giro d’Italia for taking the stimulant Reactivan, and was found guilty again in the 1973 Giro di Lombardia. 

But what is and is not permissible is not quite as clear cut as it might seem. Partly because there is no clear definition of what doping is. But a handy working definition is that a performance enhancing drug (PED) must meet at least two of the following three criteria:

1)      The potential for enhanced performance

2)      The potential for being detrimental to health

3)      Violation of the spirit of sport

If we take the usual doping example of increasing the number of oxygen carrying red blood cells it quickly demonstrates how tricky drawing the line can be. Four ways of increasing red blood cells are:

1)      Having a blood transfusion

2)      Taking EPO

3)      Training at altitude

4)      Sleeping in an oxygen tent (one which sucks the oxygen out!)

Having a blood transfusion and taking EPO clearly tick all three of the doping criteria so are obviously banned.  Training at altitude, certainly does not tick 2, but does tick 1 and could be argued is borderline for 3, but it is permissible. Sleeping in an oxygen tent ticks 1, not 2, but more is even more borderline for 3 than altitude training. In fact in Italy, seemingly a hot bed of doping, it is actually banned, but not anywhere else that I am aware of.  Is it because it seems more artificial than training at altitude?

Can you see why whenever I start to think about doping I end up even more confused?

Why no books?

I saw a couple of lists of the 5 greatest road cyclists of all time the other week. These were long view lists rather than those that only seem to remember the fairly recent past. These were the five in no particular order:

- Eddy Merckx
- Jacques Anquetil
- Fausto Coppi
- Lance Armstrong
- Bernard Hinault

I think that's a pretty fair list but it could be argued that Merckx and Hinault are the only definites and Miguel Indurain and Gino Bartali would be strong candidates to be in that top 5.  But sticking with my top 5 for the moment and returning to my bugbear of the moment (see last post about Henri Pelissier) why are cycling biographies missing some of the obvious targets?

Of the top 5 Lance Armstrong is everywhere, Paul Howard has written an admirable biography of Jacques Anquetil, and William Fotheringham wrote a great Fausto Coppi biography. But of the big 2 there is nothing currently in print in the English language. Granted Richard Moore's fabulous 'Slaying the Badger' was about the Hinault / LeMond relationship, but it was not a biography. There are older books about Merckx and Hinault but nothing current. Come on someone (with talent) please satisfy me!

The “pigheadedly arrogant champion"

The quote above was how Henri Desgrange, the founder of the Tour de France, apparently described Henri Pélissier the 1923 winner of the Tour.  Forget Lance, Alberto, Cadel, and co this was one larger than life than life character who makes Pantani look like a choirboy.

Henri was a handful from an early age and was kicked out of the family farm at the age of 16. The farm itself was the last farm in Paris. He chose to become a semi-professional cyclist and through challenging race organisers and sponsors become a campaigner for better rights for cyclists describing their conditions as being like “convicts of the road.”

He also described how the harshness of races like the Tour made riders use doping products. This is the first recorded instance of doping I can find. The journalist Albert Londres in an article about a conversation he had with Henri, his brother Francis and another rider Ville said:

“You have no idea what the Tour de France is like,” said Henri. “It’s a Calvary. But Christ only had 14 stations of the cross. We have 15. We suffer from start to finish. Do you want to see what we run on?” From his bag he took out a phial: “That’s cocaine for the eyes, that’s chloroform for the gums.”…In short said Francis, “we run on dynamite”.

A few years after he retired his wife Léonie shot herself. Henri took up with another woman, Camille, 20 years younger than him. The two of them had a fiery relationship which ended with Camille shooting him five times after he attacked her with a knife. She used the gun that his wife had taken her life with. When it came to the trial Camille got a one year suspended jail sentence.

And, the strange thing is nobody has written a book about him in English. How many more good stories are needed to make a great book?

An Etape story and a harsh realisation

I was looking at my Facebook page today and came across the following video showing the highlights of the second of this year's two Etape races...the long lumpy one from Issoire to Saint-Flour. 

http://www.velo101.com/videos/voir/183/resume-de-letape-du-tour-mondovelo-acte-ii-entre-issoire-et-saintflour

Apart from the dreadful conditions which meant that fewer than 2000 of the 4000 riders finished two other things struck me and then a depressing realisation:

(1) the man who won was riding the same bike as I bought last year, a Parlee Z5. See an earlier post to this blog about how crap I am at choosing a new bike. I asked Barry at Bespoke Cycling (the sole UK Parlee dealer) if he knew the winner. Apparently he is the brother of a new Parlee dealer in France.

(2) the first UK finisher in 7th place, at least I am guessing he was the first UK guy from non-English sounding names in front of him, was someone in my year at school. I remember him as being a focused even manic looking type but I never realised he was that good. And, he came 15th in the the Alpe d'Huez stage a week earlier.

I rode the Etape last year finishing somewhere mid-pack a country mile from the front end of the race and a similar distance from the broom wagon at the other end of the race. I felt pretty pleased with myself.

This year having seen my bike cross the line in first place, and a school friend finish in the top 10 the horrible realisation is that I really am not the next Contador and am just a journey man who needs to try a little harder next time!

Top dog won

I remember watching Cadel Evans crumble under the pressure of being the favourite in the 2008 Tour de France, including delivering the great line "don't stand on my dog or I will cut your head of" to a journalist.

This year I was silently hoping he would win, but did not believe he would be able to live with Schlecks or Contador in the mountains, or would crack again if he had defend the yellow jersey. I was so happy watching him trounce all the GC contenders in the Grenoble time trial.

I use to feel pretty good about the Schlecks certainly in when compared to Contador, but after learning that Frank had paid about 7000 euros to operacion puerto doctor Eufemiano Fuentes I have felt uneasy about them. Okay so no doping was proven, but 7000 euros for 'training advice'! And I know Andy is not Frank but they do seem to be carbon copies in many ways.

The redemption of Cadel Evans from being the moaning so and so of 2008 was that he developed a sense of humour about that Tour. On his website you could buy the following "don't stand on my dog" t-shirt until it sold out. He even models it!

Warning: Dead sheep can bite!

I can only assume that Andy Schleck reads my blog. Only a couple of days after I called said that the Schlecks were underwhelming at delivering killer blows the boy Andy goes on an epic solo effort and pulls it off. This was stuff of Tour legend. In 1947 Tour Albert Bourlon (below) launched a solo attack of 253km on the road from Carcassone to Luchon, then there was Hugo Koblet's legendary stage from Brive to Agen in 1951.



But just because there has been a long solo ride it does not mean it is a commanding one. If you want a big time gap between the winner and the next finisher then Jose Luis Viejo is the king. In 1976 he finished 22 minutes and 50 seconds ahead of the next man. Then there are stage wins in terrible conditions such as Charly Gaul (below...believe it or not. He lived life as a hermit in a forest for years before coming back to the sport as a VIP) heading to Bourget-en-Aix in 1958. L'Equipe described the conditions as "a curtain of water, a deluge without an ark".

So okay Andy Schleck is not going to enter the Tour records for his effort but the panache and sheer unexpectedness of it makes it the most exciting Tour move I can remember. And hats off to Cadel Evans for his determination to pull as much time back as he good. As for Voeckler keep going, I hope you make it...somehow!

Being Savaged by a Dead Sheep on the road to Gap

Back in the late 1970s the then Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer claimed that being attacked by his Tory counterpart Geoffrey Howe was "like being savaged by a dead sheep". I somehow doubt that Contador reads up on great quotes from British political history, but I wonder if he feels that the dual Schleck attack is a bit like that most of the time. Watching the Schlecks try to launch a convincing attack is a bit like watching Rupert Murdoch trying to give a convincing answer before a Select Committee. And watching Andy Schleck trying to descend on the road to Gap was a real Bambi on ice moment. Oh, and listening to Schlecks whinging at the end about the descent being too dangerous was plain embarrassing.

On a more positive note today's stage was a pleasant surprise. I had spent most of the day writing a dull report for a client who I know is not interested in what I have to say, so I welcomed the distraction of what was unfolding to be an hour of excitement. A technical descent to Gap in the pouring rain meant that what should have been a run on a mill stage a must watch. So bravo to Cadel Evans, Thor Hushvod and Thomas Voeckler. The latter for still battling, Evans for spanking Contador and Hushvod for being so much fun for the last 2 weeks. And raspberries for the Schlecks. I hope they prove me wrong in the Alps.  My early podium prediction is (1) Evans; (2) Contador; and (3) Voeckler. What odds?

Chapeau Thomas Voeckler

In the Tour in 2004 when the widely unknown Voeckler was allowed to escape with 5 others and finish 12'36" ahead of the peloton with a 9'35" lead over Lance Armstrong. It took another 10 days before the yellow jersey was taken from him. He was compelling to watch, struggling to stay with the favourites on the climbs but some how always finding a way to stay in touch.
At the start of today's stage to Plateau de Beille nobody was talking about Voeckler, it was all about whether Contador was bluffing and if the Schlecks knew how to get nasty and put him out of contention. Oh and Cadel Evans seemed to be doing well. Why is he always mentioned as an afterthought?

As the peloton splintered on the final climb Voeckler looked comfortable with the Andy Schleck's rather underwhelming attacks. At times looked like he fancied having a go himself before remembering that all he had to do was defend his position. What does this say about him going into the Alps next week? Either he has hit an unheralded bit of form, or the others are not so special, or a bit of both. I fancy that nobody has commanding form and that Voeckler is growing in confidence and finding that he is not so far behind in ability.

Before the race started I was hoping that Wiggins would surprise everyone and then after he crashed swapped horses and supported Evans, but that was because I never though the plucky Voeckler was in with a shout. The last Frenchman to win the Tour was Hinault in 1985, I think more than 25 years later it is right that they have a decent shout again. At the moment it's hard to see how the others are going to shake him off. They don't seem to be able to the Armstrong thing of hit hard early on a climb and sustain it. As Voeckler said after today's stage if the attacks are not sustained he has the chance to catch his breath and survive. Chapeau Tommy!

Rethinking Greg LeMond

Over the last few years I have been a big admirer of Lance Armstrong and increasingly less enthused about Greg LeMond.  But I have started to lean the other way and think that I probably got this completely wrong.

 

There were whispers about LeMond being slightly dotty and perhaps bitter that Armstrong had become the most famous American cyclist. Then there was the bizarre fallout between the two where LeMond having come out and rightly criticised Armstrong for his relationship with the controversial Dr, Michele Ferrari, then does an abrupt about turn issuing the most humble apology.   It turns out that the apology was because LeMond had business interests with Trek and Armstrong could harm these. But what really hit home for me was this quote from LeMond:

"If Armstrong's clean, it's the greatest comeback. And if he's not, then it's the greatest fraud."

When I first read I was angry, to me it sounded like sour grapes. But now I think it got to me because I did not want to believe the possibility that Armstrong could be a fraud. Maybe LeMond is the brave man for daring to stand up a bully and raise legitimate concerns? 

When Floyd Landis and then Tyler Hamilton pointed the finger at Armstrong for doping I initially dismissed this as lacking credibility because the two had lied about their own doping even when they failed tests. But when George Hincapie allegedly told a US Grand Jury that he and Armstrong had both doped the pendulum swung the other way and made me revisit what LeMond had said.

Maybe the balance is finally changing in cycling and the omerta about doping is finally being blown open. According to David Millar doping is no longer the norm, for new riders there is not the pressure or opportunity to dope. The old guard where doping was the sin which was never talked about or admitted to are growing thinner and thinner in the pro peloton. People like Millar, LeMond and Marco Pinotti seem to be changing the discourse in cycling. It is increasingly fine to be outspoken about doping without having to fear that you will be ostracised by your colleagues, but this feels like it has been a battle that has taken too long to finally tip in favour of the outspokenly clean riders.

Giro d'Italia

I know I should be writing about the Classics right now, but it's the Giro that has got me thinking today. Or to be more exact it's the attempt in the UK to give the Giro more of a profile. Being an evidence devotee I base this on the facts that the publisher of Pro Cycling and several other magazines has just put out a Giro box race pack, and Rouleur have just published a Giro history book by Herbie Sykes. Perusing the latter in Condor Cycles the other day I can tell you that it is stunning, but I need to find a spare £29 and a way of sneaking it back into the house (hmmm maybe I should also sneak it by the shop alarm? That would solve one challenge).

For some reason I had always seen the Giro as a minor league event used as a warm up for the Tour de France, or as a chance for riders with no hope of winning the Tour to get on a stage race podium without having to stoop as low as the Vuelta. But over the past few years the Giro seems to have got my attention. It's combination of the impossible profiles in the mountain stages and the inclusion of white gravel roads. Oh and if Lance complains about a stage being too dangerous then it must have some excitement to it! (Lance - personal message...I loved you  but I can feel it souring).

In my own little cycling world I ventured out on only my second club ride since October last weekend. We have a new mountain goat who presents a challenge in what I considered to be my speciality. But a much more pressing issue was a young woman I chatted to on our ride back to the our start. The pace went up 3 miles out and I sat on her wheel and then she left me! Oh the shame! Even bunny hopping over a pavement, careering round a bus and every underhand tactic I could think of didn't help. This cannot continue!  Normal service must be resumed!

Is there such a thing as a cool pro?

There is no way of denying it but most pro cyclists are not cool. They lead dull lives and ride like programmed robots. The bikes are much more interesting to look at than they are. But every so often someone comes along and they ooze class. Some like to think they are the coolest thing out there but come on I am not fooled! Mario Cippollini...the Lion King, Super Mario...exhibit 'a' below...I think not! Beyond this self-proclaimed God the real Gods of Cool can be found.



This is my list of 5 cool pros...


Number 5: Laurent Jalabert
It hurts to put a Frenchman on the list,  but 'Jaja' just looked so right on a bike. Just watch a clip of him in the latter stages of his career, the wins may have dried up but boy did he look cool! I think it might just be the way he wore his hat...yep I am that shallow.


Number 4: Bradley Wiggins
Again, a shallow reason gets him into my top 5. He looks like a mod and has that mod belief of it doesn't matter if you come from a crap council estate you have to make an effort to look good. It's a shame his form seems to be mirroring Paul Weller's career - at the moment he is in the Style Council wastelands. Let's hope for a Stanley Road resurgence.


Number 3: Bernard 'the badger' Hinault
Damn another Frenchman. But hell this bloke rocked! So much passion and dominance. Apparently he is really nice guy now unless someone dares to invade the podium when he is doing his Tour ambassador duties. Oh and anyone who winds up Greg LeMond gets a tick in my book. But Google needs to sort out their rankings of people named Bernard. Bernard Matthews number 2?!


Number 2: Marco Pantani
The Italians tend to spend more time trying to look good on a bike than actually winning a race but now and then when they manage both they set the cool benchmark. Ok, I struggle with 'Il Pirata'. He was an out and out doper. But on the bike he was compelling, no race radio, no respect for egos, to hell with team orders and a climbing style that when it clicked was poetry. I like to think I am same when I hit Hucking Hill in Kent (no prizes for guessing that climbs nickname amongst the non-mountain goat fraternity...er, me and all of my clubmates).


Number 1: Fausto Coppi
Yep, for once a list which does not have Eddy Merckx at the top (or actually anywhere else...ooops). Coppi looked the part on and off the bike, and compared to goodie two shoes Bartali was ready to shake the conservative establishment...religion...'no thanks'...sexual morals...'you keep them'. Ok, the the detail of the latter was not so cool, but in the wider context of trying to stop Italians being so strait-laced he did the business. Hmmm...maybe a bit too much so. And, yes I know he was also a doper, sadly like many Italian pros.

Damn...look I forgot Lance. But I think most people would agree that Texas and cool is an oxymoron.

Paralysed by choice

Last year I decided to buy a dream bike. It felt like my life was about to change dramatically and I might not get the same opportunity for a number of years. For years I had been thinking about doing this, but signing up to do the Etape du Tour forced the issue. There was no way I was going to take on that course with my old Trek 5200. 

It probably took me 6 months to finally take the plunge. All I knew was that it needed to be light, comfortable to ride long distances on and something I would look at longingly at again and again. I also wanted to try and stay away from some of the mass produced brands and have something less familiar but with pedigree.
 

First on my short list was a Colnago C50. There is something timeless about Colnago. You know that they will still look great in 10 years time.  But have you ever tried to test ride or order one? I had email conversation with a well known Colnago dealer who said "no I do not have test bikes" and "no I don't know how long one would take to arrive from the factory...they are Italian."  Not particularly helpful and I also suspected that the C50 was about to change and that I might be paying for old technology.
 

Next up was a Storck Fenomalist. It certainly ticked the lightweight box, but what are those strange horizontal rear dropouts all about? I have enough trouble as it is getting a rear wheel off! And, the more I read about them the more I questionned what state they would leave me in at the end of a long ride.
 

Next the Cervelo RS. There is no doubt that this bike has the looks, but I was not convinced about sizing or the long headtube. Hmmm...looking back on it I didn't go to bed dreaming about this one for long!

 

The more I read forums about which bike the more the name Parlee kept cropping up. They were  completely new to me and having never seen them advertised I thought they were probably not available in the UK.  By chance I clicked on the suppliers tab on the Parlee website and found they did have a UK dealer, Bespoke Cycling. How did I not know about this lot?  They are just 10 minutes from my office! Parlee had just released their Z5 it seemed to tick all my boxes. The reviews were very thin on the ground then nothing like the rave reviews out there now Cycling Weekly. And, Bespoke Cycling had one I could take out for a spin. I said I would be 30 mins and ended up coming back over an hour later. Barrry at Bespoke was completely chilled about and said "oh we don't mind if you are late back, most people are. It means they like it." I did and bought one. And, yep it got me up the Marie Blanque, the Solour and the Tourmalet with no sight of the Broomwagon.

If you are looking for a new bike and are not interested in 'squovals', 'asymmetric concepts' and other oddities, have a look at the Z5. I have heard that they are shifting 3 times more of them this season than last. That's no surprise if you have ridden one.

The aim of this blog

About 3 years ago I moved to Kent and decided to step up my cycling...buy a dream bike, buy over priced clothing, join a club with a silly name, sign-up for sportives. This blog will cover these and other cycling rated thoughts.

Also, thanks to government cuts backs I have found myself with more time on my hands to spend on my bike, and you know on those long rides the mind starts to wander. So no doubt I will sounding off about why the country is in the state it's in. The Government? The bankers? The last Government?