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The cycling season got underway in earnest last weekend with the Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne – Brussels – Kuurne in Belgium. Sunday sees the start of the first major stage race of the year, Paris-Nice. Like most editions, this year’s race kicks off with a few fast, flat stages that will suit the sprinters before hitting the hills as the race moves closer to the Mediterranean.
Stages five and six could be decisive in this year’s race. Stage five has an uphill finish that comes almost directly after the descent of the category one Col de la Mûre. The next day is a 27km individual time trial, something that usually isn’t a feature of recent editions.
Paris – Nice is also famous for its final stage, which usually involves an ascent of the Col d’Eze prior to the dash into Nice. Before hitting the Col d’Eze, the peloton this year will have to tackle one category three, two category two and one category one climbs. The race is often only decided on the last day, but this year’s time trial could serve to put bigger time gaps between the riders before the finish.
Alberto Contador has dominated recent editions of the race. He won in 2007 and would have been the favourite in 2008 if his team hadn’t been blacklisted by race organisers ASO. Contador came close in 2009 and looked set to win the race until stage six when he got a hunger knock and ceded control to Luis Leon Sanchez. He redeemed himself last year, when he reversed the order and took victory over Sanchez.
Contador has opted not to ride this year, favouring the lower profile Vuelta a Murcia instead, possibly because he is targeting the Giro d’Italia this year. With the lack of a strong favourite, there will be a clutch of riders hoping to take the overall title this year. Here’s a round-up of just a few:
Tony Martin
Credit: Fanny Schertzer
The young German has been knocking on the door for several years now and this may be the year when he finally gets a big result. Martin, who is still only 25, has all the abilities needed for a top stage racer. He’s an excellent time triallist, evidenced by his bronze medal at the World Time Trial Championships, and his TT wins last year at the Tour de Suisse, the Eneco Tour and Tour of California, not to mention the fact that he’s the current German national TT champion. Martin can climb mountains too, albeit not with the kinds of accelerations that pure climbers are capable of. Indeed, he won the mountains jersey at the 2009 Paris – Nice. He’s also an in-form rider at the moment, having won the early season Volta ao Algarve, netting the time trial stage in the process.
Luis León Sánchez
Credit: Tim Moreillon
After winning it in 2009 and coming second last year, the big Spaniard is an obvious favourite this year. He’s now 27 and at one point was tipped as the next Miguel Indurain. At this point his career doesn’t look like it’s going that way. He certainly has a great time trial, having twice been the Spanish national champion. But he has never had the staying power in the high mountains to remain in contention for the overall. Shorter stage races like Paris – Nice and hilly classics (he won the Classica San Sebastian last year) seem to be his natural stomping ground. He’s switched teams to Rabobank this year and should be motivated to make a big first impression.
Alexander Vinokourov
Credit: F Gopp
After being suspended for two years for blood doping, Vino reappeared in the peloton at the end of 2009 and had a vintage season in 2010. He won Liege – Bastogne – Liege in spectacular fashion, before finishing sixth in the Giro and winning a stage in the Tour de France. The Kazakh is supposed to be retiring at the end of this year and will be motivated to go out with a bang. He knows at this stage that a grand tour is probably beyond him, but something like Paris – Nice would be right up his street if he’s got the form. He’s already won twice, in 2002 and 2003. He also has a deep emotional attachment to this race, after his compatriot Andrei Kivilev was killed in a crash during the 2003 edition, prompting Vinokourov to dedicate his win to him.
Tejay Van Garderen
This young rider is one to watch. The American is only 22, but announced his arrival last year by coming second in the Tour of Turkey and third in the Dauphine. Like Tony Martin, he can time trial and climb decently. Unfortunately for Van Garderen, Martin is his team mate and he may have to play second fiddle.
Sylvain Chavanel
One of the most talented French riders in the peloton, Chavanel has usually done well in Paris – Nice. He’s got two stage wins under his belt and came third two years ago. Not in the top league of climbers, he’s still always game, especially in a breakaway. He’s also a decent time triallist, and is a three time French national champion. Chavanel now rides for the Belgian outfit Quickstep and this race will be part of his preparation for the classics. Given that he’ll have to play second fiddle there to Tom Boonen and that next week he’ll be on home turf, this could be his best chance for a win this season.
Peter Sagan
The Slovak announced himself in fine style at last year’s Paris – Nice, grabbing two stages and winning the points classification. Still only 21, the Liquigas rider is being tipped for great things. He came in 17th last year, which means he may be still too callow for the top step. But he’s in form, having won three stages and the overall at the Giro di Sardegna this year.
Erstwhile Tour favourite Alexander Vinokourov fell foul of doping controls yesterday, prompting the organisers to invite he and his team to leave the Tour, which they promptly did. Vinokourov’s blood test indicated the administration of a homologous blood transfusion. In other words, someone else’s red blood cells were detected amongst his own. Blood doping is still one of the most popular methods of gaining a performance boost. Since red blood cells carry oxygen, the more you have, the harder you can work. It’s less effective than EPO, since blood can start to degrade, whereas EPO prompts the creation of new red blood cells, but since the arrival of a test for EPO, blood doping has made a comeback. Riders often seem to use their own blood, thus eliminating the possibility of foreign cells being detected, which happened in the case of Tyler Hamilton and now Vinokourov. So why did Vino use someone else’s blood? Well, drawing blood will weaken you and perhaps he never had the opportunity while training in the run up to the tour to do so. Or maybe he never planned to get a transfusion mid-Tour. He crashed early in the Tour and lost a lot of time. Saturday’s time trial, which preceded the positive test, put him back in contention. Like Floyd Landis last year, a crisis seems to have prompted some sloppy work in covering his tracks.
Vino’s positive shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. He rode for many years with T-Mobile and the past year have seen many of his contemporaries on that team admit to or be implicated in doping. He then moved to Liberty Seguros, which was at the centre of the Operation Puerto drug bust in Spain last year. Former Liberty Seguros rider Jorg Jaksche hinted heavily recently that Vino was pushing hard to have “better medicinal treatment” at the team.
The notoriously dour Kazakh even managed to crack a joke, albeit a lame one, at his departure. Responding to reports that the blood used was that of a relative, he said: “I heard that I made a transfusion with my father’s blood. That’s absurd, I can tell you that with his blood, I would have tested positive for vodka”.
Blood is pouring from the arms and legs of Alexander Vinokourov as he and his team ride furiously to reconnect with a charging peloton. The blond Kazakh has crashed at probably the most inopportune time in the stage. With 25km to go, his chain came off and he hit the road hard. Up ahead the Quickstep team have turned the gas on and are leading a peloton going at full bore, trying to reel in two breakaway riders and maybe set up a stage win for their leader Tom Boonen. Six of Vinokourov’s eight team mates drop back and one by one burn themselves out trying to tow their leader back up. It isn’t enough and ‘Vino’ trails the pack by 1 minute 20 seconds at the stage’s end. The phoney war is over and the Tour de France has begun in earnest.
It wasn’t meant to be like this. Vinokourov was many people’s favourite coming into the race and it wasn’t hard to see why, having spend the best part of two years putting himself into this position. His earlier showings at the race were in the colours of T-Mobile, where he played the joker to Jan Ullrich’s ace. Spectacular attacks combined with big blowouts were his trademark, but eventually he lost patience at the end of 2005 and went to Spanish outfit Liberty Seguros to become their main Tour contender. However, he never even made it to the start line in 2006 as the Operation Puerto drug bust caused his team to implode. Vino himself wasn’t fingered in the investigation, but so many of his team mates were that Liberty Seguros was unable to field the minimum number of riders.
It was Vino himself who picked up the pieces, securing sponsorship from a conglomerate of Kazakh companies and forming new team named after the Kazakh capital Astana. In September got his revenge at the Vuelta a España when he and team mate Andrei Kashechkin pounded local favourite Alejandro Valverde into submission. The winter was spent building a formidable team. From Discovery Channel came two time Giro winner Paolo Savoldelli, while from T-Mobile they signed domestiques Matthias Kessler and Eddy Mazzoleni. It is another T-Mobile rider who is the biggest coup. Andreas Klöden has already stood on the podium twice at the Tour de France. With Ullrich now out of the picture, he was the undisputed leader of the team. Bizarrely though, he decided to up sticks to Astana, announcing that he will ride for Vino at this year’s Tour. If anything does happen to Vino, Astana have a backup.
However, Astana’s belt and braces approach appeared doomed on Wednesday because shortly before Vinokourov’s accident, Klöden too went down, fracturing his coccyx, the very same injury that put him out of the 2003 Tour. Unlike his captain, he managed to finish in the bunch. The pair are dispatched to hospital and, with the Tour hitting the Alps in two days time, the entire peloton will be watching them for the first time of weakness.
