Olympic Time Trial Review

LONDON - Road cycling is basically the Bradley Wiggins show now. Wiggins (Great Britain) followed up his recent Tour de France overall victory with a Gold Medal in the Individual Time Trial today. The win was no shock as Wiggins gained much of his huge Tour de France lead on the back of his time trial abilities (he was second in the prologue and won both long time trials).

In the time trial Wiggins beat World Champion Tony Martin (Germany) by 42 seconds after trailing at the first time check, but that was expected as Wiggins gets much better as time trials go on and Martin is still recovering from his injuries both in the early season and in his stage 1 crash at the Tour de France.

Further down the standings, Tour de France runner up (and Wiggins teammate) Chris Froome (Great Britain) took the bronze over Taylor Phinney (United States). For Phinney, the result was his second 4^th of the Olympics. While a disappointment for him to not medal, he is only 22 and will have many chances over the coming year in both the Olympics and World Championships.

As for defending champion Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland), he finished 7^th while obviously uncomfortable on his bike after his crash in the road race on Saturday. Still, he gave a good effort as he was 3^rd at the first time check and 4^th and the other two before fading at the end.

For Wiggins, the win caps one of the greatest seasons in road cycling history. Nobody had managed to win the week-long stage races of Paris-Nice, the Tour of Romandie and the Criterium du Dauphine in the same season. It got better after that with his Tour de France win (the crown jewel of the wins) and then he added the cherry on top with his time trial victory today.

In addition, Wiggins became the most decorated British Olympic athlete ever with his 7^th career Olympic medal (three gold). The previous medals all came on the track with a bronze in 2000, a gold, a silver and a bronze in 2004 and two golds in 2008.

Next up for Wiggins is a possible run at the World Time Trial Championship in September. He was second to Martin last year. Beyond that, it is likely that he will being prepping for next season as he is unlikely to race the Vuelta a Espana and there are no major targets other than the Time Trial Championship that suit his abilities until next year.

Sorry no pictures today, I was on time check duty on the course today.

Olympic Road Race Review - From London

Olympic Podium. Gold medal Vinokourov center,
 Silver Uran left and Bronze Kristoff right.

LONDON - Alexander Vinokourov (Kazakhstan) easily won a two-up sprint over Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) to take a shocking gold medal win in  his final career road race at 38 years old (he will finish career in the time trial on Wednesday). Alexander Kristoff (Norway) took the bronze, beating the rest of the remains of the breakaway that stayed away to the finish in a sprint.

The win by Vinokourov has already been met with mixed reaction. For much of his career, Vino (as many of his fans call him) has been popular for his attacking style and willingness to drop time in the interest of attacking and wins. At the same time, Vino was long suspected of doping, having ridden much of his career with the notorious T-Mobile team (Jan Ullrich, doper extraordinaire), and then he was busted for an illegal blood transfusion during the 2007 Tour de France. This has made him an extremely polarizing figure, especially as he returned to his attacking style after his suspension ended and won Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Stage 13 of the Tour de France, all while being unrepentant for his previous doping sins. At his LBL win, Vino was booed mercilessly by the fans as he was on the winner's podium and many have still never forgiven him. This sentiment continued today as much of the British cycling media went ballistic on twitter after the race with some outright accusing him of doping even now and hoping he would be DQ'ed (I would argue some of this is frustration that Great Britain was unable to do what was needed to Mark Cavendish to the finish line with the front group).

As for the overwhelmingly favored British, the question of course is 'What happened?' What happened is a confluence of events that should have been easy to see but nobody really realized was likely to happen until after the race. The first is the small team sizes. When the British team dominated the World Championship RR in Copenhagen last October, it did so by controlling the whole race and getting help from a couple of other sprint minded teams to deliver Cavendish to the line with the front group. That was never going to work here as teams are made up of only five riders instead of nine. That limit makes it much more difficult to control the race and limit attacks from happening. Also, there were no race radios in this race. The most striking example of this was the composition of the final breakaway. First of all, it was huge, numbering over 30. Second, somehow Fabian Cancellara and three of his Swiss teammates got into the group. That is a terrible mistake to make given Cancellara's talent (more on him later). The final part that really hurt Great Britain was the distance and length of time after the Tour de France. All but Ian Stannard rode the Tour de France. Combine that with the 250 km distance and the five man teams and there were some tired legs. Both Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins tried and couldn't bring the final breakaway back before pulling off spent. With nobody else willing to work, Britain just burned their legs basically from the opening moments of the race.

Race at the startline. 10 AM London time.

Still, that the break got away tells nothing of how Vinokourov got the win. For that, he needs to thank Cancellara's suddenly suspect bike handling. Cancellara badly misjudged a turn with about 20 km to go and went should first into the barrier. Given the composition of the group at that point, Cancellara was the odds on favorite to win from that spot in the race and his crash reopened the door for everyone else. With the break still going towards the finish but seeming somewhat confused, Vinokourov and Uran launched an attack. Normally, this first attack from the group is doomed to total failure, but then nobody really chased. Vinokourov and Uran (both with few teammates in the race) just rode away from the field leading to the sprint and the shocking conclusion.

As for the sprinters, Andre Greipel (Germany) came in first among them in 27^th place followed by Tom Boonen (Belgium) and Cavendish.

For men's road cycling, next up in the time trial on Wednesday. After Cancellara's crash, Bradley Wiggins is now an overwhelming favorite in the race as Cancellara may not start and will certainly be diminished and world champion Tony Martin (Germany) is still recovering from his injuries suffered both in the Tour de France and on Monday while doing course recon. Given that, Wiggins biggest competition may come from Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) who was third in the final Tour de France Time Trial and appears to be in impeccable form right now.

Tour de France Stage 3 - Another Saganesque Victory

Today's stage: A one-day classic disguised as part of a stage race.

Who won today's stage? Peter Sagan (Liquigas) won his second stage in three days. While he isn't automatic in a sprint like he was in California or Switzerland, these hilly stages are easy marks for him right now.

What matters in the GC race? Fabian Cancellara (RSNT) finished with the main group and retained the yellow jersey, but not without a few tense moments as 3^rd place Sylvain Chavanel (OPQS) attacked and nearly stole the stage and the jersey on the final climb. Among the overall threats, Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) is still the top man and everyone else still has the same time as before.

What matters in other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – Sagan extended his lead in the Green jersey competition with his stage win. His main competition is defending champion Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) who freelanced his way to top points in the intermediate sprint remaining in range of catching Sagan.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) got himself in the break for the 3^rd day day in a row. This allowed him extend his lead. He is sure to retain the jersey tomorrow as there aren't enough points available for anyone to pass him. Maybe he will take a mch needed rest and avoid the breakaway tomorrow.

White Jersey (Best Young Rider) – Tejay van Garderen (BMC) retained his white jersey finishing with the main group. Boasson Hagen remains second after also finishing with the group.

Team Classification (Calculated by adding the three best times on each team each day) – With a large group finishing together, there was no change here. Team Sky retains the lead and they will continue to wear the new yellow helmets that go along with leadership in this competition. In other words, ditto yesterday. This doesn't figure to change until the mountains.

Biggest surprise: Morkov in the break again. He is likely to pay dearly later, but his team's new second sponsor Tinkoff has to be pleased with all of the screen time they have gotten thus far. Still, when was the last time someone was in the break three days in a row? Not even anyone from the FDJ breakaway squad from last season managed that.

Biggest disappointment: Nobody really challenged Sagan. It was too easy considering Sagan had a chance to celebrate with a running man dance on the bike as he won. At least Chavanel tried with his big attack. Everyone else either had nothing for Sagan or didn't bother trying as they saved energy for GC assaults later.

Other items of note: Today was a festival of crashes. Early on Astana leader Jani Brajkovic crashed (he is fine and still sits 13^th overall). Later, Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) and Kanstantin Siutsou (Team Sky) collided and caused a decent sized pile up. Siutsou was forced to abandon because of his injuries. Finally, there was a large pile up that included Farrar again, JJ Rojas (Movistar), Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil), Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) and many others. As a result of the crashes, many were stuck behind the main field where the Movistar team drove forward and dropped everyone. Notable among those that lost time some amount of time: Christian Vandevelde (Garmin-Sharp), Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp) and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar). Also of note, Rojas was forced to abandon.

What is coming tomorrow? Sprinters awaken again. Tomorrow is pancake flat for the final run in and has no climbs above category 4 at all. This means sprinters all the way.

Tomorrow's prediction: 1. Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) 2. Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) 3. Kenny Van Hummel (Vaconsoleil)

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Tour de France Burning Questions - Stage 2

No that burning is no the yellow helmets for the leaders of the team classification. More on that later.

1 What is Fabian Cancellara's role in animating this race?

Fabian Cancellara (RSNT) is in an interesting place. He is not a high mountain climber. He is a major time trial threat in a race with a lot of time trial kms. He is also the leader of the race. And he's racing on a team that seems to be in total disarray, at least as far as GC is concerned. While Cancellara is not the GC leader of his team, he is in 3^rd place in the points competition and could score more tomorrow with a similar finish to stage 1 where he was 2^nd. If that happens again and with the time trial, is it possible Cancellara and his RSNT team mount a point assault? It could happen, especially if the sprinters start trying to conserve energy for the Olympics and don't contest all of week 2's sprint checkpoints.

2 What is the impact of these classic-like stages we have been seeing over the last few years?

Both Stages 1 and 3 look and act more like classics than normal stage race stages. Last year had a couple of these classic-like short climb finishes and 2010 had a Paris-Roubaix like cobblestone stage. The impact on the race has been positive. For one thing, the entire first week is no longer a procession of sprints. While there is a place for sprints and a lot of them, it's bad when sprints are every day of the first week as they often can be when the parcours are unimaginative. At the very least, these stages make a breakaway a possibility instead of a doomed exercise in suffering for those involved. It also can upend the GC at least a bit giving us more of a pecking order and that is needed with no time bonuses to separate matters any longer. For examples on GC, just look at the Paris-Roubaix stage in 2010 where Cancellara drove Andy Schleck to a time gain that helped Schleck immensely in his tour bid (that was ultimately doomed by Chain-gate then given to Schleck because of Contador's doping DQ). This year already, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Chris Horner (RSNT) were caught out yesterday on Stage 1 and lost time. If nothing else, the pretenders are eliminated early and turned into stage hunters well before they normally would be. I have no problem with that.

3 Are the overall contenders going to attack tomorrow?

The non-time trial men among the overall contenders need to gain time somewhere, even if it's only a few second here and there. With 5 short categorized climbs compressed at the end of the route tomorrow, it seems like a good day to attack if the legs are good, especially with a few days of sprinting upcoming. Still, with the exception of Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) and Samuel Sanchez (Euskatel), none of the overall contenders that lack high end time trial skills are know for their big attacks. It makes me wonder if there is going to be a GC staring contest while the breakaway rides up the road and takes the stage win (this result would surely anger current yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara).

4 Given that the Team Time Trial is normally around this time, which contenders will miss it and which are glad it's gone?

Chief among those who will miss it is Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp). His team's early TTT success helped move him into the GC contenders at his Giro d'Italia win in May and the Garmin team has made TTT success a hallmark of what they have done since the squad was formed. Cadel Evans (BMC) will also miss the TTT in part because his team has a couple of other strong TT'ers on it.

Among those who are happy to see it not included are Samuel Sanchez (Euskatel). Sanchez rides on a team that is, at best, allergic to time trialing (seriously, being a Basque climber generally means riding a good time trial is against team regulations). For the first time in a long time, Sanchez isn't starting with a 2 minute disadvantage on GC.

5 Can we get rid of the awful yellow helmets already?

Seriously, these things are crimes against fashion and humanity. Can we get rid of them before a team like Lampre gets a hold of them, please. Just imagine the pain that would cause the eyes. As for so far, here is Team Sky wearing them. They aren't so bad there, at least in comparison to what could happen. **shudders**

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Tour de France Stage 1 - The Sagan Rampage Continues

Today's stage: A hilly stage around the area near where the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic takes place.

Who won today's stage? Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) continued his reign of terror that started when he won five stages of the Tour of California in May followed by four stage wins at the Tour de Suisse. Today, he beat Fabian Cancellara (RSNT) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) in a three man sprint.

What matters in the GC race? Cancellara finished second on the stage and retained his yellow jersey for another day. Behind him, not much happened. Everyone of consequence finished with the main group except for Chris Horner (RSNT) who lost a minute and Peter Velits (OPQS) who lost 2 minutes because of an ill-timed puncture.

What matters in other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – Cancellara now also leads this competition. Behind him are Sagan, and Boasson Hagen meaning Sagan will wear the jersey tomorrow as Cancellara is in yellow.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) was in the breakaway and absorbed the most points on the hills of today's course to take the first KoM jersey of the race.

White Jersey (Best Young Rider) – Tejay van Garderen (BMC) retained his white jersey finishing with the main group. Boasson Hagen remains second after being involved in the final sprint for the stage victory.

Team Classification (Calculated by adding the three best times on each team each day) – With a large group finishing together, there was no change here. Team Sky retains the lead and they will continue to wear the new yellow helmets that go along with leadership in this competition.

Biggest surprise: Nothing. Sagan winning this stage given his talents and recent hot streak should surprise nobody. Cancellara finishing second because he dragged someone with a better sprint to the finish line with him should also surprise nobody (it happened at Milan-San Remo earlier this season and usually happens at least once in every Tour de France).

Biggest disappointment: The GC guys didn't try anything today. The final climb was fairly steep and many non-climbers were spat out the back of the peloton. Guys like Gesnik and Nibali need to find time whenever possible in this race because of all the time trial kms.

Other items of note: Tony Martin (OPQS) saw his personal nightmare Tour continue. He fell just 11 km into the race after his puncture yesterday in the prologue. He hurt his wrist but did finish the stage... There were two other crashes, one of which collected Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) and caused him to lose four minutes today. The Sanchez crash also collected two Movistar riders and Team Sky's Michael Rogers. The other crash caused no injury but was a larger pile up.

What is coming tomorrow? Sprinty. Sprint. Tomorrow is nearly pancake flat. It is fast men all the way for a bunch sprint finish as the race crosses into France for the first time.

Tomorrow's prediction: 1. Peter Sagan (Liquigas) 2. Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) 3. Mark Cavendish (Team Sky)

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Tour de France Daily – Cancellara confirms his short TT dominance... again

Today's stage: A short prologue to start the Tour de France, the most important cycling race there is, in Liege, Belgium.

Who won today's stage? Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan-Trek forever abbreviated RSNT) destroyed the field winning by seven seconds over just 6.4km.

What matters in the GC race? Cancellara does take the yellow jersey, but he often has the yellow jersey early in the race (today is his 22^nd yellow jersey of his career and he has held the jersey in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010) before ceding it to the overall contenders when the high mountains start. Among the overall contenders, Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) is the leader after finishing second on the brief stage. Former Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana winner Denis Menchov (Katusha) is 8^th overall, defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC) is 13^th, 2010 Vuelta winner Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) is 14^th and reigning Giro d'Italia champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp, note the team name change from Garmin-Barracuda since the Giro in May) is 15^th.

What matters in other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – Cancellara leads the competition, but he will be wearing yellow tomorrow. Wiggins will wear the Green jersey. Among the actual contenders, none scored any points and thus this will go to tomorrow to begins forming a pecking order.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – No points available in a time trial. Tomorrow will see this jersey awarded for the first time with four category four climbs on the parcours tomorrow.

White Jersey (Best Young Rider) – Tejay van Garderen (BMC) rode a scorching TT finishing 4^th overall on the stage and beating Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) for the white jersey by 1 second.

Team Classification (Calculated by adding the three best times on each team each day) – Team Sky with Wiggins 2^nd and Boasson Hagen 5^th leads this early over RSNT who were carried by Cancellara's great ride.

Biggest surprise: Sylvain Chavanel (Omega-Pharma QuickStep, herefore OPQS) is the national time trial champion of France. Still, it is a surprise that he finished 3^rd today and led for quite some time. A great ride by him and maybe a sign his form has returned to where it was two years ago when he won two stages and held the yellow jersey on two separate occasions early in the race.

Biggest disappointment: David Zabriskie (Garmin-Sharp) is the US time trial champion. He has won the prologue in the Tour de France before (2005 over Lance Armstrong). Today, he finished 68^th. Not the result he was looking for after his second place overall finish at the Tour of California.

Other items of note: World time trial champion Tony Martin (OPQS) finished 45^th on the stage, but it was because he flatted during the stage and lost 20-25 seconds because of it. Considering he finished 25 seconds to Cancellara, it would have been close between the two dominant time trial riders in the peloton... Other than Hesjedal, riders who raced the Giro d'Italia struggled. In particular Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD) finished 129^th and is already in some trouble here at this Tour.

What is coming tomorrow? Hills, lots of them, but not big. The stage is in Ardennes country in the region where Fleche-Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege take place. Tomorrow there are category four hills and it isn't a big sprinter day with the finish a classics-like 1km uphill finish. With that finish, there could be some attacks by GC riders looking to start taking time from Wiggins considering the time trials to come.

Tomorrow's prediction: 1. Philippe Gilbert (BMC). 2. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas). 3. Robert Gesink (Rabobank)

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