On The Road
by: Bill Oetinger 7/1/2013
Way back in May
So here we are on the cusp of July, with the eyes of all bike race fans pointed directly toward the upcoming 100th edition of the Tour de France. But I'm stuck in a time warp, looking two months back to the Giro d'Italia and Tour of California. Those races are old, stale news by now. Any sensible person would be way past them, ready to move on to the next big thing. But I still want to kick those events around a little bit. In deference to how long ago they were, though, I'll keep my observations short. No stage-by-stage analysis of how seconds were won or lost. Just a retrospective overview.
The Giro was won resoundingly and impressively by Vincenzo Nibali, with a comfortable margin over relative newcomer Rigoberto Uran, second at 4:43, and Cadel Evans, third at 5:52. He won with a combination of steady proficiency, cool calculation, and two stage victories that were heroic, even epic. This is his second Grand Tour victory, after his tenacious win at the 2010 Vuelta, and I for one think it's time to start giving this likable Sicilian the accolades he deserves as a true campionissimo.
Nibali's assorted attacks didn't have the panache and swagger of the most impressive moments from some past champions. We weren't dazzled by dancing on the pedals or spectacular fireworks. But he got the job done. When he needed to be, he was faster than the rest of the contenders, and, in the end, by a wide margin. With historical perspective on some of those past winners and all their dazzling attacks: maybe Nibali is what the new, post-dope world of bike racing looks like.
He assumed the Maglia Rosa after a solid 4th-place performance in the first individual time trial on Stage 8, and he and his Astana team capably and calmly defended the jersey for the duration. Apparently the Italian press--always looking for the next Pantani--were getting a bit restive about the fact that he had not yet won a stage, going into the final week. Whether he heard or cared about that low-grade sniping, we don't know. But he laid it to rest with two slam-dunk victories on Stage 18 (an uphill time trial) and on Stage 20, the final mountaintop finish. In the latter, riding through falling snow to Tre Cime di Lavaredo, he surged off the front and finished alone in the blizzard, bringing to mind Andy Hampsten on the snowy Gavia so many years ago. Thus are legends created.
Grand tours are as much about losing as they are about winning. They are a war of attrition, with one man left at the top after all his rivals have crumbled, in one way or another. Nibali was certainly one of the favorites going into the three-week marathon, but defending Tour de France champ Bradley Wiggins and his steamroller Sky team were getting the lion's share of the pre-race press, with a little more attention set aside for defending Giro champ Ryder Hesjedal. But in the end, both those big boys fizzled out. Hesjedal never seemed to have his best game going and was off the back early and often, eventually withdrawing. Wiggo showed some signs of power early on, but was gapped on a number of tricky, wet descents, and then had trouble staying at the front on the first big climbs. Eventually he too pulled out.
Another big star, Cadel Evans, had entered the Giro ostensibly as a tune-up for the Tour, but he looked pretty darn sharp for most of the three-week run, staying a close second throughout and showing flashes of aggression here and there. He seemed to run out of steam near the end though, with a lackluster 25th place in the uphill time trial, and he was dropped on that final, snowy climb on Stage 20 and slipped from second to third overall. As much as I like Evans--I'm a big fan--it's hard to imagine him putting together a full three-week Grand Tour at this point where he does not have a day or two like that…where he hits the wall and loses buckets of time, just as he did in the final ITT at the Tour last year, where he was caught and passed by his own young teammate Tejay van Garderen.
Two other shining stars at this year's Giro: Rigoberto Uran, the brightest of a swarm of lively Columbian climbers. He was riding in support of his team leader Wiggins…for awhile. But when Wiggo faded, Uran was let off the leash and did good things, winning a mountain stage and hanging around at the front every day. Someone to watch in the future. I believe he is leaving Sky after this season and will be a team leader somewhere else. Also: Mark Cavendish, the Manx Missile. Last year on Sky, he labored on a team built around the GC leader. No special lead-out train for his talents. And yet he won three stages at the Giro and three more at the Tour in 2012. This year, with an Omega team built to support him, he won all five of the field sprints where he was there, in the bunch, at the finish. It's going to be interesting to see how he and Peter Sagan sort out the sprints at the Tour.
One final observation about the Giro: the weather. I can't say whether this year's weather in Europe is a manifestation of climate change or just a blip. There has been rain and snow on many a past Giro (and a few Tours too). The mountains always create interesting weather. But this year was extreme…way worse than normal. It rained or snowed on 10 of the 21 stages, causing one stage to be cancelled entirely--the Gavia-Stelvio-Martello monster--and two others to be modified. But in spite of those changes, the riders still had to ride in rain hour after hour, day after day, with the rain sometimes cold enough to be snow or sleet.
I wrote in one of these columns about how miserable we tourists were, suffering through just 22 miles of rain on the climb to and descent from Col d'Allos in France a few years ago. Well, imagine doing that for several hours, every day, over and over…and all at race pace. As amazed as I am about the speed and skill and stamina of the pros, I am equally in awe of their ability to put up with this sort of suffering. I know they're getting paid to do a job, but still. It is truly heroic. Anyone who's ridden in the rain, with frozen fingers and toes, and with one's core temperature down in the shivering, hypothermic range, knows how hard it is to do anything beyond just surviving…gritting it out until you can get off the damn bike and into a warm shower. So when Nibali attacks on the Lavaredo, in the snow flurries, and puts distance between himself and his rivals…well, that is epic. That is what heroes are made of.
The Tour of California, at only eight stages, is much easier to reconstruct and review. There are only a few highlights for me.
First up was that climb to the Tramway out of Palm Springs on Stage 2. It hadn't been pegged as a pivotal stage prior to the race, but I'd seen it and thought it had to end up being interesting. And that was before the heat kicked in. Ambient temperature or real feel on the pavement, either one was off the chart, probably the hottest half hour in any of those racer's careers, well above 110°. Janier Acevedo won the stage, but Tejay van Garderen, :12 back, was the real winner among those with GC aspirations.
Next highlight for me was Jens Voigt winning Stage 5 into Avila Beach. Is there any racing fan anywhere who doesn't like Jens Voigt and who won't root for him to launch yet another of his patented late-race attacks? He's been around for so long and has made a career out of busting these audacious moves…you just have to love his never-say-die spirit. As the late, great Matt Wilson said: "Jens Voigt puts the laughter in manslaughter."
The individual time trial on Stage 6, with its uphill finish on Metcalf Road. This is where Tejay van Garderen really arrived on the world stage. He was the Best Young Rider at last year's Tour de France and has had a few moments of brilliance in his young career so far, but this put him up in the ranks of people to be reckoned with in any race he enters. He showed he can time trial and climb. I don't have the splits in front of me now, but I believe he was comfortably ahead when he hit the bottom of the final climb, and then he widened the gap on the climb. And recall, that was no palooka riding ahead of him; that was Mick Rogers, multiple-times World Champion in the ITT.
The much hyped finish atop Mt Diablo on Stage 7 was almost an anti-climax after that. All van Garderen needed to do was cover his closest rivals on the big climb, and he did exactly that, finishing with Rogers and ahead of everyone else else except two climbing specialists who weren't a factor in the overall. Still, it was a great day to be a bike fan in Northern California, with the crowds along the road looking like something from France in July.
The final stage into Santa Rosa was really an anti-climax, from the point of few of affecting the results. But from a social, mosh-pit, party-hearty point of view, it was aces. I rode into Santa Rosa and as soon as I hit the course--hours before the racers arrived--I started running into friends from all over the state. It was one long schmooz-O-rama for the whole day. After cruising all around the expo area, in and out of any number of hospitality tents, I ended up in a VIP tent right on the finish line, or rather 20 yards before the line. When it comes to bike racing as a spectator sport, it's hard to beat a front row seat, especially when it comes with all the excellent chardonnay you can swill and plate after plate of gourmet munchies, all the while hangin' with your homies and watching the approaching peloton on the big screen TV.
They crossed the finish line three times: once as they rode into town, once at the end of a first lap around town, and finally, after a second lap, for the field sprint. Each time they came by, it was total, deafening bedlam…a wonderful riot of madness and mayhem. All the other sprinters were keying off Peter Sagan, trying to break up his Cannondale lead-out train. Watching the laps around town on the big screen, it looked as if they might have succeeded once or twice. But around the last bend and down the home stretch, it was all Sagan, all the time. He took a line that passed him within a couple of feet of my position on the barriers, and, if you haven't been there, it's impossible to appreciate how fast he--and the rest of them--go by. It really is a rush, literally and figuratively.
So that was fun, as was watching the Giro on the telly. But all of it has just whetted my appetite for the big beast of a feast coming up this month. Looking down the rosters for the assembled teams, one sees all sorts of possible story lines that may or may not blossom into next week's big headlines. Will Froome step neatly into Wiggo's shoes? Who will lead at BMC…the old Evans or the young van Garderen? Who will lead at Movistar…the old Valverde or the young Quintana? What about Contador, Hesjedal, Van den Broeck, Talansky, Voeckler, Rodriguez?
Twice up l'Alpe d'Huez in one day? With Col de Sarenne in the middle? Le Mont-Ventouz on Bastille Day? Whooo! Can't wait...
Bill can be reached at srccride@sonic.net