Thoughts on teamwork and the tour

Almost there

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Let me start by apologize for the few posts I've written during the tour. Blame work, and partly that I have enjoyed watching cycling all day and evening. Instead, I have tweeted more, microblogging so to say.

Today we witnessed Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky winning the 2012 Tour de France. I feel a bit uncomfortable saying it out loud, because the race continues for two more days, three if you count the parade in to Paris. Freak accidents and mechanical breakdowns could happen. We've seen Michael Rasmussen loose a podium some years ago during the last TT, crashing twice and throwing the bike into the woods wearing the climbers jersey. But by the looks of things, Team Sky have this one under control, the same control they have had of the tour.

Some have critisized the tour of being boring and predictable, and that Team Sky "ruined" the excitement by being so strong. I think the reason is not just one, but several.

• First of all the route sort of favors the TT specialists, that we've known since the route was unveiled last October, everybody understood that.
• Secondly, the crash at stage 6 injured many riders and some even left the race. Crashes the first week is nothing new but difficult to avoid as nervousness and inattention haven't let go yet.
• Our expectations to the tour. Fans want to see dancing pedals and furious attacks around every corner as well remembering this tour as the best ever. Preservation of team's goals once its in within reach as well as UCI point system and physical limitations, are some of the reasons our expectations weren't met.
• Total domination by Sky is another reason as they are just too strong to combat.

Oiled maschinery in action - "We've trained for this."

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Ambitions aside
I have previous written about this issue and all of you who follow professional cycling are aware of this. Sometimes it be painful to watch, as riders setting their personal ambitions, dreams and aspirations aside for the team's decision. Sky have done that this year to the fullest. The tour is one of the very few races, if not the only one in cycling, where 2nd and 3rd are not the first losers.

Today we all witnessed the climbing skills of Chris Froome, he is, in my eyes anyway, the best climber of all the riders in this year's tour. It is hard to watch Froome not getting another stage as "payment" as almost all had wanted that to happen. It's easy to have this perspective, at least when we are not certain of the communication between the two riders in question and the team car. Wiggins said after the stage that he had given Froome the "go" to get the stage win but Froome chose to stay with him. I have yet to see any comments by the DS.
People have speculated if Froome can win a tour himself in the future, and I have no doubt he will, if he's got the same support as Wiggins. It's also important to remember that Froome knew what he signed up for, he's newly renewned his contract, and is paid to help Bradley win. This is the objective perspective of course. Froome will be a giant in the years to come, he's been struggling with sickness the last couple of years but is back now. Imagine where he will be in two years of solid training by Kerrison in Sky?

I have written about Wiggins and Froome earier this tour, you can read that here.

Edvald Boasson Hagen who was free to go during two stages early in the tour, after that he has set his own ambitions aside selflessly. Towing an insanely amount of kilometres at the front, today he even pulled the main group to the bottom of the last climb, loosing several climbers in the making. What could he have done if he was not destined to work for Wiggins? Froome said in an interview today that he though EBH could win the yellow jersey one day and that he was totally blown away by EBH's capacity.

Same goes with Mark Cavendish, the reigning WC, the best sprinter of them all, reduced to a mere shadow of himself (or his capacity). Seeing carrying water bottles and being supportive of Wiggins is fine and he's got one stage so far.
It is easy to say that "yes, this is what they all should do." That is correct, but these guys are not just anybody. It takes a certain mindset to be a professional cyclist, and it takes a certain mindset to be as good as these guys are.

It is a bit ironic that Radioshack-Nissan lead the team competition. Today we saw Klöden riding past Zubeldia without helping him, Zubeldia being #5 GC prior to today's stage but dropping quicker than the US interest rate. So much for that, team competition is obviously more important. So Radioshack-Nissan is on track to win the best team competition for being a bunch of individuals. Lovely.

Danish dynamite
Who else but Chris Anker Sørensen? Trying hard for almost the entire tour to succeed in a brake, today he tried to fetch a newspaper out of his spokes in-flight, cutting three spokes in the process. The result was visible for all. Florence Pommerie, one of the tour docs, changed his dressings three times, claiming CAS "didn't have any pain, it just bled much." As of now, it's uncertain whether CAS will begin tomorrows stage as he undergoes surgery as we speak. Riis was quoted saying that CAS didn't have much flesh on two of his fingers left.

Danish dynamite

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Swede Kessiakoff deserves a mention too, fighting for the KOM jersey for two weeks, only to be bypassed by the clever Voeckler the last two days. Today's KOM battle was almost more interesting than the GC.

Summary
One could say the 2012 tour de France is over, but we've got a couple of stages left. The design of the very tour, incidents and injuries during the tour, the fans' expectations and the Team Sky domination are some of reasons this year's tour have been quite predictable.

Always nice but at the same time frustrating to see good riders giving up their own ambitions to meet a "higher" goal set by the team. Payback will come and hopefully everyone will be happy. After all, this is teamsport.

The tour de France is soon over. But fear not, the Olympics are soon here as well as Il Lombardia and the Worlds.

Sprinting - the wild bunch

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Today's crash and the rulings

Giro stage 3 gave us a bunch sprint as predicted today, but many riders hit the deck due to a dangerous manoeuvre by  Androni Giacattoli rider Roberto Ferrari. Among them reigning WC Mark Cavendish and Maglia Rosa Taylor Phinney.

The rules are quite clear: 

2.3.036 Sprints

Riders shall be strictly forbidden to deviate from the lane they selected when launching the sprint and, in so doing, endangering others. 

Not very concise if you study the text, but it is what it is and that's pretty much all there is of rules regarding sprinting. 

There is little doubt that Ferrari endangered others, a glance at Cav and Phinney tell you that, but when did Ferrari opened up his sprint? If we rewind to yesterday's sprint Cav kept his cool and looked left-right before he changed his lane as he opened his sprint, so it is possible to do so without endangering others. 

In addition to this, the rulings are there and there are officials who can react upon themselves and to any reaction from teams. Clearly Ferrari made a huge mistake, something the peloton will not forget. The riders form a tight community and riders being labelled as dangerous or hot-heads, will be treated according to group rules. Cav has also been criticised for changing lanes, remember Tour of Switzerland and the sprint where he and Haussler went down?

Development

Sprinting has developed much during the years, or perhaps the dynamic of the peloton has. Firstly, many more riders are trying to keep themselves out of trouble staying near the front. Much to the disturbance of the sprintertrains. Secondly, many teams, including pro conti teams have young riders trying to make themselves a name and/or putting the team on the map. Sometimes the team make it on the map but not necessarily the way they hoped, as today. Competitive cycling is tough these days and not many believes it will be better any time soon. Experienced riders complaining about lack of respect for jerseys and "rank". Perhaps the peloton need more governance for riders safety, either by UCI or the riders themselves?

Summary

Today a huge crash happened just 200 meters from the finish line, causing Cav, Phinney and a few more hit the deck. Rulings are limited on the subject, but are clear to when riders are exposing others for risk. I love seeing a battle for the finish line but at the same time I want this to be as safe as possible. The sprints have developed and need a joint effort to control the outcome. Broad roads last 2 k's, few hairpins etc can the organisers do but the riders need to take responsibility for their own safety.

Here the last 5 kilometres of today's stage:

The Tour - the nervous first week

This post can also be read on Cyclismas.




The first week of le Tour has given us some of the most exciting racing I've seen in ages, as well as the worst blows to several GC contenders and other riders. The number of accidents so far is high, but so are the numbers every first week of the Tour. The Tour is the biggest and most important race of the whole season, and everybody is nervous. There are many teams and many riders too, making it difficult closing in on narrow roads. Marco Pinotti, the Italian HTC-rider, tweeted about this last night, saying that there are too many riders present in the Tour.

What makes this Tour special is the of course the fact that many GC contenders are out of the race or far behind already, with Wiggin's crash yesterday fresh in mind.

Wiggo realises his tour is over for now

Photo by AP/Christophe Ena, downloaded here.

Safety - whose responsibility 

Also hard to watch was Radioshack's Chris Horner, obviously suffering from a concussion after a fall, being very disoriented coming across the finish line in Châteauroux. Horner fell in the same crash as Wiggins, which means he rode 38km in that state. The RS member who greated Horner when he crossed the finish line, said to Horner he crashed 25km from the finish, but other reports says otherwise. Of course, riders safety is the number one priority and riders in the state Horner was in yesterday is a danger both to himself and other riders. Many have argued on twitter that the UCI is more concerned with seat tilt angles than rider safety. 

Determining whether a rider has a concussion can be hard from a distance through a radio. Perhaps is it necessary to apply a rule that says that if riders hit the deck, a DS and a race doc should physically check up on the rider, making sure he is ok. What some believe is strange is that Horner receive treatment by the race doc after the crash, reports say the doctor wrote that Horner had a concussion and still left him on the bike. In addition to this, Johan Bruyneel had his team doctor driving next to Horner the last 38km. Bruyneel sais he won’t be criticized over his decision to let Horner finish the stage.

Horner finishing stage 7 with a concussion

Photo by Sirotti, downloaded here.

After all, the number of UCI commissaires is not that high to be everywhere, but this is a matter that should be number one priority. Geraint Thomas, one of Team Sky's young stars, wrote yesterday that riders safety must be the riders' responsibility. My position in this matter is that that the rider safety is divided between the rider and the team leader. When the rider is not able to take that call, then it is the rider’s leader who needs to step forward and take the responsibility.

Tactically manoeuvring

A rider and a team riding for GC that really have impressed me the first week is Cadel Evans and BMC. The team is always to be seen near the front when the terrain is difficult, or in the last important part of the race. Very tactically ridden and a nice way to keep him out of potentially dangerous episodes. Now, one could argue that this is one of the reasons crashes happens in the first place, the constant hunt for positions.

Next stage, be sure to watch out for Cadel Evans and BMC, I guarantee you, they are at the front at the right time.

Injurytime

Feel sorry for Taylor Phinney, one of my picks for this year's season. He's an incredible rider, strong in both TT and track, as well as doing quite good on the cobbles as well, 2 times U23 Paris-Roubaix champion and a U23 WC title speak for themselves.

Taylor outsprints the others on the velodrome
Picture from dougreport.posterous.com

Why do I feel sorry for such a rider? On his blog today, Phinney described his injury and how stressful his first camp at BMC was. I can imagine what went through his mind, meeting his teammates, most for the first time in his life, they probably have as big expectations on his behalf as he got himself. Only to be left on the side of the road with team doc and a DS. What a feeling.

As I mentioned on twitter he's not the only pro getting injuries of various kinds early in the season. Last year Edvald Boasson Hagen struggled with an achilles injury, putting him out most of the classics, as well as loosing precious time on the bike during the spring. There are many who get injured on the bike, the majority recreational riders. These results are valid, i.e. compared to the actual number of riders, but I'm gonna focus on some potential reasons why cyclists get injured early in the season.

The bike
Some argues that the bike could be the reason. Being "adjusted" to one bike for many years, with one set of pedals doing thousands of repetitive movements can make the body too accustomed. A small change in the bike fit combined with very small variations in frame could provoke an injury. Now, I seriously doubt a pro would say that "yes, it was the sponsor's bike which got me injured, it gives me a slightly different position on the bike". That would create some lifted eyebrows from the sponsor, so there can be other reasons like...

Right size?
From www.taylorphinney.com

Trauma
Does not need much text to explain this one, with 1/4 inch tires and 70km/h down mountainsides, this happens. Also driveway injuries, who have not been able to un-clip their shoe correctly one or more times during their cycling career? 


Overuse injuries
Giving it a bit too much too early in the season, i.e. large gear, excessive hill work, too fast or too long are all factors that will enhance the probability to get injured.

If you combine overuse injuries with a new bike, that can make you tip over that egde. I'm not a dr. or a physician, so I can not say that this is the cause of the injury Taylor Phinney has. I just hope he heals up nice and fast, he's a star already but he has got many promising years ahead.

If you want to see data for overuse injuries for road cyclists you can read more here.