Home | Mobile | E-Mail Us | Privacy | Mtn Bike | Ride Director Login | Add Century/Benefit Rides
Home

Adventure Velo


Additional Info

None


About Bill
Past Columns

 

Bill  On The Road

 by: Bill Oetinger  5/1/2022

Racing into Springtime…Prime Time

The beginning of May marks a tipping point in the world of professional bike racing. The slate of spring classics has run its course and several stage races of up to a week have been completed. Next up on the calendar is the first of the three Grand Tours: the Giro d’Italia, running from May 6 to May 29.

With that tipping point in mind, it makes this a good time to review the season and see what, if anything, the action so far portends for the big races ahead. So let’s strap into our time machine and travel back to the early months of the year. What we’re going to find is the usual mix of the big guns doing big things—predictably—and of some surprises that few would have predicted.

The first two races of the UCI season, down in Australia, were cancelled because of lingering COVID restrictions. There were assorted smaller races where we could watch the pros sharpening their claws if we cared enough to dig up all those videos. But the first big race was the UAE Tour, seven stages in the last week of February.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) took up where he left off last year—and the year before—by winning the tour. He did it almost exactly the way he did it last year by turning in a respectable time trial on Stage 3, then winning the uphill finishes on Stages 4 and 7. His uphill wins got rid of the time trial specialists and sprinters and his good time trial topped all the other climbers. Final margin of victory: 22 seconds over Adam Yates (INEOS-Grenadiers), compared with beating Yates last year by :35.

Pogačar added a new wrinkle to his spring campaign this year by winning Strade Bianche, the one-day classic on March 5. This is the race that spends many of its miles on gravel roads in the rolling hills of Tuscany. He rather quietly went off the front with 49 K to go and simply left everyone else behind. There was nothing dramatic about it. He just opened a little gap and then kept widening it, uphill and down, gravel or paved, and finally up the steep streets of Siena’s centro storico. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) led home the chasers, 37 seconds back.

The cheerful young Slovenian kept the pedal to the medal by once again winning Tirreno-Adriatico (seven stages from March 7 to 13). Same path to victory: a close 3rd in the opening time trial, then wins in mountain finishes on Stages 4 and 6. Final margin of victory: 1:52 over Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).

Pogačar broadened his horizons this year by contesting many of the one-day classics. At the Tour of Flanders on April 3 he was clearly the most animated and dangerous rider on each of the steep climbs. The only rider to stick with him was Mathieu van der Poel (Alpicin-Fenix). The two of them approached the final uphill sprint together and who knew who would win? But here his luck ran out, or his skill set in classics came up short. He got a little cute with van der Poel, trying to stall a bit and stay behind him…but as they were doing their little pas de deux, Dylan van Baarle (INEOS-Grenadiers) and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) came storming back and rejoined the leaders. Then, when van der Poel launched his sprint—from the front—Pogačar got boxed in by the other two and got skunked: 4th place. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Pogačar anything other than cheerful. He had some tart words for van Baarle at the finish.

One last early-season note on Pogačar. On the steep finish of Fleche-Wallonne on April 20, he was right up there among the elite front group on the brutal Mur de Huy…until he wasn’t. He was there, out of the saddle and looking good, and then he just sat down and slowed down and threw in the towel. Don’t know why. But arguably the best climber in the world all of a sudden didn’t have the legs. Does it mean anything? We’ll find out in July.

Meanwhile, his compatriot, Primoz Roglič, rectified his mistakes at last year’s Paris-Nice (eight stages, March 6-14). Last year he was clearly the strongest rider and was positioned to win but crashed twice on the final stage and dropped well down the list. No mistakes this time. He was 2nd behind teammate Wout van Aert in the time trial on Stage 4, then won the only real uphill finish on Stage 7. He had a 47-second lead over Simon Yates (BikeExchange) going into the final stage and Yates made a valiant effort to chew away at that lead, getting off the front and gapping Roglič. But with the help of van Aert, Roglič clawed his way back and only conceded nine seconds of his lead.

He began the Tour of the Basque Country (six stages, April 4-9) as if he would capably defend his title from last year. He won the time trial on Stage 1 and protected that lead through Stage 4. But on Stage 5 he was unable to hang with the fastest riders on a steep uphill finish and dropped to 8th overall, 1:05 behind. He lost more time on another uphill finish on the final stage and ended up over three minutes in arrears. It was a bit strange to see him lose that much ground; he’s been so consistently strong in recent years. He didn’t offer much in the way of excuses afterward. He just didn’t seem to have it. 

The race was eventually won by Dani Martinez (INEOS-Grenadiers), including winning Stage 4. He has had a lively spring campaign. In addition to winning this tour, he was 3rd overall at Paris-Nice, 3rd overall at Volta ao Algarve, 4th at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and 5th at Fleche-Wallonne.

The hot young Belgian Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep) won the Volta ao Algarve (five stages, February 16-20) by winning the time trial on Stage 4. He took the GC by 1:17 over Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates). He took the early lead at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (five stages, February 2-6) but couldn’t quite hang with the best climbers on Stage 3 and eventually finished 2nd overall to Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), 41 seconds back. He was 4th overall at the Tour of the Basque Country. Still just 22 years old, he won the Best Young Rider jersey in all three of those stage races. Best of all, he won the monument Liege-Bastogne-Liege on April 24. He attacked on the Cote de la Redoute, showing a savage burst of speed no one could match. He soloed home over the final 14 K for a comfortable 48-second victory.

Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the Volta a Catalunya (seven stages, March 21-27). Through five stages it was looking like a three-cornered tussle between Higuita, Nairo Quintana, and Joao Almeida. But on a hilly and rainy Stage 6, Richard Carapaz and Higuita got away off the front and opened up a gap of over three minutes. The sharp end of the peloton chased hard and eventually whittled the lead down to 48 seconds at the finish but that was enough for the two escapados. Carapaz won the two-up sprint but Higuita won the overall. Higuita also won a stage at the Volta ao Algarve, a stage at the Tour of Romandie, and the national road race championship in Colombia. At age 24, he may be a rising star, providing a potent one-two punch with Vlasov at Bora.

Romain Bardet (DSM) won the five-stage Tour of the Alps (April 18-22, knocking Pello Bilbao off the podium with a strong finish on the final stage. (Yes, all the way off the podium for Bilbao: from 1st to 4th on that last hilltop finish.)

The last stage race we can squeeze in here was the Tour of Romandie (five stages plus an ITT prologue, April 26-May 1). Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma) finished a close second in the prologue and then took over the GC after a short, steep uphill finish on Stage 1. He protected his lead through the biggest uphill finish on Stage 4. It looked like the tour was his with only the short, uphill time trial on the last day. He has been one of the best against the clock for some years. But so much for that! He had a lackluster time trial, finishing in 22nd place, 2:12 behind winner Aleksandr Vlasov. That was more than enough to put Vlasov comfortably in the final GC lead. Vlasov has always been strong in the hills but if he can time trial like this, watch out!

That takes care of the stage races and a few of the classics, usually with stronger riders living up to their reputations and bringing home the bacon. We’d probably have to call Dani Martinez winning the Basque Country a bit of a surprise but, as noted above, he did have a strong spring season overall.

As for the one-day races, we’ve noted Pogačar at Strade Bianche, van der Poel at Flanders, and Evenepoel at LBL. One-day races can always be unpredictable and this season has been no exception. Van der Poel also won Dwars door Vlaanderen (March 30) in a two-up sprint with Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma), reaffirming what we already knew: that he is one of the strongest classics riders right now. Wout van Aert won Omloop het Nieuwsblad on February 26 and E3 Saxo Bank on March 25…another of the stronger one-day racers. After that, the results start raising some eyebrows…

Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious)—another dang Slovenian!—won la Primavera: Milano-San Remo. How he did was the big news. He attacked on the descent from the Poggio into San Remo and simply rode all the other big boys off his wheel. That’s not easy to do. You might gap one or two timid descenders but the whole bunch? Great descenders and highly motivated? But he did it…got a big-enough gap on the downhill and scampered home clear of the pursuing pack.

Now for a real shocker: Binian Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) won Gent-Wevelgem on March 27. He’s the first Black African rider to win a major pro race. He won a four-rider sprint several seconds clear of the main pack. Those were good riders he was going against…nothing flukey about it.

Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS-Grenadiers) just nipped Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R) at Amstel Gold on April 10. Kwiatkowski attacked on the penultimate climb—the Cauberg—and only Cosnefroy had the legs to hang on. By the time they reached the last climb, their lead was :30 and no one was able to bridge across. The finish was as close as close can be. In fact, Cosnefroy went into a big victory celebration right away, but close analysis of the photos proved Kwiatkowski was ahead by a fraction of an inch.

Dylan van Baarle (INEOS-Grenadiers) won the great monument Paris-Roubaix on April 17. It was a classic Hell of the North, this year a dry day with dust rather than a wet day with mud. All the usual mayhem was on tap through the many secteurs of cobblestones but nothing I can recall that had a decisive impact on the results. It was just the usual war of attrition and who had it at the end. After all the struggles and tumbles and suffering, van Baarle got away 20 K from the velodrome…first a little gap and then a little more… It seemed likely, at first, that others would pull him back, but it never happened and he finished on his own, 1:47 ahead of a pack of four, with Wout van Aert winning the sprint for 2nd.

One week later, another Dylan—Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Victorious)—won the gut-busting final grind up Mur de Huy at La Fleche Wallone. (Year after year, this finish has to be one of the great spectacles in all of sport…I love it!) He was chased home by that ageless wonder, Alejandro Valverde, who has won the event five times. 

And that’s going to do it for all the bigger bike races of the spring. Can we read anything into these tea leaves? 

We can say that Tadej Pogačar looks to be in pretty good form, with the UAE Tour, Strade Bianche,  and Tirreno-Adriatico all in his column. Just a couple of little hitches in his giddyup at Flanders and Fleche but not really much to worry about, at least not in the context of Grand Tours. 

Primoz Roglič did just enough to win Paris-Nice but did not exactly look like a colossus. And then he had his little meltdown at the Basque Country. So while we have to figure he’ll be a contender in mid-summer, I wouldn’t rate him a mortal lock to win anything.

Aleksanr Vlasov might be coming into his own this year. He was 1st overall at Romandie, 1st overall at Valenciana, 3rd overall at Basque Country, 3rd at Fleche Wallone, and 4th overall at the UAE Tour. He’s fortunate Russian cyclists are still allowed to participate in pro races, although not under a Russian flag.

Remco Evenepoel is looking strong…just bursting with youthful energy…but like Wout van Aert, he doesn’t quite have the climbing chops to win a Grand Tour. He’ll be a holy terror in the classics and maybe some shorter stage races but will be only hoping for stage wins in the bigger events.

Who else was looking good this spring? Jonas Vingegaard, Joao Almeida, Pello Bilbao, Romain Bardet, the Yates twins, Mikel Landa, Nairo Quintana, Brandon McNulty, Sergio Higuita.

The start list for the Giro is interesting. Past Giro champs Tom Dumoulin, Vincenzo Nibali, Tao Geoghagen-Hart, and Richard Caarpaz are all signed up, but not last year’s winner Egan Bernal. (He was badly injured when he ran into a parked bus while on a training ride in January.) Valverde is on the start list. How cool would it be to see the old war horse win one more big race? Of course that goes for Nibali and Dumoulin too. Sentimental favorites but probably not all that likely to get ‘er done. There are six or eight mountain finishes, depending on how you define the term. It will be a good test in that department. However, there are only two short time trials totaling a measly 16 miles. That, frankly, is pathetic. It must give the pure climbers a little ray of sunshine though.

But no predictions from me. I’ve learned not to try that game. I’m almost always wrong. But If all the races were predictable, what fun would that be?

Bill can be reached at srccride@sonic.net



Rides
View All

Century's
View All

Links
Commercial
Bike Sites
Teams

Other
Advertise
Archive
Privacy
Bike Reviews

Bill
All Columns
About Bill

Bloom
All Columns
Blog

About Naomi

© BikeCal.com 2023