le grimpeur

The yellow jersey1
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Classic Stages on September 15th, 2008

That the Tour de France was even held in 1919 seems like a small miracle, attributable to the incorrigible belligerence of Henri Desgrange to return the race to the roads of France.

La der des ders, World War I, had concluded less than 12 months prior to the start of the 1919 Tour and the race got underway on June 29, the day after the armistice was finally signed with Germany. The main protagonists at the Tour, France and Belgium, had suffered grievously on the Western Front. Belgium and northern France were the battlefields and Belgium suffered close to 500,000 military casualties and well as its economy devastated.

The numbers for France in World War I were worse: 1.4 million dead and around 3 million wounded (one-third permanently disabled), according to sources. Two-thirds of soldiers were from rural occupations and lists of the dead can still be seen on monuments in even the smallest villages all over France. In northern France, estimates put the devastation of farmland at 2.5 million hectares, with 62,000 kilometres of roads and 5,000 kilometres of railway lines needing rebuilding.

Remarkably, cycle racing had not stopped entirely during the war and Paris-Tours was run in 1917 and 1918. Paris-Roubaix returned in 1919 over roads so terrible and in weather so desperate that a journalist from L’Auto christened the race with its famous name. (more…)

Test your Tour knowledge!3
Guy WR posted in Climbers on August 6th, 2008

In 1977, Geoffrey Nicholson’s book The Great Bike Race was published, a report on the 1976 Tour de France and one of the early works in a developing tradition of British writing on cycling that continues today. Nicholson is perhaps the doyen of this tradition, having opened up the reporting and literary possibilities of European cycling for English readers.

Many have followed in his footsteps, and pen strokes, to uphold the tradition and discerning readers still look to the UK for serious cycling writing. A few honourable mentions aside, such as Owen Mulholland and Samuel Abt, American writers on the European cycling have yet to establish a body of literature comparable to what Nicholson helped get underway. (more…)

Show us what you can do…3
Guy WR posted in Climbers on July 7th, 2008

“Simplement montrer ce que je sais faire dans la montagne…,” said French climber Rémy Di Grégorio when asked in his interview in the official Tour de France programme what his goals were for the race.

Injury blunted his ambitions for showing us what he could do in last year’s edition but an absence of Grand Tour stage wins and results has not kept the young, up-and-coming rider from capturing the limelight. In recent times we’ve had a feature article in Cycle Sport and now the two page spread in the official programme. His profile has rivaled that of more accomplished riders such as Sylvain Chavanel, David Moncoutie, or Christophe Moreau. (more…)

The real René Vietto - part 1: The Myth0
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Classic Stages on July 1st, 2008

Like many sports, cycling has its founding myths: the great heroic struggles of the riders, their giant shoulders broad enough for the current peloton to stand on. Henri Desgrange’s express intention when starting the Tour de France was a race more difficult than all the others, longer and more arduous. His ideal was a route so tough that only one rider would finish.

Desgrange enforced his conception of what the Tour and bike racing should be with a will and rod of iron. While his rules were constantly evolving, they were always punitive. Restrictions on equipment, support and food and water, rules against drafting, against mass sprints, even bad language. In 1913, with riders banned from receiving any mechanical help, Eugene Christophe - in one of the most storied events of the Tour - was forced to repair his own forks at a local blacksmiths, even incurring an additional time penalty. We remember Christophe’s dedication rather than Desgrange’s ridiculous regulations. (more…)

Souffrance: Contador’s revenge?2
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Doping on May 10th, 2008

After a last-minute change of heart, prompted by a spirited Kazakh intervention, reports suggested, the organizers of this year’s Giro invited the Astana team to join the field.

As is well known, the season was looking a little sparse for the team, having been very roundly and decisively snubbed by the ASO, owners of the Tour de France. The team will now have the chance to show its colours in Italy, and perhaps last year’s Tour winner will be able to show his capabilities at the highest level.

This year’s Tour will, though, be the second in a row where the defending champion has been excluded. For the ASO, it seems like Alberto Contador ran afoul of an informal ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule. First, he was linked to the Operacion Puerto Spanish doping scandal and had been part of the Liberty Seguros team under Manolo Saiz, who was central to the doping network; second, his new team for 2008 was Astana, disgraced by Alexandre Vinokourov’s positive doping tests (with other teammates also implicated); thirdly, the manager of the team for the season would be Johan Bruyneel, who presided over - it the eyes of the ASO, it must be assumed - Le Mensonge Armstrong. (more…)

Coeur de grimpeur - part 4 - ride of redemption1
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Classic Climbs, Classic Stages on April 3rd, 2008

With 20 kilometres to go, at the base of the ascent of Mont Ventoux on the Bedoin side, the 11-man group had around 7 minutes over the peloton. The group looked comfortable together, but as the pace lifted it started to break up. With 11 kilometres to go, there were only two of the eleven left, the Russian rider on Ag2r, Alexander Botcharov, and Richard Virenque.

Finally, 1 kilometre later, Virenque stood and lifted the pace and Botcharov had no answer. His Domo-Farm Frites jersey agape, unzipped, Virenque had five minutes over the chase group, led by Lance Armstrong in yellow, ONCE riders Jose Azevedo (before he joined Armstrong’s team) and Joseba Beloki, the notorious doper Raimondas Rumsas, and white-jersey wearer Ivan Basso (before his own doping fall from grace).

Nominally the team leader, Virenque had so far been quiet in the 2000 Tour de France, perhaps conserving his strength for the latter stages, or perhaps riding in deference to Laurent Jalabert, who was looking to claim the KOM title for the second year in a row in his final year of a glorious, if controversial, career.

Riding alone, however, seemed ironic. In his tenth year as a professional, disgraced for doping, suspended for much of the 2001 season, one had to wonder what he had left to prove at, or even contribute to, the race. Was his lonely ride a metaphor for his isolation, with no offers to ride for French teams, now apparently notoriously suspicious of journalists, buoyed only with his die-hard fans, and now his stature eclipsed by exciting young French riders like David Moncoutie. (more…)

A new grimpeur?2
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Classic Climbs, Classic Stages on March 19th, 2008

Oh to dream!

In watching the stage 4 finish on Mont Ventoux of Paris-Nice, le grimpeur could not help but wonder how many other viewers were quietly wishing the impossible, that Jens Voigt would hold off all the chasing climbers and take a well-deserved mountain stage win.

Voigt had his characteristic grimace on full display, and after attacking the breakaway group at the bottom of the climb to the north slopes of the mountain, officially Mont Serein, had around 3.5 minutes of lead time over the peloton.

“When I attacked the group at the foot of the climb, I believed I could make it,” he told CyclingNews. “I only lost 30 seconds in the first five kilometres of the ascent. So I told myself I could possibly do it, just looking at it mathematically.”

He was riding strongly, but hardly the perfect example of climbing souplesse - driving the pedals, hands on the hoods; time-trialling the climb. He still had 2 minutes with 6 kilometres to go, but the gap kept coming down, driven by Quick Step as well as KOM jersey wearer Clément L’Hottelerie. (more…)

Plus souffrance2
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Classic Stages, Climbing Skills on February 7th, 2008

One of the fascinating aspects of cycling is the diversity of physical builds and talents in the pro peloton. Although a careful attention to weight is the norm, and even the biggest sprinters can still look remarkably svelte, the burly still mix with the barely noticeable.

A quick glance across the team statistics from last year’s Tour de France gives an interesting comparison. Magnus Backstedt, then with Liquigas, was perhaps unsurprisingly at the top of the scales, weighing in at 94 kg (206 lbs) for his 1.93 metre frame. At the bottom end, Manuel Calvente from Spain, on Agritubel, tipped the scales - well, barely tipped them - at an astonishing 54 kg (118 pounds) for the 1.69 metre-tall rider: over 80 pounds less than Backstedt. The more well-known climber Leonardo Piepoli, the star of the mountains in the Giro, apparently weighs in at 52 kg.

While the Body Mass Index (BMI) is a poor tool for assessing athletes, it does make for some amusing comparisons. Backstedt rates as slightly overweight, while Piepoli would be assessed as clearly below normal weight.

Such is the life of the grimpeur. There would be no mistaking Backstedt if one were to see him out riding, and no doubt that he would tear the cranks off at a moment’s notice - especially if one were to call him overweight. It might be easy to misjudge the slightly-built Piepoli, though, until he disappeared into the stratosphere when the road turned upward. (more…)

Coeur de grimpeur - part 3 - ‘Allez Richard’0
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Doping on January 23rd, 2008

So far, le grimpeur has looked at the early career of Richard Virenque, and his two seasons with Polti before the Festina trial in Lille - with Virenque’s doping confession and suspension.

On hand at the trial was cycling’s perhaps most famous soigneur, Willy Voet, who had personally attended to Virenque throughout his career.

An easy going Belgian living in France, Voet had dedicated himself to his craft and was close to his riders. His habit of using the informal ‘tu’ conjugations when speaking French, no matter the occasion, raised the ire of Virenque’s lawyer, who dressed him down for such impertinence.

Voet shot to fame of the worst kind when he was arrested on the Belgian-French border in a Festina team car with a load full of doping products in 1998, on his way to meet the team in the opening days of the Tour de France.

His arrest tore the scab of doping off cycling and set in train a fundamental re-evaluation of sports doping in France, which can be seen today with its tough, criminal laws against doping. (more…)

Souffrance3
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Classic Climbs, Classic Stages on December 18th, 2007

For professional cycling, suffering, or souffrance, is the nature of the game. Ultimately, part of the appeal of the sport is the visceral connection to be had between competitor and observer, as the latter sees the former overcome (or submit to) the suffering, often against backdrops of stunning natural beauty or breathtaking difficulty.

Le grimpeur was reminded recently that this year is the 20-year anniversary of one of the most exciting years of pro racing, 1987, when Stephen Roche won the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France, and the World Championship all in one season - a truly Merckxian feat.

While each race included plenty of suffering (the Giro passing into legend with the politics involved), the Tour de France that year added its own particular brand, and Roche was right at the centre. (more…)