le grimpeur

Un cycliste est mort: Mont Ventoux and the death of cycling1
Guy WR posted in Classic Climbs, Classic Stages, Doping on May 28th, 2008

“…le Ventoux, lui, a la plénitude du mont, c’est un dieu du Mal, auquel il faut sacrifier.” — Roland Barthes

It is an iconic image in cycling’s lore. Jacques Goddet is ascending the rocky slope of Mont Ventoux, clutching a wreath for the memorial to Tom Simpson. In the background, surely not by coincidence in the timing, is Eddy Merckx, on his way to the stage finish at the summit and overall victory in the 1970 Tour de France, and he has turned to watch Goddet. (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 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…)

Coeur de grimpeur - part 2 - the Polti years2
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Doping on December 10th, 2007

Following the Festina trial in Lille in 2000, Richard Virenque was suspended until 15 August 2001 and his future was uncertain.

He had already been rescued once, by Franco Polti, owner of the team for which he rode the 1999 and 2000 seasons.

“He’s a great rider,” Polti reportedly said of Virenque. “He’s got character. That’s why I said let’s sign Virenque. I like riders like Virenque.”

The two years leading up to the Festina trial in 2000 were already mentioned in part 1. With the confessions from the majority of the other riders on the Festina team, Virenque remained isolated with his denials during this time.

His popularity, at least with his fans, seemed not to diminish. He also rode with some success in the Tour de France and, unusually for Virenque - who targeted key races - the Giro d’Italia. A brief pause, therefore, to look at these years in more detail. (more…)

Coeur de grimpeur - part 11
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Doping on November 24th, 2007

Until the recent series of doping scandals have made it passé to dope in cycling, then lie about it, then stage a dramatic public confession seeking redemption, Richard Virenque was the poster boy. The history books, though, continue to list his seven KOM titles in the Tour de France - a record. To the extent that these titles represent the pinnacle of climbing achievement, Virenque ranks as one of the best grimpeurs in history. (more…)

Floyd Landis and the Tour de France as epic5
Guy WR posted in Classic Stages, Doping on October 18th, 2007

The Tour [is an] epic [which] expresses that fragile moment of history in which man, however clumsy and deceived, nonetheless contemplates through his impure fables a perfect adequation between himself, the community, and the universe. — Roland Barthes.

The excitement was palpable as the group tumbled out onto the narrow street. There was a visceral buzz in the air and incredulous conversations were continuing, in English, French, Dutch, and German.

The group, a few minutes ago packed into the tiny cafe under the lodge in the village of Huez, had just witnessed an incredible riding feat. Clutching glasses of cold beer (whose prices had fallen dramatically from two days previous) close to their chests, everyone had jostled and strained to see the small TV set perched on the bar as Floyd Landis ripped apart the pro peloton and rode his remarkable solo ride up the Col de Joux-Plane and down into the finish at Morzine.

It was a incredible comeback and the entire cafe felt a curious camaraderie as if sharing in a momentous, historical occasion.

Out in the street, in the warm summer late-afternoon air, no-one wanted to stray too far from the scene - as if wanting to bathe in the moment for as long as possible. One American fan, not normally lost for words, could barely speak. “Goddam Floyd,” he kept mumbling. “Wow…” (more…)

The good old days2
Guy WR posted in Classic Stages, Doping on September 25th, 2007

In these troubled times for cycling, there’s always the temptation to feel nostalgia for the good old days.

Somewhere around the late 70s and early 80s might be a popular choice. Pro cycling might currently be grappling with widespread (but declining) blood boosting and doping, but the drugs of that era were more out-of-sight and less pivotal. We might never know the exact effect, but the increasing speeds of the peloton in the 90s give some indication.

“In my day as a rider we had dope, sure; but it was nothing like today. Nothing like EPO. For the riders EPO is like kerosene,” said then Tour de France director Jean-Marie Le Blanc in 1999. (more…)

The return of the Colombians1
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Classic Stages, Doping on August 29th, 2007

It was back in the 2002 Tour de France that a Colombian last set the race on fire in the mountains. Santiago Botero showed tremendous form that year and claimed a stage win at Les Deux-Alpes. An unconventional climber, in style and build, Botero used his time-trialling prowess (he won the first long ITT that year) to dominate the stage.

Botero also won a stage at Briançon in 2000 and placed second when the race finished there in 2005. It seemed fitting, therefore, that the next Colombian to claim a mountains stage in the Tour would do so in the town. (more…)

Doping and climbing - conclusions - Jan Ullrich1
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Doping on April 9th, 2007

There is much more that can be written on doping and climbing. Of particular interest is the apparent disappearance of the ‘pure climber’ in the peloton, the gifted grimpeur that can blow a major race apart with specialized climbing skills. This disappearance is probably overstated, and many grimpeurs have shone in races other than the Tour de France in recent years.

The broader point is made, however, that faster average speeds on flatter stages such as in the Tour have made it difficult for pure climbers to hold on to the peloton and conserve their energy for the mountains. Whether this is a Tour phenomena, or due to doping or better training for all riders, is another issue.

In a series of posts, I’ve covered some of the implications on climbing of doping in professional cycling, including a two-part discussion of Marco Pantani (part 1 and part 2). It seems timely to take a break from this particular series and focus more on some of the positive aspects of great climbers and climbs. Still, it seems impossible to move on without making some comment on recent revelations on doping by Jan Ullrich, a constant presence in the mountains over the last decade, particularly in the Tour de France. (more…)

Doping and climbing: Marco Pantani - part 22
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Doping on April 2nd, 2007

…continued from part 1

Although it was never proven, observers often speculated that the first race to be won by EPO was the 1994 edition of the Ardennes classic Fleche Wallonne. Both Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon have dated the appearance of EPO to the early 1990s, with Lemond pointing to 1991 as the year where the peloton’s speed started to noticeably increase, but 1994 was something else. (more…)