SB Nation User Blog: Monty.

Riccò wins the Giro d'Italia

Monty. — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:00:55 -0000

Riccò wins the Giro d'Italia

Well OK it's the 'cross version. And actually it's Mrs Riccò, Vania Rossi, who ended up in the Maglia Rosa. But I'm sure her husband wishes her well. And is not in the slightest bit jealous. Not at all.

Exploring the Women's Peloton - Lotto Ladies Team

Monty. — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:11:20 -0000

Lotto-Belisol have been around as a team since 2006, but if teams can be said to have break-out years then 2009 was their break-out. New signing Rochelle Gilmore who had been bouncing around Itlay on short-term contracts for the previous two years got lots of podium places, Lizzie Armitstead picked up a few young rider jersies, including that for the Giro, and best of all their long-term support for home riders finally produced a Belgian star in Grace Verbeke who finished 13th in the UCI rankings. And I suspect that both Armitstead and Verbeke could have done better if they had ever sat down and worked out a deal as to who leads out who and when, rather than drag-racing each other down the final straight to 3rd and 5th places.

Sadly Belisol have pulled out of the sponsorship deal, and Armitsead has moved on to Cervelo, but the team has come up with a novel strategy to compensate. They have struck a partnership with South Africa’s other top women’s cycling team, Biogen Toyota (Toyota Supercycling in 2009) whereby two of their top riders will come and race in Europe during the summer, and the Lotto girls will have the chance to train/race in South Africa during the winter. The South Africans look to be taking cycling very seriously in the run-up to the next rounds of the Commonwealth and Olympic games, so expect this to be a lot more serious an exchange than just a “swap you two riders for a holiday” deal.

I don’t know whether or not there is some similar reciprocal arrangement with an Australian team, but Lotto has always had two or three Aussies on their team. Emma Mackie has left, but in come Vicki Whitelaw and Josie Tomic to boost the numbers again.

And finally, at the heart of the team, are a group of Belgian women that have been on the team pretty much continuously from when the team was first founded, namely Sofia De Vuyst, Elise Depoorter, Kim Schoonbaert, Annelies Van Doorslaer, Lien Lanssens, Kathy Delfosse and Grace Verbeke. It took a few years in the peloton for Verbeke to really show her ability, so it is very possible that we may see something from one of the other six this year. And even if that doesn’t happen it’s still nice to see a team sticking by its junior members rather than looking on them as interchangeable supporting extras for a star rider.

So here’s a brief run-down of the rota:

Rochelle Gilmore. She finished last year 8th on the UCI rankings, although most of her points came from wins in minor races and other podium places in the bigger events. UCI regulations on the sort of terrain women can race over probably work to her disadvantage as she’s quite slimly built, but the shorter stages and lack of really nasty mountains tend to favour sprinters built in the Chris Hoy mould.

Grace Verbeke. A winning Belgian on a Belgian team should be a sponsor’s dream, so the team will be looking to Grace to better last year’s performance in their hunt for a new co-sponsor. She seems certain to be given undisputed leadership in the stage races and although the team may not be able to match Cervelo and Columbia in coming over the crucual climbs with three serious contenders, the new signings look likely to provide solid support.

Lynette Burger and Ashleigh Moolman, the two South Africans, both rode in the Toyota team that took part in last year’s Tour de l’Ardèche, and performed respectably (read some of team DS Ciska Austin’s old Twitters), even if killing yourself to get your team leader up there in the sprints doesn’t count for anything when the finish list gets printed. Burger is also the all African road champion (and came second in the TT), and is also listed as team captain of the Biogen Toyota team for 2010. New graduate Moolman is also on their rota, so these two may only be in Europe for the sunny months. I wonder how much the Belgian definition of summer coincides with the South African one.

Vicki Whitelaw. Probably the nearest equivalent to Jens! that I can think of in the women’s peloton, Vicki is an immensely strong domestique on the flat, in the hills and in sprints, and given the chance she can also ride a pretty good time trial. Her palmares are packed with the sort of top twenty placings that you get after dragging your team leader to the last, crucial, point of the race then are left to wheeze across the line alone. Last year she was signed up to Nicole Cooke’s unfortunate Vision 1 team, then after that collapsed she pretty much hitch-hiked her way around Europe with her bike, racing wherever she could get a lift to. They don’t make them soft in Oz

Josie Tomic. Young Aussie trackie, winner of the Omnium at the 2009 World Championships, but as yet untested on the road.

Veronica Andréasson. Comes after three years riding as a domestique for Bigla, doing a very full season for the last two. Will she be able to cope with the change in team photographer? Last year Bigla had some of the best team portraits, Lotto some of the, erm, most unusual.

Liz Hatch. One of the highest profile riders in the US, yet quite oddly hers was the name missing when Lotto published their 2010 team five days ago. By all accounts she is a real team worker, happy to get stuck in and do the most unglamorous tasks in the peloton, and riding on the front just when no-one is there to notice. She was part of the first Vanderkitten team that beat other far better funded teams on the US circuit in 2008, then recovered from a very nasty crash early in 2009 to finish the season in Europe.

It’s an interesting team, but there’s a sense that what they really need is a finisher or two. I see lots of podium places, lots of ranking points gathered along the way, but no top-level victories, unless Vicki Whitelaw comes good with the job security and the team managers actually learn how to manage a twin threat.

Who's your Mr December?

Monty. — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:04:58 -0000

Who's your Mr December?

According to Tuttobici, this month's Italian edition of Playboy has no less than ten pages, and under the title "In the saddle, at night", devoted to that lover of the full hair protecting helmet, owner of the largest suitcase of hair products in the Italian peloton, Mr Filippo Pozzato.

(Warning - the linked page is perfectly safe for work; attempts to carry out further, ahem, research, on the topic may lead you to all sorts of places where a dolphin would never dare).

RTBF Sat to close

Monty. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:02:09 -0000

RTBF Sat to close

Anyone in Europe who has been watching Belgian races on RTBF Sat in recent years will have to find a new source of pictures, as RTBF have announced that they will be closing their unencrypted channel RTBF Sat on 1st January 2010 and replacing it with something that will only be available through domestic cable suppliers. That is a real PITA since they have given some great and very extended live coverage of the spring classics which might be difficult to find elsewhere. There is a lot more substantial information on the closure available here in French.

Exploring the Women's Peloton - Team MTN

Monty. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:20:42 -0000

A year or so back some people were bemoaning the absence of African cyclists in the peloton. OK Barloworld was sponsored by a company with South African roots, but they were registered in Great Britain and based in Italy, if you’d talked about the Cape, half their squad would think you were going to the opera. But now an ex-pro named Doug Ryder, has a plan equally ambitious as Dave Brailsford’s, but is taking it slowly, step by step, and building from the bottom. And with women too. There may be a couple of Nords there too (alas I have no pictures of Trine Schmidt swimming with a dolphin), but the heart of the team is solidly South African.

Team Ryder started up about a decade ago and is now the dominant force is SA cycling in both men’s and women’s road racing (and Sifiso Nhlapo has been kicking some serious ass in MTB too); a mini version of the ANC, if you will. Under the name of Team MTN they set up the first SA pro women’s team in 2008, went UCI registered in 2009, racing abroad in China, Canada and at the Internationale Thüringen Rundfahrt, and now have signed up a couple of top level pros in Susanne Ljungskog and Trine Schmidt so that their home-grown riders will have no excuse for skulking at the back of the peloton just to roll over the line at the end of the day. Well they won’t do that anyway, because that’s one guaranteed way to get a tongue-lashing from the boss:

One of Ryder Cycling’s key objectives with this women’s team has been to transform women’s cycling into a more aggressive racing category. The team’s modus operandi is to consistently be on the attack in order to stimulate a more interesting, higher-paced racing scene, which has been hugely successful. As opposed to the past where most women’s races were contested in a large bunch sprint, virtually all the races have ended in splinter groups with high average speeds, ensuring a higher standard of women’s cycling in South Africa.

source

The comparison with Dave Brailsford and Team Sky doesn’t just stop at the team’s ambitions. Associated with the team is a Sports Science company, Activeworx, led by Dr Carol Austin who seems to be every bit as geeky as Brailsford’s Secret Squirrels (and, sadly, to also feed from the same pot of aphorisms as Johan Bruyneel). Right now it’s hard to to say which of their riders will make an impression in Europe (Twenty year old Cherise Taylor who they seem to think very very highly of missed a lot of last season due to illness and is not on any team list for 2010 that I have seen). Just remember that it looks like they want to win with South Africans, not just to be on the same team as the winner. And if they can’t win then expect lots and lots of suicidal breakaways. I like them already. Here’s a few of those you might notice:

Susanne Ljungskog. Owns one of the best palmares in the business with some stunning results going right back to her third place in the Thuringen Rundfahrt in 1994 when she was but 18 years old. Since then she has won back to back worlds (2002 and 2003) and Tours de l’Aude (2007 and 2008) and picked up dozens of other trophies and podiums along the way. She may not be in the top ten any more, but she certainly knows what you need to do to get and stay there. MTN could hardly have picked a better team mentor.

Trine Schmidt.The other outsider, and one of cycling’s rising stars. Blogs in Danish, Twitters in English, has a gorgeous terrace outside her bedroom. Her best result last year was surprisingly just a second place in the Chrono des Nations, but I’m sure I remember seeing her a lot more than her race results would indicate. If only I could remember exactly where. I think it’s a good signing, anyway.

Carla Swart. A young rider who has been creating quite an impression on the US college circuit for the last couple of years and won a stage of the Tour of Gila in 2009, it’s hard to say whether she’ll be riding a full season or just the college holidays.

Chrissie Viljoen. Was the first team captain when MTN started their women’s team in 2008, but despite some impressive results in Africa she hasn’t done so well beyond. Still a solid domestique, but her opportunity has probably come a bit too late in her career.

Robyn de Groot. Rode a few times abroad for Cyclelab Toyota which at times seems to be MTN’s main opponent in SA and at other times a MTN feeder squad.

The rest of the team for 2010 is (RSA unless noted otherwise, ages reflect how old they will turn in 2010):
Marissa van der Merwe, 32 years old
Cashandra Slingerland, 35*
Mariske Strauss, 19
An-li Pretorius, 22
Lylanie Lauwrens, 26

* Slingerland does not form part of the UCI Continental team but is part of the squad. I’m not sure why she was left out as she won both the African RR and TT titles in 2008. Perhaps she doesn’t want to race abroad. Cicloweb also list Catherine Hare Williamson as moving to MTN but I’ve not seen any official confirmation.

2010 could be a learning season, but even so expect them to try to focus the whole team on particular races in the season. But don’t be surprised too, if they do a lot more in 2011.

Photo snarfed from the team webby.

Biological Passport Round 2 about to start?

Monty. — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:17:18 -0000

French site Cyclismag have an interesting little story on their web-page today about the next possible round of bio-passport positives. Apparently the Council Of The Nine (and doesn't that sound like something out of Lord of the Rings) have been meeting this weekend to study the next batch of dodgy dossiers. There is unlikely to be a press release coming out soon, since they must first of all agree unanimously that there is something suspicious about a particular rider, and then that rider is given a chance to rebut the accusations. According to Cyclismag, the five suspended last year (Astarloa, Lobato, Caucchioli, Serrano and De Bonis) were picked out as possible dopers at a similar meeting last January, but their names weren't released publically until June (the things some to to get an advantage in VDS - I bet none of them picked Caucchioli).

Exploring the Women's Peloton - Team Skyter

Monty. — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:50:44 -0000

For the last decade this team has been sponsored by German insurance company Nürnberger Versicherung who were also a major sponsor of the Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt. Now they have moved on and Skyter Shipping, a Luxembourg yacht charterer has taken over. So the next time you are in Luxembourg and the floodwaters threaten to rise above the old record level then you know where to turn. 2009 was a bit of a disappointment for Nürnberger. They lost rising star Claudia Hausler to Cervelo, Regina Schleicher’s last year never seemed to take off and Amber Neben had a couple of very bad injuries, all of which left Trixi Worrack fighting for the team by herself. And fight she did, leading the CQ rankings for days raced, winning the Gracia-Orlova stage race and picking up stages and top ten places everywhere. The other bright spot, which I hope they repeat more often, was inviting journalist Enrico Muax to join them on the Giro d’Italia. If you’ve not seen his behind the scenes videos then start here. Great stuff even if you don’t understand German.

Skyter will start 2010 with a new sponsor, a new nickname, the “Speed Queens”, new kit (please don’t let it be pink), and a handful of signings that should see them level with Cervelo and Columbia-HTC in the team rankings. There will also at some point be a new team website and official photos (although for the benefit of the dirty mac brigade, they did the swimsuit photo-shoot a couple of years back – happy searching). So here’s a rundown of who I think you should watch out for on the road.

Nicole Cooke. Current Olympic champion, recently deposed World champion, ex World no. 1, UCI CDM winner, Giro d’Italia winner, Grande Boucle winner, Thüringen Rundfahrt winner, Ronde van Vlaanderen winner, Flèche Wallonne winner … Not bad going and she’s still only 26. Last year was a bit of a poor year relatively, possibly due to the problems she had in trying to set up her own team, possibly because she was just due a bad year anyway, but even so Cicloweb’s ranking still had her in the top 10. She should at the very least be able to match that performance, but how will she cope with sitting back in the pack while a strong teammate vanishes on the break. Does she have the patience, or is the “chase everything down alone” spirit going to come back at some point.

Amber Neben. The other 2008 World Champion, last year Amber was the most consistent time triallist in the peloton with victories in Redlands, Gracia-Orlova, the Tour de l'Aude and the Giro d’Italia, and had she not broken her thumb in that last race then surely the second half of the season would have been just as impressive. And if she can recover the ability to hang on in the mountains that she showed earlier in her career then there is no doubt that this two-time Tour de l’Aude winner will be back on the podium again in the major stage races.

Trixi Worrack. Won the Tour de l’Aude and Giro della Toscana back in 2004, but since then she seems to come frustratingly close far more often than she wins. For every victory there have been a dozen or so 2nd, 3rd and 4th places. She may get a few victories this season, but I suspect that she is more likely to be playing team hare in 2010, racing into the distance and challenging the other teams to bring up Cooke and Neben. Her site has a not to be missed collection of photos from the 2008 team tresentation.

Tiffany Cromwell. Young Australian climber who is destined to become a Podium Café legend just for her achievements against our own Flatbagger. In my mind I see her lapping him again and again in a Sydney park, flying past with one foot in the air, just like Cav did to Cippollini in the Tour of Cali a couple of years back. A pretty decent climber who might be given a chance to race for herself in some of the smaller, late-season stage races if she does her domestique duties well early on. Could have been on the podium at this year’s Route de France if her Australian team hadn’t given the break a Phonak-style gap.

Charlotte Becker. A good solid team worker who will get her leader up to the front of the race and still hold on for 10th place for herself, she performs respectably in the rankings without drawing attention to herself. According to her website she is (as are Trixi Worrack and Tony Martin) a police officer, yet still raced 59 days last year. Does anyone know any more about this sporting police force? Is it similar to the Italian Fiamme Azzurre?

Jennifer Hohl. Unmissable in that simple Swiss champion’s jersey (well she was at Bigla who celebrated their Swissness – will Skyter dare to write across the flag?), she is one of the hardest workers around. Just don’t expect to find her on the podium.

Angela Hennig. A decent sprinter when she gets the chance, Angela must be hoping that she gets a few more chances next year than she did this year when she spent most of the season supporting Marianne Vos. Life can be so frustrating when the boss both races and wins everywhere. I don’t know if the dog transferred to Skyter with her or not.

And there you have a whole Grand Tour team's worth of talent. Next year’s final new signing is Tina Liebig who returns to the team she started out on to join fellow Germans Marlen Jöhrend, Romy Kasper, Eva Lutz, Stephanie Pohl, Bianca Purath and Madeleine Sandig. They might struggle to start races, let alone make an impression.

I am really hoping that things click for this team next year because having three big teams fighting out the major races should add a lot more to the spectacle.

Photos by Bryn Lennon, Getty Images Sport

Exploring the Women's Peloton - Team ESGL-GSD Gestion

Monty. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:36:42 -0000

French cycling is in an odd state. Parts of it are healthy, very healthy, while other parts seem to be beyond salvation, yet there’s no logic or reason as to which are the healthy bits. Just recently Pierre Boue, long-time organiser of the Grande Boucle announced that the 2009 edition was probably the last, but that he himself was writing a book entitled “When women’s cycling loses the pedals”. In between defending himself on charges dating back to when Jacques Chirac was mayor of Paris. Yet at the same time the Tour de L’Aude remains one of the two major stage races of the year, and a host of smaller stage races fill up the calendar at the end of the summer. My guess is that the problem is one of co-ordination: too many of the senior administrative posts seem to be filled by political placemen looking for their next political placing. Occasionally the sport strikes lucky and gets someone like Boue who genuinely does seem to care, but most of the time teams and riders are left to fend for themselves.

Entente Sportive Gervaisienne et Lilasienne is a long-standing bike club based in the east of Paris (their website is not to be missed, with sections for lovers of cheesy music and silly hats). In 1996 they set up a top-level women’s team, Team ESGL-GSD gestion, supported by Pierre Boue (the club website calls him the team “Parrain” which is also how the French call a certain film from the early seventies starring Marlon Brando) and this has been UCI registered for the last few years, although they rarely compete outside France because they don’t have the funds. But despite not having a single salaried rider they still put up a pretty decent showing, especially in the latter half of the long university holiday. So who should you watch out for?

Beatrice Thomas won stage 4 in the Trophée d'Or this year and only lost the leader’s jersey when her back wheel disintegrated just six kilometres from the end of the race of the race.

Christine Majérus. Three times Luxembourg TT champ and second in the RR (twice), she also scored a handful of top 10s during 2009 and still won’t be 23 until February.

Mélodie Lesueur is the current next big thing in women’s cycling. In 2009 she celebrated her 19th birthday and first year in the pro ranks with top 10s in both TT and RR, then followed that with an 8th place and the young rider jersey in the Route de France where a cracking team display took over four minutes back on then wearer Egle Zablockyte on the last day.

Siobhan Dervan (that link leads to an oldish Bebo page, so if you’ve never been to bebo before …) transfers from the Italian team Fenixs and is, I believe, the only Irish woman riding full-time in Europe, so whatever she does is likely to be picked up by Shane Stokes for Irish Cycling. At home she is a four time national champion, but abroad she is more likely to be doing domestique duties than riding for herself.

Four other riders from last years team are staying on in 2010:
Nathalie Cadol    24/02/1972
Sophie Creux    08/07/1981
Audrey Lemieux    09/05/1985
Eugenie Mermillod    27/05/1986

And there are three other new arrivals, Roxane Fournier, Marion Rousse and Elodie Hegoboru, the first two coming up from the associated junior club.

Photo from the ESGL-GSD Gestion website, and is used without permission. If they want it back, I'll give it to them ~Gav.

Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni - Androni Giocattoli not shortening their name after all

Monty. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:27:38 -0000

Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni - Androni Giocattoli not shortening their name after all

A while back it was reported that Androni Giocattoli would take over full sponsorship of this team next season, making a team name that would at last fit on a shirt. But today Lino Diquigiovanni, owner of window company Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni announced that they would after all be staying on as a secondary sponsor. So it's goodbye to Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni - Androni Giocattoli and hello to new team Androni Giocattoli - Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni. Doesn't that make perfect sense.

And you thought that it was safe on a Derny

Monty. — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:32:01 -0000

And you thought that it was safe on a Derny

this is one that smacked into the barriers during the Munich 6 last week. And can anyone ID this strange beast