Robert Millar

Why Evans beat the Schleck brothers

Published:

July 26, 2011, 19:44,

Updated:

July 26, 2011, 19:43

By:

Robert Millar

Four crucial areas where the Australian came out on top

So why did Cadel Evans win this year's Tour de France over the Schlecks? Leopard Trek had the two of them to use tactically. They had numerous mountaintop finishes suited to their climbing abilities more than the gutsy Australian. On paper, the new team looked a stronger unit than BMC. There was even less time trialling than usual for the brothers to worry about. So what went wrong?

Well maybe that's not quite the right way of asking the question, because when you finish second and third, not that much went wrong. I think it's better to ask, what did Cadel do right that Andy and Fränk Schleck didn't quite match?

1. Take the responsibility of being a favourite and act accordingly

Straight from the start and all through the first week, Evans and BMC rode at the very front of the peloton, staying out of trouble, avoiding the inevitable crashes and looking out for opportunities to take time on their rivals. A couple of seconds here and there might not seem much but psychologically it becomes important.

The Schlecks managed to position themselves much better than they have done previously. Having Fabian Cancellara, Jens Voigt and Stuart O'Grady to look after them was a major bonus, but it still seemed that they struggled more with the constant demand of being at the front, fighting, holding their place. It wasn't a major difference, but at certain moments they had to move up from too far back and that waste of energy was something which Evans avoided more successfully.

A big part of peloton etiquette is establishing your right to be at the front of the bunch, earning respect so the others know that's where they'll find you and you won't be giving up that place easily. BMC put their man in that position from the off and kept him there continuously.

2. Take advantage of every situation

Cadel looked for the opportunity, the chance to take time, while the Schlecks looked like they were trying to avoid losing it. It's a subtle difference, but again in the mental game it puts them on the back foot and then the doubts perhaps start developing.

Evans showed that he was ready to fight all day every day and he showed he was strong and not afraid to commit himself. The Schleck brothers didn't quite come across as being willing to race every situation. They always seemed to be defending even when they were in front of Evans. There was always a feeling that they did not have enough time in hand to be safe.

3. Skills

Uphill? No problem, the Schlecks do that as good as anyone, only Contador is better. Coming down the other side, however, it doesn't look comfortable. As a weakness, descending is probably their most obvious one, particularly in the wet and other riders are always going to exploit that.

Their time trialling isn't good enough either. Despite talk of specific training, it still needs more work. Their positions aren't as good as they could be and they don't look powerful on the TT bike. Cadel, on the other hand, has no problems downhill or going around wet corners, and he looks like he's done the hours on his TT bike as he looks much more comfortable, being aerodynamic and strong.

4. Tactics

Andy Schleck's epic attack to win on the Galibier was probably the most dramatic part of this year’s GC battle. Definitely an historic moment but for all the glory it wasn't enough to win him the overall race. Why? Because Andy and Fränk Schleck needed to put Evans under that kind of pressure whenever they had the chance.

For example, in the Pyrenees when they ought to have been attacking relentlessly to distance their rivals, they either couldn't or wouldn't, in case Contador countered them. What with the constant looking around to see what the other brother was up to, they seemed more frightened of what the Spaniard might do rather than just getting on with trying to win the race.

The moments where we saw them riding next to Contador and giving him the evils were never going to be anything other than a complete waste of time. The guy has won three Tours, a Giro and a Vuelta, he's not going to be scared by playground antics. When they did commit themselves, it was too little and too late in the stages so the gain wasn't great.

By the time they reached Alps it was obvious they had to do something special, hence Andy's great escape from 60km out. Of course that put BMC in trouble, but Fränk needed to mess up Cadel’s chase by attacking also and causing changes in the pace. As it was, when Cadel had to ride to limit the losses, it was sidewind and steep so it wasn't that easy to follow.

Contador’s attack on the Col du Télégraphe the next day was another chance to do something about gaining more time. If Fränk had been able to stay with Contador and Andy then they could have sacrificed him to distance Evans, or when Voeckler and Evans were dropped halfway up the first mountain, Andy could have done a minimum to help Contador and encouraged him to really push on. He had five minutes to play with over the Spaniard, so even if he lost time to him on the Alpe d'Huez, it wouldn't have been dramatic. They could even have waited for Voeckler when he was in between the groups, then Europcar wouldn't have chased and BMC would have been isolated again.

As an aside, quite what the yellow jersey wearer thought he was doing in no-man’s land was beyond me, his DS needed to either tell him to wait for his teammates in the chasing group behind or talk to the Saxo Bank guys about getting Contador to knock off the pace and let him get up to the front. If that had happened and they all rode in the front until the base of the last climb then there might have been a panic at BMC. As it was, Voeckler lost his podium place by continuing to chase on his own for too long.

Cadel Evans was probably lucky to have a mechanical and end up with his teammates to chase back on, or else he was very wise not to go too far into the red trying to stay with the younger Schleck and an angry Contador. Choosing instead to stay calm-ish and wait for the final fight on the Alpe would have needed a confident person. By the time they were on the last climb, everyone was tired and the Schlecks couldn't distance Evans, who quite rightly refused to collaborate in the chase of Contador.

They might have been one and two on GC that night, but despite talking themselves up, the Schlecks knew the lead wasn't enough . Cadel ate them both in the TT because he knew the course from having done it at the Dauphiné and he knew he was anywhere between a minute and a half to two minutes better than them on that course and he rode it with that confidence.

In the end, confidence was probably the difference. The whole race, Cadel Evans looked like he was riding to win the Tour, while the Schleck brothers looked like they were trying not to lose.
 

A week is a long time at the Tour de France

Published:

July 15, 2011, 12:09,

Updated:

July 16, 2011, 18:38

By:

Cycling News

My analysis of crashes, attacks and Contador suffering

A week might be a long time in politics but it's even longer at this year’s Tour de France, where the mix of elation and despair is being distributed in a seemingly merciless way.

It now seems an age ago when the HTC boys put Mark Cavendish in the right position to win again in Chateauroux after crashes wiping out the hopes of Bradley Wiggins, Chris Horner and Tom Boonen.

Team Sky were on a high after Edvald Boasson Hagen’s stage win. Wiggo didn't bounce when he crashed and the instant decision for everyone to wait meant that they lost Geraint Thomas's white jersey too.

It really was one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't calls. But it was a more understandable decision than those taken by RadioShack and Quick Step. They allowed Horner and Boonen ride to the finish in a concussed state before being whisked off to A&E. That was crazy.

RadioShack obviously didn't want to lose another leader after Brajkovic had crashed out. Fortunately the doctors must have persuaded them to see some sense and stopped the Tour of California winner taking the start the next day. Quick Step ought to have done the same, not only for his own good but for those around about him also. He could have crashed and brought other riders down as well.

The uphill finish at Super-Besse Sancy on stage eight provided three things of note: the early break succeeded for the first time when Rui Costa held off the return of the peloton, Thor Hushovd survived in yellow when he was fully expecting to lose it, and Alexandre Vinokourov tried and failed to upset everyone with a late attack so typical of the man.

You might not be a fan of Vino because of his past but you have to admit he knows how to race and his spectacular attack on the penultimate climb reminded everyone how strong a rider he can be.

I thought Alberto Contador looked decidedly under par on the final climb. The attacks he produced to try and gain back some of his GC deficit weren't strong enough to hurt his rivals and that's something the other favourites would have noticed and stored up for much gloating later in the Tour.

Suffering in the medium mountains

Next day to Issoire was one of those stages that race organiser ASO aptly call medium mountains. It means up and down hills all day, in and out of corners and lots of suffering on tarmac that manages to be sticky on the way up and slippy on the way down.

The stage turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons. The attack of the day contained the darling of the French public Thomas Voeckler, Luis Leon Sanchez, Sandy Casar, Juan Antonio Flecha, Nicki Terpstra and the irrepressible Johnny Hoogerland. Every one of them is a good strong rider so it was never going to be easy to keep the time gap under control. But all thoughts of that happening went out the window when there was another pile-up on a greasy descent that saw bodies everywhere. Important bodies too: Vino crashed out, Van Den Broeck, Frederik Willems and Zabriskie went out too, with numerous others lucky to get back on their bikes and in the bunch after a temporary truce was called.

By the time there had been a general regrouping in the peloton; it was obvious the break was going to stay away. Sadly that wasn't the end of the drama. Up front the squabbling for the stage win had started between the remaining five riders with Voeckler looking particularly committed, when the unthinkable happened.

Cars over take riders continuously in big races but instead of waiting till it was safe to do so the French television driver chose the wrong moment and it all went terribly wrong. Trying to pass with two wheels on the grass and faced with hitting a tree the driver made the wrong decision. Instead of braking and keeping out of the way of the riders, he swerved and hit Flecha, who went down hard taking with him Hoogerland who somersaulted and went straight into a barbwire fence. It looked horrific and neither Flecha nor Hoogerland would have known anything about it other than one minute they were racing in the Tour de France and the next, they were almost killed. It simply should not happen.

A brutal second weekend

It was a pretty brutal second weekend. The big crashes were still happening which indicated that everyone was still nervous and fighting to place their team leader in the first twenty. BMC looked good protecting Cadel Evans, as were Leopard-Trek with the Schleck brothers. But over at Saxo Bank things were starting to look frayed at the edges. It is surely a sign of things to come as fatigue begins to hurt everyone in the race.

After the first rest day on Monday, two transition stages caused what I'll call the HTC revival as the top sprinters returned to the fore. Greipel got the better of Mark Cavendish in Carmaux after the HTC boys were a bit exposed for the last few kilometres. Cavendish put things right the following day at Lavaur when he left all the other sprinters in no doubt who is the fastest, following another long day of graft on the front from his teammates at HTC. They make it look easy but there's some serious planning and preparation in those leadouts. It is all worth it, as Cav was over the moon to be back in his favorite green jersey.

A look at Luz Ardiden

And so to the first big mountain stage, the first big question and answer stage: day one of the Pyrenees with the Tourmalet and Luz Ardiden on the menu.

It was good to see Team Sky's Geraint Thomas make the day's escape and provide some indication of just how deep his talents runs. He has to be pleased with how his day went despite some ‘feet out’ moments on the descent of the first climb.

Thomas has been looking strong all Tour and second over the Tourmalet shows he isn't afraid to race on a day which most people would be fearful of. Jeremy Roy might have pocketed the Jacques Goddet prize at the top but it was Bastille Day so you kind of expect a French rider to be paying attention and stealing the glory.

On the final climb to Luz-Ardiden we saw the first real moves of this year’s Tour de France. Sammy Sanchez and Jelle Vanendert extracted themselves from the group at just the right time (i.e. before the hostilities really started) and rode very strongly to fight it out for the stage win.

Behind Europcar rode their legs off to keep Voeckler in yellow and he rightly gave Pierre Rolland a hug as they crossed the line. The yellow jersey looked comfortable for most of the stage but Contador's Saxo Bank teammates were often dangling on the back and of no use to their leader when the attacks started.

The Schleck brothers have received some stick in the past for getting their tactics wrong but this time they played the old one-two just right. Their attacks revealed who the real overall contenders are this year: Evans, Basso, Cunego and Contador were the only ones who could follow the Andy and Fränk accelerations. And interestingly, when Fränk put in the third attack, Contador didn't even try to go with him. That's not something the defending champion normally does and then he struggled all the way to the finish.

The time gaps weren’t that significant but Contador’s performance was. And will only spark further scrutiny, questions and attacks. This year’s Tour might not be remembered as one of the great editions of all time but we should at least see some great racing in the final week.

Trending and fending

Trending this week: Evans, Basso, Cunego, Fränk and Andy Schleck, Sammy Sanchez, Tommy Voeckler, Mark Cavendish and Philippe Gilbert.

Fending off the questions: Leipheimer, Tony Martin, Charteau, Nicolas Roche and Katusha for all the wrong reasons.

Bending or broken: Gesink, Gadret, Chavanel and Kreuziger.
 

A first Tour de France week as we know it

Published:

July 8, 2011, 13:52,

Updated:

July 8, 2011, 14:39

By:

Robert Millar

Crashes galore and surprising time losses mark northern stages

And they're off! 3430.5 kilometres to go and lots of obstacles to clear - this was what the first week of the Tour has brutally reminded everyone of. The replacement of the prologue with a road stage was a strange choice and looking at it from an entertainment point of view, not entirely a successful one. A short time trial might not suit some riders but it can be dramatic for the right reasons, unlike the first stage which was dramatic for the wrong reasons: Crashes (or as Radio Tour says so eloquently, "Chute").

It's so expected that there will be people on the floor that they even have a classification for crashing, which surprisingly isn't yet sponsored: chute grave (serious), chute massive (crash with lots of riders involved), chute avec consequence (someone got hurt) and chute sans consequence (someone fell off but it didn't draw enough blood to worry about).

That Cadel Evans didn't fall off whilst almost everyone else did must have been a pleasant surprise for him, just as much as his stellar form to finish second to an impressive Philippe Gilbert on Mont des Alouettes. Contador and Co. must have been spitting fears that night at Saxo Bank because the next days' team time trial looked a bit panicky. On the other hand, BMC looked solid and Evans showed his strength, unlike the Schlecks over at Leopard. I bet they didn't enjoy the embarrassment of swinging on the back of the Cancellera train. The time differences were never going to be that big amongst the top teams, but Alberto hadn't planned on being more than a minute and a half back after just two stages.

It was good to see Garmin take their first Tour win in the discipline they love so much, putting Hushvod in yellow and then Tyler Farrar confirming with the sprint win into Redon the following day. Of course, the HTC sprint system had miscalculated their resources after taking it up too early and that, combined with a bit of rough and tumble on the last bend, left Mark Cavendish in the wrong place for once. Still, this wasn't as bad as the race commissaires deciding that he and Hushvod merited a moment on the naughty step for what looked like normal sprinter behaviour at the mid-stage sprint.

The Mur-de-Bretagne stage showed a number of interesting things. Firstly, Cadel Evans was impressively strong. You don't often see no-one able to move off the wheels in a sprint, and that proves that they were all flat out behind just to be on Evans' wheel. Secondly, Contador is good but not that good. His acceleration on the steepest part of the last climb hurt everyone but it also hurt him, which isn't what we are used to seeing. Thirdly, when all the other favourites had a teammate or two to move them up in the closing stages, the best example being George Hincapie of BMC, there wasn't a Saxo Bank rider to help out Contador. It was noticeable that he was moving himself up in the wind and that will cost him later on.

If you ever wanted the perfect example of what a Tour stage in Brittany, first week of the race, does to the riders' health, then the day to Cap Fréhel encapsulated it in all its glory. 'Nervous' doesn't really describe how bad those kinds of days are - they are just horrible, seemingly unorganised chaos. In terms of energy they can cost more than a decent mountain stage, and though it may be more mental than physical energy, it 's energy all the same. The crashing lark must be getting to Contador and Saxo Bank by now, and everyone else for that matter. Nicki Sörensen getting whipped off his Specialized was nasty. I know it's called a Tarmac SL, but that's no excuse. At the end of the day of madness, Mark Cavendish's sprint to victory looked like it hurt as much as bouncing down the road.

Another horrible day for stage six and finally Sky get their first win. They might have hoped to get the TTT but history will have it down as the longest stage of the 2011 Tour and Boassen Hagen produced the goods. The slightly wider roads might have meant marginally fewer crashes but it still looked desperately nervous under all the rain. And though you slide better and usually with fewer consequences, I'm sure no-one wanted to spend so long getting wet.

Evans still looks good, Gilbert looks like he wants to be in green in Paris and Contador looks vulnerable, so all in all it's been a typical first week of the Tour de France. The time gap Contador has to make up after the first two days ought to see him on the attack when the race reaches the mountains and hopefully that'll be a show worth watching.

On trend during the first week are Thor Hushvod and the Garmin-Cervelo gang, as well as Cadel Evans and his BMC team. Gilbert and Van den Broecke at Omega-Lotto are looking very strong, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins have been present when expected and quiet when they needed to be, and Klöden is the only Radioshacker staying out of trouble. Tony Martin and Tejay Van Garderen are doing a lot of work for Mark Cavendish so that might impact on the rest of their Tour but generally HTC are good, too. Surprises are the Vacansoleil crew and Jeremy Roy of FDJ animating the breaks.

Fending off the questions are the Schlecks, Leipheimer, Horner, Gesink, Petacchi, Basso, Vino, Nicolas Roche and most of the AG2R boys, Thomas Voeckler and Samuel Sanchez.

Bending under the strain (or broken already)...: Kreuziger, Gadret, Taaramae, Cunego and Sylvain Chavanel.

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A look at the Tour de France contenders

Published:

July 1, 2011, 15:41,

Updated:

July 1, 2011, 16:41

By:

Cycling News

The trending and fending groups, the entertainers and the animators

This year’s Tour de France is going to be dominated by the rivalry between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck, it’s a re-match that everyone wants to see after last year’s close race and the chain-gate incident that cost Schleck exactly the same amount of time he lost by.

I think the Spaniard has all the cards needed to win the Tour de France yet again. He knows how to win it, has the team to back him and he has won the Giro already this year. But to arrive in Paris in yellow, he'll have to survive the media circus in order to do so. The pressure on him will be greater than normal and not just in the race. With the Clenbuterol saga still unresolved, he'll have to live with every man and his dog scrutinising his every move, every meal and every reaction of the crowd, as we saw at the team presentation. Even a change of socks will become a media event full of speculation, making the actual racing seem the easy bit.

Andy Schleck knows he could and perhaps should have won last year Tour de France but he didn't. So this year’s race, which has fewer individual time trial kilometres, is his chance to put that right.

To make sure he's in the best place to win his first ever Tour, Schleck has gathered all his toys and thrown them into the Leopard Trek pram. Although his form hasn't been great so far this season, I’d expect he’ll be good come the Pyrenees. Will that be good enough to beat Contador? All things being equal, I’d say no. But then they won't be equal with what Saxo Bank will be going through, so the younger Schleck and his team are in a good position to take advantage of any hint of weakness.

The trending and the fending groups

The final podium place is probably the hardest to call with a whole group of riders expected to be battling it out for that third spot. To try to make sense of where they are and what they've been doing I'll split them into two groups: trending and fending.

In the trending bunch, where things are looking up and they can come to the start line looking good and feeling confident, are Levi Leipheimer and to a lesser extent Chris Horner (RadioShack), Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Cadel Evans (BMC) and Robert Gesink (Rabobank). They all have done something this year to believe that things will go well for them, only Evans hasn't really shined in recent weeks but he has the experience.

In the fending off the questions group are Frank Schleck (Leopard Trek), Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Ryder Hesjedal and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Cervelo), Roman Kreuziger (Astana), Janez Brajkovic and Andreas Klöden (RadioShack), Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale), Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD).

They are all going to get the worst question in the world asked of them everyday: "When are you going to do something in the race?" Out of this group I'd expect to see regular appearances in the front selection from Sanchez, the Garmin boys, Klöden and Basso. But the others will, I suspect, be left asking themselves what happened on the hardest and most selective mountain stages.

The entertainers and animators

There is one more group of riders to consider and make a note of their names for the next three weeks and I’ve called them the entertainer or animators.

They won’t be pre-occupied by GC but should provide some great racing as they try and win stages. Step forward: Fabian Cancellera, Philippe Gilbert, Thor Hushovd, Alexandre Vinokourov, Vasil Kiryienka, Nicolas Roche, Geraint Thomas, Sylvain Chavanel, Tony Martin, Thomas Voeckler and the breakaway loving Thomas de Gendt.

If they all win a stage then that leaves the sprinters to pick over the flatter days. I can see Mark Cavendish taking at least three wins if he gets things right, while it would be good to see Tyler Farrar win his first Tour de France stage, and I think Petacchi will win one too. My other predictions are: best team: RadioShack; best sprinter (green jersey): Cavendish; best climber (polka-dot jersey): Van den Broeck; best young rider (white jersey): Tejay Van Garderen.

I’ve got a feeling the first week dominated by the Belgians and HTC-Highroad, then once the race hit the mountains it'll be the start of the big show and the Contador-Schleck showdown.

I’ll analyse the impact of the team time trial and the first block of racing next week.
 

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