Tag: julian alaphillippe

Worlds a world away

by James Warrener, posted in beer, Blog, News, racing

After the proximity of the 2021 worlds in Belgium, I have to say that so far this years vintage in Australia has yet to fire for me.

We have seen close finishes and crashes but… well its not Julian Alaphillippe outside the Stella brewery is it?

This is no disrespect to Aussies or their base for the championship. I have a really close friend who lives close to the course, but I would phase this as a development event rather than a championships based in one of the sports heartlands.

Maybe the Qatar event is still affecting my viewpoint and over the weekend I will be engrossed in a Tadej Pogacar vs. Wout van Aert classic…

Let’s see.

La Vuelta ’22 – Evenepoel starting to show weakness

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

After a week of dominance in the climbs and time trials, the most recent stages of the Vuelta will have left Belgian fans chewing their finger nails as Remco Evenepoel starts to shed time to the chasing pack.

I say pack. I really mean multiple defending champ Primoz Roglic and Spaniard Enric Mas.

The rest are too far back.

However, in the weekends mountain stages (ahead of the rest day today) both have taken time back from the race leader, something that looked unlikely a few days ago.

We left the race in the last post with a time trial in Alicante. It was dominated by Remco.

The following day was won by Kaden Groves in a sprint before we started to climb again.

Way down on time after a tough first few stages, Richard Caparaz was given free reign to leave the peloton in a breakaway and he took that chance winning in Estepona. The favourites came home together over seven minutes back.

Mads Pedersen had been in a number of breaks trying to build his lead in the points competition and won stage 13 in an uphill reduced bunch sprint.

It was the sort of finish we know the Dane has, but don’t see it often enough in the classics and stage races. This will have done wonders for him though although it was a shame to hear post stage that he wouldn’t be taking this form down to Australian for the upcoming world championships. I would have made him favourite.

Carapaz won again at La Pandera on Saturday with Evenepoel finally showing weakness and being dropped by Roglic and Mas.

The feat was repeated yesterday on a stage won by Thymen Arensman at Sierra Nevada.

The time gap between the leader and Roglic now down to 1m34s.

Its been tough for Remco, losing Julian Alaphillippe to another crash and shoulder injury. The reigning world champ would have been crucial to keeping the red jersey holder in touch on the last mountain stages.

It’s going to be an interesting last few days. I see Roglic as the likely winner though now I have to say. There are three uphill or summit finishes left for him to make the real breakthrough.

Remco looks tired and on the back foot without his team to defend him. It’s painful to watch.

Either way its going to be an exciting last few days of the final big stage race of the 2022 season.

Enjoy it!

RnkPrev▼▲RiderTeamUCITime
11– EVENEPOEL RemcoQuick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team206″56:40:49
22– ROGLIČ PrimožJumbo-Visma17″1:34
33– MAS EnricMovistar Team14″2:01
45▲1 AYUSO JuanUAE Team Emirates4:49
54▼1 RODRÍGUEZ CarlosINEOS Grenadiers5:16
66– LÓPEZ Miguel ÁngelAstana Qazaqstan Team10″5:24
77– ALMEIDA JoãoUAE Team Emirates7:00
811▲3 ARENSMAN ThymenTeam DSM10″7:05
910▲1 O’CONNOR BenAG2R Citroën Team8:57
1013▲3 HINDLEY JaiBORA – hansgrohe11:36
from procyclingstats.com

Bardet – hero

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

Romain Bardet has always been a hero of mine.

Mainly for his incredible attacking on the uphill’s and fearless descending coming back down.

See that footage from the Dauphine off the Mont de Chat for the best example of that.

Yesterday though, that deep affection for this rider moved on a step.

After his overall win in the Tour of the Alps last week, he would have been in the group of 5 star favourites for Liege-Bastogne-Liege yesterday.

But he made a decision on the road that affected his changes of winning the race but elevated him as a human.

We could talk for hours about the causes of the crash that took down so many riders but there is a positive news story among the cracking of bones and bumps and bruises.

As World Champion Julian Alaphillippe lay stricken on the forest floor after a high speed crash, Bardet chose to stay with him and seek medical help rather than ride on and try and regain the peloton.

What a gesture.

There was genuine concern for a rider who isn’t a team mate and only shares a nationality with him.

I think that somewhere in Bardet’s brain was the feelings from his Tour de France crash that gave his a fracture in his skull and concussion and a feeling that he might have recognised in Alaphillippe an urgent need for care.

If there is any chance that the Velo D’or award this season can be given to someone other than Tadej Pogacar, how about Bardet for this gesture?

It’s well merited.

Riders of the year 2021

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

Here are my top 3 mens riders of the 2021 season.

3. Julian Alaphillippe

I am trying to avoid using the standard cliches to describe this guy. Swashbuckling for example.

However, its really hard when the two stand out wins of his season were gathered in that typical… umm… swashbuckling style of riding the race off his wheel.

Stage 1 of the Tour de France had been marred by crashes but was set up for Mathieu Van der Poel to win with an uphill finish and the weight of history driving him on. But that moment in the spotlight would have to wait as our Julian rode away from the whole of the race having surfed through the carnage on the road behind him. Carnage that ended the challenge of Primoz Roglic, Chris Froome and others.

He never seemed to get so far away that the peloton didn’t believe he was catchable, but he was never close enough for anyone to bridge. It was timed perfectly.

After waiting what felt like a lifetime for the Tour to be back and to have fans on the road side, this was the start that both France and the race needed. It also took the spotlight off a certain placard waving fan a little…

He then backed this up at the end of the season by retaining the world champions rainbow jersey by using his team 160km out to make the race uncomfortable for the home town Belgian team.

As the race entered a crucial period he was simply too fast for the riders remaining in the peloton and was justifiably a back to back world road race champion.

2. Mathieu Van der Poel

It feels like this guy had his best moments early in the season. He was thoroughly dominant at Strade Bianche with an uphill power packed attack sending him clear of the peloton. It was a truly wonderful display and the best individual piece of riding of 2021. Bar none.

He backed that up with a brilliant performance in Tirreno Adriatico in the filthy weather. He proved that his cyclo cross background didn’t make him solely a 60 minute racer.

VdP left the peloton behind “to keep warm” with over 50 km to go and would have won by miles if Tadej Pogacar hadn’t thought about the overall win and chased him hard.

But that ride did seem to do more damage than good, with him short and Milan-San Remo and then outsprinted at Flanders by Kasper Asgreen.

He did show his champion credentials in his Tour de France debut. Stage 1 was a disappointment for him missing out in a kit designed to mirror that his grandfather wore in the race. The Mur de Bretagne was different. He attacked first time up for the time bonuses before riding clear to win the stage and take the yellow jersey on the second ascent. It was great to see him get the jersey and then honour it to the Alps.

You have to love VdP for the way he rides and the way he makes cycling like it was in the good old days. Long may this level of performance continue.

1. Tadej Pogacar

The first rider in living memory to win the Tour and 2 of the classic monuments in a season. This lad has it all.

Whilst the Tour de France was in his pocket by the end of week 1 making the overall battle redundant, you can’t help but be impressed by his style and power on the bike.

Before we even got there he’d outsprinted the generations best classic riders to take Liege Bastogne Liege.

That was followed up with a dominant performance in Il Lombardia which is rapidly becoming my second favourite single day race of the year, where he took Fausto Masnada of Quickstep to the finish before smashing him out of sight in the race to the flag.

Aside from the results there is a quiet confidence and dominance about this guy where his presence at the head of a race seems to break the others before he even attacks.

The Ventoux stage was the only one where he looked like shipping any time but I still look back at that day and think he was focused on making Richard Carapaz put his nose into the wind rather than his being in genuine trouble.

Is his dominance good for the sport? For now I would say yes. It means the other teams will need to show greater innovation and creativity to isolate and then beat him, although his team has stocked up on domestiques so far this winter.

But what a talent. A poster boy for cycling for the 2020s.

2021 Worlds a race for the ages

by James Warrener, posted in beer, Blog, News, racing

Despite being, what I would call, a cycling buff, there are many instances where I can’t take in all of a race.

I have even written on this very website how the recent trend of tv coverage from flag to flag sometimes can feel like too much cycling.

The first instance of this trend I can remember was the 2015 Paris Roubaix where the first hour of action waiting for the break to form was much more entertaining that what went after it. So the television execs thought they’d hit on a successful formula and it stuck.

But for every race like that, there has been plenty where ‘sleepy’ would still be too active a description for the action.

Its content like that which gives commentators abuse on the internet. They can only call what they see and if nothing is happening the dead air is filled with less quality. Same goes for the racing.

But.

The 2021 world professional men’s road race yesterday was one occasion where if you invested the time at the start of the race, there were massive rewards at the finish.

The French national team rode the perfect race.

Unlike the Belgians who seemed to back both Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert before leaving home town rider Jasper Stuyven to content the finale, the raiding team from south of the border had a clear strategy.

They backed the defending champion to the hilt and were rewarded by his retention of the precious rainbow jersey.

From 140kms out Benoit Cosnefroy and Anthony Turgis were a total pain in the Belgians backsides with attacks and counter attacks forcing lots of chasing.

Italy were caught out in the first big split, something that might have contributed to a subdued finale from their main hope Sonny Colbrelli.

Mathieu Van der Poel was very subdued and was content to follow all day without having any impact on the race.

Julian Alaphillippe attacked four or five times to get his win with a number of these digs coming in the last lap and a half around Leuven.

He eventually wore them down with his desire to get clear and with Valentin Madouas working hard to help him establish his lead he was gone and gone for good.

The splinter group chasing him down had neither Van Aert, Tom Pidcock nor Van der Poel within it and didn’t have the power left to make the catch.

You can argue that Alaphillippe is all show and no content, but the wins he is racking up now make that point of view weak.

He is so entertaining to watch and his attack so wonderful to behold that you can’t help but be engaged and excited.

Last year he won with style. This year he won with persistence, style, panache and flair.

It truly was a world for the ages.

RnkRiderTeamUCIPntTime
1 ALAPHILIPPE JulianFrance6003505:56:34
2 VAN BAARLE DylanNetherlands4752600:32
3 VALGREN MichaelDenmark400190,,
4 STUYVEN JasperBelgium325150,,
5 POWLESS NeilsonUnited States275130,,
6 PIDCOCK ThomasGreat Britain2251100:49
7 ŠTYBAR ZdeněkCzech Republic1751001:06
8 VAN DER POEL MathieuNetherlands150901:18
9 SÉNÉCHAL FlorianFrance12580,,
10 COLBRELLI SonnyItaly10070,,
Top 10 from http://www.procyclingstats.com

Week 3 – Sleepy final week to the Tour

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

The final week of the Tour was a total non-event in terms of the general classification leaving many to wonder if the course wasn’t quite balanced enough to promote attacking riding.

Although to be fair when there was a summit finish it was generally either won by Tadej Pogacar or he gained time on his increasingly hapless looking rivals.

If it hadn’t been for Ben O’Connor and Jonas Vingegaard emerging from the shadows and taking the race on we would have been subjected to less action.

Pogacar was so far ahead after the final mountains that he and his team were able to let the latter stages play out with chaos on the road and breakaways ruling the roost.

Ineos Grenadiers had such a disaster with the fading of Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte that Richard Carapaz was their only hope.

Despite a couple of attacks he never once looked like dropping the other favourites.

His team also reverted to type after promising enterprising and attacking riding. They formed a train on the climbs and as mentioned in last weeks post, pretty much armchaired the yellow jersey to within a few kms of the finish on key stages.

I have no idea why they chose to ride in that way. Defensive and stifling they should have left more riders from lower down the top 10 to challenge in the way that Guillaume Martin did.

But they knew that if he hung on Carapaz was likely to get on to the podium and for Ineos that looked enough.

Contrast that with Jumbo/Visma who lost Primoz Roglic at the same time as Thomas faltered. They made sure that Vingegaard became a loose cannon, especially on the Mont Ventoux stage. The second prong to their fork was Wout Van Aert who became a stage hunter in the Sean Kelly, Peter Sagan mould.

Their tour will be a success, Ineos a failure.

I am not sure that the management of Jumbo is such that they showed great agility in adapating their planning. I put it down to the riders being strong on the road and mentality tough.

Despite getting boxed in by the Eddy Merckx mafia of Belgians in Paris (!), Mark Cavendish and Quickstep will be looking at this Tour as a real successs. He equalled the record and if thats as far as it goes then I am sure he will still be happy.

Julian Alaphillippe got his stage win and Cav the green jersey. Job done.

The main blot of the week 3 landscape was the police raid of Bahrain Victorious. This was the culmination of rumours since Rod Ellingworth left the team suddenly and they started winning.

Gino Mader and Mark Padun came from nowhere to win important races before the Tour and during this race Matej Mohoric and Dylan Theuns got wins (although neither was too surprising).

Foul seemed to be being cried over the sudden emergence of Sonny Colbrelli as a mountain climber, which was a little uncomfortable to watch at times.

But until there are charges from the investigation, and that goes for all stage and classification winners, not just Colbrelli, we will take the race and its outcomes at face value.

The good news for those of us who are down in the dumps this week with the race over is that the Tour of Wallonia starts today !

RnkPrev▼▲RiderTeamUCIPntTime
11– POGAČAR TadejUAE-Team Emirates100050082:56:36
22– VINGEGAARD JonasTeam Jumbo-Visma8003805:20
33– CARAPAZ RichardINEOS Grenadiers6753407:03
44– O’CONNOR BenAG2R Citroën Team57530010:02
55– KELDERMAN WilcoBORA – hansgrohe47528010:13
66– MAS EnricMovistar Team40026011:43
77– LUTSENKO AlexeyAstana – Premier Tech32524012:23
88– MARTIN GuillaumeCofidis, Solutions Crédits27522015:33
99– BILBAO PelloBahrain – Victorious22521016:04
1010– URÁN RigobertoEF Education – Nippo17520018:34

Week 2 belongs to Cav and Van Aert

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

The second week of the Tour de France offered only glipmses of a batte for the yellow jersey but was made famous for the wins of Mark Cavendish.

His two stage wins in Valence and Carcassonne book ended the week and gave us something to remember this race for.

His first stage win in 2008 was a “remember where you were moment“. I was in the car going to Skegness listening to Simon Brotherton on 5 live.

Friday I had it on in the background whilst working and from 2km to go to the finish was a nervous wreck.

He is level with the record now and its thoroughly deserved after his efforts in this race over the years.

At the other end of his Tour career is Wout Van Aert who was the other star of the week after winning the stage with a double ascent of the fearsome Mont Ventoux.

He was part of the breakaway for much of the stage before going clear with Kenny Elissonde and leaving him behind as Julian Alaphillippe tried to get across to them.

Behind Wout there was the merest hint of a battle for the GC with Jonas Vingegaard becoming the first person to drop Tadej Pogacar only to be pulled back on the descent thanks to some negative riding from Richard Carapaz and Rigo Uran.

Why those two didnt want to put the yellow jersey under pressure and leave him to chase Vingegaard on his own was beyond me.

It was a clear indication that they were only interested in riding for 2nd place. Which is poor.

In fact the whole Ineos tactical masterplan this week has been poor.

Short of giving Pogacar an armchair and slippers they have done very little other than keep Carapaz in with a shout of the podium.

What happened to last years pledge to go from long? be disruptive and shake up the race?

They have ridden the perfect mountain train for the race leader who isn’t in their team. Bonkers.

The second third weekend of the race took us into Andorra and saw some spectacular climbing and a deserved stage win for Sepp Kuss who continued the Jumbo/Visma comeback after the loss of leader Roglic.

Whilst I don’t see much changing in the top 10 this week, save Carapaz moving up to second or third, I will be keeping focus on Cav getting through the mountains within the time limit.

Fingers crossed he can make it to Paris.

NK.RIDERTEAMTIME
1 POGAČAR TadejUAE-Team Emirates62:07:18
2 URÁN RigobertoEF Education – Nippo5:18
3 VINGEGAARD JonasTeam Jumbo-Visma5:32
4 CARAPAZ RichardINEOS Grenadiers5:33
5 O’CONNOR BenAG2R Citroën Team5:58
6 KELDERMAN WilcoBORA – hansgrohe6:16
7 LUTSENKO AlexeyAstana – Premier Tech7:01
8 MAS EnricMovistar Team7:11
9 MARTIN GuillaumeCofidis, Solutions Crédits7:58
10 BILBAO PelloBahrain – Victorious10:59

The Tour is over…

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

The first rest day of the 2021 Tour de France has arrived with the race for the yellow jersey well and truly over.

History does warn us that we might see a change of winner of this race in the courts in 2025 but that is me being cynical and as of yet, other than being the best rider, there is no reason to accuse Tadej Pogacar of anything.

We are all just burned by the past.

The race has had so many great memories that even if the overall might be done and dusted (barring accident), we are not able to complain.

The first days steep finish saw Julian Alaphillippe soar from the front of a disintegrating peloton to win with ease.

A new father he took the time to add a baby sucking its thumb into his celebration, such was the dominance.

We were all waiting for Mathieu van der Poel to win that stage but a mistimed incident (not that crash the other one that took out Chris Froome) saw him with too much ground to make up.

He put it right on day 2 with the Mur de Bretagne being climbed twice.

It looked like madness on the first time up when MVDP shot clear only to be caught over the summit. But he had it under control having snatched a hand full of bonus seconds which meant that when he went up the climb the second time attacking in virtually the same spot he knew he could pull out enough of a gap to get the jersey from Julian.

As he flew over the line his arm shot skywards in homage to his grandfather, Raymond Poulidor. Multi times runner up in the Tour without ever getting the jersey.

Having sadly died before getting the chance to see Mathieu compete in the Tour, his grandson shed tears of joy and of grief at the end of the stage.

The other big story to come out of week one has been the resurgence of Mark Cavendish.

He had been long since written off and even threatened retirement in a tough to hear interview with Flemish TV at the end of 2020.

Quickstep rescued him from the Bahrain team and in the early season Belgian classics he was working hard and getting his nose into the wind as training.

He came close on a number of occasions before winning four stages of the Tour of Turkey.

He returned to that road captain, domestique role again for a few weeks before winning the final stage of the Tour of Belgium.

The injury to Sam Bennett opened the door for Cav to make another visit to the worlds biggest race and with 2 stage wins (including the symmetary of a win in Chateauroux where he took his maiden victory), he might not be done yet!

The second weekend of the race took us into the Alps and in protest at most of the famous big climbs being missing it produced some weather that even us Brits who are used to damp summers might complain about.

Dylan Theuns showed his Flandrien heritage by battling through the rain to win in Grand Bornand but the action was behind him with Pogacar romping away from everyone else.

After recent grand tours being settled by seconds, he is now minutes ahead of anyone else who could rival him.

And just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, he did it again yesterday on the road into Tignes.

So the yellow jersey race might be done, but let’s look forward to some exciting stages in the coming days and hopefully some better weather!

RnkPrev▼▲RiderTeamUCITime
11– POGAČAR TadejUAE-Team Emirates2534:11:10
214▲12 O’CONNOR BenAG2R Citroën Team2:01
34▲1 URÁN RigobertoEF Education – Nippo5:18
45▲1 VINGEGAARD JonasTeam Jumbo-Visma5:32
56▲1 CARAPAZ RichardINEOS Grenadiers5:33
68▲2 MAS EnricMovistar Team5:47
77– KELDERMAN WilcoBORA – hansgrohe5:58
83▼5 LUTSENKO AlexeyAstana – Premier Tech6:12
912▲3 MARTIN GuillaumeCofidis, Solutions Crédits7:02
109▼1 GAUDU DavidGroupama – FDJ7:22

Crafty Kasper – A Flanders retrospective

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing
RnkRiderTeamUCIPntTime
1 ASGREEN KasperDeceuninck – Quick Step5002756:02:12
2 VAN DER POEL MathieuAlpecin-Fenix400200,,
3 VAN AVERMAET GregAG2R Citroën Team3251500:32
4 STUYVEN JasperTrek – Segafredo2751200:33
5 VANMARCKE SepIsrael Start-Up Nation2251000:47
6 VAN AERT WoutTeam Jumbo-Visma17590,,
7 VERMEERSCH GianniAlpecin-Fenix15080,,
8 TURGIS AnthonyTeam Total Direct Energie12570,,
9 SÉNÉCHAL FlorianDeceuninck – Quick Step10060,,
10 VAN BAARLE DylanINEOS Grenadiers8550,,
From http://www.procyclingstats.com

The big 3 favourites for all of the big 2021 races were outsmarted by the Danish Champion, Kasper Asgreen, in another epic edition of the Tour of Flanders on Easter Sunday.

(Click here for an excellent gallery from procyclingtips)

With the mornings suicidal breakaway managing to get close to a quarter of an hours lead, the finale of this race was always going to be fast and slightly ragged. At key points in the race, there was a real chance they would stay away.

As the race hit the finishing circuit and got into the meat of the climbs there was a merging of the main favourites and the break led by a Julian Alaphillippe attack.

From the front group, Paris-Nice revelation Stefan Bissegger of EF seemed the most capable of hanging on.

However the French world champion didn’t have the legs to see it through and when Asgreen went clear with Mathieu Van der Poel and Wout van Aert (although he was soon distanced) there was some head scratching from the experts.

That disbelief turned to open frustratin as after the last ascent of the Paterberg, Asgreen made no attempt to drop Van der Poel on the run in.

It was as if Quick-Step had conceded the race and MvdP was going to get back to back wins in the race without competition.

Still Asgreen took his turns and the two of them marched on towards Oudenaarde and the finish.

Greg Van Avermaet launched a desperate attack out of the chasers with just over 3km to go, but it was a move for the podium rather than the win.

The sprint for 1st place seemed to take an age to get going and Van der Poel got ahead of Asgreen before something quite remarkable happened.

Superman became human and the Dutchman sat back down as the Dane surged past him for the win.

Yes. Asgreen had been imperious in his cobbled classic wins over the last year or so, but that hadn’t been the level of the RVV. This was a real step up for him and a tactical masterclass by his team.

As the race watched Alaphillippe he kept himself to himself before only launching his attack when absolutely neccessary.

It’s a shame we didn’t get to see round 2 at Paris Roubaix last weekend, but fingers crossed there will be futher encounters between these guys across the summer so the pot is still boiling come the autumn and the re-scheduled Hell of the North.

Stuyven upsets the holy trinity in San Remo

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

That there was a Belgian winner of the first monument of the season, Milan-San Remo was no surprise.

That it was the under rated Jasper Stuyven was.

The Trek man rode the perfect final remaining hidden all along the Capi before hanging in with the attacks on the Poggio.

As Tom Pidcock tried to force the pace on the downhill Stuyven waited and waited before launching the winning attack as the road flattened out.

He was briefly joined by Soren Kragh before timing his sprint so that the fast finshing Caleb Ewan came up just short.

RnkRiderTeamUCIPntTime
1 STUYVEN JasperTrek – Segafredo5002756:38:06
2 EWAN CalebLotto Soudal400200,,
3 VAN AERT WoutTeam Jumbo-Visma325150,,
4 SAGAN PeterBORA – hansgrohe275120,,
5 VAN DER POEL MathieuAlpecin-Fenix225100,,
6 MATTHEWS MichaelTeam BikeExchange17590,,
7 ARANBURU AlexAstana – Premier Tech15080,,
8 COLBRELLI SonnyBahrain – Victorious12570,,
9 KRAGH ANDERSEN SørenTeam DSM10060,,
10 TURGIS AnthonyTeam Total Direct Energie8550,,
From http://www.procyclingstats.com

The so-called “Holy Trinity” of Mathieu Van der Poel, Wout Van Aert and Julian Alaphillippe were outwitted by the winner after their attempts to attack were nullified on the final climb.

To be fair Van der Poel had looked slightly off the pace all day and was a way back on the Poggio.

Van Aert was able to follow the attack of Alaphillippe but the Frenchman certainly didn’t have the kick of previous years when he went.

More questions than answers from this race?

I would say yes. The coming weeks will be really interesting and could we have all be premature in calling those three amigos as unbeatable and miles ahead of the rest of the peloton?