Doppio: 18

a weekly double-shot of road racing

Wednesday 31st July 2013

issue 18

rapha.cc

27 28 29 30 31 01 02 03 04

SATURDAY — Tour de Pologne S1

SUNDAY — Tour de Pologne S2

MONDAY — Tour de Pologne Rest day

TUESDAY — Tour de Pologne S3

tour de pologne

WEDNESDAY — Tour de Pologne S4 — Post Danmark Rundt S1

THURSDAY — Tour de Pologne S5 — Post Danmark Rundt S2

FRIDAY — Tour de Pologne S6 — Post Danmark Rundt S3

SATURDAY — Tour de Pologne S7 — Post Danmark Rundt S4

SUNDAY — Tour de Pologne S8 — Post Danmark Rundt S5

jerseys

Majka in Pole Position race type: Week-long stage race distance: 1,238 km region: Poland Bradley Wiggins’ decision to race the Tour de Pologne has shone a spotlight on the Polish stage race this year, and quite a few of the gc big guns, including Vincenzo Nibali and Fabian Cancellara also showed up on the start line to give him a hard time. It is growing in stature and becoming a competitive hunting ground for uci points.

In the event, it is Team Sky’s Sergio Henao who is highest in the standings, and that’s in no small part thanks to the work Wiggins put in for him in the first two stages in Italy. Henao was second in the gc after the Dolomites, behind Saxo-Tinkoff ’s home-Tour boy Rafał Majka and the current darling of the French public, Christophe Riblon. Fresh off the back of his celebrated win on Alpe d’Huez, he eschewed the postTour crits to grab more points for his rejuvenated ag2r team with a win on stage two, Lampre-Merida’s Diego Ulissi having taken the uphill finish on stage one.

In Tuesday’s third stage, Team Sky and bmc worked to take back a break that at one point had a lead of 10mins 55secs, and the four escapees were caught by the flamme rouge. It then fell to a bunch sprint, won by or Hushovd of bmc, with Steele von Hoff (Garmin-Sharp) and Mark Renshaw (Belkin) following.

Rafał Majka still leads the gc, but with six riders per team and a somewhat perplexing new points system to make things more entertaining the rest of the week could be chaotic. Still to come: Stage 4, Wednesday: Traversing a number of hard-topronounce towns, the race skirts west over Kraków before heading three times over the mountain prime – or premia górska – in Katowice. A bunch gallop is likely.

Stage 5, ursday: Six categorised climbs today so plenty of premia górska up for grabs, a big day for the gc contenders.

Stage 6, Friday: Five laps of a relentless 38.4km circuit with three sharp climbs each lap. Ouch.

Stage 7, Saturday: Wiggins, Taylor Phinney and Cancellara will be revving their engines today for the final ride, a tt into the capital of southern Poland.

e leader’s jersey, won last year by Moreno Moser, is yellow.

e klasyfikacja górska (climber’s) jersey is a pinky colour.

STAGE 4 | Tarnów - Katowice | 231.5 km Pologne’s points jersey is white with red sleeves.

STAGE 5 | Nowy Targ - Zakopane | 160.5 km e red jersey goes to the ‘most active’ rider in the race.

STAGE 6 | Bukovina Terma - Bukowina | 192 km

For those with panache, there’s an ‘attractivity’ award for each stage.

STAGE 7 | Wieliczka - Kraków | 37 km

a p r iz e for at t ract iv it y is #pr ost y le

Wednesday 31st July 2013

a weekly double-shot of road racing

generation ‘ 90

e Young and the Brave Every few years we see a changing of the guard – the old champions knocked off their perch and new challengers emerging. is year might be Alberto Contador’s last at the very pinnacle of the sport, and potentially the start of an era dominated by Chris Froome who, at 28, is just hitting his Grand Tour prime. But this July’s real revelation was a cohort of riders at the very start of their careers. e French call them ‘Generation ‘90’, after the year of their birth. Here’s Doppio’s ones to watch: nairo quintana A lot of ink has been spilt over this man and his climbing talents – check the Rapha blog for an in-depth profile – but suffice to say that he’ll be a major, if diminutive, figure for a decade to come. romain bardet Romain Bardet carries the weight of French expectations on his slender shoulders, yet has a remarkable maturity and sangfroid. He’s an important part of a revitalised ag2r team, winning the Combativity prize during the crazy Pyrenean stage nine and eventually finishing 15th in Paris. michał kwiatkowski Kwiatkowski finished second in last year’s Tour of Poland, and this year has proved that his all-round capabilities are only improving. He finished on the podium after the mountainous stages two and nine; fourth on stages three and seven, and challenged for the white jersey after a strong tt in stage 11. How far can this young Pole go? moreno moser A third place on Alpe d’Huez this year is only one proof of Moreno’s talents. Uncle Francesco was a legend in the ‘70s and ‘80s, another uncle, Aldo, took a top-five in the Giro and his father, brother and cousins all have raced professionally. thibaut pinot Pinot failed to make good on his 2012 promise this year, losing his nerve descending when an accident as a junior came back to haunt him. But he remains a great climber and if he banishes his demons, may soon add to the stage that he won last year. peter sagan With two green jerseys and multiple stage wins Sagan has won beyond his years. He seems to have been enlivening the peloton with his attacks on all terrains forever, but actually only announced his talent in the 2010 Paris-Nice, and was born on 26 January 1990.

Stretch the ‘Generation ‘90’ a little further and there’s Marcel Kittel, Andrea Guardini, Nacer Bouhanni and Team Sky’s Pete Kennaugh and Joe Dombrowski. It’s a safe bet that between them this lot have the major prizes sewn up for years to come.

weekend weather

London Blue skies returning, but it’s going to stay blowy Classic Jersey, Wind Jacket.

San Francisco Low clouds clearing for sunny spells. Around 70f. Rapha Gilet, Trade Team Cap

Osaka Hot and hazy with showers, 30c.

Women’s Lightweight Jersey, Classic Bib Shorts

Kraków Sunny and in the high 20s.

Team Sky Pro Bib Shorts, Team Sky Wiggo Pro Base Layer.

beyond paris

After the Gold Rush e morning after the greatest race of the year offers riders time for reflection – but not much. Tom Southam looks ahead to what remains of the racing season. e lobby of the Hotel Concorde La Fayette in Paris is an interesting place the morning after Chris Froome’s victory on the Champs-Élysées, the epicentre of the hangover that inevitably hits the cycling world after the biggest race of the year.

Riders in different states of exhaustion drift around, some with wives and children, some wearing the pained masks of men who have celebrated too much. eir deep fatigue gives them the air of men shuffling out of a field hospital.

Before the riders can work out their destiny, they must pass through this lobby. Every time the lift doors open, the same burning question arises: What now?

For those who’ve been under the greatest pressure, this is a chance to step off the gas. For others, there are plenty of UCI points left and the form that three weeks of suffering has brought them can still be put to good use. For these riders, the door to the Place de la Concorde is a different kind of release.

For many, the first appointment will have been the Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian, the first of the Summer Classics. For the stage racers, both the Tour of Poland and the Eneco Tour have grown in importance recently, while for others the post-Tour criteriums are the main draw. A little-known rider can earn up to a year’s salary in the two weeks of racing, while the big guns can earn a little-known rider’s entire annual salary in a night.

Most are little more than exhibition events, riders playing caricatures of themselves; escape artists attack and fail, homegrown heroes have their moment of glory before the yellow jersey wins. And all of this awaits the riders on the other side of the lobby, the morning after the three weeks before. e full version of Tom’s feature will be available tomorrow, 1st August, on the Rapha blog: rapha.cc/blogs.

ridelondon Sydney Temperate riding.

18c and calm, maybe chilly early on. Classic Bib Shorts, Arm Warmers

Olympic Rings Rapha-Condor-jlt is lining up on 4th August at the inaugural RideLondon-Surrey Classic. Part of a weekend of Olympic legacy events that includes a women’s gp race in St James’s Park, it will also see riders from Team Sky, Garmin-Sharp, Cannondale, Orica-Greenedge and Française des Jeux compete over 140km through London and Surrey, in the biggest one-day race the uk has ever seen.

An in-depth interview with Rapha-Condor-JLT team manager John Herety about RideLondon will be available on the Rapha blog. Check rapha.cc/blogs from Friday, 2nd August.

a p r iz e for at t ract iv it y is #pr ost y le