A sad final note for Highroad

Highroad boss Bob Stapleton has
done more than most to rid the
sport he loves of doping

Few teams took such far-reaching steps to stamp out doping when it first became apparent that the practice was going to kill cycling as did HTC-Highroad. In fact, despite the still-persistent druggy image of the sport, Bob Stapleton's team has been nothing less than an example of how things needed to be done; not just in the professional cycling world but in all sports. Thus, it's nothing short of an ironic tragedy that the men's team will cease to exist at the end of the current season, due in large part to the unwillingness of potential sponsors to attach their names to cycling because of that image.

However, it seems that the team's exemplary record, now that the end is so near, may be shaken; through no fault of their own but by one single rider - Alex Rasmussen, the Danish track specialist taken on by the team from SaxoBank-Sungard for 2011 and who was due to go to Garmin-Cervelo for 2012, who missed an anti-doping control test earlier this summer and as such broke the team's internal rules which state that all riders on the books must comply with UCI requirements 100% and which led to his immediate dismissal from the team. Closer investigation, with UCI confirmation, revealed that Rasmussen had also missed two tests in 2010, but Highroad had not been informed of this when it signed the rider. He will also now no longer be representing his country at this year's World Championships.

Rasmussen, when racing for SaxoBank (when two of the
missed controls occurred) (CC3.0)

What matters most for the 27-year-old now is when the earlier incidents took place - the rule is, if a rider misses three controls within an 18-month period, he or she faces official sanction and a ban of up to two years. That's not the end of the world for a rider his age - he'd return, just as many other riders returned, still only 29 and with a good few years ahead of him.

The greatest and worst effect is, once again, on cycling's image. Many people with little knowledge of cycling will have almost subconsciously absorbed the news that Highroad's at the end of the road but won't be aware why. Now, when they see this story - and they will, because the press just love to print stories on doping in cycling - they'll automatically link the team's demise with Rasmussen's selfish decision to dope. They'll nod knowingly over their cornflakes and think to themselves, "Ah, I knew it! They're all at it!"

Thus all Stapleton's good work is undone, just a little more each time it happens; and other potential sponsors back away, unwilling to attach their names to a sport with a bad image among the mis-informed non-cycling public to whom the names on the jerseys have to appeal if the millions they would otherwise have ploughed into sport are to be worthwhile; because cycling fans, who would have read beyond the headline and got the full story, are a tiny minority.

Cheers, Alex. Nice one. Don't expect a warm welcome in two years' time if you get a ban.

End of the Highroad?

While winning time and time again,
Highroad has always worked hard to
improve professional cycling in any
way possible. They will be much missed
and their absence sorely felt.

Highroad's ongoing sponsorship problems have been no secret, with team boss Bob Stapleton uncharacteristically openly admitting some time ago that he was having difficulty securing a financial backer for next season. The team - partly because of the popularity of Stapleton himself, partly because of the popularity of the riders and partly because of the most impressive team palmares in professional cycling - has been one of the most admired by fans throughout its history, and so the cycling world as a whole breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that negotiations with a potential new sponsor were positive.

Sadly, that deal fell through and HTC have confirmed that they will no longer work with the team - precisely why this should be is not yet known, but it has been suggested that "ongoing drugs scandals" are the cause. Stapleton made an official announcement yesterday, saying: "After an exhaustive search to secure long term sponsorship we have concluded that it's time to release our team members to pursue other options." He added, "an agreement with a new partner looked to be in place, but the deal collapsed Sunday night when they called me during my wife's 50th birthday party."

The team's highest profile rider, British sprinter Mark Cavendish who won the final stage of the Tour de France a few weeks ago, is said to be heart-broken by the news. Cavendish has raced for the team, which has earned a reputation for discovering and developing new talents, ever since it grew out of the T-Mobile team in 2008 and has become recognised as the best sprinter in the world whilst with them, personally responsible for a large share of the men's team's many victories.

"I am hugely indebted and incredibly grateful to my teammates and all the staff for their support over the last five years and I am immensely proud of what we have achieved together," he told reporters.

Stapleton hopes the Highroad
women's team will continue.

Highroad is one of the very few teams to place as much emphasis on its female riders as its male stars, ploughing serious resources into their development and reaping the rewards in the form of numerous triumphs.  Stapleton, who personally financed the embryonic Highroad between November 2007 and June 2008, is hopeful that he'll be able to keep the women's team on the road. Women's cycling has long suffered from sponsorship problems, so it is to be hoped that Stapleton and Highroad will continue opening doors for young talent that might never get the opportunity to progress. The continuation of the women's team also leaves the possibility that, should they continue bringing in the trophies - and with riders such as Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, Judith Arndt and Katie Colclaugh on the roster there's no reason to suggest they won't - we might one day see a new sponsor put up funds, allowing a new men's team to rise from the ashes. It wouldn't be the first time Stapleton had turned disaster into success.

It is depressing that would-be backers are still claiming doping as the reason when they pull out of sponsoring teams. Following the dark days of EPO, the Festina Affair and Operation Puerto, cycling has done more than any other sport to stamp out the problem - with Highroad doing more than most, striving to be drug-free and sacking riders who tested positive as long ago as 2007 before it became the norm. Unfortunately, it seems that the druggy image that somehow became attached to cycling remains in place, despite evidence that fewer cyclists use performance-enhancing drugs than do athletes in many other sports.

Tour de France: Stage 11 Debrief

Well, just like we said this morning who was ever going  to win this one other than Mark Cavendish? The dead straight, pancake flat run into the finish line looked more like a drag racing track - albeit a very, very wet one - than sprint section and Cav's running a blown big block hemi with nitrous.

Despite the horrendous weather, the type the French describe as raining ropes and the Brits as pissing it down, Stage 11 turned out to be quite a nice sort of stage from the fans' point of view - though it was probably not that much fun to be in the race, we imagine. There's plenty of fantastic scenery in this part of the world with chateaux to match (mostly gateaux chateaux rather than the proper defensive ones we prefer, but nevertheless) and some very fine-lookin' rivers too - and it's all quintessentially French: if Jean de Florette hadn't been set in Provence, it would have looked every bit as good filmed here (though the Tarn river looks like it probably does a pretty good job of ensuring there's plenty enough water to go round). There are also lots of those lovely rural roads lined with plane trees and the all-important fields of sunflowers; because let's face it - the Tour wouldn't be le Tour without shots of the peloton riding among fields of sunflowers.

Gadret didn't start today.

The official start was at 13:14, with one rider less than expected because AG2R's John Gadret had sadly decided to abandon overnight due to exhaustion. Gadret - like Contador - has been having problems recovering from this year's notoriously hard-going Giro d'Italia. "I really feel bad since the start," he told CyclingNews some days ago, so he's done a damn good job getting as far as he has. A few riders were seen sounding out the situation in the first few kilometres but apparently decided the time wasn't yet right for a breakaway until the 6km point when a group of nine managed to get away with a small gap, but Sky took over at the front of the peloton and hurried things up a bit so the majority of the escapees were quickly caught.

Eventually, a gang of six led by Mikael Delage (again) and including Lars Boom got ahead and successfully built an advantage of just under half a minute, but with a dearth of real General Classification threats among them the peloton didn't appear particularly concerned, letting them build up the gap to 2'30" by the time the 20km point came around and 3'55" at Cat 3 Côte de Tonnac where Lars Boom was first up for two points and Astana's Andriy Grivko just behind him for one. They then made the most of the descent, increasing the advantage to 4'15" by the time the main group reached the summit.

The peloton split up near Bruniquel as a group of about 35 including Johnny Hoogerland, who is understandably hurting, dropped off the back for a while; but they soon regrouped and got back to work, reducing the escapee's advantage to three and a half minutes as they approached the feeding station and intermediate sprint. For some reason, the gang of six were all being terribly nice and didn't seem to want to compete with one another for the top points, entering the sprint calmly and without the usual hustling. Delage looked quite embarrassed when he finally decided to go for it and was seen to apologise to Boom when he won the 20 points. All a bit silly, really. 2. Jimmy Engoulvent, 3. 17pts; Lars Boom, 15pts; 4. Andriy Grivko, 13pts; 5. Ruben Perez Moreno, 11 pts; 6. Tristian Valentin, 10pts.

Delage seems determined
to spend this whole Tour
in breakaways if he can.

Cavendish was the next one through for 9 points, having made damn sure he was on the ball to prevent Omega-Pharma's André Greipel beating him again after yesterday's stage. 8. Juan Joaquim Rojas, 8pts; 9. Francisco Ventoso, 7pts; 10. Andre Greipel, 6pts; 11. Philippe Gilbert, 5pts; 12. Matt Goss, 4pts; 13. Mark Renshaw 3pts; 14. Bernhard Eisel, 2pts; 15. Jelle Vanendert, 1pt.


The Missile experienced some form of mechanical problems a short while later, but it was rapidly sorted out once the team car reached him and he and Eisel, who had remained with him, worked together efficiently and had rejoined the peloton in next to no time. By the time they'd reached the 48km to go point, the breakaway was 3km ahead but the chase was on and their time was ticking away. Romain Feillu punctured but, with the aid of a tail wind, was soon back with the main pack who had now reduced the gap by another 30".

The second and last climb, Côte de Puylaurens, may have only been a Category 4 but it lasted for 4.2km and passed through some attractive wooded areas which ensured it turned out to be one of the highlights of the stage in the end - helped no end by a sighting of the Devil on the way up. Not many people spotted him this time as he stood among a small crowd on a bend with his El Diablo micro-camper over the road, but enough Twitterers saw him for the sighting to be confirmed. The climb took a lot out of the breakaway, tiring the members sufficiently for the peloton to regain 15" in just one kilometre. Rui Costa was the next for a puncture, passing Vladimir Isaichev who had dropped off the peloton on his way back to the group. Delage was the first to the top and collected his point, but the peloton were gaining ground rapidly and had hacked the gap down to much more manageable minute and a half as they crested the hill.

The weather proved that, as far as it's concerned, while one hand giveth the other taketh away a little later on: the rain stopped and the sun came out for a while, no doubt having a positive effect on rider morale after 142 soggy kilometres; but it chose to do so just as the parcours changed direction, turning that useful tailwind which had been blowing the race along at a healthy rate into a headwind. As would be expected, this affected the escapees to a much greater extent than it did the peloton and the gap fell to 1'15" with 25km to go - an unfortunate time for Juan Joaquim Rojas to puncture, but a couple of Movistar mates stayed with him and got him back up to speed.

HTC were in position with 13km to go, confirming what we all knew - they were planning on taking advantage of an absolutely ideal stage for their standard tactics. 3km later and they'd put the pedal to the metal to reduce the breakaway advantage to a mere 30". However, over on the other side of the road a chain of red signified that BMC also had plans as they surrounded Cadel Evans and protected him, ready to launch their own assault. The escapees were sharing the load equally in an effort to keep going, but there was no chance they'd be able to retain an advantage against a two-pronged attack of this kind.

When HTC's tactics work, Cav is
virtually unbeatable on a stage
such as this one.

Eisel got the ball rolling with 6km to go, leading out Peter Velits, Tony Martin, Mark Renshaw and Matt Goss as BMC's Marcus Burghardt cruised to the side of the road, apparently finished, just before 5km to go. Lars Boom, a faithful part of the breakaway for all this time, went on the attack and achieved a small lead as the peloton drew near but it was never going to last long - he was caught just half a kilometre later. Sky, Omega and BMC were all well represented at the front of the peloton as Boom was reabsorbed, but by now HTC had everything in place for a textbook demonstration of the train and there really was no other way it could possibly go. Greipel tried, but Cav wasn't going to let him win again and he surged across the line half a bike length in front for his 18th stage win, also taking the green jersey from Philippe Gilbert as he did so.

Tomorrow is going to be very different due to the appearance of the first of the real climbs - Hourquette d'Ancizan (1538 m), Luz-Ardiden (1715 m) and the mighty Col du Tourmalet (2115 m) all put in an appearance, making it almost another race entirely.

Results of Stage 11:

1. CAVENDISH Mark 3h 46' 07"  
2. GREIPEL André
3. FARRAR Tyler
4. GALIMZYANOV Denis
5. HAGEN Edvald Boasson
6. FEILLU Romain
7. ROJAS Jose Joaquin
8. TURGOT Sébastien
9. VENTOSO Francisco
10. BONNET William (all received same time)


Overall General Classification results after Stage 11:

1. VOECKLER Thomas 45h 52' 39"  
2. SANCHEZ Luis-Leon + 01' 49"
3. EVANS Cadel + 02' 26"
4. SCHLECK Frank + 02' 29"
5. SCHLECK Andy + 02' 37"
6. MARTIN Tony + 02' 38"
7. VELITS Peter + 02' 38"
8. KLÖDEN Andréas + 02' 43"
9. GILBERT Philippe + 02' 55"
10. FUGLSANG Jakob + 03' 08"
11. BASSO Ivan + 03' 36"


Points: Mark Cavendish; Climber: Johnny Hoogerland; Youth: Robert Gesink; Team: Europcar; Combative: Mikael Delage.

HTC and Highroad still an item?

The Financial Times has printed a correction to its story yesterday on Highroad's reported problems in securing sponsorship for next year, stating that the team is still in discussion with the Taiwanese giant HTC and other potential backers.

Highroad - not the end of the road

Precisely how the newspapers got from Bob Stapleton blaming the reticence of some companies to become involved in professional cycling to a doom and gloom story spelling out the end of one of the sport's most popular and successful teams and the probable apocalypse bringing an end to cycling as we know it remains a mystery, but that's the newspapers for you.

Anyway, since we're not part of the professional scene we rely on the news and published a story on it yesterday. Much of it can be ignored - chances are Highroad's cyclists will be hanging around and the team will continue nurturing new stars under Stapleton's patronage for many years. However, we'll keep the story up because the problem of doping discouraging companies from sponsoring teams for fear of tarnishing their public images remains a very real one.

End of the road for Highroad?

HTC-Highroad owner Bob Stapleton has warned that his team will no longer exist come the end of the year because of difficulties in finding a sponsor - and he blames doping scandals for those difficulties.

"We have a lot to offer," he told Road.cc, "but we have to shout that story out over the controversy that seems to surround the sport." Although none of the team's riders have been caught doping since Highroad grew out of the scandal-rocked T-Mobile in 2007, cycling in general has earned a reputation for being riddled with widespread doping among the public and that shady image makes potential sponsors nervous about committing the sort of money - around 10 million euros - that a team needs to enter the three Grand Tours.

Highroad has long provided an opportunity for
young talents like 21-year-old Leigh Howard to
learn from the big-hitters on the team and thus
realise their full potential.

Even if HTC does withdraw support and Highroad can find a replacement, Stapleton may find himself without any riders. Reports are flying around the Internet and cycling press that Mark Cavendish will be leaving the team for Team Sky, with many people expecting confirmation once riders are permitted to discuss such matters come August - any degree of uncertainty will see other members, including Tony Martin and Tejay van Garderen, making exploratory approaches to other teams and they may receive more tempting offers.

Highroad have been one of the most successful teams in cycling with their male and female riders achieving an astonishing 462 victories between them since 2008. Stapleton has long had a policy of supporting young talent, giving several younger riders who might have had difficulties getting a place on other teams the opportunity to realise their potential and for that reason alone the organisation's demise would be detrimental to the sport.
.