Daily Cycling Facts 13.05.2014

Stefano Garzelli
(image credit: Sebastián García CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Giro d'Italia started on this date five times - 1909 (see below), 1981, 1982, 1995 and 2000. In 1981, the race consisted of 22 stages and covered 3,895km. The winner was Giovanni Battaglin who had also won the amateur version of the race nine years earlier and would go on to win the Vuelta a Espana five months later, one of only three men to have won both races in a single season. The 1982 edition was again 22 stages, but it had grown to 4,010.5km. Bernard Hinault won, then won the Tour de France - the Giro/Tour double being considered a more impressive achievement than the Giro/Vuelta though seven men have achieved it, three of them twice (Hinault became one of them in 1985) and one three times (that, as tends to be the case with unique road racing achievements, being Eddy Merckx).

By 1995, the race had shrunk down to 3,736km but retained the 22 stage format. Marco Pantani had been a favourite but was kept away by injury, which left the unusual spectacle of sprinter and a climber battling one another for victory: Mario Cipollini was the sprinter and Tony Rominger was the climber, and they fought one another tooth and nail but on different stages all the way to the end. In the end, Rominger's secondary ability in the time trials stood him in good stead and he won the race. In 2000 there were 21 stages and a prologue, adding up to 3,676km in total. Stefano Garzelli won with 98h30'14".

The First Giro d'Italia

Luigi Ganna, photographed
shortly after finishing Stage 8
at the first Giro d'Italia

1909 was the very first edition of the Giro d'Italia. Organised like most races of the day to advertise a newspaper (La Gazzetta dello Sport on this case; which like L'Auto, the paper that organised the Tour de France, wanted to out-sell and ideally completely crush a rival title - the difference being that whereas L'Auto's rival Le Vélo was dead and buried within a year of the first Tour, Corriere della Sera sells around 220,000 more copies each day than La Gazzetta.

The race covered 2,445km over eight stages which, despite the daunting prospect of stages an average of 306km in length (the longest was in fact 397km, Stage 1), makes it the shortest edition ever held. Stage racing was a new concept when the Tour started in 1903 and as a result only 60 riders took part - and then only because director Henri Desgrange halved the entry fee and increase the prizes - but six years later the idea was both established and popular with a number of smaller events having sprung up in the intervening years (sadly, none have survived. The Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, first run in 1911, is the world's third oldest stage race), so 123 Italians and four Frenchmen showed up at the start line. Another similarity with the Tour was that the results were decided on points in early editions, rather than on overall elapsed time as is the case today, with the lowest number of points getting the win. Luigi Ganna, born in Induno Olana in 1883, was declared victor with 25 - had it have been decided in the modern manner, his time of 89h48'14" would have seen Giovanni Rossignoli (third place with 40 points) take the honour.

The race started and finished in Milan, the riders setting off on Stage 1 at 02:53 in the morning. Ganna's prize was 5,325 lira, while La Gazzetta editor and race director Eugenio Costamagna was paid the princely sum of 150 lira. La Gazzetta, incidentally, was and still is printed on pink paper - which is why the race leader's jersey, known as the maglia rosa and first adopted in 1931, is pink; just as the Tour de France's maillot jaune is yellow to reflect the yellow paper used by L'Auto.

Marianne Vos - very possibly the greatest
cyclist in the history of the sport
(image credit: Maarten Thys CC BY 3.0)

Marianne Vos
If you've been reading these Daily Cycling Facts and wondering, as I did while writing them, why it is that an apparently smaller number of notable professional professional cyclists were born in May than any other month, here's the reason: when Marianne Vos was born on this day in 1987, she was given the entire month's-worth of talent for several years in either direction.

A native of 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, Vos' father and brother were both keen cyclists and, when she was five, she decided that she'd like to have a go too. Her first bike was too big for her, but even then she refused to give up. By the time she was six she was out training two nights a week. A few years later, she was taken to see the Alpe d'Huez stage of the Tour de France and spent much of her time hanging around the hotels to meet riders - it's tempting to wonder any of them remember the little Dutch girl who asked them for their autograph, now that her career has eclipsed all of theirs. In fact, and with the arguable exception of Eddy Merckx, Vos has now eclipsed all those who came before her; she is quite simply a phenomenal athlete and very welcome to younger fans who missed out on seeing the greats of days gone by, riders such as Hinault, Ancquetil, Burton, Bartali, Coppi and, of course, Merckx himself.

Vos has won all of the most prestigious races in women's road cycling including three World Road Race Championships (2004 Junior Championships, 2006 and 2012 Elite Championships, two European Championships, six National Championships and an Olympic Road Race gold medal in 2012. In addition, she has won two National Time Trial championships (despite claiming not to be very good at time trials), more than 70 stages, 18 criteriums and 30 general classifications. By her 27th birthday, on this day in 2014, her total number of victories in road racing, cyclo cross, track and mountain biking added up to 307. Merckx clocked up 525 by the time he retired shortly before his 33rd birthday: the great Belgian has been asked for his thoughts on her by several journalists and makes it clear that he admires her enormously, perhaps even expecting her to beat his tally sooner or later.

Vos is also known for being one of the most personable professional cyclists around. Highly intelligent and articulate, she regularly talks to fans on Twitter and is as popular among the riders who race against her as she is with her supporters. If you don't already follow women's cycling, Vos is one of many reasons to start doing so - all indications suggest that we have not seen her like in professional cycling before, one who is limited not by her own abilities but by the number of races available to her.

Johnny Hoogerland 

Johnny Hoogerland
(image credit: Thomas Ducroquet
CC BY-SA 3.0)

Born in Yerseke, Netherlands on this day in 1983, Johnny Hoogerland became one of the stars of the 2011 Tour de France for his repeated attacks, five days in the polka dot jersey as leader of the King of the Mountains classification and a horrific crash that could very easily have ended his career.

Nicknamed The Bull of Beveland due to a large tattoo depicting a bull on his arm, Hoogerland came to international attention when he won the Junior Tour of Flanders in 2001 and then followed it up with numerous wins over the next few years, including the tough GP Briek Schotte - a race designed to reveal those riders who can be aid to be Flandriens, the toughest cyclists of them all, of which Schotte is considered to be the definitive example.

Hoogerland - a Flandrien to the core
(unknown copyright, believed public domain due to widespread use)

It was at the 2011 Tour that Hoogerland proved just how tough he is. During Stage 9, as he cycled alongside Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha, an inattentive driver in France Télévisions official car realised he was about to hit a tree. Rather than slamming on the car's brakes - as all drivers at the Tour are trained to do - he swerved right, hitting the two riders. Flecha hit the road hard and received extensive bruising, but Hoogerland was catapulted into a barbed wire fence hard enough to smash a wooden fence post and become entangled in the wire, which tore his shorts to shreds and left him with deep lacerations to his buttocks and legs.

Both men got back on their bikes and finished the stage. Organisers extended the maximum permitted time so that they could do without being disqualified, then jointly awarded them what must have been the most-deserved Combativity Award for many years. Afterwards, Hoogerland was given 33 stitches.

Peter Longbottom
Peter Longbottom, born in Huddersfield on this day in 1959, was one of those cyclists whom were there any justice in this world would have been a household name. Respected among cyclists for his superb tactical mind, he was for many years in high demand among Tour of Britain teams for his ability to re-organise a team "on the road" according to rider performance, terrain, weather, opponents and a host of variable factors; frequently getting it correct and driving his team mates on to victory even when aware that he himself could not win. His skills saw him ride with Chris Boardman, assisting him at the Commonwealth Games, yet he chose never to turn professional and worked a full-time job even during the racing season.

Longbottom retired from competition in 1996 and spent the remaining two years of his life encouraging young people to take up the sport. On the 10th of February 1998, he was hit by a car on the A64 near York, the impact throwing him onto the opposite carriageway where eye-witnesses say he was hit by several vehicles


Gerrit de Vries, born in Oldeberkoop, Netherlands on this day in 1967 (and, so far as we can tell, no relation to Marijn de Vries of AA Drink-Leontien.nl) shared victory in the 1986 Amateur World Team Time Trial Championship. A a professional rider he took part in six editions of the Tour de France, his best result being 34th overall in 1991.

Eugène Van Roosbroeck was born in Antwerp on this day in 1928. At the time of writing, he is the oldest of the three surviving members of the gold medal-winning road race team at the 1948 Olympics.

Nino Schurter, born in Tersnaus, Switzerland on this day in 1986, was World Cross Country Mountain Bike Champion in 2009.

Other cyclists born on this day: David López García (Euskadi, 1981); Tony Gowland (Great Britain, 1965); Fitzgerald Joseph (Belize, 1967); Morten Sæther (Norway, 1959); Marc Blouin (Canada, 1953); Josef Landsberg (Sweden, 1890, died 1964); Domenico Cecchetti (San Marino, 1941); Eugène Van Roosbroeck (Belgium, 1928); Pavel Cherkasov (USSR, 1972); Edoardo Severgnini (Italy, 1904, died 1969); Thomas Harrison (Australia, 1942); Mark Barry (Great Britain, 1964).

Daily Cycling Facts 13.05.2013

Stefano Garzelli
(image credit: Sebastián García CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Giro d'Italia started on this date five times - 1909 (see below), 1981, 1982, 1995 and 2000. In 1981, the race consisted of 22 stages and covered 3,895km. The winner was Giovanni Battaglin who had also won the amateur version of the race nine years earlier and would go on to win the Vuelta a Espana five months later, one of only three men to have won both races in a single season. The 1982 edition was again 22 stages, but it had grown to 4,010.5km. Bernard Hinault won, then won the Tour de France - the Giro/Tour double being considered a more impressive achievement than the Giro/Vuelta though seven men have achieved it, three of them twice (Hinault became one of them in 1985) and one three times (that, as tends to be the case with unique road racing achievements, being Eddy Merckx).

By 1995, the race had shrunk down to 3,736km but retained the 22 stage format. Marco Pantani had been a favourite but was kept away by injury, which left the unusual spectacle of sprinter and a climber battling one another for victory: Mario Cipollini was the sprinter and Tony Rominger was the climber, and they fought one another tooth and nail but on different stages all the way to the end. In the end, Rominger's secondary ability in the time trials stood him in good stead and he won the race. In 2000 there were 21 stages and a prologue, adding up to 3,676km in total. Stefano Garzelli won with 98h30'14".

The First Giro d'Italia

Luigi Ganna, photographed
shortly after finishing Stage 8
at the first Giro d'Italia

1909 was the very first edition of the Giro d'Italia. Organised like most races of the day to advertise a newspaper (La Gazzetta dello Sport on this case; which like L'Auto, the paper that organised the Tour de France, wanted to out-sell and ideally completely crush a rival title - the difference being that whereas L'Auto's rival Le Vélo was dead and buried within a year of the first Tour, Corriere della Sera sells around 220,000 more copies each day than La Gazzetta.

The race covered 2,445km over eight stages which, despite the daunting prospect of stages an average of 306km in length (the longest was in fact 397km, Stage 1), makes it the shortest edition ever held. Stage racing was a new concept when the Tour started in 1903 and as a result only 60 riders took part - and then only because director Henri Desgrange halved the entry fee and increase the prizes - but six years later the idea was both established and popular with a number of smaller events having sprung up in the intervening years (sadly, none have survived. The Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, first run in 1911, is the world's third oldest stage race), so 123 Italians and four Frenchmen showed up at the start line. Another similarity with the Tour was that the results were decided on points in early editions, rather than on overall elapsed time as is the case today, with the lowest number of points getting the win. Luigi Ganna, born in Induno Olana in 1883, was declared victor with 25 - had it have been decided in the modern manner, his time of 89h48'14" would have seen Giovanni Rossignoli (third place with 40 points) take the honour.

The race started and finished in Milan, the riders setting off on Stage 1 at 02:53 in the morning. Ganna's prize was 5,325 lira, while La Gazzetta editor and race director Eugenio Costamagna was paid the princely sum of 150 lira. La Gazzetta, incidentally, was and still is printed on pink paper - which is why the race leader's jersey, known as the maglia rosa and first adopted in 1931, is pink; just as the Tour de France's maillot jaune is yellow to reflect the yellow paper used by L'Auto.

Marianne Vos - very possibly the greatest
cyclist in the history of the sport
(image credit: Maarten Thys CC BY 3.0)

Marianne Vos
If you've been reading these Daily Cycling Facts and wondering, as I did while writing them, why it is that an apparently smaller number of notable professional professional cyclists were born in May than any other month, here's the reason: when Marianne Vos was born on this day in 1987, she was given the entire month's-worth of talent for several years in either direction.

A native of 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, Vos' father and brother were both keen cyclists and, when she was five, she decided that she'd like to have a go too. Her first bike was too big for her, but even then she refused to give up. By the time she was six she was out training two nights a week. A few years later, she was taken to see the Alpe d'Huez stage of the Tour de France and spent much of her time hanging around the hotels to meet riders - it's tempting to wonder any of them remember the little Dutch girl who asked them for their autograph, now that her career has eclipsed all of theirs. In fact, and with the arguable exception of Eddy Merckx, Vos has now eclipsed all those who came before her; she is quite simply a phenomenal athlete and very welcome to younger fans who missed out on seeing the greats of days gone by, riders such as Hinault, Ancquetil, Burton, Bartali, Coppi and, of course, Merckx himself.

Vos has won all of the most prestigious races in women's road cycling including three World Road Race Championships (2004 Junior Championships, 2006 and 2012 Elite Championships, two European Championships, six National Championships and an Olympic Road Race gold medal in 2012. In addition, she has won two National Time Trial championships (despite claiming not to be very good at time trials), more than 70 stages, 18 criteriums and 30 general classifications. By her 26th birthday, on this day in 2013, her total number of victories in road racing, cyclo cross, track and mountain biking added up to 279. Merckx clocked up 525 by the time he retired shortly before his 33rd birthday; at 26 it's entirely likely that Marianne is just about to enter her best years (it's worth noting that when Merckx was 26, he had won around 40 fewer races than Marianne) - the great Belgian has been asked for his thoughts on her by several journalists and makes it clear that he admires her enormously, perhaps even expecting her to beat his tally sooner or later.

Vos is also known for being one of the most personable professional cyclists around. Highly intelligent and articulate, she regularly talks to fans on Twitter and is as popular among the riders who race against her as she is with her supporters. If you don't already follow women's cycling, Vos is one of many reasons to start doing so - all indications suggest that we have not seen her like in professional cycling before, one who is limited not by her own abilities but by the number of races available to her.

Johnny Hoogerland 

Johnny Hoogerland
(image credit: Thomas Ducroquet
CC BY-SA 3.0)

Born in Yerseke, Netherlands on this day in 1983, Johnny Hoogerland became one of the stars of the 2011 Tour de France for his repeated attacks, five days in the polka dot jersey as leader of the King of the Mountains classification and a horrific crash that could very easily have ended his career.

Nicknamed The Bull of Beveland due to a large tattoo depicting a bull on his arm, Hoogerland came to international attention when he won the Junior Tour of Flanders in 2001 and then followed it up with numerous wins over the next few years, including the tough GP Briek Schotte - a race designed to reveal those riders who can be aid to be Flandriens, the toughest cyclists of them all, of which Schotte is considered to be the definitive example.

Hoogerland - a Flandrien to the core
(unknown copyright, believed public domain due to widespread use)

It was at the 2011 Tour that Hoogerland proved just how tough he is. During Stage 9, as he cycled alongside Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha, an inattentive driver in France Télévisions official car realised he was about to hit a tree. Rather than slamming on the car's brakes - as all drivers at the Tour are trained to do - he swerved right, hitting the two riders. Flecha hit the road hard and received extensive bruising, but Hoogerland was catapulted into a barbed wire fence hard enough to smash a wooden fence post and become entangled in the wire, which tore his shorts to shreds and left him with deep lacerations to his buttocks and legs.

Both men got back on their bikes and finished the stage. Organisers extended the maximum permitted time so that they could do without being disqualified, then jointly awarded them what must have been the most-deserved Combativity Award for many years. Afterwards, Hoogerland was given 33 stitches.

Peter Longbottom
Peter Longbottom, born in Huddersfield on this day in 1959, was one of those cyclists whom were there any justice in this world would have been a household name. Respected among cyclists for his superb tactical mind, he was for many years in high demand among Tour of Britain teams for his ability to re-organise a team "on the road" according to rider performance, terrain, weather, opponents and a host of variable factors; frequently getting it correct and driving his team mates on to victory even when aware that he himself could not win. His skills saw him ride with Chris Boardman, assisting him at the Commonwealth Games, yet he chose never to turn professional and worked a full-time job even during the racing season.

Longbottom retired from competition in 1996 and spent the remaining two years of his life encouraging young people to take up the sport. On the 10th of February 1998, he was hit by a car on the A64 near York, the impact throwing him onto the opposite carriageway where eye-witnesses say he was hit by several vehicles


Gerrit de Vries, born in Oldeberkoop, Netherlands on this day in 1967 (and, so far as we can tell, no relation to Marijn de Vries of AA Drink-Leontien.nl) shared victory in the 1986 Amateur World Team Time Trial Championship. A a professional rider he took part in six editions of the Tour de France, his best result being 34th overall in 1991.

Eugène Van Roosbroeck was born in Antwerp on this day in 1928. At the time of writing, he is the oldest of the three surviving members of the gold medal-winning road race team at the 1948 Olympics.

Nino Schurter, born in Tersnaus, Switzerland on this day in 1986, was World Cross Country Mountain Bike Champion in 2009.

Other cyclists born on this day: David López García (Euskadi, 1981); Tony Gowland (Great Britain, 1965); Fitzgerald Joseph (Belize, 1967); Morten Sæther (Norway, 1959); Marc Blouin (Canada, 1953); Josef Landsberg (Sweden, 1890, died 1964); Domenico Cecchetti (San Marino, 1941); Eugène Van Roosbroeck (Belgium, 1928); Pavel Cherkasov (USSR, 1972); Edoardo Severgnini (Italy, 1904, died 1969); Thomas Harrison (Australia, 1942); Mark Barry (Great Britain, 1964).

Daily Cycling Facts 13.05.12

Stefano Garzelli
(image credit: Sebastián García CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Giro d'Italia started on this date five times - 1909 (see below), 1981, 1982, 1995 and 2000. In 1981, the race consisted of 22 stages and covered 3,895km. The winner was Giovanni Battaglin who had also won the amateur version of the race nine years earlier and would go on to win the Vuelta a Espana five months later, one of only three men to have won both races in a single season. The 1982 edition was again 22 stages, but it had grown to 4,010.5km. Bernard Hinault won, then won the Tour de France - the Giro/Tour double being considered a more impressive achievement than the Giro/Vuelta though seven men have achieved it, three of them twice (Hinault became one of them in 1985) and one three times (that, as tends to be the case with unique road racing achievements, being Eddy Merckx).

By 1995, the race had shrunk down to 3,736km but retained the 22 stage format. Marco Pantani had been a favourite but was kept away by injury, which left the unusual spectacle of sprinter and a climber battling one another for victory: Mario Cipollini was the sprinter and Tony Rominger was the climber, and they fought one another tooth and nail but on different stages all the way to the end. In the end, Rominger's secondary ability in the time trials stood him in good stead and he won the race. In 2000 there were 21 stages and a prologue, adding up to 3,676km in total. Stefano Garzelli won with 98h30'14".

The First Giro d'Italia

Luigi Ganna, photographed
shortly after finishing Stage 8
at the first Giro d'Italia

1909 was the very first edition of the Giro d'Italia. Organised like most races of the day to advertise a newspaper (La Gazzetta dello Sport on this case; which like L'Auto, the paper that organised the Tour de France, wanted to out-sell and ideally completely crush a rival title - the difference being that whereas L'Auto's rival Le Vélo was dead and buried within a year of the first Tour, Corriere della Sera sells around 220,000 more copies each day than La Gazzetta.

The race covered 2,445km over eight stages which, despite the daunting prospect of stages an average of 306km in length (the longest was in fact 397km, Stage 1), makes it the shortest edition ever held. Stage racing was a new concept when the Tour started in 1903 and as a result only 60 riders took part - and then only because director Henri Desgrange halved the entry fee and increase the prizes - but six years later the idea was both established and popular with a number of smaller events having sprung up in the intervening years (sadly, none have survived. The Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, first run in 1911, is the world's third oldest stage race), so 123 Italians and four Frenchmen showed up at the start line. Another similarity with the Tour was that the results were decided on points in early editions, rather than on overall elapsed time as is the case today, with the lowest number of points getting the win. Luigi Ganna, born in Induno Olana in 1883, was declared victor with 25 - had it have been decided in the modern manner, his time of 89h48'14" would have seen Giovanni Rossignoli (third place with 40 points) take the honour.

The race started and finished in Milan, the riders setting off on Stage 1 at 02:53 in the morning. Ganna's prize was 5,325 lira, while La Gazzetta editor and race director Eugenio Costamagna was paid the princely sum of 150 lira. La Gazzetta, incidentally, was and still is printed on pink paper - which is why the race leader's jersey, known as the maglia rosa and first adopted in 1931, is pink; just as the Tour de France's maillot jaune is yellow to reflect the yellow paper used by L'Auto.

Marianne Vos - very possibly the greatest
cyclist in the history of the sport
(image credit: Maarten Thys CC BY 3.0)

Marianne Vos
If you've been reading these Daily Cycling Facts and wondering, as I did while writing them, why it is that an apparently smaller number of notable professional professional cyclists were born in May than any other month, here's the reason: when Marianne Vos was born on this day in 1987, she was given the entire month's-worth of talent for several years in either direction.

A native of 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, Vos has already had a career that surpasses that of most of the lauded cycling greats; a phenomenal athlete and very welcome to younger fans who missed out on seeing the greats of days gone by, riders such as Hinault, Merckx, Ancquetil, Burton, Bartali, Coppi and the like. Now 25, it's entirely likely that she will improve still further in the coming years and may yet eclipse them all. When it was announced that Tom Boonen had achieved an extremely respectable 100 wins during his career, a quick count revealed Vos had more than 143 to her name, not including stage wins - despite being six years younger.

Vos leading Kirsten Wild
(© Eddy Fever CC2.0)

Vos has already won the majority of the most prestigious races in women's road cycling including a World Road Race Championship, three National Road Race Championships, three editions of the Holland Ladies' Tour and La Flèche Wallonne Féminine, the Giro Donne and numerous other events. To that list, she can add five World Cyclo Cross Championships, four National Cyclo Cross Championships, all the premier European cyclo cross races and a whole host of track cycling World and National titles. That's not to mention her junior titles on the road, on the track and in mountain biking - the latter being a discipline to which she has hinted she may return in the coming years.

Vos is also known for being one of the most personable professional cyclists around. Highly intelligent and articulate, she regularly talks to fans on Twitter and is as popular among the riders who race against her as she is with her supporters. As the finest all-rounder of her generation (and many before), she is frequently called "the female Eddy Merckx," but if she continues to ride as successfully as she has to date it's only a matter of time until her palmares eclipses even his.

Johnny Hoogerland 

Johnny Hoogerland
(image credit: Thomas Ducroquet
CC BY-SA 3.0)

Born in Yerseke, Netherlands on this day in 1983, Johnny Hoogerland became one of the stars of the 2011 Tour de France for his repeated attacks, five days in the polka dot jersey as leader of the King of the Mountains classification and a horrific crash that could very easily have ended his career.

Nicknamed The Bull of Beveland due to a large tattoo depicting a bull on his arm, Hoogerland came to international attention when he won the Junior Tour of Flanders in 2001 and then followed it up with numerous wins over the next few years, including the tough GP Briek Schotte - a race designed to reveal those riders who can be aid to be Flandriens, the toughest cyclists of them all, of which Schotte is considered to be the definitive example.

Hoogerland - a Flandrien to the core
(unknown copyright, believed public domain due to widespread use)

It was at the 2011 Tour that Hoogerland proved just how tough he is. During Stage 9, as he cycled alongside Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha, an inattentive driver in France Télévisions official car realised he was about to hit a tree. Rather than slamming on the car's brakes - as all drivers at the Tour are trained to do - he swerved right, hitting the two riders. Flecha hit the road hard and received extensive bruising, but Hoogerland was catapulted into a barbed wire fence hard enough to smash a wooden fence post and become entangled in the wire, which tore his shorts to shreds and left him with deep lacerations to his buttocks and legs.

Both men got back on their bikes and finished the stage. Organisers extended the maximum permitted time so that they could do without being disqualified, then jointly awarded them what must have been the most-deserved Combativity Award for many years. Afterwards, Hoogerland was given 33 stitches.

Peter Longbottom
Peter Longbottom, born in Huddersfield on this day in 1959, was one of those cyclists whom were there any justice in this world would have been a household name. Respected among cyclists for his superb tactical mind, he was for many years in high demand among Tour of Britain teams for his ability to re-organise a team "on the road" according to rider performance, terrain, weather, opponents and a host of variable factors; frequently getting it correct and driving his team mates on to victory even when aware that he himself could not win. His skills saw him ride with Chris Boardman, assisting him at the Commonwealth Games, yet he chose never to turn professional and worked a full-time job even during the racing season.

Longbottom retired from competition in 1996 and spent the remaining two years of his life encouraging young people to take up the sport. On the 10th of February 1998, he was hit by a car on the A64 near York, the impact throwing him onto the opposite carriageway where eye-witnesses say he was hit by several vehicles


Gerrit de Vries, born in Oldeberkoop, Netherlands on this day in 1967 (and, so far as we can tell, no relation to Marijn de Vries of AA Drink-Leontien.nl) shared victory in the 1986 Amateur World Team Time Trial Championship. A a professional rider he took part in six editions of the Tour de France, his best result being 34th overall in 1991.

Eugène Van Roosbroeck was born in Antwerp on this day in 1928. At the time of writing, he is the oldest of the three surviving members of the gold medal-winning road race team at the 1948 Olympics.

Nino Schurter, born in Tersnaus, Switzerland on this day in 1986, was World Cross Country Mountain Bike Champion in 2009.

Other births: David López García (Euskadi, 1981); Tony Gowland (Great Britain, 1965); Fitzgerald Joseph (Belize, 1967); Morten Sæther (Norway, 1959); Marc Blouin (Canada, 1953); Josef Landsberg (Sweden, 1890, died 1964); Domenico Cecchetti (San Marino, 1941); Eugène Van Roosbroeck (Belgium, 1928); Pavel Cherkasov (USSR, 1972); Edoardo Severgnini (Italy, 1904, died 1969); Thomas Harrison (Australia, 1942); Mark Barry (Great Britain, 1964).

Tour de France: Stage 16 Debrief - nice day for ducks, nasty day for Schlecks

Stage 16 began under a dark cloud even though it was unexpectedly warm and sunny at Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux this morning with the sad news that Patrick Guay, a 59-year-old subcontractor working for the Tour, had been found dead. Original reports suggesting that his body had been recovered from a river proved unfounded when the ASO issued a press release stating that he had been found next to his car. Mr. Guay was the uncle of Quick Step rider Jerome Pineau who wore black bands on his arms during the stage as a sign of mourning. Guay was himself a professional cyclist during the 1970s; coming 3rd in Stage 5 of the 1976 Tour de l'Avenir. This was his 27th time working at the race and, for what little it's worth, our sympathy is with his family and friends.

Good to see David Millar riding out at
the front today.

Despite the forecasts of atrocious weather and hazardous conditions throughout the entire parcours the early sections of the race turned out to be pleasant with a decent tailwind to keep the peloton ticking over nicely, making it impossible for a breakaway group to form until later on in the day. The racing began at 13:13 and a Vacansoleil rider mounted an attack immediately but was pulled back in almost immediately.

The peloton remained intact at the 15km point when a gang of four managed to build a brief gap, but with the mighty HTC-Highroad team in the driving seat it was cursed the moment it got going and they were also caught by 16km. Somebody from Sky tried his luck a short while later but had even less success. Another gang, this time numbering eight riders tried again after around 30 minutes of racing, achieving a lead of about 50m at one point, but with the peloton still cruising like fast yachts on the tailwind their fifteen minutes of fame was cut down to just two minutes.

An assortment of others tested the waters, but nothing happened until eventually a group including Juan Antonio Flecha, David Millar, Sylvain Chavenel and others got to work and finally got out in front. They were joined for short while by Confidis' Leonardo Duque who, without obvious cause, signaled for the medics' car - however, he was soon on his way (albeit no longer as part of the breakaway) so it appears whatever problem he was having turned out to be minor.

Lieuwe Westra and then Ryder Hesjedal and Jerome Roy began to counter-attack, encouraging a fifteen man counter-counter-attack to form. Eleven of them, including Johnny Hoogerland caught him and stayed in front of the peloton as the feeding station approached. By now, conditions had worsened and rain was falling, making it reportedly impossible for some riders to release their handlebars and grab the musettes. Rumours began to circulate that race officials were considering abandoning the final loop up and around the Col de Manse with its notoriously difficult descent, but these were rapidly quashed.

Edvald Boasson Hagen took
second place.

By now, as the 91km mark came round, the lead group contained 14 riders including the two Norwegians Thor Hushovd and Edvald Boasson Hagen riding with a gap of just 13", but numbers soon dropped to 10 as various chancers discovered they were unable to match the pace and effort of keeping ahead of a peloton which had recorded an average speed of 46.4kmph during the second hour of the race.

By now the weather was very wet indeed, reducing visibility and soaking the riders. Temperatures had also dropped sharply to 11 degrees C which, combined with the wet, is easily cold enough to leave riders uncomfortable, demoralised and in pain as muscles begin to seize up.

"shit weather,shit summer,shit morale, shit pain " (@andy_kloedi, Twitter)

Once again, various counter-attackers sought to reel them back into the pack, but none could do so and the gap had soon been increased to over two minutes, allowing them an easy passage through the intermediate sprint - which neither they nor the peloton bothered to contest. Quick Step's Dries Devenyns cruised through with nobody even bothered to contest it - as was the case when the peloton rumbled through - and took the 20 points shortly before Mikhail Ignatyev decided he'd had more than enough of that boring lot and decided to attack, getting himself out in front. 2. Jeremy Roy, 17pts; 3. Tony Martin 15pts; 4. Thor Hushovd 13pts; 5. Rider Hesjedal 11pts; 6. Andriy Grivko 10pts; 7. Marco Marcato 9pts; 8. Mikhail Ignatyev 8pts; 9. Alan Perez Lezaun 7pts; 10. Edvald Boasson Hagen 6pts; 11. Fabrice Jeandesboz 5pts; 12. Samuel Dumoulin 4pts; 13. Bauke Mollema 3pts; 14. Blel Kadri 2pts 15. Sebastien Minard 1pt.

Out on the frontline, Hushovd went to work on Ignatyev and after a fight managed to drag him partially back by the time they passed the 20km to go point before he returned to the group and Devenyns and Perez Lezaun took over pursuit duties, but he managed to increase his advantage to 22" and Andriy Grivko was dropped and began the journey back to the peloton. Hushovd was soon back on the case, this time accompanied by Hesjedal, and they got him down to just 8" on the slopes of the Col de Manse; eventually catching and dropping him with 16km to go.

Mikhail Ignatyev earned the Combativity award.

Then, back in the peloton, something that many people had given up all hope of seeing every again: a classic Contador attack. El Pistolero showed precisely why he should never be underestimated when he stood up on the pedals and surged ahead for all the world as though there was no gradient at all. Andy Schleck responded, closely followed by brother Frank, soon to be joined by Cadel Evans, Thomas Voeckler and - of all people - Fabian Cancellara who seems recently to have developed the ability to climb, a skill virtually unheard of among time trial specialists.

It appears that Saxobank have been studying Andy very carefully indeed, and they might just have worked out how to defeat him. Contador's team mate Danial Navarro attacked the chasing group, pressuring the two Luxembourgers to put in more effort and then, when Contador attacked again, the Schlecks cracked - neither was able to respond, leaving Cadel Evans to go after and catch him. This was a bigger surprise than the early fine weather and Contador's tactics combined and all of Europe rang with a clicking noise as hundreds of thousands of book-keepers grabbed their calculators and worked out new odds. It seems that the king is not dead after all, but the next-in-line isn't looking too perky.

Up the hill, Samuel Sanchez had joined forces with Evans and Contador after stating that if it came down to it he would offer support to his countryman. Meanwhile, Hushovd and Boasson Hagen were trailing 10" behind Hesjedal out at the front and Martin and Ignatyev were 30" behind them. As the summit passed and the trio began the long and perilous descent, Boasson Hagen took the lead for a while. This section had been predicted to be lethal with a high risk of leaves and mud on sharp bends to add to the dangers of road surfaces already made hazardous by mud. Immediately over the top it looked to be dry, but this turned out to be a small patch that had somehow escaped the rain falling since early morning in the area and conditions turned dangerous very soon.

Evans couldn't catch Contador on the way up - though he remained close - but he got the better of him on the way back down, out-braving the Spaniard around the bends and keeping his speed just that little bit higher. This, however, was all mind games as the pair engaged in a bit of psychological combat, because far ahead the Norwegian/Canadian trio were within 3.5 km of the finish line. There was no doubt now that one of them would be winning the stage, but as of yet no way to tell which. Into the final kilometre, Hesjedal was in the lead with Boasson Hagen right behind him and Hushovd on his rear wheel, so it all came down to a final mini-sprint.

Thor Hushovd, now with Garmin-Cervelo, won his second
stage if the Tour.

Boasson Hagen, proving why he's one of the most respected youth category riders in cycling, was too fast for Hesjedal, beating him across the finish line by 2"; but he wasn't quite fast enough for Hushovd who just pipped him to the post for his second stage win of the Tour as several other riders were still picking their way down into Gap on the descent. Thankfully, only one crash took place - FDJ's Arnold Jeannesson lost his grip at almost the exact same place that Joseba Beloki did back in 2003, though today it certainly was caused by tarmac melting in the sun, this also being one of the exact spots that we predicted a crash was most likely to happen in the Stage 13 Preview, so bow down before us. Oh, and we also predicted Thor as a possible winner too, but we later decided Chavenel was a more likely candidate so we can't really claim success with that one.

"That was great. Good fun that stage. Few more stages like that and we will be in Paris in no time." (Ben Swift, @swiftybswift, Twitter)

The big question today is: what the hell happened to the Schlecks? Can today be seen as proof that Andy's disappointing performance thus far this year has not been down to poor timing, psychological games or plain old sand-bagging and that he's actually just on bad form this year? Ardent Schleckies that we are, we have to confess we're seriously beginning to wonder and no longer believe he can win this Tour. Sorry, Andy.

Frank Schleck revealed his
natural grace today.

We haven't forgotten that highly impressive turn of speed he found as he approached the top of Plateau de Beille and we still think that had he accelerated a little earlier he could have won that stage. Climbers famously suffer more in bad conditions due to their virtually non-existent body fat and both Schlecks will certainly have suffered today as a result. That means there's still just a tiny chance that they'll do well in the real Alps still to come. As Frank said: "Bjarne [Rijs] is behind this. He knows we don't like the bad weather and the descent. Congratulations to them, it's a nice one."

The only trouble is, it's predicted to be 6 degrees C at Sestrieres tomorrow, the Category 1 climb where Andy was expected to do well. Worse still, it snowed today on Galibier and the temperature there is unlikely to climb any higher than 4 degrees for the rest of the week. Like we said - sorry, Andy. Maybe next year.

That Andy is angry would indeed seem to be the case as he uncharacteristically laid into Tour organisers and made his thoughts on the latter part of the stage very clear soon after it was over, though being Andy he kept his language considerably more polite than almost anyone else would have done in his situation: "People don't want a race that is decided in a downhill. We don't want crashes or thoughtless risks," he told reporters. "We have families waiting for us at home. Do the public want a fair race or a race which ends in hospital?"

It has to be said that Andy probably has a point - last week we said we would not support any measure aimed at slowing cycling down, the ASO and UCI obviously have a duty not to endanger riders' health and lives. The descent from Col de Manse is infamous and widely considered one of the Tour's most dangerous and it's arguable that with the treacherous conditions already expected this morning the final loop should have been cancelled.

Anyway; no injuries in those conditions = everyone wins.

"Time lost. Hope remains. Three days in the Alps ahead." (@leopardtrek, Twitter)

"Cool we got a telephone in the room tonight! Think this room is more up to date that last 2 nights!"(a not-that-concerned-about-today @jakob_fuglsang of Team LeopardTrek, Twitter)

Stage 16 Results:

1. HUSHOVD Thor 3h 31' 38"  
2. HAGEN Edvald Boasson + 00' 00"
3. HESJEDAL Ryder + 00' 02"
4. MARTIN Tony + 00' 38"
5. IGNATYEV Mikhail + 00' 52"
6. PEREZ LEZAUN Alan + 01' 25"
7. ROY Jérémy + 01' 25"
8. MARCATO Marco + 01' 55"
9. DEVENYNS Dries + 01' 55"
10. GRIVKO Andriy + 01' 58"



Overall General Classification results following Stage 7:

1. VOECKLER Thomas 69h 00' 56"  
2. EVANS Cadel + 01' 45"
3. SCHLECK Frank + 01' 49"
4. SCHLECK Andy + 03' 03"
5. SANCHEZ Samuel + 03' 26"
6. CONTADOR Alberto + 03' 42"
7. BASSO Ivan + 03' 49"
8. CUNEGO Damiano + 04' 01"
9. DANIELSON Tom + 06' 04"
10. URAN Rigoberto + 07' 55"


Points: Mark Cavendish; Climber: Jelle Vanendert; Youth: Rigoberto Uran; Team: Garmin-Cervelo; Combativity: Mikhail Ignatyev.

New rules in wake of Stage 9 incident

Following the crash caused by a French TV camera car in Stage 9, which saw Juan Antonio Flecha and Johnny Hoogerland escape serious injury by sheer good fortune alone, the ASO has announced new rules aimed at preventing a similar incident from re-occuring. Just announced on the Tour's live ticker, they are:

Hoogerland required 33
stitches after being thrown
into a barbed wire fence in
the Stage 9 crash.

Cars wishing to follow the race must remain two minutes behind, but this will be varied according to the nature of the road.


At any one time, cars following directly behind the peloton will be limited to no more than eight, of which four will be those of Tour organisers and four media vehicles.


Media vehicles must contain two accredited journalists with press passes in order to ensure one is concentrating on driving safely and not also taking photographs, notes etc.


All vehicles will now only be permitted to overtake a breakaway group one at a time and only with permission from race organisers.

Tour de France: Stage 9 Debrief

Another day of carnage in a Tour de France that is beginning to look like Henri Desgrange's ideal: one in which only one rider finishes.

Vinokourov's Tour - and his
career - are over.

One crash, in which a number of riders came off the road while descending Puy Mary and down a steep bank, accounted for three. Jurgen van de Broeck, looking dazed and concussed with a bloody wound on one leg, attempted to continue but didn't more than a few kilometres before the pain of a suspected broken scapula forced him to stop. David Zabriskie, also stunned, sustained a broken wrist. Christian Vendevelde, who had to abandon last year with broken ribs, also had to throw in the towel, as did van den Broeck's team mate Frederik Willems, which means that as Jurgen van der Walle has already gone Omega-Pharma Lotto have already lost one third of their riders.

"Worst crash I've ever seen." (David Millar)

Perhaps worst injured was Alexander Vinokourov with a broken femur, possible broken pelvis and according to early reports a possible broken shoulder. Unable to walk as he was lifted to the road by a medic and an Astana team mate - raising the horrible suspicion that he had broken his back - the 37-year-old Kazakh rider was due to retire at the end of this season, but it looks like that decision has now been brought forward. Later on, a French TV camera car attempted to overtake the breakaway group along the roadside verge - the driver failed to spot a tree and swerved to miss it rather than slamming on the brakes and took out Juan Antonio Flecha and Johnny Hoogerland. Both men went down hard - Flecha took the worst impact while Hoogerland went over the top of him and into a barbed wire fence. Both men lost a lot of time and with 35km to go had no prospect of catching up, raising the potential of disqualification due to exceeding the time limit - however, even the ASO aren't that heartless and soon announced that not only would they be waiving the rule should the limit be reached, they were also taking the highly unusually step of awarding both men the stage's Combativity award after they got back on their bikes and rode together to the finish line, a sight destined to become one of the greatest Tour moments. Hoogerlands also took the King of the Mountains award after a superb ride earlier in the day.

In an earlier incident, Alberto Contador crashed and landed hard, visibly suffering a painful hip. Later, a video appeared online which appeared to show him being deliberately pushed by Katusha leader Vladimir Karpets. Contador, still embroiled in an ongoing battle to clear his name following a questionable positive anti-dope test, is not a popular man at all at present; but it seems cycling fans are on the whole a reasonably fair-minded bunch because about 99% of the ones on Twitter immediate called for Karpets to be thrown out of the Tour. Once it was pointed out by various others, including blogger Inrng and ourselves, that the video had been shot from an angle that really showed very little at all the majority settled down and waited for further information to come through. Contador explained all once the race was over: "I got my handlebar tangled up with his seat. I got knocked off balance and crashed," he told reporters waiting at the finish and desperately hoping for a juicy vendetta.

The question is, where do we go from here? Should the Tour be made slower, safer, less exciting? Or should we revel in the fact that, alone among developed nations, France continues to allow adults to risk life and limb in the pursuit of this great spectacle, the greatest sporting event the world has ever seen?

"I think these crashes, they're part of the sport - I don't think there's more crashes than before." (Philippe Gilbert)

The best games are those in which skill and luck both play a part. Cycling is a very dangerous sport - it always has been, whether or not it's become more dangerous or not is a matter for debate - but like Giro d'Italia boss Angelo Zomegnan says, "they can stay at home if the prefer." Nobody is forced to do it against their will. In fact, the complete opposite is true - there is no way anyone will ever become good enough to compete in professional cycling unless they adore the sport.

The future development of safety equipment such as helmets should and will continue and perhaps there is even a case for looking at the number of riders entered into the Tour each year since many crashes seem to be caused by simply by over-crowded roads, but those who compete know the risks and this mad, dangerous, beautiful event must never be slowed down.

Voeckler

Anyway, the race was once again characterised by a breakaway group. An early attempt led by Lieuwe Westra failed quickly, being caught within 7km during the first flatter sections, but another formed after a crash involving David Millar and three others when Thomas Voeckler attacked and managed to split the peloton into three parts. Several riders went with him but were soon dropped, eventually leaving him with Flecha and Hoogerland nad the three remained around 15" ahead of Luis-Leon Sanchez, Sandy Casar and Niki Terpstra for some time with the peloton a minute behind the leaders. At about the same time, Wouter Poels abandoned.

By around 13:32, Sanchez and co. had caught Voeckler's group and the riders worked together to increase their lead as the peloton regrouped, soon upping the gap to 3'35" by 57km. Amets Txurruka, involved in the crash earlier, quit the race, followed by Pavel Brutt just minutes later. These early abandons were evidence that today was going to be hard-going, as was Arnaud Coyot when he was seen vomiting at the roadside. As the escapees reached 84km, just before embarking on the first of the Category 2 climbs, the gap had been reduced to 3'10" and it began to look as though they were going to be caught on the slopes of Puy Mary, the volcano which proved to be one of the best parts of the stage. It was at about that time that the Contador-Karpets incident took place - the three-times Tour winner was soon on his way back to the peloton, though an issue with his rear derailleur required some technically-against-the-rules on-the-fly repair work.

The three kept going, encouraged no doubt by the Devil who was waiting to cheer them on up Puy Mary's slopes - right where we said he'd be, incidentally! - but the gap had decreased even more to 2'40" by the time they reached the next climb. However, the peloton were still heading up the volcano, so the leaders were able to hammer on again and stretch it out to 3'35" by the time they reached the Col du Perthus, where Hoogerland collected five points.

Hoogerland had cpme very close to what would have been a pontentially very nasty crash while descending, having to unclip from his left pedal and put his foot out in order to remain upright as he negotiated a fast bend. Sadly, those riders involved along with Vinokourov in the big crash were not as fortunate and as Hoogerland saved himself, the Tour came to an abrupt end for several riders.

The peloton had slowed, word of the severity having reached the front of the pack where the leaders apparently made a decision to wait for their fallen comrades, which allowed the gap to increase to over six minutes as the escapees made it to the summit of the Col de Cere, where Hoogerland collected another two points for being first to the top. He couldn't keep up with Voeckler on the way down, but before long the Frenchman was going too fast for comfort and the two agreed to slow things down and travel at a safer rate. Millar, suffering from the effects of his crash, called for assistance but was able to continue just as news came through that David Zabriskie had abandoned. Confirmation of Frederik Willems' decision to leave arrived five minutes later.

The peloton split into two again as some riders found themselves unable to continue at the high speeds thus far maintained. Hoogerland was first once again over the Col du Prat de Bouc and the trio had made it to 38km to go with a 5' minute advantage shortly afterwards; making it look rather as though we were going to see a second successful breakaway in as many days. But, it was not to be, for it was at this time that the car got too close.

Voeckler had now joined forced with Casar and Sachez, crossing the intermediate sprint finish line just behind the former and just ahead of the latter. Flecha, working hard to catch them, was almost 2' minutes behind - which, though they were bearing down upon him, was still ahead of the peloton so he collected the 13 points for 4th place. An unchallenged Philippe Gilbert was the first of the main group through and took 11 points. Cavendish, for once, didn't bother.

Stage winner Luis-Leon Sanchez

Flech's efforts had been admirable but he'd fallen hard - most riders would not have continued had they have been through a crash like the one he had - and the stress showed because he simply could not keep the pace set by Voeckler's gang. He had now dropped back to 3'10" behind and was fading fast. Meanwhile, a blood-soaked Hoogerland was still going: he was 6'53" seconds behind, but he was still going.

Minutes later, as the leaders passed the 20km to go banner, the peloton caught Flecha. When they reached 15km Hoogerland was 12'30" back, but still going.

Flecha had had all he could take, but as he began to fall away from the peloton nobody could possibly doubt that he can take a hell of a lot. He was still falling back as Sanchez crossed the finish line closely followed by first Voeckler and then Casar. Though they came first and though their race was admirable, they're not the heroes today.

Hoogerland and Flecha have earned themselves an entire chapter in the road racing history books.

Stage 9 Results:

1. SANCHEZ Luis-Leon 5h 27' 09"  
2. VOECKLER Thomas + 00' 05"
3. CASAR Sandy + 00' 13"
4. GILBERT Philippe + 03' 59"
5. VELITS Peter + 03' 59"
6. EVANS Cadel + 03' 59"
7. SCHLECK Andy + 03' 59"
8. MARTIN Tony + 03' 59"
9. SCHLECK Frank + 03' 59"
10. CUNEGO Damiano + 03' 59"


Overall General Classification results after Stage 9:

1. VOECKLER Thomas 38h 35' 11"  
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"


Points: Philippe Gilbert; Youth: Robert Gesink; Mountains: Johnny Hoogerland; Team: Europcar; Combativity: Johnny Hoogerland and Juan Antonio Flecha.


Arse of the day: some idiot (and hopefully now ex-)car driver with Franch TV.