As a cycling fan and someone who is a cynical character, I was somewhat peturbed to see the British Team SKY cycling squad ride the way they did in last night’s major mountain stage of the Criterium du Dauphine.
At the bottom of the Joux Plane, an extremely hard mountain near Morzine in France, Sky took control of the race and rode tempo, shedding their opponents one by one until only the core of the best riders in the field remained.
At the top of the climb, Tasmanian Richie Porte, Canberra’s Michael Rogers, Brits Froome and Wiggins remained for Sky, guiding the husk of the peloton over the mountain, along with defending Tour de France champion Cadel Evans and a Belgian and Dutchman.
It was a great show of strength although I have some doubt about just how hard they were going considering a young Colombian zipped off the front near the top of the climb and soloed away for the win but to see a team ride with such strength in depth is a worry for anyone who is concerned about how clean the sport is.
The last time a team looked so strong was in the 2008 Tour de France when CSC dominated and a managed to conjure a victory for the unfashionable Carlos Sastre.
Before then of course Lance Armstrong’s juggernaut which included sprinters and domestiques winning mountain stages dominated all but it was a trend that seemed to disappear in the last few years but has unfortunately reasserted itself in 2012 with the dominance of SKY in this particular race.
No one begrudges a team in building a strong base of riders but when they start to take all before it the way SKY did last night then for me as a cycling fan it reasserts a dangerous trend that I would prefer went away.
Not only does it raise doubts about the legitimacy of performance, especially when some of the riders concerned have not produced such efforts for years, not since they were riding on teams known to be very dodgy, but it nullifies the race, attacking is lost as an option due to the strength of the team and opponents are forced into risky options as Cadel Evans was last night, jumping away downhill on a tricky descent, only to gain a few seconds.
Now the Tour de France may turn out to be a very different beast with riders such as Evans and Schleck honing their form for July but one suspects that SKY will try to dominate as they have at the Dauphine and if the same results are achieved in the Tour then it could be very dull July indeed.
At the bottom of the Joux Plane, an extremely hard mountain near Morzine in France, Sky took control of the race and rode tempo, shedding their opponents one by one until only the core of the best riders in the field remained.
At the top of the climb, Tasmanian Richie Porte, Canberra’s Michael Rogers, Brits Froome and Wiggins remained for Sky, guiding the husk of the peloton over the mountain, along with defending Tour de France champion Cadel Evans and a Belgian and Dutchman.
It was a great show of strength although I have some doubt about just how hard they were going considering a young Colombian zipped off the front near the top of the climb and soloed away for the win but to see a team ride with such strength in depth is a worry for anyone who is concerned about how clean the sport is.
The last time a team looked so strong was in the 2008 Tour de France when CSC dominated and a managed to conjure a victory for the unfashionable Carlos Sastre.
Before then of course Lance Armstrong’s juggernaut which included sprinters and domestiques winning mountain stages dominated all but it was a trend that seemed to disappear in the last few years but has unfortunately reasserted itself in 2012 with the dominance of SKY in this particular race.
No one begrudges a team in building a strong base of riders but when they start to take all before it the way SKY did last night then for me as a cycling fan it reasserts a dangerous trend that I would prefer went away.
Not only does it raise doubts about the legitimacy of performance, especially when some of the riders concerned have not produced such efforts for years, not since they were riding on teams known to be very dodgy, but it nullifies the race, attacking is lost as an option due to the strength of the team and opponents are forced into risky options as Cadel Evans was last night, jumping away downhill on a tricky descent, only to gain a few seconds.
Now the Tour de France may turn out to be a very different beast with riders such as Evans and Schleck honing their form for July but one suspects that SKY will try to dominate as they have at the Dauphine and if the same results are achieved in the Tour then it could be very dull July indeed.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 