Young American Leaders
It is difficult to find the superlatives needed to describe the jaw-dropping open to this European racing season, one that for me truly began on March 6 in Siena with the Strada Bianche. That intense collection of stars on their roster had to have been so far beyond the dreams of promotors and so needed for our beloved yet beleaguered Italian cycling that I am sure a retrenchment of the UCI politic of world-wide expansion of the European racing brand will now occur. The cancellation of the outer-European races (Colombia, Tour Down Under, Tour of California, etc.,) has greatly helped the traditional races of the continent which now delight in having all the “Grand Coureurs” on their start lines, with subsequent television ratings hikes, greater sponsor returns and a passionately excited and quite possibly expanding fan base the result. The evidence than it no longer makes any sense for the UCI to dilute their talent pool as in the past – Tour of California vs Giro anyone? – is clear as day and the sport will be better for it.
I covered the Strade Bianche in a previous article, marveling at the makeup of the final breakaway that included the previous two Tour de France winners just to begin to name the makeup of that sparkling constellation, as well as the unexpected seizure of Trek-Segafredo team leadership by 19-year-old American Quinn Simmons. Simmons went down in a blaze of glory but not before, with his “Chien Fous” (mad dog) racing style, having left everything he had on the white roads of Chianti. He paid for those efforts – and his months of inactivity and development due to his suspension from racing – by dragging himself through the – again, superlatives anyone? – seven days of the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race that followed, but more on that in a bit.
Paris – Nice, first run in 1933, is one of the most famous stage races in the world and to my surprise and delight two young Americans had been awarded team leadership responsibilities as heads of two of the most important racing teams on the circuit. 22-year-old Brandon McNulty of Phoenix, Arizona has been one of the top-performing young racers in the world since his debuts in the sport, having been Junior World Time Trial Champion and winner of the Canadian Junior stage race Tour de l’Abitibi in 2016 and, as yet another fine graduate of the Jonas Carney school of development, winner of the 2019 Tour of Sicily, proudly wearing his Rally Cycling colors. McNulty began this Paris-Nice as leader of UAE-Team Emirates while his teammate and 2020 Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar led in the concurrent Italian stage race.
McNulty struck hard after the two opening sprint stages, placing fourth in the Time Trial, three-seconds behind Primož Roglič the overwhelming stage race star of 2020. McNulty faded a bit on the next day’s lumpy stage to Chiroubles, losing 21” to winner Roglič on the finishing climb but keeping enough in hand to make the podium as holder of the White Jersey denoting the best young rider of the race (I believe it’s under-23 but frankly am not certain). Stage 5 was another for the sprinters thus an easy defense of that classification for him, then, tragically, Brandon McNulty crashed out of Paris-Nice the following day. What remains with me, of the fleeting impressions one absorbs in watching a race, is the sense that McNulty is at ease in the role of leader. I felt a calm, quiet confidence, saw an ability to hold his position in the front of the peloton even without teammates around, and clearly, was impressed by his big motor. Paris-Nice was McNulty’s first race of the year, his injuries were in fact minor and the season is still long. There’s much, much more to come from this young Arizonian.
I was at the Tour of Colombia last year and wrote an article about riding back to the hotel after a stage with the Movistar team. https://www.pelotonperspectives.com/posts/2020/2/15/lk7ccsslxnyrffw757bjwrmlxag2o8
They were so gracious about it that when we finally split up I yelled out a heartfelt thank you when, to my astonishment, a completely American voice yelled back, “Our pleasure man! Anytime…” That was my introduction to young Matteo Jorgenson who at the tender age of 21 was assigned team leadership at Paris-Nice by Movistar, the heralded franchise that is over 40-years old, an eternity in cycling years.
Jorgenson was almost invisible during this Paris-Nice, expertly shepherded near, but not too near, the front the entire race by the steady hand of Joaquín José Rojas, the endearing figure of the Netflix documentary whose declarations of “Dracarys!!!” girded the Movistar for attack. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Jorgenson to have such a figure as Rojas at his service like that, but I can absolutely understand what the team sees in the young American: a steady, reliable and above all, consistent racer as his Points Classification win in the 2019 Tour de l’Avenir (basically the amateur or young rider Tour de France) proves out.
Jorgenson was sixth in the Time Trial at Paris-Nice, two places behind McNulty (and it should be noted, two places ahead of Nielson Powless the American for EF Education-Nippo who was so good at last year’s Tour) moving Jorgenson into fourth overall in the White Jersey competition with Powless in sixth -so three Americans in the top 10 of the best Young Riders, a superb accomplishment.
Jorgenson shadowed McNulty on the climb to Chiroubles, losing 3” to his compatriot while moving into third in the White Jersey competition with the svelte Russian Alexandr Vlasov sandwiched in between. Powless cracked on the day, dropping 1’ 41” on the winner but still managing to hold 10th in the White Jersey race. The abandon of McNulty two days later moved everyone up a place, with Vlasov now wearing White. Stage 7’s mountaintop finish on the Col St. Martin proved fatal to Jorgenson’s assault on the White Jersey, the American losing 53” to Vlasov. Jorgenson dropped to third in the White Jersey with Powless still holding 9th, just behind French star David Gaudu.
The final day of Paris-Nice would have been, treacherous as it was on the day, unimaginable had it been raining. Narrow, twisting roads with sheer cliffs on one side and rock face on the other, roads that steeply plunged up and down the hinterlands behind Nice, roads that claimed victims the entire day. As much as I love a good crazy race, I found this one bordering on the extreme. Roglič crashed hard, dislocated his shoulder and then of course crashed again, unable to handle his machine with one working arm. He creates real drama and heartbreak, this Slovenian does. Yet, battered and hurt – mentally and physically - as he was, his going up to the now winner, Maximillian Schachmann and his offering a sincere look in the eye and a congratulatory fist-bump, speaks volumes to Primož Roglič’s remarkably decent character.
Matteo Jorgenson repaid the Movistar faith in him with a fine 8th place overall, only 1’ 29” off the winner, finishing 3rd in the Young Riders Classification. Neilson Powless ended up 8th in the Young Rider, 25th overall all for an excellent outing by our young American racing class, an outing that bodes so well for the future. Saturday’s La Primavera, Milano-Sanremo, the longest single day race of the year at 300 kilometers, has one American on the start line: Quinn Simmons. May our young wolves continue to rampage or, as the Italians put it, “Bocca al Lupo”.