A Fine Week of Racing

I’d never really followed the Volta a Catalunya (Tour of Catalonia) before and have come away most impressed with this jewel of a race, one that, should travel ever return, would be at the top of my list of events to attend. Catalunya itself is a marvel of a region, boasting both Pyrenees mountains and the Costa Brava sea resorts, all capped of course by the wonderful attractions of its capital city Barcelona.

The race, as with all of the races this year so far, had an absolutely stellar field, with Grand Tour winners Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome, Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana heading the list, and a Peter Sagan, bravely on the road to recovery from a bout of Covid-19, a surprise starter given his general propensity for the northern races. 49 of the starters had won at least one stage in a Grand Tour, with the grand total of GT stage wins from Froome, Valverde, Quintana and Sagan hitting a remarkable 56. A good field indeed.

The race opened in Calella, a seaside resort boasting a famous, two-kilometer-long beach, with a 178-k loop through the hinterlands on roads that were certainly familiar to the professional cycling community based in nearby Girona, aka the Boulder, CO of Europe. An image stood out on that first stage with our first real closeup views of Chris Froome on his comeback trail – which now looks to be a very long one. The seven-time Grand Tour winner is struggling. He also, to my eye, looks quite different on his Factor than he did on his Pinarello bicycle. Whereas on the Pina, Froome seemed perched on the saddle very much in the middle of the bike, his arms bent out to help create that “circle of power” coming from his core the way it did, the saddle low allowing the incredible 120-130 rpm bursts that categorized his knockout blows on the climbs, I now fear that the “theorists” have gotten to him. He looks much higher in the saddle than before, his arms now straight rather than bent out to create more room, and his cadence noticeably slower. He may just be shoving the big gears because he’s in constant crisis; I mean, stepping back into this new, enlivened cycling world after an absence would be a shock to any racer let alone one as broken and damaged as he’s been. Or, because of that dreadful crash he may simply no longer be able to turn those gears in that egg-beater style of yore. A Chris Froome without the ability to turbo-charge those little gears is not the same racer, that same dominant force of the stage racing world. Let’s hope he gets his mojo back along with the ability to astound us with the ferocity of his attacks.

Arizonian Brandon McNulty, who crashed out of Paris-Nice while wearing the White Jersey of Best Young Rider, bounced right back into the spotlight at Catalunya with a sparkling fourth place in the Stage 2 Time Trial, on almost equal time with rising Portuguese start João Almeida, behind winner and twice World Time Trial Champion, Aussie Rohan Dennis and Frenchman Rémi Cavagna. Their good rides on Stage 1 put Almeida in the leader’s jersey and McNulty in second, with a mountain-top finish the next day looming as a leadership test for the young American.

For all of the talk of the “new and young” Movistar team, what was clear, after watching the Valter 2000 finishing climb, which in fact finished at 2100 meters, is that Alejandro Valverde remains their franchise player. After a massive display of force on the part of Rohan Dennis on the first half of the climb, the Ineos-Grenadiers riders looking absolutely imperial, Valverde began a series of attacks that brought him a third on the day behind winner Adam Yates – blossoming in his new Ineos-Grenadiers colors – and a resurgent Esteban Chaves. American Sepp Kuss was very much in the action, Yates having sprung his winning move as a counter off of Kuss’s attack 2-K from the top. Kuss ended up 6th, finishing with Geraint Thomas but ahead of Richie Porte, while fellow countryman McNulty cracked, losing 1’21” on the winner, and 35” on Almeida who was now firmly in the Young Rider jersey.

Esteban Chaves, the first Colombian to win a Monument (Giro di Lombardia 2016) delighted the cycling world with his win on the mountaintop finish on Stage 4. The “Smiling Assassin” has endured setback after setback in his career, from a terrible crash in 2013 to Epstein-Barr and Corona-19 over the past couple of years. Chaves won solo, leaving behind an excellent Michael Woods with Geraint Thomas shepherding race leader Adam Yates to the top just ahead of Sepp Kuss, clearly on fine form. McNulty lost time yet again, slipping to fourth in the Young Rider Classification, now 1’12” down on Almeida. Ineos were now sitting first, second and third in the General Classification, with Valverde fourth. Kuss moved up to ninth overall with McNulty in 15th. I dare say that this Ineos-Grenadiers team is the strongest in the franchise’s history, a scary thought for the Grand Tours to come.

Lennard Kämna, the elegant German on Bora-Hansgohe, won alone on Stage 5 to the pilgrimage town of Manresa, smack in the center of Catalunya, after two thwarted attempts in the mountains on the previous stages. His teammate and leader Peter Sagan shook off the effects of his Covid infection by winning the field sprint with ease on Stage 6 into the beach town of Mataró. None of the Classifications made any change of note, and with the frenetic final stage in Barcelona to come, with its six climbs up Montjuic, the race was far from settled.

What a race that one was, showing the absolute benefit of including at least one circuit race in a stage race. Flat out from the entrance into Barcelona -after an opening 80-k loop (sound familiar any Univest GP racers?) – the pro field simply blasted through the streets of the city with the duo of ever-popular Thomas De Gendt and Slovenian Matej Mohorič, inventor of the “Super Tuck” soon-to-be-banned aerodynamic descending position, stealing a march on the field. Mohorič would drop, really drop, De Gendt on the descent of Montjuic, so much so that he had to sit up and wait for the Belgian each lap, his courtesy of course going unrewarded as De Gendt unceremoniously dropped him on the last time up to the castle for a superb solo win in the very best Thomas De Gendt manner. He is so very good for cycling.

Sepp Kuss lost his top-ten position, victim of the high-speed circuit racing, while McNulty held strong, moving back into third in the Young Rider, finishing 13th overall to Kuss’s 12th. The Ineos-Grenadiers kept their top three spots, with old fox Valverde in fourth, his presumed successor, Enric Mas, 6’02” down in 19th overall. Movistar may have to think about a contract extension if this keeps up.

Adam Yates, who was dropped from the British National team program due to insufficient test scores (where do I begin?) and, luckily in my book, ended up in the hands of old friend Jean-Pierre Duços (aka La Duce) boss of the famed C.C Etupes (yes, the ones who slaughtered the field at the initial Univest GP), the amateur squad that formed Thibaut Pinot and Warren Barguil among many others, seems to have returned home after years abroad. His was a clear-cut win and I look for Adam Yates to challenge for team leadership in the Grand Tours, even within that Ineos-Grenadiers squad so very, almost unfairly, full of the very best cycling talent the world has to offer.