Tom Boonen was the dominant rider in this year's spring Classics. (James Startt)
As racing moves into Tours season, a look back at the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.
By Joe Lindsey
The Classics season is now in the books after Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and it could not have been more similar—and yet more different—than 2011.
The similar: surprise winners of many races, just like in 2011 when Matt Goss won Milan-San Remo and Nick Nuyens took the Tour of Flanders. Also, the domination of a single rider.
The different: The domination took place not on the latter part of the campaign but the early section, as Omega Pharma-Quick-Step star Tom Boonen rode himself into the record books and possibly the history books as there’s talk of him surpassing Roger de Vlaeminck as the greatest Classics racer in the sport.
Riders who were on fire last year were not to be found; riders who’ve raced in the margins of the top 10 for years suddenly broke through. Here’s a look at who emerged victorious from the run of Monuments and semi-Classics over the past 45 days, and who exited with tail between legs.
Winners
The Eastern Bloc: OK, Katusha’s Joaquim Rodríguez was on some favorites lists for the Ardennes Classics, and he responded admirably with a win at Flèche-Wallonne. But if you had Enrico Gasparotto and Maxim Iglinskiy down to win Amstel and Liège, I’d recommend you use the hot hand next time Mega Millions goes so mega.
Gasparotto had some promising results early in his career—an Italian national championship and a stint in the maglia rosa at the Giro d’Italia among them—but until Amstel he had one win in the last three seasons, a stage of Tirreno-Adriatico.
Iglinskiy was a little easier to see coming; he’s been top-10 at Flanders and Gent-Wevelgem, and is a past winner of Strade Bianche. But even though he was second there this year to Fabian Cancellara, he’d had a quiet Classics campaign with relatively anonymous top-15 placings at Amstel and Flèche.
The wins come at a crucial time for Astana, as the team is seeing the twilight of big names like Alexandre Vinokourov, and doesn’t yet know whether Roman Kreuziger can improve on his career-best 5th at last year’s Giro d’Italia. With two major WorldTour wins, they’re looking in good shape for the all-important UCI points needed to gain a ProTeam license.
Peter Sagan: No, Sagan didn’t win any major races (he did get a stage of Tirreno-Adriatico and one of the Driedaagse de Panne). But in the major races he did enter, here are his finishes: Milan-San Remo: 4th; Gent-Wevelgem: 2nd; Tour of Flanders: 5th; Amstel Gold: 3rd.
It’s easy to forget that Sagan is just 22. It’s already his third season on Liquigas-Cannondale. He’s the star of the future for the Classics—this year was just the second time he’s ridden most of those races and he’s already on, or near, the podium. Want more proof? Look at his value chart from the excellent website CQ Ranking:
Peter Sagan's points value chart (CQranking.com)
Europcar: In addition to Thomas Voeckler’s victory at Brabantse Pijl, they had top 10s at E3 Prijs (Alexandre Pichot 8th); Flanders (Voeckler 8th); Paris-Roubaix (Sebastian Turgot 2nd); Amstel (Voeckler 5th); and Liège (Voeckler 4th).
Pierre Rolland tried a solid move at Liège and despite that effort finished 12th. Voeckler took Brabantse Pijl with an aggressive display in bad conditions and might’ve been even better at Liège but for a crash on wet roads that forced him to chase back on late in the race. Turgot was 8th at Scheldeprijs.
The team isn’t the deepest but for a second-division squad, it’s punching far above its weight and at least for now its stars seem happy to stay put.
Patrick Lefevere: Just two seasons ago, Lefevere was captain of a sinking ship. His star rider, Tom Boonen, had seemingly gone to seed.
He sought foreign ownership to shore up sinking finances; held a reach of a training camp to identify prospective talent (which would be akin to an NFL team holding an open tryout because they had no draft analysis); and ended 2011 a lowly 16th out of 18 teams in sporting rank, below such titans as Ag2r and Euskaltel.
Fast forward to April and Lefevere is on top of the world—the top-ranked team, the dominant rider of the spring season, and a stacked roster with sprinters, climbers, Classics racers, Grand Tours specialists, time trialists, you name it. The savviest pickup might not have been a racer at all but ex-Highroad director Brian Holm, an underrated tactician; former Highroad manager Rolf Aldag is also a technical liaison.
Of all the so-called superteams, Omega Pharma emerged the strongest from the off-season, with smart acquisitions. Luck has certainly played a role, and now may begin to work against them as stage racers Tony Martin and Levi Leipheimer are both nursing injuries. Leipheimer has a fractured fibula and is said to be recovering more slowly than he’d hoped; he’s questionable for his favored Tour of California.
Niki Terpstra: If not for Boonen, Terpstra would have been OPQS’s best performer this spring. He won Dwars door Vlaanderen, was sixth at Flanders riding in support of Boonen, and was perhaps an untimely flat away from going to the wire with Tommeke at Roubaix. The Dutch rider could find his services in high demand next season, perhaps for a team like Rabobank (see below).
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