Sprinting in Holland

While the GC contenders were testing their preparation in the mountains of Switzerland, many of the top sprinters were going head-to-head on the flat roads of Holland.  The 5-stage Dutch race known as the Ster ZLM Toer also concluded last Sunday, June 16.  This race featured last year’s winner, Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma Quickstep), Andre Greipel (Lotto Bellisol), Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) and Lars Boom (Blanco).

Stage 1 called for a short (8 Km) individual time trial in which Robert Wagner (Blanco) nosed out his teammate Lars Boom by a mere 2 seconds.  In 4th place, Marcel Kittel lost 4", 10th place Andre Greipel lost 13", and 14th place Mark Cavendish lost 18".  That’s a pretty small time gap between the yellow jersey and 14th place – especially if most of the stages will be decided by group sprints where everyone ends up with the same time.  In this event, bonus time is awarded for the top finishers in each stage in order to create some separation for the overall GC standings.

In Stage 2, Theo Bos (Blanco) beat Cavendish, Greipel and Kittel in a bunch sprint.  Lars Boom and Robert Wagner (both with Blanco) rode lead-out for the winner Bos, but still finished with the same time, maintaining their top GC placements.

In the bunch sprint finish of Stage 3, Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) beat Greiple, Cavendish, Bos and Boom, in that order, and took over the yellow jersey on bonus time.

The situation flip-flopped in Stage 4, with Lars Boom (Blanco) winning the uphill finish and capturing the yellow jersey with time gaps over Greipel, Cavendish and Kittel.  This dropped Kittel to GC 6th at -35", while Greipel moved to 2nd at -16", and Cavendish to 3rd at -25".

In Stage 5, four riders from an early breakaway just barely survived to steal the victory from the sprinters, with Greipel out-sprinting Kittel and Cavendish for 5th place, and no time lost to the stage winner.  Lars Boom finished with the peleton (no time lost) and kept the yellow jersey.  Greipel was GC 2nd, Cavendish 3rd, and Kittel 6th.

So, what does this race tell us about the Tour de France?

Cavendish is still the favorite among sprinters, but he can be beat.

Greipel and Kittel are both strong enough to challenge Cavendish head-to-head.  In my previous post, I already highlighted Kittel’s Argos-Shimano teammate John Degenkolb as a sprinter to watch.  In a recent interview, Degenkolb explained that there is no intra-team rivalry, that they are each strong in different kinds of sprint finishes, and that they will help each other depending upon which rider is most favored by the kind of finish stage-by-stage.

Team Blanco will likely make some stage victory and sprinting noise in the Tour de France with Lars Boom, Theo Bos and Robert Wagner all winning stages in this Dutch race.  Remember, in my Tour de Suisse post, I highlighted Blanco’s GC strength (Bauke Mollema and Robert Gesink).  This race around Holland showcased their sprinting strengths.  Since I have Danish ancestors, I think I will adopt Team Blanco as my dark-horse for this year’s Tour.

P.S. of June 22:  I recommend this report by CyclingNews, in which they explain how the points work for the green jersey, they acknowledge that Cavendish and Sagan are the favorites, and they confirm most of my predictions as to other possible spoilers.  But they do not include the Blanco boys in that list.  See the report at:  http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/tour-de-france-2013-sagan-cavendish-and-the-fight-for-the-green-jersey

To get you in the mood for the upcoming Tour de France, I am sharing these photos of the peleton in the 2011 Tour of Utah, courtesy of Scott Wolford.