Voigt’s World Hour falls already…to Matthias Brandle

Maybe it was the time of year and the fact that with most cycling done for the season I wasn’t following the news quite as closely over the past couple of weeks as I might otherwise have done, and so forgot all about Matthias Brandle’s World Hour attempt until he was some fifty minutes into it.  Maybe it was just me but the entire build up certainly seemed to fly well under the cycling radar, at least in comparison to Jens Voigt’s effort just a month or so ago.

It certainly didn’t have the fanfare and perhaps that was because Jens got out ahead of the field and was the first man to tackle the record in many years coupled with the fact it was the final ride of what had been a celebrated career by the German rider. But perhaps Brandle preferred the comparative lack of attention until he was sure he had it beat, and even that wasn’t for sure until the final minutes when nothing shy of a crash could stop him.

By then I was right into it. Feeling bad that I hadn’t paid more attention to the build-up but glad that I was seeing a part of it. A fine effort by the Austrian who at just 24 years of age surely has his best cycling years ahead of him, in stark contrast to Voigt. 51.852km was the distance covered in the hour – 742 metres better than Voigt – and while the numbers are staggering, I’d be a fool to say that this is a record that will stand any great length of time.

When Jens Voigt kick-started this World Hour fever for the first time since the early to mid-90s when it was tackled six times over a sixteen month period, it became obvious that others would line up to take a shot at it, especially now that the UCI have relaxed the kind of bike you can use. It was this rule change that inspired Voigt and no doubt Brandle and I believe it will do the same for Sir Bradley Wiggins next year and no doubt the likes of Tony Martin and Fabian Cancellara.

It’s great to see though I just hope that the lack of attention on Brandles effort by comparison to Voigt’s isn’t a signal of coverage to come now that the idea of someone tacking the record isn’t quite as unique as it was when Voigt came out of nowhere to take it on for the first time since Ondřej Sosenka in July 2005.

I don’t think so though. There may not have been the same build-up to Brandle’s go, but that is also in part due to the time of year (nobody since Ferdi Bracke on the same day in 1967 has done it so late in the cycling season, though Boardman did it on 27 October 2000) and the fact he is still a rider making a name for himself in the sport. In breaking the hour record he has certainly now made that name…early reports suggest his following on Twitter has doubled in the twenty-four hours it has been since he set the new milestone.

When the likes of Wiggins, Taylor Phinney, Martin or Cancellara (here’s hoping they all do) step up, the hype will be at levels of fever pitch; or is it fever track?

Brandle’s record should see out 2014 and last longer than Voigt’s did, but with all due respect to him, it’s hard to see how someone like Wiggin’s won’t smash the current mark by quite a stretch when he takes his turn in 2015. The good thing for Brandle however, unlike Voigt, is that in due course, as his career progresses and he becomes a better rider, he may well, feel the urge to go again.

USADA consider banning Armstrong from uploading rides to Strava

Following on the heels of news yesterday that Lance Armstrong's life-time ban from cycling included participation in his old lieutenant, George Hincapie's Gran Fondo charity fun-run in South Carolina this weekend, having previously registered, The Cycle Seen has learned from a source that the USADA, in conjunction with the UCI, are now aiming to have Armstrong banned from uploading future rides to Strava.

"Simply prohibiting Mr. Armstrong from participating in any capacity in an event or activity authorised, recognised or organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale doesn't feel like enough, "whispered the source. "It seems only right that Mr. Armstrong be banned from uploading rides to Strava where he is currently eligible for segment records.

Indeed, Armstrong currently holds twenty-two segment records and if the source is correct, the UCI would like to have Armstrong stripped of those records along with those seven Tours de France that no longer happened.

One Strava cyclist commented on how he had a segment records recently taken from him by Armstrong. "I was disappointed in the same was Jan Ullrich must have been disappointed to be beaten by a man I know could have been cheating." The Strava cyclist denied rumours that he himself had taken the segment record by riding a moped and said the idea that his bike was in fact strapped to the roof of his car at the time, was preposterous.

All eyes will be on the Hincapie fun-run this weekend to see whether Armstrong turns up. He may be banned from riding it in an official capacity but there is little to stop him riding on the same roads as the event at the same time. "If that happens," said a mole within USADA, "Lance Armstrong would be handed a second life ban from cycling."

Cobbles return plus a trip up L'Alpe d’Huez on penultimate stage

The 2015 Tour de France route was unveiled this week leaving me feeling like a kid who gets to see his Christmas present in March before it’s wrapped up and put away again for nine months. Still, I couldn’t help but take a good hard look before sadly watching it get put away despite my pleading that they start racing it right away.

But some good news: The cobbles return and they’ll climb Alpe d’Huez on the penultimate stage of the Tour. This year the race starts outside France once more; this time in Utrecht, in the Netherlands, with short 15km time-trial…the only individual time trial of the entire race – barely long enough to avoid being classified as a prologue -- making this very much a tour for the climbers.

No coincidence then that the year after a couple of French climbers crack the podium that they should limit time-trialing to the bare minimum and go full bore in the mountains? And Vincenzo Nibali should be delighted. Chris Froome isn’t so happy saying he might skip it, which is strange because despite the time-trial being to his advantage, he’s also a decent climber when he puts his mind to it.

Of course, before they even get to the mountains they’ll have Belgium and northern-France to deal with. Returning this year is time-bonuses: ten, six and four seconds to the first three over the line meaning that a sprinter who puts in a good shift in the time-trial can still, in true Cipollini like style in the 90’s, conceivably snatch the yellow jersey for a few days before the mountains.

That said, the sprinters won’t have it that easy and may only have a single day to get close to yellow, but stage two has the chance for echelons, stage three finishes on the infamous Mur de Huy in the Belgian Ardennes, and on stage four the pave returns once more. This opening week is tailor made for someone like Fabian Cancellara, or even Peter Sagan, to take and hold the yellow jersey for the entire week.

Last year’s stage five across the cobbles was a huge hit with the fans, if not all the riders, and so the race organisors have come to accept that if they do the mountains in the south of France every year, why not do the cobbles in the north. Both are roads in France; both should be considered a challenge to overcome. Once again, Nibali will be delighted, for it was on those cobbles in 2014 that he set up his overall victory.

Beyond that on the northern-half of this Tour, the sprinters will get a few days in the sunshine, before another uphill finish on the Mur de Bretagne on stage eight. Cadel Evans won here in 2011 just ahead of Alberto Contador, on his way to winning his one and only Tour de France. Can we expect to see the 2015 winner taking a stage victory once again here?

The northern half finishes with a 28km team-time-trial. A chance for the strong teams to give their leaders one last time boost ahead of the mountains which will begin following a rest day down in the southern half of the country, and race.

That trip into the Pyrenees will begin on Bastille Day; a day for the French to show their hand…a day for Pinot, Bardet or Peraud to stake their claim? Three days they’ll toil in the Pyrenees before transitioning their way across to the Alps, and if the Tour isn't already won by here, and I suspect it won’t be, then this will be where everyone lays their cards on the table.

Stage 17 to Pra Loup will bring back memories, for the older generation, of the slowing Eddy Merckx’s reign coming to an end at the hands of Bernard Thevenet in 1975. What will it do to the current crop dreaming of GC glory? Will another Frenchman use it as a staging post to glory? Or will Nibali once more put down the hammer?

Stage 19 and 20, the final two days in the Alps will be the most dramatic and are the two shortest road-race stages. 138km one day, but crossing three mountains, and 110km the next finishing a-top L’Alpe d’Huez will make for fascinating viewing. We’ll be able to watch from the very start with no transitional section before the real racing begins. On these two stages it should be all out from the proverbial gun as everyone sniffs a chance to win and the contenders sense their last chance to make their move.

By the time they wind their way to the top of the Alpe and through the throngs of fans awaiting them…expected to be huge given the lack of a stage length with which to spread them over, we’ll know who has won this race. We can only hope the GC battle is still in the balance coming into stage 20, but even if it isn’t, the stage itself should be fantastic to watch.

Then it’s the usual jaunt into Paris, a procession where riders chit-chat up and down the peloton and the winner is captured clinking glasses of champagne with his team-mates before that famous high-speed crit up and down the Champs Elysees.

And so, 3,350km after they took turns rolling down the starting ramp in Utrecht, the tour will be won and lost for another year and all that will remain is for the winner to make his victory speech and spend the following weeks fighting off all sorts of doping allegations.

Cycling's nearly man retires at the sage of 29

It was Andy's brother Frank Schleck, winding his way up that hairpin stacked colossus of Alpe d'Huez at the 2006 Tour de France when I first heard about Andy. 'If you think this guy is good, you should see his brother', said the commentator, or something to that affect. Initially dismissed as something you often hear, it was proven true when he made his Grand Tour debut at the next years Giro and finished second. A rare talent had been unearthed and big things were projected, and yet here we are, just seven years on, and the now 29 year old, injured and washed up younger Schleck, has retired.

Andy Schleck made the announcement yesterday saying that cartilage damage in his right knee, suffered from a crash in England during a stage of this years Tour de France, was irreparable.

"The ligaments were fine, they healed," said Schleck, "but I have almost no cartilage left under my kneecap." His contract with Trek Factory Racing was expiring at the end of the year, unlikely to be renewed, and with this latest injury now hanging over him, his chances of finding a new team growing slimmer by the day.

Back in 2008 though, when he made his Tour de France debut and finished 12th followed by a second place to Alberto Contador the following year, still aged just 23, he was one of the hottest properties in the sport. Like Jan Ullrich before him who burst into the sport with such promise, he soon became the nearly man.

At the 2009 Tour he was beaten into second place by Alberto Contador and again in 2010, or so it seemed. In an incredible three week duel he lost the Tour by a mere 39 seconds, the exact number of seconds he lost to Contador on stage 15 when his chain dropped on the way up the Port de Bales and the Spaniard attacked, but this time, in the long run, fate was with him. Contador, tested positive at the Tours second rest day in what became the beefgate scandal and following a lengthy trial was stripped of his title with Schleck inheriting the win.

“It’s nice to accept this jersey, but for me it doesn't change anything – it’s not like a win," he said at the time. "It’s not the same sensation as climbing on the podium.”

And yet many still felt his chance to do so would come. In 2011 with Contador off form and still waiting to hear the vircit of his trial, Schleck seemed nailed on to win, but once again he would play second fiddle. Leading into the final time-trial of the Tour by 53 seconds over his brother Frank and 57 seconds to Cadel Evans he coughed up 2 minutes 31 seconds to the Australian who pulled on Yellow and wore it into Paris the following day. It was like a slightly less dramatic (but only slightly) version of LeMond and Fignon all over again. Ironic too in that Cyrille Guimard, the man who first signed Schleck as a junior, had compared him to Fignon.

But that 2011 Tour also brought with it the finest ride of Schleck's career and the one for which he will be most remembered. Often criticised for not being aggressive enough; for not attacking at the risk of dropping his brother when he so badly wanted them both on the top two steps of that podium, he finally fired back on stage 18 going on one of the finest solo exploits in recent tour memory to win at the top of the famous Col du Galibier. He attacked early on the Col d'Izoard and rode alone for 60 kilometres leading on the Galibier with, at one stage, a four minute lead. Evans went on pursuit to save his Tour and while the Yellow jersey of Thomas Voeckler, who had been battling viciously though the mountains to retain his lead, kept it by a handful of seconds, the writing was on the wall. Schleck would eventually pull on yellow only to lose it a few days later.

Following that epic stage, and even in spite of eventually losing the Tour to Evans, it was believed that Schleck had truly discovered his full potential and in knowing it's high limits from the start in 2012 he would ensure that the time-trial would not become a factor. Instead however, that memorable win would prove to be his last at the Tour, and he was never the same rider again. He started to get injured more and soon found himself off the pace and rapidly losing confidence, dropping early on the kind of climbs he used to dominate.

The moment was captured at its worst with Schleck crashing out of this years Tour early. Another crash, another injury, another Tour lost. Would he ever recover to come back to the rider he was and we knew he could be? At 29 you felt time was still on his side, though in his old rival Contador and new contenders in Vincenzo Nibali, Nairo Quintana and Chris Froome, he appeared to have been left behind. One could hope he'd find his way back, but yesterday Schleck confirmed that time was not on his side, that he was done.

A three time winner of the young rider white jersey competition at the Tour de France, it's sad to see him now retiring young, but perhaps in doing so we'll always remember him as being young, wearing that white jersey, soaring high on mountains like the Tourmalet in 2010 and Galibier in 2011; a young man of potential.