miércoles, 17 de abril de 2013

Sean Kelly, un mito sin Flandes.

Sean Kelly, irlandés nacido en el año 1956, y que militó en sus inicios en el mítico Flandria Velda, de la mano de otro mito de éste deporte, Jean de Gribaldy, compartiendo equipo con la figura del momento Freddy Maertens y con otros como el controvertido Michel Pollentier.


Foto flickrhivemind.net



Éste tozudo irlandés amasaría un palmarés como sólo los más grandes, y llegó a dar momentos estelares en las clásicas ( años 84 y 86) como no se vivían desde los tiempos de Merckx.

Consiguió todo lo que quiso, salvo tres cosas. El mundial, que le parecía esquivo incluso en ocasiones en que parecía máximo favorito ( 1987 o 1989) llegado al final de la prueba, fué uno.

El Tour de Francia siempre fué un pequeño lunar en su trayectoria puesto que aunque se empeño en conseguir un podium y soñaba con un triunfo, lo más cerca que estuvo fué en la edición del 85 en la que fué 4º. Si bien fué protagonista en varias ediciones y logró cuatro maillots de la regularidad. Se da también la curiosidad de que el irlandés que consiguió 5 victorias de etapa en sus Tours, no logró ninguna de estas a partir de 1983, siendo tres de sus maillots verdes conseguidos sin lograr ninguna victoria de etapa, quedándose a las puertas en incontables ocasiones.

Sin embargo el lastre a su generoso curriculum ( Vuelta a España 1988, San Remo, Roubaix, Lieja, Lombardía, record de victorias en Paris Niza, Volta, Criterium, etc) fué sin duda el Tour de Flandes. él estaba destinado a ser el primer no belga en conseguir los 5 monumentos y estuvo realmente cerca. Lo mereció, pero no pudo ser.

Sus años gloriosos 84 y 86, en los que consiguió ganar Roubaix por dos veces


Foto  www.parisroubaixchallenge.fr


y Lieja y San Remo en una ocasión (1984 y  1986 respectivamente), vieron como daba al poste en ambas ocasiones en Flandes. Volviendo a quedar segundo en el 87.

Foto worldwidecyclesblog.com


Tuvo el doblete Roubaix-Flandes a tiro en ambas temporadas, pero Lammerts y sobretodo Adrie Van der Poel en un esprint de infarto en el 86, acabaron con su sueño.

Legaban al último kilómetro Van der Poel, Vandenbrande, Kelly y Bauer, con el grupo seguidor a medio minuto, en una Flandes que había visto a un buen Lemond dando guerra hasta casi el final. Sin embargo la victoria iba a ser para los cuatro de alante, y el belga del Kwantum arrancaba de forma potente para dejar con la miel en los labios a Kelly y consiguiendo quizás la victoria más importante de su carrera deportiva.

Foto  www.stevenverhelst.nl








Da igual que no pudiera completar los 5 monumentos, Kelly es un grande, siempre ha sido y será una referencia en éste deporte, pero en aquellos años 80 estuvo cerca de completar un genial palmarés y no lo logró.

Quizás era la suya, ese Flandes del 86, parecía ser el favorito en el esprint, pero un corredor de clase y de momentos de inspiración como Van der Poel le privaron de la victoria, una victoria que Kelly consiguió en el corazón de todos los amantes del ciclismo. Nadie dijo que sería fácil, y aunque durante años lo intentó, no pudo. Aún así, le agradecemos todos esos años de profesionalidad y entrega y soñamos con que salga un corredor que se le parezca ( Jalabert en determinados aspecto y Valverde en otros son ciclistas que han tenido cierta similitud, pero no en las piedras, y ahí queremos ver a su suceso también , ¿ quizás Sagan?, a lo mejor, aunque no en su forma de ser ...).

Thanks Sean

miércoles, 10 de abril de 2013

Nueva encuesta, dominador de las Árdenas 2013.

¿ Vuelve Gilbert tras su segundo puesto en la Flecha Brabancona?, ¿ colombianos o españoles?, ¿ y Sagan ?, ¿ conseguirá Purito en Lieja su segundo monumento, o ganará su segunda Flecha Valona?, ¿ y Sky?, ...

Muchas preguntas y muchas dudas, ¿ viviremos momentos históricos? ...


Lieja 77, cyclingarchive.tripod.com


Lieja 80,   www.shopdundeecycles.com


Deja tu voto a la derecha, ..., tras la temporada de pavé, y el histórico segundo doblete Flandes -Roubaix del gran Fabian Cancellara, esperemos que las Árdenas no defrauden.

Mi apuesta es que Quintana y Purito pueden dominar Amstel y Flecha, para Lieja digo Urán.

sábado, 6 de abril de 2013

Sappada 87, Roche and Visentini famous duel. Part II.


 Sappada 87,Roche and Visentini famous duel. Part I

An important situation happened in the way to Termoli, a crash in the last kilometre where Roche was involved affected him in the leg and back especially ...

The following day he lost some seconds to Visentini, due to an attack of the Italian in the day of his birthday.


www.cyclingnews.com

 ... and told the press that he was still suffering due to the crash, and that he would see his form in the time trial of San Marino. It was said in some places that Roche was going to quit the giro ... totally false ..

The fourth of June there was a very tough time trial

Profile l´unitá
And Visentini took advantage of Roche´s pains, winning the time trial for nearly 3 minutes to Roche ( who was eleventh) and 1'11" to Rominger who was second, and now third overall. It had been a good day for two dangerous riders. The climbers Millar and Lejarreta performed very well.

There was a new leader, Visentini , and the overall stood like this ...




The giro seemed to be finished, but Roche was furious and he planned an attack with his mate Scheppers in the day of Sappada, two days after the time trial ( they thought that Visentini wasn´t expecting an attack in that stage and he perhaps would be tired of the San Marino stage).

And the sixth of June was the day........

Profile http://xoomer.virgilio.it/ciclopedale/index.htm






Roche took advantage of an attack of Bagot in Monte Rest and left the bunch on the descent joining Salvador and Bagot who punctured.

Behind them Boifava and Visentini panicked and Carrera chased Roche. Boifava moved to the front to make Roche stop, but the Irish refused, and Carrera continued chasing. The argument between them was terrible, but nobody gave in. What could have been a good moment for Carrera to leave responsability on Gewiss, Panasonic and others, turned into a very polemic moment and stage. The key moment in the giro.

In the following climb Roche was caught by some contenders like Bernard, Lejarreta or Millar and Carrera exploited.

Visentini had to look for alliances and finally , on the last climb, with Van der Velde in front in a breakaway, the group rejoined...

However Visentini was not having a good day, and i the last 10 kilometers he lost contact with the favourites




And in front, Van der Velde won the stage,



with Roche suffering in the last 5 kilometres, and saving a rosa that Visenitni was losing by a ridiculous margin to Rominger, 5 seconds.

Only 5 second separated Roche and Scheppers ( who refused in the last climb to help Visentini instead of Roche ) to be expulsed from the giro by the Carrera team.

Visentini arrived at the finish line looking at the podium , and losing nearly 6 minutes to the favourites and nearly 7 to the winner Van der Velde ... the giro was lost for him...




and saying that "someone was leaving the giro that night" ... he would not be obeyed.

The new overall was

 

Photo  www.cyclingnews.com
The press named Roche as Judas, his mechanic as Satan, and Eddy Scheppers the rebel. The giro was going to be hell for them in the rest of the stages.

And the following day there was a terrible stage, that was called " the Marmolada massacre". The stage was very difficult for Roche , who was spitted and insulted during the stage by Italian espectators. Besides that, Visentini attacked him in some occasions, but Roche , who was helped by Millar and Scheppers resisted.

The stage went again to Van der Velde , and the most damaged rider was Rominger that lost more than a  minute to the "principals".

Rominger would lose more time in the following stage of Riva del Garda, and lost all his options in the way to Madessimo. There were an important mountain stag to Pila and a time trial and Visentini had not surrendered yet.

Jean Francois Bernard who was recovering his sensations , won the stage, with all the favourites, but Rominger, together.

In spite of Visentini, Roche only had one rival on mind, Erik Breukink. Breukink was a good time triallist and he was a threat in San Vincent.

So, in the stage of Pila, on the last climb, Roche forced and dropped Breukink and Visentini , who crashed . Lejarreta and Millar were the only ones to resist

Photo   www.bikeraceinfo.com







And finally Millar won the stage and took the second position overall, with Lejarreta third and fourth overall ( the Spaniard would be in pink without the team time trial).

In the podium , Roche was still being insulted, and reacted silencing the tifossi...

Photo  www.owenphilipson.com


That evening Visentini quit , because of the crash, but Roche had the giro won. He would win the last time trial reafirming his superiority in a very controversial giro.

The final podium was Roche, Millar and Breukink, one Carrera and two Panasonic riders ( Panasonic was the best team with two more riders in the top ten, Anderson and Winnen). The Spanish climber Lejarreta was finally fourth.

The final classification( source wikipedia):

1. Stephen Roche Bandera de Irlanda Irlanda CAR 105h 39' 40s
2. Robert Millar Bandera del Reino Unido Reino Unido PAN a 3' 40s
3. Erik Breukink Bandera de los Países Bajos Holanda PAN a 4' 17s
4. Marino Lejarreta Flag of Spain.svg España ORB a 5' 11s
5. Flavio Giupponi Flag of Italy.svg Italia DEL a 7' 42s
6. Marco Giovannetti Flag of Italy.svg Italia GIS a 11' 05s
7. Phil Anderson Flag of Australia.svg Australia PAN a 13' 36s
8. Peter Winnen Bandera de los Países Bajos Holanda PAN a 13' 56s
9. Johan van der Velde Bandera de los Países Bajos Holanda GIS a 13' 57s
10. Steve Bauer Flag of Canada.svg Canadá TOS a 14' 41s

Roche had won the giro, later that year he would win the our and the worlds, tying the great Merckx, that won the triple crown in 1974.

Photo   Antonio Sevillano
 Roberto Conti ( a young Italian that years later would win in the mos famous climb of the Tour , Alpe Dhuez), Johan Van der Velde, Stephen Roche, and Robert Millar.

Photo www.cyclingnews.com













The great Gino Batali was closed to Roche in the celebration.

A great season that unfortunately Roche couldn´t repeat ... injuries and luck had been spent during that magic season. The duel with Visentini would remain in cycling supporters forever ... Visentini would never be the same either.

It had been a casuallity that after the duel Lemond - Hinault of the 1986 Tour, we had witnessed another duel, a similar one, just months later.

One of the most exciting Giros ever had finished, with a fair champion ( in Francesco Moser´s words) that had been supported during the race by the " patrone" Torriani telling him ...

Photo  www.dalghisalloalmuro.it


" Bravo Stefano"