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31.12.2006/Cyclingheroes comment of the year
It's always an honour to write the editorial comment about the past 12 months and this year would
be a special year. We all knew it.
January
The year started with a furious Tom Boonen winning the GP Doha and several stages of the Tour of Qatar.
Feruary
The Tour of California had a wonderful first edition with Floyd Landis as overall winner. Philippe Gilbert
won the prestigious Belgium opener Omloop Het Volk.
March
Floyd Landis was the overall winner of the first Pro-Tour race, Paris-Nice. A few days later Dutch shooting
star Thomas Dekker won the Tirreno-Adriatico. The Pro-Tour and the organizers of the three grand tours reached an agreement
and settled their differences. Filippo Pozzato with a smart win at Milano-San Remo. Ivan Basso wins the Criterium International.
April
Tom Boonen won the Tour of Flanders for the second time in a row. Thor Hushovd won Gent-Wevelgem and Fabian
Cancellara with a supurb win at Paris-Roubaix. Fränk Schleck wins the Amstel Gold Race and Alejandro Valverde wins the Fleche
Wallonne and a few days later Liège-Bastogne- Liège. Jan Ullrich starts at the Tour de Romandie.
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| Alejandro Valverde during the Liège ceremony (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
May
The Giro d'Italia started in Seraing, Belgium and Ivan Basso wins the overall quite easy. Gilberto Simoni
tried to challenge Basso but never really had a chance. Jan Ullrich started as well and wins the ITT in Pontadera, Ullrich
was almost half a minute faster than Ivan Basso was.
June
Levi Leipheimer wins the overall of the Dauphiné Liberé and Jan Ullrich dominates the Tour de Suisse. The
32 year old German not only won the Tour de Suisse, he seems to be in a better form as ever before.
July
Who is going to be the first winner after Lance Armstrong won the Tour seven times in a row. It would be
an exiting year. We all knew it. The Tour de France started in Strasbourg and from the beginning there
was a hard fight. Thor Hushovd won the prologue but Ullrich was three seconds faster as Ivan Basso. A few days later Alejandro
Valverde crashed in Valkenburg and had to leave the Tour. Stage seven was the first important stage for the overall and this
ITT with finish in Rennes was won by Ullrich who took a minute from Ivan Basso. Floyd Landis came in second losing 46 seconds.
Ullrich was wearing yellow now. Suddenly Floyd Landis seemed to be another favourite for the overall win. A few days later
Oscar Pereiro started a long attack but the favourites did not let Pereiro go. In the Pyrenees Menchov started a brilliant
attack which brought him a stagewin but the real win was for Floyd Landis and Ivan Basso who were still behind Ullrich but
managed to reduce their distance to Ullrich a bit. In the Alpes Ullrich attacked on l'Alpe d'Huez and only Basso was
able to follow him. Landis lost 12 seconds. The next day Landis had a very bad day and lost about 10 minutes on Ullrich and
Basso. The last mountain stage brought a furious Landis who was fighting back and not only won the stage but also took
the yellow jersey after his solo ride of more than 100 kilometers. Ullrich was second in the overall now, 20 seconds behind
Landis and Basso on a third spot, 32 seconds behind Landis. After almost three weeks the riders had one more ITT and Ullrich
won this individual time trail. Landis gave all he had to defend the jersey but he lost 29 seconds on
Ulrich, Basso came in second at the last ITT, losing 13 seconds. In Paris, Ullrich was honoured for his second Tour
de France win and the German rider anounced his retirement from the sport. Floyd Landis was a surprising number two
and Ivan Basso with a third place after he already won the Giro d'Italia. It was one of the most
exiting Tours in years, with the first three within less than a minute from each other.
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| Jan Ullrich (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Ofcourse we should continue with the strong performance of Jens Voigt at the Tour of Germany, or the
great wins of Samuel Sanchez and Paolo Bettini at the end of the season. The only problem is that Ullrich did not win the
Tour and our year review is therefore incorrect. Is it?
Is it correct to blame the riders only? To blame the riders at all? Less than two years before Puerto started,
Sylvia Schenk was mobbed out of the UCI board and lost her position as president of the German cycling federation. Schenk
was in favour of a more strict anti-doping policy, she had to go. After the presentation of the 2006 Tour de France (in
October 2005), UCI officials complained that Tour organizer ASO was exaggerating the doping issue. Fact is that only
the French federation made substantial changes in their anti-doping policies after the 1998 Festina affair. Most actors did
nothing: not T-Mobile, not Patrick Lefevere, not Swiss Cycling, not the UCI, almost nobody. A witch hunt (a term which
was used by IOC president Jacques Rogge) won't help, especialy not when the witch hunt is done by people
like Patrick Lefevere, the same man who hired Johan Musseeuw as a pr man during his ban or by a man like Bjarne Riis who's
nickname is well known.
Labs making mistakes, not just once, not just with labeling (Landis) but also with other
rules like different persons handling A and B probes (Landaluze). Heras still waits for documents about his B probe and Landis
who also has problems to get all documents about his case. And Puerto brought more questions than answers.
Meanwhile the UCI and the organizers of the grand tours are fighting each other. Unipublic proposing a kind
of Master series in Abu Dhabi and the UCI ignoring the Pro-Tour conflict by again providing 20 teams with a Pro-Tour license.
Nobody is working on a solution, nobody seems to be willing to compromize, nobody is actually doing something for the sport.
Are the Puerto riders innocent? Is Floyd Landis innocent? Does it really matter as long as the whole system
is rotten? We need solutions, good and solid solutions, bringing a few
scapegoats won't solve the current problems. Amnesty for all and a new solid and transparent anti-doping
system with harder punishment for riders and team employees and an end of the power
struggle between the UCI and the major tours could be the first steps in the right direction.
We don't have the perfect solution here, this should have been a year review. 2006 was a sad year
for cycling. Personally I felt cheated. But not by the riders. We hope 2007 will be a better year. For
the fans but also for the riders. Especially for all those riders who were riding clean already.
If you want to react on this article, send the editors a letter:
Letterbox: You can send your letters with ideas, comments and other things you would like to let us and
our readers to know to: letters@cyclingheroes.de . Some of the letters will be published on our website. We will only publish letters with your full name,
hometown and country.
Please note: your letter should not be longer than 350 words. The editor choose every month "The letter
of the month". The writer of the best letter in January 2007 will receive a picture of Michael Boogerd in poster format
(20X30 CM) with origial handwritten autograph of Michael.
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