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Cycling: French trail in races but lead in finger-pointing
Samuel Abt International Herald Tribune
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2006
Click here to find out more!
PARIS Anybody not up to the sight of a dead horse being flogged is advised to give a wide berth to the French sports newspaper L'Équipe for the next few days. Weeks? Months?
When the spring bicycling classics ended Sunday, the scorecard for French riders was dismal. In the five classics, which were won by an Italian, a Belgian, a Swiss, a Luxembourger and a Spaniard, the highest placing by a Frenchman was seventh. In only one of those races did a Frenchman finish in the top 10 and in only two was a Frenchman in the top 25.
So, as it has done for several springs now, L'Équipe is searching for explanations.
They seem to be the standard ones: poor training, lack of high-level competition, absence of talent and - tread lightly here - what is known in France as the two-speed system. That means that doping is rampant elsewhere and that French riders, as clean as fresh snow because they are monitored so closely, are seriously disadvantaged.
For example, in Milan-San Remo, won by Filippo Pozzato, an Italian, the highest-placed Frenchman was Anthony Geslin, 29th. In the Tour of Flanders, won by Tom Boonen, a Belgian, Geslin was again top Frenchman, 18th. In Paris-Roubaix, Fabian Cancellara, a Swiss, was first, and Frédéric Guesdon was seventh but six and a half minutes behind. In the Amstel Gold Race, Frank Schleck of Luxembourg was first and Cédric Vasseur was 31st. Finally, in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Alejandro Valverde, a Spaniard, was first and Didier Rous 34th.
By the Liège race, the final one-day classic until the end of July, L'Équipe had given up hope for French riders, listing only one, Sylvain Chavanel, last in its list of 40 favorites.
He finished 46th and said afterward "I wasn't as bad as that."
L'Équipe agreed, pointing out under a small headline "The French Not So Bad" that Chavanel had improved from his 49th place in the race last year.
(The previous week, for the Amstel, the sole Frenchman listed among the 40 favorites was Jérôme Pineau, in 31st place among contenders. He did not finish the race.)
French riders are not doing particularly well either in minor races at home in the French Cup competition, where foreigners have been winning their share. In small races away from home, the French have been virtually incognito.
Now the time of multiday races returns. The first big two, Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, were won by an American, Floyd Landis, and a Dutchman, Thomas Dekker When the Giro d'Italia starts May 6, no Frenchman will be ranked high, nor will any in July in the Tour de France, which no Frenchman has won since 1985.
Part of the problem is what L'Équipe annually suspects: little real talent, poor training and lack of high-level competition.
"It's difficult to understand our absence" among the leaders, said Laurent Jalabert, a guest columnist in the newspaper and the last great French rider before he retired in 2002.
"Our youngsters are perhaps not as prepared as they have to be to race at a high level," he wrote after Liège. "When I was an amateur, I fought it out with top riders, some tough old birds who sometimes rode in a Mafia. To get ahead, you had to spit on your hands. But that's the way to develop physically, to improve.
"Today, youngsters ride among themselves only. And when they turn pro, they can't follow the pace."
He did not cite that familiar French failing: national aspirations set too high.
If the talent pool in Belgium and Germany is deep enough only to support two major teams each and in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark one each, why should the French believe they can mount five teams in the ProTour at the highest level of the sport?
Finally, the doping card has been played, too.
Early in March, after the French were wiped out in the last climbing stage in Paris-Nice, Marc Madiot, the director of the Française des Jeux team, described the results as "a beating."
"I don't blame my riders," he said. "We work hard, we increased our training, we've improved our racing program, but, at the end, we're not there. When you can play, you play; when you can't, you can't."
L'Équipe summed it up: "In one blow, the idea of cycling always at two speeds came to mind again."
Then, in an article last week after Valverde won the demanding Flèche Wallonne five days before his victory in Liège, L'Équipe rather poisonously voiced suspicions about the Spaniard.
After he beat Lance Armstrong in an Alpine climb in the last Tour de France, the paper said, Valverde quit the race not because of an injured knee but under pressure from the authorities "for ethical reasons." His withdrawal, the paper said, "reawakened the specter of doping."
Schleck, the winner of the Amstel Gold Race, has also been a target, if subtly.
After his victory, he noted that, as a 22-year-old amateur four years ago, he raced briefly for a French club and then tried unsuccessfully to turn professional with a French team.
Pineau, the French favorite in the Amstel who did not finish, remembered the Luxembourger from their days as amateurs, he told L'Équipe.
"When you see a Schleck, with whom I rode with youngsters, you ask questions about yourself. You ask what's happened over time, why you haven't progressed the way he has.
"But stop saying that we don't train right. There's nothing worse than hearing that."
There is something worse, though. It's hearing what L'Équipe said after Paris-Roubaix, when it noted the development of young talents like Pozzato, 24, and Boonen and Cancellara, both 25, and said the sport was being reborn.
"We lack basically only one sign," the paper said.
"The emergence of a talent at this level at home. Paris-Roubaix has brought us nothing new on this front. The French wagons are still circled."
Cycling: French trail in races but lead in finger-pointing
Samuel Abt International Herald Tribune
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2006
Click here to find out more!
PARIS Anybody not up to the sight of a dead horse being flogged is advised to give a wide berth to the French sports newspaper L'Équipe for the next few days. Weeks? Months?
When the spring bicycling classics ended Sunday, the scorecard for French riders was dismal. In the five classics, which were won by an Italian, a Belgian, a Swiss, a Luxembourger and a Spaniard, the highest placing by a Frenchman was seventh. In only one of those races did a Frenchman finish in the top 10 and in only two was a Frenchman in the top 25.
So, as it has done for several springs now, L'Équipe is searching for explanations.
They seem to be the standard ones: poor training, lack of high-level competition, absence of talent and - tread lightly here - what is known in France as the two-speed system. That means that doping is rampant elsewhere and that French riders, as clean as fresh snow because they are monitored so closely, are seriously disadvantaged.
For example, in Milan-San Remo, won by Filippo Pozzato, an Italian, the highest-placed Frenchman was Anthony Geslin, 29th. In the Tour of Flanders, won by Tom Boonen, a Belgian, Geslin was again top Frenchman, 18th. In Paris-Roubaix, Fabian Cancellara, a Swiss, was first, and Frédéric Guesdon was seventh but six and a half minutes behind. In the Amstel Gold Race, Frank Schleck of Luxembourg was first and Cédric Vasseur was 31st. Finally, in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Alejandro Valverde, a Spaniard, was first and Didier Rous 34th.
By the Liège race, the final one-day classic until the end of July, L'Équipe had given up hope for French riders, listing only one, Sylvain Chavanel, last in its list of 40 favorites.
He finished 46th and said afterward "I wasn't as bad as that."
L'Équipe agreed, pointing out under a small headline "The French Not So Bad" that Chavanel had improved from his 49th place in the race last year.
(The previous week, for the Amstel, the sole Frenchman listed among the 40 favorites was Jérôme Pineau, in 31st place among contenders. He did not finish the race.)
French riders are not doing particularly well either in minor races at home in the French Cup competition, where foreigners have been winning their share. In small races away from home, the French have been virtually incognito.
Now the time of multiday races returns. The first big two, Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, were won by an American, Floyd Landis, and a Dutchman, Thomas Dekker When the Giro d'Italia starts May 6, no Frenchman will be ranked high, nor will any in July in the Tour de France, which no Frenchman has won since 1985.
Part of the problem is what L'Équipe annually suspects: little real talent, poor training and lack of high-level competition.
"It's difficult to understand our absence" among the leaders, said Laurent Jalabert, a guest columnist in the newspaper and the last great French rider before he retired in 2002.
"Our youngsters are perhaps not as prepared as they have to be to race at a high level," he wrote after Liège. "When I was an amateur, I fought it out with top riders, some tough old birds who sometimes rode in a Mafia. To get ahead, you had to spit on your hands. But that's the way to develop physically, to improve.
"Today, youngsters ride among themselves only. And when they turn pro, they can't follow the pace."
He did not cite that familiar French failing: national aspirations set too high.
If the talent pool in Belgium and Germany is deep enough only to support two major teams each and in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark one each, why should the French believe they can mount five teams in the ProTour at the highest level of the sport?
Finally, the doping card has been played, too.
Early in March, after the French were wiped out in the last climbing stage in Paris-Nice, Marc Madiot, the director of the Française des Jeux team, described the results as "a beating."
"I don't blame my riders," he said. "We work hard, we increased our training, we've improved our racing program, but, at the end, we're not there. When you can play, you play; when you can't, you can't."
L'Équipe summed it up: "In one blow, the idea of cycling always at two speeds came to mind again."
Then, in an article last week after Valverde won the demanding Flèche Wallonne five days before his victory in Liège, L'Équipe rather poisonously voiced suspicions about the Spaniard.
After he beat Lance Armstrong in an Alpine climb in the last Tour de France, the paper said, Valverde quit the race not because of an injured knee but under pressure from the authorities "for ethical reasons." His withdrawal, the paper said, "reawakened the specter of doping."
Schleck, the winner of the Amstel Gold Race, has also been a target, if subtly.
After his victory, he noted that, as a 22-year-old amateur four years ago, he raced briefly for a French club and then tried unsuccessfully to turn professional with a French team.
Pineau, the French favorite in the Amstel who did not finish, remembered the Luxembourger from their days as amateurs, he told L'Équipe.
"When you see a Schleck, with whom I rode with youngsters, you ask questions about yourself. You ask what's happened over time, why you haven't progressed the way he has.
"But stop saying that we don't train right. There's nothing worse than hearing that."
There is something worse, though. It's hearing what L'Équipe said after Paris-Roubaix, when it noted the development of young talents like Pozzato, 24, and Boonen and Cancellara, both 25, and said the sport was being reborn.
"We lack basically only one sign," the paper said.
"The emergence of a talent at this level at home. Paris-Roubaix has brought us nothing new on this front. The French wagons are still circled."
