Active Expert: Bruce Hildenbrand

Hard and Harder

Bruce Hildenbrand — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 07:52:32 GMT

The Amgen Tour of California(AToC) organizers had the capacity to invite 18 teams to its recent race; it only invited 17. One team noticeably absent was the Canadian Symetrics squad which, in 2007, won the UCI Continental Championship for North and South America an honor which means it was the best team, based on UCI points, on two continents. Add to that, their rider Svein Tuft, not only won the individual UCI Continental Championships as well, but he also pulled off a remarkable win at the US Open, a race televised nationally on NBC TV, last April.

Unfortunately, Symetrics got no love from AToC organizers and was left out of the race. The Vancouver-based squad was on the sidelines as teams they beat in 2007 were racing in the Tour of California. I ran into one of their top riders, Eric Wohlberg, a three-time Canadian Olympian the day before the start of the AToC. His frustration was evident; there really was no good reason the Symetrics team was left out of the race.

Hey but, Eric is a champion and champions don't get mad, they get even. This past weekend was the first big race on the US domestic calendar after the AToC, The Merco Cycling Classic, and all of the US domestic squads who had competed in the AToC were set to participate. All Eric did was solo off the front for the final 25 miles of the 120-mile road race to win alone. That's an in-your-face move if ever there was one!

You have to know Eric to realize that it wasn't so much as kicking mud in your eye. It was just a case of kicking your butt. As former US Postal/Discovery Channel rider and fellow Canadian Michael Barry once told me, "Eric has two speeds, hard and harder." Here's hoping that Eric and his Symetrics team can get some love from the other top races in the US. They deserve to be at all of them, including that Tour of California gig. Hey, was all that rain some sort of karma payback?

Bruce

We Was Robbed

Bruce Hildenbrand — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:56:11 GMT

Mark Cavendish was robbed of his win on stage 6 of the Tour of California, plain and simple. Yes, he received some help from his team car when he crashed in the final 10km's, but anyone who has ridden in the pro peloton knows how hard it is to move up, not only through the peloton, but also through all the team cars in the final few km's of a race, especially when everybody is going 35+mph.

This isn't a case of a rider hanging onto a car door and getting towed right back up to the front of the field. Far from that. Look at the photo. Cavendish is lying on the ground after crashing, lucky that the whole field didn't run him over and put him in a hospital bed.

After the crash, Cavendish was probably 15-30 seconds behind the field and yes, he probably got significant help getting back to the tail end of the race caravan from his team car. But, that sort of practice is totally OK in Europe in pro racing because just regaining the back of the caravan after a crash is viewed as"righting a wrong". A crash is viewed as an unfortunate circumstance and pacing back on is just the way to reverse the circumstance.

Once Cavendish regained the caravan, he had to work his way back to the peloton past 30 or so team cars. When he got to the back of the peloton after risking his life amongst the cars, he just had to work his way past 100+ racers all going wheel to wheel at 35+mph to end up at the front. Simply done, you say. Not!

So, this wasn't a case of Cavendish getting a free ride to the line from his team car. Far from it. He had to pick himself up, sort himself out, work his way through 30+ cars and 100+ riders going flat out. That's what sprinters do and that's what Cavendish did. Taking the win away from the plucky Brit is like taking Muhamed Ali's heavyweight crown away from him for fighting. It was a great win under the most difficult of circumstances. The sprinters are the showmen of our sport. Let them demonstrate why it takes a bit of madness, a bit of luck and a bit of savvy to win the bunch kick. We love it!

Bruce

AToC Likes and Dislikes

Bruce Hildenbrand — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:06:00 GMT

The 3rd annual Amgen Tour of California is in the books. The people from
Amgen were conspicuously absent from the race, but reports are that they are
happy and looking to continue sponsorship. Let's hope so. Here are some
random thoughts about the race.

Things I liked:

All the aggressive riding. It was full-on from day one first with the BMC Team
sending guys up the road on stages 1 and 2 and then with attacks by the likes
of George Hincapie, Robert Gesink, Dominique Rollin, that Hincapie guy again,
Michael Creed, Tom Zirbel, that Hincapie guy again, etc, etc.

The non-Pro Tour teams showing themselves in front of their bigger brothers.
These lesser weights (in UCI classification only?) didn't just hide out at the
back of the pack waiting for another beating, they raced side-by-side to the
finish.

Podium girls. Hats off to Michael Ball and Rock Racing for bringing some
much-needed feminine touches to the main stage.

Mount Hamilton. This bump helped create one of the most selective finishes
in the history of the AToC. When combined with Sierra Road this made for a
very exciting stage.

Mario Cipollini. Cipo is in his second career as a bike racer and has admitted
that he is playing with house money. But, ride he did and he was in there when
he needed to be. Bravo!

Levi's time trial ride. Guys like David Millar, Christian Vandevelde, Tom
Zirbel and Ben Jacques-Maynes rode extremely well in Solvang, but Leipheimer
delivered the knock-out punch to anyone else's hopes to win the AToC. Yeah,
he was expected to do well, but not that well. It was a drubbing.

Things I didn't like:

The AToC organizers bumping three riders from Rock Racing from starting. I
have still not seen the supposed letter from the UCI stating that there are
active doping investigations on Santiago, Oscar and Tyler. Anybody else seen
any news on the alleged open doping investigations?

Mother Nature. Maybe it was payback for kicking out the three Rock Racing
riders, but why penalize all the other racers and spectators with so much
rain? I was starting to gather a few animals, two-by-two.

Media parking. Hey, I am a journalist. I am doing a job at the AToC. Please
give me a place to park my car and don't trap me in some parking garage with
one attendant to take cash so I have to spend an hour waiting in line to leave
after the race.

Technical manual. Is it so hard to put a graphic showing the press room on
the map of the finish area?

Bruce

Safety First

Bruce Hildenbrand — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:45:30 GMT

Hats off to the Amgen Tour of California (AToC) race organizers. Last year's dangerous finish line in
Santa Rosa which saw 50+ riders go down was modified to close the four lane road down to two
lanes so as to make the finish safer. By modifying the finish straight the AToC organizers reduced
the number of lanes of hazardous road dots from three to one. Bravo. These riders are pros and
they race for a living. If they go down, the cupboards may run bare.

Unfortunately, this year another incident took out Team High Road's George Hincapie and foiled the
sprint of fast-finisher Tom Boonen who narrowly avoided the crash. It appears that this time the
culprit was the highway underpass where riders go from light to dark to light at 30+MPH. Do the
organizers need to remove the underpass from the course? Probably not. Sometimes things just
happen. BTW, George is banged up, but should start tomorrow. He is one tough dude!

I have been advocating safe finishes for the riders for years. The racers are literally sprinting
for paychecks, you have to allow them as safe as an environment as possible. If there was a
riders union, maybe things like the safety of the finish line areas could be guaranteed.

Hey, it looks like rain is in the forecast for the AToC which could make the race even more interesting.
I know these guys don't mind getting wet, but if it snows on top of the 4200' Mount Hamilton it could
make for some epic racing. My guess is that everybody will get wet and probably cold, but the race
will go on. After all, it is bike racing.

Bruce

What is Fair Isn't Clear

Bruce Hildenbrand — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 02:07:06 GMT

As reported earlier, Rock Racing started only five riders in today's first stage, the 2.1-mile prologue, in the 2008 Amgen Tour of California(AToC). AToC organizers excluded three of Rock Racing's riders supposedly because they had open doping investigations. Rock Racing has maintained that there are no open investigations, but race organizers held firm. Frankly, it is not clear to me that there are any open doping investigations. I haven't seen any public mention that there are any open investigations and none of the Rock Racing riders have been privately notified that they are under investigation.

What is interesting to me is the parallel between what happened earlier this week to Team Astana. In the Astana affair, Amaury Sports Organization (ASO) issued a statement that Team Astana will not be invited to any ASO events, which includes the Tour de France. ASO cited the past history of doping on the team as their reason for the exclusion. However, Team Astana is a completely different team in 2008. Gone are all the riders implicated in any 2007 doping infractions as well as the whole team management.

So, if all the problem riders and team personnel are gone the team should be clean. The only rider on the team with a potential problem is Alberto Contador who has been linked to the same Operacion Puerto affair that AToC organizers used as a reason to exclude the three Rock Racing riders.

I think the decisions to exclude three riders from the AToC and Team Astana from the Tour are unfair. If you are upset that Levi may not get to ride in France, I think to be consistent, you have to also be upset that Tyler, Oscar and Santiago aren't riding the AToC. Would it be fair to allow Team Astana to ride the Tour de France if they don't bring Alberto Contador? How do you all feel about this? Do you all agree that both decisions are unfair?

On to the racing news, which I hope will shortly eclipse all this talk of doping. My pre-race prediction (and I made that prediction on Thursday), Fabian Cancellara, obliterated the competition winning by a substantial four-second margin in the short, 2.1-mile prologue time trial. Levi Leipheimer, who won the first two prologue time trials in 2006 and 2007, finished fourth, six seconds back.

No big surprises in the race for the overall. All the overall contenders finished within 20 seconds of each other. With several big climbing stages and a 15-mile time trial yet to come, the race is still a dead heat. Cancellara could hold the jersey for the next two days which offers only moderate climbing and flat finishes. However, come stage 3 on Wednesday, when both Mount Hamilton and Sierra Road are on the agenda, look for the 2006 Paris-Roubaix Champion and two-time World Time Trial Champion to hopefully transfer the jersey to one of his teammates such as Jens Voigt, Stuart O'Grady or Bobby Julich.

Bruce

Rock Racing to Start AToC with Reduced Roster

Bruce Hildenbrand — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 08:37:11 GMT

The storm surrounding the Rock Racing Team's roster for the Amgen Tour of
California(AToC) has subsided a bit with the announcement from team owner
Michael Ball that the squad will start only five riders on Sunday, leaving
Oscar Sevilla, Santiago Botero and Tyler Hamilton on the sidelines. The
team will be composed of Michael Creed, Doug Ollerenshaw, Victor Hugo Pena,
Freddie Rodriguez and Super Mario Cipollini. The entire team voted to start
with the shortened roster.

At issue here is whether the three Rock Racing riders are part of any active
doping investigations. At a press conference on Saturday, Michael Ball
provided documentation, a letter from the Federacion Ciclismo de Colombia
indicating that Botero is not under investigation, a letter from Real
Federacion Espanolo de Ciclismo indicating that Sevilla is not under
investigation and also a letter from UCI president Pat McQuaid indicating
that Oscar Sevilla is not currently under investigation. Ball maintains
that Tyler has never been informed that there is a pending anti-doping case.
Furthermore Ball contends that Hamilton cannot be sanctioned for anything
stemming from Operacion Puerto because according to the rules it would
'pre-date the case for which he has already served a suspension'.

Race organizers maintain that there is an open investigation involving the
named riders citing that the Operacion Puerto case was been re-opened on
February 14th. However, Sevilla, Botero and Hamilton have not been explicitly
named in the new investigation. Given that they were all named in the 2006
Operacion Puerto it can be assumed that they will be named and investigated,
but at this time it is only speculation what the prosecutors in Spain are
doing. Is that enough evidence to assert that the three riders are currently
under investigation?

Obviously, this is a very touchy situation for both sides. There is enough
gray area here to feel that both sides have made a case, however, since it
appears that the race organization's ousting is based on the re-opening of
the Operacion Puerto case, it would be prudent to verify that the case has
indeed been re-opened.

One thing that is interesting in this whole sordid affair is that the USADA
recently told AToC race organizers that it cannot comment if there are any
active investigations on riders. This is to protect a rider from being tainted
undeservedly or any unwarranted actions if the investigation finds no illegal
activity. So, how does the race organization know of any active investigations
if the national doping agencies will not comment? We are treading very closely
to stripping all rights riders have to fair and impartial treatment.

Bruce

A Storm is Brewing

Bruce Hildenbrand — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:50:25 GMT

Less than a day before the start of the 3rd annual Amgen Tour of California (AToC) and there is a huge storm on the horizon. At the center of the controversy is Michael Ball and his Rock Racing Team; the issue being whether certain riders on his team roster will be allowed to start the race. Earlier this week, Ball submitted ten riders names as potential members of his team for the AToC. When race organizers published the team rosters, only five of those original ten were listed as potential starters. Somewhere along the way, race organizers left five of Michael's riders off the list.

On Saturday morning, Michael Ball, just back from a training ride with his team, met with the press in downtown Palo Alto, the scene of Sunday's prologue start, to address this issue. The owner of Rock and Republic clothing was adamant that none of the members of his AToC team are involved in any active doping investigation and he provided written documentation to back it up. Also provided to the media was a written letter to race organizers informing them of the same thing, that no rider on his AToC team is involved in an active doping investigation.

The passionate Ball was firm in stating that the riders named to his team, Santiago Botero, Oscar Sevilla, Tyler Hamilton and Kayle Legrande who have been linked to potential doping practices will start the race. Micheal strongly denied that he would accept a reduced number of riders if the race organizers refuse to let the aforementioned teammates participate.

At the heart of Ball's insistence is his belief that under the current conditions in professional cycling, riders need to be given the benefit of the doubt, especially if there is no open doping investigation. Ultimately, he would like to form a rider's union, something which is commonplace in most high-profile professional sports.

At the time of this blog, AToC organizers had not issued any statements as to their plans with regards to this situation. Personally, I think we have to allow riders an "innocent until proven guilty" attitude. This is their job and how they put food on the table. Keeping someone from making a living based on rumor, innuendo or unproven charges is simply not fair.

I am hoping that a solution that is fair to the teams as well as the race can be reached. The AToC has so much to offer to the fans, sponsors and teams that it would be sad to see something like this bring any dark clouds to the race. Hey, it is February in California, we have enough other dark clouds to worry about.

Bruce

AToC Team Presentation Off the Hook

Bruce Hildenbrand — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:18:46 GMT

The official team presentation for the 3rd annual Amgen Tour of California
(AToC) took place Friday night in Sausalito. The super-swank, black-tie,
$250/person affair saw Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen and Bob Roll doing the
call-up and Q&A for each of the 17 teams while yours truly hosted the always
entertaining fashion show. What a way to kick off America's best bike race.

There were two surprise guests, both of whom created a buzz of excitement as
they came up on stage. To close out the fashion show, cycling aficionado,
Oscar winner and all around funny guy Robin Williams took the stage doing a
very risque cat-walk to the sounds of James Brown's tune "Sex Machine".
Selecting a James Brown song was appropriate for the entertainer many feel has
inherited the legendary blues singer's moniker as the hardest working man in
show business.

Robin's schtick brought the house down. Look for some clips on the Versus
telecast of the Amgen Tour of California on Sunday.

Just as the evening was wrapping up, Michael Ball and his Rock Racing team
took the stage for their team presentation and when a legendary tall, blond Italian
walked up on the platform, it was an exciting confirmation that 'il Leone',
Super Mario Cipollini was indeed going to be a part of the AToC. While his
exact role on the team has not yet been determined, look for Mario to be at
the start line, ready to go for Sunday's prologue. Tyler Hamilton and Oscar
Sevilla will be there as well.

Did you all know that Tom Boonen used to play basketball before he became one
of the most successful and most recognizable stars in cycling? During the
silent auction, I turned Tom onto a great photo of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird
guarding each other which looked more like a wrestling match. Tom bought it
on the spot, doubling the current bid!

Actually, there are two many great moments to put in this blog. Suffice it to
say that the AToC got started in grand style and looks to be creating some
unforgettable memories for all who will attend America's premier bike race.
The fuse is lit!

Bruce

Never a Dull Moment

Bruce Hildenbrand — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:21:59 GMT

On the eve of the America's premier stage race, the Amgen Tour of California
(AToC), the attention shifted across the great pond where Amaury Sports
Organization (ASO) who own the Tour de France announced that Team Astana,
which has defending Tour champion Alberto Contador on it's roster, would not
be invited to any ASO-organized events in 2008. ASO's decision is in response
to the doping incident at the 2007 Tour which saw Alexandre Vinokourov testing
positive for blood boosting.

Hey, it's my blog and I say that decision sucks big time. After a very rocky
2007 which saw other doping violations, the Team Astana sponsors basically
kicked out all team personnel and questionable riders. On paper, the name may
be the same, but the squad and it's management are completely different. If
the sport of cycling is going to move forward from its current state, the
sport's governing body, the UCI, and the race organizers have to be willing to
give riders and their teams second chances.

Look, we are dealing with people's jobs and careers here. Decisions like this
have to be made fairly and consistently. Team Rabobank arguably brought the
most disgrace to the 2007 Tour. When was the last time the yellow jersey was
bounced from the Grand Boucle? Rabobank hasn't been excluded from all ASO
events. It just doesn't make sense to me. Clearly, this is going to be a hot
topic of discussion for a while. What are your thoughts?

So what does this mean for the upcoming AToC? Thankfully, the event
organizers, AEG, don't appear to have any hidden agendas so we are going to
have nine of the top European professional teams, including Astana, and eight
US Domestic squads (well, Slipstream and BMC have European racing schedules)
putting on one heck of a show.

Defending 2007 AToC champion and Tour podium finisher, Levi Leipheimer is on
Team Astana. If he and his mates are shut out of the biggest races in Europe,
that leaves the AToC to make a statement. Personally, I hope that ASO see the
flaw in their logic (it's so big it is hard not to notice) and invites, Levi
and Alberto to the big show. But, part of me likes the fact that Leipheimer
will undoubtedly be racing with a rather large chip on his shoulder at the
Tour of California because the guy has the legs and lungs to lay down a very
powerful statement.

Bruce

Black is Blue

Bruce Hildenbrand — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:36:35 GMT

I don't think anybody will ever consider me a walking fashion statement on
either side of the spectrum(maybe that's the silver lining!). In fact, my
fashion sense is somewhere between sweat pants and blue jeans, but hey, I
don't care. However, for those of you who religiously watch shows like "What
Not to Wear," "Project Runway" and "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style", here is a blog
just for you.

The third annual Amgen Tour of California kicks off in about a week and based
on my recent visits to some of the pro team camps, we just might have an
honest-to-god fashion emergency. I remember a few years back when powder blue
was the 'in' color so much so that a number of pro teams changed their jerseys
to include the azur shade. Well, it looks like black is the new blue. No less
than three pro teams, BMC, Rock Racing and High Road Sports are wearing
predominately black racing kit.

Call me a colorcist, but I am having a hard time distinguishing between the
three different squads. Add to the fact that the riders will be going upwards
of 30 mph as they rocket down the beautiful California coastline and any subtle
differences such as sponsors logos might just become a blur.

Rumour has it that High Road Sports may be rolling out a new team kit with
a predominately white theme. But, wait, it looks like the BMC boys are riding
white jerseys as well. Oh man, what is a cycling fan to do? Obviously, there
are subtleties between the jersey designs, but I am not a subtle guy.

OK. Maybe I am making a mountain out of a molehill, but I am always on the
verge of getting arrested by the Fashion Police so maybe this is my pitiful
attempt at obtaining a get-out-of-jail-free card. Regardless of what any of
the jerseys look like for the 17 teams participating in the AToC, I am certain
that the riders filling said jerseys are some of the best racers in the world. And,
c'mon that's what it is all about anyway, isn't it?

Bruce