Cervelo Test Team Scores First Major Win of 2009 Season

Triathlon Forum
1

Cervelo strongman Thor Hushovd won the 64th edition of the former Omloop Het Volk, now the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. This is the first major victory for the new Cervelo Test Team.

Hushovd won from a chasing group that reeled back two breakaway riders- one a tactical ally to Hushovd as a teammate and fellow Cervelo-man. Sebastian Langeveld of Rabobank became the odd man out of the Cervelo combination. Langeveld influenced the outcome not only by his ride but when he manuevered during the finale to conceed his postion and subsequently blocked a chargin Filippo Pozzato of Katusha. Pozzato fell heavily, nearly wiping out classics specialist Tom Boonen in the process.

This big win for Cervelo Test cements confidence in the team heading into the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix as the Classics campaign opens in Europe.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2009/feb09/hetvolk09/index.php?id=/photos/2009/feb09/hetvolk09/090228ispa-0148

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Oh! Look- I found this- it’s cool (video link):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRJaj8Op7t4

The weather looked like classic Belgian spring weather. Very cool.

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Tom, thanks for the link. I could feel the pain of those two riders in the final kilometers.

Congratulations to Cervélo TT on this great win.

Sergio

4

I watched it live yesterday and couldn’t believe the two leaders started to dcik around in the last kilometer, as soon as they did, the peloton caught them…they could have gone all the way and left it to the strongest…idiots, AND Cervelo could have gotten the win.

I do need to correct the “major” in the title…this is a “minor” race in the big picture. A First “major” win would be L-B-L…

5

Hmmm. You really think this is a minor race? I always look at Het Volk (what this race used to be called), Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Paris Roubaix as “The Big Four” of the classics season.

No doubt, Paris- Roubaix is, as they say, the “Queen of the Classics”, but I sort of see all four of them as a big “Spring Campaign”. A win in any of them is huge. I raced over there as a bush league amateur. If a guy won any of these he was immortal.

6

Hmmm. You really think this is a minor race? I always look at Het Volk (what this race used to be called), Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Paris Roubaix as “The Big Four” of the classics season.

No doubt, Paris- Roubaix is, as they say, the “Queen of the Classics”, but I sort of see all four of them as a big “Spring Campaign”. A win in any of them is huge. I raced over there as a bush league amateur. If a guy won any of these he was immortal.

In the marketing scale of things, I’d put Tour of CA way ahead of Het Volk. It’s a spring tune up. I think PVP, Lion of Flanders and a fewo ther noted guys used to RIDE TO THE RACE, race, and ride it home. I think I remember Frank VDB doing something similar also along with spending 200k of the front.

-SD

7

I have to agree on Tour of California’s marketing potential and place on the “radar” of most cycling fans- obviously (especially) Americans.

8

Hmmm. You really think this is a minor race? I always look at Het Volk (what this race used to be called), Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Paris Roubaix as “The Big Four” of the classics season.

No matter what way you slice it, Het Nieuwsblad is a semi-classic. I’ve never known it to be mentioned in the same breath as the 5 “monuments” of cycling: Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro di Lombardia. While no cyclist would scoff at adding Het Volk to their palmares, they certainly would rather win any of the monuments or full classics over winning this race.

9

Hmmm. You really think this is a minor race? I always look at Het Volk (what this race used to be called), Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Paris Roubaix as “The Big Four” of the classics season.

No doubt, Paris- Roubaix is, as they say, the “Queen of the Classics”, but I sort of see all four of them as a big “Spring Campaign”. A win in any of them is huge. I raced over there as a bush league amateur. If a guy won any of these he was immortal.

In the marketing scale of things, I’d put Tour of CA way ahead of Het Volk. It’s a spring tune up. I think PVP, Lion of Flanders and a fewo ther noted guys used to RIDE TO THE RACE, race, and ride it home. I think I remember Frank VDB doing something similar also along with spending 200k of the front.

-SD

Well, it’s not all about marketing, is it? BTW, the race is 199k long, so VDB must have been pretty doped up the year he rode 200k off the front. :slight_smile:

Riders ride to a race all the time, remember this is Belgium, most riders live within 30min of the start and finish so it’s more work to drive there and try to park than to ride. Several teams went on training riders after certain stages at the Tour of California, so what does that say about the importance of that race? As Tom more or less indicated, it’s a matter of perspective. The ToC is big in the US, but irrelevant in Europe. Although ToC was scheduled to be broadcast every day on Eurosport, they replaced it with snooker the last couple of days of the race. That’s how little it matters, that even after midnight there is no room for live coverage of the ToC and they’d rather rerun snooker. Omloop Het Volk on the other hand gets major coverage, and not just in Belgium.

I think if you ask most of the pros (even the Americans as long as they are based in Europe), they would rather win the Omloop than the ToC. Regardless, I think both races are pretty cool, although there is no doubt that Paris-Roubaix and Flanders are a step higher.

10

I’m only a newcome to pro cycling so I’ll defer to your explanation, however I did notice a huge absence of big names at Omloop compared to the ToC. A quick scan down the results list seems to indicate that all the most powerful teams - most noticeably Astana, Garmin, and Columbia all brought their “B” teams. Actually in the case of Astana and Garmin - the “C” team.

So if teams were on training rides at the ToC, they were also on training rides during the Omloop.

11

I’m only a newcome to pro cycling so I’ll defer to your explanation, however I did notice a huge absence of big names at Omloop compared to the ToC. A quick scan down the results list seems to indicate that all the most powerful teams - most noticeably Astana, Garmin, and Columbia all brought their “B” teams. Actually in the case of Astana and Garmin - the “C” team.

So if teams were on training rides at the ToC, they were also on training rides during the Omloop.

I think you’re looking for the wrong big names, and have a wrong concept of the most powerful teams at these races. Who would you expect at a Belgian cobblestone race? You’re not giving enough credit to Garmin, the team they fielded was definitely the A team for the cobblestones, Maaskant, Duyn, Dekkers, they are the guys. Same with Hagen and Burghardt for Columbia. If you were looking for Christian VandeVelde at Garmin or Leipheimer at Astana, you won’t see them at Omloop, but also not at Paris-Roubaix or Flanders. Not because the races aren’t big enough, but because they have no business being there, they simply aren’t cut out for such races.

The fact of the matter is that especially Astana is a team fully focused on stage racing. They don’t have that many riders for the one-day classics in Belgium. The most powerful teams for the Northern classics are Quickstep, Rabobank and Lotto, and they were there in full-strength. The teams you mention were also there (more or less) in full strength, it’s just that that strength is not that strong. And putting Lance, Levi and Christian in there wouldn’t have made them any stronger.

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OK, I accept that. I’m new, and may not understand the proper selection of the team for a 1-day classic, nor those great riders who may not have cracked into the U.S. media etc. It’s just that I recognized ~30 names at the ToC and only ~10 at the Omloop. Thank you for reducing my ignorance (sincerely).

13

I could see it as a major or minor win. For someone like Hushovd, with his green jersey and TdF stage wins, it’s a minor victory but a good little resume padder. If someone like Haussler or Dekker had won, it would be a major one. Same for races like Amstel Gold. The arrival of another classics rider on the scene that can win races would make the race bigger than if a favorite won it.
It’s not that big for Cervelo, since Cancellara has already shown that their bikes race classics just as good as time trials and grand tours.

14

I could see it as a major or minor win. For someone like Hushovd, with his green jersey and TdF stage wins, it’s a minor victory but a good little resume padder. If someone like Haussler or Dekker had won, it would be a major one. Same for races like Amstel Gold. The arrival of another classics rider on the scene that can win races would make the race bigger than if a favorite won it.
It’s not that big for Cervelo, since Cancellara has already shown that their bikes race classics just as good as time trials and grand tours.

Well, what the heck do I know, but for Cervelo, this is pretty big. The way I see it, there are four monuments in the Spring, one Classic that isn’t a monument, and then four semi-classics. With 25 teams participating per race (though not exactly the same ones all the time), only 1/3 at most (if there aren’t too many double or triple winners) can win one of these races. Given that we were a team where nobody expected much in the Classics, it’s nice to have exceeded expectations in the first race and have the spring classics season already a success. And of course, it’s big for Cervelo because now that one of our bikes has won a cobblestone race, we’ve provided the slowtwitch forum with more irrelevant data points for discussion. And in the end, that’s what we do it all for.

According to Thor, this is big for him too. His goal was to do well in the Spring classics season, that is more important to him than Tour stages. Just like winning a monument is more important than winning the green jersey. Not because he doesn’t want to win the latter, but because he’s won it already and he now wants to do something new. Remember he has only ever won one semi-classic (Ghent-Wevelgem).

15

It’s huge. Two men in the break… The tactical dust-up in the finale… Huge.

16

It’s a win 24 hours old, of course its big to Thor. If I win the local parking lot crit it’s big to me. But this is not going to be the one he rails about, or even mentions when he’s interviewed 25 years from now. It’s probably more importat in that it proves to himself he can compete with the big dogs in the spring monuments. If this is the only one he gets it will be less important than if it’s a springboard for Paris-Roubaix or one of the “biggies”.

17

Hmmm. You really think this is a minor race? I always look at Het Volk (what this race used to be called), Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Paris Roubaix as “The Big Four” of the classics season.

No doubt, Paris- Roubaix is, as they say, the “Queen of the Classics”, but I sort of see all four of them as a big “Spring Campaign”. A win in any of them is huge. I raced over there as a bush league amateur. If a guy won any of these he was immortal.

In the marketing scale of things, I’d put Tour of CA way ahead of Het Volk. It’s a spring tune up. I think PVP, Lion of Flanders and a fewo ther noted guys used to RIDE TO THE RACE, race, and ride it home. I think I remember Frank VDB doing something similar also along with spending 200k of the front.

-SD

Well, it’s not all about marketing, is it? BTW, the race is 199k long, so VDB must have been pretty doped up the year he rode 200k off the front. :slight_smile:

Riders ride to a race all the time, remember this is Belgium, most riders live within 30min of the start and finish so it’s more work to drive there and try to park than to ride. Several teams went on training riders after certain stages at the Tour of California, so what does that say about the importance of that race? As Tom more or less indicated, it’s a matter of perspective. The ToC is big in the US, but irrelevant in Europe. Although ToC was scheduled to be broadcast every day on Eurosport, they replaced it with snooker the last couple of days of the race. That’s how little it matters, that even after midnight there is no room for live coverage of the ToC and they’d rather rerun snooker. Omloop Het Volk on the other hand gets major coverage, and not just in Belgium.

I think if you ask most of the pros (even the Americans as long as they are based in Europe), they would rather win the Omloop than the ToC. Regardless, I think both races are pretty cool, although there is no doubt that Paris-Roubaix and Flanders are a step higher.

I didn’t fact check the kms off the front for VDB, I just remember the day he showed mis-season form in February. And, yes I’m aware that many of the Belgium based riders will ride to the race, and certainly the riders that did ToC as training logged their appropriate kJ for their training.

I’m not at all discounting the victory for Thor as significant, just from the perspective of Tom’s customer base, the ToC achievements will have more merit, and white Het Volk is a big race, it is among the smaller “semi” classics whereas the ToC is the biggesst race us yanks get to see.

Good luck on PR, Flanders and LBL. I think there will be a revived Gilbert that will make his mark this spring.

-SD

18

Whether it was big, or small, along with K-B-K, it was great to watch and especially with two BIG riders (Thor and Boonen) adding to their palmares. This is real racing in the Spring. No pussing around complaining about the weather and road conditions, just power, tactics and balls. In England, you can make these races into a day trip and have a blast, thank goodness for the internet, as we got to watch these races in Michigan.