- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race was a sublime example of how to win a bike race, with victory snaffled by the inimitable Philippe Gilbert, so ably supported by rest of the BMC Racing Team roster present on the day.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat in a nondescript hotel room and listened to the team manager lay out his plans for the following day, bored half senseless because I know, like everyone else in the room, that in bike racing 99 per cent of plans get cast aside almost as soon as the action starts.
Yet here was a victory so beautifully orchestrated that it seemed Gilbert himself had written the script.
Early break goes off up the road – check.
Teammates control gap with relative ease – check.
Team leads captain into perfect position for final climb – check.
Teammate offers self up for sacrifice with hard attack at start of climb – check.
Team leader then smashes it, opens gap, looks imperious while doing it, wins race – check!
Of course, you need a Gilbert to be sure that this kind of victory is achieved, but it was the tireless work of Michael Schar, who pulled the peloton along for dozens of kilometres when no one else would work, that laid the foundation of the win.
Gilbert then demanded his teammates get him into the top six by the bottom of the Cauberg, which they did. Samuel Sanchez put in an attack that had his tongue trying to escape his mouth, forcing the others to play their hands early. Simon Gerrans and Michel Kwiatkowski set off on the left, only for Gilbert to hammer up the right.
Up, off and away. Three wins here now, four if you count his World Championships, and it looks like they may have to rename the Cauberg the ‘Philberg’.
One could say it’s about time, because BMC have been kind of pants for a while now. Any team with Cadel Evans, Gilbert, Tejay van Garderen, Taylor Phinney, Thor Hushovd and Sammy Sanchez in it should have been winning a lot more. But better late than never.
Gerrans, who came third, can ride a bike a bit, no doubt (though I am sorry my Aussie friends, but his national champs jersey is one of the naffest among the nations – a re-design is sorely required). It’s unfair to criticise him for not beating Gilbert, because there is no one in the world who can live with the Belgian on this terrain and in this form.
However, it is possible to criticise his team. Orica-GreenEDGE just has too many Aussies in it.
Before the blood starts to boil and you head to the comments section to tear me a new one, let’s look at other teams.
OmegaPharma-QuickStep have 13 Belgians in a roster of 30. Team Sky have 8 Brits in a roster of 29. BMC have three Swiss guys out of 30. Giant-Shimano have 8 guys from the Netherlands out of 30.
That OPQS have 13 Belgians is very telling. There are enough good Belgians out there without pro contracts to fill three new World Tour teams, or, at the very least, to take the place of many a non-Belgian on the existing squads. OPQS though are looking not primarily for Belgians but for kick-ass bike riders of any nationality.
This is, after all, business.
Orica-GreenEDGE have 13 Australians out of a roster of just 25. The foreign riders they have are not exactly at the height of their powers, which makes the team, on paper, look a little lacking in the firepower required to win races through teamwork.
Gerrans is world class for sure. He’s the number one guy. Simon Clarke is very, very good and can get better. After that though, you are looking at a few guys who have yet to fulfil early promise and, beyond that, slim pickings.
That Orica-GreenEDGE is working to bring on new talent is to be applauded, but very good and experienced non-Australians could help them win more in the short term and help educate the up-and-coming Aussies.
Sky is a very ‘British’ team, most would agree, yet there are few actual Brits on the squad.
You can have your national identity, but without guys who can win, it doesn’t mean much. Gerrans can win a handful each year because he is a phenomenal rider, and Clarke can chip in too, but it’s time for the OGE management to look abroad for some certified talent that will, in the long run, allow them to achieve their goals in full.
Fancy a wager on your favourite sport? Head on over to PlayUp for great odds and friendly customer service and pick a winner. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.