World Road Championships Diary
26th - 30th September, 2007
by Ed Hood

Day 4, and Ed is has watched the Elite Road Race, with Bettini retaining his rainbow jersey. To be fair, Ed called it a few days ago.

Day 1 : Day 2 : Day 3 : Day 4 : Day 5

Day 1 - Wednesday 26th September, 2007

I’m sitting in the press room, sharing a table with my boyhood hero, Hugh Porter, four time world pursuit champion and on the podium in that event for seven years straight – he’ll need to get interviewed, I can’t let that opportunity go!

It's only September, but the plans are in place here for the 6-Day in January.

We’re here for the Worlds in Stuttgart, the Under-23 time trial was this morning and ladies time trial was this afternoon. I was lucky-enough to follow the Latvian rider, Gatis Smukulis in the test.

Last year it was very straightforward getting a ride in a team car, the second manager I asked, Kurt who looks after the Irish guys in the ‘Sean Kelly house’ in Belgium, said; ‘sure, no problem.’ This year was hard work, but when you sell windows all your life, you get used to folk saying ‘No!’.

Gatis gets the radio tuned into Kingdom FM. Meanwhile the Moldovan rider adjacent uses his race wheel on the turbo...

I eventually managed to get aboard the Latvian car, behind their rider, Gatis Smukulis, he rides for the French club VC La Pomme, Marseille.

This was Vainsteins club, back in the 90’s. He and David Millar won a lot of races for La Pomme, grabbed the Directors attention and got themselves pro contracts.

Latvians Gatis Smukulis and Arvis Piziks, think maybe they better get along to the timekeeper...

It’ll be harder for Gatis, there are going to be fewer teams next year and getting a contract won’t be easy. All that said, he’s a good rider; the team manager for Latvia is Arvis Piziks who was a pro from ’95, when he was with Novell, through to 2003 with CSC, via Rabobank, Jack & Jones and Memory Card. If you know anything about pro racing then you’ll know that to be a pro for nine years on good teams isn’t easy to pull-off.

I asked him how he was enjoying being a coach; ‘I’m enjoying it, so many guys, when they quit as a rider have nothing to do with the sport, because they hate it so much, but I still like it.’

I enquired as to how Latvian’s most famous cycling son, Romans Vainsteins is doing; ‘I don’t know, I haven’t seen him for years, but he’s Italian now, anyway!’

I asked him about Gatis; ‘We’re hoping to pick-up a pro contract for him, but nothing is certain yet. He has a great career as a junior, he won five junior stage races across Europe and this year he’s won five races, including two French cups, he was second on GC in the William Tell GP and had some good stage placings in the L’Avenir. He’s a natural athlete, very strong.’

It was agreed that I would meet up with them again at the start house. It’s a great buzz at the ramp, the top guys were all there getting their bikes checked by the UCI commissar then trying to compose themselves for the big ride, a good day here could mean a pro contract. There was some nice hardware on display; with probably the nicest being the shiny black carbon, German Federation FES.

The Iranian team made it here okay, unlike the Irish Ras earlier this year.

Look was well represented, and Cervelo too; David Zabriskie and Fabian Cancellara have sold a lot of bikes! The course was an eye-opener, with some heavy duty climbs, tricky descents, bad bends, adverse cambers and railway crossings – certainly no drag strip.

The full story is on Pez here, but it was a great experience, more so than last year when I followed David O’Loughlin: this course is much more technical.

Tomorrow it will be interesting to see how Millar fares, I think he’s worth a medal, Bradley I don’t know about, but I think Cancellara has liked being World Champ too much to be beaten this time.

‘Our boy’ Gatis struck me as over-geared for the first lap; he just wasn’t on top of it. Once the French guy caught him, he rode much better; it wasn’t just having someone to chase, it was as if he thought; ‘yeah, lower gears would be better around here!’

Edvald Boasson Hagen [above] was very impressive, according to my reference sources, he’s had 16 wins this year. These aren’t all in UCI races, but they are all good results – he’ll have no problems finding a big squad for next year and a win on Saturday would be the icing on the cake.

Glad that's over.

At the finish, Gatis was disappointed, I think he knew he hadn’t done the ride he was capable of, but that’s cycling.

It's amazing who you bump into here. This is 6-day rider Gert Dorich flexing his pecs for us.

It was well after 6.00pm by the time I got the pics for this piece organised and then had to go across the city by train to Boblingen. I was struggling to get digs and one of our readers offered me his flat, it could be closer, but I’m not complaining, and anyway the trains are clean, on time and let you see the city and its people.

As I was walking out of the press room, I spotted the press release about Lars Boom, who won today:

2003: World Junior cross champ
2004: Dutch u 23 cross champ, European u 23 cross champ
2005: Dutch u 23 cross champ
2006: Dutch u 23 cross champ
2007: World u 23 cross champ, two stages + GC Tour of Brittany, three stages + GC Olympia Tour, Dutch u 23 TT champ, World u 23 TT champ.

As we say on Pez - wow !

Elite test tomorrow, can’t wait! Talk to you then.

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Day 2 - Thursday 27th September, 2007

Press Centre 09.45, I’m meant to have an interview with Hugh Porter at 10.00 and I’m looking forward to that.

It’s a wet day in Stuttgart, there are still nearly three hours until Simon Zahner of Switzerland rolls-down the ramp as first starter in the Elite time trial, let’s hope that the skies have cleared by then, apart from me wanting to keep dry, a lot of the course will be damn dangerous if it’s damp.

Getting to the Killesberg Messe (exhibition centre) was much easier today, the train system is straightforward once you are over the initial anxiety of getting organised.

The big thing is the accreditation, without it you can do very little, the security here is very tight, there are stewards everywhere and passes are checked at every point.

Peek-a-boo Bjarne! What's up? No creds?

The trains are full of ‘salary men’, shop assistants and students, just like in Scotland, early morning smiles are few, but at least you can get a decent coffee.

I’m hoping to follow a rider again today, an early starter then watch the comings and going of the ‘big-hitters.’

Fast forward to 20.15. Didn't get my Hugh Porter interview, I was "too late", never mind, try again tomorrow.

I left the Press Centre at around 11.30, in search of a brolley, it was teeming-down by that time and I had a lot of wandering about to do. Eventually, I 'obtained' a Stuttgart brolley (don't ask) and headed-off, in search of a lift. I'd decide to do a piece where I checked-out the Elite course but also looked at the pre-race goings-on.

Dave Miller heads for the start.

I had a brain-wave for my lift, Giovanni Lombardi (ex-Cipo lead-out man and Olympic gold medallist with 44 wins on the road, to boot) is now looking after the Argentinean team. I helped look after him at the Copenhagen six a few years ago and a deal was soon done.

Giovanni Lombardi - my lift.

I had a good wander round the pits after that, the rider we were following, Matias Medici wasn't off until 12.42, so I had time to explore.

Ben Day, the Australian was warming-up; more like a 'death-sesh' on the turbo. The riders went off in 'waves' to avoid a confusing situation with riders on different laps catching each other and chaos developing. The last wave contained all the favourites, but I was surprised they hadn't put Grabsch in it after his time trial stage win in Spain.

Vlad Karpets gets his bike check

Ben Day was in the first 'wave' with Medici and Plowman Craven's (maybe not for long after the move he pulled in the criterium series, though) Kiwi, Gordon McCauley. He remembered me from Girvan and we had a blether for few minutes, he explained that he hasn't got absolute top-end speed but has strength and likes it when it's cold, wet and hard. That's why he likes Girvan, so much.

The rain never halted, I reported back to the Argentinean pits at the appointed hour, Giovanni pointed at the rear door handle and we were off. Like I usually say, it's all on Pez.

Medici of Argentina hammers it.

I didn't go too overboard on that description but I did want to see what extra work the pros had to do. It wasn't too sore for them, the dog-leg on the flat and fast dual carriageway was extended and if anything, the course was less technical.

The under 23s had a tricky turn around an interchange on that leg whilst it was a simple fly-over turn for the pros.

Brad Wiggins

After my two laps I decided to lurk around the pits of a few of the favourites, Zabriskie, Cancellara, Millar and Wiggins. Again, it's all on Pez here, but are we taking things too far with team GB? All those 'minders', the Barloworld bus, the riders stashed-away; it's all very well trying to get every advantage, but we simply weren't in the same race as Cancellara.

Move back please - Dave isn't seeing anyone today.

Meanwhile, the Swiss warmed up in the most informal of ways [below], no minders, no bus, you could almost feel the serenity around him.

Cancellara - relaxed, focused, in control. Nae drama.

I was lucky-enough to be right on the spot when Zabriskie had his brush with the technical commissars, it really was touch-and-go whether he rode; 'no, no, it's not OK, your bike is not legal!' was what was said to him

C'mon man, the bars have been are cool all year.

I think I would have had the bike checked earlier, if it was me.

Tsk Tsk. Dave Zee's tri-bars are 4mm too long! Actually, they measured them to a different point at the Worlds - to the end of the level, rather than the centre.

Anyway, a good race, a great winner and time for bed, now!

Road race course preview tomorrow, talk to you after that.

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Day 3 - Friday 28th September, 2007

I got my Hugh Porter interview, it’s not often that you get the chance to meet your hero, sometimes they disappoint, not Hughie, a cool guy who certainly doesn’t live in the past, like many old pros do.

The fans baggy their pitch for the whole week.

Today was “course review” day, I had hoped to borrow a bike, but eventually I thought; ‘ach, I’ll just walk!’ for the first couple of hours this was fine, especially since there was lots to see; not least ‘banned’ Danilo Di Luca [below], training with the Italian team.

Danilo Di Luca - a victim of the politics, or a man on borrowed time?

However, as I got round to the last quarter of the 19 kilometre course and I was walking on an uneven verge with traffic whizzing past and feeling like I was on an SAS training mission, I had to question the wisdom of the wheeze.

However, I made it, and it’s a good ‘war story’ – the results of my wanderings, ranting and snapping should be on Pez tonight.

The Dutch qualify quite a few riders for this race.

My Elite TT piece hasn’t been up until now here, but yesterday we had plenty of content for the site, today there’s no race to report, so Pez will have held the piece over until today, bearing in mind that in Vancouver they are eight hours behind us.

Richard (aka Pez), and Jered (who does a lot of the computer stuff), are both at Interbike in Las Vegas.It’s sponsorship that keeps the site going, so it’s essential that they gets out there and meet potential advertisers, Interbike is ideal because absolutely everyone is there.

Anyway, it means I’m pretty much left to get on with it; I’ve been lodging my stuff direct into the site via our dedicated system, which is a bit scary for a Computer Philistine like me.

Dave Zee cruising with the local riders.

The course is a stotter, very hard, there’s a tough little snap at Herdweg and the Birkenkopf climb is a killer, very long and tough, in addition the run-in to the line is heart breaking, dragging relentlessly upwards - these three obstacles have to scaled 14 times each.

Paolo and chums get to know the climb.

If there was ever a circuit for Moreno Argentin or Giuseppe Saronni, then this is it; that uphill sprint would have seen either of them leave mere mortals in their vapour trails. A circuit like this is what pro racing is all about, a gradual wearing-down process, like Billy Bilsland says; ‘the race is the last hour – but you have to get to that hour!’

1k to go.

As you might expect in the City of Porsche and Mercedes, the organisation seems to be to a very high standard, with practically every inch barriered-off.

Tram lines criss-crossing the parcours.

The surface look good, but as is always the case with an urban circuit, it will be very dangerous if it rains; many vehicles here are diesel and there are a lot of tram lines on the circuit.

Barriers everywhere.

As far as picking a winner, it’s made for small guys with excellent power to weight ratios – Di Luca (if he rides?), Valverde, Freire or maybe Old Bettini has been timing everything for today. Home advantage is a big factor too, so Stefan Schumacher has to be worth a medal. But I certainly got the impression today of a man fully focussed and very determined to do a job in 'The Cricket' today; the legal action the City of Stuttgart was trying to take against him riding has been rejected by a judge and the Italian is free to ride.

It's not an easy hill - even when just on a recce mission and saving your legs.

There are a lot of politics in the air here, never a good thing during a big tournament; it detracts from what the events are meant to be all about.

The Germans have banned Eddy Merckx, Gianni Bugno and their own countryman, Rudi Altig from official appearances at the series, this hasn’t gone down at all well with a lot of people. Merckx, in particular was banned for criticising them – which amounts to censorship, not a popular concept in Liberal Europe. Anyway, enough of the politics, already!

This place is the pits.

I said on Pez, that if a tall guy wins, then he’ll need to be skinny – step forward Samuel Sanchez or ‘Pippo’ Pozzato – another class act if his mind is in the right place. It’s the under 23 road race tomorrow, I’ve not decided how I’m going to approach it yet, but I’m looking forward to it – if only the sun would come-out!

Big Vlad looking for someone to chum him round the course - if only Ed had borrowed that bike.

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Day 4- Saturday 29th September, 2007

It was warm today, it's a cliche, but what a difference nice weather makes.

The ladies race was on first: I have to rant, I'm afraid. What is Jeanie Longo doing? What is the French Federation doing? What is the UCI doing? It's not good for the sport for a woman who looks about 60 to finish in the bunch; she's a remarkable athlete, no doubt. But that's not the point, it's time to stop, Jeanie. Now! OK, I feel better now.

The idea I had today was based on what "espoir" means - 'hope' in French. I decided I'd 'chap-up' some guys I know and see what their hopes were for the race. I thought that I would just do a 'post-script' with their results, but as the day went on, it dawned; "why don't I grab them at the finish, and a get an 'after' quote, to go with the 'before' one?"

I had also thought about covering the disparity there is between teams, many are on tight budgets, whilst the Italians slide-in, looking like an ad for Prada shades.

The Italians had to ride their "B" bikes after their hotel garage was robbed. They still looked gallus tho'.

I was lucky, but as a famous golfer once said; "it's strange, the more I practice, the luckier I get!" It's a bit like that with writing about cycling, the more you are out scraping about car parks before races, the more story and photo opportunities you find.

I was at the team car park about three hours before the start, there wasn't much doing, so I took to barrier-hanging at the Ladies event. There were girls minutes-down within a lap, but they all had the best carbon kit, and - radios, I can only surmise this is so their manager can tell them when it's time to 'keep over to the right', as they get lapped.

Back at the car park the teams started to arrive, I had a wee bit of that luck with the Aussie team - Simon Clarke rode the Grenoble six last year and was happy to chat about the Aussie game plan. At the finish, I'd be even happier I'd talked to Simon before the start.

The young Danish Squad.

Michael Morkov of Denmark, who I've looked-after several times at sixes is always happy to chat; and he looks skinnier than ever. I wouldn't put it on Pez, but Michael's six day partner, Alex Rasmussen - who beat all the CSC guys to win the Danish Elite road championship and was world scratch race champion - is, according to Michael; "fatter than ever!" He had a bad crash in the summer and broke his hand, so he's been off the bike and had his paws in the cookie jar.

Daniel Martin will be with Team Slipstream next year.

After Michael, I tracked-down Kurt Bogaerts who looks after the 'Sean Kelly House', he took me round the time trial course in the car, behind David O'Loughlin at last years Worlds in Salzburg. One of his charges is hot property; Daniel Martin, he has good genes, his mum is Stephen Roches sister and he's been getting good results. So good, that the 'boys in Argyle' - Team Slipstream, have signed him, so next year he'll be with Backstedt, Danielson, Millar and Zabriskie.

Mark Cassidy - finished 76th out of 111 finishers. Mind you, there were 56 DNFs!

With that part of the job done, I stationed myself at the top of the hill after the start and watched the race, in between writing my Pez copy on my BlackBerry.

There was an early break of three, then two and when that crumbled there was a lot of activity but nothing could stick.

Having walked the course, I would have bet money on a breakaway. However, what Daniel Martin was saying at the finish was that it was really difficult for a break to make progress, the hard bits were straight into the strong wind, which blew for most of the day, and the fast part of the circuit had a howling tail wind which made it nigh-on impossible to escape the flying bunch.

Dane Michael Morkov in the early laps.

Therefore, to my surprise, 50 young men, all set on glory, hammered into the finishing straight; a crash was inevitable and it was pre-race favourite Hagen, among others, who wrote-off his lovely Norwegian kit, the crash was caused by; "a French guy". Everyone nodded sagely at this explanation as if it was always French guys who cause the stack-ups.

Michael Morkov of Denmark, 81st.

I had managed to position myself just past the finish, keeping out of the way of the stewards - who really are on the big power trip - so as I could pounce on 'my' guys at the death.

Silver!

To my absolute delight, Simon's team mate, Wesley Sulzberger grabbed silver among the mayhem behind winner, Peter Veltis and I got a couple of decent pics of the two of them after the finish. I then stalked Simon, Michael and Daniel to their respective pits to get quotes and more pics.
I managed to grab all three of them and got what I wanted.

Then it was time to scurry back to the Press Centre, tidy and send the words on the BlackBerry, edit and label the pics, then send them - which all takes a lot of time.

Simon Clarke (Australia). Before.

Adam from City Couriers is over, along with fellow die hard Worlds follower, 'Wee John' and a meet for a beer was pencilled-in, however, I was a tad tired and when I finish in the Press Centre it's an hour of travelling on two trains then a 15 minute walk back to the flat. Sorry guys, we'll get one today, for sure !

Just tidying this up at 08.25 Sunday in the Press Centre, it's a lovely blue sky and there are car parks out there to scrape about, gotta go!

Simon Clarke (Australia). After.

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Day 5- Sunday 30th September, 2007

It wasn't until the Belgian guy pointed it out to me today, but it wasn't the friendliest of championships. The Press Centre you expect to be a clique-ridden, unfriendly, verging on hostile place.

I think it's because a lot of those that work there are freelance and any new face could be taking work from them. But even in the 'real' world, if you don't speak first, no one will talk to you.

In Belgium, folks always ask what you're about and then you have a pils together - or a dozen pils, more like.

In Germany, maybe because they are conservative by nature, there's not a lot of chat. Anyway, enough of my un-PC attitudes and racial stereo-typing.

Sometimes you just know when someones going to win, Cancellara for instance and Bettini too. The road race is obviously much more of a lottery than the test, but when I saw Bettini training on the circuit on Friday, it was apparent that he was a driven-man. He wore a mask of concentration and determination that spoke more than any words in a newspaper. This morning (Sunday) too, business-like, focused, no time for autographs, there was a race to win.

Carlos Sastre

However, it would be wrong to forget the role played by Italian coach, Franco Ballerini, who once again welded-together a strong, united team, which ran rings round a Spanish squad; which was every bit as strong as the Italians, on paper.

Millar was well-in the mix until the bell lap, but that's when it really matters. The Worlds is like Milan-San Remo, it's all going to happen between the Poggio and the Via Roma, but you have to get there with the "heads" to be in the race. The Worlds is really just two laps, but it's just two laps with five hours plus, in your legs.

Mark Cavendish looked OK until mid-race, but it was no surprise to see him off the back as the shadows lengthened. The Italians didn't pick Benatti or Petacchi, so there was no way that Cavendish was going to get a result. No disrespect to 'Cav'; he's had a marvellous first season and if he continues to progress, is a real star in the making. But let the laddie pay his dues at this level before we think about him battling with the Azzuri for the last two laps.

Before the race it was chaotic around the Italian bus, there were hundreds of fans, looking for a glimpse of the Squadra.

Meanwhile, home favourite, Schumacher [above] was able to get out of his car, stretch and chat to friends in complete peace. I think the Germans like the actual sporting event, but they're not into the Belgian or Italian pagan idolatory stuff.

It was a beautiful day in Stuttgart, in the first couple of laps, riders were removing under vests as it got hotter and hotter. It made for a different race from the U23 event where strong headwinds on the climbs and strong tail winds on the fast parts of the course, conspired to make it very difficult to form a breakaway. There was little wind today and the result was an attacking race.

The official finishing sheet lists two pages of DNF, virtually three quarters of the field, that tells a story. The organisers were lucky with the weather, earlier in the week it had almost felt as if there was snow in the air. One year, in a Northern European Worlds, the UCI are going to get "caught" by the weather with this new, late date. At Plouay in 2000 it was horrible, wet and very cold. In addition, many riders have had a long, long season, the racing starts in January and by the end of September, they've had enough.

It's 10.00 am Monday CET and I'm sitting in Stuttgart airport, waiting on my flight to Gatwick. That's The Worlds for another year, Varese in Italy for 2008.

Still, Trossachs next Sunday. Braw.

Kolobnev deserved the silver - at least.

Oscar's team couldn't match the Italians.

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