Welcome to the first installment of a special two part edition of “On the Rivet” as we look forward to our first big American race of the season, the Tour of California. Today we begin with the long awaited discussion on the state of American cycling. Who are the top riders now? Who are the riders of the future? Can we compete with the rest of the world? Questions, questions, questions…well, let’s begin.
While researching this article (yes, all Wiskota blog entries are thoroughly researched) I came to the realization that American pro cycling is in a very unique predicament. It is not quite appropriate to speak of the top cyclists of today or of tomorrow. Rather, it is more appropriate to consider the level of the cyclist right now. This is due to the dramatic extremes in age of our best cyclists. A quick look at the UCI points from this and last season would lead you to believe that our best cyclists, the American cyclists in their prime, are Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner and Tom Danielson. However, the aggregate age of these riders is 38 years old. How can these riders be in their prime? On the other hand, the other riders of note, namely: Taylor Phinney, Andrew Talansky and Teejay Van Garderen are all 23 years of age or younger. How can we say that these riders are in their prime? And so we come to conclusion that America lacks a cyclist in the prime of their career able to dominate this year as well as a few years to come. But perhaps I am still looking at this the wrong way.
Maybe we need to broaden our scope, explore the different types of riders. How do we stack up here? GC riders get most of our attention and garner most of the UCI points, thus we will start here. This is where our old timers are yet still our best riders. Leipheimer and Horner can full on win big stage races. Last year Horner won TofC and looks like he could do it again. Levi had one of his best years last year, winning the Tour de Swiss. In addition, he had a strong opening to the season before all of his bad luck. With his TT skill he still has a chance to be a factor in stage races later this season. Tommy D has been showing that he deserves to be mentioned as a serious GC threat, placing 9th in last year’s Tour. Andrew Talansky just scored big with a second place finish at the Tour of Romandie. Climber with TT skills, that’s the formula. TVG hasn’t been able to show much at the world level, but he must still be considered one of our best GC guys. It has been argued (by me mostly) that this is the golden age of the puncheur. These guys are light enough to go skyward but big enough to do it quickly. Super fun to watch. Who do we have? Unfortunately, I can’t think of any. How about Roleurs? Big George Hincapie is no longer a real threat to win in these races, but he is still solid. Taylor Phinney’s strong finish at Paris Roubaix would probably rate him as our best current Roleur. America still can be said to have a pretty strong time trial lineup. From Levi, to Zabriske to Phinney we can challenge in this discipline. A few countries specialize in the pure climber, Colombia and Spain in particular. However, America does not field an impressive group of climbers. Horner is probably the closest thing we have to a pure climber. Talansky is also of note. What we lack in other categories we make up with domestiques. We have a lot, Danny Pate, Matt Busche, Christian Vande Velde and the incomparable Big George Hincapie. If only they had some better riders to protect. Finally we get to the sprinters. This is where we have one rider who is in his prime, or at least should be, Tyler Farrar. That’s right Tyler. Give up the other races and focus only on sprinting. At 27 he could be our best chance for immediate results.
When considering American cycling based on types of riders I cannot say that America is a top cycling country. But really we never have been. The last few years we have hovered around 8th in UCI rankings. So how can we make this seem better? How can we make the world take notice? Well, instead of being all around good, we must win big races. Which brings us to our next and final discussion, what races can we win? Well, let’s start with the Monuments. It would seem that our best chance at winning a monument lies with Taylor Phinney at Paris-Roubaix. This is his kind of thing, U23 dominant, and a top ten last year. He is our man. The other Monuments seem more elusive. However, I still don’t see why Chris Horner couldn’t win Lombardia or Leige for that matter, but of course he better hurry up. Farrar was our best chance at the Ronde or Milan San Remo, but I think that ship may have sailed. Stage races have been a forte of the Americans. We need Levi to win a few more big ones, Paris Nice in particular. The Grand Tours are an interesting proposition. Levi, Horner,TVG and perhaps Talansky could make a run at one of these. Le Tour? Probably not. This year the US squad has the added bonus of the Olympics. A TT medal would be nice. It will be interesting to see who competes.
In summation we have riders that may be great and riders that are on their last chance to be great. Does this make for a great squad? Not really, we will not overtake Spain or Italy any time soon, but as long as we can stay ahead of France and battle it out with the likes of Germany and the Netherlands we are doing okay. Of course I am missing riders who will show up and make me look dumb, and I hope they do, but for now we must admit that the future of American cycling is balanced on the edge between veterans and up and comers. In a few years that could easily slip into has beens and never made its. Or, as I hope, into past legends and current stars of cycling. Which group will make the most noise this year? To be determined. God bless America!
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