Omloop Het Niewsblad Goes to Langevelde as Flecha Falters

Sebastian Langevelde broke clear from the field at the Het Niewsblad (formerly Het Volk)with over 50k left in the race before being joined by defending champion Juan Antonio Flecha with under 10k remaining. As in 2010 Flecha seemed in the driver's seat, against a tired opponent who had been away and in the wind on his own for a long time. Using a similar approach to his 2010 winning ride, Flecha tried to detach Langevelde from his wheel with about 5k remaining. Langevelde held on though and was able to hold Flecha off at the line to take his biggest win to date.

With Langevelde's win the Rabobank team continues what has been a dream start to their 2011 campaign. Strong performances across all disciplines has seen the team take top honors at both stage races and one day races. With Lars Boom waiting in the wings for the upcoming cobbled classics, the orange-clad Dutch outfit looks set for a big spring.

At this point, the only limiting factor for Rabobank seems to be the health of new signing Matti Breschel, who is still dealing with a knee injury from last year. If Breschel can get healthy, Rabobank would have a three-pronged attack at the cobbled classics. Once the hillier one day races roll around, Robert Gesink will take the reigns. Gesink has improved every year as a pro, and he looks poised to be among the very best in the world come grand tour time.

Coming into the season, few would have guessed that Rabobank would be so competitive early on in the year. But with a strong and unified approach to each race, the Dutch team has vaulted themselves among the best teams int he world, at least at this point in the season.

Looking ahead, expect a strong ride from Oscar Freire at Milan-San Remo as the Spaniard looks to repeat his 2010 victory. The likelihood that Freire will win MSR again is slight, but his form is good and all he'll need is the right circumstances to see himself on the top step of the podium once again.

Additional observations from the Omloop

Is there anything more enjoyable than watching Juan Antonio Flecha finish a race in second place? The only thing better is watching Leif Hoste put himself in the wind only to see the main protagonist fly by him when it counts.

John Degenkolb! Although the youngster faded down the stretch, he nevertheless put in an amazing Omloop ride. A future classics hope that we all need to get more familiar with. Wow!

Boonen, Gilbert, Hushovd and the rest of the favorites don't factor on a day where the group gets away from them. Not a huge surprise here, but you would have thought that at least one of the big namers would have been up front. Perhaps this forecasts a bigger result from one of them tomorrow at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne?

Gotta love the rainy weather that the field had to take on in addition to a harder race route. Let's keep that rain and wind coming!

The lack of race radios didn't seem to have a huge affect on the tactics. This Omloop shaped up like many editions before it. This underscores that riders make a race. Still, not having radios allows at least for a chance for chaos at the front of the peloton. Jury is still out on how or if the lack of radios will affect tactics on the road.

Classics season is on, let's go!

A Tough Question to Ask: Is Peter Sagan Really That Good?

This is how sad the professional cycling scene has become. When a young rider wins a ton of races in dominant fashion, the first thought that creeps into the mind of a fan is whether that athlete is clean. Young 21 year old Peter Sagan has been absolutely scintillating thus far in the 2011 season, and looks ready to easily surpass what was a stellar 2010 campaign.

The youngster has won on uphill finishes and sprints alike. In fact, he is making it look easy, as he has bested some of the best riders in the world at this week's Giro Di Sardegna. And while the small stage race is not the Tour de France, Sagan's results nevertheless are eyebrow raising to say the least.

Hopefuly Peter Sagan is clean. If so, he looks poised to become the greatest one day specialist of his generation. But how likely is it that he is riding without chemical assistance? How many other 21 year old riders are winning by margins so big that they can look back at their closest pursuants or showboat to the crowd? It's a tough conversation to have, but it is warranted.

Peter Sagan clearly is a talented athlete capable of great things in the sport. But the last rider to make such a big impression at such a young age was Riccardo Ricco. Sagan has never tested positive for doping . . . but neither did many other riders who were found to have cheated. One thing is for sure: the drug testers are keeping a close eye on Sagan, so if he is doping it will likely be found out soooner or later. For now we'll cheer cycling's newest young conqueror, hoping that the other foot doesn't fall later in the season.

Omloop Het Niewsblad On Tap: The True Start to the Pro Cycling Season

Ask any big cycling fan and they'll tell you the same thing: the true beginning of each cycling season comes at the end of February at Belgium's one day semi-classic Omloop Het Niewsblad. The Niewsblad (formerly known as Het Volk), is the first of the spring cobbled classics and holds bigger prestige than any race that comes before it on the International calendar.

The Omloop isn't on the level of a Milan-San Remo or Paris-Roubaix, but it nevertheless holds strong as a race that any one day specialist wants on their palmares. The 2011 edition isn't short on contenders as there are a host of riders capable of taking top honors in the first big one day race of 2011. A look below at the top contenders.

Because the Omloop is the first of the big one day cobbled classics, huge names like Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen usually don't figure into the conversation as top contenders for victory. Still, they can't be discounted, as each will be looking to test their form ahead of bigger objectives like Flanders and Roubaix. The same should be said for others like reigning world champion Thor Hushovd, Italian Filippo Pozzato, Belgian strongman Philippe Gilbert (a two-time winner) or even two-time Flanders winner Stijn Devolder.

It is the second tier of one day specialists that should battle for the Omloop win, starting with defending champion Juan Antoniio Flecha. The Spaniard won solo last year and will be keen to defend his title with pride. A repeat win though is unlikely as Flecha usually doesn't have the strength to stay away after launching a solo attack.

Other second tier talent that could be up for a big result includes Flecha's teammate Kurt Asle-Arvesen who is coming off a poor 2010 season, Garmin's Martyn Maaskant who will support the other big names on the team for the rest of the year, or Quick Step's Sylvain Chavanel who is always an opportunist in one day races. BMC's Marcus Burghardt could ride for the win, as could HTC's Bernard Eisel. Rabobank's Lars Boom seems ready to take his first semi-classic, and little Frenchman Tommy Voeckler is always a threat under tough conditions. All in all, the line up for the Omloop is impressive and any number of riders could take the year's first big race.

Zero Wins and Counting: Team Leopard-Trek Heads Into the Spring Classics with No Victories

Bjarne Riis made it look pretty easy last year didn't he? With virtually the same group (less powerful on paper in fact) as the present day Leopard-Trek team, Bjarne Riis had his riders charged and ready to head into the meat of the northern classics season with a handful of wins under their belt. When the season finished, they were clearly the best in pro cycling, at least at the biggest races.

Fast forward to 2011, and the pre-determined #1 team in the world, Leopard-Trek, still isn't off the schnied in the wins column. Not the mighty Fabian Cancellara, not the super-suave Daniele Benatti, not the indomitable Jens Voigt, no one on the Leopard team has been able to take to the top step of the podium thus far in 2011.

With the Omloop Het Niewsblad only several days away, the Leopard-Trek team needs to sort itself out before they find themselves well behind in the world rankings. Cancellara will likely be ready come time to ride the cobbles, but it is looking unlikely that the Leopard team will enjoy the dominance that so many predicted for them ahead of the 2011 season.

But back to Bjarne Riis. The Saxo Bank boss must be smiling silently to himself as he watches most of his former team try to figure things out on the road early on in the year. Surely he knows, as everyone else does, that the Leopard team will win some big races in 2011, but it must still give him a sense of pride to know that it isn't always as easy said as it is done in the world of professional cycling.

When trying to predict how well the Leopard team will do for the remainder of 2011, it makes sense to look at another highly-funded and much-hyped team now in their second year in the pro peloton: Team Sky. 2010 was their first season, and the British outfit spared no expense in debuting their team colors and roster.

Once the actual racing began the Sky team looked very strong, at least initially. They rode a strong early season campaign in the Tour of Qatar and in the early season Spanish stage races, and after Juan Antonio Flecha won the Omloop it looked as though they would be the gorilla of the pro field.

Things turned tepid though after Flecha's win, and following a terrible Tour de France the British outfit admitted that they hoped for too much too soon. Now in their second year, team management is singing a very different tune for the 2011 campaign. Their expectations have been tempered and they have clearly realized that becoming the world's most dominant team won't happen over night.

Team Leopard-Trek will definitely win a bunch of races in 2011. But to assume that Cancellara will roll to victory at Flanders and Roubaix like he did last year is a bit naive. Likewise, don't expect Andy Schleck to control the Tour de France and win going away. If there is anything that the early season should have taught Leopard, it's that results won't come easy and no one is going to hand them wins in big races. If they are to assume the role of the true #1 team in the world, they'll have to go out and work for it. Just like Bjarne Riis has his team do year in and year out.

HTC: The Unstoppable Winning Machine

Somewhere in Spain Andre "Gorilla" Greipel is punching a wall. Despite a complete lack of form and results from Mark Cavendish, the HTC monster continues to devour podiums, as the team has notched multiple stage wins in a variety of races across the globe. Cavendish will clearly get his wins later in the year, but right now it is his teammates that are storming to victory day in and day out.

Meanwhile Greipel, now the clear sprint leader on his new Omega-Pharma team, has found results hard to come by thus far in the season. Seeing his old team leave him in the dust early on coupled with all the negative press must be working on Greipel, as the German has yet to notch a win thus far in 2011.

HTC is an amazing team, capable year in and year out of running with the best in the world throughout each season. Team owner Bob Stapleton seems to really have a consistent mechanism for producing wins in place, as the team seems to win multiple races each season despite drastic changes to their roster. When talk of cycling dynasties comes up, HTC belongs at the head of the pack.

For Greipel meanwhile the pressure builds week over week. With no wins at this point in the season it looks increasingly likely that Greipel will line up for his first Milan-San Remo winless and with low confidence. Cavendish meanwhile will have little pressure to succeed after his teammates' early season success. In the battle of the two bitter rivals, the clear advantage thus far sit squarely on Cavendish's shoulders.

Cycling's Ridiculous Rules: Sport Suffers as Contador Returns

What the hell is happening in professional cycling? Alberto Contador gets cleared by his own federation after they do an about-face on their sanctioning plan. Ridiculous. And a very dangerous precedent. Basically the RFFC is saying that because the levels of Clenbuterol were so low, the test is invalid.

Obviously this brings up a big problem for future cases. Athletes can now use Contador's case to make the argument that the doses found in their system are small and therefore should not be admissible. Think of what this could mean in an era where micro-dosing is the standard by which athletes dope. Scary.

All of this does one thing and one thing only to the true cycling purist: massive discouragement. A rider like Tom Zabel is sanctioned for a USADA approved supplement, but Contador rides free??!?!? Is everyone taking crazy pills?

Alberto Contador tested positive in four different controls for a banned substance. His penalty should be two years, simple as that. the fact that he is riding now speaks to the fact that there are different standards for different riders. Questions are being raised in the media as well they should be. Hopefully the UCI will lodge an appeal to the CAS. And hopefully Contador will be sanctioned for two years. Until that happens, all races affected in any way by Contador will be forever tainted.

Early Season Rider Report Cards: Who's On Track Thus Far in 2011

It's still very early in the cycling season, but already there are riders who seem ahead of schedule while others seem to be well behind in their season preparations. Some have legitimate excuses, while others simply look as tough they took it a bit too easy during the off season. Some observations below about key riders in the professional peloton.

Matti Breschel is progressing gradually from off season surgery, and the Dane is optimistic that he'll be ready come classics time in March and April. It is great that Breschel is remaining positive, but to expect him to run with the strongest classics riders in the world in a month's time is unrealistic. Breschel would be well-advised to gradually increase his intensity during the early part of the season with an eye on performing well at the grand tours in the summer and fall.

Tom Boonen like Breschel is coming off surgery in 2010, but the "Tornado" is clearly back at his best for the 2011 season. Boonen notched his first win this week at the Tour of Qatar, displaying a strong finishing sprint he has been lacking in previous years. Barring a set back in his recovery or a crash or illness, Boonen should be one of the big protagonists all spring, beginning at Milan-San Remo.

Heinrich Haussler, after an abysmal and controversial 2010 campaign, seems to be once again trending upward. The Aussie/German won in Qatar today, besting some of the world's top sprinters. Haussler is a part of the re-vamped Garmin squad and will be looked to for big results throughout the year. It looks right now as though he'll be ready come MSR and the cobbled classics.

Daniele Benatti too had a lackluster 2010 year, but joining a new team seems to have re-invigorated him. Although he hasn't managed to win anything yet he is at the front early on in the year. As one of the only sprinters on the Leopard team Benatti will have his chances to win, and with renewed vigor he looks set to get back up to the top of the sprinters heap for 2011.

Mark Cavendish, like in 2010, has started very slow. He looked downright fat at the Santos Tour Down Under, and thus far has not been able to crack the top 5 in Qatar. Cavendish will be fine sooner or later, but in the meantime his rivals are gaining results while he is left in the dust.

Despite a bad crash a few weeks back on the cyclo-cross circuit, Lars Boom seems recovered and ready to have a big 2011 season. The Rabobank rider has been a few years on the road now and 2011 could be the year that he breaks through with classics win. His time trialing too is strong, so a stint in a leader's jersey or two at select stage races during the year isn't out of the question either.

Andre Greipel rode well at the Santos Tour Down Under, but he clearly lacked the final gear to win against a quality field at the year's first Pro Tour race. After having failed to win anything in Australia, the German will have to reload for MSR with very little racing between now and then. Once at San Remo, he'll likely share leadership with Philippe Gilbert, who is looking at trying to win Flanders. It is looking increasingly likely that Greipel will be arriving at the start line of the Tour de France with very few victories and a ton of pressure.

Tyler Farrar is clearly ready to challenge for world's best sprinter moniker, as the American is tearing it up at the Mallorca Challenge, notching two wins thus far at the Spanish race. Farrar already has established himself as one of the world's fastest finishers and his strong start in 2011 bodes well for him . . . but poorly for his competition.

Alessandro Petacchi has been suffering from illness throughout the early season and the veteran fast man seems a bit behind his competition leading into his biggest objective of the year at Milan-San Remo. Petacchi is coming to the end of his career and can ill afford to miss any races. Hopefully he can get healthy in a hurry. If not, he has no chance against his younger, and more fit competitors.

Floyd Landis Strikes Again: Deposed Tour de France Champ Tells Paul Kimmage All

The hits just keep on coming from Floyd Landis. In an exhaustive interview with Paul Kimmage, Landis expounds on his decision to dope to win the 2006 Tour de France and makes other extraordinary claims regarding doping in the International peloton. Just when you thought Landis had nothing left to tell, the Kimmage transcript emerges.

Landis has made some far-reaching and audacious claims in the past, but he takes it to the next level in the Kimmage piece, going so far as to claim that doping was freely discussed within the peloton when he was an active pro. Kimmage and the reader is blown away when Landis talks about how Oscar Periero told Landis he still had a blood transfusion to do ahead of the decisive time trial at the Tour. Landis expresses that talk of doping in the peloton was common, that it was no big deal.

After reading the transcript of the interview, the reader will likely be left feeling similar to the way they did when they found out Santa wasn't real. If you take Landis at his word (a hard ask considering his flaky past) just about every single rider was doping back when Floyd was at the top of his game. To say this is disconcerting would be a colossal understatement.

Despite his shaky past when it comes to being honest, at this point it doesn't seem as though Landis has anything to gain by lying. He has already burned just about every bridge he had in pro cycling and he recently submitted his retirement papers. He is moving on with his life, finally having given up on trying to come back to the sport.

He also hasn't kept the information secret and released it in a profit-making book. Instead, he has given the information freely in hopes (he says) of cleaning up the sport and helping future riders not have to deal with the issues he faced as a young rider. Now more than ever it seems Floyd is telling the truth, which unfortunately is a deathblow for cycling fans everywhere.

Where this will all end is anyone's guess. Perhaps Landis' revelations will lead to a wide-spread clean up. Perhaps new information will emerge that will reveal he was lying yet again. Or perhaps amnesty will be offered as the authorities try to find the whole truth from the rest of the peloton. Whatever happens, the blinders have been taken off the general public. Never again can any discerning cycling fan look at a pro bike race and not question whether the athletes are clean. The age of innocence is forever gone for the cycling fan, replaced by a strong sense of cynicism and mistrust. It's a shame that is has come to this, but better to know the truth than walk around ignorant to the evils of the world around you.

Pro Cycling in February Means Big-Time Racing for Some, Season Prep for Others

Although the 2011 cycling season "officially" begins in January, it is not until February that we are treated to the first big European races. Typically run in poor weather, these early season races mark the true start of the pro cycling season as riders try to combine their season preparation with the desire to chase results.

Some of the races on the docket for February include the Etoille de Besseges stage race and the Tour Mediterraneen Cycliste Professionnel in France, the G.P. Costa degli Etruschi, Giro della Provincia di Grosseto, Trofeo Laigueglia, Giro di Sardegna and GP di Lugano in Italy, the Tour of Qatar in Saudi Arabia and the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Volta ao Algarve, the Ruta del Sol and the Clasica de Almeria in Spain. But the month really heats up with the first of the Belgian cobbled-classics of the year, with both the Omloop Het Niewsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne races happening at the end of the month.

These early season races are interesting in that they will showcase a variety of riders in a variety of conditions. Some athletes will be looking to fine-tune their form ahead of bigger spring targets in March and April, while others will be going full gas as they search for early season results. For many the month of February will be a month of survival, as riders try to avoid falling ill or falling off their bikes in the inclement weather that is sure to ensue throughout the month.

As the month unfolds, cycling fans will get their first looks at many of the world's top cyclists, as big names such as Tom Boonen, Stijn Devolder, Thomas Voeckler, Bernard Eisel, Alessandro Petacchi, Fabian Cancellara, Filippo Pozzato, Lars Boom, Brad Wiggins, Heinrich Haussler, Taylor Phinney, Ronaldo Nocentini, Riccardo Ricco, Tony Martin, Nicholas Roche, Philippe Gilbert, Andreas Kloden and many more will begin their year within the first three weeks of February.

Come the end of the month, serious racing ensues as both the Omloop Het Niewsblad (formerly Het Volk) and the Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne classics kick off what should be a huge year of one day racing. It will be at these races that the tone for the year is set, as some of the strongest one day riders will hope to pad their early season palmares with strong results at either of the Belgian races. Former winners like Tom Boonen, Thor Hushovd and Philippe Gilbert will be on hand for a try at victory, as will many of the other biggest cobbled contenders. All in all, by the end of the month it should be clear who is on track for a solid spring and who should have trained harder in the off season.