We'll remember Richmond for the emphatic win by Sagan. Previous years the level of expectation being raised above and beyond the Tour's de facto Green Jersey winner. Yet this year began rather anonymously in the Classics and the Tour with Sagan always the bridesmaid but never the bride. Questions began to be asked whether he justified his price tag rumored to be 4 million euros per season. Oleg Tinkov publicly declaring his intent to renegotiate the contract if results did not follow.
However, in the Le Tour 2015 - I believe we truly saw what a brilliant cyclist Sagan is – no less than 10 stages - Sagan featured in the Top 10 of leading finishers. Even in the individual time trial, Sagan finished in the top 20. Put that into perspective – he was 5 seconds off Alex Dowsett and 8 seconds off Geraint Thomas – both known to be time trial specialists. At La Vuelta – it appeared to be following the same story – same pattern of near wins but not quite getting it right. Sagan eventually took a stage before being unceremoniously knocked off by a support vehicle which effectively ended his race.
Richmond proved to be a different matter. Whilst his rivals fought out the breaks only to be brought back together by the undulating course. Sagan quietly went about his work. Keeping out of trouble and avoiding the bottlenecks on Libby Hill. When his moment came on 23rd street there was no-one who could touch him. Explosive power on the climb and incredible descending skills. Sagan had two team members to back him up – rather a small contingent when compared to the normal number of six team members. What an incredible champion. Chapeau.
On the subject of La Vuelta – maybe this was the race which everybody wanted the Tour to be. Close fought, each stage contended tooth and nail. Tom Dumoulin was the rider we wistfully hoped would defend his lead across the line into Madrid. It was a heart sinking moment to watch as the Astana team mercilessly broke the leader on the penultimate stage on the ascent to the Puerto de la Morcuera on stage 20.
“Am I proud of my Vuelta ride? At the moment it’s just disappointing,” he said. “Tomorrow I’ll be proud, but now it’s just “disappointing.”
Vincenzo Nibali will be remembered for both the good, bad and just plain ugly. He went to the Tour as the proud defending champion but most viewers will remember him "going backwards". Never really in contention it became a Tour of bad dreams for Vincenzo. To make matters worse – his teammates were often seen up the road wondering when he would make an appearance, sparking debate as to who was the actual team's real GC contender.
Things took a sinister twist when Nibali was disqualified from La Vuelta following an incident with a "very sticky bottle". Anybody who has viewed the footage will know this was inexcusable but his apologies and comments following his expulsion just echo the sentiment which accuses others of doing the same and "I'm only sorry I was caught".
Now you wonder what good can there be? Two words. Il Lombardia. One of the five monuments of cycling. Nibali attacked on the final descent and broke clear to take victory. A victory in the monuments for a tour winner is no mean feat. These one day classics tend to lend themselves to the one day specialists rather than the lithe climbers who are more at home on multi-day stage races. And the way Nibali descended – it was like watching Sagan all over again.
Has the Shark got his teeth back? Roll on 2016...
