Too Much Too Soon

It happens nearly every year, a talented rider whose previous exploits on a single stage of the Tour leads the collective cycling press to proclaim them a "future winner" of cycling's biggest race. This rider then spends the following season amassing results in lesser races to hammer home their potential and when the time comes to deliver the goods, they find themselves empty of the reserves that were to carry them through to victory. One of the most recent examples is Iban Mayo, whose win at Alpe D' Huez had many championing his obvious talent. Fearsome though he was on a good day in the mountains, it takes more than one spectacular day to win a three week bike race. One such day can net a rider a string of one week races, as Mayo proved time and again in 2004, but it is durability over thousands of miles that brings home cycling's biggest crown. It is with this in mind that I winced as I watched Alejandro Valverde storm through this year's Dauphine Libere, winning multiple stages (including a time trial) and the overall. Velo News even fell victim to the deception by running the same headline it ran when Mayo won the Mont Ventoux time trial in '04. That he then won his national championships with ease and the very first stage of the Tour confirmed that his peak of form had come tragically early in the summer for him to be considered a true contender to the crown of the 2008 Tour. For many riders, a stage win in Le Grand Boucle and a stint in the yellow jersey would mark the highlight of their season if not career. Unfortunately for Valverde, he had set his sights on yellow in Paris, not Brittany, and as such, it will be hard for cycling enthusiasts to view his 2008 bid as anything but a mistimed failure following his undoing on the slopes of the Tourmalet. By all standards, this year marks his best season to date, but if he truly wishes to top the podium on the Champs Elysees, Valverde will have to learn to suspend his formidable June form for three weeks to make a genuine run for the final maillot jaune in Paris...

Photograph copyright 2008 Graham Watson