Thus we begin with a name change that almost none of the cycling community saw coming. No longer shall Sunweb be the title sponsor of this team that had such an excellent 2020 season. Sunweb, a vacation-booking company, is an understandable position to bow out of the great financial burden of being the title sponsor of a cycling team. Stepping into the title-sponsor breach comes the Dutch DSM company. Exactly what this company does is hard to pinpoint within such a preview as this: in fact their website seems a rabbit-hole to me, it seems they have fingers in many different pies. They are “a purpose-led science company” concentrating on finding solutions for nutrition, health, and the sustainable living fields; perhaps that shall be an excellent match to help this already smart and high-performing cycling team innovate even further and gain more results of great renown.
Yes, last year’s Sunweb team had a fine string of successes. O! how they impressed us all! For on paper, quite frankly, their Startlists for the biggest races appeared to be a list of cannon fodder riders to be chewed up and spit out the back as the roads started to climb. And yet this was the team that won three stages of the Tour, the team that almost won the Giro d’Italia—putting two riders on the finishing podium in Milan. Not only did they achieve great victories: they were a thrilling bunch of lads to watch. That was the beauty of the team last year, on paper, many had only modest success, if any, and beyond a few veterans like Nicholas Roche son of the famous Stephen all were still young up-and-comers. But then they appeared at the Tour undaunted, on a mission, a game plan every day, targets acquired, mentally ready to fire their shots at the proper time. Their Tour provided a clinic for how teams should stage hunt. They had a handful of days picked out in advance, stages they knew would be difficult to control, all energy and thought was devoted to these days: forget the high mountains—all eight riders could just sit in the grupetto to save energy for the days that counted most. And thus it was: on the fateful days where they saw the best opportunities—long days with tricky hilly or lumpy finishes—they unleashed. The coordination of these days was what provided the beauty and thrill: rarely was it only one Sunweb rider on the attack. Always, always was it a true team performance of attacking and counterattacking. One or even two together would launch an attack on a steep gradient that had most of the peloton on the ropes, when those riders were brought back one or two more Sunweb riders were waiting in the wings to launch their own attack. They had so many men always ready to attack, literally sometimes five of their eight riders there in greatly reduced pelotons, it became a simple numbers game: surely they were creating such good odds that their lottery number would soon be drawn—one of their attacks would finally be good enough to stay away to the finish. It took them past halfway through the Tour to get their first stage, but after that they ripped off two more as well.
The hero of that Sunweb Tour team had to be Marc Hirschi, the revelation of the Tour. The Swissman, who grew up idolizing Spartacus Fabian Cancellara, proved to be a strong Baby Spartacus or Hurricane Hirschi that Tour. It shall be a long time before we forget his heartbreaking Pyrenean stage loss where the Slovenian GC battle gobbled him up in the final kilometers. But he earned his stripes, and a few stages later he took the stage win he deserved after his teammates set up his escape. After the Tour, it was no surprise when he placed well in the Ardennes Classics. He won Fleche Wallone on the famous Mur de Huy finishing climb, he looked good in that race and that finish is indicative of who is the most dominate puncheur in the world—Fleche is never a race won by cunning, only brute strength. A couple days later he came back for the Ardennes big one: Liege-Bastogne-Liege, one of the Five Monuments of Cycling. There he was in the final selection, there he was sprinting for the win, and perhaps he would have won if Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) had not cut him off—an incident that earned Alaphilippe a relegation. Yes, I think it likely without inference Hurricane Hirschi would have won that sprint over the famous Slovenians. But now what will he do in 2021? Surely, he must peak for the Ardennes once more. After that, the Grand Tours, but what shall he do? To shoot straightly with you, I would be delighted to see him and Team DSM just run it back again with that ultimate Tour stage-hunting team: truly, it was too much fun last year. But perhaps Hirschi earns a role in Grand Tour leadership of some kind, perhaps at the Giro or Veulta, at least to see how he can fair on the GC? I wait in eager anticipation to see every step of this electric rider’s progression.
Now at the 2020 Tour, Hurricane Hirschi was actually outdone by one of his own teammates: Soren Kragh Andersen who took not one but two stage wins. But whereas Hirschi had more strength and talent, Kragh Andersen was the teammate that got lucky twice in the Sunweb lottery of shotgun-attacks. His first win into Lyon was after he, Hirschi, and Teisj Benoot continued firing attack after attack that Bora-Hansgrohe had to continually chase down. Hirschi had a last big one that looked so good, it was no surprise that only Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) himself could neutralize it, but such an effort sapped Sagan of all his energy and there was Kragh Andersen immediately on the counterattack with three kilometers to go—a perfect escape when the rest of the peloton was on their hands and knees. It was a similar situation when he won his second stage on Stage 19, when all the sprinters and puncheurs broke away in a 30-man group to contest a sprint finish: again Sagan was chasing down everything in sight, and right after Sagan had neutralized the biggest threat, there was Kragh Andersen scurrying solo off the front once more. His wins were earned and well deserved, but they were never his alone: Hirschi, Benoot, and the veteran Nicholas Roche were facilitating as well—not quite selflessly, because perhaps their attacks would be the one to stick, but fate and luck turned up Kragh Andersen twice instead of them. All are back this year, as said above, I would not mind seeing them run this team back in the Tour, especially since they have a brand new shiny arrow in their quiver to fire off.
The big headliner off season signing for this DSM team is of course Romain Bardet, previously of AG2R. For some five or six years the Frenchman Bardet has been the face of that famous French team. With AG2R Bardet finished twice on the Tour podium in Paris, second in 2016 and third in 2017; but after a few disappointing seasons where GC leadership turned up few results, apparently it was time for Bardet and AG2R to part ways. I do not know who initiated the breakup or if both thought it a mutual benefit, but I think it will prove beneficial for both parties. I think Bardet’s chances of ever finishing higher than 2nd place at the Tour de France or any other Grand Tour are extremely slim. And though he is not as bad as compatriot Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) at handling the pressure of team leadership, perhaps that is not where he would most thrive. Additionally, lower-key he has shown glimpses of greatness in the one-day Classics. Most dedicated cycling fans will recall he finished second to Teisj Benoot and ahead of Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) on the ghostly-white rainy edition of Strade Bianche in 2018, but many will forget when he was in the final selection of a wildly thrilling and difficult 2016 il Lombardia—being one of the Five Monuments, an even more prestigious race than Strade. Thus this move to a proven stage-hunters team could be an ideal match. Sunweb did the GC routine with Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) for a few years and they even won the 2017 Giro, but I believe they realize that they do not like all their eggs in one basket: they do not want all their resources and money tied up to one big sprinter or GC rider. Thus with Bardet’s entry it shall be a head-scratcher if they do commit to him Dumoulin-level Grand Tour leadership, but if they treat him as the first among equals in a dynamic team of multi-ambitious riders perhaps he will shine brighter than ever before. Send him to the Tour, perhaps even have him attempt to ride GC, but do not give him any pressure, do not have the teammates commit to his cause from day one—allow the teammates to stage hunt or achieve great feats in the breakaways again as they did last year. If Bardet places well on the GC, excellent—even help him defend the placing in the back half of the Grand Tour if you want—but if he falls out of contention: no worries either, drop more time and join the bunch for stage hunting and become an integral player in the Classics campaign, because, Romain, you have the talent for it. I have never been more excited for you, I think you shall have more fun purely racing your bicycle and thus we shall have more fun watching you set loose from massive GC pressure.
A last rider we must touch on is one of the many revelations of the Giro: Jai Hindley. Who had heard of this 24-year-old Australian before the year 2020? Now, by pure chance I did set eyes on him at the early season Herald Sun Tour in Australia before the lock downs started. That race does actually have some proper mountains compared to the minor Ardenne-style hills in Adelaide that the Tour Down Under is contested over, and Hindley hung with the best: it was a good stepping stone performance to begin the season….but who could have guessed going into the final day time trial of the Giro d’Italia this up-and-comer would be wearing the Maglia Rosa, the Pink Jersey as race leader of the Giro. Alas! Of course he lost the Pink Jersey that final day to Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) who was tied on time and produced a better TT that day, but that does not diminish what Hindley accomplished. Coronavirus and crashes had decimated that strange October Giro, but that final week was still filled with a proper string of brutal High Mountain GC days and many accomplished veterans could not keep up with these new young bucks like Jai Hindley, who are likely to prove to be the future stars. What is in store for Hindley this season? Your guess is as good as mine: surely he deserves a place of honor in the team’s Startlists. But as I continue to harp on: Team DSM’s strength and newfound bread-and-butter can be realized in their wealth of options; like Bardet and Hirschi, I would say Hindley should be one of the top among many in the races he competes in. What he shall achieve I do not know, but I will be shocked if Hindley has a clunker of a season or a goose-egg in the win column.
To finish up, I will just cover my bases to say that DSM will produce at least two or three more success stories this season. Thus far unmentioned, it should be noted that Sunweb had a shockingly amazing lead out at the Tour this year, but young sprinter Cees Bol just could not bring home the bacon against riders like Wout Van Aert, Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep), and Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal)—and no one should find any shame or fault in that. Over the past few years this team has proven to be one of the best at getting the best out of their riders. By all accounts, they are not one of the biggest budget teams, thus it must be through good coaching and teamwork that these obscure upstarts punch above their weight. This year they shall don black jerseys with two light blue vertical stripes down the middle. Some say it reminds of Team Sky’s now iconic dominating uniforms, to which I say “Perhaps.” But more so I see that it resembles—with the two vertical stripes—the Sunweb uniforms of the past couple years, but now in colors that better reflect the new DSM sponsor; and I for one am a fan of this design. This team comes off a great season where they seem to have found a winning formula that gives them a lot of bang for their buck, if they stick with this formula—which I do mildly think is at least a minor question mark—I think they shall continue reaping success and winning over fans who have appreciated their dynamic and thrilling team performances.
To the reader: I talk about the Hirschi transfer news in the podcast episode. I left in his part, because I wanted to ruminate on what could have been.
Cycling Odysseys 