What happened to ... ?

[ppanther92]

The idea is to put a promising/world class rider in here, whos performance dropped hard from one season to another (or in a short period of time). Hopefully we find out more on some mysterious drops in performance, because i think of it as a very interesting approach. (most of the time we only talk about newcomers/sudden rises in performance)

So lets start the whole thing.

Frederik Kessiakoff:

Fast rise to the top after focusing on the road. First two years at Astana were super promising - strong climber, even stronger time trialist, in fact one of the best especially 2012. Started 2012 strong, ended it strong and than 2013 - nothing. All of his cq points come from TTTs or finishing races. 2014 even worse, DNFs and finishing with the last few riders. In this article (http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/02/news/kessiakoff-says-astana-mistreatment-cut-career-short_361792) he blames his bad 2014 on racing to soon with injuries and the pressure with Astana, but that explanation is way to simple for my understanding. Doesn't mention his bad 2013 at all. So what did make a rider on his way to the top, or at least in the wider circle of world class, suddenly fight to finish races from one season to another?

P.S.: If someone knows details or infos on riders posted here not related to clinic stuff, feel free to post it also of course. I am aware not every performance drop is related to doping, but i think the thread fits here the best nonetheless.

 

[QuizzicalSwin]

Interesting. .....

 

[Pentacycle]

Well, Kessia had his ups and downs. IIRC he started with Fuji-Servetto in 2009 with a few decent results, and before his rise at Astana had some horrible seasons at Slipstream. He was prone to injury, unfortunately.

Interesting thread, how about Haussler, Goss, Breschel, Allan Davis or EBH? All sprinters who have shown flashes of brilliance in their career, Hagen even was thought to be a potential patron of cycling. Those darn Aussies all had good results in MSR, now they're invisible; either (close to) retired or struggling to finish races. Breschel's also on another vitesse compared to 2010, possibly due to a nagging knee injury. Haussler suffered a similar fate. Goss became an alcohol, but concerning Davis and Hagen I'm clueless.

Gerdemann, Brajkovic and Löfkvist come to mind as supposed GC riders, that have not been ale to fulfill their promise at all. Peter Velits did at one moment of his career, in a fashion which might even outshine Tom Dumoulin's current performance. Now he's nowhere, due to some nasty crashes and spending a few years in Lefevere's team. Gerdemann and Lofkvist were overrated, and burned out by their respective teams they rode at around 2010(Milram & Sky) Brajko is a total mystery to me, he's had a few crashes but he's never been out for too long.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Gerdemann, Löfkvist, Velits, Goss and EBH all have something in common in their early career: HTC-Columbia. Even Cavendish isn't producing at his HTC level.

 

[Lyon]

EBH's problems coincides with having to switch coach and follow Sky's program.

 

[Pentacycle]

Re:

Gerdemann, Löfkvist, Velits, Goss and EBH all have something in common in their early career: HTC-Columbia. Even Cavendish isn't producing at his HTC level.

Burghardt, good domestique for Tejay and GVA but didn't the guy once win Gent-Wevelgem and a Tour stage? All his best performances in spring classics were at HTC.
Kirchen, although due to heart disease.
Ciolek, except of course MSR 2013 and a few decent finishes in Hamburg.
Alex Rasmussen, had missed a few controls IIRC? Used to be Denmark's hope for TT's.

Maybe Cervélo TT deserves a mention as well. Although they rode in black, so cleans.
Apart from Haussler:
Reimer, had a spectacular 2009 which he never confirmed.
Appollonio, proven doper.
Konovalovas, the guy that won a Giro TT out of nowhere, a Peter Velits avant la lettre. However, has an impressive 2015 behind his name.

 

[hrotha]

I think it's about time HTC were acknowledged as one seriously dodgy team.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

I think it's about time HTC were acknowledged as one seriously dodgy team.

Can you name a fairly successful team within the last 15 years that isn't at least slightly dodgy?

 

[rghysens]

Re: Re:

I think it's about time HTC were acknowledged as one seriously dodgy team.

Can you name a fairly successful team within the last 15 years that isn't at least slightly dodgy?

Sky

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

I think it's about time HTC were acknowledged as one seriously dodgy team.

Can you name a fairly successful team within the last 15 years that isn't at least slightly dodgy?

That's why I said "seriously", not "slightly".

 

[Opalius]

Despite his performance today I've always considered Frank Schleck to be conspicious in his absence of actual results. On CSC he was one of the world's top climbers. The last few years he's done nothing. And yes, I know he was out of the game for a year, but I still don't think that that explains anything.

 

[May0maniac]

Despite his performance today I've always considered Frank Schleck to be conspicious in his absence of actual results. On CSC he was one of the world's top climbers. The last few years he's done nothing. And yes, I know he was out of the game for a year, but I still don't think that that explains anything.

Nothing seems a little bit harsh, in the 2014 Tour he was climbing on the same level as Mollema, I guess it's just age and just using low risk stuff after the ban.

 

[roundabout]

He was also injured a lot this year.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

I think it's about time HTC were acknowledged as one seriously dodgy team.

Can you name a fairly successful team within the last 15 years that isn't at least slightly dodgy?

That's why I said "seriously", not "slightly".

Yes, they had that rather bizarre reputation as a clean team despite their roots as T-Mobile/Team Telekom and with the likes of Zabel as sprint coach, Hincapie and Rogers as road captains and a motherload of talents who've gone on to achieve nothing away from them; they managed to find ways to get wins out of people you'd never expect, and Peter Velits' 2010 Vuelta podium is absolutely ludicrous in retrospect - he won the TT despite the camera never once looking at him because he was such a non-entity. His GT podium now looks like Popo's. If not more ridiculous.

The emerging talent they got in their last couple of years - van Garderen, Degenkolb - have at least been able to replicate successes elsewhere, but there are a litany of people who looked like worldbeaters at HTC who are now pack filler, if they haven't given up entirely.

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

I think it's about time HTC were acknowledged as one seriously dodgy team.

Can you name a fairly successful team within the last 15 years that isn't at least slightly dodgy?

Sky

True. "Slightly dodgy" doesn't even start to cover it.

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

I think it's about time HTC were acknowledged as one seriously dodgy team.

Can you name a fairly successful team within the last 15 years that isn't at least slightly dodgy?

That's why I said "seriously", not "slightly".

Yes, they had that rather bizarre reputation as a clean team despite their roots as T-Mobile/Team Telekom and with the likes of Zabel as sprint coach, Hincapie and Rogers as road captains and a motherload of talents who've gone on to achieve nothing away from them; they managed to find ways to get wins out of people you'd never expect, and Peter Velits' 2010 Vuelta podium is absolutely ludicrous in retrospect - he won the TT despite the camera never once looking at him because he was such a non-entity. His GT podium now looks like Popo's. If not more ridiculous.

The emerging talent they got in their last couple of years - van Garderen, Degenkolb - have at least been able to replicate successes elsewhere, but there are a litany of people who looked like worldbeaters at HTC who are now pack filler, if they haven't given up entirely.

At least Velits was an U23 WC and EBH was touted as a massive talent at junior level. Leigh Howard was another who was tipped for big things yet produced nothing after leaving HTC.

 

[The Hitch]

I wonder what people like Ricco, Eze, Barredo, Li Fuyu - basically the guys who were forced out of the sport, are up to now.

 

[BigMac]

Re:

I wonder what people like Ricco, Eze, Barredo, Li Fuyu - basically the guys who were forced out of the sport, are up to now.

Riccò is selling drugs at McDonald's parking lots. Mosquera is a businessman, has his own cycling clothing brand and is also an events organizer. Barredo has dedicated himself to the study of sports science.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

From the "Twilight Zone" thread, Eze's still participating in training rides:

Eze is there with Gustavo César and Délio Fernández at the back, at the front, Alejandro Marque who got screwed out of a WT gig with Movistar a couple of years ago, and Vladimir Isaychev is that Катюша guy.

 

[gunara]

I watch cycling without much information before joining these forum, so I recognized riders without knowing their stories etc back then, other than the 'stars', of course. Were these guys related to any doping case somewhat before they disappear : David Herrero, David Vitoria, Iban Mayoz?

 

[classicomano]

Every so often I wonder what Dario Frigo is up to now, he literally vanished.

 

[malakassis]

Re:

Every so often I wonder what Dario Frigo is up to now, he literally vanished.

oh this reminds me of the good fassa bortolo squad with young ivan basso. frigo was protagonist in giros early 2000s
btw. what does wladimir belli now? remember his legendary attack in 2001 ?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

I watch cycling without much information before joining these forum, so I recognized riders without knowing their stories etc back then, other than the 'stars', of course. Were these guys related to any doping case somewhat before they disappear : David Herrero, David Vitoria, Iban Mayoz?

Don't know about Vitoria, but Mayoz was 29 when Footon became Geox and jettisoned him, it coincided with the downturn in Spanish cycling where all the ProConti and Conti teams were folding and unlike the likes of Toribio or Pujol he didn't want to go race in the Asia Tour or Portugal. David Herrero is a stranger case because he was top 10 of both ITTs in the 2009 Vuelta, 2nd in a stage and not long before that had been massively prominent before crashing out of País Vasco ('08 I think?). He was a very good rider, but he had burnt his bridges with Euskaltel (otherwise you could have expected them to take him back, as a Basque who was strong against the clock), and he had a bust-up with Pino that led to not being renewed at the end of 2009. Can only imagine that there was something up for him not to have got anywhere though.

 

[twisted pairs]

Perhaps a little off topic, but I've always wondered why Cunego was one and done for GT overall. Special circumstances around his win or maybe he throttled things back after that.

 

[gunara]

Re: Re:

I watch cycling without much information before joining these forum, so I recognized riders without knowing their stories etc back then, other than the 'stars', of course. Were these guys related to any doping case somewhat before they disappear : David Herrero, David Vitoria, Iban Mayoz?

Don't know about Vitoria, but Mayoz was 29 when Footon became Geox and jettisoned him, it coincided with the downturn in Spanish cycling where all the ProConti and Conti teams were folding and unlike the likes of Toribio or Pujol he didn't want to go race in the Asia Tour or Portugal. David Herrero is a stranger case because he was top 10 of both ITTs in the 2009 Vuelta, 2nd in a stage and not long before that had been massively prominent before crashing out of País Vasco ('08 I think?). He was a very good rider, but he had burnt his bridges with Euskaltel (otherwise you could have expected them to take him back, as a Basque who was strong against the clock), and he had a bust-up with Pino that led to not being renewed at the end of 2009. Can only imagine that there was something up for him not to have got anywhere though.

Thanks, LS. I liked these guys, and yes Herrero was a good rider (the PV crash also from 09, wasn't it?). I lost track of them and always thought the disappearance had something to do with doping, at around the time of Serrano's case or so, but then again I didn't read the clinic back then.