Eight classic clashes where allies became adversaries
When the unmovable mountain of experience meets the unstoppable force of ambition, team managers get headaches.
That’s what Jumbo-Visma boss Richard Plugge has no doubt been discovering this last week at the Vuelta a España.
There, his trio of GC talents Jonas Vingegaard, Primož Roglič and Sepp Kuss have twisted themselves to such a degree to justify their various internecine attacks that Jumbo’s trident of all-rounders is looking more like a warped garden gate.
But this is far from the first time this has happened. The plot often follows a familiar pattern: an established leader is overthrown – or at least run dangerously close to it – by a young upstart who wants their spot. Cycling may be a team sport but one rider stands atop the race podium.
As fans, meanwhile, we’re grabbing our popcorn and relishing the added drama. The explosive collision of ambition and experience might have given Plugge and co headaches but the upshot was a firework display you couldn’t take your eyes off.
8 GILBERTO SIMONI V DAMIANO CUNEGO
As Gilberto Simoni took the start line of the 2004 Giro d’Italia in Genoa he was confident of defending his title. He won stage three and took the pink jersey – everything was going to plan. Waiting in the wings, however, was his Saeco team-mate Damiano Cunego, who had caught the eye of the fans with his impressive victory at the Giro del Trentino earlier in the year as Simoni placed third.
“He doesn’t pose me any problems by being in the team,” Simoni said after taking pink. “On the contrary, he has given the team a real morale boost prior to this race with his victories.”
The next day Simoni led out Cunego for the stage win, handing him the pink jersey in the process.
An uneasy truce persisted until Cunego, still in pink, blasted ahead to win stage 18 and put himself in pole position to win the GC. “Bastardo!” Simoni reportedly yelled at Cunego in front of the press. Asked about his faltering team-mate, Cunego diplomatically told La Gazzetta dello
Sport: “Perhaps the Giro hasn’t turned out the way he expected.”
The following year the team played up the rivalry between the pair as the Giro approached but eventually something had to give and Simoni left for Saunier Duval in 2006. Bitterness between them persisted until they buried the hatchet at an off-season charity event in 2008.
7 MARK CAVENDISH V ANDRÉ GREIPEL
André Greipel was blunt when asked about his relationship with former High Road team-mate Mark Cavendish, prior to the start of the 2011 Tour Down Under.
“There is no relationship,” Greipel said, after spendi
