What a year for American cyclist Bobby Julich.
The 33-year-old has won another pro race — the 7-day Tour of Benelux in the Netherlands and Belgium. He did it by frying the individual time trial on Wednesday, jumping from 12th to 1st place in the final stage.
After covering the 16.3-mile course in 31 minutes 14 seconds, Julich told Cycling News:
“I rode the whole course in my own rhythm, because I didn't get the intermediate times. It looks like I managed my efforts well, cause I won — the winner's always right.”
Julich, a member of Team CSC, has two other big wins under his belt this year. Julich won the week-long Paris-Nice in March, becoming the first American to ever do so. He later won the Criterium Internationale.
You might also remember from the Tour de France that Julich held the best time in the final time trial in St. Etienne, until Vinokourov, Ullrich and Armstrong crossed the line; he finished 17th overall in the Tour.
Last summer, Julich earned the bronze medal in the individual time trial at the Summer Olympics in Athens. He finished third in the Tour de France in 1998, becoming only the second American after Greg Lemond to do so.
Reading Julich's bio at his website is a reminder that there are other great cyclists from the US, besides Armstrong. Julich has had a long, steady career. This journeyman cyclist has certainly earned all the success he's had this year.
Another American on CSC, Christian Vandevelde, won the mountains competition.
The blogger over at Peloton Blog (Eneco Tour final results) was happy to see Julich win Benelux, but points out that 15 riders were within one-minute of the leader going into the final stage, making the racing in earlier days “rather irrelevant.” He also reminds us of an earlier faux pas:
“So a badly organized stage that rerouted the pack and caused controversy, and what turned out to be a not very selective race I would not use this as a good example of what the ProTour is bringing us this year.”
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