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Cyclingnews' 2002 Top Ten: Part three
The repechage for bronze, as selected by the Cyclingnews team
4: Laurent Jalabert
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Talk about going out with a bang! With his mountains victory in this year's Tour, achieved in a series of gutsy solo breaks of epic proportions, his win at San Sebastian and his gracious demeanour throughout, Laurent Jalabert cemented his place in the hearts of the French public this year, and earned a place in the pantheon of cycling's greats.
In his 13 year pro career, Jalabert has won just about everything there is to win: the 1995 Vuelta, clocking five stage wins on the way; Tour de France stages and the sprinters' jersey; the world TT championships, Paris-Nice, Fleche Wallone, Milan-San Remo, Classique des Alpes and scores of others. On the way he achieved a remarkable transformation, starting his career shoulder to shoulder with the fast men in the sprinters' finish rucks before a disastrous crash in a Tour finish at Armentière made him realise that perhaps there were safer ways to earn a living.
Jalabert plans to spend more time with his family, and especially his 11 year old daughter whose boyfriends, he seems to feel, will need an eye keeping on them. We can't imagine any young Frenchman daring to cross his country's greatest bike rider of the '90s!
3: Susanne Lungskog
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It seems like 26 year old Ljungskog has come from nowhere to cycling's glamour girl, all in the space of a single season.
The Swede has been known for her attacking style, but until this year, big victories and big attacks have rarely coincided. That all changed in August, with the theory laid to rest at Zolder.
In the Grande Boucle Féminine, Ljungskog was defiant in the Alps despite incessant attacking from the experienced Belorussian-Lithuanian-Russian combination of Stahurskaia, Pucinskaite and Polkhanova.
And when young Swiss revelation Nicole Brandli attacked from the gun on Stage 9b, the girl from Oskarstrom kept her cool. She bided her time until the very end, gaining enough time to move into second overall, behind Stahurskaia but ahead of Joane Somarriba Arrola - whose defensive riding style was reminiscent of a fellow Spaniard by the name of Joseba Beloki.
Then when it came to the flats, Ljungskog chose to attack rather than rest and was fast becoming the crowd favourite, providing entertainment value rarely seen before in women's cycling.
Stahurskaia and Ljungskog traded blows all the way to Paris, and upon winning the final time trial, Ljungskog reduced her deficit to just 33 seconds. It was an amazing display of strength, opportunism and a newer-say-die attitude.
However, Ljungskog's cycling prowess truly reached its zenith at Zolder.
In the closing stages of the 128 kilometre race, a decisive trio containing Joanne Sommariba, Nicole Brändli, and Sara Carrigan had escaped. Yet Ljungskog did not panic, but instead waited for the peloton to relax before launching an attack none could follow.
With three separate nations represented containing as many riders, Ljungskog was certain to catch the lead group, and bridged the 20 second gap in the space of a few minutes.
The finale was a formality: Ljungskog powered past Brändli, Somarriba Arrola and Carrigan - and in doing so, became the second ever Swedish Women's World Champion since Marianne Berglund bagged her rainbow jersey in Altenrhein, Switzerland, in 1983.
