About Blomdahl, Contador, Gilbert and Caudron

SUWON - What do have Philippe Gilbert, since Sunday the new world champion in cycling and Frédéric Caudron, since Sunday dethroned as number one in three cushion world, common with each other? Both are known for a devastating final shot, they both are rapid when it comes to a hard finish, are feared for their destroying attacks and they both are sympathetic sportsmen with the talent to sell their sport to the public.

What is the difference between the two Belgians?

Frédéric Caudron is a professional billiards player. He always says that he is a traditionally slow starter, but in the great tournaments, such as the World Cup in Suwon this weekend, he faces a field with world class players and he can not afford a good warmup.

Philippe Gilbert is professional cyclist, several times in a season he starts in the main races, in the classics, or like Sunday in the World championship, with two hundred riders of whom fifty at least are world class. But he can spend hours taking the time to prepare himself for the final. The World championship in the Netherlands came to the final when his legs were warmed up, ready for the final, on the very last climb of the Cauberg, three kilometers before the end after more than 250 km's racing.

The Suwon World Cup ended for Caudron after a quickie in the first round, when he hardly realized that the tournament had started and the grimmy home player Dong Koong Kang attempted an early attack.

The World Cup in the Korean city has pushed the slow starter from his throne. Maybe it is only recently, because of his high class, but at least until the World Cup in Hurghada later this year.

Torbjörn Blomdahl announced a new era in his career: the herald was already seen during the previous WC in Suwon, where he laid the foundation for the overall victory in the World Cup 2011. The final win in the Agipi Masters was a next, living proof of his undisputable comeback.

The most notable is that the joy of playing and the desire to win is back, after the Swede seemed to resign in a minor period.

He reacted quite unmoved after the withdrawal of the Dutch top team in the league, with which he reached so many successes. ,,I can not say that it feels so bad, because sometimes I feel a little tired with all that traveling to the Netherlands every week'', he slipped out in a disarmingly interview in the lounge of the hotel in Hurghada, where won the overall World Cup ranking last year.

The release after the final win in the Agipi Masters and the intense joy after the final victory in Suwon last Sunday, show that Blomdahl is back into his normal world.

The Swede is again who he always has been. For many people in the billiards world, that he occasionally meets, Torbjörn seems to be an unattainable phenomenon. It is a misconception that he is arrogant or capricious, but it must be said: he is not that jovial for strange people like Frédéric Caudron or Dick Jaspers, for instance.

The people that know him well, can tell you that he is gorgeous when you talk with him about all things in the world. Because for Blomdahl, known as a linguist and amateur philosopher, there is more than billiards. He likes to analyse the world's politics, cultures and admires the great sportsmen in the world and sports like ice hockey, tennis, billiards and cycling.

I bumped him a few times in the corridors of the playing room at the World championship in Porto, that turned for him into a disappointment. Then he called me and exclaimed: have you seen Contador in the Vuelta stage today, fantáástic.''

The Swede is the new leader in the ranking: he passed with his Suwon victory Frédéric Caudron, who will be topfit, for sure, in the Hurghada World Cup and will do an attempt to regain his top ranking.

But do not forget that Dick Jaspers will have dealed with the loss of his World and European title and will do everything to get back in top three.

The moves in the World's top twelve were not as spectacular as after the World championship in Porto. The most important was the change of position between the numbers one and two.

Eddy Merckx climbed up to three, Dani Sánchez to five, Dick Jaspers and Jeremy Bury swapped place eight and nine and Marco Zanetti made the biggest leap: from fourteen to ten.

Martin Horn dropped from top twelve, Murat Naci Coklu entered th top ranking on twelve. Zanetti, Cho and Coklu are the numbers 10, 11 and 12 after Suwon.

Torbjörn Blomdahl, by the way, is also the new leader in the World Cup ranking. He is, with only one tournament to go (Hurghada) at 106 points, ten more than the Korean Sung-Won Choi.

De new UMB ranking (top twenty): 1 Blomdahl 382, 2 Caudron 375, 3 Merckx 340, 4 Kasidokostas 330, 5 Sánchez 316, 6 Choi 301, 7 Kim 300, 8 Jaspers 284, 9 Bury 280, 10 Zanetti 237, 11 Cho 213, 12 Coklu 212, 13 Tasdemir 210, 14 Horn 208, 15 Cenet 166, 16 Yüksel 159, 17 Lee 148, 18 Leppens 141, 19 Sidhom 140, 20 Burgman 133.