Tour de France on TV

Month: May 2014

  • Nairo Quintana can cycle up a mountain

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    Alex
    in

    I suppose we knew that anyway, but the fact has been driven home in the last two days with Quintana proving himself the strongest Grand Tour rider in the race by some margin. Stage 19 There’s something very satisfying about a cronoscalata – an uphill time trial. It’s the bare bones of road cycling laid…

  • The slide of Cadel Evans

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    Alex
    in

    Sadly, I’m not talking about a cool plastic chute affixed to the side of his houseboat. Cadel’s on the wane. Slowly, but perceptibly, he’s on the way out – in this race and from cycling. But first, stage 17, which I didn’t report on yesterday. King of the nutcases takes a proper win I’ve written…

  • Nairo Quintana definitely did something

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    by

    Alex
    in

    Prepare yourselves for enthusiastic-yet-vague coverage because I totally missed this stage and YET IT SOUNDS AMAZING. Nairo Quintana has definitely recovered. He appears to have smashed the Giro to smithereens, finishing 4m11s ahead of previous race leader, Rigoberto Uran. That time gap again – 4m11s. It was snowy. It was dangerous. There was a suggestion…

  • Domenico Pozzovivo has a cold

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    Alex
    in

    The idiot. As if he’s not handicapped enough by his near-endless list of shortcomings, he’s only gone and got himself ill as well. This wasn’t the plan. The plan was to strike out in the mountains as if being chased by ravenous hounds who have a taste for the blood of short-arsed southern Italian economists…

  • Get down off that float Rigoberto

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    by

    Alex
    in

    Rigoberto Uran can clamber down off his pink float because this Giro ain’t going to be no procession. We got a strong taste of mountains today and some enjoyed that flavour rather more than the race leader. He didn’t exactly make a lemon face and spit, but nor did he look too keen to dive…

  • The day the sprint teams couldn’t really be arsed

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    Alex
    in

    I said that stage 13 was likely to be a sprint finish and it should have been. The problem was that the teams with sprinters in them all dicked about. There was a break – there’s always a break – but this time it wasn’t chased down. Each of the sprint teams tried to leave…

  • Rigoberto’s hungry like the wolf

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    Alex
    in

    That’s a Duran Duran reference. You know, because his full name’s Rigoberto Uran Uran… Don’t scrutinise it. It doesn’t make sense. It’s enough to know that the Columbian rider won the time trial and therefore stripped Cadel Evans of his pink jersey, donning it himself instead (figuratively speaking). Where things stand Let’s simplify this. The…

  • Michael Rogers enjoys a decent warm-up

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    by

    Alex
    in

    Australian rider, Michael Rogers, entered the Giro at the eleventh hour after visa problems for a team-mate. Short of racing, he’s aiming to build a bit of form so he can better help Alberto Contador during the Tour de France. I’m not sure how much more racing he needs though, because he can already hold…

  • Nacer Bouhanni chases back on

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    Alex
    in

    More crashing and another Nacer Bouhanni victory. In a sense, it seems like business as usual, but this was a fascinating finish where only the result fits the usual sprint script. Watch the last few hundred metres and you’ll see Tyler Farrar – the American sprinter who pretty much never wins a sprint – slide…

  • Domenico Pozzovivo rises up hillside and general classification

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    by

    Alex
    in ,

    You can’t claim ignorance of the major protagonist from yesterday’s stage, for it was Domenico Pozzovivo, the object of infatuation for this website. The stars aligned for our Domenico. It was dry, it was uphill and he could ride on his own. As ever, he picked the steepest section of the final climb to attack.…