Tour de France on TV

Author: Alex

  • 2013 green jersey contenders

    —

    by

    Alex
    in

    Let’s keep this brief. I can see three main contenders for the green jersey which is awarded to the winner of the points classification. Mark Cavendish – Omega Pharma-Quick Step The best sprinter. He will be the favourite on every single flat stage. Andre Greipel – Lotto-Belisol The second best sprinter and one of the…

  • Next week on this website…

    —

    by

    Alex
    in

    Let’s mange baguettes, quaff vin rouge and have ourselves a bit of a Tour de France preview to get ourselves in the mood for the biggest race of the year which gets underway in Corsica on Saturday June the 29th. What kind of preview? You can expect the following: A look at the main contenders…

  • A really rather poor review of the Tour de Suisse

    —

    by

    Alex
    in

    I’ll be honest, I didn’t particularly follow this race and this neglect has been somewhat compounded by the fact that it was won by a rider I don’t know particularly well. Who won? Rui Costa. He won last year as well. Will he do well in the Tour de France? Dunno. He finished 18th last…

  • Critérium du Dauphiné conclusions

    —

    by

    Alex
    in

    Quite simply, there isn’t all that much to say. Chris Froome won the Critérium du Dauphiné and Richie Porte finished second. Sky are looking very strong ahead of the Tour. Regarding Alberto Contador, don’t make the mistake of judging his form by the general classification, because he ended up working for Mick Rogers after his…

  • Chris Froome not carrying invisible weight

    —

    by

    Alex
    in

    If a guy puts a couple of minutes into his rivals in a flat time trial, the only way he’s likely to fall behind them on an incline is if he’s a few kilograms heavier than they are. Chris Froome is far from being a porker, so it wasn’t entirely surprising to see him get…

  • Dolphin maths

    —

    by

    Alex
    in

    The Dauphiné region takes its name from the coat of arms of Count Guigues IV of Albon which featured a dolphin. ‘Dauphin’ means ‘dolphin’ in French, so I guess Dauphiné means ‘dolphinny’ or something. Anyway, today’s stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné was a time trial and as it was almost entirely flat, we got…

  • Has anything happened in the Critérium du Dauphiné yet?

    —

    by

    Alex
    in

    There’s been one stage. Can we draw any conclusions yet? The Critérium du Dauphiné doesn’t muck about. It kicked off with a short stage which featured a decent whack of climbing. No-one seemed quite sure whether a breakaway would stick, whether it would be a sprint finish or whether the general classification lads would be…

  • Bradley Wiggins’ knee problem

    —

    by

    Alex
    in

    The somewhat tiresome media-fuelled battle for Sky team leadership at the Tour de France might have been resolved. Bradley Wiggins is apparently suffering from knee-knack and can’t train properly. You need knees as a cyclist. They move quite a bit when you’re on the bike. I haven’t done the exact maths, but I think you…

  • Pro cycling in June

    —

    by

    Alex
    in

    So, the Giro’s done and dusted. What comes next in the cycling year? According to my unofficial list of the races that matter, it’s the big one – the Tour de France on June 29. With that in mind, the coming weeks constitute the build-up. On Sunday, the Critérium du Dauphiné begins. It’s an eight-stage…

  • Some sort of review of the 2013 Giro d’Italia

    —

    by

    Alex
    in

    Let’s quickly take stock of the 2013 Giro before moving onto the Tour de France build-up. This year’s Giro was mostly a cold, brutal race – frequently wet or snowy – but we learnt a lot. Grand Tour contenders Vincenzo Nibali established himself as one of the favourites for any Grand Tour he enters from…