Category: Stage races

  • Dolphin maths

    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?

    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…

  • Chris Froome and Buzz Aldrin

    For me, the 2013 season has two main narrative strands – Bradley Wiggins’ Giro bid and Chris Froome’s Tour bid. The Giro starts this weekend, but first a quick update on Froome. He’s just won the Tour of Romandie. What does that mean? Something and nothing. Romandie is the French-speaking bit of Switzerland. The race…

  • The Schlecks aren’t dead but what of Cadel Evans?

    Cadel Evans won the 2011 Tour de France. Andy Schleck came second. Frank Schleck came third. That seems an awfully long time ago. None of these riders has had a particularly good time since and last weekend’s Criterium Internationale brought few signs that will be changing any time soon. The Schlecks Frank Schleck is currently…

  • Team Sky support riders can’t control everything

    How much support do you need, if that isn’t too personal a question? This week we saw one of Sky’s support riders win Paris-Nice, largely because of the efforts of HIS support team, while a parallel Sky team has provided the same high level of service to Chris Froome in Tirreno-Adriatico. Where does it end?…

  • Tom Boonen and Paris-Nice

    Very few people seem to be riding Paris-Nice this year. Compare the starting line-ups for the two World Tour stage races taking place at the minute – Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice – and the former features pretty much everyone you’ve heard of, while the latter is being led by Andrew Talansky, a hugely promising American cyclist,…

  • What races is Jonathan Tiernan-Locke appearing in?

    There’s a lot of scene-setting at this time of year. Next week, textbook scheduling sees two clashing World Tour stage races – Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico – and these serve as form indicators for both the Spring Classics and the Grand Tours, as well as being decent races in their own right. Normally, Paris-Nice is slightly…

  • Joaquim Rodriguez – meet Froome and Wiggins

    Chris Froome has won his first stage race, the Tour of Oman, and a mighty impressive win it was too. He took the lead on stage four on Green Mountain, putting time into Cadel Evans, Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali, and then won the following day to extend his lead by a few seconds thanks…

  • Peter Sagan, Oman, oh man

    A new year, but little has changed. Peter Sagan is still mincing professional cyclists as if they were horsemeat at a Findus beef lasagne factory. He’s won two stages in a row at the Tour of Oman and has looked ludicrously powerful. What odds on a win in one (or several) of the Spring Classics?…

  • Jonathan Tiernan-Locke – a punchy climber and could he ride the Classics?

    Britain has produced a ridiculous number of top cyclists in recent years. The track cyclists are untouchable and we’ve most bases covered on the road. We’ve Bradley Wiggins, time trialist and Tour de France winner; Chris Froome, climber and time trialist; and Mark Cavendish, the supreme sprinter of his era. But if there’s one thing…