Tag: Laurens Ten Dam
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A French majority on the Tour de France podium
Chances are, if you’re into cycling, you’re not anti-French. I think most of us would consider having French riders finishing second and third in the Tour to be ‘a good thing’. Okay, you’d probably prefer someone from your own country to be standing somewhere on the podium, but failing that, it doesn’t do any harm…
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Alejandro Valverde falls off the podium
He’s been tottering around these last few days, but on stage 18, Alejandro Valverde finally slipped. Now he’s lying in the dirt, clawing at the air and screeching the word ‘podium’ like Gollum. There was an unseemly rush to take his place. The French have been like queuing primary school children, all pressed up against…
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Rafal Majka emerges from the chaos
The chaos of a break and then another break from the break and then a further break from the main bunch. So many groups, all moving at different speeds. So many potential ramifications that it’s all but impossible to to keep up. And then order. Only after the finish line can a bike race truly…
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Michael Rogers and the ferocious French fight for third
You wonder what Michael Rogers could do if he didn’t have to spend the vast majority of his time dicking about towing Alberto Contador around. Free to do as he pleased in the Giro, he won two stages – one after attacking on a descent and then atop the mightily-steep and oddly-named Zoncolan. His first…
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Rafal Majka having second thoughts about the Tour de France
Rafal Majka finished sixth in this year’s Giro. The Pole is 24, which is quite young for a Grand Tour contender because it literally takes years to build the endurance needed to properly tolerate three solid weeks of racing. Often, a rider around this sort of age will be put into a Grand Tour team…
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Yellow jersey contenders in 2014
Who’s going to win this year’s Tour de France? Probably one of these guys and most likely one of the first two. But plenty can happen over the course of a Grand Tour. Just think what you were doing three weeks ago. Okay, it was probably much the same, but you almost certainly aren’t operating…