Author: Alex
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Tadej Pogacar’s 11-second week | a recap of Stages 16-21 of the Tour de France
The route promised third week drama. The time gaps didn’t. Tadej Pogacar’s lead was 4m13s at the end of last week and, even with Mont Ventoux and the Alps on the menu, that only expanded to 4m24s by the end of the race. I finished the general classification section of my middle week recap by…
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Will Tadej Pogacar fade to yellow | a recap of Stages 11-15 of the 2025 Tour de France
It’s not shaping up to be a classic, is it? The only real note of intrigue remaining in this Tour de France is whether Tadej Pogacar might at some point show some sign of human frailty. If there was a moment that summed up where we are in this race, it came ahead of Stage…
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Ben Healy gives himself an even tougher job than the incredibly tough ones he just did | a recap of Stages 1-10 of the 2025 Tour de France
It’s a Tour de France of two halves, as no-one says. British-born Irishman Ben Healy’s in yellow for the halftime oranges, having already achieved a full race’s worth of breakaway success. It’s not a great era for Team Breakaway, the informal and ever-changing team that forms on the road each morning with the shared mad…
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RIP ITV Tour de France highlights
Okay, steel yourself to make the most of what’s left. 2025 will be the last year of ITV Tour de France highlights. A very great TV programme is about to go away for good and unfortunately there ain’t a damn thing you can do about it. In October it was announced that both live coverage…
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Simon Yates ain’t falling for that one again | a recap of Stages 16-21 of the 2025 Giro d’Italia
You can’t tell the story of Simon Yates’ 2025 Giro d’Italia win without first telling the story of Stage 19 of the 2018 Giro. That particular story began on Stage 6. On that day, scaling Mount Etna, Yates rode away from all the other favourites and took the race lead. Three days later, on another…
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Isaac del Toro rides towards the Colle delle Finestre | a cursory acknowledgement that Stages 10-15 of the 2025 Giro d’Italia did in fact take place
I began the Week 1 recap by applying a big asterisk to everything that had happened. That asterisk – the severity of the final week – still remains and given the first major mountain stage will most likely have finished by the time you read this (blame the bank holiday), it seems unwise to devote…
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Isaac del Toro enjoys a dust-up | a recap of Stages 1-9 of the 2025 Giro d’Italia
The Giro d’Italia’s underway and someone’s leading it and that someone is Isaac del Toro. Will he still be leading it after they’ve spent 90% of the final week riding uphill? Probably not, but never say never. The first phase of this Giro is a peculiar thing when viewed as one part of the whole.…
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ITV4 are not showing the 2025 Giro d’Italia – here’s where you can see it
ITV4 will not be covering this year’s Giro d’Italia. In fact the grim news is that they won’t be covering cycling at all after this year – not even the Tour! TNT Sports has the rights to everything these days, you see – although they are at least making highlights available free-to-air. Live TV coverage…
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Primoz Roglic completes the catch | a recap of the 2024 Vuelta a Espana
The 2024 Vuelta a Espana showcased two of the race’s abiding qualities. Firstly, the at times chaotic nature of the race that means serious riders can sometimes take serious time by getting in the right break. Secondly, the glut of opportunities to take time on your rivals if you can climb better than they can.…
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Why the 2024 Vuelta a Espana might have to pick its own favourites
Who will win the 2024 Vuelta a Espana? Pffsh. Who knows? Unlike the first two Grand Tours of the season, there’s little predictable about the upcoming trip round Spain. Last year the team that was then Jumbo-Visma, and is now Visma-Lease a Bike, arrived at the Vuelta armed with the guy who had just won…