Author: Alex
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Greg Van Avermaet exploits curt climbs, cobbles and crash avoidance | The 2018 Tour de France week one recap
Yellow jersey contenders Green jersey contenders Week one recap Week two recap Final week recap Week one is best divided into the green story and the yellow story. Let’s deal with the green story first (because that’s the order I arbitrarily put them into in that previous sentence). The green story (the points classification) The…
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Dig out your giant inhaler, clamber into your mankini and brace yourself for the first week of the Tour de France
Warm your croissants, break out the cheese, crack open a bottle of Corbieres and ask yourself what the hell kind of meal is this? The answer is: it’s not a meal; it’s the first week of the Tour de France. All that’s happening is that I’m randomly listing stereotypical French things in a forlorn bid…
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Get to know the main contenders for this year’s Tour de France
Yellow jersey contenders Green jersey contenders Week one recap Week two recap Final week recap Who’s going to win this year’s Tour de France? I dunno, but here’s some people who might. I’ve taken the innovative step of categorising the contenders this year. The categories are these: Grand Tour winners Nearly-men Big names with no…
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Who will win the green jersey? A handful of points competition contenders for the 2018 Tour de France
Yellow jersey contenders Green jersey contenders Week one recap Week two recap Final week recap Peter Sagan failed to win the points competition (here’s what that is) at last year’s Tour de France because he got chucked off the race. The five years before that, he won it every time. It’s quite a challenge to…
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How in holy hell did Chris Froome win? | The 2018 Giro d’Italia final week wrap
2018 Giro d’Italia contenders The first rest day wrap The second rest day wrap The third rest day wrap Final week wrap The great thing about doing these Giro updates weekly is that it keeps a great deal of my daily wrongness safely out of sight. The final week brought many surprises, not least of…
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Will Simon Yates ever tire? | The third 2018 Giro d’Italia rest day wrap
2018 Giro d’Italia contenders The first rest day wrap The second rest day wrap The third rest day wrap Final week wrap It was a funny sort of week. The nondescript stages were the big stages, while the big stage was dramatic but ultimately somewhat misleading. An early start The week started in bizarre fashion…
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Let’s rank Simon Yates and the other climbers | The second 2018 Giro d’Italia rest day wrap
2018 Giro d’Italia contenders The first rest day wrap The second rest day wrap The third rest day wrap Final week wrap We’re nearly halfway through this year’s Giro d’Italia, but most of the serious racing is still to come. If we’re trying to pick out a potential winner, we need to find someone who…
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Tom Dumoulin and Elia Viviani set the standards – the 2018 Giro d’Italia first rest day wrap
2018 Giro d’Italia contenders The first rest day wrap The second rest day wrap The third rest day wrap Final week wrap The first rest day has come disconcertingly early in this year’s Giro d’Italia, in large part because the organisers saw fit to begin with a long weekend outside Europe. The three stages in…
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Will Chris Froome win the 2018 Giro d’Italia?
2018 Giro d’Italia contenders The first rest day wrap The second rest day wrap The third rest day wrap Final week wrap Let’s first deal with the three big questions. Can anyone beat Chris Froome? Yes. Will anyone beat Chris Froome? Don’t know. If no-one beats Chris Froome could he still end up with a…
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Why I didn’t write about Bob Jungels winning Liege-Bastogne-Liege
This is not a race report. You can’t report on a race that took place over a week ago. This is more of an explanation tied up with a bit of record-keeping for when I need to check who won this year’s race at some distant point in the future. A day or so after…