Tour de France on TV

Author: Alex

  • Simon Yates pushes a big gear

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    Alex
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    Little happened on stage six’s one categorised climb. The longer uncategorised climb that followed, however, saw Orica-BikeExchange push the pace. Most of the riders who pass for sprinters in this race were dropped and from then on, things were a lot more interesting. As it turned out, it was an Orica-BikeExchange rider who profited. Simon…

  • A couple of “facts” about Gianni Meersman

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    I did suggest that Gianni Meersman might clean up at this Vuelta. Two stages isn’t all that clean, but if he can avoid crashes, he seems to be the standout sprinter for the few occasions when we get such a finish. I feel I should try and provide a bit more information about him beyond…

  • Lilian Calmejane starts a new story

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    In a narrative sense, it helps if stage winners are already known, but of course new riders are appearing all the time otherwise we’d be watching a load of pensioners in these races. Stage four was taken by Lilian Calmejane and I make no apologies for not knowing him, because no-one else knew the 23-year-old…

  • Alexandre Geniez makes the most of a head start

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    I always enjoy seeing the riders tackle short, steep climbs. There’s an intensity to proceedings, not just in terms of effort, but in terms of drama. You seem to get as many attacks and implosions in five minutes as you do on the longer mountain passes. On stage two, Alexandre Geniez emerged victorious. He had…

  • Gianni Meersman – I’ve heard of him

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    Watching the highlights of stage two, they did the usual run-through of the sprint contenders in the closing kilometres, setting the scene for the sprint to come. There were a lot of names I barely recognised and then there was Gianni Meersman. ‘Yes, Meersman,’ I thought. ‘I’ve heard of him. He’ll win.’ And he did.…

  • The Vuelta introduces this year’s riders

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    Apologies that my Olympic track cycling round-up never really happened. I don’t feel too bad about neglecting my duties though. I figure you probably heard the results from some little-known media outlet like the British Broadcasting Corporation or somesuch. Great Britain won most events with that success largely built around the Laura Trott-Jason Kenny household.…

  • Bold old time triallists take Olympic gold

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    Sorry about the lack of reportage on the women’s Olympic road race. I was barbecueing and then couldn’t bluff my way through an article for the simple reason that I know nothing about the winner. Anna van der Breggen is Dutch and she won La Fleche Wallonne earlier in the year, which is part of…

  • Greg Van Avermaet’s only the Olympic champion

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    At the start of this year, you’d have had Greg Van Avermaet down as a nailed-on certainty for an Olympic silver medal. Or maybe fourth, actually – that’s the Olympic version of just missing out. But things change. Van Avermaet won the Omloop. He won a stage of Tirreno-Adriatico and then got to play air…

  • Lizzie Armitstead emerges with a nice grey sheen

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    I’ve been covering Lizzie Armitstead’s racing triumphs semi-regularly over the last year, so it only seems fair that I also report on her legal triumphs. If you haven’t seen the news, Armitstead has not been banned. That might not seem like such a triumph, but there was actually a very real threat of it. The…

  • Bauke Mollema gets some sort of consolation at Clasica de San Sebastian

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    That post-Tour de France review of mine never really happened, did it? My week of sloth means I sort of feel obliged to report on the latest WorldTour (no space) race, the Clasica de San Sebastian, which took place yesterday. A race being part of the WorldTour (no space) is not necessarily a guarantee of…