Author: Alex
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Snow stopped play at Paris-Nice – Race to the Sun still some way from its destination
I had hoped to give you some sort of Paris-Nice state-of-play update after today’s stage. I wanted to set the scene for the second half of the race by highlighting which protagonists were still in the hunt for the overall win. Unfortunately, it’s all rather more open than it should be after they abandoned what…
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British Olympic track cycling preview in the form of a World Championships review
They just held the UCI Track World Championships. Some Britons did well. Some didn’t. Here’s a look at how the nation fared in a handful of the Olympic events to serve as some kind of Rio preview. Laura Trott Not strictly speaking an event. More of a person. However, Trott is quite important. Not only…
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Lizzie Armitstead wants to win all of the things – including Strade Bianche
Do women actually have an Omloop, you might ask? Of course they do. Lizzie Armitstead won it last week in what was her first competitive outing of the season. This wasn’t entirely surprising. Armitstead is already British and World Champion. She’s a fabulous rider and the only downside to her dominance is that I have…
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Geraint Thomas awkwardly dismounts the fence ahead of Paris-Nice
Paris-Nice starts on Sunday. Technically, other WorldTour races have already been and gone, so I’ll be diplomatic and call it the first major European stage race of the season. Last year, Paris-Nice had a bit of a limp start list. It’s actually not wildly different this year in terms of names, but if the consonants…
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Greg Van Avermaet has found a way to win bike races
We’ve been here before. Greg Van Avermaet has found a way to win bike races. By ensuring that his main rival at the finish is Peter Sagan, he raises the distinct possibility that he might be out-bridesmaided. I actually missed Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in the end because I was busy writing about cycling. Apparently, the…
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Bring forth the Omloop!
And bring forth the Spring Classics, the first significant chapter in the racing season. Last year Ian Stannard won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the traditional opener. He won it the year before too, but this year he’s skiving. However, Team Sky remains the place to look for Britons. In the absence of Stannard and Geraint Thomas,…
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Kittel v Cavendish – head-to-head record
Almost as if he wanted me to expand on my half-baked ramble from earlier in the week, Marcel Kittel again beat Mark Cavendish in a sprint finish at the Tour of Dubai. The win also means he won the race as a whole, which tells you pretty much all you need to know about how…
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Why the Tour of Dubai isn’t perhaps the most exciting race of the season
It’s pretty obvious. I mean look at it. Marcel Kittel won stage one, putting an end to a long run of not winning races and an almost equally long run of not finishing races. He beat Mark Cavendish into second place, giving us an early slice of an insanely easy-to-bake narrative pie. As an added…
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John Degenkolb’s finger and what it means for the spring classics
Nine of John Degenkolb’s fingers are fine. The tenth one pretty much came off and has only just been stuck back on. According to the man of science who wielded the glue, it’ll be three months before its owner is back racing. That means Degenkolb will miss the whole spring classics campaign. Being as he…
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Tour Down Under 2016 recap
‘Who’s in form?’ we asked, a touch rhetorically, ahead of this year’s Tour Down Under. We concluded that the most likely answer was ‘a bunch of Australians’. It wasn’t the most specific race prediction, but we think you’ll agree it was pretty accurate. Caleb Ewan, an Aussie, won stage one. Jay McCarthy, an Aussie, won…