Author: Alex
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A list of names for the 2015 World Championships road race
It occurs to me that most of you will be reading this preview on Monday once the race is over, so it’s probably inadvisable to spend too long on this. Therefore, without further ado, here’s the bare bones of the course and a handful of riders who might do something in the World Championships road…
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Tony Martin doesn’t win time trial gold at World Championships
Tony Martin wins time trials. That’s his thing. Last year, when Bradley Wiggins won gold at the World Championships, he looked very, very unhappy on the second step of the podium. It was widely assumed that he would come back this year and set things straight. It was therefore somewhat surprising that he came seventh.…
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A massively overdue report on the Tour of Britain
Report’s maybe not the word – although I did go and stand on Gun Hill for a bit, a hundred yards or so away from where Mark Cavendish rode into a parked car and in so doing finished his season. I must say, uphill and into a headwind, the Manxman did well to injure himself.…
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John Degenkolb’s three-week wait comes to an end
After doing his best Peter Sagan impression for much of this Vuelta, John Degenkolb finally got his stage win on the last day of the race. Near misses, tiredness and a great deal of ultimately fruitless assistance for team-mate Tom Dumoulin and he finally got some reward. At times, Degenkolb has been doing work in…
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How do you feel about Fabio Aru?
Last week a reader wrote to me wondering why he couldn’t warm to Fabio Aru. It’s a common feeling. For this reader at least, his cycling played a part. “Aru looks like a spasticated muppet on a bike, with that stupid flailing from side to side and his tongue hanging out. You don’t often get…
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A reason to warm to Alejandro Valverde
“There were some unexpected moves by Movistar,” said Tom Dumoulin after the stage. What he meant was there was one unexpected move by Movistar, the team, and then about a billion inexplicable attacks by Alejandro Valverde. It was hard to know precisely what Valverde was trying to achieve. He didn’t pick a stretch of road…
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Aru on the uphill, Dumoulin on the downhill and Nicolas Roche way ahead of them
In the autumn of his career, Haimar Zubeldia appears to have made an uncharacteristic decision to get on TV. He was one of two riders to emerge from a really rather sizeable break on stage 18. The other was Nicolas Roche, who won the stage for all the Franco-Irish out there. Roche generally rides well…
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Half-decent time trial from Fabio Aru the most meaningful ride of the day
The threat of a time trial is a lot more interesting than the time trial itself. Beforehand, you can try and gauge riders’ fitness and fatigue while simultaneously weighing their size and power. You can then apply these vague assumptions to the route, looking at how long it is, how technical, how undulating, before finally…
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When to watch the Tour of Britain and who might win it
A swift catamaran trip across the sea on the Vuelta’s rest day because the Tour of Britain is also underway and it’s typically a great race. I’m a bit put out that it clashes with the Spanish Grand Tour in all honesty because the web’s already sagging with the weight of words I’m churning out…
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Purito earns a stupid hat and a different jersey
Stage 15 was notable for a rare sighting of the fabled Haimar Zubeldia, a man of such astonishing invisibility that he has five Tour de France top ten finishes to his name without anyone even knowing what he looks like. He was last man standing from the break, but was passed by the favourites with…