Author: Alex
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Andre Greipel doesn’t get dropped
Greipel wins! Take that pedals! If you’re wondering why I always say that, it’s because Andre Greipel is the most hard-pedalling of all the Tour riders. Other sprinters may sometimes be faster, but they don’t have to push the German’s huge and not-particularly-aerodynamic frame through the air. There’s also his gargantuan basking shark mouth, which…
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Steve Cummings is coming… and now he’s gone past you
I tell you what you don’t see much of in cycling – overtaking. Riders will attack a group, but when they ride up to someone from behind, their first impulse is always to just tuck in behind and conserve a bit of energy. Not Steve Cummings. Just over the top of the steep final climb…
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Peter Sagan can even finish second to Greg Van Avermaet
There are a handful of riders who I characterise as perennial bridesmaids, but Jesus Christ, if you’re coming second to Greg Van Avermaet you’ve entered a league of your own. For a long time I thought Greg’s full surname was Van Avermaet Narrowly Missed Out On Victory. So the Peter Sagan runner-up story rumbles on.…
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Joaquim Rodriguez is again the fastest while attacks rain down on Chris Froome further back
A second stage win for a popular rider following his victory atop the Mur de Huy. The question is, will it be enough to persuade Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen to learn how to pronounce his name? That’s a trick question. Of course it won’t. Joaquim Rodriguez has been around for well over a decade…
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Rafal Majka wins your average mountain stage
This is the way a mountain stage is supposed to go. A bunch of decent riders who are miles behind on the general classification head off up the road. The best climber among them attacks and wins. The favourites roll in a bit later with no major kerfuffle. Just as it was twice last year,…
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Chris Froome is the fastest climber – how’s his endurance?
And how’s his ability to stay on the bike? Because those are surely the only things that can prevent him from winning this year’s Tour de France. Never mind stopping for a pee, Froome could take a crap (even a challenging, low fibre crap) and still conceivably retain the yellow jersey. If he falls, or…
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Vincenzo Nibali loses a little more time ahead of The Big Mountain Sort-Out
The team time trial was an intriguing prospect, but it didn’t amount to an awful lot in the end. BMC won it and it increasingly seems like their leader – the American, Tejay Van Garderen – has become the fifth member of the big four. My maths is less-than-excellent, but there are only two ways…
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Alexis Vuillermoz forces people to learn his vowels
Alexis Vuillermoz is the kind of cyclist I’m happy to see finishing sixth in La Fleche Wallonne. This is because I don’t have to write about the guy who comes sixth and therefore don’t have to try and wrap my brain around the typically vague, meandering French vowel sound that results from ‘uiller’ in the…
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Mark Cavendish’s aerodynamic sprinting position
Mark Cavendish’s aerodynamic position always makes me think of a child doing an impression of a cyclist sprinting. I don’t know why. I think it just looks a bit try-hard. It seems more silly when he loses. You think: “Why were you being all aero? You didn’t even win.” But it is of course a…