Author: Alex
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Contenders for the time trial at the 2013 World Championships
It ain’t much of a spectator sport, but the world time trial promises great drama this year. This is because there are three major contenders, whereas time trials often seem to be more about whether Tony Martin will get a puncture or not. Bradley Wiggins Wiggins is known for winning stage races off the back…
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How did Bradley Wiggins win the Tour of Britain?
The same way he always wins stage races. He rode steadily and conservatively on all the road stages and then smashed everyone to pieces in the time trial. Why break from a winning formula? And to complete a picture of British cycling in microcosm, Mark Cavendish won the final stage. Cav winning the sprints, Wiggins…
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Mark Cavendish jiggles up Guildford High Street
Sprint finish. Mark Cavendish won. But it was a bit of an odd one. It seems Cav’s lead-out man, Alessandro Petacchi, is still strong enough at the age of 39 to split the peloton on the run-in to the line when everyone’s pretty much going flat out. There was him, Cavendish and then some other…
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Simon Yates sprints to a win up Haytor in the Tour of Britain
It seems I may not be quite so in touch with modern youth culture as I once was. I simply cannot understand youngsters’ perennial ill-feeling towards ‘Haytors’. Haytor provided a sparkling summit finish on stage six of the Tour of Britain. What’s not to like? Before the race, I told you to watch Simon Yates,…
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How are Tom Boonen’s buttocks?
Never let it be said that this website is overly focused on Tom Boonen’s barse. We’re not afraid to shift our attention by a few inches. Omega Pharma-QuickStep team manager, Patrick Lefevere, describes the current Boonen situation thus: “The buttocks injury put him out for the autumn.” To be honest, he probably meant barse.
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Bradley Wiggins makes nothing happen on Caerphilly Mountain
When you’re ahead in a stage race, you basically want nothing to happen. If nothing happens, you win. If something happens, you might not. Sometimes, it can take a hell of a lot of effort to make nothing happen. Caerphilly Mountain invited attacks. Attacks came. Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky chased them down. Everyone important…
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Pen y Pass sort of does its job in the Tour of Britain
I said that Pen y Pass could prove a good point at which to attack. Being as the stage finished in a bunch sprint, you might think this didn’t happen, but it was actually a small barrage of attacks on the climb which led to that sprint. Prior to that, it looked for all the…
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Bradley Wiggins wins a 10-mile time trial
Because road racing used to be banned in Britain, time trialling became a big thing because it allowed covert competition. Even though road racing has been legal for many years now, modern culture still reflects this history. You can see it in the distances. Road races are measured in kilometres; time trials are measured in…
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Using Honister Pass and the Lake District in the Tour of Britain
If you use Britain’s geography properly, you will get good bike racing and spectacular scenery. They really got it right with stage two of the Tour of Britain. Apart from the weather, it was the ideal advert for road cycling in this country. Cycling’s not about sprinting down the Mall. It’s about having the freedom…
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Elia Viviani won stage one of the Tour of Britain
I thought he’d done a piss-taking pinky-fingers-out reference to us being a nation of effete tea-drinkers as he crossed the finish line, but it turned out that the website we were reading had used a photograph from a completely different race. Mark Cavendish? Sort of boxed in. Didn’t really compete for the sprint. Bradley Wiggins?…
