Tour de France on TV

Author: Alex

  • Sprinters at the Vuelta

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    Alex
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    The Vuelta seems to be carving a niche for itself as the Grand Tour that can’t really be bothered with sprinters. Summit finishes are everywhere, but even the flat stages tend to end with an uphill run. If not, they have a near-wall deposited in the middle to weed out anyone who can’t climb. This…

  • Oh look, Philippe Gilbert’s turned up

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    Someone needs to step in and turn the pages of Philippe Gilbert’s calendar for him. He keeps turning up five months late. Phil always aims for April and the hilly spring classics, but this year and last year it hasn’t been until the Vuelta that he’s won a race. Last year, that late season form…

  • Domenico Pozzovivo does an okay time trial

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    Alex
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    Better than okday, actually. This is big news. This is big, big news. Time trialling is most definitely not on the list of things that Domenico Pozzovivo does well. That list again: Climbing Somehow, the man they call Dr Pozzovivo winched his minuscule 53kg frame around the course faster than everyone bar Fabian Cancellara and…

  • Who’s leading the 2013 Vuelta and who’s going to win?

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    Alex
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    I vaguely promised something about the general classification and vague promises are meant to be just-about-fulfilled. Here’s the top ten while we lounge about on the rest day. It’s starting to make a bit of sense, but you tend to think there are going to be a few more changes. Chris Horner (USA) RadioShack Leopard…

  • Little Chris Horner attacked on a corner

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    Alex
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    What were you doing in 1971? Chris Horner was being born. That was a long, long time ago and yet here he is, in 2013, beating the fittest athletes in the world on a mountain stage of the Vuelta a Espana to take the race lead. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on. In one…

  • Joaquim Rodriguez, Alejandro Valverde and the relationship between their wheels

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    Alex
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    It’s not like I haven’t written about Dan Moreno and uphill finishes before. He went up the final climb like a cockroach up a wall – which is intended to be descriptive, rather than insulting – and secured a second stage win as well as the race lead. Thus far, Moreno’s been doing what his…

  • Nicolas Roche just about leads the Vuelta

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    Nicolas Roche has actually got 17 seconds on Chris Horner in second place. It’s a reasonable buffer, but he was making faces like someone was tearing out clumps of pubic hair near the finish. Those 17 seconds might disappear in the blink of a watering eye. Roche came third. The good news for fans of…

  • The fat tyres of Zdenek Stybar

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    Alex
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    The finish of stage seven wasn’t quite as exciting as the finish of stage six. It wasn’t bad though. The world champion who can’t win a race, Phil Gilbert, and the two-time cyclocross world champion who can, Zdenek Stybar, hovered a few seconds in front of the peloton for the last 9km and thanks to…

  • Tony Martin’s solo break in the Vuelta

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    No, seriously. I don’t think you’re quite getting how great a ride this was. That man at the front, in the light blue jersey, gob hanging open, white socks pulled right up – do you realise how much effort he put in? Tony Martin rode 175km on his own and almost beat the entire peloton.…

  • Tony Martin v the peloton

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    Alex
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    I think I’ve said before that cycling isn’t about winning. It’s about losing. It’s about losing with panache. Tony Martin lost stage six of the Vuelta in the absolute finest style. When seventh outranks first The official result has Martin in seventh place and Michael Morkov first, but the official result can go to hell.…