Author: Alex
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Peter Sagan, Oman, oh man
A new year, but little has changed. Peter Sagan is still mincing professional cyclists as if they were horsemeat at a Findus beef lasagne factory. He’s won two stages in a row at the Tour of Oman and has looked ludicrously powerful. What odds on a win in one (or several) of the Spring Classics?…
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Tom Boonen’s arm
What’s significant about Tom Boonen’s arm, you might ask. What’s significant is that it’s still there. Now that might not seem newsworthy, but you may have correctly inferred from my even mentioning this that it was at one point in grave danger. Apparently Tom got what I myself have diagnosed as ‘some sort of skeggy…
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La Plagne climb in the Tour de France
I was in La Plagne last week. I had a great time thank you very much. I even enjoyed the airport transfer. Not many skiers enjoy sitting in a bus, grinding up a mountain, but I couldn’t help but try and imagine what the road must have been like for Stephen Roche on his memorable…
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What DIDN’T Lance Armstrong do
Lance Armstrong is not a bad guy. He really isn’t. How do we know this? Because he never called Betsy Andreu fat. “I did call her crazy and I did call her a bitch, but I didn’t call her fat.” Betsy Andreu is really thin, so the only reason anyone would call her fat would…
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Bradley Wiggins’ opinion of Lance Armstrong
A lot of people are bemoaning the fact that current cyclists haven’t been too outspoken about Lance Armstrong. According to Popbitch, Bradley Wiggins was asked about the matter at Dubai Rugby Sevens Weekend and answered: “If anyone is wearing one of those yellow cock-rings, I am coming and tearing it off.” Apparently, he’d had a…
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Lance, lies and litigation
Can I stop writing about this now? Can I please stop writing about it? Although the media attention is heightening, we’re getting diminishing returns from the Lance Armstrong doping story now. He appeared on Oprah and said some stuff, but the whole of it can be neatly packaged away in one box thanks to one,…
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Lance, Oprah and stage-managed redemption
Following Lance Armstrong’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, reports say he is going to dob some people in. William Fotheringham is probably right when he says that these stories are probably just Armstrong’s latest attempt to muddy what is actually a pretty clear picture of one man at the centre of organised, methodical doping on a…
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The Yorkshire Tour de France route
If you’ve been to Leeds, you will know that it is not in France. You may even be aware of this if you haven’t visited. Despite that fact, the city is to host Le Grand Départ of the 2014 Tour de France. There will be two stages in Yorkshire with stage three taking place in…
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2013 Giro d’Italia – the important stages
This is my attempt to make sense of the first Grand Tour of the year. Normally, the Giro d’Italia passes me by a bit because it always seems to be contested by a load of blokes who I don’t know very well. However, in 2013 a big time trial means that Bradley Wiggins and a…
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Which bike races actually matter?
There are a billion bike races, but few people know which ones really matter. Everyone knows the Tour de France, but beyond that people are generally a bit lost. There’s a dim awareness of the Giro d’Italia (“It’s like the Tour de France, only in Italy”) and the Vuelta a Espana (“It’s like the Tour…