Author: Alex
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Van der Poel’s power, van Aert’s adaptability, Pogacar’s form and Roglic’s matter-of-factness – scene-setting in early spring
The season is now definitely underway and we’ve been given a couple of sighters for the bigger events to come. Let’s take a look at who you need to be keeping an eye on this year. This early part of spring provides a bit of a warm-up for everyone. We’ve had our first big one-day…
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When does the 2021 pro cycling season *really* begin?
The professional road racing season is theoretically international these days which meant the 2021 World Tour officially got underway in the UAE in February, following the cancellation of the Tour Down Under and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Australia earlier in the year. But everyone knows that isn’t the real start of…
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Primoz Roglic has done something no-one else has done in a while | A recap of stages 13-18 of the 2020 Vuelta a Espana
Pressed for time? Here’s a very quick summary: Primoz Roglic won the first stage of the Vuelta a Espana, lost the lead for a short period in the middle, but then won overall. How did this happen? Well here’s the recap of stages 1-12… And now here’s what happened in the final week… The time…
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Richard Carapaz, Primoz Roglic and… Hugh Carthy? | A recap of stages 1-12 of the 2020 Vuelta a Espana
Let me tell you a story about two Grand Tour winners and a lad from Preston who sometimes stays up too late because he wants to watch the darts. There’ll be a slight whistle-stop quality to much of this recap because I’ve got two weeks of racing to get through. I’ll slow down when we…
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A Tao KO in the final round | A recap of stages 10-21 of the 2020 Giro d’Italia
In my recap of the first week of this Giro d’Italia, I wrote that British interest ended after Stage 1. That turned out to be a bold and not very great prediction because turned out Tao Geoghegan Hart won the thing. Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3… The Giro recommenced after the first rest day in…
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Julian Alaphilippe wins, loses, crashes out | An Autumn classics recap
The Giro d’Italia is still limping on. (Although it’s Covid-19 testing again today, so that sentence might not see out the afternoon.) Let’s take a break from Grand Tours this week though and instead turn our attention to the one-day racing that’s been taking place in recent weeks. This October batch of classics kicked off…
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Back breaks, British breaks and bathos | A recap of stages 1-9 of the 2020 Giro d’Italia
The 2020 Giro d’Italia began with a much weaker field than usual, but two of Britain’s finest riders – Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates – all set for a serious tilt at victory. It doesn’t pay to get your hopes up about these things. The British challenge The opening time trial represented a magnificent start…
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What in high heaven did Tadej Pogacar just do? | A recap of stages 16-21 of the 2020 Tour de France
Preview + favourites Week One recap Week Two recap Week Three recap Remember pogs? Little cardboard and plastic discs that kids collected? Their popularity peaked in about 1994, four years before the Pog that just won the Tour de France was born. These were the standings as we entered the final week of the 2020…
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Bye bye Bernal | A recap of stages 10-15 of the 2020 Tour de France
Preview + favourites Week One recap Week Two recap Week Three recap It’s not often that the reigning Tour de France champion cracks like old plaster and waves his chances of winning the race again goodbye. Egan Bernal had a very bad stage and everything else that happened this week is secondary. That was the…
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Primoz Roglic leads – but how? | A recap of stages 1-9 of the 2020 Tour de France
Preview + favourites Week One recap Week Two recap Week Three recap The story of the first nine-day “week” of the Tour de France is that Primoz Roglic leads Egan Bernal by 21 seconds, pretty much exactly as I predicted. (Not the time gap part. That would need insane. Just the hierarchy.) That doesn’t tell…