Author: Alex
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How many Italians have won the Tour of Flanders?
The cobbled classics started out normally enough. Zdenek Stybar – a man best known on this site for taking his false teeth out during the 2015 Tour of Flanders because they were rattling – won E3 Harelbeke. And then Alexander Kristoff, the jet-powered truck, won Gent Wevelgem. These are normal cobbled classics people and these…
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So that’s why Julian Alaphilippe was practising his sprint
I don’t tell you much useful on this website, but I did inadvertently drip-feed you a teaser of Julian Alaphilippe’s win in Milan-Sanremo. First, I told you he’d win a bunch of stuff this season. This was his seventh win and it’s not even April. Second, I told you that he won a bunch sprint…
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The 2019 Paris-Nice Wrap
I’ve been branding most of my stage race round-ups ‘wraps’ for the last year or so, but I can’t help but feel that a Paris-Nice wrap must be a specific type of French taco. Do you know about the French taco? It’s the French version of meat and chips in a wrap – which is…
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Julian Alaphilippe does some foreshadowing at Strade Bianche
Julian Alaphilippe, the Frenchman with the pain-in-the-arse surname, won Strade Bianche at his first attempt today. I guarantee you he’ll win a whole bunch of other stuff this season provided he doesn’t break anything important. Earlier in the day, Dutch rider Annemiek Van Vleuten won the women’s race. Van Vleuten won the Women’s WorldTour last…
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Team Sky’s fate is in Sir Dave Brailsford’s mad hands
That image above depicts one of Sir Dave Brailsford’s very many crazy hand gestures. These days Sir Dave’s about 50 per cent the boss of a cycling team and 50 per cent mime. “Mime is money” according to Billy Crystal’s character in Spinal Tap – and that’s just as well because Brailsford currently needs to…
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How are you supposed to feel about Alejandro Valverde being world champion?
After two silver medals and four bronze ones, Alejandro Valverde’s world championships bridesmaidery finally came to an end this weekend. A lot of people will say it’s nothing less than a spectacularly good rider deserves. A lot of people will say it’s more than a man who served a two-year doping ban deserves. There’s probably…
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Simon Yates gets to grips with three-week racing | a recap of stages 16-21 of the 2018 Vuelta a Espana
A cast list for the 2018 Vuelta a Espana Week one recap Week two recap Final week recap Earlier this year, in the closing stages of the Giro d’Italia, Simon Yates collapsed like your granny after half a bottle of gin. Fortunately, fears that gin might strike twice proved unfounded and he held it together…
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Simon Yates is ahead again | a recap of stages 9-15 of the 2018 Vuelta a Espana
A cast list for the 2018 Vuelta a Espana Week one recap Week two recap Final week recap My second week recap (which technically also includes one stage from the first week) is a tale of two breaks and three summit finishes. Whither Team Sky? Stage nine brought the first proper mountaintop finish of the…
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Let’s try and work out who’s actually trying to win the Vuelta a Espana | a recap of stages 1-8
A cast list for the 2018 Vuelta a Espana Week one recap Week two recap Final week recap The logical thing to do would have been to include the stage nine summit finish in this report, but sometimes logic has to bow to convenience. I’ll catch up with that and the whole of the second…
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A cast list for the 2018 Vuelta a Espana
A cast list for the 2018 Vuelta a Espana Week one recap Week two recap Final week recap Grand Tour riders plan their seasons around whether they’re aiming for the Giro d’Italia or the Tour de France. A little later in the year, a whole bunch of them cross their fingers and hope they just…