Category: Classics and day races
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Dan McLay looks like he can sprint
Let’s first deal with the inevitable ‘who?’ Dan McLay is a young British rider. Born in New Zealand and brought up in Leicester, he’s been plugging away in Belgium for the last few years, trying to get a pro contract. Bretagne-Séché Environnement gave him one (a pro contract) and he’s just won Grand Prix de…
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Mat Hayman has the biggest balls, apparently
“Sometimes you don’t need a plan, you just need big balls,” said Tom Boonen ahead of this weekend’s racing. I’d have thought that larger balls would be more susceptible to damage on Paris-Roubaix’s famously irregular road surfaces – but then I haven’t won the race four times and Tom has. Boonen came second this year.…
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Peter Sagan drinking two Duvels at the same time
Over on the continent, they’ve never truly mastered the finer points of loutishness. Either that or they’re REALLY good at it. Here’s a video of Peter Sagan celebrating his Tour of Flanders win by drinking two 8.5% Duvels at the same time. And what’s the guy front of shot doing? Is he quaffing red from…
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What does Paris-Roubaix pavé look like? Take a look at these photos and find out
You’re almost certainly wondering whether I’ve collated a load of photos provided by Strava and published them on some other website, passing it off as some sort of preview for this Sunday’s Hell of the North. Your luck’s in. Look how cobbly it is.
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Who is Sep Vanmarcke?
I never actually stated it explicitly yesterday, but Sep Vanmarcke finished third in this year’s Tour of Flanders. You wouldn’t have cared anyway because you don’t really know who Sep Vanmarcke is. He’s just another Belgian classics rider with a Van in his name. Well that viewpoint ends now. Sep Vanmarcke now has a thing.…
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Peter Sagan and the possibly fictitious baton-passing pee stop
Ahead of the Tour of Flanders, FDJ manager Marc Madiot came out with the most outstandingly French quote to describe what it must be like to be Peter Sagan. “Sagan has the enormous freedom of not being obliged to win in order to exist,” he said. Until September, Peter Sagan’s record didn’t really match his…
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Peter Sagan wins a bike race
It shouldn’t really be headline news. I mean he is the world champion. The Slovak quickly put Friday’s disappointment aside by winning Gent-Wevelgem, the Belgian one-day race that doesn’t visit Gent. The Belgians really aren’t slaves to logic when it comes to naming their races. Perhaps it’s all that 12% beer. Sagan won a crappy…
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Peter Sagan is the second-best cyclist on the planet
Second to anyone. No-one in particular. Think there’s some sort of rota system in operation, to be honest. E3 Harelbeke (the race named after a motorway it doesn’t use – a road which isn’t even called the E3 any more) saw him finish second to Michal Kwiatkowski. I make this Sagan’s fifth second-place this season…
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Arnaud Démare motors to Milan-San Remo win (plus Armitstead update)
The finale of Milan-San Remo is always a lot more exciting to watch than to talk about. So let’s not bother. To boil it down to almost nothing, after near-enough 300km of racing, Arnaud Démare won a sprint from a greatly reduced front group. Démare said that as he was sprinting, he didn’t know whether…
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Lizzie Armitstead wants to win all of the things – including Strade Bianche
Do women actually have an Omloop, you might ask? Of course they do. Lizzie Armitstead won it last week in what was her first competitive outing of the season. This wasn’t entirely surprising. Armitstead is already British and World Champion. She’s a fabulous rider and the only downside to her dominance is that I have…