Tour de France on TV

Category: Stage races

  • At first Alex Dowsett didn’t succeed

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    Alex
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    But he knows the saying. After a double puncture did for his chances of taking the overall lead earlier in the race, Dowsett tried again and this time things went rather better. Dowsett is unarguably the finest haemophiliac cyclist Essex has ever produced, but other than a Giro d’Italia time trial, a trio of triumphs…

  • Matthias Brandle makes good use of his head start in the Tour of Britain

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    Alex
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    The stages of this year’s Tour of Britain seem to have settled on a bit of a format. The break goes away – same as it does in any race – and then the day ends with a handful of riders effectively being given a bit of a head start on the day’s final climb.…

  • Michal Kwiatkowski comes from somewhere

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    Alex
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    I was going to entitle this ‘Michal Kwiatkowski comes from nowhere’ but then I realised that was completely inaccurate. He came from somewhere to win stage four of the Tour of Britain, I just don’t know exactly how he managed it. The TV coverage was utterly focused on the two leaders for the final kilometre…

  • Edoardo Zardini leads the Tour of Britain

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    Alex
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    ‘Who?’ you may be thinking. And yes, it is a bit like that, but you may have been thinking much the same thing when Simon Yates won a stage last year. Good young riders often make themselves known in these slightly smaller races. Zardini got away on the Tumble and if my tip, Nicolas Roche,…

  • Mark Renshaw wins one for the pilot fish

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    Alex
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    I probably should have done some sort of ‘riders to watch’ post for the Tour of Britain. Fortunately, the end of stage two did it for me with many of the strongest names taking turns to lead down the descent of the Great Orme where they could be seen from a faintly disconcerting side-on camera…

  • Apparently Rui Costa always wins the Tour de Suisse

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    Alex
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    The Tour de Suisse is not the easiest race to follow. With two time trials before any of the proper mountain stages, you can’t be totally sure who’s really in contention until it’s basically over. After winning the stage seven time trial, Tony Martin led Tom Dumoulin by 28 seconds and Rui Costa by over…

  • Who won the Dauphiné? Contador or Froome?

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    Alex
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    Er, it was Andrew Talanksy, actually. How the hell did that happen? It was down to an unusually sizeable break. 23 riders got away from the peloton early on, including several riders who were within a minute or so of the race lead. Talansky was among them – which was surprising being as he was…

  • Alberto Contador won’t fade away

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    Alex
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    Meaning two things. One, he’s resurgent this year. Two, if he’s not leading a stage race, he’ll be snapping at whoever is leading until the very last day, like a yappy little dog with a Napoleon complex. Contador finally gained the Dauphiné lead on stage seven. As Sky reached the end of their protracted mountain…

  • Jurgen Van Den Broeck’s back

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    Alex
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    As in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything. This is by far the most exciting aspect of the Dolphin (Dauphiné) from my perspective. I’ve written about Jurgen Van Den Broeck before, but you’ve probably forgotten, because being forgotten is very much Jurgen Van Den Broeck’s defining characteristic. The Belgian’s twice finished fourth in…

  • The biggest names in the Dolphin

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    Alex
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    With respect to the bairns of this year’s Giro, it wasn’t the most stellar field. Nairo Quintana is a big name, but once Joaquim Rodriguez had pulled out, he was racing against riders we were all fairly certain were inferior. You can quibble with that and point to Rigoberto Uran, but I’d say he merely…