Tag: Carlos Betancur
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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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Chris Froome earns himself a second place
Chris Froome’s been runner-up in Grand Tours three times now, but whereas on the two previous occasions, he could blame Bradley Wiggins for not being a place higher, this time it was all his own doing. Not that finishing second to Alberto Contador should really be considered failure. Contador’s bust-legged performance in this race highlighted…
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Alberto Contador has the legs – even if one of them’s a bit skeggy and slightly knackered
I can only presume that having prepared for the Vuelta by riding around with a fractured leg and a huge infected wound, racing Chris Froome up a mountain suddenly seems like a pain-free doddle for Alberto Contador. In the pantheon of Grand Tour suffering, it’s not quite up there with Tyler Hamilton grinding his teeth…
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Fabio Aru is a grooved rider
Fabio Aru won his second stage of this year’s Vuelta and was followed over the line by exactly the same four riders as last time – albeit in a different order. But if Aru’s emergence this season is one story, it’s that of a minor character. Today’s main protagonist was Chris Froome. Doggystyle Froomedog has…
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John Degenkolb stays at the right end of the spaghetti
John Degenkolb says his favourite type of training session is the rest day, or failing that the leisurely coffee ride. I doubt all the riders having the previous day off was what allowed him to win stage 17, but who knows? A little of what you fancy and all that. It was a tense approach…
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Przemysław Niemiec troubles the commentators
There can’t be many riders whose names offer as many phonetic pitfalls as Przemyslaw Niemiec. Phil Liggett long ago settled on ‘Yakim’ for ‘Joaquim’ and so generally doesn’t even bother with Niemiec’s first name. In this case, I can’t say I blame him. It isn’t exactly great fun to type either. The Polish rider was…
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Awareness of Daniel Navarro becomes slightly less dim
If I had to categorise Daniel Navarro, I’d class him as being ‘a cyclist whose name I know’. If a Cofidis rider ever attacks on a climb, I reflexively think: “That’ll be Daniel Navarro,” because that’s invariably the line of commentary that follows. However, he wasn’t a rider I ever really thought about; just someone…
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John Degenkolb doesn’t have a knackered leg
Or maybe he does. After all, bust limbs seem to be performance enhancing if Alberto Contador’s form is anything to go by. Before the stage, Degenkolb was bandaged from a crash and saying he couldn’t produce much power. After the stage, he was standing on the podium getting kissed on the cheeks by raven-haired Spanish…
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Alberto Contador steals Tony Martin’s headlines
I think I’ve said this before, but the problem with being Tony Martin is that everyone expects you to win time trials, so when you do, it’s literally unremarkable. What’s newsworthy is when you lose. Tony Martin won the stage 10 time trial, so let’s move on. Over the handlebars The most dramatic moment of…
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Resting with Carlos Betancur
It occurred to me that I neglected to keep you up to speed with Carlos Betancur’s performance after stage nine – although ‘up to speed’ would appear to be entirely the wrong phrase to use. Betancur finished 26m42s down, but went soaring up the leaderboard into third-to-last position after Dominic Klemme finished 29m37s behind the…
