Tag: Chris Froome
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Chris Froome is the fastest climber – how’s his endurance?
And how’s his ability to stay on the bike? Because those are surely the only things that can prevent him from winning this year’s Tour de France. Never mind stopping for a pee, Froome could take a crap (even a challenging, low fibre crap) and still conceivably retain the yellow jersey. If he falls, or…
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Who’s the fastest climber in the peloton?
If the long mountain passes later in the race will test climbing efficiency and the sustainable uphill speeds of the top riders, the Mur de Huy asks a rather simpler question. ‘How quickly can you cycle uphill?’ it says. ‘Go on. Give it everything. Let’s see how fast you can go.’ Chris Froome did indeed…
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Ding from Contador and dong from Froome
Which sounds a bit disgusting. Let’s gloss over that. Ding dong battles are rare in cycling. Ding ding battles are more common because if you’re fitter and faster than someone one day, that rarely changes overnight. Chris Froome and Alberto Contador seem to be prone to them however with the latest taking place last week…
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Chris Froome reveals that the sun will rise in the morning
I should probably react to the long-since-broken news that Chris Froome will be riding the Tour de France in 2015. Maybe if it wasn’t so blindingly obvious that was going to happen, I might actually have something to say. Froome had previously floated the possibility that he might ride the Vuelta and the Giro and…
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The 2015 Tour de France route – who does it suit?
Former winner, Pedro Delgado, has called next year’s Grande Boucle ‘an anti-Froome Tour’. Chris Froome himself has gone all stroppy and said that he might not ride it and might try for a Giro-Vuelta double instead. What’s going on? Time trial kilometres The main thing that stands out when you look at next year’s Tour…
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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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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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Alberto Contador lands a seemingly decisive punch
Stage 16 of this year’s Vuelta a Espana will forever be remembered for the feeble pattycake slapfest that took place between Gianluca Brambilla and Ivan Rovny, who were riding in the break. I still don’t know what they were arguing about – Brambilla may have grown sick of Rovny not taking turns on the front…
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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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Ryder Hesjedal motors up final climb
Ryder Hesjedal got in the break, stayed away and paced himself well up the steep final climb to take victory on stage 14. The odd thing is that this is his first win since 2012 when he won… the Giro d’Italia. It’s easy to forget that Hesjedal has a Grand Tour to his name. He’s…