Tag: Geraint Thomas
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Chris Froome still intact | First Rest Day Wrap
The Rest Day Wrap is my attempt to give an overview of where things stand in the Tour de France. It’s less about stage wins and focuses instead on the general classification, which is the overall race. Preview First Week Wrap Second Week Wrap Final Week Wrap The first week of this year’s Tour de…
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Stage one: Geraint Thomas has the power
The Tour de France is underway! Rumour has it they considered starting with a bang but instead decided to go with a time trial in Germany. It sort of makes sense. Frying some onions isn’t particularly exciting in itself, but it’s nevertheless the starting point for any number of delicious dishes. Similarly, a 14km time…
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A Giro d’Italia rest day wrap – Quintana into the lead, Thomas stopped by the fuzz
I’ve had a baby. Well, you know, I contributed to the creation of a baby (Niamh) who this week exited her mother. I’m sure you’ll agree it’s still a pretty big deal though and a perfectly valid reason why I haven’t been keeping you up to speed with the Giro d’Italia. I’m going to try…
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Geraint Thomas lasts the week at Paris-Nice
Without wishing to dumb down too much, cycling is to a great extent about tiredness. Tiredness is what makes a three-week Grand Tour different from three one-week races with gaps in between. Geraint Thomas won Paris-Nice by the colossal margin of four seconds. He was 11 seconds faster than second-placed Alberto Contador in the prologue…
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Geraint Thomas awkwardly dismounts the fence ahead of Paris-Nice
Paris-Nice starts on Sunday. Technically, other WorldTour races have already been and gone, so I’ll be diplomatic and call it the first major European stage race of the season. Last year, Paris-Nice had a bit of a limp start list. It’s actually not wildly different this year in terms of names, but if the consonants…
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Nairo Quintana in the third week
After Chris Froome hurried his way to what appeared an impregnable lead after stage 10, I wrote that Grand Tours aren’t just about who’s fastest, they’re also about how tired you get and I pointed to how Nairo Quintana had been stronger than Froome by the end of the 2013 Tour. So it has proven…
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Peter Sagan finishes second to… Ruben Plaza?
No, me neither. Ruben Plaza won a stage of the Vuelta a Espana a decade ago and he’s been Spanish national champion a couple of times, but I’d have had him down for break fodder; one of those faceless riders who makes up the numbers and ultimately gets dropped. He didn’t though. He waved goodbye…
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Geraint Thomas is strong enough for everything except the wind
In my previous ‘what’s next?’ I neglected to mention E3 Harelbeke which took place on Friday. It’s the same class of race as Gent-Wevelgem and makes the list. It was just lazy calendar reading on my part. Sorry about that. E3 Harelbeke The race named after a motorway that has since been renamed and that…
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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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Velocipedes at the Empire Games
A quick update from the Commonwealth Games where, unlike the Tour de France, British riders have figured prominently. Time trials Cycling News went all Phil Liggett, calling Alex Dowsett’s win for England ‘the ride of his life’. The rider called Rohan (Dennis) came second for Australia and Geraint Thomas took bronze for Wales. In the…