Stage three: Peter Sagan gets it wrong – but not wrong enough
It’s hard to explain why Peter Sagan’s win was so impressive. He only bested Michael Matthews by about half a metre – so why was it such a big deal? It boils down to this:…
Stage two: Marcel Kittel in no mood for upsets
If Marcel Kittel has a weakness as a sprinter, it’s ensuring he’s at the pointy end of the race when he has a couple of hills in his legs. There were no real hills today…
Who will win the green jersey? The points competition contender for the 2017 Tour de France
Peter Sagan. That’s about it really, isn’t it? He’s won the points competition (here’s what that is) in each of the last five years and it’s hard to see anyone beating him. However, working on…
Mark Cavendish elicits a strop from Marcel Kittel
The thing about headwinds is, they slow you down. If Marcel Kittel had been one of the four men who had ridden near enough 200km into one as part of the break, he’d have been…
Sagan! Crosswinds! Echelons! Magic!
Echelons! Was ever there a finer spanner flung gleefully into the works of a predictable bike race? Crosswinds are always fun. When a race splits into pieces on flat roads, all bets are off. It…
Michael Matthews conserves his power – Peter Sagan doesn’t
What an odd stage. The hill near the end suggested that we might have the likes of Peter Sagan, Michael Matthews, Edvald Boasson-Hagen and Greg Van Avermaet contesting a bunch sprint rather than the out-and-out…
Mark Cavendish has started beating Marcel Kittel (he’s more used to beating everyone else)
Before this race, Mark Cavendish had never actually beaten Marcel Kittel when the two have gone head-to-head in a sprint. That stat is old and irrelevant. He’s now beaten him three times in a week…
Marcel Kittel is slightly stronger than Bryan Cocquard is light
This year’s Tour de France will, at some point, throw up a winner you probably haven’t heard of. But not yet. Marcel Kittel was the latest to elicit a “yeah, I thought it was about…
Mark Cavendish helps create a normal sandwich
I like to think I know how years are named. Each year you just add one, don’t you? It doesn’t seem like that in cycling. My specific doubts centre on 2014 and 2015, which seem…
Peter Sagan’s luxury wardrobe
Peter Sagan is some kind of deluxe onion. Peel back his layers and his appearance will barely diminish. His stage two victory has put him into the yellow jersey, but when someone overhauls his lead…
