Tag: Michael Matthews
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Stage 16: Michael Matthews welcomes hills and crosswinds
Proof that the best way to beat Marcel Kittel in a sprint is to bin him long before the finishing straight. As I said before the race, the German tends to fade a bit as the days go by and he struggled on the first climb of the day. Seeing this, Michael Matthews’ Sunweb team…
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Stage 14: Fabio Aru learns that the peloton is long
As cocky finishes go, Michael Matthews’ 50m long no-handed roll to the line was up there. Greg Van Avermaet couldn’t catch him even when he stopped pedalling – although the ghost of Peter Sagan had surely long since finished. The finish It’s worth watching the final kilometre, because bigger time gaps opened than on the…
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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 sprinters. In the end, all four got in the day’s break, which made for some intriguing racing. Maybe they should…
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Green jersey contenders in 2016
I’ve been putting off writing this points competition preview for a few days now and presumed there was some reason for this – nothing conscious, just some mystic message from the cosmos saying: “No, don’t bother yet. Play Civilization or go to the pub or something.” Turns out the cosmos was right. Everyone else is…
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Pozzovivo’s apparently not too bad considering he’s been hospitalised with head injuries
Speaking about being held up by a crash on stage two, Domenico Pozzovivo said: “I try to console myself, saying that the time lost isn’t as important as getting injured and I got through it okay.” A few hours later, he’d crashed. And not just your average slide-off-and-expose-your-buttocks-through-ripped-shorts crash. This was a bad one. He…
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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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John Degenkolb v Michael ‘Bling’ Matthews
John Degenkolb and Michael Matthews are suited to similar sorts of stages, but yet I much, much prefer the former. Why? I’ve given it some thought and I think it boils down to name, appearance and interests. Name Michael Matthews’ nickname is ‘Bling’. I might be alone in this, but I find that spectacularly annoying.…
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Michael Matthews can sort-of-sprint and sort-of-climb
There was much dicking about in captain’s hats and aeroplane cockpits at the start of the day, with the stage beginning aboard The Don Juan Carlos I aircraft carrier. The ship managed to remain afloat despite being subjected to the weight of Carlos Betancur, but later on kilograms proved more of an issue with the…
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Cadel Evans stays upright
A weird, intriguing, but ultimately unsatisfying stage. Crashes late on separated the bunch, leading to significant time gaps and abandons. Half the peloton decking it isn’t the way you want to see the general classification take shape really. Broken bones It was nasty stuff. Moving at pace in the wet, merely touching the brakes appeared…
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Michael Matthews was the sprinter who was glad he turned up for the 2013 Vuelta
No-one else was. Two sprint finishes. Two Michael Matthews wins. The Chris Horner post-Vuelta interview on ITV4 Was one of the most extraordinary slabs of gibberish I’ve ever heard. It was a bizarre collage of amazings and beautifuls. UK readers can see and hear it here. The gibberishiest gibberish comes from around 39 minutes in.…