Tour de France on TV

Tag: Michal Kwiatkowski

  • A trident for Michal Kwiatkowski thanks to Team Sky’s most prosaic advantage – its finances

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    Alex
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    Considering the ongoing furore about his allegedly excessive, possibly ban-earning use of his inhaler and the much larger controversies blighting Team Sky, Chris Froome took the wise decision to be woefully out of form at Tirreno Adriatico, finishing 34th. The story of Spring Stage Race Week was however the other, oft-overlooked factor influencing Team Sky’s…

  • Stage 18: Warren Barguil really is King of the Mountains

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    Alex
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    The top three riders in this year’s Tour de France refused to be separated by mountains. Technically, Rigoberto Uran finished two seconds behind Romain Bardet and Chris Froome atop the Izoard, but that was just a momentary parting rather than separation in a meaningful sense. Not that they rode the stage arm-in-arm or anything. Bardet…

  • Michal Kwiatkowski again surprised to beat Peter Sagan – even though he does it all the time

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    Alex
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    Peter Sagan is such a colossal figure in cycling that it’s odd to thing he doesn’t necessarily have more of a claim to greatness than Michal Kwiatkowski. Sagan does wheelies and snarfs Gold Bears like some sort of Haribo-vacuum. Michal Kwiatkowski is a Polish guy with sticky-out ears. But performance-wise, what’s in it? Sagan is…

  • Michal Kwiatkowski’s back!

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    Alex
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    As in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything. Michal Kwiatkowski hasn’t had a spectacularly successful time at Team Sky thus far. In 2014, at what was then Omega Pharma-Quick Step, he won Strade Bianche and became world champion and finished on the podium in La Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege – all big races.…

  • Peter Sagan is the second-best cyclist on the planet

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    Alex
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    Second to anyone. No-one in particular. Think there’s some sort of rota system in operation, to be honest. E3 Harelbeke (the race named after a motorway it doesn’t use – a road which isn’t even called the E3 any more) saw him finish second to Michal Kwiatkowski. I make this Sagan’s fifth second-place this season…

  • Michal Kwiatkowski sups Amstel Gold

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    Alex
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    I’ve only drunk Amstel Gold once. I was travelling through Greece and stopped at a bar while waiting for a train one afternoon. The owner dissuaded me from buying normal Amstel and made a compelling mime for the superiority of Amstel Gold. I remember agreeing with him at the time, but see that the usually…

  • The buoyancy of Michal Kwiatkowski

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    Alex
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    It’s always good to know that a win isn’t a fluke and being as the World Championships finished with the same three riders on the podium as in this year’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege (albeit in a different order), we can reassure ourselves that the cream did indeed rise to the top. If it had been a sprint……

  • Dylan Van Baarle clings on to win the Tour of Britain

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    Alex
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    The Tour of Britain is not a top flight race and Dylan Van Baarle’s victory would seem to reflect that. But let’s just see how he goes next season. Van Baarle beat some top riders and at 22, his best years are to come. Year by year, the Tour of Britain route is getting harder…

  • Michal Kwiatkowski comes from somewhere

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    Alex
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    I was going to entitle this ‘Michal Kwiatkowski comes from nowhere’ but then I realised that was completely inaccurate. He came from somewhere to win stage four of the Tour of Britain, I just don’t know exactly how he managed it. The TV coverage was utterly focused on the two leaders for the final kilometre…

  • Vincenzo Nibali cares not for gravity

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    Alex
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    If Richie Porte is ‘flying’ then Vincenzo Nibali’s in orbit, effortlessly circling the earth. Just as it did in 2012, La Planche des Belles Filles brought clarity to proceedings. Searing, searing clarity. What happened? One of the greatest aspects of the Tour de France is the sheer number of different stories unfolding simultaneously. Sometimes it…