Tag: Nairo Quintana
-
Primoz Roglic says nothing but does everything – a recap of stages 11-21 of the 2019 Vuelta a Espana
Favourites for the 2019 Vuelta a Espana A recap of stages 1-10 A recap of stages 11-21 After the first half of this year’s Vuelta, Primoz Roglic was in the lead. He was in the lead after the second half too. How did that happen? Let’s pick up with, ooh, let’s go with Stage 13.…
-
Primoz Roglic takes a turn to be favourite – a recap of stages 1-10 of the 2019 Vuelta a Espana
Favourites for the 2019 Vuelta a Espana A recap of stages 1-10 When you’re reporting on the first 10 stages of a 21-stage race, there’s only one logical place to start. Let’s talk about Stage 7. Some things never change Stage 7 was the archetypal Vuelta stage. It finished with 20% gradients and Alejandro Valverde…
-
Dumoulin v Quintana, time trialist v climber | The Giro d’Italia final week wrap
The idea with these round-ups is that I focus only on those stages that affected the general classification. This policy hasn’t proven especially time-saving on this occasion, as the numerate among you will realise upon reading the following subheadings. The race was so eventful, in fact, that this summary has ticked up towards being brewworthy…
-
Has Tom Dumoulin monstered Nairo Quintana enough? | The Giro d’Italia rest day wrap
It’s been an eventful week. But what have those events been? Well I’ll tell you. Let’s take a look at the crucial recent moments in the battle to win this year’s Giro d’Italia. When I last updated you in my previous rest day wrap, Nairo Quintana had taken the lead, but Tom Dumoulin seemed poised…
-
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…
-
Springtime stage races from one place to a different place – a round-up
You may have noticed that my approach to race reports this year has been to deliver them almost pointlessly late. You may think that this temporal delay removes my responsibility to look at the ins and outs of how each race was decided. You’d be right. I’m also lazy. And busy. These ingredients are not…
-
A good Vuelta for Froome’s reputation but a better one for Quintana’s
For a race so profoundly sprint-unfriendly, the final stage seems bizarre – almost irrelevant. Supposedly a reward for sprinters who’ve lasted the course, the truth is that few turned up in the first place, so this just seems a weird, out-of-character, tacked on extra. Best of the dregs was Magnus Cort Nielsen, who also won…
-
Nairo Quintana not inclined to budge from race lead
In the end, the task of gaining over a minute on Nairo Quintana on a mountain stage proved as impossible as might realistically have been expected. If the Colombian has a weakness, it is not uphill. The final 5km of the stage were mostly just Chris Froome attacking and Quintana following him with a face…
-
Chris Froome minces his rivals in the time trial
He minced everyone, in fact; minced them as if he had some sort of grinder hooked up to his oval chain ring and a hunger for mince that could not be sated. Only Movistar’s time trial specialist Jonathan Castroviejo got within a minute of Chris Froome, finishing 44 seconds down in second place, but the…
-
Team Sky have an absolute bloody nightmare
The peloton is long. Containing getting on for 200 riders, it is a long way from the front to the back. It is even further from the back to the front, particularly when the damn thing’s going flat-out. This normally only happens at the end of sprint stages. It happened right from the off on…