Tour de France on TV

Tag: Nairo Quintana

  • Chris Froome outsprints Nairo Quintana

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    Alex
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    I love a one-on-one sprint between two climbers. They’re so ill-equipped. It’s like watching a number 11 batsman trying to make the crucial runs that will win a Test match; a taste of the amateur world dropped in at the very pinnacle of the sport. The key, of course, is that every bike race ends…

  • Chris Froome’s pacing strategy reaps second-place rewards

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    Alex
    in

    Well that was spectacular. Nairo Quintana took the stage and regained the race lead, but it was Chris Froome’s bizarre, ‘okay, you have a head start’ ride that was the most memorable. The final climb had barely started when Froome was 45 seconds adrift. Assigned two team-mates to pace him up the lower slopes, the…

  • When Nairo Quintana attacks…

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    Alex
    in

    Cheap populist documentaries like When Animals Attack at least have plenty of source material. You’d struggle to put together more than a few minutes for an episode of When Nairo Quintana Attacks. This year’s Tour de France was three weeks of build-up only for it to never actually happen. It was therefore quite a surprise…

  • Everyone goes past Nairo Quintana

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    Alex
    in

    Many have wondered when we might finally get a devastating Nairo Quintana attack in the mountains. The answer, you’d assume on today’s evidence, is never. The not famously selfless Alejandro Valverde will be livid. Just 18 seconds behind his team-mate at the start of the day, he launched a ‘softening up’ attack on the final…

  • Chris Froome running towards the finish line halfway up Mont Ventoux

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    Alex
    in

    Crowd knobheads have given us many memorable moments in the Tour de France, but surely few can rival the sight of Chris Froome, in the yellow jersey, running up Mont Ventoux with no bike anywhere in shot. Someone – or more likely a great many people – got in the way of one of the…

  • Yellow jersey contenders in 2016

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    Alex
    in

    Who’s going to win the Tour de France? Probably not Bartosz Huzarski or Tsgabo Grmay unless an awfully large number of people abandon the race injured. Maybe one of these guys though. Chris Froome Both times he’s won the Tour, Froome’s ceded ground to Nairo Quintana in the mountains in the final week. He says…

  • Nairo Quintana isn’t particularly ill as it turns out

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    Alex
    in

    Nairo Quintana’s had a virus. He said he thought he was getting over it. I said he’d flag. On stage 14 of the Vuelta, he beat all of the major contenders, so when it comes to Nairo’s physical wellbeing, listen to him from now on, not me. Initially, it looked like Fabio Aru would gain…

  • Nelson Oliveira rides away from everyone

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    Alex
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    What is it about the Portuguese? Do they only have a finite number of sportsmen’s names? Rui Costa is both a footballer and a cyclist and so’s Nelson Oliveira. Here’s a hint for you, Portugal. Mix and match a bit. Throw in a Rui Oliveira and a Nelson Costa and you wouldn’t have to double…

  • Chris Froome more than a little relieved that there wasn’t more road

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    Alex
    in

    The final climb of the 2015 Tour de France was really quite something. A French cyclist, Thibaut Pinot, in the lead; Chris Froome, in the yellow jersey, a few minutes back; and in between, Nairo Quintana, effectively bearing down on both of them. The Colombian was far and away the fastest-moving – but did he…

  • Nairo Quintana in the third week

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    Alex
    in

    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…