Tag: Steve Cummings
-
How did Steve Cummings win the Tour of Britain?
It’s slightly annoying for me that two of my favourite races should clash. The Tour of Britain has little in common with the Vuelta a Espana, but does tend to offer scrappy, broken racing which is a great deal more entertaining that the formulaic nature of bigger stage races. Some of you may have watched…
-
Steve Cummings’ wins are better than everyone else’s
They are. They just are. I don’t need to justify that statement. It’s just manifestly true. Steve Cummings’ Tour de France stage win last year when he soared past Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet as if they were standing still is Exhibit A, but he’s ploughed through plenty more of the alphabet since then. He…
-
Rounding up The Dolphin
Chris Froome won the Criterium du Dolphin. He won it on stage five. Team-mate Mikel Landa attacked on the final climb and Froome followed as his rivals chased the Spaniard down. The moment they caught him, whoosh, Froome was off. Richie Porte was the only one able to follow and the Tasmanian had nothing left…
-
Another of Steve Cummings’ patented stage wins
When I wrote about Steve Cummings’ Tirreno-Adriatico stage win a few weeks ago, I said of his modus operandi that he “just cycles past everyone on the flat.” This was based on his magnificent 2015 Tour de France stage win being delivered in much the same manner. Exhibit three: the third stage of this year’s…
-
Geraint Thomas lasts the week at Paris-Nice
Without wishing to dumb down too much, cycling is to a great extent about tiredness. Tiredness is what makes a three-week Grand Tour different from three one-week races with gaps in between. Geraint Thomas won Paris-Nice by the colossal margin of four seconds. He was 11 seconds faster than second-placed Alberto Contador in the prologue…
-
Steve Cummings is coming… and now he’s gone past you
I tell you what you don’t see much of in cycling – overtaking. Riders will attack a group, but when they ride up to someone from behind, their first impulse is always to just tuck in behind and conserve a bit of energy. Not Steve Cummings. Just over the top of the steep final climb…
-
Steve Cummings wins a stage race
Britain is still very Wiggins/Cavendish-centric when it comes to cycling. There’s been semi-adoption of Chris Froome, who races as a Brit and Geraint Thomas is quite well known. However, if you haven’t won a Tour de France or Olympic gold, most people would sooner spit in your face than hold a door open for you.…
-
Steve Cummings breaks the break and wins a stage of the Vuelta
There are several reasons why the day’s break is such an important part of bike racing. In most cases, the sheer hope-over-logic glorious bone-headedness of the enterprise is hugely pleasing (even if it is, in reality, largely motivated by a desire to increase sponsors’ exposure). There’s also the fact that it gives worthy, overlooked riders…
