Tag: Vincenzo Nibali
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A French majority on the Tour de France podium
Chances are, if you’re into cycling, you’re not anti-French. I think most of us would consider having French riders finishing second and third in the Tour to be ‘a good thing’. Okay, you’d probably prefer someone from your own country to be standing somewhere on the podium, but failing that, it doesn’t do any harm…
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Alejandro Valverde falls off the podium
He’s been tottering around these last few days, but on stage 18, Alejandro Valverde finally slipped. Now he’s lying in the dirt, clawing at the air and screeching the word ‘podium’ like Gollum. There was an unseemly rush to take his place. The French have been like queuing primary school children, all pressed up against…
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Rafal Majka having second thoughts about the Tour de France
Rafal Majka finished sixth in this year’s Giro. The Pole is 24, which is quite young for a Grand Tour contender because it literally takes years to build the endurance needed to properly tolerate three solid weeks of racing. Often, a rider around this sort of age will be put into a Grand Tour team…
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Richie Porte always has at least one bad day
After Chris Froome abandoned, the situation was presented by Sky as being an opportunity for Richie Porte to show what he can do. What Porte can do is have at least one really bad day during every Grand Tour. This seems to be a theme with Porte: un jour sans – a day without. Yesterday’s…
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Vincenzo Nibali cares not for gravity
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…
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Blel Kadri ushers in a general classification which makes sense
Simon Yates spent a long day in the break, but couldn’t salvage anything for the Brits, fading on the last couple of climbs. The only man to succeed in staying away was Blel Kadri, who won Roma Maxima last year. He pushed on for France to take the stage win. Behind him, the general classification…
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Boom! Cobbles and crashes
The Boom in question was of course Lars Boom, the former Cyclocross world champion, who won one of the hardest, most miserable stages in recent memory. Miserable for the riders, that is. For those of us watching on TV, it was absorbing. Was it carnage? It was carnage. Commentary basically consisted of: “There’s been a…
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Vincenzo Nibali enjoys the terrain
The various jerseys of the Tour de France serve a valuable and underappreciated purpose. No-one can identify with a genre of cyclists, but give us an individual and we can empathise. Take Marcel Kittel, for example. At the end of stage one, he proved himself to be the fastest cyclist in the biggest bike race…
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Yellow jersey contenders in 2014
Who’s going to win this year’s Tour de France? Probably one of these guys and most likely one of the first two. But plenty can happen over the course of a Grand Tour. Just think what you were doing three weeks ago. Okay, it was probably much the same, but you almost certainly aren’t operating…
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It’s a good job Vincenzo Nibali has tooth skin
Because that’s the amount by which he’s retained the lead in this year’s Vuelta. It’s not looking good for Vince Nibbles. He tried to follow Chris Horner on stage 18’s final climb, the Pena Cabarga, but couldn’t. Nor could any of the other main contenders and the middle-aged American now hovers just three seconds away…