Domenico Pozzovivo has a cold
The idiot. As if he’s not handicapped enough by his near-endless list of shortcomings, he’s only gone and got himself ill as well. This wasn’t the plan. The plan was to strike out in the mountains as...
View ArticleFabio Aru turns up
I’d predicted that the final climb on stage 11 would deliver an ‘every man for himself’ scenario. As it turned out, it was Chris Froome for himself and then everyone else together. Fabio Aru was the...
View ArticleFabio Aru is a grooved rider
Fabio Aru won his second stage of this year’s Vuelta and was followed over the line by exactly the same four riders as last time – albeit in a different order. But if Aru’s emergence this season is one...
View ArticleFour or five riders to watch in 2015
I was going to pick five riders to watch, but while four came to me quite quickly, the fifth proved more elusive. A draft version of this article has been hanging around for about three months now, so...
View ArticlePhilippe Gilbert goes into the red
An important aspect of cycling is that different terrain suits different riders. That’s why I always like to see the Grand Tour contenders beaten on an incline. It reinforces the notion that the...
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Fabio Aru changes jersey while rivals change bikes
Photo by: Ciclismo Italia Like an enthusiastic but incompetent charades player, this year’s Giro keeps you guessing. A day after I suggested that Fabio Aru might be fading, he gains the maglia rosa. It...
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Contador way better than Aru – but that probably ain’t saying much at the minute
Aru flat out. Photo by: Ciclismo Italia The nuts and bolts of the story are these. At the foot of the really-rather-nasty Mortirolo climb (12.4km at 10.5%) – the penultimate of the day – Alberto...
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Fabio Aru successfully overcomes the drag resulting from his gaping dribbly...
Photo by: Ciclismo Italia Faces don’t come much more repulsive than those pulled by Fabio Aru as he rode away from everyone on the final climb of stage 19. I’m not being cruel (because he does have a...
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Steep gravel and dehydration – together they are Alberto Contador’s kryptonite
Alberto Contador on the Colle delle Finestre (Photo POOL GIRO) The final stage is a flat stage, so Alberto Contador will win the 2015 Giro d’Italia. He had a bloody good go at losing it on stage 20,...
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Mikel Landa manages to race, Tom Dumoulin manages to survive, Chris Froome...
A hard, hard stage. So hard that half the riders found they were too tired to race. Mikel Landa – who’ll move to Sky next year – was the only man from the breakaway to stay away. The best climber in...
View ArticleHalf-decent time trial from Fabio Aru the most meaningful ride of the day
The threat of a time trial is a lot more interesting than the time trial itself. Beforehand, you can try and gauge riders’ fitness and fatigue while simultaneously weighing their size and power. You...
View ArticleAru on the uphill, Dumoulin on the downhill and Nicolas Roche way ahead of them
In the autumn of his career, Haimar Zubeldia appears to have made an uncharacteristic decision to get on TV. He was one of two riders to emerge from a really rather sizeable break on stage 18. The...
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How do you feel about Fabio Aru?
Photo by: Ciclismo Italia Last week a reader wrote to me wondering why he couldn’t warm to Fabio Aru. It’s a common feeling. For this reader at least, his cycling played a part. “Aru looks like a...
View ArticleRounding 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...
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Yellow jersey contenders in 2016
Photo by: filip bossuyt 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...
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Vincenzo Nibali, Mr Popular, cheers up the peloton by losing a load of time
Vincenzo Nibali is, by many accounts, not the most popular rider in the peloton. It’s the general air of thinking he’s somehow better than everyone else that people seem to object to. Maybe he’s...
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Stage five: Fabio Aru is no muppet
It was a day for the breakaway big hitters. When he’s not at the front of the break, trying to ride everyone off his wheel with a complete absence of subtlety, Thomas de Gendt is at the front of the...
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Chris Froome still intact | First Rest Day Wrap
The Rest Day Wrap is my attempt to give an overview of where things stand in the Tour de France. It’s less about stage wins and focuses instead on the general classification, which is the overall race....
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Stage 12: Everyone beats Chris Froome
Okay, not everybody, but it was an uncharacteristically limp performance from a man who so rarely relinquishes the yellow jersey midway through the race. His team were strong. Very strong. Unrivalled...
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Stage 14: Fabio Aru learns that the peloton is long
As cocky finishes go, Michael Matthews’ 50m long no-handed roll to the line was up there. Greg Van Avermaet couldn’t catch him even when he stopped pedalling – although the ghost of Peter Sagan had...
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