An Alpha State of Mind

Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Galibier by Mavic

A ride doesn’t just clear my mind, it fills it with fresh ideas. If I go out for more than an hour then often answers appear and new ideas flash into my mind. This might sound like spurious justification but for me it’s true, issues I might have been weighing up can often get resolved. Some say sleeping on a tricky decision helps, I say go for a ride.

Tour fever might be building but ahead of daily previews, TV, L’Equipe and more, it’s time to go away for a few days riding.

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Tour de France iCal

Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Want to put details of each stage of the Tour de France into your electronic diary or smartphone? Here is an electronic Tour de France calendar to download.

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Racing Hard William Fotheringham

Details. If you’ve ever ridden down a road that you haven’t taken for a long time you’ll often find it takes longer than you think. the mind can miss out sections. Along the way you’ll spot things you’d forgotten about, a building, a view, a pothole. It’s the same with revisiting past events like the Festina scandal or the Athens Olympics, you can remember the big picture but the journey and its small details escape you.

William Fotheringham’s “Racing Hard” is a collection of his writing for British newspaper The Guardian and its weekend sister The Observer. Over the years he’s produced more 2,500 articles for the paper and this is a collection of the best pieces. But it’s more than a bound copy of press cuttings, pieces are grouped by theme and there’s added commentary and notes to explain context or the writer’s view at the time.

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The Moment The Race Was Won: Tour de Suisse

June 16, 2013

Convention says Switzerland is a boring place but convention doesn’t ride a bicycle. The Tour of Switzerland waited until the last day to pick the winner and even on the duller stages during the race the scenery made you want to dash to the Alps for a ride with a cowbell soundtrack. Rui Costa wins [...]

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Tour de Suisse Stage 9 Preview

June 16, 2013

After eight tough stages, it’s now time to settle the overall classification. Tour de Suisse often ends with a time trial but never one like this. Despite the distance of just 26.8 km, the riders are in for a day full of pain. The profile is extremely brutal with a final section of 10.3 km [...]

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Tour de Suisse Stage 8 Preview

June 15, 2013

This 8th stage of Tour de Suisse seems like a good one for a breakaway to make it. The GC favorites will be happy to get a quiet day before the final time trial and for many teams this is the last chance to get a stage win in the race.

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Friday Shorts

June 14, 2013

L’Equipe in English Having reviewed their app yesterday, French newspaper L’Equipe get a mention again. They’ve produced a superb interactive piece about the climbers and the mountains of the Tour and it’s even available in English. With giant photos, videos, graphics and more it’s a good scroll even for the illiterate but the writing is [...]

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Tour de Suisse Stage 7 Preview

June 14, 2013

The GC contenders had an easy day on Stage 6 when the peloton decided to let Kolobnev, Grabsch, Hayman and Rast stay away. What could have been a hectic final turned out to be quiet day at the office but now it’s time to fight for the overall classification.

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App Review: Images of the Tour – Zoom by L’Equipe

June 13, 2013

The old and the new. This is a collection of 30 themed Tour de France photo galleries, each with about 20 images. Using new technology the photos of the past become more accessible and involving than a coffee table book. It’s also a reminder that the annual contest produces perennial images where the same scenes [...]

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Tour de Suisse Stage 6 Preview

June 13, 2013

On paper this stage may look like a good one for a breakaway to make but the final part isn’t as hard as it may seem. The profile shows two small climbs starting with less than 30 km to go but they aren’t very steep. The first one, a 3 km long category 3 climb, [...]

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