A decisive summit finish yesterday revealed who is climbing well and today brings another uphill test with a longer, steadier uphill run to the line to confirm the contenders for the overall classification.
Month: August 2016
Team Victory Rankings
A look at the win rates for the top teams and as ever a chance to look at some of the stories behind the wins and the stats relating to the teams especially as we’re in the middle of the transfer season.
Vuelta Stage 3 Preview
Stage 3 and the Mirador de Ézaro climb awaits, the first uphill finish of the Vuelta. It’s an established and familiar test that’s arguably harder than the Flèche Wallonne’s Mur de Huy. Promising for Monday.
Vuelta Stage 2 Preview
A stage for the sprinters in a race with few sprinters? The big name sprinters are missing but many others will fancy their chances today.
Vuelta Stage 1 Preview
A team time trial to start the Vuelta in Ourense, billed as the thermal spa capital of Galicia and a chance for the bigger and better teams to turn up the heat on their weaker rivals right from the start.
Who Will Win The Vuelta?
Chris Froome and Alberto Contador top the bill with a wide cast of contenders behind them, the likes of Esteban Chaves and Steven Kruijswijk are looking to build on their experiences from the Giro while Nairo Quintana and Tejay van Garderen are among those looking to salvage something from a season that has yet to go to plan. Then come a new wave of stage races like Miguel Angel Lopez, Simon Yates, Pierre Latour and Warren Barguil to name just a few.
It makes for a fascinating contest with varying degrees of motivation and fatigue and all on a testing course with more summits than the United Nations and most riders have not bothered with route recons.
Lucien Blyau Obituary
Lucien Blyau has died on his 91st birthday. He was one of the characters of the Tour de France and beyond, a dedicated supporter and quencher of thirst.
Vuelta iCal
Time flies. The track programme’s finished at the Olympics and for road cycling fans the next big event is the Vuelta a España which starts this Saturday. Here’s a calendar of all the stages for your diary.
Boycotts and Breakdowns
It takes something special to unite all the World Tour teams. Normally they’re in competition but also have opposite views, or at least their owners and managers can often clash on a range of issues. Now all 18 teams have decided to boycott the upcoming team time trial event at the World Championships in Qatar during October. You might not care too much for this event but the boycott is about a lot more than this one event.
If Cycling Was Swimming
Track cycling begins today with a six-day programme to determine 10 gold medals, five for the men and five for the women. That sounds like a a lot given track cycling is a niche within cycling when compared to the road and its four gold medals but that’s half the fun of the Olympics, to see contests that don’t appear so often. Only if indoor cycling was indoor swimming there would be 32 medals up for grabs and the chance of winning titles multiplies given the repeat chances of comparable efforts.