Tour Down Under | The Inner Ring

Tuesday Shorts

Tuesday, 21 January 2014Tuesday, 21 January 2014

André Greipel was second on the opening stage of the Tour Down Under. Getting beaten by Simon Gerrans was an upset but Greipel’s presence in the front group was a surprise. Or was it? He’s often able to get over a short climb that others cannot. You might remember Greipel’s win in Le Cap d’Agde in the 2012 Tour de France when the bunch went over a steep climb in the port town of Sète and there are other examples. In fact “The Gorilla” has some mountain heritage, it’s a little known fact but a junior Greipel was German hill climb champion. It was in 2000 in the ski resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, high in the Bavarian Alps. He remains a specialist sprinter but don’t confuse his hulk with bulk.

Tour Down Under vs Tour de San Luis

Monday, 20 January 2014

Imagine holding a party, you invite lots of people only to discover someone else in your social circle is holding their own party on the very same day. Some friends and locals show up but most of your friends are partying on the other side of town. Awkward.

Only the Tour Down Under isn’t a social occasion, it’s the first event on the UCI World Tour. It might have the top-18 teams but it looks like the star riders are to be found in Argentina at the Tour de San Luis.

2014 Santos Tour Down Under preview

Sunday, 19 January 2014Friday, 17 January 2014

Welcome to a new season of racing. The Tour de San Luis is next week too and the Tropicale Amissa Bongo has opened the pro calendar but this is the first race on the UCI WorldTour calendar. All the big teams together and it’s all on TV.

This race has got harder in recent years and the 2014 edition continues the trend with a sharp climb on the first day that could rule out several sprinters. Here’s the pre-race race preview with a look at each stage, the contenders, a TV guide and more.

How Hot is Too Hot?

Monday, 2 June 2014Thursday, 16 January 2014

Anyone for tennis? Players in the Australian Open are getting heatstroke on court and next week sees the Tour Down Under start in Adelaide where it’s even hotter.

Racing in high temperatures brings a new set of challenges and some solutions are set out below. Can it get too hot to race?

Lessons from the Tour Down Under

Monday, 28 January 2013Sunday, 27 January 2013

What can we learn from the start of the season? We might have had only a few days of racing but there are a few observations to make and points to note from this race and the way it sits alongside the Tour de San Luis in Argentina.

Roads to Ride: Col du Soulor

Saturday, 9 January 2016Friday, 25 January 2013

As the fifth part of a series to explore the famous roads of cycling, here is the Col du Soulor in the French Pyrenees. The idea is to discover the road and its place in the world, whether as part of cycling’s history or to look at the route on a day without racing and it is open to all.

2013 Santos Tour Down Under preview

Wednesday, 23 January 2013Saturday, 19 January 2013

There’s a race on. It’s becoming a cliché to say we should talk about the sport instead of scandal, races instead of revelations. So here it is, a proper World Tour race packed with big names, Australian sunshine and it’s all just a few days away.

Here’s a stage-by-stage preview, a look at the contenders, the jerseys as well as what time you can expect to watch the finish on TV.

Who Will Finish Third in the Tour?

Wednesday, 27 June 2012Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Tour de France winner odds bookmakers

The odds on Bradley Wiggins winning the Tour de France are now so short that the some bookmakers price him as a safer pick than Lance Armstrong in 2003. Cadel Evans is a close second but as the table above from oddschecker.com shows, everyone else is far out. Madness?

Possibly and we should note that the odds are a price and not a probability, it is likely that a lot of people have been putting a lot of money on Evans and Wiggins and this has shortened the odds. But precision apart, Wiggins and Evans are the two prime contenders. Who are the others capable of finishing on the podium?

Tour Down Under shorts

Friday, 20 January 2012Friday, 20 January 2012

The race is far from over and tomorrow’s stage finish on Willunga Hill will change everything, more on this in a minute. Before this I wanted to look around the race and see what’s what, from TV coverage to photofinish “controversy” and the Wouter Mol fan club.

Will Clarke, the one that got away

Wednesday, 18 January 2012Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Sport often celebrates the “little guy” winning and Will Clarke’s win in Stage 2 of the Tour Down Under fits this script. I’m hesitant to label a rider like Clarke “little” because he’s an elite athlete – and tall too. So far his career has been a story of breakaways, in more ways than one.

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