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The Cycling Thread


Adam

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Great effort by Froome, glad he has proven the doubters wrong and beaten the competition.

With this and our potential Ashes sweep, plus Lee Westwood in contention at the Open, this could turn out to be another utterly fantastic summer of sport for Britain following on from Wimbledon.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Back from my embarrassment over writing off Froome (Richie Porte and Peter Kennaugh really stepped up in a weak Sky team), I have to announce my new found love for the F1 driver Fernando Alonso.

He's spent the money to take over the Euskaltel team which was going to have to fold due to the sponsors pulling out. The team has been around for years. They're the bright orange ones from the Basque region who always send riders on the crazy breakaways in the mountains. Their lead rider is former Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez who is one of my favourites in the peloton. Glad that's all secure for them now. Good lad Fernando!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very good Vuelta, although I've only been following it on text and daily updates and articles.

40+ year old American Chris Horner is just 3 seconds down in Italian Nibali with a couple of big chances left to steal a few seconds. If he wins this then he'll have more Grand Tours to his name than Lance Armstrong (...one).

I preferred the Vuelta line up to the Tour this year and I've got a few favourites who are doing well. Nicolas Roche is in fifth (behind Nibali, Horner, Valverde and Rodriguez) so he's really going well. He won a stage and was leading for a day earlier in the race but suffered with cold on one day. If he hadn't then he would still be up in first or second.

Thibaut Pinot is seventh which is wonderful as he's a prodigious young French talent. He won a thrilling break at the Tour last year and had an amazing top ten finish but this year was useless as he developed a fear of descending. There are fewer big descents in the Vuelta though and more mountain finishes so this has really suited him while he works on overcoming his fears in the winter.

One of my long-term faves Samuel Sanchez is 9th but would be top 6 if he hadn't had a terrible day on a really random stage early on. He's moved up from around 50th to where he is now as the race goes on. He's probably worth about 5th so it's an "under performance" as such but there are a couple of guys above him who he nibbles time off each stage.

So to have three of my favourite riders, and three I picked out at the start of the race, in the top ten I'm very pleased. Much happier than the Tour.

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  • 3 weeks later...

That finish was .. weird as hell.

But good job, about time you got a world title in something. :pervert:

We have 15 World Cups in roller hockey! :D

The finish was not that weird. Spain had two guys up front. Valverde was not strong enough to go with Rui. Nibali had been defending himself from both Spaniards for a long time, so when Rui attacked he just had to get to Rodriguez, who either was trying to see if Valverde was near or was trying to talk Rui into just taking his wheel and get second place, which was odd, as the other two were too far away to get them anyway.

Completely unexpected anyway.

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He said he was drained. If it's true or not, only he knows, but the fact is that after Rodriguez was caught for the first time I was expecting Valverde to attack and take it and he couldn't get it done. I actually think that Rodriguez shouldn't have attacked the second time. The fastest of the four was Valverde and the second would most likely be Rodriguez. They both messed up big time.

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  • 6 months later...
  • Admin
British Cycling performance director Sir Dave Brailsford has confirmed a report in the Guardian that he is to leave his role with the team. The 50-year-old, who was a key part of Britain's track cycling success at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, holds a similar position with pro-cycling outfit Team Sky and missed last month's Track Cycling World Championships to focus on that role.
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