TdF 2014

It's been quite le Tour de France. Crowds, excitement, weather, awesome racing, it has been incredible.

1) Location
The race started in the UK. It started in the UK, in Yorskhire, and had three stages, two in Yorkshire and the final from Cambridge to finish on the mall in London. The race started in London in 2007 and I believe has been through the UK twice before. The crowds were epic and highly complimented, some of the biggest crowds that the tour has seen.
Stage 2 had some excellent routes over tough climbs in Yorkshire, with Nibali making a great attack and taking yellow. Great stage.
Stage 3 finished in London, after starting in beautiful Cambridge, passing through Essex, before joining London, passing the London 2012 Olympic park, touring through London before turning past Buckingham Palace and finishing on the mall. We took the chance to enjoy it and were on the mall, at the 250 metres to go spot. The crowds were incredible, and the organisation was phenomenal - big screens everywhere, and a huge fan site in Trafalgar Square. It was also excellent to walk around central London with the roads closed.

Nibali receving the yellow jersey

2) Crashing
Sprinters have led the day. Kittel won sprints on day 1 and 3, but day 1 will probably be most remembered for Mark Cavendish leaning in on Simon Gerrans and causing a crash which saw him out of the tour with a separated shoulder.
Chris Froome, the clear favourite, had a small crash on day 4, but on day 5, the much-feared cobble stage, he crashed twice and had to abandon. Apparently he had broken his wrist on day 4, and the falls on day 5 made it impossible to continue. Although day 5 was the cobble stage, Froome abandoned before he reached the cobbles, although it was noticeable that the entire peloton was very twitchy.
Alberto Contador - the second favourite - was looking strong, despite losing small time and big time to Nibali on stages 2 and 5, respectively, before going down with a nasty injury on stage 10. Race TV did not catch the images, but allegedly he was gunning it down a descent and lost the bike. He tried to ride on for 20 km, but abandoned, later discovering he had a broken tibia. There was some post-accident debate on whether Contador's bike had catastrophic failure (http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/07/news/timeline-details-alberto-contadors-tour-ending-crash_336328) but later it seemed that the bike got twisted and snapped whilst the Tinkov-SaxoBank team car tangled with the Belkin car.
No more crashing please.

3) Weather
The weather in the UK was superb, absolutely superb. Chapeau. There has been a lot of rain in France, and this week crazy heat. Tough.

4) Racing
Nibali has imperious, winning 3 stages, and looks odds on to win, if he can get through without making any mistakes. Behind him, Sky's Richie Port has cracked again and disappeared. Garmin's Andrew Talansky climbed off after suffering numerous crashes, but chapeau to him making it through and finishing a really tough stage when he could have climbed off and ended it there (http://sports.yahoo.com/news/rest-day-tour-france-resumes-110256541--spt.html;_ylt=A0LEVxGhesxTZkcAcnNXNyoA). Otherwise it has been an absorbing contest in the top 10 with notably some french juniors pushing through (Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot, Jean-Cristophe Peraud) plus USA's Teejay Van Garderen.

A week to go, I am loving it!

Disappointment in pink 29 May 2014

Today I am a little saddened. We are in the final week of the Giro D'Italia, my favourite race in the cycling calendar, and rather than talking about the excellent racing, and athletes, and teams and technology, rather we are talking about a mess of a race, with official challenges being made, arguments off the bike, claims to have time deducted off other riders.

What has happened?

Well - it's been quite a race. Svein Tuft was in pink on day one after the team time trial, this then transferred to Michael Matthews from the same team, who held on to the jersey for the first week. Then Cadel Evans, former winner of the Tour de France, took over the mantel and was looking very comfortable in pink, whilst ll his major rivals seemed to be crashing around him, mentally, physically, as well as literally. Then Rigoberto Uran Uran from Colombia rode into pink after crushing everyone over a long and lumpy time trial. And now it is held by fellow Colombian Nairo Quintana.



What's the problem?
The other day was a tough stage. The Gavia, the Stelvio and Val Martello - classic brutal and gorgeous Italian climbs. Weather was tough, with snow on the stage. Atop the highest heights, the snow was piled 10 feet deep. The temperatures were bitter, snow, rain and hail were coming down and visibility was low. The official Giro D'Italia twitter account published that the stage had been neutralised after the highest point (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cima_Coppi) for safety reasons.

However, the communication wasn't clear. Some red flags were seen on the course. There was no official announcement on race radio. The tweet was later deleted from the official twitter account. There was some suggestions that since it was an Italian that lead over the top, maybe this biased the decision. The fact of the matter is that Nairo Quintana sprang away like a veritable mountain goat, racing away to victory, smashing minutes into his rivals, leaving himself nearly two minutes ahead of his nearest rival. This was a dominating, beautiful ride.

However, rather than talking about the beauty of the roads, the toughness of the roads, the tenacity of the riders, and the athleticism and mountain goatness of Quintana, we are instead arguing about whether the race was neutralised, whether time should be taken off certain riders, and dealing with the fall out. Twitter accounts have been going mad, Jonathan Vaughters has been particularly Wenger-like, seeing only what he wants to see. Patrick Lefevre has been worse.

It's disappointing, and the media are covering it as another Italian farce. Being a lover of cycling, all things Italian, all things Italian cycling, I am really gutted to hear the press discussing it as not only a disappointment for cycling, but viewing it as a problem in Italian culture.

I'm gutted, but I hope that when the race finishes in a few days, we will be talking about athleticism and a beautiful race, and not this issue.

On happier notes.
Stage 18 was won by another Colombian - Julian Arredondo. It's been quite a race for the Colombians and maybe shows a real return to strength of the cycling nation.
http://roadcyclinguk.com/racing/reports/giro-ditalia-2014-stage-18-julian-arredondo-solos-to-victory-on-the-rifugio-panarotta.html

Pinarello have a smashin' new bike out, allegedly made in collaboration with Jaguar and Team Sky. It looks spiffing.
http://roadcyclinguk.com/gear/pinarello-join-forces-with-jaguar-to-develop-dogma-f8-to-be-ridden-by-chris-froome-at-tour-de-france.html

On sadder notes.
Taylor Phinney was having a good year. Winner of the TOur of Oman, amazing stage winner at the Tour of California, winner of the US Time Trial Championships, and then he fell and broke his leg. A nasty break by the sounds of it. However, the worst piece of this seems to be that the crash was caused by an errant motorbike. I really hope not.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/05/news/race-vehicle-blame-taylor-phinneys-broken-leg_329667
I wish him a speedy recovery.