Giro 2018 Stage 18: Max Schachmann shines while Simon Yates suffers
Max Schachmann of Quick-Step Floors took his maiden Grand Tour victory on a day the breakaway contested the stage win for … Continue reading
Giro 2018 Stage 17: Elia Viviani makes it four!
Quick-Step Floors played it cool to deliver Elia Viviani his fourth victory after a day of frantic action. With the maglia ciclamino … Continue reading
How the hell … can they think about shortening the grand tours?
We’re in the middle of the third week of a cracking Giro d’Italia. But did you know if the UCI … Continue reading
Giro 2018 Stage 16: Rohan Dennis takes the win – Yates stays in pink
Rohan Dennis more than made up for his disappointment on stage one with a masterful display to take his first … Continue reading
Giro Tweets of the Week: Perfect in pink, pitching a hissy, punching Dino
Oh, it was *quite* a week at the Giro d’Italia. We had a pink-clad race leader who didn’t believe in … Continue reading
GIRO 2018: FINAL KM STAGES 10-15
Beautiful scenery, exciting racing, dig-deep victories and the maglia rosa racing for every second he can get. If you’ve missed … Continue reading
Giro 2018 Stage 15: Simon’s Super Sunday
Yesterday Monte Zoncolan assaulted the riders’ legs and bruised a few egos. Today’s stage required maximum concentration and sheer power. Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) delivered an aggressive masterclass taking the stage win and solidifying his place at the top of the GC. Every other rider was an also-ran.
Giro 2018 Stage 14: Froome conquers Zoncolan, Yates defends pink
It was hyped as one of the showcase stages of this year’s Giro d’Italia and it actually lived up to our expectations. With some aggressive pacemaking from Astana, by the time the maglia rosa group hit the slopes of the mighty Zoncolan, the field was well and truly thinned out. With 4km to go, Chris Froome found his form and attacked with no one catching his wheel. Simon Yates waited until under the 3km banner to give chase, hoping to distance a slowly-but-surely Tom Dumoulin. Froome won the stage but didn’t do anything to prise Yates’s grip off the maglia rosa. It did juggle the top 10 around, though.
Giro 2018 Stage 13: Viviani strikes back with stage win number three
This year’s edition of the Giro d’Italia has been anything but predictable. The only thing you can be sure of is that the unexpected would happen.
And that’s how it turned out today. What was, on paper, supposed to be a pan flat stage for the sprinters erupted into an Astana and Sky rampage. The ensuing action turned the general classification upside down.
Just kidding.
For once this week the stage played out almost exactly as one would expect. The day’s breakaway was caught with minimum effort, a bunch sprint followed and Quick-Step’s Elia Viviani emerged to take his hat trick. Sam Bennett and Danny van Poppel rounded out the podium. There was no change on GC with Simon Yates still clad in pink.
Videos
Davide Formolo (Cannondale-Garmin) delivered for the team at this year’s Giro d’Italia with a popular solo win on stage four. Called up only a fortnight before the start, he hadn’t specifically trained for the race, which leaves us wondering whether he might have bettered his overall 31st place if he’d targetted this race. Keeping the pink glow going, he looks back at his first Grand Tour.
Created in 1993 to enable amateur cyclists to personally experience a stage of each year’s Tour de France, L’Etape de Tour is THE cyclosportive. This year’s event takes place on Sunday 19th July over 142km from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to La Toussuire.
All places are taken for this year’s Etape (unless you get a place with a tour operator or through a charity). Places go fast as soon as registration opens so if you want to get a jump on proceedings for next year, take a minute to register with ASO Challenges. Registration details are here. Also, follow l’Etape on Twitter and Facebook for news all year round.
Links: Official website
Images
To many of us, the Grubers’ work really epitomises the Belgian Cobbled Classics. If you haven’t seen their gallery for Cannondale-Garmin, go now!
http://slipstreamsports.com/2015/03/30/gallery-gent-wevelgem-gruber-images/
“We’ve tried to go down roads and go through places that are far more interesting than the number of watts we’re putting out and the speed we’re averaging.” Gus Morton
The Australian cycling site, Cycling Tips, just goes from strength to strength in my book. Up on the site now is Thereabouts, a 45-minute documentary made with Gus and Lachlan Morton about their experience riding from Port Macquarie to Uluru – riding over 2,000km in just 12 days. Why did they do it? To reconnect with the reasons why they started riding in the first place. Click here to read more about their story.
Read about it, watch it, get inspired by it.
Asides
All of the history and excitement of the world’s most famous one-day bicycle race in one coffee-table book. Paris-Roubaix: A Journey Through Hell is an essential read for anyone interested in this spectacular race.
Want your own kit or need something special for your cycling club? Contact G4 who provide a custom service!
http://www.calameo.com/read/003111411e32746b42755
Quotes
“Riders like me and Cancellara don’t think about the points, just the win.”
Vincenzo Nibali bemoans the lack of fierce joy in the riders of the peloton, many of whom he believes play it safe and ride just for points, not the win.
Read his straight-talking interview on Velonews.
When asked what animal he would like to be, Bernie Eisel answered ‘My cat. She has the best life you can imagine!’
I happen to know that there are a whole lotta ladies out there who would kill to be Bernie’s cat. I’ll leave that there …
The face a million women love (Image: Team Sky)
Here is Team Sky’s 20 Questions to the Ladies Favourite
