Tweets of the Week: Vuelta swings and British roundabouts

It might have been slim pickins’ over the past few weeks, but we’ve netted ourselves an abundance of good tweets this week! We have Froome versus Contador, Bruiser Brambilla versus Rumble Rovny, and lots and lots of great photographs.

The ups, the downs

It was a topsy-turvy weekend for the GC. It started with Chris Froome losing time in the ITT on Tuesday.

Then, on Saturday, it looked like he didn’t have it in the mountains either. He kept his eyes glued to his power meter and ignored the rest of the world. Which actually worked in that it kept him in contention. But it was not pretty.

Of course, at least where Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodriguez are concerned, it looks like Froome is going to have the last laugh.

The pair stupidly did not work with Baby Blackbird on Sunday’s stage to put time into Froome and instead sucked Bertie’s wheel before nipping out from behind him to pick up some time on him. They would pay a dear price on Monday for that. Foolish, foolish men.

Contador went with Froome and then won the queen stage, taking time on all of his rivals. Froome is now just three seconds from kicking Valverde off the second step of the podium.

I suspect you could have cut the atmosphere in that helicopter with a knife – at least between the Spanish passengers. Fabio Aru and Froome look fairly happy with things!

But that wasn’t even the biggest news from stage 16!

Biff! Bang! Pow!

The break most certainly broke on stage 16 with a fight – right on the bikes! – between OPQS’s Gianluca ‘Bruiser’ Brambilla and Tinkoff-Saxo’s Ivan ‘Rumble’ Rovney. Punches were thrown, sunnies were destroyed, LL Sanchez shook his head in disgust.

If I were the commissaires, I would be more concerned about the rider who seemed to burst into flames just at the time of the fisticuffs. Either that or Scotty’s beaming him up. (Velocast is an alien? What? Well, that explains a lot…)

We all expect that this bad blood will be boiling over for some races to come. Brambilla was not a happy bunny.

The camera bike was a bit brutal during stage 16 – if it wasn’t sticking its lens into the suffering face of Mick Jagger (who really looked about 70 at one point), it lingered around Brambilla, just waiting for the tears.

Bruiser hung out on the road until the Tinkoff train came whistling by. He was kind enough to tell Rumbler the news.

Snappy snaps

There are some great pictures that have been coming out of the Vuelta this year – particularly from BrakeThrough and Pasion Ciclista.

I love that the guy in the green teeshirt is talking to the guy in the elephant onesie as if it’s the most natural thing in the world!

Meanwhile, back in Blighty

The Tour of Britain started and it was a very informal affair, as can be seen from the pictures.

Of course, the riders were more than generous with their time, signing autographs and posing for pictures with the fans. You don’t get that kind of interaction in any other sport.

Totally love that little Batman.

It’s just like July all over again – here’s Prince Harry! The guy looks like he’s about to cry – the little boy? He’s not impressed. He’s thinking: ‘You’re not the ArgoSunGod™…’

The Gruppetto

Theo Bos goes Canadian.

During one of the Vuelta stages, we saw Warren Barguil (Giant, of course) raid a BMC musette. He’s young, he got excited at the feed station, he just grabbed the first musette he could, it happens.

It has been decided that the red jersey paired with Tinkoff’s yellow and blue bibs and accented by the yellow and red knee tape was a sartorial success.

The Mighty John Degenkolb™.

Fabs and Bobby Cannavale, that actor who was in Boardwalk Empire and Nurse Jackie. Am I right?

Dan Lloyd drily debunks a theory from Shane Stokes and Mikkel Conde.

Jered taking magical pictures. Still.

The banter between Greg Henderson and Adam Hansen used to feature a lot in Tweets – and they’re back!

The ArgoSunGod™

A happy birthday photo of one of our favourites, Koen de Kort.

Beautiful photograph – looks so peaceful, doesn’t it?

Vincenzo Nibali visits the guys who work on Ryder‘s bike.

Love. That. Hat.

REALLY love the hats!

They’re trying to blind us with science over at Garmin. But don’t worry! Science has never stopped a good conspiracy theory from growing out of proportion!