AntBanter: When cyclists get angry

It’s no secret that cycling is a highly charged sport, and emotions are frequently on display. For sure, the honesty of raw emotion is one of the many great things about the sport. It’s hardly surprising when guys are in the saddle giving it full gas for hours at a time, day after day, that riders sometimes struggle to keep a level head, and emotions boil over. It might be tears of celebration, the anguish of defeat or the pure comedy of a full on strop, but from time to time, most riders will ‘lose their sh*t’, and I now intend to celebrate this with a pick of some of our favourite undignified moments from cycling’s video vaults. (As some of these have been in the vaults for a long time, the quality is less than pristine, but it’s worth persevering.) Continue reading

Tour of Belgium review

Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) announced his return to competition and fine form by taking the five-stage Tour of Belgium. He won stage four’s individual time trial in a fashion befitting the current wearer of the rainbow jersey in this discipline, took the leader’s red jersey and maintained his lead with a flourish in the final queen stage.

After taking three consecutive sprint stages, Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) [aping Sagan – Ed] won the sprints jersey, most combative rider was Colombian Leonardo Duque (Cofidis), Pieter Serry (Topsport-Vlaanderen Mercator) was best young rider, while RusVelo were top team. Continue reading

E3 Harelbeke review: Crash, Bang, Boonen!

It started so calmly. It was a beautiful, warm spring day, the whole of Belgium was out by the roadside and conditions were perfect for E3 Harelbeke‘s first year as a WorldTour race. Odds were on Fabian Cancellara to make it a hat-trick but everyone wanted to see what kind of form Tom Boonen was in on the run-up to Ronde van Vlaanderen. Well, we found out.

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