Victoria Pendleton said her 'heart sank' when she read the Parliamentary report latest revelations about goings on at Team Sky . I understand exactly how she feels. I am an enthusiastic cyclist myself and a huge fan of the sport, and have been for more than 30 years now. I think professional cyclists are the hardiest bunch of sports people out there, especially the Tour riders and the Classics specialists. Their bravery is only matched by their incredible resilience and I have the utmost respect for them all. The grand tours are spectacles unlike anything else in world sport and I still desperately want to believe in what I'm seeing.
The thing about most sports fans is that we can put up with an awful lot and my love for cycling will carry on undiminished; of that I have no doubt, and that is because I have to, I must believe that the majority of the peleton is not living in the grey, murky areas frequented by those that would destroy the sport. I need to continue to believe in the dignity of cycling, that there is still honour in the peleton because without that belief it all comes crashing down.
That said, it is precisely that respect I have for these amazing men and women, that makes this whole episode hurt so much. I am a Brit and the past decade of cycling excellence on both the roads and the track have filled me with pride. When I'm out on my bike, suffering on a mountain or being blown to a standstill in the face of a biting head wind, my thoughts invariably turn to my heroes for inspiration and if those heroes happen to be Brits then it is oh! so much better! With renewed energy and vigor, my cleats straining as I depress my pedals, inspired by thoughts of 'if they can do it, then so can I,' I fight on, work through the pain and it feels good. It feels right.
However, in dark times like these my thoughts and feelings return to the halcyon days of Lance Armstrong, a previous hero of mine; a majorly flawed hero as it turned out, and I remember how I defended him, almost unto the last; 'it cannot be true! This is Lance Armstrong!' And then I recall how I felt, as if I'd been kicked in the nuts when the house of cards Lance built came tumbling down. I can only describe it as 'mourning.' I was in mourning for the loss of someone who had been with me through so much, even though I'd never met the man, he'd been with me, egging me on, telling me to fight and persist on so many occasions that when it all fell apart I felt as if I'd lost a training partner. I was sad, for myself, for all the others who felt like me, sad for the sport, and sad for him that he felt the need to lie and cheat above that of telling the truth and winning (or losing) with honour.
Then came our Brad, a man who I have written about on my blog here, describing him as, in my opinion, the greatest British sportsman ever. His achievements are unparalleled across so many disciplines in cycling that I felt we should never see his like again. So many of his later successes gained, in part, through the guidance and leadership of Dave Brailsford, the cycling guru who revived British cycling, breathing new life into it's comatose form. And these successes, under the flag of Team Sky's sponsorship, were achieved in the wake of the Armstrong debacle and after much fanfare about the teams high minded ethics and clean, drug free competition that it championed, were a revelation. My heroes were reborn, this time under a cloud free sky, and what was more, they were British.
As Brad's time ended, the Froome era began. A period of unrivalled success in the Tour and then last year in the Vuelta. I was on cloud 9. Then came the adverse test results, the samples taken as it happens, two days after Froome and the Vuelta had passed through the village in Spain where I live! I still had my Team Sky, 'Come on Froomey' banner flying in my garden when it all came to light!
And now, after the jiffy bag scandal, comes the latest bad news about Wiggins, Brailsford and Team Sky.
I was watching Paris-Nice yesterday and it felt like I was once again watching a funeral cortege pass me by. I was numb. There was no enjoyment to be had.
Okay, I understand that the cases against Froome, Wiggins, Team Sky and Brailsford are , as yet, unproven, but really, is that the point? The sense of being let-down by my cycling heroes, yet again, is palpable. Right or wrong, for me the point is that they have risked so much. Their reputations. The reputations of their team mates, their friends, their families. The reputation of British cycling and British sport as a whole. It wouldn't feel so bad if they hadn't held held themselves up as paragons of drug-free virtue. But they did! And because of that they should have made sure that, in a sport as tainted as cycling is by its history, they were spotless all the way down the line. Did they really think that just because they said they were clean that the doping agencies would go look elsewhere? No, their high idealistic stance invited close scrutiny and they should have been cleaner than clean as a consequence.
It seems they were not.
Regardless of how things turn out now, I can never feel the same about any of them. In my head, as in everyone else's I'm sure, there will always be the questions if they go onto further success. Once again I'm burying my heroes down deep and my ride today will be all the lonelier for that. And I'm sad it has come this. I know how you feel Vickie Pendleton. I understand completely.
My Vuelta banner has now been cremated and another happy memory has become ash.
PS. The UCI must, I believe share a portion of the blame. As to how much...it is not for me to say. They need to set and enforce a much stricter set of rules, such as, basic medical standards and record keeping for all team riders. These should be, within reason, made available to us, the fans, who can then scrutinise and pick apart the way cyclists do the amazing things they do. Transparency is surely the only way to go. Cut out the grey areas, tighten the rules, cut off the rough edges and let's take cycling forward in a clean, honest and moral way. If that mens that standards suffer for a perios, then so be it, it is a price worth paying.
Cycling must change if it is to survive as an international sport. Every sport is nothing without the fans and the fans will be leaving cycling in droves if the negative revelations continue.
Tuesday, 6 March 2018
Monday, 11 September 2017
Chris Froome does an historic double!
I have been watching Grand Tour cycling for more than 30 years now and over that time my appreciation of just how hard any of the three tours (the Giro d’Italia, le Tour de France & la Vuelta a Espana) might be has grown and grown. Just to complete a tour is an achievement in itself; to win one takes something very special indeed, which is why I never thought I would see the day when one rider could possibly win two of them in one year. And then we have Chris Froome.
Okay, okay, so I had always considered it possible for an exceptional rider with a proven pedigree to pull it out of the bag and maybe do the Giro, Vuelta double, given that the Giro is in May and the Vuelta at the end of August. Maybe, just maybe, a rider ‘par excellence’ could peak twice in one season and do that double, but if truth be told the more I watched the tours the less likely this seemed to become. And of course that particular double might be considered (by cycling purists) to be the lesser of any of the possible double combos, since ‘le Tour’ is still considered by most to be the epitome of the grand tours, la creme de la creme, if you will, thus a double without ‘le tour’ is, thereby, a lesser achievement (?).
Chris Froome winning this year Tour!
Whilst I have rarely heard it said out loud, la Vuelta was, until recently anyway, considered to be the poor relative of the grand tours; the least prestigious of the three perhaps. Then in 2014 it was taken over by the team that also run ‘le Tour’, namely the Amaury Sport Organisation, who have transformed the impoverished Vuelta into perhaps the most exciting grand tour of them all to watch from a spectators point of view. The race now attracts many of the sports top names with Froomey being perhaps the biggest draw of all.
Of course ‘le Tour de France’ retains its’ position as the most prestigious cycling crown of all and is still the one that most professionals yearn to be a part of more than any other, but ‘le Tour’ certainly lost some its’ lustre during the Lance Armstrong scandal and the subsequent years of Tour winners who were proven latterly to be cheats.
For me personally, as an avid and daily cyclist, if not a very talented one, and as a long time fan of the sport, the first decade of this century were the dark years; the forgotten years, and even though the sport as whole was to blame for the excessive drug culture that ran riot through the peleton during the Armstrong years and probably for sometime before that, the largest scandals always seemed to resonate around ‘le Tour’ even if the race itself was not to blame.
Thus the organisers (of ‘le tour’) and those at the UCI deserve immense credit for the way the sport has been cleaned up and similarly for the way in which, despite its’ travails, ‘le Tour’ has retained it’s position at the pinnacle of the sport. Just to be slightly controversial for a minute, I think a fairly large part of that credit and the way in which ‘le Tour’ has resurrected itself, must go down to Chris Froome himself. Alright, in France he’s not the most popular rider by a long chalk, but then who is if they’re not French? It’s a sad fact that it’s been a long time since the French have a genuine grand tour contender, the last two years withstanding (with Romain Bardet), and Chris Froome has borne the brunt of the French disenchantment with their chances during the last few years. Let’s just agree that the French are poor sports if they’re not winning and leave it at that! But outside of France I think Froome has been an amazing ambassador for cycling. He is charming, intelligent, well spoken and more than a little bit shy (I would say). He comes across as extremely humble, likeable and agreeable, but with an iron resolve that is quietly, but firmly stated and as sporting figureheads go I think there are none better at the moment, and perhaps even doubly so given cycling’s recent rocky history. He is, as the man says, ‘just what the doctor ordered’!
However, the Vuelta is catching up fast and since its’ recent reinvention the race has gone from strength to strength. This years race was not so much a grand tour as a ‘tour de force’! Unlike some days at ‘le tour’ there were no ‘so called’ easy days where a breakaway (of riders out of contention for the overall GC win) is allowed to escape and accumulate huge time gaps with the peleton ambling along 10’s of minutes down. Days such as this in ‘le tour’ seem to be, if not a common occurrence, certainly an expected one, and can make for a poor spectacle from a fans perspective. But this years Vuelta was all crash, bang, wallop right from the first day to the last. Even if a break away did manage to gain a significant advantage the peleton was always livened up at some point, more often as not, Alberto Contador, whose aggressive racing style will be sorely missed next season, or by another GC contender (Nibali, Zakarin, Chaves, one of the Yates’s, for example) attacking Froome’s lead. It really was a great 21 days racing and one that will live long in the memory. The mountain stages were hard, harsh and relentless providing a wide variety of finishes and giving ample opportunities for riders of all (physical) persuasions to ‘have a go’!
Whilst the 2017 Tour might have been closer, time wise, than the Vuelta, the level of excitement for watching fans was by far the better in the Vuelta. And all Froome’s critics (yes, he does have them) and detractors who said he was all but finished after such a close Tour in July, are perhaps eating their words now. Given that there were barely 4 weeks between the end of ‘le tour’ and the start of the Vuelta, it can now be seen that Froome’s preparation and timing was all but perfect. It is impossible for any athlete in any sport to ‘peak’ twice in such a short time, thus I would suggest that for ‘le tour’ Froome and his team gauged his fitness level in such a way that he had just enough to win in France without really hitting the heights that he had perhaps done in years gone by. And by doing so they left that extra bit of polish to be buffed up in time for the start of the Vuelta where (I would suggest) he probably hit a slightly higher physical peak than he had previously reached during the 3 weeks of ‘le tour’, thereby allowing him to make history and become the first man in modern times to do a grand tour double. An absolutely stunning achievement by any measure and one that any cyclist will be hard pushed to equal in the future.
I hope this double win will go some way to cementing Froome’s popularity in the UK where his phenomenal achievements thus far have not (I believe) recieved the recognition they deserve. He truly is a sporting giant and deserves every accolade no matter what he may go on to win the future. For me Chris Froome is a true and valiant hero and I, for one, feel privileged to have witnessed this amazing sporting feat.
Cheers Chris! Until next year.......!
Okay, okay, so I had always considered it possible for an exceptional rider with a proven pedigree to pull it out of the bag and maybe do the Giro, Vuelta double, given that the Giro is in May and the Vuelta at the end of August. Maybe, just maybe, a rider ‘par excellence’ could peak twice in one season and do that double, but if truth be told the more I watched the tours the less likely this seemed to become. And of course that particular double might be considered (by cycling purists) to be the lesser of any of the possible double combos, since ‘le Tour’ is still considered by most to be the epitome of the grand tours, la creme de la creme, if you will, thus a double without ‘le tour’ is, thereby, a lesser achievement (?).
Chris Froome winning this year Tour!
Whilst I have rarely heard it said out loud, la Vuelta was, until recently anyway, considered to be the poor relative of the grand tours; the least prestigious of the three perhaps. Then in 2014 it was taken over by the team that also run ‘le Tour’, namely the Amaury Sport Organisation, who have transformed the impoverished Vuelta into perhaps the most exciting grand tour of them all to watch from a spectators point of view. The race now attracts many of the sports top names with Froomey being perhaps the biggest draw of all.
Of course ‘le Tour de France’ retains its’ position as the most prestigious cycling crown of all and is still the one that most professionals yearn to be a part of more than any other, but ‘le Tour’ certainly lost some its’ lustre during the Lance Armstrong scandal and the subsequent years of Tour winners who were proven latterly to be cheats.
For me personally, as an avid and daily cyclist, if not a very talented one, and as a long time fan of the sport, the first decade of this century were the dark years; the forgotten years, and even though the sport as whole was to blame for the excessive drug culture that ran riot through the peleton during the Armstrong years and probably for sometime before that, the largest scandals always seemed to resonate around ‘le Tour’ even if the race itself was not to blame.
Thus the organisers (of ‘le tour’) and those at the UCI deserve immense credit for the way the sport has been cleaned up and similarly for the way in which, despite its’ travails, ‘le Tour’ has retained it’s position at the pinnacle of the sport. Just to be slightly controversial for a minute, I think a fairly large part of that credit and the way in which ‘le Tour’ has resurrected itself, must go down to Chris Froome himself. Alright, in France he’s not the most popular rider by a long chalk, but then who is if they’re not French? It’s a sad fact that it’s been a long time since the French have a genuine grand tour contender, the last two years withstanding (with Romain Bardet), and Chris Froome has borne the brunt of the French disenchantment with their chances during the last few years. Let’s just agree that the French are poor sports if they’re not winning and leave it at that! But outside of France I think Froome has been an amazing ambassador for cycling. He is charming, intelligent, well spoken and more than a little bit shy (I would say). He comes across as extremely humble, likeable and agreeable, but with an iron resolve that is quietly, but firmly stated and as sporting figureheads go I think there are none better at the moment, and perhaps even doubly so given cycling’s recent rocky history. He is, as the man says, ‘just what the doctor ordered’!
However, the Vuelta is catching up fast and since its’ recent reinvention the race has gone from strength to strength. This years race was not so much a grand tour as a ‘tour de force’! Unlike some days at ‘le tour’ there were no ‘so called’ easy days where a breakaway (of riders out of contention for the overall GC win) is allowed to escape and accumulate huge time gaps with the peleton ambling along 10’s of minutes down. Days such as this in ‘le tour’ seem to be, if not a common occurrence, certainly an expected one, and can make for a poor spectacle from a fans perspective. But this years Vuelta was all crash, bang, wallop right from the first day to the last. Even if a break away did manage to gain a significant advantage the peleton was always livened up at some point, more often as not, Alberto Contador, whose aggressive racing style will be sorely missed next season, or by another GC contender (Nibali, Zakarin, Chaves, one of the Yates’s, for example) attacking Froome’s lead. It really was a great 21 days racing and one that will live long in the memory. The mountain stages were hard, harsh and relentless providing a wide variety of finishes and giving ample opportunities for riders of all (physical) persuasions to ‘have a go’!
Whilst the 2017 Tour might have been closer, time wise, than the Vuelta, the level of excitement for watching fans was by far the better in the Vuelta. And all Froome’s critics (yes, he does have them) and detractors who said he was all but finished after such a close Tour in July, are perhaps eating their words now. Given that there were barely 4 weeks between the end of ‘le tour’ and the start of the Vuelta, it can now be seen that Froome’s preparation and timing was all but perfect. It is impossible for any athlete in any sport to ‘peak’ twice in such a short time, thus I would suggest that for ‘le tour’ Froome and his team gauged his fitness level in such a way that he had just enough to win in France without really hitting the heights that he had perhaps done in years gone by. And by doing so they left that extra bit of polish to be buffed up in time for the start of the Vuelta where (I would suggest) he probably hit a slightly higher physical peak than he had previously reached during the 3 weeks of ‘le tour’, thereby allowing him to make history and become the first man in modern times to do a grand tour double. An absolutely stunning achievement by any measure and one that any cyclist will be hard pushed to equal in the future.
Froomey cementing his win at the Vuelta!
I hope this double win will go some way to cementing Froome’s popularity in the UK where his phenomenal achievements thus far have not (I believe) recieved the recognition they deserve. He truly is a sporting giant and deserves every accolade no matter what he may go on to win the future. For me Chris Froome is a true and valiant hero and I, for one, feel privileged to have witnessed this amazing sporting feat.
Cheers Chris! Until next year.......!
PS. As a footnote I would like wish Alberto Contador all the best in whatever he does next and say that I will miss his punchy, agressive riding next year.
Tuesday, 28 February 2017
Re-runs of the Gilmore Girls! But can my head deal with it? Wow, I need a coffee.....!
"Hey, I've got a great idea! Want to hear it?"
"I'm not sure, do I?"
"Of course you do! You love my great ideas!"
"I wouldn't go that far. Remember that time you suggested we go to the Stars Hollow Halloween Party as Christmas Elves?"
"Yeah, yeah, okay. I agree, that one didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped, but who knew that Taylor would be coming as the front end of a donkey and that the back end would like elves so much? Well okay, you love most of my great ideas then! And this one's a real belter?"
"A belter, huh? Okay, hit me with it, but I'm not making any promises!"
"Okay, well, I thought we could stay up, do an all-nighter, back to back episodes of the Gilmore Girls! There! Whaddya think? Told you it was a great idea!"
"I have to admit that as your ideas go this is a real doozie! But we've got tickets to see that Eagles tribute band in the square."
"I know, but it's a tribute band. Don't know why they couldn't have booked the real thing!"
"Do they sing that song Hotel Arizona?"
"No, you're thinking of the Singing Sparrows! Those guys could really chirrup! The Eagles....nah, not so much! Only thing is I've got work tomorrow at the Inn."
"In what?"
"The Inn!"
"In what?"
"No, at the Inn. It's where I work. The Stars Hollow Independence Inn. It's like a hotel!"
"So why couldn't they call it the Stars Hollow Independence Hotel?"
"Because it's an Inn, not a hotel!"
"But you just said..."
"I know what I said! So, we doing this or what?"
"Doing what?"
"The Gilmore Girls? We're going to need coffee!"
"Lots of it! Shall we call Luke?"
"Why? Does he want to watch with us?"
"No, for the coffee!"
"Oh, silly me! Tell him to bring the whole machine!"
"I'm not sure, do I?"
"Of course you do! You love my great ideas!"
"I wouldn't go that far. Remember that time you suggested we go to the Stars Hollow Halloween Party as Christmas Elves?"
"Yeah, yeah, okay. I agree, that one didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped, but who knew that Taylor would be coming as the front end of a donkey and that the back end would like elves so much? Well okay, you love most of my great ideas then! And this one's a real belter?"
"A belter, huh? Okay, hit me with it, but I'm not making any promises!"
"Okay, well, I thought we could stay up, do an all-nighter, back to back episodes of the Gilmore Girls! There! Whaddya think? Told you it was a great idea!"
"I have to admit that as your ideas go this is a real doozie! But we've got tickets to see that Eagles tribute band in the square."
"I know, but it's a tribute band. Don't know why they couldn't have booked the real thing!"
"Do they sing that song Hotel Arizona?"
"No, you're thinking of the Singing Sparrows! Those guys could really chirrup! The Eagles....nah, not so much! Only thing is I've got work tomorrow at the Inn."
"In what?"
"The Inn!"
"In what?"
"No, at the Inn. It's where I work. The Stars Hollow Independence Inn. It's like a hotel!"
"So why couldn't they call it the Stars Hollow Independence Hotel?"
"Because it's an Inn, not a hotel!"
"But you just said..."
"I know what I said! So, we doing this or what?"
"Doing what?"
"The Gilmore Girls? We're going to need coffee!"
"Lots of it! Shall we call Luke?"
"Why? Does he want to watch with us?"
"No, for the coffee!"
"Oh, silly me! Tell him to bring the whole machine!"
Re-Runs of the Gilmore Girls on Five Star now! I love it!
Wednesday, 27 July 2016
Le Tour de France: My Overall Conclusions
Well, the Tour is over for another year and once again the cream rose to the top. Chris Froome won the GC battle with room to spare, a winning margin of over 4mins between himself and his nearest rival who came in the somewhat unexpected shape of French rider, Roman Bardet (AG2R Mondiale). If Froome had been widely tipped to win his 3rd Tour prior to it's onset, then Bardet would have been equally unfancied to have been standing next to him on the podium in Paris! Bardet had been rumoured to have been on the verge of hitting the 'big-time' for a few years now, but few would have predicted (before the Tour started) that he would finish ahead of all the other big names in the field, men like Quintana, Valverde, Porte and Aru, who many (me included) thought would be pushing Froome to ever greater heights in his pursuit of his 3rd Tour victory. In the end all of the expected challengers fell by the wayside, either unwilling or unable to take the battle to Froome and his relentless Team Sky teammates, leaving the way clear for newcomers like Bardet and Adam Yates (Orica BikeExchange) to leave their stamp on the race.
If Adam Yates was the new sensation of the Tour, then Bardet was surely the. man who came of age. His amazing stage win in last years Tour had singled him out as (potentially) the next French Grand Tour challenger, but after so many years of waiting and so many disappointments and nearly men, perhaps we all expected that Bardet, like Rolland, Pinot, Jalabert and Virenque before him (the list goes on), would not fulfil his promise. But we were wrong. Unlike the many French nearly men of recent times, Bardet seems to have mastered the ability to ride consistently well. His improvement has been gradual and regular (e.g. in the Criterium du Dauphine - the big pre-Tour event, won in each of his 3 Tour winning years by Froome - Bardet has finished 12th in 2013; 5th in 2014; 6th in 2015 and 2nd this year) exhibiting much more consistency than that of other French riders who can be brilliant on their day, but then lack the resilience to back it up with a consolidating ride the day after, and the day after that, as is needed if one is to make ones mark on a Grand Tour these days. Even bad days have to be mastered and losses minimised (as Froome has shown so brilliantly in each of his wins) if one is to come out on top. A bad day might mean digging deep and limiting ones losses to a couple of minutes, and no more, and Bardet seems to have got this straight in his head and does not leave so much of himself out on the course on one day so that on the next he cannot keep up his challenge.
So whilst not many would have expected Bardet to have finished the 2016 in 2nd place, it wasn't entirely a shock result either. As to whether he can mount a more serious challenge to Froome next year we will have to wait and see. With all due respect, I have to say that if it his his aim to win the Tour (and why wouldn't it be?) then remaining at AG2R is perhaps a no-no!
Froome and Team Sky have moved the sport on in the last few years, revolutionising the way things are done in terms of preparation, tactics, planning and professionalism, facts that are beginning to be acknowledged and taken note of within the peleton and team management of their rivals. Sure Sky have the largest budget, but it's more than that; it's about getting things done in the correct way. It's about eating right, warming down properly after a long day in the saddle, surveying routes (all of them) and riding them beforehand so there are no surprises en route, and it's about being single-minded in the pursuit of the team's goals (whatever they may be) and making sure everyone in the team (from dietitians, therapist, domestiques and team leaders) is on the same page, working towards the same ends with same dedication and drive as the man who will eventually gain most of the plaudits, and these things are not about money, they are about how much you want it and how much everyone about you wants it. And perhaps AG2R are still stuck in the glory days of Hinault and all that heady French success to be able to push Bardet to surmount that final step.
I think to mount a serious challenge to Froome, Bardet will have to move to a bigger team, one that is also on an upward trend like himself, and who is looking to emulate Team Sky, but in their own way, by making their own mark. The more established teams I think will struggle to make the necessary changes in a quick and efficient manner, just because they have been in the mire for longer, and so I believe Bardet should look to one of the newer teams (like Orica or even a Team DiData) who are perhaps a bit more open to shaking things up in order that he can take that next step and give the French what they have waited so long for, a French grand tour winner.
As for Adam Yates, he rode a truly remarkable Tour and, as a fellow Brit, I have to hope that it is not a flash in the pan and we have another British grand tour contender in the making. I love his attitude; the way he took it all his stride with dignity, a smile and that steely determination that only a few possess. I do believe that Adam, and perhaps his brother Simon too, will go onto win grand tours because, like Bardet, his rise has been steady, consistent and constantly on an up, and at the age of 23 one has to think there is much, much more to come since most tour winners don't start to reach their physical peaks until their mid- to late 20's. If he can stay (relatively) injury free, keep progressing and maintain the positive outlook then I have every hope that he will go on to make his mark like Wiggins and Froome before him, as British tour winners.
Other 2016 Tour successes are undoubtedly Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish, Tom Dumoulin, Greg van Avermaet, Jarlinson Pantano and Thomas de Gendt, whilst my big Tour disappointments are Nairo Quintana, Fabio Aru and Thibaut Pinot.
Sagan was unstoppable in so many ways; 3 stage wins, his 5th green jersey, his 1st yellow jersey, countless breakaways and relentless domestique on occasions, he is arguably the most complete cyclist of his (and perhaps any) generation and deserves all the plaudits he receives. Cav came storming back to take a truly amazing 4 stage wins taking him to 2nd on the all time list of Tour stage winners, confirming himself as the top sprinter in this years race and letting everyone, me included, know that he is far from finished.
Tom Dumoulin, with 2 stage wins including the first long TT, once again singled himself out as the man to beat in any TT (now that Tony Martin and Fabian have had their days) as well as in any one off races, be they a classic or otherwise. As to whether he can convert himself into a grand tour contender we still don't know, but nevertheless he is an exciting and unpredictable rider who adds a great deal to any race.
van Avermaet (BMC) I have included not only because of his stage victory (S5) but because of the fight and panache he showed to keep the yellow jersey once he'd got hold of it! Jarlinson Pantano and Thomas de Gendt were both unbelievably aggressive riders throughout, both winning stages and, like Sagan, appearing in countless breakaways demonstrating breathtaking resilience and fight whenever challenged. In this regard Julien Alaphilippe also deserves an honourable mention but didn't quite manage to get himself that all important stage win.
And finally there was Quintana, Aru and Pinot, all of whom had specifically targeted this years Tour as the race for them, and all of whom, for whatever reason, were found wanting. In the end there are no excuses and none of them performed to their best on any single occasion and as such, left the door open for others to lead the challenge to Froome's dominance. Maybe next year guys.....!
Overall, it was a great Tour de France, if not in terms of the yellow jersey race, which to be honest Froome never looked losing once he got hold of it, but in the quality and excitement of each of the days racing which seems to become of a higher quality each passing year! In 2017 can Froome come back to do it again? Well, you wouldn't bet your house on him not doing it! He now heads off to Rio and then to the Vuelta (where incidentally he'll be racing quite close by to me for a couple of days....can't wait!) at the end of August and one wouldn't get long odds on him winning both of those either! But it's already been a long season for Froomey and the Vuelta, like before, might prove to be a step too far!
But here's hoping.....! Come on Froomey!!
 |
| Chris Froome & the unstoppable Team Sky train reach Paris |
If Adam Yates was the new sensation of the Tour, then Bardet was surely the. man who came of age. His amazing stage win in last years Tour had singled him out as (potentially) the next French Grand Tour challenger, but after so many years of waiting and so many disappointments and nearly men, perhaps we all expected that Bardet, like Rolland, Pinot, Jalabert and Virenque before him (the list goes on), would not fulfil his promise. But we were wrong. Unlike the many French nearly men of recent times, Bardet seems to have mastered the ability to ride consistently well. His improvement has been gradual and regular (e.g. in the Criterium du Dauphine - the big pre-Tour event, won in each of his 3 Tour winning years by Froome - Bardet has finished 12th in 2013; 5th in 2014; 6th in 2015 and 2nd this year) exhibiting much more consistency than that of other French riders who can be brilliant on their day, but then lack the resilience to back it up with a consolidating ride the day after, and the day after that, as is needed if one is to make ones mark on a Grand Tour these days. Even bad days have to be mastered and losses minimised (as Froome has shown so brilliantly in each of his wins) if one is to come out on top. A bad day might mean digging deep and limiting ones losses to a couple of minutes, and no more, and Bardet seems to have got this straight in his head and does not leave so much of himself out on the course on one day so that on the next he cannot keep up his challenge.
So whilst not many would have expected Bardet to have finished the 2016 in 2nd place, it wasn't entirely a shock result either. As to whether he can mount a more serious challenge to Froome next year we will have to wait and see. With all due respect, I have to say that if it his his aim to win the Tour (and why wouldn't it be?) then remaining at AG2R is perhaps a no-no!
Froome and Team Sky have moved the sport on in the last few years, revolutionising the way things are done in terms of preparation, tactics, planning and professionalism, facts that are beginning to be acknowledged and taken note of within the peleton and team management of their rivals. Sure Sky have the largest budget, but it's more than that; it's about getting things done in the correct way. It's about eating right, warming down properly after a long day in the saddle, surveying routes (all of them) and riding them beforehand so there are no surprises en route, and it's about being single-minded in the pursuit of the team's goals (whatever they may be) and making sure everyone in the team (from dietitians, therapist, domestiques and team leaders) is on the same page, working towards the same ends with same dedication and drive as the man who will eventually gain most of the plaudits, and these things are not about money, they are about how much you want it and how much everyone about you wants it. And perhaps AG2R are still stuck in the glory days of Hinault and all that heady French success to be able to push Bardet to surmount that final step.
I think to mount a serious challenge to Froome, Bardet will have to move to a bigger team, one that is also on an upward trend like himself, and who is looking to emulate Team Sky, but in their own way, by making their own mark. The more established teams I think will struggle to make the necessary changes in a quick and efficient manner, just because they have been in the mire for longer, and so I believe Bardet should look to one of the newer teams (like Orica or even a Team DiData) who are perhaps a bit more open to shaking things up in order that he can take that next step and give the French what they have waited so long for, a French grand tour winner.
As for Adam Yates, he rode a truly remarkable Tour and, as a fellow Brit, I have to hope that it is not a flash in the pan and we have another British grand tour contender in the making. I love his attitude; the way he took it all his stride with dignity, a smile and that steely determination that only a few possess. I do believe that Adam, and perhaps his brother Simon too, will go onto win grand tours because, like Bardet, his rise has been steady, consistent and constantly on an up, and at the age of 23 one has to think there is much, much more to come since most tour winners don't start to reach their physical peaks until their mid- to late 20's. If he can stay (relatively) injury free, keep progressing and maintain the positive outlook then I have every hope that he will go on to make his mark like Wiggins and Froome before him, as British tour winners.
Other 2016 Tour successes are undoubtedly Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish, Tom Dumoulin, Greg van Avermaet, Jarlinson Pantano and Thomas de Gendt, whilst my big Tour disappointments are Nairo Quintana, Fabio Aru and Thibaut Pinot.
Sagan was unstoppable in so many ways; 3 stage wins, his 5th green jersey, his 1st yellow jersey, countless breakaways and relentless domestique on occasions, he is arguably the most complete cyclist of his (and perhaps any) generation and deserves all the plaudits he receives. Cav came storming back to take a truly amazing 4 stage wins taking him to 2nd on the all time list of Tour stage winners, confirming himself as the top sprinter in this years race and letting everyone, me included, know that he is far from finished.
Tom Dumoulin, with 2 stage wins including the first long TT, once again singled himself out as the man to beat in any TT (now that Tony Martin and Fabian have had their days) as well as in any one off races, be they a classic or otherwise. As to whether he can convert himself into a grand tour contender we still don't know, but nevertheless he is an exciting and unpredictable rider who adds a great deal to any race.
van Avermaet (BMC) I have included not only because of his stage victory (S5) but because of the fight and panache he showed to keep the yellow jersey once he'd got hold of it! Jarlinson Pantano and Thomas de Gendt were both unbelievably aggressive riders throughout, both winning stages and, like Sagan, appearing in countless breakaways demonstrating breathtaking resilience and fight whenever challenged. In this regard Julien Alaphilippe also deserves an honourable mention but didn't quite manage to get himself that all important stage win.
And finally there was Quintana, Aru and Pinot, all of whom had specifically targeted this years Tour as the race for them, and all of whom, for whatever reason, were found wanting. In the end there are no excuses and none of them performed to their best on any single occasion and as such, left the door open for others to lead the challenge to Froome's dominance. Maybe next year guys.....!
Overall, it was a great Tour de France, if not in terms of the yellow jersey race, which to be honest Froome never looked losing once he got hold of it, but in the quality and excitement of each of the days racing which seems to become of a higher quality each passing year! In 2017 can Froome come back to do it again? Well, you wouldn't bet your house on him not doing it! He now heads off to Rio and then to the Vuelta (where incidentally he'll be racing quite close by to me for a couple of days....can't wait!) at the end of August and one wouldn't get long odds on him winning both of those either! But it's already been a long season for Froomey and the Vuelta, like before, might prove to be a step too far!
But here's hoping.....! Come on Froomey!!
Wednesday, 20 July 2016
Le Tour de France; Week 2 Review
Do you know how sometimes you commit to something and then almost immediately wish you hadn't? Well, this weekly review is one of those things! Whilst the tour is on it's 3 weeks of afternoons that are blocked out 100% as I absorb every twist, turn, crash and sprint of the world's best bike race. So when the rest days come along I just find I've got loads of stuff to catch up on, none of which I generally manage to get done completely, and then I add to the load by deciding to do a review the tour which inevitably ends up being a rush job at best! Nevertheless, the tour is, as always, totally absorbing and so it's no great chore to think about it that bit more!
So here we go!
Don't know about you, but I've found this year's race to be a bit short on drama thus far when it comes to the pursuit of the various jersey's. The polka dot (KOM) is all but Rafa Majka's; the green (points) jersey has been tied since the first days by the irrepressible Peter Sagan; the white (young rider) jersey looks to be tied up by Britain's Adam Yates despite the attentions of Louis Meintjes and the yellow (GC) jersey by Team Sky's Chris Froome who looks all but impregnable.
That's not to say that any, if not all of these jersey's aren't going to be fought over in the final week, because they will be; here's how I see them panning out.
The fight for the King of the Mountains will be, I predict, between Rafa Majka (Tinkoff), Thomas de Gendt (Lotto) and Danny Navarro (Cofidis) but, barring any unforeseen disasters or accidents, I think Majka is too strong for the others and will win out with Navarro second.
The points jersey is the one that is now beyond doubt since the departure of Mark Cavendish yesterday to prepare for the Olympic Madison event with young Bradley Wiggins!
The best young rider jersey should remain firmly on the shoulders of Adam Yates (Orica Bike Exchange) who has shown himself well capable of staying with the best climbers in the world the past 2 weeks. Whilst he might not be in shape (this year) to attack his wallflower approach of hanging onto the coattails of the best climbers may well see him reach Paris in a podium position.
And the most prestigious overall winners yellow jersey will I think stay on the shoulders of Froomey who has shown himself to be the man most likely the past 2 weeks. Team Sky are so strong, with Wout Poels and Sergio Henao in particular, showing great fortitude in the climbs, that they have literally rode the sting out of the other GC contenders. The only main GC rider to have shown any force of will to attack so far is the man already in yellow. Everyone talks of Froome's struggles in the final week of his two previous tour victories, but in both of those wins he had attacked on mountain stages in the first two weeks in order to open a big enough gap to cushion any losses in the final weeks climbs. This year however, his major strength has been his racing brain and the courage to put himself on the line in order to seize opportunities as they presented themselves and to take the race to his rivals in a completely novel way to that seen before. Froome's armoury now appears to be replete, whereas previously people had questioned his ability to descend, for one, and his reticence to leave the security of his team-mates shelter for one more, both of which he has ably demonstrated to be no longer the case, and all of this without having put in his customary mountain attack, as yet. Thus I confidently predict that Froome's usual 3rd week difficulties will be minimised, if not totally distanced, this year.
His main rivals, Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo), Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Adam Yates and Richie Porte (BMC) have all shown an inability to shake Froome when they have attacked, either due to the relentless pace set by Sky or because they are intimidated by Froome's new found racing strengths this year. Either way, if anyone is going to shift Froome from yellow they need to put themselves on the line and show the same desire to win that Froome, himself, has already demonstrated. However, I think Wednesday will see Froome attacking and putting yet more time into his rivals.
Now I'm out of time because it's already Wednesday and the stage is underway!
Enjoy!
So here we go!
Don't know about you, but I've found this year's race to be a bit short on drama thus far when it comes to the pursuit of the various jersey's. The polka dot (KOM) is all but Rafa Majka's; the green (points) jersey has been tied since the first days by the irrepressible Peter Sagan; the white (young rider) jersey looks to be tied up by Britain's Adam Yates despite the attentions of Louis Meintjes and the yellow (GC) jersey by Team Sky's Chris Froome who looks all but impregnable.
That's not to say that any, if not all of these jersey's aren't going to be fought over in the final week, because they will be; here's how I see them panning out.
The fight for the King of the Mountains will be, I predict, between Rafa Majka (Tinkoff), Thomas de Gendt (Lotto) and Danny Navarro (Cofidis) but, barring any unforeseen disasters or accidents, I think Majka is too strong for the others and will win out with Navarro second.
The points jersey is the one that is now beyond doubt since the departure of Mark Cavendish yesterday to prepare for the Olympic Madison event with young Bradley Wiggins!
The best young rider jersey should remain firmly on the shoulders of Adam Yates (Orica Bike Exchange) who has shown himself well capable of staying with the best climbers in the world the past 2 weeks. Whilst he might not be in shape (this year) to attack his wallflower approach of hanging onto the coattails of the best climbers may well see him reach Paris in a podium position.
And the most prestigious overall winners yellow jersey will I think stay on the shoulders of Froomey who has shown himself to be the man most likely the past 2 weeks. Team Sky are so strong, with Wout Poels and Sergio Henao in particular, showing great fortitude in the climbs, that they have literally rode the sting out of the other GC contenders. The only main GC rider to have shown any force of will to attack so far is the man already in yellow. Everyone talks of Froome's struggles in the final week of his two previous tour victories, but in both of those wins he had attacked on mountain stages in the first two weeks in order to open a big enough gap to cushion any losses in the final weeks climbs. This year however, his major strength has been his racing brain and the courage to put himself on the line in order to seize opportunities as they presented themselves and to take the race to his rivals in a completely novel way to that seen before. Froome's armoury now appears to be replete, whereas previously people had questioned his ability to descend, for one, and his reticence to leave the security of his team-mates shelter for one more, both of which he has ably demonstrated to be no longer the case, and all of this without having put in his customary mountain attack, as yet. Thus I confidently predict that Froome's usual 3rd week difficulties will be minimised, if not totally distanced, this year.
His main rivals, Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo), Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Adam Yates and Richie Porte (BMC) have all shown an inability to shake Froome when they have attacked, either due to the relentless pace set by Sky or because they are intimidated by Froome's new found racing strengths this year. Either way, if anyone is going to shift Froome from yellow they need to put themselves on the line and show the same desire to win that Froome, himself, has already demonstrated. However, I think Wednesday will see Froome attacking and putting yet more time into his rivals.
Now I'm out of time because it's already Wednesday and the stage is underway!
Enjoy!
Wednesday, 13 July 2016
Is Andy Murray the Greatest British Sports Star Ever?
On the face of it, deciding if Andy Murray is the greatest British Sports Star ever was a relatively easy question to answer. For me the answer is a resounding 'yes'!
No doubt there would be many out there who would disagree. There are of course many outstanding candidates. The two biggest hurdles though in examining a question such as this is how do you possibly compare individuals (even if they competed in the same sporting arena) across generations and secondly, across sporting fields? And in truth, there is no viable comparative method that enables one to do so with any sort of validity; it really is a matter of one's own perception of a particular sport as well as cross-generational, sporting prowess, and my perception may be vastly different to the next guy's, and one can really only have an opinion if one has been around long enough to witness sporting achievement across generations and across various sporting arenas. For example, I can't reasonably compare Andy Murray to Fred Perry, except on paper, simply because I didn't see Fred Perry play. But what I can say for sure is that the game Perry played might be, in theory the same game that Murray now plays, but in practice they are vastly different.
To be blunt, if not controversial for a second, when Perry played tennis was a game that was played by an elite minority. It certainly wasn't a game that Andy Murray, had he been around in the 1930's, would probably have had a chance to play, let alone play often enough to be able to gain any sort of prowess. He just wouldn't have had access to the courts, the money or the opportunities. So tennis back then was a competition between (for want of a better word) gentlemen and so the level of competition, though undoubtedly high for the time, was limited by comparison. That said, a player in any generation can only beat those against whom he competes and Fred Perry was thus, a great Champion, but that was then and he remains a Champion of the times and his talent, no matter how great, cannot be compared to that of Murray who competes in a world very different from that inhabited by Perry. The levels of competition and professionalism that the best tennis players in the world have to achieve now is immense and literally bears no comparison to generations past, thus for me at least, Murray's achievement's in winning 3 Grand Slams (2 of course at Wimbledon now) in the modern game is a simply mind boggling feat and far superior to that of (with all due respect) Perry, especially given that Murray has been I would suggest, up against (arguably) the greatest players in the world of this or any other generation, namely Roger Federer, Raphael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
It is hard to imagine there will ever be such a generation of greats in tennis or for that matter, any other sport, who will all be around at the same time with such rampant success. At any other time time Murray would surely have won more than 3 Slams had he not had the misfortune (?) to be at the top his game at the same time as perhaps the three greatest players of all time. This as much as anything leads me to say Murray is the greatest British star of all time.
But what of other modern British sports stars, and there are many to choose from across a wide range of sports, all of whom rightly deserve similar accolades for their sporting achievements. Stars such as Steve Redgrave (rowing), Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Vicky Pendleton (cycling), Lester Piggott, Tony McCoy (horse racing), Joe Calzaghe (boxing), Mo Farah, Seb Coe, Paula Radcliffe (athletics), Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton (football), Adam Peaty (swimming), Jackie Stewart, Lewis Hamilton, Barry Sheene (motor sport), Ben Ainslie (sailing) are just some of whom one might consider in competition with Murray and all of whom, for one reason or another, I discounted. Here's why....
When considering this question I considered various criteria and within those various interim factors:
The final part of my analysis concerns a sports stars place in the British sports fans hearts, or how attached the public becomes to an individual. For example, David Beckham is perhaps one of the most popular and loved British sports stars of all time, in spite of, relatively speaking, only limited success on the pitch. Whereas Chris Froome, a naturalised Brit born in Kenya, will have to work much harder to gain a foothold in the public's hearts, despite having won the Tour de France twice and may yet go on to become one of the greatest grand tour riders of all time.
And so I come down to my selection process. Despite all the wonderful names above only a few leapt out at me as possible contenders for the title of Britain's greatest sports star. They were Steve Redgrave, Ben Ainslie, Bradley Wiggins, Mo Farah and of course, Andy Murray.
Taking each in turn I shall give the reason why they didn't make my final cut. Steve Redgrave I discounted because his success was to a lesser or greater extent dependent upon his team members without whom he may not have achieved such recognition. Mo Farah, who according to Brendan Foster is the greatest, I discounted because despite all of his success I believe greatness in athletics is largely measured by the number of records he breaks, and rightly or wrongly, Mo has always been a pure racer motivated by medals and not times, and so in my mind has never scaled the heights that he perhaps might have. Ben Ainslie has never gained the place in British hearts that other sports stars may have simply because sailing is not perhaps an ideal spectator sport and so public recognition has passed him by somewhat. And to a lesser extent the same may be true of Bradley Wiggins who (in my reckoning came a very close second to Andy and) has never gained the public recognition I believe he deserves because cycling, as a TV sport is not as viewer friendly as say tennis.
Wiggins is, however, in my opinion the greatest cyclist Britain has produced. The range of his successes is truly staggering reaching across a multitude of track events at both Worlds and Olympics, as well as untold success on the roads culminating in his 2011 success in becoming the first British winner of the Tour de France and all this stretching over an international career that has lasted almost 20 years and is still ongoing.
But in the end he will never gain the same place in British hearts as Andy Murray simply because tennis is a much more approachable and armchair friendly sport than say an individual time trial event!
So by process of elimination I come to the inevitable conclusion that Andy Murray is the greatest sports star that Britain has ever produced.
What do you think? Am I right or wrong?
No doubt there would be many out there who would disagree. There are of course many outstanding candidates. The two biggest hurdles though in examining a question such as this is how do you possibly compare individuals (even if they competed in the same sporting arena) across generations and secondly, across sporting fields? And in truth, there is no viable comparative method that enables one to do so with any sort of validity; it really is a matter of one's own perception of a particular sport as well as cross-generational, sporting prowess, and my perception may be vastly different to the next guy's, and one can really only have an opinion if one has been around long enough to witness sporting achievement across generations and across various sporting arenas. For example, I can't reasonably compare Andy Murray to Fred Perry, except on paper, simply because I didn't see Fred Perry play. But what I can say for sure is that the game Perry played might be, in theory the same game that Murray now plays, but in practice they are vastly different.
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| Andy Murray winning this years Wimbledon Men's Singles |
To be blunt, if not controversial for a second, when Perry played tennis was a game that was played by an elite minority. It certainly wasn't a game that Andy Murray, had he been around in the 1930's, would probably have had a chance to play, let alone play often enough to be able to gain any sort of prowess. He just wouldn't have had access to the courts, the money or the opportunities. So tennis back then was a competition between (for want of a better word) gentlemen and so the level of competition, though undoubtedly high for the time, was limited by comparison. That said, a player in any generation can only beat those against whom he competes and Fred Perry was thus, a great Champion, but that was then and he remains a Champion of the times and his talent, no matter how great, cannot be compared to that of Murray who competes in a world very different from that inhabited by Perry. The levels of competition and professionalism that the best tennis players in the world have to achieve now is immense and literally bears no comparison to generations past, thus for me at least, Murray's achievement's in winning 3 Grand Slams (2 of course at Wimbledon now) in the modern game is a simply mind boggling feat and far superior to that of (with all due respect) Perry, especially given that Murray has been I would suggest, up against (arguably) the greatest players in the world of this or any other generation, namely Roger Federer, Raphael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
It is hard to imagine there will ever be such a generation of greats in tennis or for that matter, any other sport, who will all be around at the same time with such rampant success. At any other time time Murray would surely have won more than 3 Slams had he not had the misfortune (?) to be at the top his game at the same time as perhaps the three greatest players of all time. This as much as anything leads me to say Murray is the greatest British star of all time.
But what of other modern British sports stars, and there are many to choose from across a wide range of sports, all of whom rightly deserve similar accolades for their sporting achievements. Stars such as Steve Redgrave (rowing), Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Vicky Pendleton (cycling), Lester Piggott, Tony McCoy (horse racing), Joe Calzaghe (boxing), Mo Farah, Seb Coe, Paula Radcliffe (athletics), Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton (football), Adam Peaty (swimming), Jackie Stewart, Lewis Hamilton, Barry Sheene (motor sport), Ben Ainslie (sailing) are just some of whom one might consider in competition with Murray and all of whom, for one reason or another, I discounted. Here's why....
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| Mo Farah |
- longevity (level of achievement over time, consistency, competition over time)
- sporting arena (team sport or individual; injury risk)
- place in the British sports fans psyche (i.e. level of attachment or emotion)
In considering sporting longevity (or success over time) one has to adjust ones expectations for particular sports; for example, in swimming for example, competitors usually come to the fore at a relatively young age (i.e. late teens, early 20's) and may have a career that lasts 10 years if they are truly lucky, whereas a jockey may begin at a similar age but can reasonably be expected to continue for double that time, sometimes longer, therefore in terms of sporting longevity expectations needs to be adjusted accordingly.
 |
| Ben Ainslie |
In examining various sporting arenas and the success of competitors within that sphere one needs to look at different aspects of each sport and thus, each sporting star. For example, in football it is relatively easy to determine who a great player is (and who is not) and to determine their level of success, but since it is a team game can one reasonably say that a great player would have been rated so if the team about him was not also a large part of the equation? By that I mean, Leo Messi is arguably the greatest of all time, but would he have achieved the same levels of recognition and success had he not had an Iniesta, a Javi, a Puyol, etc playing alongside him? So success in a team game is to a (larger) extent dependent upon the other members of the team than in say boxing, or tennis, where performance is purely down to the individual. That is not to say that boxers and tennis players don't have teams because they do, but in the end the performance is down to the individual.
In some sports as well the chances of sustaining an injury (serious, career-ending or otherwise) are (arguably) more likely than in others; a boxer for example, is far more likely to sustain injuries than say an oarsman/woman during competition, and in motor sports those injuries may not just threaten a career but also the competitors life. Would Ayrton Senna have gone on to become the greatest driver of all time had he not lost his life so tragically and so young? But then a racing driver is far less likely to sustain a torn hamstring during training than say an athlete, so risk assessments across sports are very difficult to make and, I would argue, highly subjective.
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| Bradley Wiggins in Tour winners yellow jersey. |
Taking each in turn I shall give the reason why they didn't make my final cut. Steve Redgrave I discounted because his success was to a lesser or greater extent dependent upon his team members without whom he may not have achieved such recognition. Mo Farah, who according to Brendan Foster is the greatest, I discounted because despite all of his success I believe greatness in athletics is largely measured by the number of records he breaks, and rightly or wrongly, Mo has always been a pure racer motivated by medals and not times, and so in my mind has never scaled the heights that he perhaps might have. Ben Ainslie has never gained the place in British hearts that other sports stars may have simply because sailing is not perhaps an ideal spectator sport and so public recognition has passed him by somewhat. And to a lesser extent the same may be true of Bradley Wiggins who (in my reckoning came a very close second to Andy and) has never gained the public recognition I believe he deserves because cycling, as a TV sport is not as viewer friendly as say tennis.
Wiggins is, however, in my opinion the greatest cyclist Britain has produced. The range of his successes is truly staggering reaching across a multitude of track events at both Worlds and Olympics, as well as untold success on the roads culminating in his 2011 success in becoming the first British winner of the Tour de France and all this stretching over an international career that has lasted almost 20 years and is still ongoing.
But in the end he will never gain the same place in British hearts as Andy Murray simply because tennis is a much more approachable and armchair friendly sport than say an individual time trial event!
So by process of elimination I come to the inevitable conclusion that Andy Murray is the greatest sports star that Britain has ever produced.
What do you think? Am I right or wrong?
Monday, 11 July 2016
Le Tour de France: My fun look at the first week!
Ok, so the first week of Le Tour is done and dusted, and what have we discovered, if anything? As always, at this relatively early stage there are more questions than answers, but I'm going to have a go at trying to answer a few of the more pertinent ones that have jumped out at me! As well as that I'm going to dish out my 1st week awards - good and bad - and try to make a few precarious predictions as to where this years race might be headed!
So where do we start? Of course, we start with the main man and that man this week has been Britain's Chris Froome.
Well, Chris is well placed, in yellow where he likes to be, but does he look as strong as he has done at this stage in 2013 & 2015 when he won his first two overall victories?
That's a hard one. On the face of it one might be tempted to suggest that his position is precarious by comparison to 2013 & 15. At this stage in 2013 he had a lead of 2m2s and in 2015 1m59s over Colombian ace Nairo Quintana, the man most people expect to be his main rival once again. So by pure numbers it's easy to suggest that Froomey is struggling and is set for a big fall come the high Alps in the final week of the race. In both of his Tour wins Froomey has hit the first week hard, and in particular the Pyrenees, where he has typically opened significant time gaps over Quintana and his other main rivals. This year however, although he did win Saturdays mountain stage it was only by a matter of seconds and not the minutes that perhaps we are used to seeing. Does this mean that he is on the back foot already and has only way to go as the Tour rages on - backwards?
I don't think so! If you listen to Chris speak, as well as how Dave 'the Maestro' Brailsford talks about him, I think it's fair to say that the 2016 version of Chris Froome is a much more relaxed, chilled and realistic animal. If it's possible at 31 years of age, I think Chris has finally grown into his role as a (budding) cycling legend and seems to be able to handle the stresses, strains and demands of being the Tour favourite in a much better manner than perhaps we've seen previously. He himself has pointed to his normally dominant first week and must be fully aware of the relative disparity in the comparative time gaps this year and the potential consequences as the race develops. But Team Sky are also a very different animal this year compared with their previous winning years with both Froomey and initially Wiggins (in 2012) when the Sky train was all dominant and, despite all the success, gained only scorn amongst sections of the press (particularly in France) for the manner of their victories. However, this year Team Sky have also grown into their role as (arguably) the top team at this years tour. The Sky train is still there, but it is no longer the rigid (and boring?) locomotive that we've seen before. The development of Brailsford's Team Sky and by proxy, Chris Froome, has come about as a result of their experiences over the past few years. Their learning curve has been steep indeed, and one would be hard pressed to suggest that they haven't taken on board any of the lessons learned since the team's inception in 2010.
We saw the first indications that the 2016 version of Team Sky was perhaps somewhat different from previous versions in the Dauphine where the riders seemed to have much freedom to explore their own races whilst still maintaining the basic remit of protecting their team leader, Froomey, and winning the day, which they duly did. The evolution of the team and it's riders has continued this week with riders appearing in breakaways as well as adopting different tactics in the early mountain stages where Sergio Henao, for example, has certainly been given his head to try and ride his own race, in stark contrast to 2011 when Froome was held back under team orders to guide eventual winner, Bradley Wiggins, over the high Alps.
Criticisms of Froomey being a boring, robotic rider in previous years have surely been laid to rest this year after his extravagant downhill attack and eventual stage win in Saturday's stage, if not by his elbowing of a Colombian fan who got too close on the ascent! I think Chris is riding well within himself and has preserved his legs (relatively) and energies for what is still to come.
The first week has seen the peleton cover just over half the distance of this years Tour, some 1769kms. The coming week features 2 more mountain stages, including on Thursday a mountain top finish of the legendary Mont Ventoux and on Friday the first of this years TT's, which is a longish, relatively hilly day with an uphill gradient to finish, all of which should suit Froomey well. Whilst Quintana has undoubtedly improved his time-trialling the 37.5km TT should see Froome putting a bit more time into Quintana. The big test though will surely come on the ascent of Mont Ventoux where we can reasonably expect Quintana and the other GC contenders to all have a bash at taking Froomey's crown! However, Ventoux is a climb Froomey knows well having won there in 2013 on the way to his first overall victory. If he does make the first move on Thursday I can see him running the show again and stretching his lead further over a somewhat reticent 2016 Quintana.
One would think that if Quintana truly has designs on this years Tour he would need to attack early on on Mont Ventoux to try and test Froome's endurance to it's max. But I've sensed a certain reluctance in Quintana so far to really put himself on the line, for example on Saturday when he failed to chase Froome down, despite being on his wheel, as they topped the mountain and instead he sat up and waited for Valverde to arrive before he began his chase. Does that indicate a lack of confidence in his own ability? Or maybe he's not sure of his own physical capabilities coming into this years Tour having not raced for some time, despite successes earlier in the year when he beat Froome (e.g. Tour of Romandie). Maybe that lack of racing the past few months will be telling in the final wash? Or maybe I'm reading too much into it all and he's really is just biding his time. By the end of this week we shall all know a lot more.
But what of the rest of the peleton?
Froome aside, the other big stories this week are perhaps also British. The return to form, after a seemingly long absence, of Mark Cavendish with 3 fantastic wins this week. Cav's post race interviews are always a mix of emotion, angst, muttered phrases and either beaming smiles or black scowls, but they are always entertaining! If I, for one, had been doubting Cav's ability to get back to his best after a long performance hiatus, then it must be said that Cav himself never shared in those doubts and is now perhaps as good as he's ever been and has, this week, overtaken Bernard Hinault's total Tour victories with a staggering 29 wins! He has more chances this week, though with the Olympics just round the corner one has to question whether we will see Cav racing all the way to the Champs Elysees this year.
Britain's other big successes this week have been Fridays amazing mountain stage win by 35 year old youngster Steve Cummings of Team Dimension Data (Cav's team) and the second placing overall (some 16secs behind Froomey) and white jersey holder (best young rider) of Adam Yates (Orica Bike Exchange)! Cummings win was arguably the best and biggest win of his career and comes at a time when most are digging out their pipe and slippers but Cummings, bucking the trend, just seems to be getting better and better! Has he found the secret of eternal youth I ask? And so for Cummings this week I give the Never Say Die Award which is also known as the Cher 'I can turn back time' Award!
At 23 years old and being well into the final year of his contract at Orica Adam Yates is probably this years hot young thing and must have new offers of employment filling his inbox every morning! His form so far this Tour has been quite staggering given that his chin is a mass of stitches after the inflatable flamme rouge collapsed on top of him during Friday's stage! He has managed to stick with all the big guns in the mountains so far, however, it must be said without setting the peleton on fire. Nevertheless, he could well be Britain's next grand tour winner (after Froome) in the making and for this reason I award him the Week One Hottie Award, an honour he is sure to live up to in the coming fortnight!
Other winners and losers this week include the Evergreen Peter Sagan (evergreen because he is destined to spend the rest of the Tour in green) who can surely gain worthwhile employment, once his cycling career is over, as a cartoon voice-over character; Alberto Contador, who followed up a very heavy fall on the opening day by trying to outdo himself the next day by tumbling over again, and in the end abandoned the race during Sunday's stage. Contador's days of challenging the best during the grand tours are now probably behind him and if he decides to continue next year (perhaps with the new Bahrain team) then it may well be in more of a support role! BMC's Richie Porte also had his share of bad luck losing time on his GC rivals with a mechanical failure some 5kms out during Monday's (I think!) stage and his chances of pushing for overall victory seemed to have dissipated in the process! Marcel Kittel, who looked so great earlier in the year, looks a bit below par but still managed to win Tuesday's stage ahead of Sagan, but does look to be second best this year to a rejuvenated Cav! Andre Griepel has been way off the pace despite having had good lead out trains for most of the sprint stages and is languishing in the sprinters wilderness right now! Best Newcomer Award goes to British sprinter Dan McClay riding in his first Tour and who has managed to finish in the top 10 of every sprint stage thus far! Keep it up Dan! And talking of Dan's, it wouldn't be right to finish without giving a mention to Ireland's Dan Martin who is showing that maybe he does have the makings of a GC contender after all. The Etix man is running hotter than ever after finishing to second in last month's Dauphine and finally seems to demonstrating that he has the confidence to stick with and even attack the top GC guys in the high mountains. But for both him and Adam Yates, the final's weeks high Alps tests will be the true test of their mettle and will show whether they really can compete with the very best over a 3 week grand tour!
Ok, I'll be back next week with another round up of Tour news! In the meantime, enjoy this weeks racing and get on your bike!
So where do we start? Of course, we start with the main man and that man this week has been Britain's Chris Froome.
Well, Chris is well placed, in yellow where he likes to be, but does he look as strong as he has done at this stage in 2013 & 2015 when he won his first two overall victories?
That's a hard one. On the face of it one might be tempted to suggest that his position is precarious by comparison to 2013 & 15. At this stage in 2013 he had a lead of 2m2s and in 2015 1m59s over Colombian ace Nairo Quintana, the man most people expect to be his main rival once again. So by pure numbers it's easy to suggest that Froomey is struggling and is set for a big fall come the high Alps in the final week of the race. In both of his Tour wins Froomey has hit the first week hard, and in particular the Pyrenees, where he has typically opened significant time gaps over Quintana and his other main rivals. This year however, although he did win Saturdays mountain stage it was only by a matter of seconds and not the minutes that perhaps we are used to seeing. Does this mean that he is on the back foot already and has only way to go as the Tour rages on - backwards?
I don't think so! If you listen to Chris speak, as well as how Dave 'the Maestro' Brailsford talks about him, I think it's fair to say that the 2016 version of Chris Froome is a much more relaxed, chilled and realistic animal. If it's possible at 31 years of age, I think Chris has finally grown into his role as a (budding) cycling legend and seems to be able to handle the stresses, strains and demands of being the Tour favourite in a much better manner than perhaps we've seen previously. He himself has pointed to his normally dominant first week and must be fully aware of the relative disparity in the comparative time gaps this year and the potential consequences as the race develops. But Team Sky are also a very different animal this year compared with their previous winning years with both Froomey and initially Wiggins (in 2012) when the Sky train was all dominant and, despite all the success, gained only scorn amongst sections of the press (particularly in France) for the manner of their victories. However, this year Team Sky have also grown into their role as (arguably) the top team at this years tour. The Sky train is still there, but it is no longer the rigid (and boring?) locomotive that we've seen before. The development of Brailsford's Team Sky and by proxy, Chris Froome, has come about as a result of their experiences over the past few years. Their learning curve has been steep indeed, and one would be hard pressed to suggest that they haven't taken on board any of the lessons learned since the team's inception in 2010.
We saw the first indications that the 2016 version of Team Sky was perhaps somewhat different from previous versions in the Dauphine where the riders seemed to have much freedom to explore their own races whilst still maintaining the basic remit of protecting their team leader, Froomey, and winning the day, which they duly did. The evolution of the team and it's riders has continued this week with riders appearing in breakaways as well as adopting different tactics in the early mountain stages where Sergio Henao, for example, has certainly been given his head to try and ride his own race, in stark contrast to 2011 when Froome was held back under team orders to guide eventual winner, Bradley Wiggins, over the high Alps.
Criticisms of Froomey being a boring, robotic rider in previous years have surely been laid to rest this year after his extravagant downhill attack and eventual stage win in Saturday's stage, if not by his elbowing of a Colombian fan who got too close on the ascent! I think Chris is riding well within himself and has preserved his legs (relatively) and energies for what is still to come.
The first week has seen the peleton cover just over half the distance of this years Tour, some 1769kms. The coming week features 2 more mountain stages, including on Thursday a mountain top finish of the legendary Mont Ventoux and on Friday the first of this years TT's, which is a longish, relatively hilly day with an uphill gradient to finish, all of which should suit Froomey well. Whilst Quintana has undoubtedly improved his time-trialling the 37.5km TT should see Froome putting a bit more time into Quintana. The big test though will surely come on the ascent of Mont Ventoux where we can reasonably expect Quintana and the other GC contenders to all have a bash at taking Froomey's crown! However, Ventoux is a climb Froomey knows well having won there in 2013 on the way to his first overall victory. If he does make the first move on Thursday I can see him running the show again and stretching his lead further over a somewhat reticent 2016 Quintana.
One would think that if Quintana truly has designs on this years Tour he would need to attack early on on Mont Ventoux to try and test Froome's endurance to it's max. But I've sensed a certain reluctance in Quintana so far to really put himself on the line, for example on Saturday when he failed to chase Froome down, despite being on his wheel, as they topped the mountain and instead he sat up and waited for Valverde to arrive before he began his chase. Does that indicate a lack of confidence in his own ability? Or maybe he's not sure of his own physical capabilities coming into this years Tour having not raced for some time, despite successes earlier in the year when he beat Froome (e.g. Tour of Romandie). Maybe that lack of racing the past few months will be telling in the final wash? Or maybe I'm reading too much into it all and he's really is just biding his time. By the end of this week we shall all know a lot more.
But what of the rest of the peleton?
Froome aside, the other big stories this week are perhaps also British. The return to form, after a seemingly long absence, of Mark Cavendish with 3 fantastic wins this week. Cav's post race interviews are always a mix of emotion, angst, muttered phrases and either beaming smiles or black scowls, but they are always entertaining! If I, for one, had been doubting Cav's ability to get back to his best after a long performance hiatus, then it must be said that Cav himself never shared in those doubts and is now perhaps as good as he's ever been and has, this week, overtaken Bernard Hinault's total Tour victories with a staggering 29 wins! He has more chances this week, though with the Olympics just round the corner one has to question whether we will see Cav racing all the way to the Champs Elysees this year.
Britain's other big successes this week have been Fridays amazing mountain stage win by 35 year old youngster Steve Cummings of Team Dimension Data (Cav's team) and the second placing overall (some 16secs behind Froomey) and white jersey holder (best young rider) of Adam Yates (Orica Bike Exchange)! Cummings win was arguably the best and biggest win of his career and comes at a time when most are digging out their pipe and slippers but Cummings, bucking the trend, just seems to be getting better and better! Has he found the secret of eternal youth I ask? And so for Cummings this week I give the Never Say Die Award which is also known as the Cher 'I can turn back time' Award!
At 23 years old and being well into the final year of his contract at Orica Adam Yates is probably this years hot young thing and must have new offers of employment filling his inbox every morning! His form so far this Tour has been quite staggering given that his chin is a mass of stitches after the inflatable flamme rouge collapsed on top of him during Friday's stage! He has managed to stick with all the big guns in the mountains so far, however, it must be said without setting the peleton on fire. Nevertheless, he could well be Britain's next grand tour winner (after Froome) in the making and for this reason I award him the Week One Hottie Award, an honour he is sure to live up to in the coming fortnight!
Other winners and losers this week include the Evergreen Peter Sagan (evergreen because he is destined to spend the rest of the Tour in green) who can surely gain worthwhile employment, once his cycling career is over, as a cartoon voice-over character; Alberto Contador, who followed up a very heavy fall on the opening day by trying to outdo himself the next day by tumbling over again, and in the end abandoned the race during Sunday's stage. Contador's days of challenging the best during the grand tours are now probably behind him and if he decides to continue next year (perhaps with the new Bahrain team) then it may well be in more of a support role! BMC's Richie Porte also had his share of bad luck losing time on his GC rivals with a mechanical failure some 5kms out during Monday's (I think!) stage and his chances of pushing for overall victory seemed to have dissipated in the process! Marcel Kittel, who looked so great earlier in the year, looks a bit below par but still managed to win Tuesday's stage ahead of Sagan, but does look to be second best this year to a rejuvenated Cav! Andre Griepel has been way off the pace despite having had good lead out trains for most of the sprint stages and is languishing in the sprinters wilderness right now! Best Newcomer Award goes to British sprinter Dan McClay riding in his first Tour and who has managed to finish in the top 10 of every sprint stage thus far! Keep it up Dan! And talking of Dan's, it wouldn't be right to finish without giving a mention to Ireland's Dan Martin who is showing that maybe he does have the makings of a GC contender after all. The Etix man is running hotter than ever after finishing to second in last month's Dauphine and finally seems to demonstrating that he has the confidence to stick with and even attack the top GC guys in the high mountains. But for both him and Adam Yates, the final's weeks high Alps tests will be the true test of their mettle and will show whether they really can compete with the very best over a 3 week grand tour!
Ok, I'll be back next week with another round up of Tour news! In the meantime, enjoy this weeks racing and get on your bike!
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