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By David Hunter After breakaway specialists dominated the jersey for many years, the change of points, in 2012, has seen this jersey return to the shoulders of the GC riders. Nairo Quintana won in 2013, but won’t be back to defend his jersey. Different points are awarded, depending on the categorisation of the climb:- HC –…
By David Hunter The Battle of the Sprinters Can anyone stop Peter Sagan? The brilliant Slovak returns, trying to win his 3rd consecutive green jersey. He will have the same strategy as in previous years, finish in the top 5 of the bunch sprints, win some intermediate sprints and win some very hard stages. If this…
By David Hunter As we approach the start of the race, all thoughts turn to the GC. The whole cycling world is expecting an epic battle between Contador and Froome, and I think we’ll get one. The 2014 Contador is back to his very best. He has competed in 5 races this season:- Volta ao Algarve…
By David Hunter England here we come! The Tour begins with 3 days in England and we have a great contrast in terms of cycling and the cities visited. We start off in Leeds, a city in Yorkshire. The area is known for straight talking people, and sits in the North of the country. England can usually…
By David Hunter Stage 8 Recap The break was surprisingly weak and relatively small, it was doomed from the beginning. The pace at the bottom of the Verbier was fierce and the peloton small as we approached 5km to go. Both Tinkoff and Belkin maintained a high pace, but it was Chaves who attacked first. Formolo…
By David Hunter Stage 7 Recap As predicted, Tony Martin won and Tom Dumoulin was 2nd. What I didn’t expect was the podium place for Rui Costa. The German wanted to take more time, than the 28 seconds he got on Costa. The TT puts Costa in a very strong position, especially as Mollema and Kreuziger…
By David Hunter Stage 6 Recap Michael Albasini made the break! As I said, he didn’t think he could beat Sagan in a sprint, so went for a long one. Sky went crazy on the penultimate climb and caught the break. Then on the final climb, Frank and Pinot attacked. They didn’t get away as Peter…
By David Hunter Stage 5 Recap We got the expected sprint, with a very dangerous finish. The very tight corner, with 300 metres to go, brought a crash involving Van Poppel, Goss and Cavendish. This stopped them and anyone behind from contesting the sprint, but to be honest, they were already out of it. The lead-out…
By David Hunter Stage 4 Recap We got the sprint that most teams wanted. Giant – Shimano were doing a good lead-out, but Degenkolb wasn’t on the end of the train. Instead it was Mark Renshaw. Before he managed to hit top speed, Sacha Modolo launched the sprint. Sagan attacked from the right, and took a…
By David Hunter Stage 3 Recap The final climb turned out to be a real killer on the legs. We had a small bunch left to fight out the glory. First to go was Cadel Evans. He dragged Albasini with him and the Swiss rider led into the last corner, then came Sagan! He surged past…
By David Hunter Stage 2 Recap It all looked to be going according to plan. The 6 man break, never got a big lead and we rolled towards the finish. Cannondale went to the front, for Sagan, but didn’t bring the break back. This is becoming a worrying trend for the team, no wonder Sagan wants…
By David Hunter Stage 1 Recap Tony Martin smashed it! The big German produced a stunning performance and walked away with the honours. Finishing in 2nd was Tom Dumoulin and Rohan Dennis was 3rd. The big surprise was Wiggins down in 14th. Team Sky said he didn’t take any risks on the descent. The GC riders…
By David Hunter Stage 7 Recap Team Sky decided to let the bonus seconds go and the break took the stage. On the final climb, we were left with the Katusha riders: Trofimov and Silin. It seemed that they were safe but in the closing metres, Westra, appeared from nowhere. He surged past the despairing pair,…
By David Hunter We open with a short ITT. It’s 9.4km and has a big hill near the end! The climb is 2.5km at 7.2%. This means it will hurt. The section before the climb will see the powerful riders do well, but non-climbers will struggle on the hill. We then have a fairly technical descent…
By David Hunter We return to Switzerland for 9 hard stages. We have 2 ITTs, totalling 34.1km. Both the TTs have hills in them. Stage 1 has a 2.5km climb at 7.2%, with the second TT having two easier hills. Obviously this puts the TT specialists at a fairly big advantage. There will be massive time…
By David Hunter Stage 6 Recap I got it wrong! A break did get away and stayed away. It ended in a fight between Westra and Bakelants, with the OPQS rider winning the battle. Chris Froome crashed with 7km to go, but Contador waited for him, so all is good in the world! Stage 7 Ville…
By David Hunter Stage 5 Recap After some crazy early racing, we eventually got our break. The presence of Atapuma and De Clercq meant that Team Sky were busy all day. On the descent off the penultimate climb, Alberto Contador, launched a blistering attack. He took 1 minute in a very short space of time, before…
By David Hunter Stage 4 Recap We got a breakaway win, as predicted. A few of the men I mentioned made the break but so did Maxime Bouet. Team Sky were happy to let him take yellow, but NetApp – Endura rode hard to try and bring the break back. They failed, but stopped Bouet from…