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ByDavid Hunter The Tour is over and we head to the Basque country for this excellent 1 day race. Back in 2010, the organisers decided to make the race harder, they introduced climbing the Jaizkibel and the Arkale, twice. This year, they’ve changed the route again. In an effort to show off their beautiful city…
ByDavid Hunter Stage 20 Recap Tony Martin did what was expected and there was plenty of excitement behind. Valverde blew and left the door open for Pinot. Peraud claimed second place with a good ride and Pinot third. Both Peraud and Bardet punctured, and it meant that Bardet finished 6th, with Van Garderen 5th. König did…
ByDavid Hunter Stage 19 Recap Bad weather rolled in and an already exhausted peloton had to deal with heavy rain. This meant that only a small number survived the final climb, but all sprinters apart from Kittel were there. Near the top of the climb, Navardauskas attacked. He went fast down a scary descent and…
By David Hunter Stage 18 Recap A large break went away, without Rodriguez and Majka. Astana controlled them well, and only Nieve and Kadri were left at the top of the Tourmalet. On the descent, Valverde attacked, but was caught. At this point the gap was only 3 minutes and Astana smelt blood! Nibali put his…
ByDavid Hunter Stage 17 Recap The morning break went away but Rodriguez managed to miss it. Katusha went crazy and on the first climb the gap was small enough for Rodriguez and others to bridge. At this point, there were groups all over the road, but it eventually settled down. A large group remained up…
By David Hunter Stage 16 Recap We got the large break, as expected. On the final climb we were left with 3: Rogers, Serpa and Voeckler. On the descent, it was Rogers that struck out to claim another brilliant win. The yellow jersey group exploded on the final climb, as Movistar set a fierce pace….
ByDavid Hunter Stage 16 Carcassonne – Bagneres de Luchon 237.5km Welcome to the Pyrenees! The race enters the final week and the riders face the longest stage of the tour. This is a long and demanding stage with 5 categorised climbs and a fairly technical descent to the finish. The opening climb, Côte de Fanjeaux is…
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…