Froome, Cobo, Time Bonuses and the Tour de France

January 2, 2012

In the 2011 edition of the Vuelta a Espana, Juan Jose Cobo won by a margin of just 13 seconds over runner up Chris Froome. It’s unlikely that you’ll find a report of this race anywhere which doesn’t state that Froome actually completed the 3,300km distance in a faster time than Cobo.

The Spaniard ended up winning the race because of time bonuses. He accumulated 32 seconds more in time bonuses throughout the race than Froome. Thus, the Team Sky rider actually rode the race route 19 seconds faster than Cobo.

But did he really?

(continue reading...)

Posted in Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What a difference a pro makes

December 11, 2011

Eight months before the Olympic Time Trial takes place in London, Fabian Cancellara was out around Surrey doing a recon of the 44km route, as revealed in the latest Cycling Weekly magazine. When one of his entourage suggested that they skip a small part of the route, the Swiss time trial specialist replied “we’re doing it. We are riding every single metre“.

This is what champions do. They recon routes in the depths of winter. They (continue reading...)

Posted in Tour de France | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Get Outta That Saddle Stephen!

November 26, 2011

The 1980′s was a magical time for Irish professional cycling. For a while we could lay claim to the top two cyclists in the world. Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche won everything (except the Tour of Flanders). At no stage in their careers did they ever end up as team-mates, but they liked and respected each other and often rode for each other in races.

Roche once said that people shouldn’t look at their respective careers as separate entities, weighing up which one of them won which races. Instead, said Roche, we should put their career achievements together and view them as one.

These successes which brought so much joy to Irish cycling fans took place before (continue reading...)

Posted in Classics, Giro d'Italia, Music, Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana, World Championships | Tagged , | 13 Comments

The World champion has been breaking rules!

November 20, 2011

The UCI, cycling’s governing body, take their image rights of the rainbow stripes very seriously. The five colours, arranged as they are in order blue, red, black, yellow, green are a registered trademark and their use on any piece of bicycle equipment must be approved by the UCI themselves. They have many pages of rules and regulations regarding the rainbow stripes of World Champion available on their website.

Mark Cavendish, the current World road race champion has broken these (continue reading...)

Posted in World Championships | Tagged | 21 Comments

Vuelta 2011 – The best stage race of the year?

November 18, 2011

It is now the end of the cycling season and we await once more for January to roll round so we can get excited about the perhaps undeserved hype of the Tour Down Under. As such there have been plenty ‘Best of 2011′ lists appearing in various places.

The category ‘Best Stage Race’ is rarely ever not the Tour de France in these retrospective lists. This is because it is the most famous race and many people deciding to fill out the voting form may not know their Paris-Nices from their Paris-Roubaixs. But this year, when people decided to give their vote to the Tour de France it seems to come with a caveat along the lines of ‘I know everybody always votes (continue reading...)

Posted in Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment