2013 Cycling Stats

2014 Calendar

Chris Froome & Bilharzia

In the past I have written about Chris Froome and his development throughout his career. What is integral is the glaring gap between his arrival at Sky in 2010 and his startling ascension at the 2011 Vuelta. Between those two points in time, Froome went through a grey patch of results as he struggled to compete in the World Tour. His performances were so dismal that Sky were considering releasing him at the end of the year and indeed the managing director of Garmin – Jonathan Vaughters – has said that he was in the process of recruiting Froome prior to the Vuelta.

2013 UCI World Tour Teams Doping Connections

The 2013 cycling season has been riddled with speculation surrounding the legitimacy of Chris Froome's magisterial Tour De France victory. Not only on twitter and elsewhere online but high profile people have made there views public.

What next for Team Sky?

Sunday night saw Chris Froome ride home along the Champs-Élysées, arms around his fellow teammates, as the curtain fell on what was a remarkable 100^th Tour de France. The race had it all; the failure of a two time winner, the rise of a Columbian wonder climber, a new Champs-Élysées champion and the second British Tour de France victor in two years.

Froome & Drugs – Where to draw the line?

This is a controversial topic and one which I am sure will produce a range of opinions. Following last year’s revelations relating to Lance Armstrong, I've seen many bloggers and tweeters who do not want to believe in Froome only to have their hopes and beliefs in the sport dashed once again.

Tour de France Stage 18 Preview

Thursday, 18 July - stage 18: Gap - Alpe-d'Huez, 172.5km

Stage 18 has been labelled as the most difficult, controversial and discussed stage in this year’s Tour. It begins in Gap, where Rui Costa won a stage on Tuesday, and finishes on the iconic Alpe d’Huez. It is not a long stage at 172km, yet by the time the riders arrive at the finish, they would have climbed the Alpe twice and 6 categorised climbs, 2 of them classified as HC. Another key factor in the stage is the treacherous descent after the 1999m Col de Sarenne. However, there is a strong possibility that the stage will be shortened due to the dangerous descent. As I am writing this blog, there is apparently a risk of cancellation if it rains, and weather forecasts predict it will, but we probably won’t know until hours before the stage.

Tour de France Stage 17 Preview

Wednesday, 17 July - stage 17: Embrun - Chorges, 32km individual time trial

 

Stage 17 sees the riders take on the second of two individual time trials in this year’s tour.  The first time trial saw some of Chris Froome’s main contenders in the GC slip up as they struggled to match the Kenyan born Brit’s pace on the pan flat profile. However, despite being of a similar length at just 32 kilometres, stage 17 should prove a different story. Mountain specialist like Quintana and Rodriguez should be able to cut their losses, whilst Contador should be finishing well inside the 2’ 3’’ he managed behind Froome in stage 11.

Biological Passports & Wada - a Lesson to Learn for Athletics

Just yesterday details of a positive drugs tests for two of athletics’ biggest stars, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell, were released. In my eyes the media reaction to these two positives was negligible, the pair were at the pinnacle of their sport and I would have expected a much more robust reaction something similar to the outburst when Lance Armstrong confessed on Oprah.

Tour de France 2013 Rest Day 1 Round Up

So as we approach the midway point of the Tour we have been treated to quite a feast, with the bulk of the climbing still ahead of us we nevertheless got to see all the contenders and their relative strengths over the past two stages.

Sky showed they are immense but not impenetrable, in fact if today's stage was any indication of how things will progress they will surely be worrying and wondering how they will be able to control the 3 stages in the Alps which come all in a row. And with Kiriyenka gone, Thomas injured, Stannard also bearing bruises, Lopez looking poor and Kennaugh crashing today (though he looked fine chasing for Porte) there is more than cause to concern.

The GC Contenders

Who will it be?



Well Chris Froome has done everything right so far including eliminating Sir Bradley and now he has sole leadership of Richie Porte. The Sky team seems more vulnerable this year than last year in my opinion. Froome has managed to out do Wiggins by not only winning close to
everything he has ridden this year but also winning with relative style and panache, he seems to be riding within his limits and only time and Ventoux will tell just how strong he really is and whether he can be beaten.

Saxo Tinkoff Team Preview

Saxo Tinkoff announced the team they are sending to the Tour de France today and though the majority are riders we expected there are a couple of rather baffling picks.

2013 Tour de France Stage 20 Preview

Here is an in depth analysis into Stage 20 of this year's Tour de France, which is the final mountain stage of this year's Tour:

Originally I derided this stage as being unimaginative and plain boring. Having studied it further I actually believe it is a fascinating profile which bucks the general trend, here is why:

I always find a new climb an intriguing prospect, particularly a climb which is atypical and presents a unique challenge. Annency Semnoz is just such a climb with 10.7km at 8.5%, that is shorter than both Ventoux or Le Alpe but crucially it is steeper with a gradient of 8.5%.

2013 Tour de France White Jersey Preview

The White Jersey


The White Jersey has an illustrious list of winners, with a total of 6 of its past 29 winners going onto win the ultimate prize at the Tour de France. But this jersey is not solely an indication of things to come, but rather is a much esteemed competition to win in its own right. What makes the battle for this competition so intriguing is that it is anyone’s for the taking; the young talents competing for the prize have not yet established themselves on the big stage and therefore the Tour provides them with the opportunity to demonstrate what they have to offer and to establish themselves as future household names.

2012 Cycling season stats

Now that the season has come to and end it is time to go into review mode. We have in fact done our fair share of reviewing already, but here are some very interesting stats I have compiled which may bring to light who really performed this season.. and who did not..

Tim Kerrison - Genius coach or doper extreme?

If you want to talk Sky and doping then this man is the one who you need to talk about..

He is either an amazing coach and an absolute genius... or a very dirty cheat..
He was the coach who Wiggins and the rest of the winning Tour team attributed for their incredible perfomances at the Tour.

So I will fill people in with some info on him..:

Kerrison was, as is infamously known, an Australian swimming coach until 2008 when he left and was contacted by the English cricket team, Brailsford managed to whisk him away at the last second.

Chris Froome & Doping

Even subsequent to clearing up the matter of why Sky were capable of performing to such high levels there is still the dilemma of Chris Froome. His rise to the top was not only unprecedented, but in fact it was completely out of the blue and many people would say that there was not even so much as the slightest indication of his talent prior to the 2011 Vuelta.

Logically this would be a clear and very blatant sign as to possible doping; the simple explanation for the ridiculous leap would be due to doping. It was the factor which gave him the ability to perform beyond what he was previously capable of and it has been the cause of his ascension to one of the most highly rated Grand Tour riders who are currently racing in the modern peloton.