The words of Donald McRae in today’s Guardian on my current number one rant topic – Cav: "As in Milan-San Remo, his team could not keep pace and deliver him into position for the sprint." I’m glad that Donald explained that thing about the team letting Cav down - there was me thinking he got dropped! We chat to Barry Hoban too.
The first big mountain stage of the Tour has exposed the form of the riders who have intentions of finishing on the podium in the race. The best five in the race to date have been Wiggins, Evans, Nibali, Froome and Van Den Broeck (VDB). Bizarrely, Chris Froome is probably the best in the race right now: he completely cracked Cadel Evans AND (briefly) dropped his own team leader.
Looking for a nice meal in Lourdes with great service? That's too bad, you'll struggle to find it! We were lucky to come across the only half-civil waiter in the town after landing in the third restaurant of the night, after being variously ignored by staff and stared at at by local idiots in the first two places we tried. Today's plan: head up to the start at Cugnaux and get a Village Depart breakfast, then drive on race route until the famous climb of the Tourmalet, where we pitched up around 3km from the top.
From my last post on the Adam Hansen Blog from the Tour Down Under to here in Oman a lot has happened. I traveled From Australia, then to Cairns for one night at my mother's place, then to my home in the Czech Republic for a nice short week, enjoying the lovely snow - I love it.
With the bell approaching, Grant Ferguson finally made his move and he broke clear, able to stretch his lead to around half a minute at the finish line, as he claimed his first national Cyclo Cross title.
Stage Three heads back into the hills; Ibi to Alicante over 188 kilometres, not as tough as Stage Two but with two third cat. climbs, the Puertos de Biar and Tibo – due to the geography of the stage we chose the latter.
It’s not just Katie Archibald who was winning European track titles for Bonnie Scotland on that big old concrete track in Guadeloupe – sprinter Callum Skinner rode a 1:02 to become European Kilometre Champion and book himself a Worlds spot in the event made famous by the likes of Harris, Sercu and Hoy.