August 3, 2018

Team Sky’s Biggest Problem

Victoria Pendleton had just become World Sprint Champion for the sixth time. She won the first race against the Lithuanian Simona Krupeckaité but lost the second. She was keeping herself warm on a stationary bike preparing for the decider when the news filtered through that the third contest would not be necessary. Her opponent had been disqualified for deviating from her line in the second leg, so the Rainbow Jersey was Pendleton’s once more.

On hearing the news, she flopped from her bike into the arms of various members of the British Cycling staff offering their congratulations. She turned to Performance Director Dave Brailsford who said ‘Brilliant. Well done’ and embraced Pendleton just before she collapsed to the ground and started sobbing. They were tears of relief and deliverance. Tears from a cyclist who, as the rest of the documentary showed, had not been enjoying herself.

~ Continue reading ~

• • •

March 16, 2017

Froome backs Brailsford? No Sir!

Journalists don’t write the headlines. The articles are written, submitted and left in the hands of a sub-editor. Sometimes, a sub-editor can simply be clumsy and end up making the journalist seem a bit foolish. I recall an article I once wrote for the42.ie previewing an early-season race with a subheading of ‘Cillian Kelly pulls on the latex togs and freewheels through the week’s cycling action’. A slightly shinier look than I would have been hoping for but no reason to get my latex knickers in a twist.

~ Continue reading ~

• • •

February 17, 2017

Froome’s Emergence from the Shadows

Chris Froome used to be bad at cycling. He joined the Barloworld team in 2008 and from then until the 2011 Vuelta he managed only one victory, in the Giro del Capo in South Africa.

‘Bad’ is all relative of course. He was good enough to be a professional cyclist and he was also good enough to be signed by Team Sky. But the story goes that before that 2011 Vuelta the team were done with him. They wouldn’t be renewing his contract because he wasn’t worth paying anymore.

~ Continue reading ~

• • •

November 26, 2016

An Inconvenient Truth

Irish journalist David Walsh was interviewed recently by Matt de Neef on the CyclingTips podcast. All the topics you would expect are covered – Armstrong, Team Sky, TUEs, Wiggins, Froome.

It’s well worn ground at this stage but the interview was interesting nevertheless. Not least given the context of Walsh’s stated belief that Chris Froome is a clean rider.

Thus far, there has been no tangible evidence to suggest Froome is not clean. But why Walsh deemed it necessary to publicly declare his belief in him has been a source of bafflement for many. He speaks about having a ‘choice’ on whether to believe in him or not. However, journalistically, beliefs are not a prerequisite. What are a prerequisite are facts, which Walsh was alarmingly loose with throughout the course of the interview.

~ Continue reading ~

• • •

July 19, 2016

Yellow and Green – The old one-two

On Stage 11 of this year’s Tour de France we witnessed something on the streets of Montpellier which is extremely rare in the history of this great race. We were treated to the sight of Peter Sagan winning the stage in the Green Jersey ahead of Chris Froome in second place wearing the Yellow Jersey. The leaders of the two most important classifications finishing first and second on a stage of the Tour de France is something which has only happened on six previous occasions.

~ Continue reading ~

• • •

June 22, 2016

The Tour Preparation Puzzle

Nobody knows. You don’t know. I don’t know. Christian Prudhomme doesn’t know. Chris Froome doesn’t know. Even David Brailsford doesn’t know.

Nobody knows who is going to win the 2016 Tour de France.

My day job is in sports betting. Even if you have solid mathematical models taking all of the previous 102 editions of the Tour into account you’d still be nowhere near knowing who will win. If you had the results of every cycling race ever, the performance data from every training ride of every rider, analytics on tactical performances of every team and the biological passport data from every rider in the race, you still wouldn’t know.

~ Continue reading ~

• • •
1 2 3