August 6, 2010

Grand Tour Grand Slam? No chance.

The form of a rider aiming to peak solely for the Tour de France (blue), versus the form of a rider aiming to peak for all three Grand Tours (red).

This week Bjarne Riis announced that in the coming years Alberto Contador will attempt to win all three of cycling’s three week Grand Tours in the one season, the ‘Grand Tour Grand Slam’. Also this week, Alberto Contador announced that this is not a goal of his and Riis’s words must have been lost in translation. In addition, Contador’s agent has also played down these reports, claiming that the Tour de France champion will continue to focus solely on the Tour de France. Perhaps the language excuse is valid, or perhaps Riis is getting a bit over enthusiastic with his new signing. Either way, the idea of one cyclist attempting to win the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana in the same year is most certainly a far fetched one.

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August 1, 2010

San Sebastián Stat Attack

Luis León Sánchez - Winner of this year's Clásica de San Sebastián

In the Clásica de San Sebastián last Saturday, Luis León Sánchez won a three man sprint to take top spot ahead of Alexander Vinokourov and Carlos Sastre. Sánchez’s victory means Spanish riders have now claimed six of the last seven editions of their biggest one day race of the year. It was an attack from Vinokourov, who was capitalising on good Tour de France form, about 30km from the finish which proved decisive as only ten riders managed to make the selection. These ten riders would end up populating the first ten places at the finish but it wasn’t only Vinokourov who was coming off the Tour on good form. Of the ten, eight had ridden the Tour (the exceptions were Haimar Zubeldia and Richie Porte), and all eight of them had finished the Tour in the top 20 places overall.

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July 30, 2010

Transfers, allegiances and San Sebastián

Carlos Barredo beating Roman Kreuziger in last year's edition of the Clásica de San Sebastián

The cycling world is abuzz with transfer rumour and speculation on the future of the sport’s biggest stars. The three podium finishers at the recent Tour de France are all set to move teams in what will be the biggest transfer shakeup for a number of years. Frank and Andy Schleck are starting their own team based in Luxembourg, Alberto Contador has announced that he will definitely not be at Astana next year but has not agreed terms with a new team as yet and Denis Menchov is reportedly making a move to join Astana, or his compatriots at Katusha. Other riders such as Stijn Devolder, Jussi Veikkanen and Francesco Chicchi have also announced that they will be riding for new teams next year.

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