Stage 12 was a short but lumpy one at only 155kms, exactly 100km less than stage 11, which perfectly suited a breakaway. Lars Bak time trialled his way to the win after hitting the breakaway group with 1.5km’s remaining and showed us a textbook example of how to counter attack while the rest of the bunch sat there looking at each other. We’re not far away from entering the big mountain stages this weekend where we’ll see some fireworks and watch Rodriguez defend the maglia rosa.
I have to admit, the one thing I’m enjoying about this season’s sprint finishes is the unpredictability. Over the past few years I’ve loved watching the dominance of HTC-Highroad and seeing Renshaw flawlessly drop off Cavendish for a near-certain win, but this year everything is wide open and we wake up to a surprise every morning. The Tour de France will certainly be interesting when Sagan, Haussler and Kittel are is thrown into the mix!
The Foil is Scott’s dedicated race chassis that continues the company’s reputation for producing lightweight frames however the new model also promises the benefits of aerodynamic tubing.
Last week’s headlines in Pro Cycling news and what’s coming up…
Garmin’s romp, from the time trial to the maglia rosa; Welcome to the club; One for the other guys; Cavendish’s ups and downs; Sprinters heading home; The other classifications; Giro d’Italia to race Galibier; Ullrich admits mistakes; Sagan back to his winning ways in California;
When looking at the finishing profile into the historic town of Assisi it’s no surprise that Joaquim Rodriguez walked away with the win and took over the maglia rosa. Over the past couple of years he’s proved to be an incredibly classy rider who loves the steep and sharp finishes. With Contador sidelined until the Vuelta, Rodriguez is Spain’s shining star and the thread that keeps the Spanish connected to the Giro.
“Ahhh Pippo, What Are You Doing?” as David Harmon (Eurosport) yells he calls another messy sprint in the Giro today with Filippo “Pippo” Pozzato taking down many of the top sprinters at the final corner with 350m to go. The cameras didn’t catch exactly what happened but as Gossy went wide into the final left-hand corner Pozzato seemed to run straight into the side of him causing the lead sprinters to either hit the deck or come to a standstill. Thankfully nobody was seriously hurt (that I’m aware of).
In a day when many frame makers have moved to carbon, titanium and retro steel, aluminium has taken a backseat with most high-end bikes. It was the alloy of choice ten to twenty years ago but is now relegated to inexpensive cyclocross and mountain bike frames. Fortunatley aluminium still has a place in my mate Roger’s heart and he managed to find a framebuilder in Springfield, Oregon who still specialises in using it.
If there’s one thing that intrigues me as much as cycling, it’s hearing stories of epic mountaineering adventures. Combine them both and you’ll have my undivided attention. The other day I received an email from a reader which captured my imagination and gave me something that I could almost relate to. This is a story about George Mallory’s gruelling preparation to climb the North Summit of Mt Everest by riding our very own Mt Donna Buang. Not once, but ten times…
I can’t imagine that too many of you stayed up to watch stage 8 of the Giro d’Italia on a Sunday night (I certainly didn’t), but from what I gather here are the interesting points of what happened.
Oakley’s Radars have redesigned with an hinge mechanism that easily releases its interchangeable lens in seconds. Oakley sent me some of their new Radarlock sunglasses the other day to try out and here are my thoughts.






















