Team Moo-vee-star. Moh-vee-star. Mov-ee-star. Call ‘em what you want they’re now, in the mountains, officially lighting up this Giro d’Italia. Mikel Landa one day, Richard Carapaz the next, and with a series […]
As bike races go Stage 13 was enigmatic. Crossing mountain, then mountain, the stage would end at Ceresole Reale. Or rather the high-altitude lake up there – Lago Serru – at two-thousand-two-hundred […]
The day started with confusion. Riders and team staff milled around, brows furrowed, baffled. The route profile for stage twelve causing consternation. “It’s a mistake,” claimed one rider, “some kind of misprint.” […]
“La Maglia Ciclamino est une consolation. C’est un nouveau Giro qui commence et on va essayer de le défendre” said French sprinter Arnaud Demare after a second-place finish on stage eleven, with […]
To prepare a stage as flat and sprint-friendly as stage ten is no easy task. It requires planning and precision. This stage was not just flat, but ambitiously flat. Super-flat. Flat in […]
“Let’s hear from the guys in the studio” has become a familiar refrain on Eurosport during this Giro d’Italia. Cut to Wiggins, ‘Smithy,’ and Simon Gerrans – angular and skinny, like he’d […]
It can be easy, at times, to watch a bike race unfold on TV, take in the stats and the numbers, and feel like you have a sense of what the riders […]
At Eurosport they generally pronounce Migger Lagga Lopez as Miguel Angel Lopez. Less fun, but more correct. My kids sit on the settee hoping for a glimpse of their man Migger, and all they have is this Colombian imposter called Miguel.
There’s a church at the bottom of the climb: the Basílica de Santa María la Real de Covadonga. As the riders skirted past it I felt sure that Carlton Kirby, Eurosport commentator extraordinaire, would make reference to it. That the riders might be wise to offer a prayer before the climb. That divine intervention might be handy. Instead, he fixated on the two massive bell-towers.
