Category Archives: Grand Tour

The end of the Magic Spanner??

Dear Roulers,

I was reading a recent article in Cycle Sport July 2015 edition, talking about the end of the ‘magic spanner’. Apart from terse warnings from the UCI Commissaries, the article was a showcase for a number of nostalgic photos demonstrating the bravery of team bicycle mechanics.  Leaning out of vehicle traveling at 40 to 50 Km/h looks like an easy way to end up in hospital.   Unfortunately there is no easy way of directing you to the article, as far as I can tell, there is no online copy…boo 🙁

For those of you that have no idea what the magic spanner or its close relative the ‘sticky bidon’ are, its occurs when a rider drops out of the peloton, on the pretence of requiring an adjustment to brakes, cleats, cables, whatever, and catches a presumably well earned rest hanging on the team car.  Here’s an example of an intrepid FDJ mechanic braving life and limb. Impressive core strength, young man.

20150626-fdjmechanic

Its close cousin is where a rider seems take a very long time to secure their grip on a bidon ie 1 or 2 minutes, before taking a drink.

Neither of these ‘tactics’ should be confused with hanging on to a motorbike…

20150626-Justplaincheating

….which is just plain cheating.

Nor is Richie Porte’s ‘wheelgate’ fiasco, which basically cost him any chance of maglia rosa in 2015.

So, naughty, naughty, very naughty, which is no doubt why the UCI issued a reminder just before the 2015 Paris-Nice race and fined a couple of team  a 1000 Swiss Francs. The article’s author seems to make great sport of team Sky who have a number of photos included in the article.  Oh well…….

As the sole rider on Team Marv I have to say that I want one of these magic spanners.  I’ve had 3 punctures in 6 weeks and having a Team Marv support vehicle would be just awesome. My personal pick would be the Team Sky jag that’s been going around in the ‘hot lap’ that’s been going round on SBS’s Bike Lane.

20150626-TeamSkyJaguar

I’ll be passing the hat round shortly. Don’t be shy, chip in 🙂

Until then ride safely

Marv

2015 Giro d’Italia Results – Where did the Aussies finish?

Dear Roulers,

This post took a lot longer to write than I thought.  In fact this could be the only list of its type on the WWW.  I had to fish through the individual stage results to figure out, who DNS and DNF amongst the Aussie contingent.

So to do a quick recap, the 2015 Giro started May 9 an finished three weeks later on Sunday, May 31.  The riders that finished completed a course of 3481km long averaging 165km a day.  It included:

  • six mountain finishes and three other testing days of climbing
  • six stages for the sprinters,
  • a 59.2km individual time trial, and
  • kicked off with a 17.6km team time trial.

Of the 196 riders that started only 163 finished.

20150619-AContadorWinner

 

The race was won by Alberto Contador (above in case you can’t recognise him) and the Lanterne Rouge, place 163, was Marco Coledan (Ita) of  Trek Racing, who finished 6:40:13 behind.

20150619-Chris-FroomeWinner

 

I wonder if Contador will be able to go the double given Chris Froome’s performance in this week’s  Critérium du Dauphiné.  I’m counting the days until the Tour de France.

 Place Name Country Team
1 Alberto Contador Spain Tinkoff-Saxo 88:22:25
2 Fabio Aru Italy Astana Pro Team 0:01:53
3 Mikel Landa Meana Spain Astana Pro Team 0:03:05
4 Andrey Amador Costa Rica Movistar Team 0:08:10
5 Ryder Hesjedal Canada Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:09:52
6 Leopold Konig Czech Republic Team Sky 0:10:41
7 Steven Kruijswijk Netherlands Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:10:53
8 Damiano Caruso Italy BMC Racing Team 0:12:08
9 Alexandre Geniez France FDJ.fr 0:15:51
10 Yury Trofimov Russia Team Katusha 0:16:14
 Place These guys finished
33 Michael Rogers Australia Tinkoff-Saxo 2:11:06
63 Simon Clarke Australia Orica-GreenEdge 3:20:33
77 Adam Hansen Australia Lotto Soudal 3:49:51
107 Heinrich Haussler Australia IAM Cycling 4:43:01
109 Luke Durbridge Australia Orica-GreenEdge 4:50:24
122 Sam Bewley Australia Orica-GreenEdge 5:10:21
128 Brett Lancaster Australia Orica-GreenEdge 5:18:55
151 Calvin Watson Australia Trek Factory Racing 5:56:12
160 Michael Hepburn Australia Orica-GreenEdge 6:13:16
These guys didn’t
Retired Stage 12 Simon Gerrans Australia  Orica-GreenEdge
Retired Stage 13 Michael Matthews Australia  Orica-GreenEdge
Retired Stage 15 Richie Porte Australia Team Sky

And of course I was wrong again….it was Michael Matthews

Dear Roulers,

The problem with making predictions is that are, at least in my case, more often wrong than right.  So this is me, fessing up and congratulating Michael Matthews for his big win last night in the Giro 2015 on Stage 3.

20155011_giro_d_italia_stage3_michael_matthews_wins-B

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although its way before the mountains, I would just like to point out how incredible it is to have the following GC result at the end of stage 3:

  • 1. Michael MATTHEWS, ORICA GreenEDGE, in 8:06:27
  • 2. Simon CLARKE, ORICA GreenEDGE, at :06
  • 3. Simon GERRANS, ORICA GreenEDGE, at :10
  • 4. Jhoan Esteban CHAVES RUBIO, ORICA GreenEDGE, at :10

Finally, there seems to be spate of dickheads on bicycles at the moment.  Last Saturday I had a guy on a crappy MTB riding one handed, holding a helmet whilst talking on his mobile phone, and riding in the bike lane in wrong direction.  Hopefully this man will be Darwin Award winner this year.  Unfortunately, he’s going to have some stiff competition from some dickhead on a fixie, who caused a massive crash when he joined the peloton in Stage 2, 10km before the end.

Caio for now

Marv

The lost art of team time trial or how Orica-GreenEdge won Stage 1 of Giro D’Italia 2015

Dear Roulers,

I have to say how much I’ve enjoyed the SBS coverage of the spring classic one day races. Clearly the standout performer this year has been this man, Alejandro Valvarde.

The Spaniard wins so many races that his exploits in the Ardennes sometimes go a bit unnoticed, but he fully lived up to his status as the favourite in all the races in 2015.

The Movistar rider just missed out on the Ardennes clean sweep, pipped on the line by Etixx-Quick-Step’s Michal Kwiatkowski in the Amstel Gold Race. But that minor blip on the palmares was recovered a few days later when he won Flèche Wallonne. Keep in mind that he’s the same age, 35, as the soon to be retired Bradley Wiggins.

However, the Giro d’Italia is now underway and again its Orica-GreenEdge giving other teams a lesson in how to do team time trials.  The Orica-GreenEdge covered the 17.6km course in 19 minutes and 26 seconds (54.3km/h average), seven seconds ahead of Tinkoff-Saxo and another six seconds faster than Astana.  That’s about 25km/h faster than I can manage along Beach Road.20150509-OricaGreenEdge-ChainGang-B

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the intermediate time check, 9.9km into the stage, the Orica-GreenEdge squad lead Astana by eight seconds. Much of the damage had been done by three of the team’s time trial specialists Luke Durbridge, Brett Lancaster and Michael Hepburn.  I have to say I really felt for the team’s specialist climber Esteban Chaves, who looked like a 12 year old, tailing behind the bigger Australians.  At 55kg, Chaves is 25kg lighter than the other guys and looked to be hanging on to the last wheel as if his life depended on it.

You have to wonder how practice these other teams put into the discipline of chain gangs and riding team races.  Most teams seemed to have formations that were at best untidy at worst disjointed. Mind you it helps it have Olympic team pursuit medalists in the team.Simon Gerrans Stage 1 Winner Giro 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nevertheless last night was a great win for Simon Gerrans who has been beset by bad luck and injury for the last 12 months.  The final results for stage 1 were:

Stage 1: 17.6km team time trial, San Lorenzo al Mare – San Remo
1 Orica-GreenEDGE 19min 26sec
2 Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:07
3 Astana 0:00:13
4 Etixx-Quick-Step 0:00:19
5 Movistar 0:00:21
6 IAM Cycling 0:00:25
7 BMC Racing
8 Sky 0:00:27
9 Trek Factory Racing 0:00:29
10 Lotto Soudal 0:00:31

Tonight’s stage in the  Giro d’Italia is a 177km stage from Albenga to Genoa which has only one small classified climb and which will almost certainly end in a bunch sprint.  I reckon Simon might be turning up for a second maglia rosa later tonight.

See you on the road

Marv