Tag Archives: Chris Froome

MMT does the TDF 2018 – part 2

Dear Rouleurs,

Another 6 stages into the TDF 2018 edition, and its been an absolute cracker.  Sadly for the Australian contingent of competitors its been a hard and frustrating time.  As of stage 12, only 8 of the 11 starters are left.  The biggest loss being Richie Porte who crashed out on Stage 9.  That meant Australia’s best 2 chances for podium honours are gone.  Similarly Mark Renshaw has withdrawn, but MMT suspects that this has more to do with Mark Cavendish performing well below par and withdrawing as well.

So as of stage 12, the best placed Australian in the General Classification is ….Matt Hayman.  the man must have the heart of elephant.  In fact, one wonders whether the Aussies are forming their own grupetto to avoid the broom wagon, as they are positions 107, 113, 117, 118, 121, 122, 128 and 142 respectively.

However, what’s become clear is that this years par cours has been cursed for ‘pure sprinters’.  Look at this list of DNF/DNS:

Stage 10
Tony Martin (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin

Stage 11
Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data
Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data
Marcel Kittel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin

Stage 12
André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
Fernando Gaviria (Col) Quick-Step Floors

So this means, unless something goes horribly wrong, Peter Sagan has the Green Jersey in the bag.  He’s an incredible 220 points ahead of Alexander Kristoff.  Speaking of interesting situations, who exactly is the team leader at Team Sky, Chris Froome or Geraint Thomas.  Thomas has had back to back wins on stages 11 and 12 and is a 1m and 39s ahead of Froome.

Until next time, ride safe

MARV

Oh no not again….Richie Porte crashes out of the TDF 2018

Dear Rouleurs,

You have to feel for Richie Porte, Australia’s best chance of winning the Tour De France (TDF 2018), Stage 9 Arras to Roubaix over the dreaded cobbles, was always going to be a stern test of GC riders. It’s a very bad case of deja vu for Porte, who fractured his pelvis on the corresponding stage, last year. That horrific crash on a high speed descent, left MMT thanking the stars he has disc brakes on his Domane.

To crash out at the 10km mark, before reaching the cobbles, was just plain bad luck.  The team doctor’s  assessment of ‘Disjonction acromio-claviculaire de l’epaule droite’ was later updated to fracture of the right clavicle.  MMT can’t see how Porte could be ready in time for 2018 version of La Veulta.  This shameless plagiarised article from yesterday’s Sun-Herald, tells the tale of woe.

 

In fact, this blog could have just as easily been about Chris Froome who also had stack but had the good fortune to land on grass rather than bitumen. Almost all of the GC riders had some kind of misadventure over 156km  mini-Paris-Roubaix par cours.

Team BMC had a pretty poor day, despite Greg Van Avermaet’s second place and successful defense of the Yellow Jersey.  Tejay van Garderen, BMC’s other GC hope, lost almost 5 minutes on the stage, with a succession of crashes.  Bruised and battered by the day he’s almost 4 and 1/2 minutes behind Chris Froome.  Froome sits in equal 8th with Michelton-Scott’s Adam Yates.  Provided Froome stays upright on the remaining 11 Stages, he will win his 5th TDF and complete a TDF-Giro double.

Until next time, ride safe

MMT

‘Chapeau’, Monsieur Bling !!!!

.

Dear Rouleurs…Goddamit….

MMT’s mind is doing a mean impersonation of a cement mixer, rolling over and over the gunk of his employer’s latest corporate restructure. Worst still the wind has been blowing its proverbial’s off, providing shiver inducing head winds on MMT’s normal ride routes.  MMT is so sick of both these things.  So in amongst the hype of new ways of sacking people, ahem, the Tour de France concluded.

And what a race it was.  MMT can remember reading a book about the history of the TDF, where Henri Desgrange described his ideal TDF as a race where only one cyclist finished and was declared the winner.  Fortunately this year’s race didn’t come close to that apocalyptic standard.  However, of the 198 starters, only 167 finished.  The chaos of Stage 9 alone, resulted in 11 rouleurs either DNF or outside the time cut-off.

Chris Froome cemented his reputation of being the greatest drug free cyclist post world war II. But for MMT, the stand out performer was Australia’ s own Michael Matthews, the 2017 winner of the Green Jersey.  Rather have MMT wax on lyrically about, the man they call Bling here’s a plagiarised copy of what that great cycling tome, Melbourne’s Sun Herald had to say.

MMT can’t really improve that.  Except to say ‘chapeau’.

Until next time, ride safe

Marv

 

This is why I bought a bike with disc brakes…Ode to Richie Porte

OMG Rouleurs,

Stage 9 of the Tour De France was nail biting spectacle. Talk about thrills and spills.  With three long, brutally steep ascents where the riders were reduced to walking pace and corresponding descents made slippery by early rain, with more than 4,700 metres vertical elevation, and half the hors catégorie climbs in the entire race, this stage pushed all the riders to their limits.

Chris Froome lost his primary domestique, Welshman Geraint Thomas, and close friend and principal rival, Richie Porte, after both riders were forced to quit the race following slippery descents which turned the ninth stage into a chaotic demolition derby from Nantua to Chambéry. Froome retained the yellow jersey after the stage was won by the Colombian Rigoberto Urán.

The day’s official medical bulletin listed 11 fallers with a range of classic crash injuries: a shoulder dislocation and punctured lung for Manuele Mori, a broken vertebra for Robert Gesink, a dislocated kneecap for Jesús Herrada, who was announced as having abandoned but finished the stage. The 2016 King of the Mountains, Rafal Majka, was blamed for the Thomas crash and ended up with deep abrasions to both knees and elbows.

Travelling at over 70 kilometres an hour on damp roads, Porte lost control approaching a bend and momentarily travelled off the bitumen. His flailing body careened back across the road and into a rock face, where Porte collided with the bike of Irishman Daniel Martin. The later diagnosis of shoulder and pelvis fractures are miraculous. This crash could have caused far worse.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

And that would be the reason MMT rides a bike with disc brakes and 28mm tires. Avoiding suicidal descents in wet conditions helps as well.  MMT hopes Richie Porte and the other ten rdiers that lost skin, were bruised and broke bones have speedy recoveries.

Until next time ride safe avoiding wet descents at 70 km/h

Marv