Tag Archives: Chris Froome

MMT’s Analysis of the TDF 2016 – Part 3: Chris Froome

Dear Rouleurs

This is MMT’s third instalment of highly irregular analysis of the TDF 2016. This one focuses on the general classification winner, Team Sky’s Chris Froome. So MMT’s take on Chris Froome’s third win focuses on aspects of his performance that cycling fans just wouldn’t have expected to see. MMT believes the old adage of a picture being worth a thousand words and has picked out four images, carefully stolen from various reputable online publishers.

Chris Froome is clearly more flexible and just plain nuts that MMT had previously believed.

The first thing MMT never expected see Chris Froome do, was attack on the decent on stage 8. Lets face it Mr Froome is a very tall and skinny man, who looked fairly ungainly whilst wrapped around his bike whilst pedalling. Rumour has it the the ASO picked out a number of down hill finishes to neutralise Froome’s attacks in the early mountain stages. Clearly, that tactic didn’t work.

Chris Froome nearly beats Peter Sagan in a sprint..WTF??? 🙂

The next thing that MMT never expected to see was Chris Froome attempting to out spirit the eventual green jersey winner Peter Sagan. I reckon Peter Sagan got the shock of this life when he saw out of the corner of his eye, the lanky Brit in yellow on his six on Stage 11. Apparently a spirit finish between the yellow ands green jersey holders has never happened before.

Chris Froome dragging his broken bike up Mont Ventoux, Stage 12.

However, the biggest shock for cycling fans would have been the sight of Chris Froome running up Mont Ventoux in stage 12.

Chris Froome wins the Natourcriterium in Aalst, Belgium and receives a very big beer and a very silly hat.

Finally, whilst not strictly related to the TDF 2016, Chris Froome winning the Natourcriterium in Aalst, Belgium less that 24 hours after the tour finished is pretty phenomenal. Presumably, the Team Sky medical team must have told him to have a rest and some downtime. What is remarkable is this ridiculously hat that the race organisers made him wear as part of the awards ceremony. There you have it Chris Froome TDF 2016 Winner in four unexpected moments.

Now to balance out the reporting I should say a big ‘Chapeau’ to Chloe Hosking of the Wiggle High 5 Team for winning the La Course 2016.

Chloe Hoskings crosses the finish line of La Course, much to her surprise, in first place.

With multiple crashes and breakaways, the 89Km race came down to a bunch spirit with the Australian beating out some very big names.

1. Chloe HOSKING, WIGGLE HIGH5, in 2:01:27
2. Lotta LEPISTÖ, CBT, at :00
3. Marianne VOS, RABOLIV WOMEN CYCLING TEAM, at :00
4. Joelle NUMAINVILLE, CBT, at :00
5. Roxane FOURNIER, POITOU-CHARENTES.FUTUROSCOPE.86, at :00
6. Pascale JEULAND, POITOU-CHARENTES.FUTUROSCOPE.86, at :00
7. Tiffany CROMWELL, CANYON SRAM RACING, at :00
8. Joanne KIESANOWSKI, TEAM TIBCO – SILICON VALLEY BANK, at :00
9. Lotte KOPECKY, LOTTO SOUDAL LADIES, at :00
10. Maria Giulia CONFALONIERI, LENSWORLD-ZANNATA, at :00
Read more at

Until next time, ride safe

Marv

Zoom, Zoom, Froome…Apologies to Mazda

Dear Roulers,

Alas work and other parts of my life have been interfering with New Year’s resolution to blog weekly. Rats………

However, MMT was very excited to watch the recent Herald Sun Prolog held last Wednesday 3rd February. For some reason MMT has managed to miss this event in previous years, but not this time. Located between 50m to go marker and the finish line, I managed to take a few reasonable photos as the riders zipped by.

The 2 km course, was very technical and had a mix of surfaces, acute corners and proximity to the crowd that some of the riders would have found disconcerting. Nevertheless, last year’s winner Will Clarke and and runner up Caleb Ewan were again first and second over the same course.

20160203-PrologCourse

However, my favourite moment was watching Chris Froome sprint past, which I managed to capture in this sequence of photos. I’m guessing that this is about as close as I will ever get to a Tour de France winner, without being tackled by a security guard.

MMT is relived that no blatant breach of copyright will occur in this latest blog, for a change.

Until next time, ride safe on the roads

Marv

New Shoes, New Cleats….what could go wrong???

.
Godamnit……rookie error.

Last Wednesday, I managed to score the cycling equivalent of a home goal. Recently I’ve purchased a snazzy pair of Giro Rumbles, a light-weight lace up casual MTB shoe. Much to my surprise they didn’t come with cleats, rather fake bits of aluminium that were cleat shaped but were actually junk. I purchased new SPD cleats the other day and fitted them to the shoes on the weekend. So last Wednesday, I finally got around to trying them out on my morning commute to work.

As I cycled to work, I couldn’t remember whether I had closed the garage door. I looped around to check. Being back from holidays and a bit sleep derived, I thought a policy of ‘better safe than sorry’ was wise. So I pull up to a roundabout, give way to traffic, go to click out, when I discover I can’t. I think my exact word was “shiiittttttt!!!!” as I fell over in slow motion. I hate it when that happens. I feel so stupid for what was an easily preventable accident. This is where I committed my rookie error by not testing the click-in and more importantly click out.

To make matters worse, whilst the right foot cleat has released, I couldn’t get the left foot cleat to clear. So I’m stuck to the bike and sprawled out on the road. A 30-something female power walker comes over and asks me if I’m ok. Apart from losing some skin on and jarring my right knee nothing seems too badly damaged. I thank her for her consideration and assure her that I’m ok. Finally the left cleat releases and I’m able to stand up. My ego on the other hand has taken a crushing blow.

So what happened?
In short form, the cleats bolts loosened and this enabled the cleat plate to pivot round to an angle that was greater than amount of ‘twist’ I can manage on the ball of my foot. The cleats were able to move because I hadn’t done the screws up tight enough. Looking at the photos below you can see how much the cleat has pivoted around, out of position.


My usual Shimano SPD shoes with cleat in correct position	My new GIRO Rumbles with cleat out of position

A simple click in and out test would have detected this problem. Like I said rookie error. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Oh BTW the Herald Sun reckons Chris Froome is coming to Victoria to compete in the Herald Sun Jayco Tour this year.

Until next time

Marv

Woo woo, here comes the Sky Train…

Dear Rouleurs,

In lieu of a proper blog about the shenanigans at 2015 edition of La Vuelta, for example various members of the Tinkoff-Saxo squad, most notably Peter Sagan, being struck by motorcycles and Chris Froome breaking his ankle, I thought I would provide another infographic. Its been liberated from the rather wonderful RCUK’s Infographic Guide to Cycling . I’ve provided the link to Amazon as shameless plug, hopefully, to ward off legal action for a blatant breach of copyright.

Woo…woo…here comes the Skytrain…

Here at marvmadethis.com, we’ve long identified that infographics are the preferred communication media of the attention/literacy challenged Gen Y. For those of us not in that underachieving demographic, infographics occasionally capture something useful or entertaining.

The illustration above does both, showing how Team Sky propel their GC rider, Chris Froome, along in a mountain stage. By keeping the tempo high, they attempt to prevent attacks from less well supported climbers, for example Alberto Contador.

I’m not sure which one of these was meant to Richie Porte 😉

Until next time

Marv

Marv Made This

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Tag Archives: Chris Froome

MMT’s Analysis of the TDF 2016 – Part 3: Chris Froome

Zoom, Zoom, Froome…Apologies to Mazda

New Shoes, New Cleats….what could go wrong???

Woo woo, here comes the Sky Train…