Tag Archives: Infographics

An early Merry Christmas from MMT

Dear Rouleurs,

I’ve been blessed with a few quiet minutes to knock another blog for December.  Given that’s its nearly Christmas and I’m about to receive an early and very special delivery from Santa, it seemed like a good idea to put together a bicycle related montage.  So here’s a bunch of random photos and graphics pilfered from the plagiarist’s greatest resource… the Internet.

Noooo...this will not happen while I'm not holiday.

Noooo…this will not happen while I’m not holiday.

Its so ugly and wrong, that I'm surprised my wife hasn't given me one of these jerseys.

Its so ugly and wrong, that I’m surprised my wife hasn’t given me one of these jerseys.

Creative use of presumably unwanted...not stolen bicycles.

Creative use of presumably unwanted…not stolen bicycles.

It seems to me both weird and wonderful that a nation like Japan would embrace Santa and bicycling, let alone put them together.

It seems to me both weird and wonderful that a nation like Japan would embrace Santa and bicycling, let alone put them together.

This one reminds me of the new Campag chain ring I put on my bike back in February.

This one reminds me of the new Campag chain ring I put on my bike back in February.

I wish I could find out who created this infographic so I could give them credit.

I wish I could find out who created this infographic so I could give them credit.

I will be posting photos of my special delivery from Santa later this week.  Until then ride safe.

Marv

Melbourne…the windy city

Dear Rouleurs,

Last blog, I made a couple of throwaway lines about how f%#king windy Melbourne has been over the last few months.  Of course, copping some serious wind on my first attempt at RTB 2016 100Km version was not fun.  So it was really very, very unsurprising to come across this article, in The Age, a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately the photo of this I took is completely rubbish, so I’ve added a link to the article.

20161119-melbournewind

One paragraph in this article stood out.  Here it is fully plagarised in all its beauty.

In a month which saw 50 severe weather warnings issued and gusts reaching 80-kilometres-an-hour in Melbourne and up to 100-kilometres-an-hour in the state’s north, the wind run data for October easily surpassed the figures for the same month last year.

Tullamarine managed 14,399 kilometres in October 2015, Laverton accumulated 12,155 kilometres and Moorabbin 12,068 kilometres. Enough to comfortably get you to Buenos Aires, Salvador and Santiago respectively.

Bureau of Meteorology climatologist Blair Trewin said these measurements were 20 to 30 per cent up on data from the same month in previous years. The last October with comparable winds was 2007.

All I can say is WTF….50 wind warnings…that’s almost 2 a day and 20 to 30% more than usual.  Now, if you clicked on the link in the ’50 severe weather warnings’ you would have seen an earlier Age article.  This one  had another memorable quote and graph that is just plain horrible to look at, if you are a cyclist.

Here’s the quote:

Senior climatologist Kevin Smith said all this gusty weather comes down to several factors – a perfect storm, if you will.  Mr Smith said there were seven major storm events across Victoria during October. “We normally average about three,” he said.

Again….WTF!!! here’s the Alan Kohler style money shot graph:

20161121-windgraph

May be I need to install a motor or a sail on my bike or move to another city.  I hope summer isn’t this f#%king windy.

Until next time, ride safe…in hopefully still conditions.

Marv

MMT’s Analysis of the TDF 2016 – Part 2

Dear Rouleurs,

This is part 2 of MMT’s analysis of the TDF 2016.  Last time MMT focused on those that didn’t finish the TDF.  Afterall, its a hug achievement to finish, even if a rider finished in the bottom ten.  Which segues nicely into this blog, the analysis of the race for the lantern rouge, otherwise known as last place.  So first a few facts and figures about the big race.

Nationality of riders finishing in the bottom 10 of any stage

Nationality of riders finishing in the bottom 10 of any stage.

36 riders from 20 different teams featured in the bottom 10. France had the best representation with 7 riders, which is hardly surprising as 38 starters were French.

Teams with riders finishing in the bottom 10 of any stage.

Teams with riders finishing in the bottom 10 of any stage.

Only Astana and Trek-Segafredo had no riders finish in the bottom 10 of any stage.

Only 1 rider managed to start, stay and finish in the bottom 10, take a bow Lars Ytting Bak of Lotto Soudal.

So here’s the bottom ten as they finished on stage 21:

1 174 Sam Bennett (Ireland) BORA-ARGON 18 +5:17:14
2 173 Lars Ytting Bak (Denmark) LOTTO SOUDAL +5:01:18
3 172 Leigh Howard (Australia) IAM CYCLING +4:55:13
4 171 Bernhard Eisel (Austria) DIMENSION DATA +4:51:07
5 170 Daniel Mclay (Great Britain) FORTUNEO – VITAL CONCEPT +4:50:14
6 169 Marcel Sieberg (Germany) LOTTO SOUDAL +4:40:24
7 168 Davide Cimolai (Italy) LAMPRE – MERIDA +4:39:37
8 167 Vegard Breen (Norway) FORTUNEO – VITAL CONCEPT +4:38:27
9 166 Marcel Kittel (Germany) ETIXX – QUICK STEP +4:35:06
10 165 Jacopo Guarnieri (Italy) TEAM KATUSHA +4:34:45

Congratulations to Ireland’s Sam Bennett who entered the annals of cycle sport history by finishing last in the 2016 TDF.  He can quite rightly claim that he was better than the 22 riders who didn’t finish.  Keep in mind he had a horrible stack on the first stage which left him bruised and most tellingly for a sprinter, a broken small finger.

The unlucky Sam Bennett shortly after a horrible crash on stage 1.

The unlucky Sam Bennett shortly after a horrible crash on stage 1.

So lets look at how this race for the lantern rouge progressed for these ten riders over the 21 stages of this years race.

This is how the bottom 10 got there.

This is how the bottom 10 got there.

No surprises that most of these guys were sprinters. I feel a bit for Marcel Kittel who couldn’t take a trick on the spirit stages and then limped home on the final stage. Leigh Howard must be considering himself lucky as he nearly went the double, backing on his last place in the Giro this year.

Well that’s enough pretty graphs and sniping 😉 until next time ride safe.

Marv

MMT’s Analysis of the TDF 2016 – Part 1

Dear Rouleurs,

Seriously how good was this year’s Tour De France??  It had all kinds of thrills and spills.  I never thought I would see Mark Cavenish win another spirit stage, let alone four or Michael Matthews win his first or see Chris Froome running up Mont Ventoux because some motorcycle camera man collided with him and broke his bike.  I’ll have to write a proper blog about this stuff.  However,  MMT will start with the less fashionable analysis first.

As a perennial back marker in any peloton on Beach Road, I feel it is necessary to celebrate the bottom ten finishers of the Tour De France.  Lets face it.  Finishing the TDF is an incredible athletic achievement in its own right.  So this report will be provided in two blogs.  The first will present analysis about those riders who didn’t finish the race.  The second will assess the last ten that did.

So of the original 198 riders that left the Grande Departee, 22 didn’t make it all the way through to Paris.   Some left due to injury eg Alberto Contador and Simon Gerrans.  Others left to complete their preparation for the Olympic Games in Rio, in about 2 weeks time.  This is who they were, in order of abandonment:

1 MORKOV Michael KATUSHA Denmark
2 PINEAU Cedric FDJ France
3 LADAGNOUS Matthieu FDJ France
4 RENSHAW Mark DIMENSION DATA Australia
5 CONTADOR Alberto TINKOFF Spain
6 LANGEVELD Sebastian CANNONDALE-DRAPAC Netherlands
7 TULIK ANGÉLO DIRECT ENERGIE France
8 VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen  KATUSHA Belgium
9 GERRANS Simon ORICA-BIKEEXCHANGE Australia
10 PINOT Thibaut FDJ France
11 THEUNS Edward TREK-SEGAFREDO Belgium
12 BRESCHEL Matti CANNONDALE-DRAPAC Denmark
13 FRANK Mathias IAM CYCLING Switzerland
14 DEBUSSCHERE Jens LOTTO SOUDAL Belgium
15 HERRADA Jesús MOVISTAR Spain
16 BOZIC Borut COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS Slovenina
17 CAVENDISH Mark DIMENSION DATA Great Britan
18 DENNIS Rohan BMC RACING Australia
19 IZAGUIRRE Gorka MOVISTAR Spain
20 NAVARRO Daniel COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS Spain
21 DUMOULIN Tom TEAM GIANT – ALPECIN Netherlands
22 MARTIN Tony ETIXX – QUICK STEP Germany

Now MMT has been espousing the merits of infographics to communicate to the attention challenged Gen-Y. So MMT has tried his hand at a few pretty graphs to tell the story of these 22 riders. So on to the first infographic, which captures when riders decided enough was enough.

Rider abandonment by Stage TDF 2016

Rider abandonment by Stage TDF 2016

There some big name casualties none more than Alberto Contador and the seemingly cursed Simon Gerrans. Mark Cavendish managed to win with out Mark Renshaw. Tony Martin must have qualified for some kind of award for failing to finish the last stage on the Champs Elysses. What was remarkable, that no abandoned in the first week. This is the first time in the history of the TDF that has occurred.  Onto the second infographic, abandonments by nationality.

Rider abandonment by Nationality TDF 2016

Rider abandonment by Nationality TDF 2016

This is actually quite intriguing and shows how that the more strongly represented nations suffered from more abandonment, mainly from riders leaving early to complete their Olympic preparations either for track or road events. No riders from the ‘long tail’ of the graph abandoned. I note that 33% of Australians abandoned the race.  On the final infographic abandonment by Team.

Rider abandonment by Team TDF 2016

Rider abandonment by Team TDF 2016

Ignoring injuries, it becomes pretty clear that stronger teams tend to finish with all their riders. Weaker teams lose riders regularly, usually through the mountains. It’s remarkable that 6 of the 22 teams didn’t lose a single rider.  It also highlights why Team Sky has become so dominant over the last 5 years.

I’ll continue on in this theme in the next blog  race for the lantern rouge.

Until then, ride safe

Marv