Tag Archives: Michael Matthews

‘Chapeau’, Monsieur Bling !!!!

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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

 

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

God damn it…where did the last 3 weeks go????

Dear Roulers,

The last 3 weeks have been a blur with my work life intruding into my quality time on on the bike and blog.  I can say that I have passed the 4,000 Km mark in goal to ride 5,000 Km this year.  However, I have been remiss in my coverage of the La Vuelta , all the interesting personnel movements between the UCI men’s teams and the World Championships in Richmond USA. In the order of most recent events first, means I should really say something about this guy….Michael Matthews.

2015-UCI-WC-Podium-1

Bugger…. second to Peter Sagan is an amazing effort, particularly when the rest of your team is riding for someone else.  Who was it…oh yeah… Simon Gerrans who finished 6th.

There doesn’t appear to be much love between these two and you have to wonder whether Michael Matthews might move on from Orica-GreenEdge at the end of his contract. Robbie McEwan seems to have hit the nail pretty much on the head, I  refer to Exhibit A your Honour – Robbie McEwen thinks a rift could form between Michael Matthews and Simon Gerrans by David Polkinghorne.  I hope that doesn’t eventuate, its kind of cool to see a mainly Australian team going round in the UCI.

Speaking of Orica-Greenedge and La Vuelta, how good is this guy going to be, Esteban Chaves, 5th in the La Vuelta with a couple of stage wins, is seriously good going.  How good is he going to be with a few more seasons experience.

2015-LaVuelta-Esteban-Chaves-1

So on to team movements…Is there going to be anybody left at Astana by the end of the year.  If the rumours are true that Team Sky have snared Mikel Landa and Michal Kwiatkowski, which adds some serious firepower to their team.  I can say is Richie who…..??

So I’m not sure when the next blog entry will be, as I’m on holidays in Europe for 4 weeks.  I have serious trips planned to some of the better bike shops in London and Madrid.

So until next time, ride well and stay safe.

Marv

 

Carnage in the Tour De France 2015

Dear Roulers,

OMG… what more could happen in the opening 7 stages of the Tour De France?  Already 12 riders have withdrawn from the race. So many questions still be answered and race hasn’t been anywhere need the mountains.

Has the Malliot Jaune become a curse to whoever is riding in it a la Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin?

Will Orica Green Edge have anybody actually finish the race?

Does Adam Hansen feel pain…at all…after riding a number of stages strapped like this? Will he complete his 12th grand tour in a row?

20150711-AdamHansenShoulder

https://twitter.com/HansenAdam/status/619059293938130944/photo/1

And where are all the Australians?

Well the answer to that question is:

At the end of Stage 7 and 1134.3km into the race, they were placed:

36. ROGERS Michael 46 TINKOFF-SAXO 26h 50′ 33” + 09′ 42”
71. DEMPSTER Zakkari 195 BORA-ARGON 18 26h 58′ 11” + 17′ 20”
76. RENSHAW Mark 115 ETIXX-QUICK STEP 26h 59′ 02” + 18′ 11”
78. DENNIS Rohan 63 BMC RACING TEAM 26h 59′ 33” + 18′ 42”
117. HAAS Nathan 163 TEAM CANNONDALE-GARMIN 27h 09′ 05” + 28′ 14”
137. DURBRIDGE Luke 103 ORICA GREENEDGE 27h 15′ 30” + 34′ 39”
159. PORTE Richie 35 TEAM SKY 27h 21′ 57” + 41′ 06”
184. HANSEN Adam 76 LOTTO-SOUDAL 27h 38′ 58” + 58′ 07”
186. MATTHEWS Michael 105 ORICA GREENEDGE 27h 43′ 05” + 01h 02′ 14′

This is who has retired:

101 GERRANS Simon ORICA GREENEDGE Stage 3 – DNF

And in addition from Orica GreenEdge:

104 IMPEY Daryl Stage 4 – DNS
102 ALBASINI Michael Stage 6 – DNS

Also, congratulations must go to Michael Matthews for his Most Combative Rider award on stage 5 for riding with badly bruised and cracked ribs over cobbles.  For some reason he doesn’t look particularly happy, at least to me 😉

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I had hardly wait to see what happens next.

Marv