Tag Archives: Richie Porte

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

MMT’s Analysis of 2016 Olympic Road and Track Cycling

Dear Rouleurs,

I don’t know how to say this…but Australia had a realy sucky Olympics when it came to road and track cycling.  Of the 42 medals on offer, Australia won just 2.  Boo hiss…  So MMT wonders what will occur to the pot of cash Cycling Australia receives in the next round of funding for Olympic Athlete development.  Before dwelling in some really disappointing detail, contragulations are in order for Anna Meares, Bronze in the Kerrin and Messers Jack Bobridge, Michael Hepburn, Sam Welsford and Alex Edmondson, Silver in the Men’s Pursuit Team.  Here are some photos pilfered from other new outlets illegally of the only happy Australian cyclists at Rio in September.

Bronze Medallist, women's Kerrin event, Anna Meares.

Bronze Medallist, women’s Kerrin event, Anna Meares.

Anna Meares in action on velodrome.

Anna Meares in action on velodrome.

2016 Rio Olympics, Silver medalists for the Teams Pursuit event.

2016 Rio Olympics, Silver medalists for the Teams Pursuit .

The men's Pursuit team in action on the velodrome.

The men’s Pursuit team in action on the velodrome.

So lets look at the results for road and track cycling.  In the road events, the clear winner was the Netherlands who won 3 medals from the 12 on offer.  The rest were spread around fairly evenly.  Whether Australia’s Richie Porte would have figured in the results, after crashing out of  the road race, will remain idle speculation. Similarly Rohan Dennis must be kicking himself for going out too hard in the time trial. So bottom line, Australian cycling zero medals.

2016-olympic-cycling-results

The Track results were dominated by Team GB who won 7 of the 10 gold medals on offer.  Overall they scooped up 11 of the 30 medals on offer.  No other team was even close.  Here are the results and league tables.  The Womens Pursuit team were valiant in even competing on the track given the horrific training accident the team had 5 days before the event.
2016-olympic-cycling-leaguetables

Before signing off, MMT will take time to reflect on the amazing career and palmeres of Anna Meares, who became the fourth Australian track cyclist to line up at four Olympics.  Meares claimed her first of 11 World Championship titles in the 500m time trial in the months leading into her Olympic debut. She backed up her flying form at the Athens 2004 Games winning gold in the 500m time trial before going on to win bronze in the sprint.

Meares made one of the great comebacks in Australian Olympic history when she won a silver medal in the women’s sprint cycling at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Seven months out from the Games she broke her neck in a race crash and after months of intensive rehab ensured she was back on the bike in Beijing. She progressed through to the final where she went down to long-time rival Victoria Pendleton to win the silver medal.

Four years on and Meares had her chance to turn the tables on Pendleton at the London 2012 Games. Meares beat one of the sport’s all-time greats backed by a boisterous home crowd to calim Gold. Along with five Olympic medals and countless World Championship podiums, Meares has also won eight Commonwealth Games medals, including five gold, across four Games.

Until next time, ride safe.

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...

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

Final wrap up of the Tour De France 2015

 

Dear Roulers,

I’ve recovered, from a 3 week TDF2015 sleep deficit and some flu that’s going round at work, sufficiently to write my first blog for August 2015.

The final mountain stage #20 of the TDF 2015 an absolute cracker, as the promised show down between the GC contenders on the iconic climb of Alpe d’Huez actually happened.  The talk matched the walk…er…ride.  The one-two move of Movistar’s Alejandro  Valverde and Nairo Quintana very nearly broke the Sky Train and Chris Froom’s grip on the Jeune Malliot. When the heat was on Sky rallied behind their leader.  Richie Porte and Wouter Poels should take a big bow for dragging Froome up the final 10km of Alpe d’Huez and onto the podium in Paris.

The short but brutal stage #20 must have seemed interminable to the riders as they struggled their way up the final climb. The crowds on Alpe d’Huez were as large as ever – some say one million fans lined the roads – but despite concerns over out-of-control spectators causing bother, trouble did not really materialise.  I sure French fans would have taken some heart from the fine stage win by the French FDJ rider Thibaut Pinot.

So here’s another couple of pilfered photos of GC and Jersey for the TDF 2015 podium.

20150803-Places123-TDF2015

Left to Right: Quintana, Froome, Valverde

20150803-JerseyWinners-TDF2015

Left to Right: Sagan, Froome, Quintana

The winners of the Jerseys and Awards were:

 Yellow Jersey  FROOME, Christopher  31  TEAM SKY  84:46:14
 Green Jersey  SAGAN, Peter  47  TINKOFF-SAXO  432 points
 Polka-Dot Jersey  FROOME, Christopher  31  TEAM SKY  119 points
 White Jersey  QUINTANA ROJAS, Nairo Alexander  51  MOVISTAR  84:47:26
 Most Combative BARDET, Romain  12  AG2R LA MONDIALE  85:02:14
 Team  MOVISTAR  Total Time  255:24:24

Here’s the top 10 finishers in the GC

 1.  FROOME, Christopher  31  TEAM SKY  84:46:14
 2.  QUINTANA ROJAS, Nairo Alexander  51  MOVISTAR  84:47:26 + 1:12
 3.  VALVERDE BELMONTE, Alejandro  59  MOVISTAR  84:51:39  + 5:25
 4.  NIBALI, Vincenzo  1  ASTANA  84:54:39  + 8:36
 5.  CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto  41  TINKOFF – SAXO  84:56:02  + 9:48
 6.  GESINK, Robert  131  LOTTO NL – JUMBO  84:57:01  + 10:47
 7.  MOLLEMA, Bauke  141  TREK FACTORY RACING  85:01:28  + 15:14
 8.  FRANK, Mathias  181  IAM CYCLING  85:01:53  + 15:39
 9.  BARDET, Romain  12  AG2R LA MONDIALE  85:02:14  + 16:00
 10.  ROLLAND, Pierre  121  EUROPCAR  85:03:44  + 17:30

Here’s where the Australians finished:

 36.  ROGERS Michael  46  TINKOFF-SAXO  86:42:27: + 01:56′:13
 48.  PORTE Richie  35  TEAM SKY  87:02:19 + 02:16:05
 101.  DENNIS Rohan  63  BMC RACING TEAM  88:13:48 + 03:27:34
 114.  HANSEN Adam  76  LOTTO-SOUDAL  89:12:47 + 04:26:33
 151.  DURBRIDGE Luke  103  ORICA GREENEDGE  89:11:17 + 04:25:03
 152.  MATTHEWS Michael  105  ORICA GREENEDGE  89:12:47 + 04:26:33

This is who retired:

 101  GERRANS Simon  ORICA GREENEDGE  Stage 3 – DNF
 195  DEMPSTER Zakkari  BORA-ARGON 18  Stage 12 – DNF
 163  HAAS Nathan  TEAM CANNONDALE-GARMIN  Stage 17 – DNF
 115  RENSHAW Mark  ETIXX-QUICK STEP  Stage 18 – DNF

And in addition from Orica GreenEdge:

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

So before signing off, congratulations should be given to Adam Hansen who finished his 12th consecutive grand tour, despite dislocating his shoulder back in stage 2. Dear God the man feels no pain.

Now bring on La Vueleta, viva l’espana 🙂

Marv