Or alternatively, the best cycling photography I've seen except for Krisof Ramon, the Belgian photographer, whom Patel acknowledges. In case you're thinking this will be mainly Australian subjects, think again. The photos, as you might expect, are all black and white. I found the photo of Gerdemann the most surprising/shocking. This one goes ell beyond aging boy band star. Robbie McEwen needs to move on from making chamois cream to setting up a partnership with Lancome or another cosmetics company. If even Linus can look old before his time, and Durbridge can look almost as old as Klier, I'm sure there's money to be made.

The camera is brutal in all the shots though, but I'll be interested to see which ones you like best. Get the fainting couch ready. Enjoy!

http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2012/01/portraits-of-the-tour-down-under/

I had withdrawal yesterday...all those lovely live threads with Auntie, where the chat was probably more enlightening than the race call, although we all enjoyed the atmosphere that was created. So I thought I'd do a little list of the things I learned from TDU 2012. A few detractors say it's impossible to learn anything from the TDU, but I say they're just so last century.

Continue reading this post »

Gratuitous image of the obviously glorious Heinrich Haussler :)

tumblr_ly58vkCLeZ1qfzhjeo1_500 (via seahorse5751)

The amazingly talented Veeral Patel took this photo. You can find his work at his website onev.com.au

GC Standings before Stage Six

1: Simon Gerrans (AUS) – GEC 2: Alejandro Valverde (ESP) – MOV 3: Tiago Machado (POR) – RNT 4: Michael Rogers (AUS) – SKY 5: Rohan Dennis (AUS – SA) – UNA 6: Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR) – SKY 7: Jan Bakelants (BEL) – RNT 8: Javier Moreno (ESP) – MOV...Michael Matthews is ninth at 0:29. I think he'll win the stage.

Valverde vs. Gerrans

In the past i would have thought that this was David versus Goliath, but the home ground advantage might be a factor. I also think that whilst Valverde had the stronger team yesterday, Gerrans has a team for the flat lands, especially as the stage is only 90ks. Machado also has a very strong team with Benna and Jens! well positioned to protect him. Mick Rogers is fourth, and we know that Sky has the manpower. Short of accidents or illness, not much will change (she says with fingers crossed). Given his extremely emotional response at the top of Willunga Hill, I suspect Valve will be hungry, but after his time in the wilderness, even second may look okay to him. GreenEDGE has brought about a rebirth for Gerrans. I've never enjoyed his races as much as in the past fortnight.

So bring it on! Stuey for the win ;)

Tuning in: Many thanks to um for all the time zone stuff!

Stage 6 start time is 1:10pm Adelaide (Australia), CDT, with an expected finish time of 3:15pm — this would equate to a race run of 2:40am – 4:45am UTC. for the good ol’ USA, east coast is 9:40pm – 11:45pm saturday night for the sunday stage. there will be LIVE VIDDY for the complete stage.

Go to steephill.tv for TV links

Radio: http://www.abc.net.au/local/players/internet_radio.htm?streamFile=localadelaide&streamTitle=Grandstand's%20Tour%20Down%20Under#cf

Live-ish ticker. It is quite informative.http://www.tourdownunder.com.au/live-feed.htm

Last but not least, thanks to all the people who've dropped by. Yesterday, there were over 1700 comments! That's staggering. No wonder I've had fun.

Breakaway at about 2 minutes.

Stuart O’Grady – GreenEdge Cycling Team
Takashi Miyazawa – Team Saxo Bank
Nathan Haas – Garmin-Barracuda
Thomas De Gendt – Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
Andrew Fenn – Omega Pharma – QuickStep
Kristof Goddaert – AG2R La Mondiale

State of play at the beginning of the stage

1 Martin Kohler (Sui) BMC 15:03:34 2 Michael Matthews (Aus) Rabobank 0:00:02
3 Oscar Freire (Spa) Katusha
4 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Omega Pharma-QuickStep 0:00:06
5 Simon Gerrans (Aus) GreenEDGE 0:00:08
6 Daniele Bennati (Ita) RadioShack-Nissan
7 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling
8 Jan Bakelants (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan
9 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Katusha
There are a number of contenders such as Valverde and GHH at 12 seconds back, so tomorrow will be interesting.

Menglers did some sifting and sorting on Stage 4 and Willunga Hill should do the rest. Michael Matthews is a sprinter who can climb a bit. Gerro is a climber who can sprint a bit. Valverde is better than almost everyone. Kohler's palmares is very thin and I have no sense of him as a rider, except that he's worked hard this week. EBH (who is obviously nervous around kangaroos) is always a force to be reckoned with and Rogers and Hayman will work tirelessly to position him. Others to watch: Any one of the Euskies, Matthew Lloyd, Cam Meyer, Sergey Lagutin(just because), GVA, plus anyone else you want to cheer for. Personally, I'd like Bling to win today...highly unlikely...and Gerro to win the overall on Sunday. It's been a great week of racing,and today should be no different.

There will be live TV coverage. Check your local guides. I apologise for not being able to do a Jens; I can't do time zones. Personally, I'll be with Auntie until the last hour or so. It's more fun than listening to Phil and Paul.

Radio: http://www.abc.net.au/local/players/internet_radio.htm?streamFile=localadelaide&streamTitle=Grandstand's%20Tour%20Down%20Under#cf

Live-ish ticker. It is quite informative.http://www.tourdownunder.com.au/live-feed.htm

Breakaway at 8:10

Stuart O’Grady – GreenEdge Cycling Team
Takashi Miyazawa – Team Saxo Bank
Nathan Haas – Garmin-Barracuda
Thomas De Gendt – Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
Andrew Fenn – Omega Pharma – QuickStep
Kristof Goddaert – AG2R La Mondiale

State of play at the beginning of the stage

1 Martin Kohler (Sui) BMC 15:03:34 2 Michael Matthews (Aus) Rabobank 0:00:02
3 Oscar Freire (Spa) Katusha
4 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Omega Pharma-QuickStep 0:00:06
5 Simon Gerrans (Aus) GreenEDGE 0:00:08
6 Daniele Bennati (Ita) RadioShack-Nissan
7 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling
8 Jan Bakelants (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan
9 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Katusha
There are a number of contenders such as Valverde and GHH at 12 seconds back, so tomorrow will be interesting.

Continue reading this post »

There are few guarantees today. However, your money would be safe if you said that O'Grady would drive the peloton and seeing as Flatty took the pic, I felt compelled to use it. Mr O'Grady is after all the Mayor of Adelaide.

State of play at the beginning of the stage

1 Martin Kohler (Sui) BMC 15:03:34 2 Michael Matthews (Aus) Rabobank 0:00:02
3 Oscar Freire (Spa) Katusha
4 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Omega Pharma-QuickStep 0:00:06
5 Simon Gerrans (Aus) GreenEDGE 0:00:08
6 Daniele Bennati (Ita) RadioShack-Nissan
7 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling
8 Jan Bakelants (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan
9 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Katusha
There are a number of contenders such as Valverde and GHH at 12 seconds back, so tomorrow will be interesting.

Continue reading this post »

(This photo of the glorious one is courtesy of flatbagger, our man on the spot)
One need only look at the profile to suspect that Greipel will once again steal the stage. He's a very worthy contender, but young Bling Matthews is feeling very despondent. He thinks he's let his Rabo boys down because he couldn't keep Renshaw's wheel today. I hope Hutarovich doesn't win because listening to his name being mangled in such spectacular fashion, and repeatedly, is like fingernails on a blackboard. I wouldn't quibble with a GE win either, but short of a miracle, I can't see it happening. They don't seem too downhearted if the twitter chat about the captain of the ship in Italy falling/slipping into the lifeboat is any indication. PS. The last three kilometres are so flat, this is a finish for the big men.
This is how it looks at the beginning of the stage:
1. GREIPEL, Andre (GER)Lotto-Belisol11:54:52 2.KOHLER, Martin (SUI)BMC0:08 3.MATTHEWS, Michael* (AUS)Rabobank0:12 4.DE GENDT, Thomas (BEL)Vacansoleil -DCM0:14 5.GERRANS, Simon (AUS)GreenEDGE0:16 6.BAKELANTS, Jan (BEL)RadioShack-Nissanst 7.BOASSON HAGEN, Edvald* (NOR)Sky Procyclingst 8.VORGANOV, Eduard (RUS)Katushast 9.DENNIS, Rohan* (AUS – SA) UNI SA – Australia0:17 10.FLORENCIO CABRE, Xavier (ESP)Katusha0:20

This looks interesting: http://www.mapmytracks.com/events/tour-down-under-2012/race/stage-21

Live-ish ticker. It is quite informative.http://www.tourdownunder.com.au/live-feed.htm

Radio: http://www.abc.net.au/local/players/internet_radio.htm?streamFile=localadelaide&streamTitle=Grandstand's%20Tour%20Down%20Under#cf

Continue reading this post »

This is being done on the run, but I'll be back soon. Riders have already completed 12 kilometres. The weather is alittle better. As you would probably realise almost all riders hated the stage. The heat was appalling. GE used 155 water bottles...punishing. There's a slight uphill finish today. Benna thinks he has a shot. Goss and GHH don't mind a slight rise, but Greipel is looking unstoppable and Valverde is lurking. Links below the fold!

Continue reading this post »

Temperature is 37C and the headwind is strong so there have been echelons forming. The deep dish wheels were a poor choice apparently. There is a breakaway at 11 minutes! Oops. Roman Feilliu has crashed...Sergey to the rescue!

As always, there is only a a radio feed, which is better than it's been in the past. As expected the stage is flat, flat, flat but unless the peloton reel in that 11 minutes, it's a problem.

The TDU live feed is being updated frequently: http://www.tourdownunder.com.au/live-feed.htm

Photo by Morne de Clerq, Getty

It's a bit lairy, but I don't mind it. GE had their team launch today for media...very low key. Nygaard has changed his tune on presentations, saying that riders are not circus performers. And fortunately, there are no scarves. So far, the Garmin kit is by far my favourite, but given my aversion to green and gold, I think this could be worse. The challenge will be designing a national kit for Fumy Beppu. Red and white with this is going to be hard.

***Douglas sez - I was in the act of throwing up a kit review as I saw this, so lets do a combine, shall we? ***

Continue reading this post »

 

 

Yesterday was the end of a partnership between Fabian Cancellara and Stuart O'Grady that began in 2006. As a fan, their loyalty and obvious affection for one another has been part of the reason that I am a fan of them both. At the end of Paris-Tours Cancellara wrote on his Twitter, Grat race from @StueyOG @ paris-tours you my legend... Racing like a true champ. I don't much care for whom they race, but I'm sad that they're no longer together. Their friendship has been part of the joy of following them. It perhaps also explains my Kloden fandom. Good cyclists excite and entertain me, good men appeal even more. Friendships that are supported not just by words, but actions too, make my day.

http://photos.grahamwatson.com/keyword/roubaix/1/1250525898_HSvmP#1250525898_HSvmP-A-LB

The 'planket' anecdote is my favourite Twitter moment. velowire's headline was: 

Fabian Cancellara and Stuart O'Grady are worse than a married couple. Cancellara tweeted:

Our rooms they have 2 beds.There is a distance betwinn. but this night o'grady stolen my planket.Because he had cold.i taket back ;-)

Fabianese was cemented in that tweet. They have continued to entertain us with their 'blokey' love letters ever since. Toto (238) knew the break-up might cause problems. Could Thor ever replace Fabian in Stuey's eyes? I think not! http://nyvelocity.com/content/toto/2011/toto-turns-238

From Stuey to Cance: @f_cancellara mate it's been an honor. I've helped u win a few(!) bike races and u helped me win a big bad ass cobble.its been awesome!

Fabian's reply: our memorys no one can take away from us. You great person and a awesome rider with a lot strengh and experience.thanks for EVRICING

 

Thank you both for evricing, and may your roads meet again.

Some riders never seem to have any luck. Robert Gesink is one such example. Not only did he hurt himself at the Tour, today he crashed in training and fractured his femur, so no Worlds or Lombardi for him. I wonder which rider will be called upon to take his spot next weekend. Could this in fact make the team more homogenous in terms of a skill set? i know there have been a number of people scratching their heads of what TYPE of team is being fielded.

Anyway, I can't wait for the Giro now. Gesink will be champing at the bit.

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/9827/Robert-Gesink-has-bad-training-crash-season-over-due-to-fractured-femur.aspx

The Worlds team has been selected today and as it does every year, the Australian selections have created polemica. Matty White indicated last night that based on his performance in Plouay, Rogers would be in. Other than that, O'Grady and Goss were the only two named outright for the Road Race. Today we awoke to the news that Renshaw didn't make the cut. In some circles there has been outrage at the omission. I don't have a strong opinion either way, but a little investigation suggests that as good as he is as a leadout man, Renshaw has rarely made it anywhere near the front in a long race such as MSR and recently at Plouay, Rogers finished :08 behind the leaders, whereas Renshaw was at 1:57, albeit having had a number of mechanicals. To be honest, I'm more disappointed at Hansen's omission, although I'm not sure who would be benched. So what do you all think?

Continue reading this post »

Yes, I know there's lots going on, but there's been snow in Italy and the big boys are coming out to play. Cance and Stuey are there, warming up, as is Big George, but I'm hoping Cuddles can do this all over again...That Stage 7 Giro was brilliant. Young Santa may have a chance now that Gavia's interviewed him, but a little part of me thinks that the Kiwis might be on a winning streak, so watch out for Hayden Roulston. Can't wait for this race, and I'm so happy it's not on a Sunday night in Oz!

Update (Pete):  Now Live Race Thread.   

Update (Jens): With no actual live images

Update (Jens again): Dammit!

Given the success of Cam Meyer and the Garmin-Cervelo team at the TDU this comes of something of a shock. White broke the rules...I hope there was nothing sinister in it. If there isn't, I expect he'll be snapped up fairly quickly. White is touted as an excellent DS... his recent appointment to the Australian team reinforces this. Four hours ago he was happily being interviewed about Meyer's win...strange.

Ed: the reason, via email:

It has just come to the attention of Slipstream Sports Board of Directors that in April 2009, Matt White referred former rider Trent Lowe, to the Sports Institute of Valencia to Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral. Slipstream Sports has an explicit internal policy that all medical referrals are approved by our medical staff. In this instance, this vital rule was broken. As a result, the Board of Directors has dismissed Matt White.

Vaughters:

"We made a promise to our riders and to the world when we started this team. We live, every day, by the standards we have set for ourselves. We cannot allow this vital team rule to be broken."

Vroomen:

"It’s tough news but it gives me a lot of confidence in the Slipstream organization. It’s easy to take a tough stance when there are no consequences, it’s much more impressive when a team is willing to take a bullet to protect its philosophy and the cycling sport in general."

Wilunga Hill baby! Yes, this is what passes for mountains in Oz. Cam Meyer will be determined to hold onto the ochre jersey, Luke Roberts wants the KOM and a contract with Saxo, Robbie wants to prove he's not too old, Richie Porte wants to prove his loss of time the other day was a brain fart, and Gossy just wants the ochre back!

My money's on Meyer to hold on...my heart still wants Mcewen to be wearing ochre at the end of this, but he probably has two chances: Buckley's and none.

It's still crowded at the top of the leader board, with Greipel snapping at the heels of Goss. That Matthews kiddie can climb hills, as can Gossy, and today there's Checker Hill which will be tough in the heat. Garmin are counting on Cam Meyer to produce something. Me, I think Richie Porte and Simon Gerrans might show their hands today. Exciting! That said, I still wish Robbie could win.

Profile:

via www.tourdownunder.com.au

There's a locust plague...a sign of the Apocalypse? Does this mean Lance is going to win? Links to ABC radio at Steephill. There's a hill in this stage...who says we run a flat race.

Missing Amber Halliday's knowledge and style on ABC radio. Her crash has left her with head and facial injuries, and she's currently in an induced coma. Sending positive thoughts her way.

For those who are interested, the best photos and news on the TDU are on this blog. I LOVE this glossary of the TDU:

http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2011/01/tour-down-under-glossary/#more-16663

I saw an interview today with Stuart O'Grady. There was of course all the usual chat about the strength of the Cyclones, the likelihood of Thor or Freire or Gilbert winning. The thing that struck me though was that Stuey felt that to some extent, the strength of large teams could well be negated, or at least neutralised without radios. He wasn't whinging and he may well have been sandbagging, I don't know. But I wondered how it might change the face of the race and allow a 'chancer' from a smaller team to succeed. What do you think?