Tag: Flanders bikes

Jason McIntyre (The Edge RT/Dooleys) successfully defended his Scottish 10 Mile Time Trial Championship 2007 on the A77 near Glasgow on Saturday morning; that's the 'who', 'what', 'where' and 'when'. In time-trialling though, the real information come from the watches, with no superlatives or flowery prose.

The Trofeu Joaquim Agostinho is the last tune up for the Portuguese peloton before the biggest race of the season, the Volta a Portugal. A lot of the teams turn out very strong for Agostinho, as it's known. The amateur teams also turn out strong since the race is a 2.2 and the pinnacle of their calendar, aside the 'Volta a Portugal do Futuro'.

Voeckler, you have to admire him, he's a racer. Whatever happens, it's been a good Tour for Bbox, Charteau in polka dots for a good stretch and now Tommy takes a big one. Going down to Pro Continental doesn't seem to have affected them one bit - and it's saved them a fortune. It was a tad mad up on the Port de Bales today but great to be there - Monday afternoon, high in the Pyrenees under a clear blue sky with the world's best cyclists just inches away.

Fabian Cancellara is a wonderful athlete, class personified. He looks at one with the bike and he's quite fearless; it's hard not to gasp as he blasts along at his 60 kph average (take out the corners, roundabouts and the climb, and that's the speed he's sitting at), skiffing walls and flicking that Specialized through narrow village streets like a kermesse king - a pleasure to behold.

Schlecks Shaken... What a stage last night turned out to be! Prior to the stage, the thoughts were that it was always going to be a breakaway, and there wouldn't be much movement on the general classification. Half right! The high likelihood of the break staying away meant that all of the boys not in with a chance on general were hoping to get a piece of the action, meaning it took hours before the break finally got clear.

It wasn’t until inside the last kilometre at Peyragudes that the drama really unfolded; Bardet confirms, as does Aru, Froome cracks a little, Quintana cracks A LOT and much as it pains me; ‘one season too many, Bert!’ And Bennett and Martin impress, especially the latter who’s carrying injuries from that horrible crash with Porte on Sunday.