Fitting win for Barguil; Stalemate on the podium

It was the last chance saloon for the climbers. A last opportunity to try and take time from Chris Froome before Saturday's time-trial. A final battle between Louis Meintjes and Simon Yates in the white jersey contest. One last chance to stop Warren Barguil's claim on the polka-dot jersey. And the little matter of someone winning the stage.

This was a stage race within the race in which there were many mini-races taking place. Once they hit the final climb of the Col d'Izoard, you didn't know where to look. There was always something going on. It was the first time the race has finished up this Alpine Giant and you have to wonder why it took so long? It was a brute and it wore the very best down to exhaustion.

Roglic rides to glory; Matthews takes green; Aru loses time

The last time a stage of the Tour de France finished in Serre Chevalier was in 1993. Tony Rominger won that day though it was the first mountain stage of the Tour unlike one of the last this year. Miguel Indurain, the dominate rider of the 90s, finished second on the stage. He had taken the yellow jersey at the individual time-trial the day before and would carry it all the way to Paris. It would be his third straight Tour victory. Chris Froome, the dominant rider of this decade, finished third today. He is hoping to carry yellow on into Paris too now for what would be the third straight time, and fourth in all.

Froome's time-trial is still to come but the distance against the clock is much less these days. As such the time gaps are tighter. It may have only be the 10th stage that year, but Indurain already led the second place man by more than 3 minuets. Froome went to bed last night with less than half a minute lead over two men. The similarities are there though. The man in second place in '93 was Colombian Alvaro Mejia; this year it is his compatriot, Rigoberto Uran.  Mejia would go on to finish 4th that year with Rominger coming up to second. Uran will be hoping for better.

The cross winds arrive and Dan Martin's GC hope get blown away as Quick Step drop the ball

If I told you before the stage to name me one team that would thrive today in cross winds, who would it be? My guess is you would name either Lotto Soudal or Quick-Step. And that would be my pick too. Yet, when the winds blew and the gaps began to form, Quick-Step where missing.

Dan Martin, their best placed rider on the general classification (5th at 1'12") was left exposed. A climber by nature he isn't built for this and needed his team more than ever. Heck, they have been absent in the high mountains so now seemed like a good time to show up for him. But where was Quick-Step? Philippe Gilbert didn't start the stage citing illness, but the rest were off the back. Way off the back. Protecting the green jersey of Marcel Kittel instead.

The race for the Lanterne Rouge

I usually keep more track of this than I have. But here, at the second rest day, seems like as good a time as any to take a look at it. As of right now, Dan McLay of Team Fortuneo-Oscaro, is sitting last man in the general classification by 8 minutes 19 seconds. To look at that you might not think it is close, but time gaps at the back are much different than time gaps at the front. With some big mountain stages to come, and some serious time to lose, the Lanterne Rouge is very much up for grabs.

Froome wrestles back yellow and then almost loses it again

I was out on the bike on Saturday morning so missed the live coverage of the stage. Looking at the profile I had hedged my bets. It looked like a stage for exciting racing, but without too much in the way of major climbing. I felt it was unlikely that the balance of the race itself might swing. But as I swung into a small town and pulled over at a coffee shop, I pulled out my phone and seen the notification: "Froome back in yellow."

What on earth had happened? I bought my tea and a butter tart, and sat down to catch up.

Fireworks on Bastille Day: A French winner and more contenders for GC

What a frantic day. A 101km stage across three category one climbs. It had all the makings of a classic, and so it proved to be. Fireworks across the mountains on Bastille Day. Attacks at the sharp end of the general classification, and a French winner to boot. The first such winner on July 14th since David Moncoutié in 2005.

Warren Barguil will be the toast of France in his polka-dot jersey. What a courageous ride it was as the drama and action for the yellow jersey blew up around him.

Further notes on the chaos of yesterday before the sure madness of today

With today's stage starting later and so many talking points still lingering from yesterday, I thought I'd put down some thoughts on them.

Change in yellow...Tour blown wide open!

A change in the race lead shouldn't come as a major surprise. I mean, Fabio Aru did only trail Chris Froome by 18 seconds coming into the stage. And yet, I'm still shocked that it has happened, and I don't quite know why? Aru has looked excellent thus far in this race, winning a stage, while Froome has failed to isolate the Italian when given the chance. With the stage win going to Romain Bardet ahead of Rigoberto Uran with Aru two seconds behind in third and Froome 7th at 22 seconds, Aru is into yellow. He leads Froome now by 6 seconds. Bardet is still in third, but only 25 seconds behind, with Uran a further 30 seconds back.

I still like to watch the predictable long and flat stages

There has been a lot of long, flat stages in this years Tour. The kind in which the break goes up the road, gets reeled back in and from which a bunch sprint ensues. It's not as bad as the 90's when the entire first week was dedicated to such racing, but in an age in which so much of the Tour is on TV, it stands out more.

Three kinds of Tour stages

There are three kinds of stages in the Tour de France: Time trials, mountain stages, and Kittel stages. Yes, what was once sprint stages on the flat days, now belongs to a 29 year old German. Unbeatable on such days, or so it seems.

Marcel Kittel has won both stages since the rest day, and both with relative ease. Each stage was much like those that came in the first week of the Tour. A small break would go up the road early and get chased down late before the fast men finished behind Kittel. The only difference between yesterday and today was the margin of victory by Kittel. Today was a little closer, though never in doubt. Yesterday he won by several lengths. In truth there ought to have been a time gap to the rest.

Another cyclist killed; A plea to all motorists

Another cyclist killed on the road yesterday. It was in Northern Ireland, but the location doesn't matter, except that it struck close to home for me. The following is a Facebook post from my dad who was at the scene, with some thoughts of my own below. Please give it a read:

Rest day musings

For all the flat stages in which an early break gets brought back in time for the bunch gallop, this Tour has sure been full of drama. That is often the case at the Tour, but I don't remember one in which there were so many points of debate within the first nine stages. From the Sagan-Cavendish incident, to the photo finish on stage 7 to many moments on Sunday's stage 9. It feels like we're two weeks in rather than one.

And with each debate so the last debate drifts out of mind. I have said it a few times already, but the Tour moves fast and not only on the road. Something else will happen next week that will move the narrative on once more. And how refreshing too that the controversy is about what is happening on the bikes, if you know what I mean? Rest days ain't what they used to be. All we're doing now is looking back at what has been and considering how it all adds up to what we will see in the days ahead.

Crashes, attacks, and controversy: Two wild days in the mountains at the Tour

Coming into stage 8 on Saturday morning there were eight men within a minute of Chris Froome's yellow jersey. By the time they went to bed on Sunday night, ready for a rest day, that number was down to three. And while some fell away in the standings, Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte, well placed coming into the weekend, fell away on the road and had to abandon.

The yellow jersey came through unscathed with two crucial days ticked off in his bid to defend his title. His lead is only 18 seconds but in hindsight, with all we seen, he'll take it. Likewise might his now closest rivals, Fabio Aru at 18 seconds, Romain Bardet at 51 seconds, and the surprising Rigoberto Uran at 55 seconds. Of them, Aru courted controversy, Bardet animated Sunday and Uran took a stage win. It was a weekend that threw up so many talking points as the race hit the high mountains. Eight categorised climbs over the two stages, of which four were category one or higher.

The width of the thread of a tire

"It doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile, winning's winning." ~ Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Fast and Furious

But what if the margin of victory is a millimetre. 0.0003 of a second, or something like that. They had to blow the picture up hundred of times over to tell for sure that Marcel Kittel had beaten Edvald Boasson Hagen in the sprint. The standard photo finish picture looks a draw every time. And until recent technology made such blow up images possible, that is what it would have been.

Looking Back - The 1997 Tour de France, episode 4: The sprinters take over

Sunday, July 6, 1997

The following morning only 3,943km separated the riders from the finish in Paris. To get there the route would circle France in a counter clockwise direction hitting the Pyrenees first. Long before the mountains though came the sprinters stages. July 6 was the first one; a 192km ride to Froges les Eaux.

The Tour moves on and so does the yellow jersey

The Tour de France moves at a frantic pace, and not only on the road. Today's newspaper is tomorrow's chip wrapper, as the old saying goes. Yesterday morning the papers in France led with the Sagan-Cavendish incident, but today it is already old news. It was the first summit finish of the Tour, and the climbers have taken over the narrative.

The first mountain stage will do that. Everything that has gone before no longer matters. Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish may be two of the faces of the sport, but we all know the Tour belongs to those who can ride in the mountains. The incident that eliminated the pair will live long in the memory, and go down in Tour history, but the race goes on. It always does.

Fireworks on the 4th July...in France: Sagan disqualified and sent home

Let me start right at the top with the major news to come out of today's stage: Peter Sagan has been disqualified from the Tour de France and sent home. A bombshell that nobody seen coming. Not before the stage and not even after the incident that led to the penalty.

For a lot of this stage I thought the talking point would be about how this was the most boring stage of the Tour. In some ways it was, but it won't be remembered that way anymore. I felt that once we had digested another bunch gallop that talk would centre around Guillaume van Keirsbulck's brave solo attack. But bunch gallops in themselves often throw up drama and there was enough inside the final kilometre of today's stage to keep everyone talking well into the night.

Looking Back - The 1997 Tour de France, episode 3: Boardman regains his prologue crown

Saturday, July 5, 1997

It was a sunny day in Rouen on Saturday, July 5, 1997, and Chris Boardman was happy. The Englishman was a prologue specialist and this was the prologue of the Tour de France. But it was the sunshine that mattered to him most.

Advantage Froome, and Sky, on the opening weekend

We are three stages in now and each stage has been different than the other. The first was a time-trial that gave us a classification and the chance to look at time gaps. The second stage gave the sprinters a turn to stretch their legs. And the third stage was designed to shake up the sharp end of that classification with a short but steep uphill finish. And while Geraint Thomas may have presented himself as a surprise winner of that time-trial, Marcel Kittel and Peter Sagan winning the next two stages, was right on script.

I spent the opening weekend of the Tour out of town. It was the Canada Day 150th anniversary celebrations on the day the Tour started. The celebrations ran through the weekend and into Monday. I was able to watch the Tour, or at least the parts that mattered, and I even clocked up 185km of riding. But I had no time, nor desire, to sit in from of a computer and write about the Tour. Best to let it all play out anyway; let it settle down, bed in, and give me pause for thought before making comment. And so here I am then on Monday evening, looking back at what has been over the opening weekend.

Looking Back - The 1997 Tour de France, episode 2: Building up

Friday, July 4, 1997

In those days, as a teenager, I did a lot of my own cycling but watched far less. In many ways my cycling season, with regards to the television, began and ended with the Tour. The rest of the year was football. Sometimes I would go out of my way to watch Paris-Roubaix, but there was little beyond that. I lived for the Tour and my month of July belonged to it; set to a soundtrack of the voices of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen.

Looking Back - The 1997 Tour de France, episode 1: Preamble

Tuesday, July 1, 1997

My formative years of watching the Tour de France was the 1990s. That era is often remembered for all the wrong reasons now, but only in hindsight. I have so many memories of watching the Tour then, more so than in most years since, that I remember it with a great fondness. That's a product of the enthusiasm of youth, but also because of the Tour itself. In part because it only lasts three weeks of a year, in a way separate from the rest of the cycling season, but also because it is so epic.

Climbing off the fence: Tour predictions

Alright, it is time to slide right off the fence now and begin some hard and bold predictions. Below are my picks for the top five on GC as well as the respective jersey winners.

Disclaimer: Do not bet on this, not if you value your money. Take it with a shaker full of salt.

What to expect from this years Tour de France

I'm going to make a few bold predictions here. In three weeks time when the Tour de France rolls onto the Champs-Élysées, Chris Froome will be in yellow, Peter Sagan in green and Rafal Majka in polka-dots. Something tells me I wouldn't get great odds on such a sweep. Majka is no sure bet for the mountains classification, and nor is Froome for yellow, but Sagan seems almost a cert for the points competition.

Of the 21 stages on this Tour, there are about 11 that Sagan could win. He won't do that, of course but he'll win some and he'll finish second in others. I wouldn't surprised if he finished in the top 10 of half the stages. He'll still finish an hour or two down on general classification, but he'll make his mark like few others. Indeed he could well find himself in yellow within the first week if he puts in a solid prologue on Saturday.

The Tour de France is here and there is nothing quite like it

Another Tour is upon us. The most wonderful time of the year. The biggest race of them all. La Grande Boucle; the Large Loop. The Tour de France. Though less a loop in 2017 and more a winding journey south. No traditional clockwise or anti-clockwise route; instead a line that slithers its way down through France like a snake.

Starting in Düsseldorf, Germany, the race will travel through Belgium and Luxembourg, reaching France by day four, and the south coast of France by stage 20. That will settle the race before its sudden appearance in Paris for the sprinters classic.

The Tour has crept up on me while it's been raining outside

Sometimes the Tour de France can't come soon enough. Sometimes it creeps up on you when you're not looking. This year it has felt like the later. One day it was mid-April and raining outside when without warning I looked up and noticed we were through the first week of June already ... and it was still raining outside. And now we're about to hit the final week of June and I've yet to catch my breath and notice that somewhere between now and winter there was spring. Time goes by when you're having fun. Time is what happens when you're busy making plans.

I've been having fun riding my bike and I've been busy planing various rides on Strava. I've been doing family things, watching baseball, monitoring Liverpool's transfer rumours and generally ignoring the world of professional cycling. That's not like me, at least in recent years. I mean, I do all the other things, but usually I'm still scrambling to find a dodgy feed of the Dauphine or Tour de Suisse. Not this year. Checking results of the Dauphine aside I all but ignored cycling this month. I didn't even know that Rohan Dennis had won in Switzerland until a few days ago. And only today have I checked to see that my boy Silvan Dillier won the Route du Sud. Oh and I see that Pierre Rolland won a stage down there. A sure bet for one at the Tour I reckon.

Sometimes you need the break, even if it isn't intentional. And because of it I'm starting get a slow build of excitement about the impending and sudden arrival of the Tour. Yes, that look up to see early June had become late June and the rain still falling, left me shocked to remember that Tour eve was only a week away.

It was walking into a shop and seeing a Tour preview magazine on the shelf that kicked me into focus again. And then seeing an article about team selections and the status of Mark Cavendish. And then the arrival in my unplayed list of the Cycling Podcast's Tour preview episode.

Time to tune in again to the cycling world. Time to look up the route map and stage profiles once more and remind myself of what to expect. Time to make a few bold predictions: Rohan Dennis for yellow on stage one; Sagan in yellow by stage five; Froome in yellow by Paris. I'll go do that now and try to report back in a few days time before it all kicks off on July 1.

Time to get excited.

Double Dutch in Milan as the best man wins the Giro

Dutchman Jos van Emden won the final stage time-trial in Milan yesterday. And I apologise to him, for that is all I'm going to say about it. For it was behind him, where the major time differences were being won and lost, that it mattered. It was another Dutchman who stole the show. Tom Dumoulin. The first Dutchman to win the Giro d'Italia, which almost seems hard to believe. The first since Joop Zoetemelk to win a Grand Tour of any sort. It is a nation that has been devoid of success for some time, though in recent years, they have been knocking on the door. Today, it opened.

And you get the sense that this won't be the one and only Grand Tour win for Dumoulin. How can he not be licking his chops at the idea of a run at the Tour in 2018? How about the Vuelta later this year? Getting over the final hurdle to win one, after coming so close at the Vuelta in 2015, will fill him with confidence. And trust it to be a time-trial in which he sealed the deal. That's where he gained the lions share of his time while defending strong in the mountains. The next Miguel Indurain, some say. Though different too.

Many felt he would take time where he did, but they also felt he would lose more time in the high mountains than he did. Indeed, if it hadn't been for that day of poop on the valley road between the Mortirolo and the Stelvio, he'd have won with ease. That little call of nature cost him 1 minute of a stop and must have snapped his rhythm. Take that back, and more, and today's time trial, the one seen for three weeks as being so crucial, would have been irrelevant.

Quintana grabs pink but will need more time

By the time I tuned into the Giro d'Italia today - and by tune in I mean logged onto Twitter, as well as a live blog - I had missed the ambush. It had been a busy morning for me and while I knew there was a summit finish, I kind of overlooked anything that might happen before. In a way, I felt ambushed.

By all accounts the pink jersey of Tom Dumoulin got distanced on a descent and the teams of Nibali and Quintana put the hammer down. It all came to nothing in the end as a frantic chase ensued that brought it all back together. Even the days initial break was no more. What it did serve to do was soften up the legs of Big Tom who began to lose contact the moment they hit the final climb to Piancavallo.

Doing as he does best though, Dumoulin didn't panic. He settled into his rhythm and set about limiting his loses. The GC will tell you he had a 31 second advantage over Quintana to play with. In reality, with the final day time-trial still to come, that advantage was more like 2 minutes. By the end of the day Dumoulin would lose 1 minute 9 seconds, and his pink jersey, to Quintana.

Dumoulin drops from the rear, in more ways than one!

It was the stage that when they unveiled the 2017 Giro route, everyone got excited about. The queen stage. A trip over the Passo Del Mortirolo and two runs up the Passo Dello Stelvio. The day of reckoning. The most dramatic day when, for some, the shit would hit the fan...or, as it turned out, the side of the road.

It was to be a long day in the saddle; a slow wearing down process. The suffering would build and the elastic would snap and the time gaps would be enormous. Many considered it a day for Tom Dumoulin to limit his loses, but the manor on which he had to do so was unusual to say the least.

At the foot of the days final climb, he stopped, climbed off and lowered his shorts. When you need to go, you need to go, as they say. Dumoulin couldn't control his bowels any longer. As he done his number two, the race moved up the mountain. It left fans debating the rights and wrongs of the racing going on without him, but they didn't have any choice. Waiting was not realistic. In that moment, Steve Kruijswijk was in a break almost two minutes further up the road. A threat to the top five.

A word on the weekend: Dumoulin increases his lead

It was a long weekend here and I was out of town. And I was riding my bike. As such I didn't write anything about the weekend stages of the Giro as they happened. But the major talking point was Tom Dumoulin taking a stage win on Saturday when many felt he might lose time. I walked into a coffee shop mid-ride and got the race on my phone right on time for the final climb. It looked trouble for Big Tom when Nairo Quintana attacked, but the Dutchman did what he does so well and measured his effort. Soon the gap began to reduce and soon he had bridged across. On the run-in he was strongest and finished ahead of Zakarin for stage glory. Quintana coughed up 14 seconds in 4th place. With time-bonuses factored in, Dumoulin increased his lead in the general classification to 2 minute 47 seconds. Not a good sign for his rivals and a real psychological blow on a day they were expected to eat into the Dutchmans so-called time-trial bonus-time.

Shades of Big Mig in Big Tom

The ex-footballer Gary Lineker once said, "Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win." I felt the same about the Tour de France in the early 90s. 198 men rode around France for 3 weeks and in the end, Miguel Indurain always won. He did so by sitting tight in a first week that belonged to the sprinters, demolishing his rivals in the time-trials, and preserving in the mountains.

Which brings me to the 2017 Giro and from Big Mig to Big Tom. Tom Dumoulin that is. The majority of the first week here belonged to sprinters or opportunists too. There was the ride up Etna, but that never exploded like the Volcano can. Then there was the finish at Blockhaus, but Tom limited his losses. He rode steady and measured his effort. And finally, ala Indurain, on the first time-trial, he blew away the rest to set up his bid for glory.

Sky taken out while it's advantage Quintana...or is it?

It took eight stages for this Giro to come to life, but once it did, it did so in the most dramatic of ways. Drama, controversy, action, time gaps, lead change and so many talking points it is hard to know where to begin. Do I start with the stage winner and new race leader, Nairo Quintana? Or the fact his win wasn't as convincing as expected? Or with the motorbike induced accident at the foot of the Blockhaus climb that left several contenders on the deck, decimating Team Sky's Giro ambitions?

The later is the logical starting point. It was after all the most dramatic moment, the one that raised the most debate, and the one that came first. Why the police motorbike felt the need to stop at the side of the road I'm not sure, but why he didn't pull off the road I'll never know. The result was Wilko Kelderman of the Sunweb team clipped the motorbike rider and went down taking many riders with him.

One for the grand kids

Luka Pibernik crossed the line yesterday with his arms in the air to win the fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia. A proud moment for the 23 year old who must have though he had made it two Solvenian stage wins in-a-row. The reality was very different. There was still 6km, or one lap, to go. It was that cringe worthy moment when somebody thinks they have won, while everyone else knows otherwise.

Somewhere in the throws of exhaustion Pibernik failed to hear the last lap bell. He failed to grasp why the pack behind were not sprinting full out as he thought he'd outwitted them all. The arms went up as he crossed the line and the pack swallowed him up and kept on racing.

Or was he as unaware as you think?

No erruption on Etna

It's a rare day when the locals of Sicily are looking for an explosion on Mount Etna and are disappointed when it doesn't arrive. Yesterday was one of those days...but all because of cycling, not the flow of lava. Blame it on the headwind or the stage coming too early in a race that will end with some brutal climbing, but those who we looked to to ignite the race kept their powder dry.

At one point the winds were strong enough that an echelon formed containing the favourites on the slopes of Etna. It looked out of place but it also looked as though each favourite for this race was riding alongside the other, daring someone to move. Pierre Rolland did move at one stage but they reeled him back in. Later the home island boy, Vincenzo Nibali, put in a dig, but it was as much for the locals than anything else. When he noticed that nobody had come with him he sat up and allowed the shrinking pack to swallow him up again.

Late musings and predictions on the 100th Giro d'Italia

I have been so busy lately that I almost forgot about the Giro starting last weekend. I assumed it began on the Saturday when in fact it was a Friday start. Aside from short clips I seen nothing of the racing. And it was only today, on Monday, when I would finally have the chance to follow it. So of course there would be no race to watch. That Friday start was so they could transfer from Sardinia to Sicily today.

Scenery aside, it doesn't sound like I have missed too much. The first few stages were flat and belonging to the sprinters. It's tomorrow when things will kick off with a mighty summit finish at Mount Etna. It could be explosive!

From then on there will be few times when missing stages will go unpunished. This 100th edition of the Giro has got a brilliant route traversing most of the country. There are some savage mountain stages packed in toward the back in. The lineup of contenders is long and distinguished. Indeed, on paper, this has the makings of the best Grand Tour of the lot. I'm not sure if its the unflappable Chris Froome that has turned so many off targeting the Tour in July? Either way, a lot of them have shown up here. Nairo Quintana included.

Michele Scarponi 1979 ~ 2017

If you are you having fun then you don't tend to spend too much time worrying about life. It is as it should be, and you should be lucky for it. But life is fragile and sometimes something horrible happens that reminds us of that, and we count our blessings.

Last Friday afternoon, April 21, I looked up the results of the final stage of the Tour of the Alps. I seen that Thibaut Pinot had won it and that Geraint Thomas had taken the general classification. A huge result for the Sky rider ahead of his Giro d'Italia ambitions. In fourth place was Michele Scarponi. I didn't take too much notice of it but considered him a man on form. He would lead his Astana team at the Grio now that team leader Fabio Aru had withdrawn through injury. Often a faithful lieutenant of Nibali and Aru, this was a chance of freedom for the 37 year old Italian.

On Saturday morning, April 22, I woke up, put on the kettle, settled into my armchair, looked at my phone and seen the horrible news. Scarponi, with so much going for him, was dead. An accident with a van while out training near his home in Italy that morning had ended it all. It was shocking and so saddening. His final tweet had been a picture of him a few hours after returning from Switzerland, with the race leaders jersey he had had won on the first stage, on the shoulders of his sons while they sat on his back, all smiling at the camera. How could your heart not break in knowing the fate that awaited them all in the hours ahead?

Van Avermaet completes one of the great cobbled campaigns

I didn't see any of Paris-Roubaix live this year. I was out on the bike instead. I promised myself come Sunday morning that I wouldn't fall victim to temptation and make an excuse to stay on the sofa watching the Hell of the North. It promised to be a great race as Peter Sagan looked to salvage his spring cake and Greg Van Avermaet looked to ice his. As it turned out it was the later who came through.

By all accounts it was a decent race though I have heard it was far from historic. No Paris-Roubaix is bad but I got the sense when Sagan punctured for a second time, ruling him out of contention, some of the drama went out of the race. Tom Boonen was of course competing in the final race of his career but the four-time winner could only manage 13th. The fairy tale finish was not meant to be.

No shock though at the winner. Van Avermaet has been a level above this spring. Sagan has been unlucky on several occasions, but the Belgian was always able to capitalize. Philippe Gilbert stole his thunder at the Tour of Flanders but didn't race this one. Still, across the seven cobbled classics this spring Van Avermaet won four of them. He took Omloop Het Niewsblad to kick off the campaign, followed it up a month later with wins at E3 Harelbeke and Gent-Wevelgem, he was second at Flanders and returned to winning ways in Roubaix. Throw in a second place at Strade Bianche too and seventh at Kurrne-Brussles-Kuurne and you see an Olympic Champion on form.

A ride for the ages

It has to be the image of the cycling season so far. Philippe Gilbert standing solo on the finishing line of the Tour of Flanders in the Belgian champions jersey with his bike held high above his head, victorious. It was everything the locals could want from such a race. And what a race it was. It always is. But we don't usually get an individual performance quite like that. We don't usually get such drama from so far out.

The Muur-Kapelmuur is one of the most famous climbs in the Tour of Flanders. In recent years though it hasn't featured due to its location on a new route, but that changed for 2017. The climb was back in, but early in the race. Too far out from the finish to factor, or so we thought. They hit it with 95km to go, and but for the forlorn hopes up the road, the pack was still together. As they hit it, Gilbert brought his Quickstep team to the front. Rivals, such as Sagan and Van Avermaet hung back. Too early, right? Wrong.

Quickstep hit the climb hard. Teammates Tom Boonen and Gilbert looked at one another and gave a nod. The power went down and the race blew wide open. Over the top a gap had opened, but again it seemed to soon to matter. It would likely come back together or those behind would bridge across. Gilbert, Boonen et al would sit up and save their matches for later. But nobody knew how many matches Gilbert carried. With so long still to go, Gilbert pushed on, urging the group to work. And the group was dangerous. Sep Vanmarcke was there, so was Alexander Kristoff. Luke Rowe, Jasper Stuyven and a cluster of others were also present. Sagan and Van Avermaet were not.

The 2017 season so far: Big names come to the fore

It has been a long time since I last wrote anything on here. It has been a busy winter. And anytime I have gotten some free time I've spent it on my bike rather than writing about bikes. On that end I've cycled over 1,500km since the turn of the year, way more than in any other winter before, and I am feeling good for it. A lot of it on the turbo trainer, but a mild winter here in Southern Ontario has meant I have gotten out on the road too. I have a couple of races in April and I decided to actually get ready for them. So far so good, though I could use to cut back on some junk food!

That isn't to say I haven't watched my share of cycling though. Indeed I have watched as much this winter and early spring as ever before. Some of the racing has been spectacular and there has been a lot of talking points. There is little point in me going into them all in detail right now, you've likely seen them yourself, but I do want to address some. So where to start?