Author: Henri Giroud

Fifty years of pro cycling journalism and television commentary. It gets easier after the first forty years.

Highlights Report Tao Geoghegan Hart put in one of the finest performances of his young career to claim victory on stage 15 at the Giro d’Italia. The Brit rode his way to the front of the race on the Piancavallo summit finish, before out-sprinting Wilco Kelderman and claiming his biggest victory to date – and a fifth stage win for the INEOS Grenadiers. That success also moved Geoghegan Hart up seven places to fourth overall, 2:57 off the maglia rosa but just two seconds off an overall podium place. In the closing kilometres Tao was joined by Team Sunweb duo Kelderman and Jai…

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Highlights Report Filippo Ganna put in a blistering performance to win his third stage of the Giro d’Italia and the team’s fourth stage victory of the race. Ganna led home an INEOS Grenadiers 1-2 as Rohan Dennis finished second, 26 seconds behind the world time trial champion in Valdobbiadene. The gap from second to third-placed Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) was over a minute, with Ganna and Dennis dominating the second time trial of the race. Tao Geoghegan Hart put in a strong performance to finish 13th on the stage, which saw the Londoner move up to 11th overall ahead…

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Highlights Report Diego Ulissi added to his glittering record at the Giro d’Italia with a sprint victory from a select group of favourites on stage 13 from Cervia to Monselice (192km). With two testing categorised climbs in the final 35km, it was Valerio Conti who piled on the pressure to detach the sprinters Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) on the 9.9% average, 2km final climb which crested at 17km to go. With only the GC favourites left in the main group, it was Brandon McNulty who took the reins in the final sprint, guiding his teammate Ulissi perfectly into the…

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The Movistar squad travels to Irún, start of the Vuelta, with a roster almost identical to the one that finished on the podium of Tour de France. Mas, Valverde, Soler headline the eight-man team. Following three months packed with the most relevant events in the 2020 season after racing resumed in July, the Movistar Team will be putting an end to its 41st consecutive season in the peloton with La Vuelta a España, starting in Irún on Tuesday 20th October and scheduled to end in Madrid on Sunday 8th November. The squad managed by Eusebio Unzué, with sports directors José…

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Highlights Report Jhonatan Narvaez continued the INEOS Grenadiers team’s impressive momentum at the Giro d’Italia with a rousing breakaway victory. The Ecuadorian claimed his first Grand Tour stage win in style after a day-long breakaway effort on the punishing hills around Cesenatico. Narvaez was able to hang tough as the 13-man group gradually whittled down over the climbs, eventually heading into the final 25 kilometres alongside Mark Padun (Bahrain-McLaren). When Padun was forced to stop with a front wheel issue Narvaez continued, and despite the gap between the pair falling as low as nine seconds, he was eventually able to…

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Highlights Report Caleb Ewan from Lotto Soudal was supreme in the streets of Schoten, Belgium, in a mass sprint, which was marred by a serious crash. The Australian used his trademark late acceleration to move ahead of his rival sprinters and win Scheldeprijs on his debut in the sprinters’ Classic. The Scheldeprijs is the oldest Flemish race on the international calendar. With 174 km, and start as well as finish in Schoten, the 108th edition was, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a shortened version of the traditional Scheldeprijs. The 26-year-old Ewan was faster than Pascal Ackermann and Niccolò Bonifazio.…

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Highlights Report After an intense fight for nearly a hundred kilometers on Tuesday, Arnaud and his teammates eventually decided to stop chasing Peter Sagan in order to look to the next day, which was stage 11 towards Rimini, much more suited to the French champion. At the start in Porto Sant’Elpidio on Wednesday, Groupama-FDJ therefore quickly showed their ambitions. The day’s breakaway was barely formed, with Sander Armée (Lotto-Soudal), Mattia Bais (Androni Giocatolli-Sidermec), Marco Frapporti (Vini Zabù-KTM), Fabio Mazzucco (Bardiani-CSF) and Francesco Romano (Bardiani-CSF) inside it, when the French team took control of the bunch. “We were down to six after…

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Highlights Report An undulating parcours welcomed riders back to the Giro d’Italia after its first rest day. The 177km stage featured four short but steep categorised climbs, but with the hardest of these being third category, this wouldn’t slow the peloton down too much as they headed towards the finish in Tortoreto. On a day that would suit the Classics riders, there was no surprise when Peter Sagan was among the riders trying to get in the break. Brought back once, it looked like the Slovak rider had missed his chance, with a group of five heading off up the…

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