Italian national champ riding for vino. Nothing to see here.
Some dutch journo tracked down all the living TDF winners and asked if armstrong should be reinstated
Nicoās contract with Tinkoff is up this year. He is talking to Sky, Trek and ITeam apparently.
He didnāt really kick on did he. In fact AG2R performed better without him.
No he didnāt. He always made a big thing about being the āTeam Leaderā of AG2R. Thatās like saying you hurl for Wexford.
Thing about Nicoā¦if heās cleanā¦then his top 10 finishes on Genherul Classment in de Toor, as Kelly would say, are quite impressive.
He won the Route du Sud this year, but heās a jack of all trades, and not a hugely talented one at thatā¦Iād say heās had a good career as a super-domestique so far.
[QUOTE=āThrawneen, post: 992794, member: 129ā]Thing about Nicoā¦if heās cleanā¦then his top 10 finishes on Genherul Classment in de Toor, as Kelly would say, are quite impressive.
He won the Route du Sud this year, but heās a jack of all trades, and not a hugely talented one at thatā¦Iād say heās had a good career as a super-domestique so far.[/QUOTE]
Would agree with that. The fact that the head starts wagging and he gets tailed off at the business end of races would suggest he is not as prepared as others.
Donāt think these digs arenāt going unnoticed
Martin riding in the Clasica San Sebastian tomorrow, I got on him at 50/1 with PP last night best priced 28/1 now. If ( big If) he is back to his old form he should go very close in this.
Only thing is there will be a few big dogs looking for a result here. Martin clean???
Just finishing bassonās book. I only bought it as a solidarity gesture to someone I hugely admire, but its a surprisingly good and in places very moving read. Iād highly recommend it. It does not use the Armstrong outing as a selling point in any way. It just stands on its own. One of the best sports books I have read in a long time. āA Clean Breakā , by Christophe Bassons. Really good read.
Nico often goes well there. Valverde to win.
Route has changed this year, there is a serious climb near the end with bits at 20%, Nico has no hope.
Got Martin @ 22/1 and Rodriguez 18/1
I done Rodgers at 110 on betfair, best priced 50/1 now still worth a bet. Also done TJVG at 200/1 with PP. Should be a very good finish anyway.
Itās usually a good race.
Sure is. Watching Francesco Casagrande repeat his '98 win in 1999 was marvelous. A very exciting, under-appreciated rider.
Astana rider, Grivka, 16" clear and about to be caught by a slimline Peleton with 17km to go.
Kolobnev with a blistering attack on final climb.
Rodriguez and Valverde crest together. 7km to go
Yates, Mollema & Nieve less than 10 seconds behind