With all the races on TV (there were 3 on different channels at the same time today) it slipped my mind that Chris Froome won yesterdays stage in Romandie out of a breakaway group. .....he'd previously lost 17 minutes on one stage so was out of contention and given leeway to get in the break

He was in the break again today in the final stage so although the race has been a disappointment he has got two good days tough riding in his legs

Hugh Carthy looks to be a name for the future - he won Stage 1 of the Vuelta a Asturias on Saturday, then performed strongly to claim GC honours.

Even though he's only 21 years of age, it's not his first visit to the winner's podium - in 2014 he won Stage 7 and the GC of the Tour de Korea...at the age of 19!

With Giro team announcements nearly finalised, there is no GB rider on the start-list. Sky are two short on the provisional list. One not currently listed is Nieve who announced today he was called up late to replace the suspended Henao.

Cavendish is one of the few noted sprinters missing for the seven flat finishes. Strange, as he wants he option to leave the Tour early to compete on the track at Rio (if selected). With Sutton's resignation, and Brian Smith leaving Dimension Data, that arrangement said to be less likely.

http://www.procyclingstats.com/race....=3&stat_id=146

The cosmopolitan list has 33 countries on it with only the top 6 represented by more than 10 riders. Russia have twenty mainly courtesy of Katusha and the wildcard, Gazprom-Rusvelo.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gazp...rise-wildcard/

from Preston

he finished 9th in the Tour of Catalonia recently.......one place behind Chris Froome

looks a sure fire GC contender for world tour races in the future

Disappointed that Swiss Toni (AKA Gianni Savio) and his team won't be in the 2016 Giro

He is doing it the tough way for sure, can't think of many contemporary British riders who opt for Division II Spanish teams, there won't be many luxuries there and lots of hard work.

I was looking at the Giro stages. It's going to be an odd start.

A 10K time trial which bar TDM and Fab will have plenty of sprinters within 20-30 seconds. The next two pairs of stages either side of the rest day should all be sprints. Then even though the next four or so are medium mountains and one High Finish, a couple of those would be no problem at least for Greipel and Nizzolo if not Kittel, Demare and Modolo.

Even the one stage of the first nine that is a mountain finish is mainly flat and not a huge climb. Looks a Valverde finish but an Ulissi or Roche could take it.

Definitely one to lump on the sprinters in the Fantasy teams. If Dumoulin wins the TT he could hold the pink jersey for nearly a fortnight and sprinters still be in the G.C by the second weekend, crashes permitting.

Not a race day goes by without someone crashing, but this is something else. Stage 3 of the Flèche du Sud

Dumoulin won the opening Giro ITT by all of 0.022 seconds over the 11 minutes (0.003% faster than Roglic). Watching it, I initially thought it had escaped his grasp by a tiny margin.

Great stage summary pages on the official Giro website. I think I will be visiting regularly to preview the next day's stage. http://www.giroditalia.it/eng/stage/stage-1/

It is the tenth anniversary of Operation Puerto on 23 May. Valverde wants a top podium place in his first Giro.

And, another camera motorbike race crash. First, it leads the riders the wrong way, and then tries to execute a quick U-turn https://twitter.com/Kabanongo/status/728596312912990208

Even with his final kick interrupted, Kittel proves once again that on a flat stage he is untouchable. Tomorrow's stage is today's twin with the 4th cat climb further out. Looking good for him and EQS taking pink back into Italy.

A word for Brian Coquard in the 4 Days of Dunkirk - he won the first three sprint stages, was second on a moderate climbing finish today and there's a sprint stage tomorrow. Wondering if anyone has won all five stages of a five-day stage race before. Eddie Mercx probably.

Coquard was brilliant today in the last 10K........covering the moves

He appears to be a small bloke (wiki has him at 5ft 7 and 9 stone)........you'd think he'd be more of a climber but he's won the sprint finishes


Wiki already lists the 2016 Four days of Dunkirk Overall GC amongst his wins......perhaps they don't realise we have Day 5 to come......

I remember he challenged Greipel on the Champs last year, so he's certainly something. That, and he's another top trackie (world madison champ in 2015, Olympic omnium silver in 2012).

No fewer than SEVENTEEN UCI classified road races are being held today (see PCS home page), most of which I've never heard of before...

Nasty face first landing for J-C Peraud through no fault of his own. Dead pan Kelly: 'it was a stupid crash - as we say in cycling'.

I've been channel flicking so haven't heard whether he's abandoned.......his face looked a right mess

The European XCO Championships were held this weekend, with Julien Absalon (FRA) and Jolanda Neff (SUI) winning the elite races. Grant Ferguson was 56th in the men's race due to a mech and no Brit was entered for the women's race; the Olympic qualifying window ends in a few weeks and it seems there won't be any Brits in Rio either.
On the plus side, Sophie Wright won junior gold and Evie Richards (junior silver in 2015 WCh) won U23 bronze.

Liam Phillips unclipped in the quarter-finals of the latest BMX Supercross World Cup round in Papendal; it was a bad day for GB overall since everyone else was out before then.


And he does just that. He is without doubt the premier sprinter once again.

Peraud did not rejoin the race. Roglic who was second in the opening ITT lost nearly 8 mins after a crash. The spread of times is unusual for an early flat nailed-on sprint stage due to crashes and late catch. Completely different mood in the peloton compared to yesterday.

In the overhead replay, a lot of elbows and shoulders can be seen between Viviani and Nizzolo in the final half kilometre to get the place on Kittel's wheel.

It's rest day already.

Eurosport coverage of the grand tours is getting more and more difficult to watch

Presumably it's a sign of success that they have ad breaks seemingly every few minutes but they also insert numerous interviews with riders, tourist info films of the towns we go through, film of the dolly birds walking in the jerseys, little sections with Juan Antonia Fleche (who cares ?)..........

I find my attention wavering........I'm flicking over to other sports or the news channels

Like now I've more or less stopped watching and put the computer back on.......I'll look up for the last kilometre or two

It's getting to be the case that the minor races that no one cares about are much more enjoyable to watch without all the interruptions

That's the pictures provided by Italian host broadcaster RAI.

Before the final climb, today's stage was rather dull anyway.

Link to stage result summary:

I was pleased to find the feed with the helicopter and camera bikes today, so was able to choose which camera I watched without any inset interviews or commercial breaks

Who was the Lampre rider today, 2nd to Greipel with about 50 metres to go and was passed by Demare and Jungels?

I thought it was Modolo but he clearly crosses the line about 10th or 11th but Modolo is listed 31st in the results and the highest Lampre rider is Ulissi but much further down.

The British domestic cycling programme gets into full swing this weekend.

Sunday sees the Lincoln Grand Prix, usually the best one-day race of the year. Eurosport highlights from mid-week

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/sp...n-Grand-Prix-0

And tonight sees the first round of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series from Ramsay, Isle of Man. 10 rounds of city-centre criterium races for the men, 6 rounds for the women.

http://www.tourseries.co.uk/venues/i...p#.VzRWk4SDFBc

TV Coverage is on ITV4, details here.

http://www.tourseries.co.uk/about/te...p#.VzRXP4SDFBc

Highlight of the whole series will be on Thursday 19th May. A race in Edinburgh which many are calling the Tour du Grassmarket - a long cobbled climb, a twisting descent and a finishing straight that is completely visible from my living room window.

early start for the Giro on ES.........then we lose the pictures on the first climb

Losing pictures does seem to be a blight of recent cycling coverage........

they're showing highlights of the first 5 stages........