Watching England in the Six Nations was a reminder of how much football can learn from rugby, cycling and othersThe ball was sent long, launched off the right boot in the hope of getting his team up the other end to put pressure on opposition defenders. Possession was lost, though, and the visitors took control, quickly regained the territory and nearly scored on the counter. The fan next to me bemoaned this waste of an attack from the hosts, claiming short passes at speed are a better way of playing than that “lazy” style.All this took place at Twickenham, where it was fascinating to analyse the differences and similarities between rugby union and football. I spent last Sunday at England’s...
Endorsed by Pope Francis, this one-man team is in here ‘to cultivate a spirit of altruism, generosity and community’When Rien Schuurhuis rolls out for the men’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday, he will bring a novel and some might even say holy presence to the most-significant one-day race on the global cycling calendar.Schuurhuis will cut a lonely figure in a peloton of almost 200 cyclists, from a few dozen nations, but for the first-time in cycling history the Vatican City will be racing for the sacred rainbow jersey. Continue reading...
Fewer time trials and steeper hills await a field of previous winners and bright prospects in the year’s final Grand TourA shadow was cast over the Vuelta a España by Thursday’s withdrawal of Nairo Quintana as the Colombian prepared his appeal against a positive test for the painkiller tramadol during the Tour de France, but even without the 2016 race winner, the final Grand Tour of 2022 is set to be contested by the race’s strongest field in recent years.The unexpected return of the triple winner Primoz Roglic after his crash in the Tour de France means there will still be five previous winners in the field when the race begins in Utrecht on Friday – Alejandro Valverde (2009), Chris...
After hardships and disappointments – and two bright sparks – focus turns to the Vuelta and a home world championshipsIt’s the hope that gets you. In an ordinary year, two remarkable stage wins at the Tour de France would be considered a successful campaign from the peloton’s Australian contingent. But given the buzz that surrounded general classification prospects, particularly after Jai Hindley became the first Australian in history to win the Giro d’Italia in May, the absence of an Australian in the top 20 as the Tour concluded on Sunday left lingering disappointment.The buzz had focused on Ben O’Connor and Jack Haig, who both arrived in Copenhagen for the grand depart anointed as race leaders for their respective teams. O’Connor...
The likes of Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock have flourished in a race which has offered no respite and hit record speedsFifteen years have passed since the new Tour de France organiser, Christian Prudhomme, announced his intention of “sexing up” the race – my words not his – after watching a dramatic stage across Burgundy. Since then the Tour has gone in one direction: shorter stages, more hilltop finishes, the odd gravel road, cobbles, a search for routes where crosswinds may affect the peloton, fewer and shorter time trials; a search for ways to create tension and excitement, to avoid the race becoming predictable.The 2022 Tour looks like the culmination of that process. Barring accidents or illness – not...