Author: Liam

Sir Bradley Wiggins won his first road world title in time trial category on 24th September 2014. Winning the world time trial is something Sir Bradley Wiggins was aiming at for a long time, even before he thought about winning the Tour de France and get knighted. Winning was not entirely easy for him but in the last part of the race he managed to secure his victory by beating Tony Martin of Germany, the defending Champion by a margin of 26.23 seconds on a hilly course spanning 47.1 Kilometers in Ponferrada, Spain.

Both in 2011 and in 2013, Wiggins finished after Tony Martin. But this year he was confident about winning. He said later on that he knew if he could ever beat Tony Martin, it would be on a course similar to this. Wiggins said that it was his last road championship, and surely there couldn’t have been a better conclusion.

Among the many goals set by Bradley Wiggins, this was perhaps the only one left for him to achieve. Bradley Wiggins has won one Olympic gold medal in time trial, six world track titles, three Olympic gold medals in track cycling and the Tour de France. He won the rainbow jersey twenty years after Chris Boardman did for the first time as a British. Questions have been raised regarding Sir Dave Brailsford’s decision of not letting him participate in this year’s Tour de France. But according to Sir Wiggins not playing in the Tour de France actually helped him win the title.

Wiggins said that it was known to him that the final loops of the course will determine who will win the race. He said that it became very difficult when he was nearing the end of the race. According to him his pacing was perfect. He said that before the climb he was already ten seconds ahead of Tony, but he was reluctant about taking any chances and therefore kept driving with whatever energy he had left because he didn’t want to take any risk on the descent and finally he became victorious.

Alexander Vinokourov (a retired cycling from Kazakhstan and Olympic champion) along with Alexander Kolobnev are facing bribery and private corruption charges which have been charged by the Belgian prosecutors.  Belgian media people have reported that the two of them will be facing trial this year.

In the opinion of the Belgian prosecutors, Alexander Vinokourov has supposedly paid some handsome amount (around €150 thousand) to Alexander Kolobnev so that Vinokourov could win the 2010 Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

The UCI (International Cycling Union) had suspected both Vinokourov and Kolobnev of bribery and had even started an investigation against them in the year 2012.

The prosecutors have actually got hold of some email exchanges that have taken place between the two of the accused cyclists before the 2010 Liège-Bastogne-Liège final took place. Along with that there are clear evidences about the 2 money transfers that have taken place from Vinokourov’s account to Kolobnev’s account on the 12^th of July, 2010 and 28^th of December, 2010.

Kazakhstan Cycling Federation had also transferred €150 thousand into Vinokourov’s account. The Belgian prosecutors are also investigating this particular money transfer.

When Vinokourov was asked to give his opinion about the new developments that have recently took place in the case, he said that the prosecutors are just trying to generate media interest in this case because they lack any solid evidence against him. He claimed that he has not bribed anyone ever and the money transfer was just a loan.

Alexander Vinokourov is actually Team Astana’s general manager since the year 2013. Before that he was a professional cyclist, who had achieved many memorable wins in his career like 2006 Vuelta a Espana, stage wins (4) at Tour de France and also at Vuelta a Espana, bronze medals (2) at the World Championships, gold medal at the London Olympics 2012 etc. However, he was also removed from Tour de France 2007 for doping charges.

Alberto Contador, a Spanish cyclist stated that he was going smooth with speed of 76.8 kph approximately 48 mph when he had a fall last month at the Tour de France. He had to forcefully withdraw himself from Tour de France as he fractured his right in the course of the accident.

He was in the stage of 10^th in the competition when on July 14 he had the fall amidst the mountains of Vosges. After 20 days he again viewed his tumble by downloading the file and seeing the accurate speed of his fall which he stated on Twitter. Contador who is 31 had a fall while he was peddling from Petit Ballon, on a descent from 1 climb category.

Contador had triumphed in the tours of 2007 and 2009 had to quit himself from Vuelta a España because of the injury. In 2010 he was stripped from the title of third Tour de France as he was proven guilty of doping. Despite keeping a normal speed and also trying to continue the race with the same speed after fifteen minutes but he had to give up due to pain.

It was Vincenzo Nibali who strived in the group 10 of the Vosges Mountains as his rival Alberto Contador forcefully opted out. He had a shin fracture due to spill of high speed. Nibali now seems to be the favourite who has bright chances of winning the tour. Nibali has other wins too, in his stride which makes it possible for him to win the tour.

Contador is however, still unsure of what made him tumble on the tour. In the ninth place, Contador began the race with 8 seconds and 4minutes after Gallopin. His spokesman pointed out that he may have hit something and fallen.

The former American player, John McEnroe, would not be surprised at all if Andy Murray and Ivan Lendl get associated again in near future.

Lendl coached Murray for about a couple of years and helped the Scot in winning many titles during that period. But, because of the lack of time, he left his position a few months back.

After that, Murray appointed the former female player Amelie Mauresmo as his head coach which took most of the people by surprise if not all.

Murray’s form has got even poorer since Mauresmo taking over as his coach and thus, it’s being rumoured that the two would be parting ways pretty soon

According to McEnroe, Mauresmo has not had enough time to be able to make an impact on Murray’s game. It’s only after a few more months that her work can be judged properly.

When asked about how good or bad the Frenchwoman has been as Murray’s coach, McEnroe said, “Well, I can’t answer this question at this point of time. She has just come in and you don’t expect somebody to make thing happens straightaway. She needs some more months, but, if I had been at Andy’s place, I would have continued working with Lendl.”

“Amelie has not been a bad coach in the last one year or so. She has helped a couple of players and they have done well. She can do that to Andy as well, but, he will have to be patient with her.”

“However, I would not be surprised if Andy brings Lendl back. That’s very much possible.”

Murray has almost become a villain in the eyes of the fans in Britain after that loss against Grigor Dimitrov. He has been receiving criticism from all quarters.

Great news for Fabian Cancellara fans who have been worried over his latest injury reports. The star Swiss rider is pretty confident to recover from his present injuries and come up with a stunning performance at the esteemed tour Suisse.

The 1^st half of 2014 was quite a prosperous one for the leading Trek Factory rider. He bagged a record-equalling 3^rd win at Ronde van Vlaanderen, 2^nd position at Milan-San Romeo & 3^rd status at Paris-Roubaix. Post a brief break, the Swiss rider got back to  Bayern Rundfahrt with the hope of some solid practice before his eminent home race Tour Suisse.

However, Fabian met up with a high-pace crash during his training sessions and ended up with bruises, bumps and injury on skin. Fortunately, the rider was able to avoid any more severe injury.

“I was three-four metres behind & I strived to get to 55kph. But maybe I put too much of stress on one pedal which landed me on the ground at great speed”, said Cancellara while speaking about his recent accident. It lost some days of practice as well,

“I was down with immense pain; I could not ride the bike & slept badly.”

The most painful part was that the injured rider had to go cycling for 55 km till his home post the bad crash. He was afraid that the accident would ruin his chances to come up with a stellar performance at his home race which is obviously very close to his heart. However, he is aware that the crash could have led to worse results and he is little relaxed with the thought that he did not have to end up in a hospital.

“I am hopeful to get better by the start of Tour Suisse…this is my goal now…..I would need to race really smart”, the star rider looked determined.