Tour de France 2007 thread (6 Viewers)

shocking story. I remember them 2 getting married, obviously both very high-profile sportspeople at the top of their game. Dennis was always a bit of a rogue and lots of people on shitter are saying he murdered her. I was tending not to give him the benefit of the doubt myself, but need to wait until more details emerged.

The gist I got was that he drove his car into her, not that she was holding on.

Regardless, its tragic that Melissa lost her life whatever the circumstances. RIP.
 
Jan Bogaert (1957 - 23 January 2024)
Belgian sprinter who was a prolific winner of Kermesse criteriums.

Bogaert best wins included 1982 GP E3, 1983 Scheldeprijs and a Tour de Suisse stage.
He rode two Giri and two Tours.


I used to confuse Jan Bogaert w/ Kurt Bogaerts (An Post-Sean Kelly manager and INEOS DS) and once said Kurt finished 2nd in the Amstel Gold.
It was actually Jan who was 1983 Amstel runner up.
 
Mountain stage 5 of Tour Colombia finished at about 9000 ft (2800+ metres) the guy who won is from a city at a similar altitude.
Loads of fans in the final kms. Lovely and green in Colombia even at that height. The wonderful RCN hombre and his amigos supply the commentary.
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Gordon Singleton (1956 - 24 March 2024).
Japanese track sprint legend Koichi Nakano dominated pro sprinting in the late 1970's and 80's. For a while a Canadian was his main rival.
The Nakano v Singleton rivalry came to a climax at the pro World Champs which were held at the old outdoor Leicester Velodrome in 1982. AFAIK this was held in conjunction with the road World Champs when Saronni beat LeMond and Kelly in Goodwood. This is a nerdy piece of UK cycling history I know about from reading old cycling magazines talking about even older cycling times:

Leicester Velodrome 1982:
Koichi Nakano v Gordon Singleton
Sprint Final (best of 3).
There are crashes in this @2:18 and @9:00.
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Leicester Velodrome 1967-1999 was demolished 2008.
 
Just after 3:30 pm GMT today there was serious crash in stage 4 at front of the Tour of the Basque Country on a dangerous corner on a fast descent.
Some of the riders inc. Roglic ended up in a drain and Vinegaard looks in a very bad way among others.
No one was left unconscious but multiple lads taken away in ambulances.
Race was neutralised a few km later.
Crash happened during an advert break on Eurosport.
Evenepoel was lucky he wasn't taken out as well due to his amazing bike handling.
Had to leave home about 4 pm not sure what developments there's been since
 
Sorry a few bits of duff info in above post. There was of course a break up the road when crash happened and Remco did come off off road among trees and was lucky he didn't collide with a tree and has a broken collarbone as does Roglic and Vingegaard.
I saw race was neutralised and only had 5-10 mins to rewind TV and see what happened.
 
Alexey Tsatevich (5 July 1989 - 8 April 2024)
Former Katusha and Gazprom rider has died aged 34. I don't remember Alexey to be honest.
Alexey was primarily a sprinter with three good pro wins - Le Samyn in 2013 and a stage of the 2016 Volta a Catalunya (final Barcelona stage) and a stage of Lombardy Week. He also rode the Giro twice. In debut Giro his own Katusha team ejected him from the race in strange circumstances for excessive slipstreaming.
 
Alexey Tsatevich (5 July 1989 - 8 April 2024)
Former Katusha and Gazprom rider has died aged 34. I don't remember Alexey to be honest.
Alexey was primarily a sprinter with three good pro wins - Le Samyn in 2013 and a stage of the 2016 Volta a Catalunya (final Barcelona stage) and a stage of Lombardy Week. He also rode the Giro twice. In debut Giro his own Katusha team ejected him from the race in strange circumstances for excessive slipstreaming.
don't remember him either and I was fairly clued in back then. Seems like he was talented, but a bit of a handful to manage. 35 is no age.
 
@nuke terrorist are you aware of this story?


crazy stuff.

Also, how about Lara Gillespie this week? Some achievement from her.
 
@nuke terrorist are you aware of this story?


crazy stuff.

Also, how about Lara Gillespie this week? Some achievement from her.
I haven't even watched Romandie this week!
Saw Lara won two stages last week and 2nd in another but then didn't notice she won that race overall at weekend.
As you said before rettucs, Lara is set for big things.
Another interesting thing was - looking at procyclingstats just now an Afghan cyclist called Fariba Hashimi (b. 2003) finished in top ten of several of those stages.

Never ever heard of Tashkent team - that is crazy. I feel so sorry for kids now that the sponsors are so horrible.
I remember Olga Zablinskaya (from Russia really) but she's 43 now.
Much prefer watching women nowadays.
Actually still need to go back women's Liege - much better than men's race.
EDIT:
Megan Armitage down to start Vuelta on Sunday - any other Irish starting?

Classics especially men were a bit of a disappointment this year.

Anyone ever hear from IFF in recent times? He and rettucs were the cycling Hall of Famers around here.
 
Imerio Massignan (2 January 1937 - 4 May 2024).
Veneto born rider was pro from 1959-1970. His best days (1959-63) were at Gino Bartali's old team Legnano.
Climber Massignan is best remembered for winning the Mountains prize in his first two Tours in 1960-61.
Despite some stellar results in the first half of his career he only won two races: a 1961 Tour stage in a Pyrenean snowstorm to Superbagneres and a stage of the Volta a Catalunya.
Massignan's bad luck was legendary - particularly punctures.
Famously in a 1960 Giro stage, the first time the Passo Gavia was used, a fourth puncture finally finished Massignan off and he was second to Charly Gaul.
But his palmares is impressive: 10th (1960 (team mate Battistini was Tour runner up)), 4th (1961) and 7th (1962) at the Tour de France and in the top 11 in the Giro six times between 1959-65 including runner up to Franco Balmamion in 1962.
A serious illness cost Massignan the entire 1964 season and his career faded out from 1966.
Imerio's younger brother Enrico was also a pro.

If you have any interest in the history of pro cycling please read Massignan's Italian language wiki - their cycling and Calcio bios never let me down.
Gazzetta dello Sport obituary in Italian is paywalled (12ft ladder bypasses this - but it's still in Italian)
1960 Giro first stage ever over the Gavia to Bromio and you think the Gavia is bad now?!!!
The surface was horrific - Massignan (2nd) got 4 punctures, stage winner Charly Gaul got 'only' two.
Rik Van Looy (Faema) is in pink. Massignan (Legnano) leads race over Gavia but Charly Gaul (EMI) takes the stage. Anquetil won the Giro.
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Even better footage of Gavia 1960 in colour, Lots of pushing going on!! Also a groovy 1970's Italo Disco soundtrack for some reason.
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From (dodgy) memory: I read that in another of four GT stages that Massignan finished second in, he led all day but after a series of mechanicals / punctures he was caught in last km in the streets of the finish town.
 

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