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They did not manage the situation after he crashed well over the last few kilometers and lost even more time as a result. Only Nizzolo seemed to be aware that the rider who crashed could not hold on and needed assistance.

Team Qhubeka Nexthash really stuffed up at the end. If it was not for Nizzolo who had the sense to drop back and helped the rider who was in trouble it would have been even worse for them. I have no idea why the other 2 remaining riders kept pushing ahead.

Seems you underestimated Ineos Like you know Porte, Carlos Rodrigues, Dennis, Kwiatkowski are all excellent time trialists while Hayter is an Olympic track medalist. It was great to see a team time trial on the road again.... one of my favourite disciplines in cycling.

There is a team time trial at the Tour of Britain today to watch for those who are interested in this discipline. It should be interesting to see how the world tour teams do against the smaller teams. In general the racing has been very good so far in the race.

I just saw on the Ineos website ( as per quote below) that Yates was indeed chasing the stage and not really the podium. I agree with you though that he could have changed this strategy after realising he was not going to drop Roglic. As it stands now his chances of making the podium is probably just about zero unless there is an accident or other mishap during the ITT. "I’m quite far down on GC and that was a stage I really wanted to try and win. I kept getting chased. I tried my best but it just wasn’t enough. If you’re trying to win a stage you need to drop everyone, especially when there are still some fast guys there in the group. I tried a few times. That’s all you can do – I tried my best." - Adam Yates.

I wonder why Yates did not push on when he had Haig on the ropes a few times. Maybe he was trying for a stage victory but that was always going to be unlikely as Roglic was covering his attacks. I think Superman might have a new nickname after today... Maybe something like Crybaby?

I will not write a rider who has won 2 grand tours at age 24 off so quickly. If he can stay healthy there is no reason why he cannot win quite a few more grand tours in the future.

Martinez also had Covid and did not recover in time to do the Vuelta. They brought Carapaz back from holiday to replace him.

This race is still wide open- not a single rider has stamped his authority so far.

Seems Carapaz is taking more flak in one day for showing off his Olympic success than Greg Van Avermaet took in 5 years for doing the same

The ITT only starts at 5:44 p.m. (CEST).

Queen was great but Prince was from another planet

The problem for Richard is that Movistar will now have an easy recognizable gold target to chase.

Not sure whether I like it but as long as Richard is happy who am I to complain. Just as long as they do issue him with a golden helmet.

His retirement comes as a bit of a surprise as he had his best result in years by finishing second overall in the Vuelta a Burgos a week ago.

They lost Ed Clancy who retired yesterday due to an injury.

Nice video. Well done to Powless... I am glad he beat Mohoric who caused the 2 riders to go down. Seems the American riders are on a roll lately (Kuss, McNulty and Powless)

I do not think it is that Bora cannot afford him but it is probably more a case of them reckoning that they can get more value for their money by investing in cheaper riders who can get similar and even better results. The other problem is that Sagan wants to bring a whole back up team with him.. and some of those support riders like his brother are very average. The bigger and successful teams like Bora/ Quickstep etc will not accept that ... they might do it for riders like Alaphilipe or Van Aert but no longer for Sagan.

The surprise package for me was Stefan de Bod who beat a few very big names in the ITT and also at least finished the Road race while many bigger starts did not even manage to do that. Not bad at all for a rider who was drafted in as a replacement. I scored Ashleigh the highest as she did very well in the road race without the benefit of a team ( Carla was in the break before bailing and provided no support) while she also did excellent in the ITT.

If I must rate the performances (out of 10) of the SA cyclists so far at the games my not very refined ratings would be as follows: Ashleigh- 7,5 Alan- 6 Stefan-6 Candice- 5 Nic- 3 Carla- 2 Ryan- 1 Alex- 1 For reference , I would give Tatjana a 10+ and Bianca a 9. Whether better support staff/clothing/requipment would have made a difference to the performances is unknown but I doubt very much .

Yip, impossible to be everywhere at once. The fact that the 2 Equadorian riders had a connection to Ineos and Pidcock played in their favour. The poor Jean Spies probably has no such connections.

It seems South Africa is not alone in this regard. Richard Carapaz and Jhonathon Narvaez were also abandoned and left to fend for themselves by their Federation during the build up to the road race and were basically "saved" by Kurt Bogaerds who stepped up and took care of them. Bogaerts is a Belgian who is Tom Pidcock's mentor and trainer and is employed by Ineos but also doubles up by working for the Irish Cycling federation.

Try 23h00 on Ch 202 DSTV

I am hoping his trade team will let him and Carapaz/Bernal loose at the Lombardia in October.

At least Alan had no mishaps and could give it his all... 8th is probably a fair reflection of where he stands in the world of Cross Country mountainbiking. His compatriot Henry Schoeman was not so lucky as he was forced to withdraw from the tri during the run leg. He looked splendit up till then after a great swim and very comfortable bike.... and then his ankle decided it had enough.