The Guardian

LeicesterLad

Todays edition is worth the £1.20

It's basically a Wiggins special with him and Sky dominating both the main paper and the sports paper. Some good articles in there including Brads own and also one from Brailsford. Those on here know i'm not massive on Wiggins, but his achievment is still an incredible one. As has been said, he can only turn up and race, the lack of competition wasn't his fault. Anyway, i'd say this edition of the Guardian is a pretty historic one and one for the possible cycling memorabelia collectors.

Chapeau that man.

Now, the Vuelta...

estampida

+ a brit has won the tdf

- Sky, keeps getting mentioned, although there is success, TV companies of this kind ruin sports for profit......

and now they are getting mentioned by other newspaper company's... bet there is a advert for the coverage of f1 close to the story

ContrelaMontre

LeicesterLad wrote:

Todays edition is worth the £1.20

It's basically a Wiggins special with him and Sky dominating both the main paper and the sports paper. Some good articles in there including Brads own and also one from Brailsford. Those on here know i'm not massive on Wiggins, but his achievment is still an incredible one. As has been said, he can only turn up and race, the lack of competition wasn't his fault. Anyway, i'd say this edition of the Guardian is a pretty historic one and one for the possible cycling memorabelia collectors.

Chapeau that man.

Now, the Vuelta...

+1

TMR

LeicesterLad wrote:

Now, the Vuelta...

When does it start? Is Schleck A competing?

iainf72

The Mad Rapper wrote:

LeicesterLad wrote:

Now, the Vuelta...

When does it start? Is Schleck A competing?

18th of August and no.

inkyfingers

Good to see that the right-on Guardian are happy to give positive exposure to Murdoch's evil empire if they think it will sell papers.

rick_chasey

inkyfingers wrote:

Good to see that the right-on Guardian are happy to give positive exposure to Murdoch's evil empire if they think it will sell papers.

I think their editorial line is - just because news international hacks phones and behave badly, doesn't mean we can't give them credit when they own a very successful cycling team.

Seems fair enough .

derbygrimpeur

what are they supposed to do, not report on one of the greatest British sporting achievements ever? yeah, ok

LeicesterLad

inkyfingers wrote:

Good to see that the right-on Guardian are happy to give positive exposure to Murdoch's evil empire if they think it will sell papers.

Can't really win can we?

Would be imposible to write an article about this years Tour Winner without mention of Sky, so the alternative is not to bother writing the story and promoting cycling.

Doesn't matter than many on here have been jizzing with excitement watching Wiggins ride around in a yellow shirt with a big SKY sticker on, riding for a team called SKY, sponsored and financed by SKY then? Oh no, I forgot, he's British...

inkyfingers

derbygrimpeur wrote:

what are they supposed to do, not report on one of the greatest British sporting achievements ever? yeah, ok

Twas my monday morning sarcastic streak, not a serious rebuke to GMG.

TMR

iainf72 wrote:

18th of August and no.

Why?

I thought that's what he was recovering for?

ddraver

Not recovering fast enough apparently...

TMR

ddraver wrote:

Not recovering fast enough apparently...

Aah...

Shame. Would have liked to have seen Andy & Alberto going at it in the Mountains.

rick_chasey

Hips take a long time to recover from.

inkyfingers

He should have just popped into Look Mum No Hands and picked up another one.

derbygrimpeur

Contador and Froome could be a good battle though?

No_Ta_Doctor

The Guardian coverage has been excellent throughout. I know this because I had to go for the old-skool Newspaper/teletext coverage when I was without internet or ITV4 fortwo weeks.

Fotheringham in particular is always worth reading.

dougzz

Andy has to keep a close watch on Frank, now he's been the victim of a poisoning attempt they may try a second time.

kfinlay

derbygrimpeur wrote:

Contador and Froome could be a good battle though?

Don't think it will be that much of a battle as Froome will be pretty cooked from the TdF - similar to last year when Bertie wasn't as good in the Tdf having completed the Giro (despite any rest day 'preparation')

morstar

dougzz wrote:

Andy has to keep a close watch on Frank, now he's been the victim of a poisoning attempt they may try a second time.

Never a truer word!

inkyfingers

kfinlay wrote:

derbygrimpeur wrote:

Contador and Froome could be a good battle though?

Don't think it will be that much of a battle as Froome will be pretty cooked from the TdF - similar to last year when Bertie wasn't as good in the Tdf having completed the Giro (despite any rest day 'preparation')

Assuming that Contador comes back at anywhere near the same level then i'd still fancy him. He'll be fresher than Froome and possibly more importantly he's got a lot more experience of how to win races than Froome has.

Would be good if we do get an epic battle though.

dougzz

inkyfingers wrote:

Assuming that Contador comes back at anywhere near the same level then i'd still fancy him. He'll be fresher than Froome and possibly more importantly he's got a lot more experience of how to win races than Froome has.
Would be good if we do get an epic battle though.

Let's hope not, dull or not, cycling is hopefully moving along.

jibberjim

Rick Chasey wrote:

I think their editorial line is - just because news international hacks phones and behave badly, doesn't mean we can't give them credit when they own a very successful cycling team.

Seems fair enough .

And don't forget they just had the sense to route all their (traceable) phone hacking via journalists at The Observer, so they get to stay looking clean.

LeicesterLad

dougzz wrote:

inkyfingers wrote:

Assuming that Contador comes back at anywhere near the same level then i'd still fancy him. He'll be fresher than Froome and possibly more importantly he's got a lot more experience of how to win races than Froome has.
Would be good if we do get an epic battle though.

Let's hope not, dull or not, cycling is hopefully moving along.

Bertie was already under investigation before the 2011 Giro, he would have been off his nut to ride that race juiced. I'm pretty certain he raced the Giro clean and still destroyed everybody. So if thats the level he's going to come back at, and clean, then great. Will be interesting to see if Froome can keep up with the attacks he's been so long hoping for now that Sky will be letting him off of the Tour leash...

Earthbound

This article from the extensive Guardian coverage caught my eye
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/ju ... ggins-star
It's an excerpt from a book "The Skys The Limit" which was published about a month ago, never noticed it at the time, seems it was published one month early But it looks like it would be a fascinating read about Brailsfords longer term plans, the talent coming through at that time, Cav and G get special mentions.

Now that all the pieces are in place what can the next generation coming through achieve? Mouth watering possibilities for British cycling in the tour, this might only be the start.

We need to get over this 'Sky' moniker causing any problems as well. This is Team GB out there, Peter Keen's setup, Dave Brailsford's tremendous efforts etc. Sky are just the shirt sponsors, they write out a budget cheque that's all. They have nothing to do with the sporting excellence.

And for anyone going on a Rupert Murdoch rant, which I see has already happened, BSkyB are a listed company, anybody can buy shares in them, News Corporation happens to own less than 40% of the shares, then Rupert Murdoch owns just a portion of the shares in News Corporation. The Saudi's own almost as much as Murdoch.

The way some people go on you would think it was Murdoch in Wiggos earpice shouting "take drugs, hack phones ...." The money Sky is sponsoring the team is loose change from down the back of the sofa for Sky, it's pretty big money in cycling, but it's not even worth bothering the accountants with at Sky, they pay Billions for football rights ffs. There is no Evil Influence associated with the Sky sponsorship of Team GB, they might not even be riding with Sky on their jerseys in 2 years time, but they'll still be riding, and with Brailsford in charge, they'll still be winning.

RichN95.

'The Sky's the Limit' was published last year (before the Tour). It's a good read.

dougzz

LeicesterLad wrote:

dougzz wrote:

inkyfingers wrote:

Assuming that Contador comes back at anywhere near the same level then i'd still fancy him. He'll be fresher than Froome and possibly more importantly he's got a lot more experience of how to win races than Froome has.
Would be good if we do get an epic battle though.

Let's hope not, dull or not, cycling is hopefully moving along.

Bertie was already under investigation before the 2011 Giro, he would have been off his nut to ride that race juiced. I'm pretty certain he raced the Giro clean and still destroyed everybody. So if thats the level he's going to come back at, and clean, then great. Will be interesting to see if Froome can keep up with the attacks he's been so long hoping for now that Sky will be letting him off of the Tour leash...

I don't see it that way. I think if you're prepared to take the risk in the first place an investigation doesn't stop you. He had a program and only got caught because the testing was done at a lab with new super sensitive equipment that he was probably unaware of. For me Bertie is like Valverde, he doesn't see a problem, other than being caught, so why stop?

Stone Glider

The photographs in today's Guardian seem particularly good.

simon_e

I was so impressed with today's Grauniad I bought a copy and took a photo of the sport section & front page for posterity. Seriously Tour-heavy, they really went to town, and rightly so too!

No tA Doctor wrote:

Fotheringham in particular is always worth reading.

Yep. Will Fotheringham (@willfoth) knows the sport inside-out and can formulate an intelligent sentence or two. Always worth reading.