So, it finally happened. It was bound to eventually. Only as a result of necessity mind. I had a New Bike Day.I have been riding a rim brake bike with mechanical gearing in an old race position, largely unchanged save for some tiny tweaks, for over 15 years. In that time three key things have happened. I have gotten older. I have gotten less fit. I have stopped racing.I did well I think. Up until…
The Champs-Élysées We have our worthy Tour winner decided. Jonas Vingegaard put the final nail in the coffin securing his first Tour de France victory. He produced a dominant TT display to come in second place behind his teammate and more importantly 7 seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar his nearest rival. Today is about procession and about the sprinters. The road leading to Paris will be full of joy and merriment as the teams chat…
The Race of Truth Only 40.7km lie between the riders and the ceremonial Stage around Paris. The course mostly suits your pure TT specialists such as Filippo Ganna and Stefan Kung however there are two short bumps at the end (1.6km@4.7% and 1.5km@7.8% respectively) which could swing the final result in favour of your slighter rider. Your sprinters and their lead out men will just make sure to avoid the time limit today and save all…
Hautacam! It’s D-Day for Tadej Pogacar, unless he takes significant time on Jonas Vingegaard today the tour is essentially over. He will very likely beat Vingegaard in the time trial however it will not be by 2 minutes 19 seconds unless Vingegaard has a technical issue. The parcours for today are very similar to yesterday but with a little bit more spice added to the climbs. The stage is 143.2km long, of which the first…
Today is the shortest road stage of the Tour at 129.7km however it will potentially be one of the most decisive. The first half of the route is flat with the second half littered with four categorised climbs. The racing will be ferocious, there is no doubt. Will Tadej Pogacar finally unhinge Jonas Vingeg-glue as he has become affectionately known? The evidence to date certainly suggest that he will not but with nothing to lose…
The Pyrenees Over the course of the next three days we will have a clear picture of what is required from each rider come the time-trial on Saturday. Personally I love the Pyrenean stages, the Basque supporters are incredible, the road surface is generally poor and the climbs have very nasty kicks to them, often leading to gaps in the GC battle.Today is a 178km stage and is the only one of the three Pyrenean…
Will we finally see a proper sprint stage today ? The parcour is classed as flat but it is certainly more lumpy than pancake-flat. The majority of the sprinters are at the limit already having tried to survive the last 10 days but with the promise of a rest day tomorrow they will summon the troops and haul their tired bodies out of the trenches for battle. If the chase is left to Jumbo we…
Today is one of those stages that on paper shouldn’t have too big an effect on the General Classification – but could be a potential banana peel for Jonas Vingegaard. Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:’tX-M2HbuRGFxI9Hk1utyCw’,sig:’aVIjfiwJZobv3ccWZDkvn64k2qQsxm5maEhM9Tozj4o=’,w:’594px’,h:’396px’,items:’1408907852′,caption: true ,tld:’com’,is360: false })}); The Stage is 192km long but there’s almost not a flat kilometre from start to finish. It has the feel of a Belgian Classic and as such should draw out the Classics riders. Luckily for Jonas Vingegaard…
It’s time to catch our breath after the action from the last two days in the Alps. Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:’Qde7NE5qR35Z9d9-HXSsxA’,sig:’4I2Qsr784ToV6QmJD8TuSMOkUYTOeEpiP5McsIjQQZs=’,w:’594px’,h:’396px’,items:’1408655231′,caption: true ,tld:’com’,is360: false })}); Today will be a “flat” stage covering 192km and traversing two Cat 3 and one Cat 2 climb. The intermediate sprint point is almost exactly halfway at 101km however it seems that most teams other than Jumbo have given up on pursuing these as Wout Van Aert has a stranglehold…
The real mountains have finally arrived. It is time for the general classification battle to really kick off and what a battle it is going to be over the next two days. Tadej has lost one of his leading generals in the mountains, George Bennett who tested positive for Covid during the rest day, Rafael Majka isn’t 100% and the rest of his entourage isn’t that well equipped to protect him on the two merciless…
