Category: Tour de France
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Team Sky training methods might need tweaking
With Chris Froome and Richie Porte finishing first and second by such a margin on stage eight, many started preparing not-at-all-depressing black liveried floats for the procession to Paris. Stage nine was therefore exactly what the race needed. Sky were so far from invincible that Froome was left without team-mates for 130km of a 160km…
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Chris Froome’s unmatchable speed uphill
Last year, Team Sky maintained an uncomfortable pace up mountain climbs until there was pretty much no-one left. On stage eight this year, they maintained an uncomfortable pace until there was pretty much no-one left. At which point Chris Froome accelerated. Overall, the stage was a brutal reminder that pretty much everyone in a Grand…
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Peter Sagan is a very, very vivid shade of grey
If you’re a fairly casual cycling follower, you might struggle to understand what all the fuss is about with Peter Sagan. The key is that cycling is not a black and white sport. Sagan isn’t the best sprinter and nor is he the best stage racer. He lies somewhere between those two extremes, shining like…
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Andre Greipel has the power
Greipel wins. Take that, pedals! Andre Greipel is such a hefting cartoon character of a man that I can’t help but punctuate his victories with the phrase ‘Andre Greipel… wins!’ as if he’s just won a bout in Mortal Kombat. Look at him! Look at his caricature of a face! He’s so painfully German he…
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Mark Cavendish’s lead-out man shows everyone how to break wind
Mark Cavendish has won a stage and Andre Greipel has emitted a tetchy teutonic curse word upon crossing the line. The Tour is definitely up and running now. I was even eating a jambon et fromage baguette when it happened. Once again, we all have to grapple with the illusion of the inevitable Cavendish win.…
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Orica YellowEdge
The stage four team time trial has led to some semblance of order in the general classification. It still doesn’t make a huge amount of sense, but we’ve sloughed off at least some of the filth and no longer have 70-odd riders in second place. The gaps are small, but at least they exist. We…
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Simon Gerrans denies Peter Sagan
If you thought the stage two finish was close, it wasn’t. The gap was a full second. The gap between Simon Gerrans and Peter Sagan on stage three was way less than that – more like 10cm. Only in snail racing is 10cm a big gap and at the time of writing there was no…
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The mouse that roared away from the peloton
Peter Sagan wins so often, he choreographs celebrations. Having never previously won a professional race, Jan Bakelants hasn’t spent as much time rehearsing. His celebration is a near-tearful head-grasp. It’s nice. The script Today was due to be what you might describe as a ‘whittled sprint,’ where the pure sprinters are kicked out of the…
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Buses, gantries, crashes and survival
The Tour de France isn’t just about racing; it’s about survival as well. It’s an achievement to cycle 3,400km in itself, but in that amount of time on the road, plenty of things can happen. You expect the odd crash, but a bus wedged under a finishing gantry is the kind of thing you have…
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2013 Tour de France – the important stages
This year’s Tour route is far more climbing-y than last year’s, which was much more heavily weighted towards time trials. These promise to be the main stages: Stage 8 – Castres to Ax-3-Domaines, 194km, Saturday July 6 (stage profile) Summit finish It’s an odd feature of the Tour de France that the first week can…