Author: Alex
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Chris Froome still intact | First Rest Day Wrap
The Rest Day Wrap is my attempt to give an overview of where things stand in the Tour de France. It’s less about stage wins and focuses instead on the general classification, which is the overall race. Preview First Week Wrap Second Week Wrap Final Week Wrap The first week of this year’s Tour de…
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Stage eight: Lilian Calmejane is last man pedalling with purpose
A day of chaos – and chaos always demands that the peloton pays tribute. Stage-winner and former green jersey-wearer, Arnaud Démare, was the first to suffer. The hellish early pace meant he soon found himself 10 minutes behind the peloton – which is not a position in which any rider wants to find themselves when…
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Stage seven: Photography is Marcel Kittel’s friend
Another win for Marcel Kittel, this time by somewhere around half a millimetre, but they all count. I presume the race judges ruled that Kittel had a crucial bit of grit affixed to his tyre or something. Pisser for Edvald Boasson Hagen though. “I tried to make myself three metres longer,” said Kittel afterwards. He…
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Stage six: Marcel Kittel or Arnaud Démare?
A three-week race has to have a bit of ebb and flow. You wouldn’t be able to perceive peaks if there were no such thing as valleys. After a couple days of high drama, stage six therefore provided a much-needed lull. It didn’t even feature breakaways riders who anyone had heard of. Here’s the three…
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Stage five: Fabio Aru is no muppet
It was a day for the breakaway big hitters. When he’s not at the front of the break, trying to ride everyone off his wheel with a complete absence of subtlety, Thomas de Gendt is at the front of the peloton, chasing it down. Without him, you wonder where the Tour de France would actually…
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Stage four: Cavendish finds more give in roadside barrier than Sagan’s elbow
It was a day of aqueducts, châteaux and sheep. The flat profile meant the break was always going to be caught and when that break turned out to be just one rider – Belgian Guillaume Van Keirsbulck – everyone was set for a loooong day of racing. This is what 99 per cent of the…
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Stage three: Peter Sagan gets it wrong – but not wrong enough
It’s hard to explain why Peter Sagan’s win was so impressive. He only bested Michael Matthews by about half a metre – so why was it such a big deal? It boils down to this: Michael Matthews did everything perfectly. Peter Sagan made a right balls of things. And Sagan won. So what happened? With…
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Stage two: Marcel Kittel in no mood for upsets
If Marcel Kittel has a weakness as a sprinter, it’s ensuring he’s at the pointy end of the race when he has a couple of hills in his legs. There were no real hills today and no hills yesterday. There certainly weren’t any hills the day before because the race hadn’t even started. Kittel also…
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Stage one: Geraint Thomas has the power
The Tour de France is underway! Rumour has it they considered starting with a bang but instead decided to go with a time trial in Germany. It sort of makes sense. Frying some onions isn’t particularly exciting in itself, but it’s nevertheless the starting point for any number of delicious dishes. Similarly, a 14km time…
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Who will win the 2017 Tour de France? Yellow jersey contenders
The Tour de France starts on Saturday. Someone’s going to win the overall. Who? Let’s take a look at the runners and riders. Chris Froome – Team Sky The only runner in this list hasn’t been his usual dominant self of late, winning all of no-races-whatsoever so far this season. He’s still the man to…