Tour de France on TV

Author: Alex

  • Vincenzo Nibali, Mr Popular, cheers up the peloton by losing a load of time

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    Vincenzo Nibali is, by many accounts, not the most popular rider in the peloton. It’s the general air of thinking he’s somehow better than everyone else that people seem to object to. Maybe he’s misunderstood. It’s rumoured that team-mate and fellow Italian Fabio Aru would be quite far back in the queue were the Sicilian…

  • Marcel Kittel is slightly stronger than Bryan Cocquard is light

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    This year’s Tour de France will, at some point, throw up a winner you probably haven’t heard of. But not yet. Marcel Kittel was the latest to elicit a “yeah, I thought it was about time that happened” reaction. “Today we had to work things perfectly so he could show his diamond legs to the…

  • Mark Cavendish helps create a normal sandwich

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    I like to think I know how years are named. Each year you just add one, don’t you? It doesn’t seem like that in cycling. My specific doubts centre on 2014 and 2015, which seem to have been parachuted in from some other history or future. In 2014, Mark Cavendish failed to win a stage…

  • Peter Sagan’s luxury wardrobe

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    Peter Sagan is some kind of deluxe onion. Peel back his layers and his appearance will barely diminish. His stage two victory has put him into the yellow jersey, but when someone overhauls his lead and pulls that off his back, he’ll still be wearing the green jersey as he’s also leading the points competition.…

  • Apparently Mark Cavendish can beat Marcel Kittel

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    It seems increasingly unfashionable to make a case for something using facts. I don’t quite know what it says that it took a Briton from outside the UK to remind everyone how persuasive such things can be. The Isle of Man’s status is not something to get into here. All that matters to a cycling…

  • Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen finally stood down from ITV’s Tour de France coverage

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    Au revoir to Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen. This site’s received a number of comments today expressing sadness at the absence of Phil and Paul from ITV’s coverage of the race. One woman even went so far as to say that her husband would not be watching the race as a consequence, which seems oddly…

  • Nine tips to help you enjoy the 2017 Tour de France

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    If you fancy following the Tour de France this year but aren’t exactly sure of the best way of going about that, just follow the tips below. Beforehand Read my brief and blunt explanation of the ins and outs of bike racing Check out the tactics section of 2014’s interactive guide at the Guardian (I…

  • Yellow jersey contenders in 2016

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    Who’s going to win the Tour de France? Probably not Bartosz Huzarski or Tsgabo Grmay unless an awfully large number of people abandon the race injured. Maybe one of these guys though. Chris Froome Both times he’s won the Tour, Froome’s ceded ground to Nairo Quintana in the mountains in the final week. He says…

  • Green jersey contenders in 2016

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    I’ve been putting off writing this points competition preview for a few days now and presumed there was some reason for this – nothing conscious, just some mystic message from the cosmos saying: “No, don’t bother yet. Play Civilization or go to the pub or something.” Turns out the cosmos was right. Everyone else is…

  • Important stages of the 2016 Tour de France

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    All of them, obviously – but let’s just try and get a bit of a handle on the route in a bid to work out where the race could be won and lost. In summary Relatively flat start Surprise mountain stage inside the first week Pyrenees on the weekend that follows that first week Mont…