Tour de France on TV

Category: Tour de France

  • Peter Sagan is getting really rather annoyed

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    Alex
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    Matteo Trentin is a rider so anonymous that I’d actually forgotten that he won a stage of the Tour last year, even though I wrote about it at the time. If you watch a lot of cycling, you’ll know his name, but you’d never have him down for the win. He’s one of Mark Cavendish’s…

  • André Greipel finds a way to beat Marcel Kittel

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    Alex
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    Greipel wins! Take that, pedals! Cycling’s beefiest, stompiest sprinter finally got a result on stage six. Usually one of the fastest finishers, Greipel had been oddly anonymous up until now and I’ve heard it said that he might have lost his nerve a bit. There was no sign of that today though. How did he…

  • Boom! Cobbles and crashes

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    Alex
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    The Boom in question was of course Lars Boom, the former Cyclocross world champion, who won one of the hardest, most miserable stages in recent memory. Miserable for the riders, that is. For those of us watching on TV, it was absorbing. Was it carnage? It was carnage. Commentary basically consisted of: “There’s been a…

  • Tommy Voeckler was in the break so the Tour’s started now

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    Alex
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    Okay, the Tour is officially underway. I know we’ve already had the Grand Départ and millions of people watching, but two crucial things happened on stage four. One, we got to France. Two, Tommy Voeckler got in the break. It isn’t the Tour until we’ve had Tommy’s TV time. Tommy Voeckler’s faces are quite simply…

  • Marcel Kittel wins stage but loses hair gel

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    Alex
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    Not everything’s going Marcel Kittel’s way. Big disaster at the airport in London: my hair gel did not make it through the security check… 😛 — Marcel Kittel (@marcelkittel) July 7, 2014 But other than that, he’s having a fine old time. Kittel notched his second win out of the three British stages in London,…

  • Vincenzo Nibali enjoys the terrain

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    Alex
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    The various jerseys of the Tour de France serve a valuable and underappreciated purpose. No-one can identify with a genre of cyclists, but give us an individual and we can empathise. Take Marcel Kittel, for example. At the end of stage one, he proved himself to be the fastest cyclist in the biggest bike race…

  • Mark Cavendish and his oddly bouncy skeleton

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    Alex
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    The people of Yorkshire followed the script, lining the route like yellow human fencing. Jens Voight followed the script, getting into the day’s break, despite being 42 and there being little chance of success. He’s not unduly troubled by petty concerns like that. The peloton followed the script, racing into the finish in Harrogate at…

  • Harrogate to Leeds – is stage one of the Tour de France really flat?

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    Alex
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    Stage two is probably the more interesting day in and of itself, but stage one has something going for it other than Le Grand Kerfuffle of the race simply getting underway – it’s quite a decent primer for the points competition. It’s down as being a flat stage, so you expect them all to ride…

  • Yellow jersey contenders in 2014

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    Alex
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    Who’s going to win this year’s Tour de France? Probably one of these guys and most likely one of the first two. But plenty can happen over the course of a Grand Tour. Just think what you were doing three weeks ago. Okay, it was probably much the same, but you almost certainly aren’t operating…

  • Green jersey contenders in 2014

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    Alex
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    Last year, I named just three contenders for the green jersey – awarded to the winner of the points competition. Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish and André Greipel promptly finished first, second and third respectively. This year there’s a bit more uncertainty and I’m going to give you six names. The first three are out-and-out sprinters.…