Category: Tour de France

  • Chris Froome sacrifices stage, Tour and self for Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky

    This may be an exaggeration, but it’s not as ludicrous as it seems. Bouncing up the final climb of stage 17, Chris Froome seemed entirely unarsed by the gradient and more than capable of hauling in Alejandro Valverde. However, he opted to wait for Wiggins. Potential stage win lost. Froome also outperformed Bradley Wiggins in…

  • Thomas Voeckler and his many faces

    Physically, it looks like there’s something wrong with Thomas Voeckler. His torso’s too small and the effect’s compounded by the way he rolls and writhes on his bike, like he’s trying to work half a dozen acorns out of his arse crack using only his buttock muscles. Mentally, it look like there’s something wrong with…

  • Bradley Wiggins is good enough in the mountains

    Plenty of people are bitching and moaning about how no-one’s attacking Bradley Wiggins in the mountains. There seems to be an assumption that as Wiggins is a time triallist, the likes of Nibali and Evans will be able to gain some time in the Pyrenees. Well, that simply isn’t happening. If Nibali is better than…

  • Rest day round-up – where everything stands in the Tour de France

    A rest day today. Nowt going on. The riders will be cyling non-competitively for mere tens of kilometres, the lazy sods, so we’ll have to make do with taking stock of where we’re up to. Overall/yellow jersey Bradley Wiggins has a 2m 5s lead over his team mate, Chris “Froomedog” Froome. He has 2m 23s…

  • Drawing pins on the road during stage 14

    One thing with the Tour de France is that all sorts of shit can happen – not all of it strictly related to bike racing. Today some tool slat a load of drawing pins on the road. Cadel Evans hoovered up most of them. After his first puncture, the current champion was left flapping around…

  • David Millar wins stage 12 for the old boys

    I like David Millar. I follow him on Twitter and he seems pithy and intelligent. I’ve thought a few times that his sense of humour is more like that of someone my age. Turns out Millar is a year older than me. That would explain it. I am 34-years-old I returned to cycling after developing…

  • Cadel Evans goes out the back door

    I’ve always liked the back door. You go out the front door and you’re probably on your way to work, but go out the back door and there’s a good chance you’re going for a nice sit in the garden. Maybe there’s a beer involved. I like riders exiting through the back door in cycling…

  • Thomas Voeckler winces his way to stage 10 victory

    My cable connection was knackered today, so I only saw the last 10km on the highlights. I basically got to see Thomas Voeckler making faces and weaving about the road in one of those finishes any amateur cyclist can comprehend. This was especially true for me, because in the absence of live coverage I tackled…

  • Marc Madiot gets a bit het up

    A rest day treat. The undoubted highlight of the Tour so far – FDJ-BigMat directeur sportif, Marc Madiot, getting slightly emotional about Thibaut Pinot’s stage eight win. Allez! Allez!

  • Stage nine time trial – detailed analysis

    Okay, so Cadel Evans rode quite fast, but Chris Froome rode faster and Bradley Wiggins rode FASTER STILL. Time trials are pretty easy to get your head around. There’s actually even less to consider in the Tour de France than when you’re doing your own personal time trial over a familiar route. In the Tour,…