Category: Tour de France
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Greg Van Avermaet exploits curt climbs, cobbles and crash avoidance | The 2018 Tour de France week one recap
Yellow jersey contenders Green jersey contenders Week one recap Week two recap Final week recap Week one is best divided into the green story and the yellow story. Let’s deal with the green story first (because that’s the order I arbitrarily put them into in that previous sentence). The green story (the points classification) The…
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Dig out your giant inhaler, clamber into your mankini and brace yourself for the first week of the Tour de France
Warm your croissants, break out the cheese, crack open a bottle of Corbieres and ask yourself what the hell kind of meal is this? The answer is: it’s not a meal; it’s the first week of the Tour de France. All that’s happening is that I’m randomly listing stereotypical French things in a forlorn bid…
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Get to know the main contenders for this year’s Tour de France
Yellow jersey contenders Green jersey contenders Week one recap Week two recap Final week recap Who’s going to win this year’s Tour de France? I dunno, but here’s some people who might. I’ve taken the innovative step of categorising the contenders this year. The categories are these: Grand Tour winners Nearly-men Big names with no…
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Who will win the green jersey? A handful of points competition contenders for the 2018 Tour de France
Yellow jersey contenders Green jersey contenders Week one recap Week two recap Final week recap Peter Sagan failed to win the points competition (here’s what that is) at last year’s Tour de France because he got chucked off the race. The five years before that, he won it every time. It’s quite a challenge to…
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Chris Froome, jack of all trades, master of three-week racing | the 2017 Tour de France final week wrap
The Final Week Wrap is an attempt to give an overview of how things panned out in the Tour de France. It focuses on the general classification – which is the overall race – rather than stage wins. Preview First Week Wrap Second Week Wrap Final Week Wrap The title of my article on the…
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Stage 21: Dylan Groenewegen denies Andre Greipel his win
I didn’t see this. I was out cycling. Based on the overhead, Groenwegen started sprinting early and held on. André Greipel came from further back and while he finished strongly, he ultimately ran out of road. Not many competitors wish the Tour de France was longer, but Greipel would happily have done another 50m or…
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Stage 20: Chris Froome makes it seem like he was going to win all along
The Tour de France is typically won on climbs and in time trials. This year the climbing was pretty much a draw and Chris Froome won the time trials. Okay, Froome didn’t actually win either of the time trials – Polish specialist Maciej Bodnar was quickest on this one – but he bettered his closest…
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Stage 19: Edvald Boasson Hagen makes a gap
A lesson in the value of riding behind someone else today and the challenge of preventing others from doing so. Drafting means that it is tough to make a gap and gaps need to be created if you’re to leave your rivals behind. Depending on the speed a group is travelling, the rider at the…
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Stage 17: Primoz Roglic unsurprisingly quick downhill
Last year Primoz Roglic was one hundredth of a second away from wearing the leader’s jersey in the Giro d’Italia. He went on to win the second time trial in that race, even though it was the first time he’d ever ridden one longer than 10km. He’s clearly a man who’s still exploring his potential…