Category: Tour de France
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Stage 11: Marcel Kittel superior to the point of it becoming a bit boring
There are various levels of dominance. When results seem so predictable that no-one’s really interested any more, you really are on top. Marcel Kittel has now won five of the 11 stages at this year’s Tour de France. Speaking after the stage, he said: “Sometimes when you’re on your top level in the sprints, it’s…
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Stage 10: Marcel Kittel sticks with the obvious road to the green jersey
First up, a bit of green jersey housekeeping because I omitted a couple of pertinent developments from stage nine, what with focusing on the general classification and all. Most strikingly, Arnaud Demare, who was doing well in the points competition, is out of the race. He gave it everything to successfully make the time cut…
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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…