Category: Tour de France
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Who will win the 2017 Tour de France? Yellow jersey contenders
The Tour de France starts on Saturday. Someone’s going to win the overall. Who? Let’s take a look at the runners and riders. Chris Froome – Team Sky The only runner in this list hasn’t been his usual dominant self of late, winning all of no-races-whatsoever so far this season. He’s still the man to…
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Who will win the green jersey? The points competition contender for the 2017 Tour de France
Peter Sagan. That’s about it really, isn’t it? He’s won the points competition (here’s what that is) in each of the last five years and it’s hard to see anyone beating him. However, working on the premise that you never know when a broken collarbone might strike, here are a few other names to watch…
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Andre Greipel holds his bike in the air in celebration
Greipel wins! Take that, pedals! For a Tour de France that has at times felt surprisingly familiar, there was one last thing to tick off. Since 2008, Andre Greipel has won at least one stage in every Grand Tour he’s entered. He left it late this year. Indeed, it wasn’t until the very moment that…
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Jarlinson Pantano never knows when he’s beaten
Or maybe he does. Maybe he worked it out at the finish when he came second. Jarlinson Pantano was dropped at least three times on the final climb by Julian Alaphilippe. Each time he hauled his way back. Eventually he grew weary of being weary and returned the favour by attacking Alaphilippe. Shortly after, Vincenzo…
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Chris Froome is slightly further ahead
This is, increasingly, what the Tour de France amounts to. You should never, ever discount a twist in the mountains, but if there is a script, the final time trial stuck to it. I’ve not much to report really. Chris Froome won; Tom Dumoulin was a very respectable second; Fabio Aru and Richie Porte were…
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Everyone goes past Nairo Quintana
Many have wondered when we might finally get a devastating Nairo Quintana attack in the mountains. The answer, you’d assume on today’s evidence, is never. The not famously selfless Alejandro Valverde will be livid. Just 18 seconds behind his team-mate at the start of the day, he launched a ‘softening up’ attack on the final…
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Peter Sagan again after Tony Martin again
The peloton sustained an outrageous speed in the opening hours of racing. This was because it was pursuing Tony Martin. Martin does this fairly regularly, usually as a kind of unofficial training ride. The finest example was in the 2013 Vuelta when he rode alone all day and almost won. It seems to be how…
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Jarlinson Pantano – quite possibly the Tour de France’s greatest-ever Jarlinson
If you’re wondering what makes an appropriate day for a breakaway, it’s on stages where drafting is of least benefit. On the flat, air resistance is the main thing slowing you down, whereas on a mountain day, gravity and self-preservation come to the fore. When that’s the case, drafting plays less of a part. On…
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Mark Cavendish elicits a strop from Marcel Kittel
The thing about headwinds is, they slow you down. If Marcel Kittel had been one of the four men who had ridden near enough 200km into one as part of the break, he’d have been acutely aware of this. As it was, he only popped himself into the wind for the final few hundred metres…