Drawing pins on the road during stage 14

Jul 15, 2012

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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 at the top of the Mur de Peguere waiting for a team mate to arrive and donate their bike. Eventually Steve Cummings appeared, but unfortunately, he too had a flat. When Evans did eventually get up and running again, he quickly acquired another drawing pin.

Bradley Wiggins tried to slow his group to let Evans catch up, but Pierre Rolland was having none of it. He launched himself off the front, pursued by some robust Antipodean language from the mouths of Michael Rogers and Richie Porte.

For a while after that, it was The World v Rolland with most people urging on the chasing pack. However, eventually Rolland relented. I guess Europcar had got on the blower to the team’s directeur sportif to point out that no-one wants to hire cars off a bunch of arseholes.

Luis Leon Sanchez won the stage after attacking the breakaway while Peter Sagan was foraging for some nosh. Apparently this is towards the paler end of the grey area of race etiquette – the kind of cheeky move wily old pros admire. Sagan was pretty nice about it and won a few more fans, if not the stage.

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2 responses to “Drawing pins on the road during stage 14”

daneel

July 15, 2012

I have to say I am less interested in the TdF this year than previous years. I’m one of those rubbish fans who’s only got more interested since there’s been some genuine British competitors involved, so perhaps I’m looking at it a bit one-eyed but there you go.

Now, I know the Yellow Jersey is the big one, but winning it seems mostly to revolve around plodding around safely in the middle of the peleton, winning the time trials and hanging on in the mountains. It’s kind of dull on a stage by stage basis (admittedly a little less so in the mountains).

Maybe it’s just me, but I find the sprints (and therefore actually the winning of races) much more interesting. The tours of Griepel, Goss and Sagan are the ones that catch my attention. Wiggins’ is really rather boring. Particularly given that he doesn’t even seem to be the best person in his team and he has so much higher quality support than anyone else.

Cavendish seems to have been royally screwed by signing for a team that clearly couldn’t give a toss what he’s up to, and since he has no chance on his own, I’m way less interested in events. I am amazed he hasn’t chucked this year in to concentrate on the Olympics, I can’t see what he’s achieving in slogging his guts out for no reward. He should definitely get the hell out of Dodge at the end of this year. What’s the point of being the best sprinter in a team if no-one is going to help you get to the front to win the bloody things?

I hope that in 2013 Cavendish and Froome are both well shot of Sky and there’s a little more competition going on.

Reply
1. Alex
  
  July 16, 2012
  
  I think Cavendish IS concentrating on the Olympics. I think that’s the point.
  
  Much of the Tour has basically been training. Ideally, he’d jack it in before the end to rest before the Olympic road race, but I think he wants a tilt at another Champs Elysee finish.
  
  As for the fight for yellow – yes, time trials are the means for Wiggins to gain time, but this fact puts the onus on the others to attack on other stages. That’s the fascination – seeing who can do that and whether Wiggins and Sky can respond.
  
  It’s also about watching the back of the pack. It’s weird, but there’s excitement in seeing the moment when a major contender starts drifting out of touch because that kind of event is so massively significant.
  
  When it comes to yellow, the flattest stages are largely an irrelevance. You’re not watching those for overall changes – they’re all about the stage victory.
  
  The Tour’s a big rich tapestry of intertwining stories.
  
  Reply

Drawing pins on the road during stage 14

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2 responses to “Drawing pins on the road during stage 14”

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