Tour de France Spectator Tips

You’ve surely watched the Tour de France on TV but have you seen it for real? The Tour belongs to the crowds and readers regularly email in questions about visiting the race. With this in mind here are a few suggestions and tips to help plan ahead.

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A Lifetime Ban

A quick note on Lance Armstrong’s lifetime ban which excludes him from competition and also from attending events, including the Tour of Flanders.

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Neo-Pros To Watch For 2018

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It’s a hard time to turn pro. The reduction in team sizes for 2018 means recruitment has been under pressure, especially for teams without obvious development programmes but 30 neo-pros have joined the World Tour. Teams are scouring the world for new talent, the likes of Quick Step are no longer automatic homes for the best Flemish talent as the team signs neo-pros from Colombian and Ecuador these days. Here are some names which might be new for you today but hopefully they’re more familiar by the end of the season.

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Riders To Watch For 2018

Here are ten riders to follow this year. They’re not picked as ten of the best who are forecast to top the rankings, more that some could go onto great things and others have different challenges.

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Tour Down Under Preview

The World Tour gets underway with the Tour Down Under. After the pre-race criterium and photo ops with local wildlife the race begins on Tuesday and this year’s route features the regular haunts as well as an intriguing finish to Uraidla just over the long climb to Norton Summit.

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Pro Team Sponsors: What Do They Do?

With the new season about to start do you know your Soudal from your Sky, your Michelton from your Movistar? Here’s an A-Z primer on the World Tour team sponsors for 2018 and what they do.

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Paris-Nice 2018 Route

Paris Nice 2018 poster

The route for the 2018 edition of Paris-Nice is out and the race is the first of the major stage races and has been thrilling in recent years. Here’s a quick look at what to expect from the route.

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The 2018 Giro d’Italia Route

All roads lead to Rome and the route of the 2018 Giro d’Italia was presented late last year with a course going from Israel to the Italian capital. Here are some notes on the course.

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On National Jerseys

Fabio Aru’s Italian champion jersey lasted one day. After finishing 2017 in the Italian flag he was unveiled on the 1 January in a jersey that had the smallest hint of Italian design. This caused some outrage and mockery on social media; and serious enquiries too. The result was that the jersey has been changed. With this in mind why do teams seem to offer such different versions of these jerseys and what, if any, are the rules surrounding their design?

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Things to Look Forward To In 2018

In the past the blog has opened with some predictions for the year ahead but forecasts so far out inevitably go wrong so instead here’s a collection of known things which look promising…

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