The Mûr-de-Bretagne’s mini summit finish awaits after a ride across Brittany with its hilly and tiring roads. In 2011 Cadel Evans won the stage before winning the Tour de France. The same again? We’ll see but the approach to the climb this time is different.
Adults were hauled folding chairs and picnic coolboxes, children carried hats, bags and small packets of sweets. They were moving in the opposite direction to me and this was worrying. I’d planned on watching the Tour de France and many were leaving. Surely I of all people hadn’t got the time wrong? Perhaps the racing was so furious it was over an hour ahead of schedule? No, the exodus turned out to be people going home after the Tour de France’s publicity caravan had been through, they’d got their loot of freebies and didn’t want to stay for the race.
Here’s a look at the business of the Tour de France’s publicity caravan, the show you never see on TV but an astonishing marketing success.
A rare regular sprint finish, or at least as close as it gets because the final few hundred metres kick up. We should get another bunch sprint while Chris Froome gets a new and unwanted spell in the yellow jersey.
A long coastal section with exposed roads that are narrow in parts, enough to fray the nerves any day but the forecast is for more crosswinds. The stage ends with a punchy uphill finish, perfect for Peter Sagan and everyone who tries to follow his wheel.
This Tour always means more cycling coverage and there are only so many hours a day you can watch the Tour de France and read about it online. For the rest there’s a podcast.
This year brings an explosion in the number of podcasts to download, here are some thoughts and links to some of them.
Almost a rest day, this stage was promised for the sprinters and supposed to offer a predictable scenario. Only strong winds are forecast and we could have an afternoon of crosswind action.
The stage and the yellow jersey for Tony Martin. Since Stage 1 he’s been second on GC and it was becoming a comedy skit where he stands in line in the queue for the yellow jersey and only for someone to jump in front each time its his turn. On the Mur de Huy Chris Froome was timed as 0.94 seconds behind Joaquim Rodriguez and since it wasn’t a clear full second it left Martin was second on GC and out of yellow for just 0.06 seconds. This time even a puncture and riding on a team mates bike didn’t stop him.
Want to draw your own route for the Tour de France? You could start with a map and a pen but what you really need is a TV remote control, if not in your hand then in your mind. More than ever the Tour de France route is being designed for television viewers, to make racing rhyme with ratings and ensuring that the opening week is as worth watching as the mountain stages. Today’s feared cobbled stage is just one example.
Crosswinds, the Ardennes and now it’s time for some cobbles in the North of France. The Tour de France continues its tour of the spring classics.
Fabian Cancellara is out with a broken back, others left the race too and all before today’s stage, the most feared of them all.
The first hills of the Tour de France with the infamous Mur de Huy and its 20% slopes as the finish. Unlike the spring classic this is climbed only once so there are subtle differences between today’s stage and April’s Flèche Wallonne race.