La Gazzetta Dello Sport reports that the men’s UCI World Tour could go from 18 teams to 20 with Total Direct Energie and Cofidis the most likely squads for promotion. It wasn’t that long ago that the talk, or rather the press statement, was for a move from 18 to 16 teams.
Here’s the 2019 Tour de France guide. There’s a profile of every stage with a quick comment on the route. You’ll also find reference material on the race rules like time bonuses, the points scale for the green and polka-dot jersey, time cuts and plenty more.
Once upon a time a “grand tour” was a term applied to the journey young noblemen would take around Europe to finish off their education, perfecting languages and learning new things. As a cycling term it seems only to have appeared only in the 1990s as a collective label for the respective tours of Spain, Italy and France and implies a three week race. But with women’s cycling building its own calendar, can the women’s peloton have its own grand tours in new places?
Wout Poels has punched ahead for the stage win but behind Jacob Fuglsand and Emanuel Buchmann are ahead of the rest of the contenders. The photo tells us plenty about the week with the wet weather visible and an Ineos worker unleashed.
The final stage of the Dauphiné and there’s still all to play for with the overall classification still wide open. Jacob Fuglsang leads but can he defend and win this race for the second time?
The big mountain stage that’s just 133km, today’s stage has a succession of climbs leading to the long slog up to the ski resort of Pipay.
The first of three mountain stages, today’s route is all about the final climb and it’s twisty descent with 20 hairpins to the finish.
The last chance for the sprinters as the race heads to the foot of the Alps. Sam Bennett made it look easy last time, can he play it again?
