A new edition to the Tour de France in recent years, this Pyrenean this climb features again in July. It’s a tough challenge but a dead end and outside of the Tour de France, a peaceful road that seems be used by cyclists and few others.
France
A Tale of Two Races
The Dubai Tour starts today and so does the Etoile de Bessèges. Both offer several days of racing in the early season but the comparisons stop there as the Emirati race outbids its rivals on almost every scale. The Etoile long been an essential part of the early season in France but will it survive much longer?
Roads to Ride: The Col de Turini
The Col de la Madone is the climb used by many Monaco-based pros to test their form. If the top of the climb can be a finish line, it’s also a gateway, once over the pass a range of riding options open up. When riders want a longer and more Alpine style climb the Col de Turini is often the default choice.
Made famous by motorsport and picked by TV pundits Top Gear as one of the top-10 roads in the world it is also a superb place for cyclists.
Roads to Ride: Col du Béal
The Col du Béal in central France isn’t a famous place for cycling history. But it’s on the map thanks to the duel between Chris Froome and Alberto Contador in the Dauphiné, one of the season’s best battles. It is a rewarding climb in a great, but often forgotten, part of France.
War, What is it Good For?
Think of the First World War and you might conjure up black and white images of trench warfare from Northern France. This year has seen centennial commemorations for the anniversary of the outbreak of war in Europe. We saw the Tour de France take part with a route that passed memorials and battlefields. The dutiful ceremonies across much of Europe are important and remind us of the devastation.
But the war was fought across Europe and beyond and includes the Alps. Nothing offsets the devastation and loss of life but combat needs saw the establishment of new mountain passes and more accessible routes across the mountains. Today many roads used by the big races and cycle tourists were built out of a military imperative.
Roads to Ride: Col du Glandon
We celebrate the summit finishes and often forget the roads the roads that preceed them. Today’s the chance to venerate a climb that’s used en route to many a Tour de France stage finish and it’ll be scaled twice next July.
It’s worth riding for its own sake and ideal to combine with other high mountain passes in the area.
The 2015 Tour de France
The route for the 2015 Tour de France is out. As usual a lot leaks out before, velowire.com sleuths the stages and yesterday race organiser ASO accidentally put a PDF online with the route yesterday. But it’s still a comforting ritual, a projection to the other side of winter.
This is a chance to see the map for real and to get more info on the route such as the intermediate climbs, the amount of time trialling and novelties such as the return of time bonuses. Plus race organisers can sell us a story, a theme for 2015.
Roads to Ride: the Lacets de Montvernier
New for the 2015 Tour, this is Hairpin Heaven. Alpe d’Huez might be famous for its 21 bends but here’s a road with 18 hairpins in short formation. One bend follows another, a helter-skelter for the road cyclist and just a short spin away from some of the famous climbs of the Tour de France. But is it as good as it looks?
Paris-Tours Preview
Autumn’s here and with it, the last televised race of the year. Labelled “the sprinters’ classic”, Paris-Tours might have a flat route but most of the winners in recent years have come from breakaways thanks to attacks launched late in the race.
Last year’s race was an exception of sorts with a bunch sprint but the top three riders had been on the attack in the last 20km, infiltrating a move instead of waiting for a sprint only to get caught and still find the energy to surge in final moments. It offered a thrilling finish. Can this Sunday’s race deliver?
Once a prestigious race, Paris-Tours has slipped in status still provides a thrill worth watching. More so because it’s the last classic until the 2015 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. That’s 140 days away.
Ag2r La Mondiale’s Team Budget
It’s been a winning year for Ag2r La Mondiale with Jean-Christophe Péraud’s second place in the Tour de France but so much more including Carlos Betancur’s win in Paris-Nice plus the team prizes in the Giro and Tour de France and they might have won in the Vuelta had Domenico Pozzovivo, Carlos Betancur and Alexis Vuillermoz been present and in-shape. Nevermind the speculation, they’re third on the UCI’s team rankings today.
But how much does it all cost? Having looked at Team Sky’s accounts recently here’s a look at the numbers for a French team.