Tour de France

Roads to Ride: Col du Tourmalet

Col du Tourmalet

As the latest in the series to explore the famous roads of cycling, here is the Col du Tourmalet in the French Pyrenees. The idea is to discover the road and its place in the world, whether as part of cycling’s history or to look at the route on a day without racing and it is open to all.

The Col du Tourmalet is a legendary place for cycling, steeped in history and steep in slope. The first climb above 2,000 metres ever used for a race and with 75 appearances in the race, the most used climb of the Tour de France.

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Tour de France Wildcards

With the Giro making its picks for May, ASO will also choose four teams for 2013 Tour de France. Who gets the golden ticket?

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Wednesday Shorts

Corsica Tour de France ferry

What’s a ferry got to do with the Tour de France? Well the Mega Esmerelda will be the headquarters of the Tour de France during the grand départ in Corsica. It will host the Tour’s technical offices and play host to press conferences. Hundreds of journalists will stay in cabins; expect grouchy articles about not being able to sample the “Isle of Beauty” as they file reports from their iron hotel.

It’s one small detail but shows the size of the race, plus the budget. Because this floating base will belong to the race for several days, quite an asset to use. But that’s not all, Nice Matin reports five “Mega Express” ferries will also be used to take the race, from publicity caravan to team vehicles, back to the mainland once the Corsican stages have finished.

Those familiar with the ferry crossings might be pleased with the choice of Corsica Ferries, it is an Italian company and rival operator SNCM is infamous for going on strike at peak times for maximum effect.

More below: Cannondale’s leaked team jersey, Bongo in Gabon, Giro wildcards facts, the Flèche d’Emeraude vanishes, Laurent Roux’s son and how FDJ put their heads in the clouds.

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Sunday Shorts

Yorkshire Tour de France

When the French think of “le Yorkshire” most often it is the dog breed that takes its name from the English county so the decision to start the 2014 Tour de France in Yorkshire could help promote a more rugged image.

Yorkshire fought off competition from Scotland, northern France and Italy in part thanks its bid of €14.5 million. Cash isn’t everything but it goes a long way to winning the bid. ASO will be pleased to offer its sponsors exposure to the large British market. But it is said host towns quickly recoup the money in promotion, hotel bookings and more

Remember the media circus arrives in town several days before the race starts, a grand départ is more than a weekend. Rotterdam hosted the start in 2010 and claimed 800,000 visitors. A separate study showed the €11 million spent on the grand départ generated over €20 million back although of course the net gain still means winners and losers, for example residents pay taxes whilst, say, a hotel chain gets 100% occupancy. Often these studies depend on assumptions made, the outcomes desired and who is paying for them.

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Lowlights of 2012

Lance Armstrong Tour de France

Having covered the highlights of year over the past few days, time to reflect on what went wrong. There’s less to celebrate but more to learn. Here are five of the lows, again a personal selection.

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Custom Jerseys and Bikes

Minutes after crossing the finish line a rider can stand on the podium with a leader’s jersey that’s got their sponsors on the front. How this is done was the subject of a few emails from curious readers during the year and it’s worth explaining this again.

Similarly here’s a look at the custom team bikes used by riders in the big races, how some teams come prepared and others prefer to keep the mechanics on standby.

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Highlights of 2012 – Part II

As part of a series of highlights of the year, here is Stage 18 of the Tour de France and Mark Cavendish’s sprint win.

Cavendish is sometimes called “Cannonball” and this time he sprinted like he was fired out of gun. The sprint into Brive on Stage 18 of the Tour de France is worth watching just for the speed of the final kilometre but there’s more to this than the final sprint, the first is the story of rivalry between Cavendish and André Greipel which made the sprints exciting, and the second story is one of accommodating riders with different goals on a team.

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No Ordinary Road: Le Tour Comes to Town

Fans crowd the barriers, dressed in yellow hats distributed by sponsors they look like sunflowers as they turn towards the stars of sport. Arms are outstretched, often to take a photo and mouths are open as people cheer. Despite a veil of cloud, everything is bright. Flags from Africa and Europe are visible and TV cameras beam the scene around the world. You can imagine the noise from the crowd, the TV commentators, the helicopters. This is the Tour de France.

Yesterday’s post showed a boring road with leaden skies. It’s from a town called Davézieux whose only claim to fame is that the Montgolfier brothers come from here. The brothers invented the hot air balloon, perhaps motivated by a need to escape from this drab place.

Only the photo in yesterday’s piece and the one above show the same piece of road. Check the crack in the middle of the road, note the arcing lamp posts and scope the roof tiles on the building on the right.

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Should Wiggins Skip The Tour de France?

Bradley Wiggins Tour de France 2013

There’s talk of aiming for the Giro in 2013 instead of returning to defend the Tour de France. Whilst French sensibilities might be offended if the defending champion gives July a miss, the whole sport stands to gain… including the Tour de France.

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More Thoughts on the 2013 Tour de France

With more time to think about the route come more ideas and a few more points to think about. There’s the matter of smaller team sizes, whether doing Alpe d’Huez twice is hard, a sneak peek for Paris-Nice and more.

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