Tour de France

The Spin – Stage 19

Back in March Bradley Wiggins came to visit the course ahead of riding Paris-Nice. The route has probably been on his mind since October when the route was released. For all the talk of “we’re taking this day by day“, Stage 19 and the road to Chartres has been a fixture. Except today feels like his birthday, a victory parade.

But that’s for tomorrow. Wiggins can win the stage but Chris Froome might be out to prove a point and the top-20 overall is not settled yet, many riders have personal goals to achieve. Tour founder Henri Desgrange once said that to win the Tour “il faut être moyen partout” or “you need to be average everywhere” meaning consistency was needed. But having only been marginally outclimbed by his team mate Chris Froome in the race and having dominated the time trials, Wiggins exceeds the maxim of Desgrange. A second stage win in the yellow jersey is on the cards.

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The Spin – Stage 18

A classic transition stage, this might head through rural areas but sticks to large roads to bring the race north towards Paris. A sprint finish would be likely but several teams seem reluctant to chase any breakaways so this might be last chance for the majority of teams without a stage win to make amends.

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The Romanticism of Christian Prudhomme

Prudhomme Tour de France

Christian Prudhomme is an optimist, a romantic and a dreamer. When the Tour de France route was unveiled last October the message from the race organiser was a race where the long time trials and a shortage of climbing would incite the climbers into daring raids, offering Alpine theatre and Pyrenean panache. Only this year’s vintage has not met those expectations, the climbers were neutralised and the most daring raid was came on the rest day when the gendarmes swooped on Rémy di Gregorio.

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The Spin – Stage 17

If yesterday was the greatest hits of the Pyrenees, today is the experimental album. At just 143km, the stage has some tough climbing ahead of a summit finish.

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The Pyrenees, Mountains of Myth

Pyrenees Brouillard Tourmalet

The mountains have long remained a mysterious place where the truth can be as murky as the fog. Before the railways made France accessible, many believed those who lived in the mountains were freakish figures and imagined strange beasts roamed wild. It’s not all false, today you will find bears in the Pyrenees and wolves in the Alps.

Cycling loves its myths and each July sees the race return to the Pyrenees. Like a child visiting a grandfather, the same stories are told every year. There are the broken forks of Eugène Chistophe, the cry of “assassin” from a Octvave Lapize as he passed the organiser on a steep climb and more. Only many of these tales are exaggerations and even fabrications.

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The Spin – Stage 16

If the Pyrenees were an album, today would be the Greatest Hits. The Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde are all classics and if the Col du Soulor is missing, it’s because it’s a cover version of the Aubisque since it climbs the same mountain.

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The Pyrenees on the Horizon

Bradley Wiggins Yellow Jersey Evans

Today’s rest day brings to mind Antonin Magne, winner of the Tour in 1931 and 1934 who said “the Tour is won by sleeping”. He didn’t mean he snoozed on his bike, instead that recovery was so important. Many riders today will have been working hard on their rest day, going for the right ride, eating correctly, stretching hard and getting a strong massage.

They’ll need it given the two giant stages in the Pyrenees. Playwright Antoine Blondin said the great cols of the Pyrenees “separate once and for all the racers from those who use a bicycle to go to the market” and more than the Alps these climbs can be traps with irregular gradients and twisty descents.

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Book Review: The Tour de France

The Tour de France by Christopher S Thomson

This is a history of the Tour de France with a difference. It is written by a professor who places the race and the development of France into a social, economic and cultural setting. There are several books to tell you who first won the yellow jersey or the identity of the youngest post-war winner of the Tour de France *, the kind you might receive as a gift. This is sort of book you’d buy for yourself.

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The Spin – Stage 15

One week to Paris, a rest day tomorrow and only 158km for today, things look easy, no? Except time is running out for several teams to shine in this race. Liquigas, Lotto-Belisol and Sky have monopolised the race so far with three stage races each and the arithmetic means many teams will leave the race empty-handed.

Consequently many will want to make the breakaway in the hope the move stays away, all whilst Orica-Greenedge want to bring any escape back so they can set-up Matthew Goss for an elusive stage win.

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