Today’s stage is a big loop to the south of Liège before it returns to Seraing, a suburb of Liège. It avoids some of the infamous climbs in the area but the race doesn’t need them to make the race come alive.
This is the opening stage of the Tour de France and there are several races on at once, from survival to the chance to take one of the leader’s jerseys.
Liège should make you think of hills given it is host to the oldest classic on the calendar, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and its monts. But today’s prologue course is flat and for the time trial specialists.
Every day at 9.00am you will find a preview of the day’s stage with up-to-date information on the route, riders and more. In the first of a daily preview of each stage, let’s take a look at the route, the riders and plenty more.
With the official start list available, the 22 teams of the the Tour de France are now confirmed. Here’s the list of each squad with info on the sponsors, bikes and some thoughts on what they might do in the race.
For one of the biggest sporting events in the world the prize list is surprisingly modest. A total of €2,022,900 in prizes will be paid out and teams also share a pot of over one million Euros in expenses.
The amount is unchanged from last year. So thanks to inflation it is worth less and for non-European riders the Euro has fallen 20% against the US dollar since last summer. Not that anyone is counting, the ultimate prize is standing on the podium in Paris. Here is a breakdown of the Tour de France prize list.
You can now download summary details of the Tour de France for your electronic diary on a phone or computer: inrngTourDeFranceCalendar.ics.
It’s the weekend of the national championships across Europe. Whilst America, Asia and Australia have different weekends, pretty much everywhere in Europe sees simultaneous national championships. In some European countries these races can take on a strange feel with several teams of 25 riders starting, making the tactics completely different from your usual race.
A quick note to say you can now read a Tour de France guide on here: inrng.com/tour.
Each stage is analysed, each jersey is explained and once more information is available there will be full list of riders and other content that’ll be updated every day so you can dip in and out during the next few weeks.
A heavy week with the recent news dominated by a triathlete. But the racing goes on and so here’s a mention of actual sport for balance. Earlier today Andre Greipel outsprinted Mark Cavendish and Mark Renshaw in Stage 2 of the Ster ZLM Tour in the Netherlands. Look closely and you can see team mate Greg Henderson celebrate. Cavendish might have finished second but he is now in the overall lead after finishing third yesterday.
There are still unexploded bombs from World War Two. Every now and then one is discovered buried deep in the ground, often during construction work. Residents are evacuated, a security cordon is put in place, a military bomb squad arrives to defuse the defunct device and within a day or two construction work resumes.
Cycling has its buried bombs too. An axis of deceit carpet-bombed European roads, bridges and mountain passes with syringes and vials some of which are only blowing up today. Yesterday’s explosive stories about Lance Armstrong and others involved in the squad that went from US Postal to Radioshack was just one example. Only headlines and text got sometimes warped by the shock. Here’s a quick look at a few of the issues.
Andy Schleck is out of the 2012 Tour de France. The news first appeared this morning in the Luxembourg media with RTL. A press conference this afternoon confirmed this, he is has a fractured pelvis.
By contrast Bradley Wiggins has moved into the position of Tour de France race favourite, confident both in his abilities but also with a string of wins to his name this year too. The contrast couldn’t be bigger.