With the Tour de France over the post-Tour criterium season begins. These are exhibition races put on by entrepreneurial race organisers who seek to capitalise on the high profile of the sport following July. Riders are invited to take part in these races and the stars of the Tour de France command big appearance fees, some can collect €50,000. Not bad for an evening’s work.
Time trials are crucial in the Tour de France. Yet for all their importance, watching a rider pedal solo rarely offers great TV. Barring a crash or puncture, the only action comes at the time checks and finish line meaning 95% of the video output features a rider tucked into an aero position, face masked by a visor. It’s like watching a metronome set to 90 bpm.
Can more be done to make a time trial more interesting on TV? The answer is yes, from low tech ideas all the way to telemetry and graphics software and other sports show the way.
You’re never short of a story during the Tour de France. The racing gets covered in full but there’s plenty more going on too. It’s the level of coverage that makes July such a rich month for cycling.
With no racing on today here’s a collection of notes and thoughts, from presidential leaks to team mergers, sunglasses to sausage.
It wasn’t long ago that problems with a coach meant the Fuentes scandal or a police raid in Italy so yesterday’s finish line confusion doesn’t look so bad. A quick update on the bus and the gantry. Orica-Greenedge’s bus lost the air conditioning. If you watched the TV coverage closely you could see fluid spraying out of the top of the bus after the crash. The bus can’t be too comfortable in Corsica given the sunshine outside.
According to RIDE Cycle Review’s Rob Arnold the gantry needs repairs. The two engines that hoist the thing into place are damaged. The hydraulics are fine but the alloy structure is damaged and should be repaired within the next two days.
The structure is provided by Movico, a Dutch company who had to think quickly yesterday with disaster struck and the race was 13km away and moving at 60km/h. It was their idea to let the air out of the tyres.
After a busy weekend of racing here is the table of the men’s and women’s national road race champions for 2013.
A ride doesn’t just clear my mind, it fills it with fresh ideas. If I go out for more than an hour then often answers appear and new ideas flash into my mind. This might sound like spurious justification but for me it’s true, issues I might have been weighing up can often get resolved. Some say sleeping on a tricky decision helps, I say go for a ride.
Tour fever might be building but ahead of daily previews, TV, L’Equipe and more, it’s time to go away for a few days riding.
Looking at the stage profile and then looking at the start list, this preview could very well consist of just two words: Peter Sagan.
The French say riding your first grand tour is worth an extra tooth, un dent de plus. The idea is that you come out stronger from the race and can turn over a bigger gear, shift one sprocket. FDJ’s Laurent Pichon has gone about things a different way, he crashed hard yesterday in the opening stage of the Giro and knocked two teeth out of his mouth. Emergency dental work done, he started the team time trial with two brand new teeth. Here’s hoping he gets a third tooth in Brescia, this time on the cassette rather than the gums.
The Tour de Romandie used to be a race where you got clues for the Giro but this time we saw a glimpse of July through the icy clouds. The last two winners of the Tour de Romandie have gone on to win the Tour de France. It’s a neat stat that doesn’t guarantee anything but right now Chris Froome is the obvious pick to win the Tour de France.
André Greipel’s won two stages of the Tour of Turkey so far and there’s an interesting story behind current race leader Natnael Berhane of Eritrea. But the race isn’t over. One curiosity from the race so far has been Adam Hansen’s custom shoes. Now prototype gear gets tested in races but the difference here is that the Lotto-Belisol rider is making his own shoes.