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Last year’s mountains competition in the Tour de France was exciting with several riders in contention until the contest was accidentally won by Tadej Pogačar. Now the system has been changed to make this kind of inadvertent win less likely.

As well as influencing the organisers, Pogačar is having wider effect with many big name riders coming to the Tour de France with the stated aim of winning stages and the mountains prize rather than go for the overall classification. This should make the mountains competition more lively too so here’s a closer look at the mountains competition for the Tour de France and some of the likely contenders.

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Julio Jimenez died earlier this month in his home town of Avila aged 87 in a car accident. He reached the heights of the sport, winning the Tour de France’s mountains competition three times as well as finishing second overall in the race and was one of the all time great climbers of the sport with triumphs in the Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia too.

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This week’s tables are very tight with Lotto-Soudal and BikeExchange-Jayco practically tied on points, spelling trouble for the Aussie team as their relegation rivals all had strong rides.

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Now we wait. With the Tour de Suisse, the Tour of Slovenia, the Route d’Occitanie and the Tour of Belgium over, there’s a two week lull until the Tour de France, with many national championships next weekend for a change in format of racing.

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Le Fric Family, Power, Money: The Business of the Tour de France by Alex Duff

This is a history of the Tour de France as a business. It could be dry but it’s a rip-roaring read about war, money, politics and sport.

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The weekly look at the UCI promotion and relegation standings. With Alpecin-Fenix and Arkéa-Samsic high on the tables and all but assured promotion, the story is all about which teams face the drop. It’s becoming very tight because relegation candidates Lotto-Soudal are closing in on EF Education and BikeExchange.

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It’s hard to pick a winning moment as to review the startsheet before the race was to pick Primož Roglič and after a week’s racing the result now feels like an inevitable formality. But he did a great time trial to ride away from the other GC contenders, including thirty seconds on his team mate Jonas Vingegaard and this allowed him to be well clear of everyone. He didn’t defend but attacked come the mountains and on the last day only Vingegaard looked stronger and enjoyed a stage win for his support.

The Critérium du Dauphiné invites us gaze up from the road and to the Alps and their ridges and peaks, and then to look beyond and imagine what lies over the horizon: what will July look like?

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The final day of the Dauphiné and a hard stage awaits with the hard Col de la Colombière to wear down riders and then the sharp climb to the Plateau de Solaison.

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The first real Alpine mountain stage of the Dauphiné and it packs plenty in just 134km. The summit finish at the end looks small but after all that comes before it’s enough to open some useful gaps.

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