A long day and a likely sprint finish, today probably isn’t the day to tune in for hours of TV expecting action or stunning scenery, save your anticipation for the sprint royale in Angers.
Tour de France Stage 2 Preview
Mirror, mirror, up the wall, who is the fastest of them all? Today’s stage is 180km to an uphill finish via the Côte de la Glacerie, “Glassworks Hill”, with its 14% section just before the line.
Tour de France Stage 1 Preview
The race begins and the first stage seems to have a known ending: surely a sprint finish? Probably but the riders have to get to the finish first and there are some obstacles in the way including plenty of crosswinds and a fraught finish. It’s live on TV from start to finish.
Who Will Win The Tour de France?
Who’s going to win and do you really want to know? The problem last year was that it was all too obvious too early rather. Ideally this would all come down to the final moments of the final mountain stage, a showdown over the top of the Col de Joux Plane and the toboggan run down into Morzine.
Two riders stand out in Nairo Quintana and Chris Froome but the route will reward others and the irregular climbs and several downhill finishes mean it’s as much a test of W/kg as a test of nerves. Here’s a look at the contenders and pretenders for the 2016 Tour de France.
Supporter Kit and Housekeeping News
With the Tour de France coming into view a monthly reminder that you can get supporter kit from Prendas. As well as getting some nice kit it helps keep the wheels turning here, paying from everything like website hosting and photo accounts to funding route recons to ensure insightful stage previews for the Tour de France rather than relying on the race roadbook and Google.
Take your pick from the summer jersey, a cap with a new design or comfortable Coolmax socks. all sold via the friendly British shop Prendas Ciclismo who ship around the world.
There’s also a house-keeping discussion below where your feedback would be appreciated.
Who Will Win The Mountains Jersey?
An iconic jersey and an accidental competition. If a big name rider wins like Chris Froome did last year then it’s incidental, a bonus on top of the yellow jersey. If a lesser rider wins then we may appreciate the effort but it can feel like the triumph of arithmetic rather than a genuine award for the best climber. Either way it’s a fine prize and many riders will try to wear it, even one day can mark a career. Here’s a look at the competition for 2016 with the contenders and what’s new with the points scale.
Who Will Win The Green Jersey?
A trick question? Peter Sagan was such a convincing winner of the Tour de France points competition last year that it’s hard to imagine anyone else winning. He’s taken the green jersey home four years in a row and even when they changed the rules to tilt the competition against him last year he still won.
So why ask the question? Because it’s still worth posing and also gives us the chance to assess his rivals. Above all if last year’s rule tweak was anti-Sagan, this year’s route is too. Here’s a closer look at the competition from the points scale to the likely scorers.
UCI World Tour Reforms v2.0
The UCI has announced a fresh set of reforms to the World Tour. Last September saw cycling’s governing body announce plans for 2017 but these prompted rebellion from race organisers with ASO, the largest of them, saying it would pull all of its races out of the 2017 World Tour and register them as HC-status events in 2017. The result is that last September’s plans have been abandoned and a press release issued today announces a new start.
Tour de France Guide
Here’s the guide to the Tour de France stages, all the profiles and a quick take on each day, as well as ancillary information like the points scales for the green and polka-dot jersey classifications and more.
Tour de France iCal
With 10 days to go here’s a downloadable calendar of the Tour de France for your electronic diary or smartphone with brief details of each stage.