Teams are announcing their long list for the Tour de France. The Tour is the cornerstone around which many teams build the season. Riders want to race, the prestige means just starting and finishing is a big deal. But it’s never simple knowing who to pick. The big budget teams worry about who to leave out, the smaller teams find it hard to balance the chances of a stage win and a tilt at the top-10 overall.
With just over two weeks to go here’s a downloadable calendar of the Tour de France for your electronic diary or smartphone with brief details of each day’s stage.
The supporter jerseys are back in stock with Prendas Ciclismo. Made in Italy by Santini this is a lightweight jersey for summer. While stocks last.
Last Saturday riders from 13 teams were tested for cortisol levels on the morning of Stage 7 of the Dauphiné. It’s part of their membership of the MPCC, the Movement for Credible Cycling. The group’s become laughing stock for some recently and teams are pulling out fast at the moment too. But the guarantees it brings riders and their health is no joke. In fact it’s so good the UCI needs to adopt its rules to the leter.
Chris Froome attacks Tejay van Garderen on the final climb of the final stage. The American is in yellow and has been marking Froome on the climbs all week, letting Froome go and then patiently trying to reel him in. But this time there’s just a few seconds to save the race. Van Garderen lets Froome go, holds him within range but the gap stretches out: five seconds, six seconds, ten seconds and then Van Garderen cracks. This was the moment the race was won.
The last but not the least of the stages of the 2015 Critérium du Dauphiné. The scenic Lacets de Montvernier feature before the final climb to Valfréjus. The stage ends with a ski station summit finish but it’s a short climb, maybe still enough for Chris Froome to challenge Tejay van Garderen’s overall lead.
After yesterday’s tough stage in the rain now comes an Alpine festival with a difficult summit finish. There will be some sore legs after yesterday’s warfare and the likes of Chris Froome and Tejay van Garderen will want to test Vincenzo Nibali’s grip on the yellow jersey.
The Critérium du Dauphiné heads for the Vercors, a high plateau surrounded by precipitous cliffs. The race takes the Col du Rousset, an impressive road but other approach roads are even more stunning. The Combe Laval is famous for its vertigo-inducing cliffhanger section, a narrow road cut into the cliff with a terrifying drop off the side. But is it France’s most overrated road?
A race across the scenic Vercors plateau to Villard de Lans, the scene of many Tour de France legends.
The stage we’ve all been waiting for. The race heads for the mountains and the Col d’Allos before the Pra Loup summit finish, a copy of Stage 17 of next month’s Tour de France. A hard day but an introduction to the mountains as Saturday stage is harder.